A few weeks ago, I got an envelope in the mail. It had Acid in it. “Awesome,” I thought. I was only slightly disappointed when I opened the envelope and found it was a actually just magazine called Acid. And as soon as I opened it, I was not disappointed at all.
For a long time now, people have been crying that print is dead. Magazines and newspapers are struggling for advertisers in a market that is quickly shifting to the vastness of the internet. And although the internet is great for lots of things (like this website), there is something that a page has that a screen simply does not. When pages get tattered from too many readings – when their corners are folded over and the spine is almost broken – the stories inside hold a familiarity that is very comforting. Of course, inside the magic box that is a computer, there can be too many stories to read. There is a lifetime of new information held in the tangled web of the internet, which is great. But there is none of that familiarity that is held in the pages of an old book or tattered magazine.
Acid Magazine holds an incredible amount of content in between its covers. “A surf-inspired publication for the beauty of ideas and images,” it calls itself. In their own words, the issue I received in the mail “contains a significant amount of reading and watching that’s intended to (a) stimulate your thinking, and (b) stir your desire for a sideways slide.”
Significant amount is right. From an August in Ireland to a Baltic Island to an artist that recreates artificial reefs, there is enough in Acid to keep you on the toilet for much longer than necessary. It’s a strange magazine, but not in a bad way. It’s just not a “normal” surf mag: photos are thrown in at places where you wouldn’t expect, words are strung together in strange designs, and a few blank pages hide among the others, as if waiting for the next story. There are pages with no photos, only words. When was the last time you saw a surf magazine like that? And there are just a few images of perfect waves. Most are windblown and stormy – and yet, there is something much more real about that. It’s like looking at pages of your life. When taken all together, it’s a pretty incredible thing. Each individual page looks different, yet there is a common, mysterious thread that holds the whole thing together. Acid Magazine is revolutionary in its strangeness. Because, after all, strange can be beautiful.
