Wednesday, April 29, 2009

An Esquire Man

I'm a long-time subscriber to Esquire Magazine. I got swayed by the substantial savings of a multi-year prepaid subscription, so they keep coming to the house whether I want them or not.



If you find this episode hard to believe, you can save yourself $4.50 and read the article online here.

In the interest of full disclosure, I submitted a story to Esquire a while ago and got a typical form rejection letter that said it wasn't right for them. Mine was a satirical story about an idiot adventurer, and the very month I got the rejection they printed a story about a real idiot adventurer who was just like the guy in my story. The difference was that the story they published was full a fawning admiration, without a hint of irony. It's no wonder they hated my story. You see, Esquire wants to be "the most interesting man in the world" from those Dos Equis beer commercials, when they are actually that grey-haired guy on Project Runway. (No offense intended toward Tim Gunn. Mr. Gunn seems like a very nice guy who is perfectly happy being Tim Gunn.)

If you're not familiar with Esquire, sorry for wasting you time today. I hope you found the clip amusing, if a bit puzzling.

Hey, who knew Lily was in an 80's music video? The direction of this video was so goofy -- the lyrics are actually quite moving. Maybe I'm too sentimental -- but why did they shy away from the true emotions behind the words. They blew it. Still a great song though.

5 comments:

Reine said...

Sometimes, the people who reject your work are handing you a bigger compliment than if they'd accepted it. (note: this insight occured while reading the linked Esquire list-WTF? Maybe they should have just reprinted Rudyard Kipling's "If" - only, I don't think there were too many product placement links available in that).

Woody Allen said it better, "Who'd want to belong to a club that would have you as a member?"

For reasons which escape me now, I was reading Esquire about the same time Lilly was making music videos.

Times (and hair styles) have changed indeed.

Red Pill Junkie said...

Never read Esquire.

Are those Dos Equis commercials the ones made by LaChapelle? Those are kind of weird, because are reminiscent of tacky calendar art of the 1950s and 60s that you could find at butcher's houses and repair shops; but since they were made by Andy Warhol's protege, they are now "high art", and praised by the same people who wouldn't have bought the calendar art that served as inspiration to this guy. It's nice to see artists being so conscious about the importance of re-cycling ;-)

Dave Stratton said...

No, I was referring to television commercials in the U.S. that feature a fictional bearded character called "the most interesting man in the world." He's sort of a Ernest Hemmingway type -- a real man's man. Each spot shows a montage of scenes from his life. In the end he says "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, it's Dos Equis." They're pretty funny. Here's the latest spot on youtube.

James said...

Esquire is weak...but nonetheless I own 26 of the 31 "manly items". Man, do I feel manly.

Red Pill Junkie said...

LOL, it's like a bearded Ricardo Montalbán! :-D