Now this is more like it

Went to visit a friend in Nearby Medium-sized College Town for a few days this week. S. is one of the coolest people I know. She came to live with my family as a foreign exchange student when I was 13, and she's essentially been state-side ever since. I call her my Brazilian Sister.
Anyway, we're hanging out, and when I'm in Nearby Medium-sized College Town, I have to visit this local shop called the Peace Nook. It's an organic hippie bookstore collective non-profit thing, so you can pick up your soy milk, yoga pants, the latest Le Tigre album, and a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves all at once. It's volunteer run and all the profits go to a local progressive pacifist organization. I love it, it's full of all sorts of cool crap. And it's where I finally found some decent magazines: I picked up copies of The Beltane Papers, Off Our Backs, and Velvetpark. They all smell like patchouli, swear to god.
Velvetpark--this is the the queer mag I've been looking for. There are so many reasons why it rocks out that I don't know where to start. First, it's got a kick-ass name. None of that cheesy "Curves" shit. Second, they have the D-Word right on the cover, above a picture of the likes of Rachel Maddow, Janeane Garofalo, and Amy Goodman. They've got a photo spread of cute skateboarding bois, an interview with Abwa Dawesar--my god, they've even got goddamn fucking Alix Olsen as a contributing writer! (She'll get her own post full of ardent swooning soon, don't you worry). In addition to the usual movie and music reviews. I'm not sure how I'm gonna live without it in Europe.
OOB, as it likes to refer to itself, is like an angrier Ms. It's very second-wave, which is awesome. I think that whole Second/Third Wave distinction is pretty arbitrary anyway. And they've got two, count 'em, two articles eulogizing Andrea Dworkin that treat her as actual person with provocative ideas, and not just That Fat Ugly Feminazi Bitch. Plus an article on women bloggers and four pages of Dykes to Watch Out For strips in the back.
The Beltane Papers is pretty similiar to SageWoman--articles, interviews, reviews, herbalism, art and poetry--with an advisory council that's a veritable Who's Who of the Goddess Spirituality movement. Plenty of ideas and inspiration to help me become a fantabulous hippie geek.
I just wish it hadn't taken me all summer to find some decent magazines. Doesn't that just figure.