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J O H N ' S B R I L L ' S C O N T E N T :
BY JOHN TYNES
Each installment of John's Brill's Content serves to take a hard, critical look at the magazine Brill's Content, a magazine that serves to take a pulsating, critiquish look at the media. "Who Watches the Watchmen?" they say, and Brill's Content does. But "Who Watches Those Who Watch the Watchmen?" we say, and we do. That. - - - - ITEM: HEAD SIZE WATCH Brill's Content is a large magazine. That is, the actual measurements of the magazine are larger than many other magazines: 9"x10 7/8". There are larger, but so be it. That's a half-inch wider than a normal piece of paper. This additional size gives Brill's Content a rare opportunity among magazinepublishingdom: the opportunity to print a photograph of someone's head 1 on the cover at nearly or exactly the actual size of their head. In other words, you could hold the magazine up to the real person's head and nod sagely that yes, they were the same size, or almost so. The pinnacle of this zenith-like peak of full-frontal publishing technology was achieved by Brill's Content in the March 1999 issue. The cover features the head of the son of a man, John F. Kennedy, Jr. (That is, John F. Kennedy, Jr., is the son of the man, not the man whose son's head is on the cover.) The head is printed quite large---perhaps, indeed, life size. As if reeling from the porous blow of this man's face printed so largely
that you could cut out the eyes and affix it to your skin in lieu of
costly plastic surgery, Brill's Content opted the following month to
both recognize its achievement in the head-size arts and make a
stinging, steaming cup of Content Comment about the pervasiveness of
sexual discrimination in the media. The April 1999 issue featured the
large headline HEAD TO HEAD---ah ha!---and then printed colorless, black
& white cover heads of Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric, both considerably
reduced from actual size and brutally cropped. The puny size of these
professional female broadcasters' heads and their lack of color when
compared to the bulging, life-size floridity of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s
head on the previous issue makes an eloquent if unelaborated point:
women in the media have small, colorless heads, while men have large,
blushing 2 ones. John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s near-life-size cover head also compares favorably
to past cover heads. The previous issue, February 1999, had no cover
head. December 1998/January 1999 had a full-body glamour shot of Mickey
Mouse, but since he is a fictional character it's difficult to gauge his
head size; certainly it's far, far smaller than the frankly huge Mickey
Mouse heads worn by costumed theme-park employees. November 1998 had
Matt Drudge, in what was obviously a smaller-than-life-size appearance;
presumably they needed room to include his frankly huge hat. October
1998 presents a massive slap against the collective or sequential faces
of Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Stone Phillips, and Jane Pauley, none of
whose heads are shown even as large as the "G" in "WARNING," which
appears just below their heads. And finally, the debut issue from
September 1998 delivers perhaps the most unkindest cut of all: Ken Starr
gets the coveted cover head slot but his tiny little head is almost lost
in a sea of many heads, none of whom really belong to anyone who would
ever be a cover head if they hadn't happened to be next to Ken Starr
when that picture was taken. Perhaps it was a 3 family reunion. - - - - Full Disclosure/Disclaimer: John Tynes is not employed. - - - - 1 By head, of course, we don't mean the person's severed, dripping
head. "Face" would probably be a more-accurate term.
- - - - NOTE: John's Brill's Content should not be confused with The Media Watchdog, the independent ombudsman keeping in check the print version of McSweeney's, and protecting the children, they being the future. Do not confuse this with that. They are not the same.
OTHER McSWEENEY'S STORIES:
Three Letters This is a Headline With "2001" in it. By Stuart Wade Say it Ain't So, Joe(y): The Takedown By Matt Sullivan The Talent Competition By Tim Carvell Two Letters
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