turns 20 years old, history is repeating itself.

#1 was published in 1990, if you don’t count the
10 or 12 years before that when Stephen Osborne, Editor-in-Chief, was
conceiving the magazine and conducting some very informal market research
(among colleagues, friends and passersby on the street).

That first issue was
compiled, edited and prepared for the printer in the home of Osborne and me
(Mary Schendlinger, Senior Editor) right around the time when desktop
publishing technology had evolved to the point where one could crank out a
national cultural magazine if one had a vision, a few decades of publishing
background, and a 386 DOS clone with 640K of RAM, a 20-megabite hard drive and
a Hercules graphics card.

were produced in the editor’s
living room, a corner of which Osborne used as an office (mine was in a corner
of the dining room), which brings me to the history repeating itself part.

year, we’re back in the
living room.
is one of the arts
groups that will be moving into the new arts space in the Woodward’s
development in downtown Vancouver.
Our lease in the funky old brick building with tin ceilings (and a magnificent
view of the North
Shore mountains from the
washroom) in Gastown, the oldest part of the city, expired on July 31. That was
to have been perfect timing, but development and renovation being what they
are, the Woodward’s move-in date has crept on into September and possibly
October. B-b-b-but what about

78, the fall issue, supposed to be ready for mailing in September? Where will we produce it?

Right – in the living room.

Of course, a few things have changed in 20 years.
We’re got more staff and more stuff (oops, I mean priceless archives). Osborne
has moved his office out of the living room and into a studio in an alley in
East Van. Kristin, our office manager, investigated ways to deal with the phone
during the hiatus -- siphon messages to an online retrieval centre, get them
transcribed with voice recognition software, forward them to a prepaid
cellphone (that’s the one she picked). But we can’t help being reminded of the
old days.

And, as in the old days, when something happens,
such as a milestone birthday, we publish something. What, though? How about a
20-year special issue. A double issue, combining fall and winter 2010, quite
convenient because the summer issue was a few weeks late and we love it and we
don’t want it yanked off the stands too fast.

. Not just a retrospective, though. We want new content, with
perhaps a handful of our old faves included to give context and bestow
venerability. Heck, some of our readers weren’t even born when
started up, and the ones who are
old enough to remember the ancient bits aren’t going to fuss. Two times in the
life of
we have accidentally
published a piece twice, and the only person who noticed was one of our young
volunteers, Jill Boettger. Whatever does get included from back issues could do
with a bit of commentary, which maybe we ought to write from the living room.

but maybe it should also look like
a book and act like a book.
is
8¼ x 10 inches and change, not a very booky format—not a very elegant booky
format, anyway. So let’s say a slightly different size, but not too different
because then Patty would have to make all new design and layout templates for
it. And a jazzier design, but not too different because it still has to say

It would stay on the stands twice as long as a
regular issue – half a year! – and be a terrific gift if we got it out early
enough in the holiday selling season.

On the other hand, moving office takes up a lot
more time and love than you ever think it will. And it’s hard as heck to do a
good job on a book when it’s thrown together, no time to announce it, market
it, build up suspense, fool with design, etc.

On the other hand, how many times does a magazine
turn 20? Who knows if we’ll even be alive, let alone compos mentis, when the
next milestone looms?

On the other hand, why do we have to bring out our
20

On the other hand, four fingers and a thumb…