Eccentric new one-man magazine
This is the story of Esopus, a one-man general arts magazine by a fellow named Tod Lippy that's developing a cult following.
Here's an excerpt from the NYT story: Building a one-man magazine, one impossible feat at a time:
Meetings at magazines are often full of suggestions to think outside the box, which is where Mr. Lippy likes to live. He is off the grid of publicists, advertisers and scenesters. His magazine reflects no fealty. Esopus No. 2 includes something called “Ghost Form” by William Christenberry, a pop-out magazine version of the hand game involving a church and a steeple that open to reveal the people. It is gorgeous and looks ungodly expensive.
Sitting in the Howard Johnson's in Times Square, Mr. Lippy said that after receiving estimates that would have made the feature unthinkable, he asked advice from his Canadian printer, who suggested that a group of Hutterites, a religious sect similar to the Amish, might be willing to do the handwork necessary at an affordable rate. So he found the church that made the steeple that he could put in the magazine to sell to the people. At Esopus, there is no rich uncle, no corporate backer, just Mr. Lippy's craftiness and a plan to put together a nonprofit organization to back the magazine.
Mr. Lippy, 41, is single-minded about the need for a general-interest magazine that is not dumb.
“I'm really frustrated with the level of mediation that seems to shroud all artistic activity,” he said, dipping a French fry into some mayo. “Popular music now ends up contextualized by car and sneaker commercials. The mixing and melding of advertising in magazines is pretty disturbing as well. I wanted to create some unfiltered space.”