(Clip from Bob Marley’s funeral)

 Greetings,

I was cratedigging last weekend and swung by the magazine rack. Something caught my eye and I nearly wet myself.

Whenever I go to Jah-buquerque to see my Sister and family, we go to a local cafe for breakfast. They used to have a whole wall devoted to magazines. I liked that because they had The Beat magazine: a Reggae and World Music mag that I wrote Mutant Dub reviews for in the mid to late 90s. I’d grab a copy off the wall and point out my review to my fams.

So we pop in last month and boom: All the magazines were deemed redundant when everyone reads content for free on their gadget. They apologized to the evolution to more seats with plugins.

How does a perennial magazine like Rolling Stone move units in that environment? One way is to release issues for collectors of “artifacts”. Those of us dwindling consumers who want a physical memento as opposed to a utilitarian digital object.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my iPod. I have to have something to listen to from my car in the parking lot to my office and back. But very little of the music I play on Smile Jamaica comes digital born. It’s vinyl at home, CDs in the car and office.

I seriously average between 4-8 hours of active listening per day. Every day. Being a librarian I keep lists everywhere. I have 50,000 songs on my iTunes. And those are albums I listened to on headphones before I rip them and move them to playlists: herb tunes, UFO, Marley Tributes, Occupy Wall Streeet, Rockers doing Reggae. But it’s 99% physicality for surety! It was “rinsed out” on vinyl or aluminum (isn’t that what cds are made of?)

When I get iTunes gift cards at Holiday time, I mainly buy Dubstep 12″s I can’t find locally that I read about in Mixmag. 

There are diehards who want the cd (or better yet vinyl), magazines, actual books, magazines, comic books and music scores. There is something to be said for small scale catering to niche markets of collectors and people who want to give their eyes a break from the cathode ray nipple.

Rolling Stone has released several theme based issues devoted to the stalwarts like The Beatles, Dylan, Rolling Stones. Collections of stories and photos from the magazine on glossy page stock.

It is meant to drive even subscribers to reach for their wallet.  (And I have a lifetime subscription to Rolling Stone. That is my next article for KUER Music).

.

If you dig the magazine Wax Poetics (and you should if you don’t), it is very reminiscent of that attention to a better quality page than magazine glossy slicks.

The Marley Special Collection issue is top rank.

• How Bob Marley Changed the World
• An Encounter With the Legend; excerpt of Bob’s first cover story Aug. 12, ’76; 4 months before he was nearly assassinated in Jamaica
• Visiting Bob Marley’s Jamaica musical travelogue of the Island
• Living Legacy: 5 of Bob’s 11 children reflect and share memories of their father.

Plus the obligatory Top 50 Songs and artist reflections. Before I read the magazine, I ventured a guess at what would be judged Bob Marley‘s #1 song. My guess came in at #3.

70 high quality photos in color and black and white.

And since this is  Cannabis Service Month. The “toker’s tally” of those 70 is 4:

Now you see him in action, let’s hear a lickle draw of Bob in service to the Seven Leaf

bless, robt

<Smile Jamaica’s Marley Mini Marijuana Mix 2min>