If I have not been writing so much here, it's that I'm not writing much, it's just that I am not writing much here.

Just as an update, I've been writing quite a bit but mostly editing for Citysearch.com lately. I also did some PR writing for Upshot's retail design group and had an article published in Brandweek magazine. It's not as boring as it sounds. The fun stuff I've been writing is for the Modernist (modern culture, internalism, sex and tasteful naked photos!) and for an upcoming issue of a Chicago-based Stop Smiling magazine. I also do the odd review for RollingStone.com Believe it or not, RS pay quite promptly.

A bedside magazine stack says something about who's in the bed, but I'm not sure what it is. Let's take a look at what's piling up this month and make some snap judgements about my personality and psyche.

So I once again have a subscription to Vanity Fair because I wanted some light reading and actually I'm totally digging it. I enjoyed this article on these kids who remade "Raiders of the Lost Ark" shot by shot on no budget. I guess the video is making the rounds. The new issue of VF has an article about how awesome blogs are and how lame Andrew Sullivan is, so it's right-on really. I don't care as much about Hollywood as VF does, but VF has got Hitchens.

My stack also includes Vice Magazine which initially I hated, then loved, now just read for giggles. Basically the CD reviews are terrible and uninformed and written in snarky one-liner prose that is sometimes clever but usually just snide. Don't trust them at all. The articles, on the other hand, are sometimes really great, provocative and very pointed. I liked the piece by this woman who used to run drugs for Pablo Escobar, for example. And they mock Canada which is always entertaining. It's not serious as a publication but I get some kicks out of it. It's also Free at my neighborhood youth-oriented clothing boutiques. Though I know someone who sued them for changing her article and got tons of money and it doesn't surprise me.

The New Yorker. You can't be a writer and not read it. You're kidding yourself if you ignore it. It's perhaps just a shadow of the pre-Tina Brown New Yorker, but it's influential, usually very well-done and relevant. That said, I hardly ever make it through the fiction. Does short fiction always leave me unimpressed and why? And why do they love Steve Martin's writing? It's not bad, so much as it's just facile.

The Onion. I dig the AV club Q&As.

The latest Eastbay catalog. You can never have too many pairs of trainers and at $35 a pair you won't feel guilty about having new shoes again.

Galactic Zoo Dossier. Steve Krakow's psychedelic compendium. This guy in my neighborhood does this and he is (like me) an obsessive fan of psych rock, prog and mod-psych. He writes this cool little personal bios on each group. Drag City recently published the first few years in book form with a CD sampler.

Various issues of Uncut and Mojo that are months old. I must reload on those now.

Er, yeah. There are a few books too. The Golden Compass is as good as they say and Middlesex starts very slow therefore I have put it aside. I've got some Lester Bangs and some other stuff going for variety.

Okay, back to work, but this time with Mojo radio playing on my headphones.