jpg: like flickr, but collectible [how long has this been going on?]

I love to complain about the banalities of mainstream entertainment. But you know what? I realized that I still follow it. Despite my mild contempt and perpetual boredom for such things, I still know what/who "Speidi' is. I still watch every installment of comedy's latest dude-love brofest. I still skim through the Yahoo! Music top ten to put faces and names to pop's endless parade of value-less dance hits. And you know what? It's time to take a stand. 

In the spirit of seeking new talent, I turned to Lulu.com. This is not totally random. I've been on a big reading kick lately since, with few exceptions, current TV and film selections are generally tedious, and I need something to think about in my free time. So, books. And if I'm trying to avoid the schmaltzy bestsellers that leave me so mildly depressed, than why not turn to the unchartered (at least, to my knowledge) territory of self-publishing?

My foray so far has been brief, but I did already come across this veritable mine: JPG Magazine, Issue 2: "Lost". Apparently JPG is a photo sharing site whose editors compile user-submitted shots into monthly magazines, grouped around themes (next up: Zen, House, and Fairy Tale, if you care to enter your best shots), and published via Lulu. The concept is so easy and so simple that it's brilliant. You not only partake in this community; you can actually help shape its product, too. It's such a no-brainer intersection of social net groups and old-school publishing. Isn't editing mostly a matter of curation anyway? And the users' bio blurbs are way sweeter and much more personal that your traditional too-cool-for-school style-setting magazine. JPG's been around for about two years and I can't believe that I haven't heard of it until now -- late to the photo party!

Some other totally reasonable-looking Lulu book selections:
- Dodging the Butterfly Nets --"Running an independent art house movie theater is not for the faint of heart. It takes imagination, a sense of humor, and perhaps a bit of lunacy. These essays, culled from weekly newsletters sent out in 2007, tell the story of one man, four screens, and a small-town community of cinema lovers."
-- Naked, Drunk and Writing -- "A personable and funny book on how to write about your life in essay and memoir, by Adair Lara, whom Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird) calls "San Francisco's legendary writer and teacher""

And, lastly, my favorite selection, not out of mockery, but because it demonstrates the breadth of material available on Lulu and reveals the degree of detailed knowledge that self-publishing allows the market to keep in circulation:
- Weathering -- "This book walks you through different techniques to weather model trains. Weathing models helps to make them look realistic."

Happy reading!