As much as High Gear Monthly (okay, that’s not a real title…) would have you believe, a healthy interest in cars doesn’t have to make you a ‘car person’, with a denial of any interests outside the garage. As the first quarterly mag to successfully make car culture as aesthetically pleasing as a Polaroid snap, Carl*s Cars is a Norwegian gem that seeks to use vehicles as a means to make vehicles and culture park parallel. From gloomy underground garages to the scribbles of Justin Timberlake, this boutique mag’s love of people, cars and lifestyle even led the team to the far reaches of Finland, simply to visit some obscure town called Autotehtaankatu. Now that’s dedication to your mufflers.

Edition 27 of this innovative little publication features a great feature profiling the infamous French Citroën “surgeon” Jean Blondeau, a photoshoot in the parking lot of Monte Carlo Casino, and a rather lovely look at the rides of Norwegian psychedelic-rock group Serena Maneesh. According to lead singer Emil Nikolaisen, if the band were indeed a vehicle, they would be some “blurby, slurpy, silver machine on its way down the expressway to your skull.” Wow, both smooth AND creepy. In a fusion of fashion, culture, music, photography, social nuances and… well… cars (obviously), the illusive “Carl” and friends have crafted a wonderfully slick little pageturner that (unsurprisingly) has just about sold out at Mag Nation.

So here’s the clincher. With just ONE copy left in our Melbourne store, we would rather make this fair game than disappoint the masses.

To win the final copy of Carl’s paper drive, simply tell us the craziest thing you’ve ever done in a car. High-speed chases, laundry en route, letterbox baseball- anything remotely ridiculous at 80km/hr could snare you the final copy of Norway’s finest car culture magazine. (Mag Nation edit after a day of reflection… No. We don’t really want to hear about speed or vandalism. Crazy stuff in a car yes, but please ensure it is legal or at least socially responsible. Speed does kill folks). Editor Karl Eirik Haug claims he used his Citroën DS as an office, a bedroom and a “meeting place for independent thinkers” all over Scandinavia. Surely now, you can do better than that. Enter your responses in the comments field below.

NB. Alfa Romeos, keep your tales reasonably clean… we sure won’t publish gear-changing backseat motoring adventures, unless it’s creatively written in haiku.

It has to be said that it’s been a little while between drinks! And by their own admission, Wooden Toy is the world’s only quarterly magazine that only comes out only once a year.

With the most intricate and incredibly detailed illustration and graphic design adorning each page, amazing packaging, absolutely no advertising and all-round attention to detail like no other mag out there… well, it’s little wonder that Wooden Toy takes a little but longer to put together than say, your average issue of Practical Poultry!

Like many of you, we’ve been eagerly awaiting news of the next issue for many months now… and while we’re not sure exactly when it’s going to come out, we do know that it’ll be here sooner rather than later. And from what we’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to be well and truly worth the wait.

Details from the Wooden Toy site:

Can you hear that beat?? Yep, that’s right people, it’s the sound of the Music edition jamming this way. Wooden Toy Quarterly the ‘MUSIC’ edition features interviews and profiles with rocking cover artist Ken Taylor (AUS), Tara McPherson (USA), Mcbess (FRA), Elefant Traks’ Urthboy, Hermitude & Unkle Ho (AUS), Woodstock MC Chip Monk (USA), Tim Minchin (AUS), Wax Tailor (FRA), The Doves (UK), Nine Mile (CAN) plus loads more hidden tracks and samples!

Pre-order your copy now!

We love love love The New Yorker.

They have those extra long profile features spanning about 50 pages which seem to make a point of always telling you what the subject’s parents did for a living and cartoons that oscillate between either being side-splittingly hilarious or… completely incomprehensible.

Our friends over at Mag Culture recently brought to our attention this cover on the July 4th issue, illustrated by Bob Staake. Riffing on Escher’s Sky and Water to produce this fantastic commentary on the BP Oil Spill in a typically understated manner. Classic.

After the success of Afternoon Tea, the good people at Frankie have come up with a new recipe book, called Sweet Treats.

It’s packed to the brim with delicious recipes for sticky apples, candy hearts, mint-patty delights, florentines, caramel popcorn balls, chocolate crackles, coconut marshmallows, honey joys and plenty more slices of sugary deliciousness!

Now if only I could track down that recipe for jelly slice…

One of the most hotly anticipated titles that we’ve had in a long time finally landed yesterday…

From the creators of Fantastic Man comes their new women’s fashion magazine The Gentlewoman. Taking the Patrick Bateman-esque sensibilities of their men’s magazine (is that unfair? probably…) and channeling them into something altogether more pink and feminine (?!?) The Gentlewoman seems like an altogether new kind of women’s magazine.

Discussing housekeeping with model Daisy Lowe (ummm…), correspondance with the artist Alice Rawsthorn (Q: “Is there any alternative to Smythson stationery?” A: “Always!”) and interviewing both the artist Jenny Holzer and London clubland legend Princess Julia, this mag covers a lot of ground.

One of my favourites is the Tips section, ‘for exchanging idea and recommendations’ which, in this issue is about gift giving ideas, featuring recommendations from many of the woman featured inside the mag—Zoe Cassavettes recommends wine or champagne glasses, while Claudia Schiffer suggests bespoke jewellery!

Ridiculous and fantastical while also grounded and common-sensical, taking the best bits of the past while also looking into the future… this is definitely a welcome addition to the women’s mags landscape.

These have already sold out in our New Zealand stores, but there’s a handful left in Sydney and Melbourne available both in-store and online if you get in quick!

Update: We found a few extra copies for NZ, which are available at our Ponsonby and Queen Street stores.

Update: Sorry, they’re all gone! But you can buy a Gentlewoman subscription to make sure you don’t miss out on issue 2.

It’s that time of the quarter again, ushering in the change of seasons with the arrival of a brand new issue of Monster Children.

As usual, it contains some of the best from across the worlds of skateboarding, photography, surfing and music (in approximately that order.)

Issue 26 has two covers… one by photographer Robert Yager featuring a photo from his series on Latino gangs in L.A. during the 1990s and the other by Sydney based designer, Jonathan Zawada (who you may recall from his entry choosing his favourite magazines on this very blog).

Otherwise, there’s an interview with the amazing Los Angeles-based painter Lisa Somberg, photographer Tobin Yelland talking about his favourite photo, a feature on Jonathan Zawada and his incredible pencil drawings, Stephen ‘ESPO’ Powers’ recent ‘community billboard’ paintings in Philadelphia, an interview with indie rock upstarts Yeasayer and a peek inside The Big Pink’s iPod.

We’ve just received copies of the brand new issue of T-World, literally still warm off the printer.

Now up to number 6, this issue features the a special collaboration with… Sesame Street! Masterminded by T-World’s editor Eddie Zammit as an excuse to get on to the set of the show, this issue features actual in-character interviews with Bert, Big Bird, Oscar and Cookie Monster as well as showcasing a range of Sesame Street tee’s commissioned specifically for this issue from designers like Beci Orpin, Vince Frost and Threadless.

There are four limited edition covers featuring Grover, the Count, Oscar (no longer a grouch, apparently) and the world’s most famous banana shaped man… Bert (I am devestated that their is no Ernie, but perhaps that would have been too obvious). The covers look sensational on shelf – very important to us from a retail point of view!

This is one of mag nation’s most popular selling magazines, and a real favourite for online gifting. To my embarrassment, Eddie often reminds me how I predicted that T-world would sell around 5 copies from our stores (oops). Seems like I completely misjudged just how many T-shirt afficionados there are. sort of makes sense when you think about it. Most people wear T-shirts so it should not be suprising that a bunch of people are fairly passionate about them!

In non-Sesame Street related content, there’s are interview with Johnny Cupcakes as well as the founders of Upper Playground, Rebel8 and 20s and 10s as well as an A-Z of kid’s t-shirt labels and plenty more of the T-shirt related goodness that you’ve come to expect from the world’s only journal dedicated to T-shirt culture.

Buy this issue of T-World or subscribe!

After what seemed like almost a year (okay, it actually was a year) we got our hands on the latest issue of King Brown this week.

As usual, it’s a bonus-packed, fun-filled extravaganza featuring some of the most talented illustrators and designers around. NYC duo Morning Breath (who you might know for their album artwork for Them Crooked Vultures), Kostas, Seonna Hong, Mick Harris, Nails, Sean Morris, Courtney Brims and plenty more make an appearance this time round.

The best thing to come out of Perth since Alan Bond, this baby is sealed in a brown paper bag designed by Magda Boreysza and includes an outdoor vinyl sticker and poster designed by Morning Breath. The print run is limited to 2000 copies, so get in quick!