Announcing: Anatomy VI

Many of you all did not expect this, but perhaps that is what has been the most fun about the whole process--Anatomy has quite noticeably been on hiatus for some seven months, and while many speculated that the magazine's life-span came to an abrupt ending, halfway through the production process of issue VI came the thought of doing something completely different. The magazine needed a chance to cultivate, grow, change, and evolve. What you have before you on your computer screen is exactly just that.

Open publication


Anatomy VI is a return to what we do best, but with a comfortable and progressive twist. While the magazine's primary focus has been fashion, Anatomy VI marks the effective and controversial shift in editorial focus for the publication... Which is to say, ladies and gentlemen, now we are music.

But there are different additions to the publication that have been considered: The average volume is now 50pages. The physical size of each edition has increased by two inches on either side, allowing for more content per page, the articles are shorter so that casual readers can digest information while passing through, and finally, we have decided to play nice, and consolidate our favorite studio albums and mixtape downloads into one release. YES! That is to say that Anatomy Magazine issues now feature downloads issue over issue and if you like our review of any one piece of music, now you can have it in an easy and convenient light, and listen for yourself right out of the magazine. Just click on any of the download links.

But the most exciting thing this time around are the stories. Anatomy VI features our biggest stories to date, showcasing interviews with artists Rusko & J. Cole which are both stories that we have been dying to get to you, and feature thought provoking commentaries on life, success, and music from both artists.

All in all, I hope that you enjoy Anatomy Magazine. The rebranding effort has taken some seven months to complete to this level, and I hope that it was not all for naught. There are still aspects of the publication that you will get a chance to enjoy in the coming weeks, such as the launch of our new website, but in the meantime, feel free to take in the issue and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope that when you look through the issue, something catches your eye, even if its the downloads. But most importantly, I hope that whatever it is that grabs your attention, inspires you.

There is still plenty of work to do on Anatomy Magazine, and with issue VII around the corner, my work is certainly cut out for me. But do I resent that fact? No. Producing Anatomy Magazine has been a privilege, and one that I refuse to take for granted moving forward. The new Anatomy is going to be great, and I am excited that all of you will have a chance to experience it. So as you are reading this post, scroll to the bottom, open up the edition, and enjoy that shit. You know I would want for you to. In the mean time, I will be starting on the E.O.T.W. issue. If anybody is interested in making contributions, consult the description below:

ANATOMY VII (THE E.O.T.W. ISSUE)

THE NEW YEAR HAS THE ENTIRE WORLD IN A STIR, AND FOR GOOD REASON: THIS IS THE YEAR THAT THE MAYAN CALENDAR ENDS. WHILE SOME THINK THAT IT IS JUST THE END RESULT OF SOME GUY BACK IN HISTORY WHO DECIDED TO STOP COUNTING, OTHERS BELIEVE THAT IT IS THE END OF THE WORLD. WHEN ASSESSING THE POSSIBILITY OF IMPENDING DOOM, WHAT IS IT THAT COMES TO MIND? PERHAPS A TREK ACROSS A BARREN WASTELAND? OR, A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE THAT HAS WIPED OUT 99% OF HUMAN EXISTENCE? A FINANCIAL MARKET, ONCE ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE, NOW COLLAPSING? OR HELL, IS IT MITT ROMNEY WINNING THE PRESIDENCY? OK, NOW RUN WILD.

I hope you all enjoy the edition, and I'll see you soon.

WNDRKND

And if you missed the magazine at the top, here it is at the bottom again.

Open publication

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Anatomy V - FINALLY!

Interesting how long it takes to put something together. I was talking to my girlfriend on the porch the other day, and amid all of the work that it has taken to deliver this issue to you, we still find ourselves moving forward. For me, I realized in talking to her that much of my life as a publisher now extends to understanding the ways in which the cycles of creation operate in tandem with the cycles of life. Issue over issue and season over season, I have noticed the ways in which living has fallen largely in sync with the production process that this kind of job demands. In the moments where I was entirely sharp, we came to press on time. In the moments that I was largely there, we would show up a little bit behind schedule. But in the moments when things would go horribly wrong, we would quite simply, fuck up.

For us, horribly wrong came when things were already going, well, horribly wrong. Clamoring to the finish line in March, with only two editorials to spare, we had far too many delays to count: Clothing sent to the wrong address, mislabeled boxes and inconvenient timing of clothing arrivals. The inability to coordinate lead to a decrease in photographers once the high season was over. In Chapel Hill, the high season is the nine-month stretch when everybody is in school. In being able to coordinate our editorials only with one photographer, we were subject to his schedule, and later, his own personal onuses.

After not being able to coordinate anything until May, he encountered a serious family issue. Due to being at the side of his relatives, after two or three weeks of trying to track him down, he provided us with only a few looks out of what would have later become three editorial shoots in this publication, that is, had he gotten all of the pictures to us. Though we tried to get the rest of the imagery, it was to no avail.. And the reason why we are going to press now, is because this project has waited long enough to be seen, despite the lack of some planned content.

Taking this issue to press, however, I learned something. That producing a piece of work equates to sometimes recognizing tough realities. No, I’m not stopping Anatomy Magazine or any shit like that, so you can breathe easy. But I guess what I am trying to say is that as the leader of this publication, it is most chiefly my fault for why it has not come out on time, and for that, I do apologize.

Regardless of its arrival, however, Anatomy V is still more ready to read than ever, and I encourage you to do so. I hope that you consider flipping through the pages of this installment, lending your eyes the chance to glance across a new spectrum of stories: The dreams and successes of Eschie, Andrew Hamlet, and Hidden Cat. The tension in the Middle East. Winning the future. Finding oneself in the seams of a studded jacket and how streetwear is changing. Mostly, however, I hope that you see the degree of work that has been poured into this issue. There has been creative work, there has been editorial work, and there has even been more musical work with the contribution of an EP by ArnHao called Psychedelic Space. You can download it by clicking on the picture:

With the publishing of this piece, now it is time for us to move forward. Having already begun work on Anatomy VI, we wanted to give you guys a preview of the cover.

Yes, that is correct. Anatomy VI will feature Rusko on the cover of the issue. We are very pleased and excited to have Rusko in our forthcoming installment not just because of his influence on dubstep music circuit, but also the fact that… I mean, shit, we called it: In issue III of Anatomy Magazine, we predicted that dubstep would have a meteoric rise in the United States and it clearly has. Its influence has permeated pop music, and as we also predicted, has lead to a new acceptance of Electronic music in American culture. Anatomy Magazine tries to understand this new beast in American music, as well as why American kids are loving it so damn much. Hell, we even love it too!

As this chapter of our lives comes to press, we hope that you enjoy it. But most importantly, though, we want you to continue looking around the corner in the same fashion as we… Towards the next issue. And regardless of what you may be lead to think, regardless of what may challenge your hope, if there is nothing else I have said that registers to you, remember this: We are industrious, we are resilient, we are never going to die, we are never going to quit, we are Anatomy Magazine.

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Anatomy IV - Out Now!

THE EDITOR'S LETTER

It has taken some time for me to search for the appropriate words to correspond with this release. But upon its completion, they have come to me naturally. Anatomy Magazine has been, if anything, blessed as a publication. Like all great things, this magazine’s first meeting was on a dark and stormy night where we all assembled together in a dorm room meeting space, to start work on our first issue. This was a little over a year ago. Over the course of this journey that I, and the rest of the staff have experienced called “magazine publishing,” we have experienced myriad success, daily challenges and some setbacks from time to time. If I had to reiterate one point from issue three, however, it is that we are resilient.

There was a period of time when after the publishing of the third issue, I sometimes felt like a failure. Things came through late, business contacts weren’t fully utilized, and I struggled to put together a third issue. But in “coming to deal” with the metaphysical setback, post-going drastically off of schedule, I realized that there was still some value in that experience. But simultaneously, in learning this, I realized that like an unsuspected failure, there have been myriad lessons learned, even in my little bit of success with this magazine.

Most chiefly, however, I have learned that it is important to never discredit the power of a dream. Anatomy Magazine has been a dream of mine ever since its inception, when my mother galvanized a loitering idea in my head of starting a business with a natural gift: writing. It stayed a dream when at the cusp of 2009 I said I was going to publish my first issue on the commencement of 2010 and upon its start, Anatomy I was already complete.

Then one day, something happens: you wake up on a dim morning, check your phone: it’s full of emails, look at the people you know: completely different, the clothes you wear: discontinuous with your ideology, and how the world around you has all of a sudden changed and it is on the turn of a dime that you recognize a singular dream of yours has begun to come to fruition.

I’ve had in my first year as an editor and a publisher, my fair share of dim mornings. But now, these mornings have begun to fade away as I stare to the advent for our fifth and anniversary issue to release in March. As my academic career begins to close at The University of North Carolina, I consider the place of advertisers in the survival of this publication. Now, with the closing of this issue we begin our great push: that is, towards making money, featuring more brands, interviewing more personalities, creating bigger and better editorials, putting out larger collaborative music efforts, and oh yeah, cutting out our own stake in the fashion world.

With the summation of this volume, my staff and I bring to you The Youth Issue: a testament to the magazine’s effort in moving onward and upward as a publication. It should be fitting considering everybody who has ever worked on Anatomy only up until recently has been a full-time college student below the age of 24. Like the preceding three Anatomy Magazine issues in this volume, The Youth Issue is one to deliver a new set of firsts for the publication.

Issue one featured our first national act on its cover as issue two marked the first integration of national luxury brands into editorial, and finally, issue three rung in two mixtape collaborations with The Great American Mixtapes. Issue four, however, is the mark of a few things: First and foremost, it marks the end of Anatomy Magazine’s first volume. It marks our first international photo shoot for us which took place in Tokyo, and was shot by Jacob Hodgkinson and further it is the first time we have featured beautiful indie-luxe fashion in the vein of Diet Butcher Slim.

The Youth Issue, hence, is one that leaves a door open for those of us at Anatomy Magazine, and gladly we walk through. But like all issues, the Youth Issue is no different in my treatment of it, that is, in the way I envisioned it versus the way that it actually came out. Perhaps, however, for this installment it was hard. I vividly remember the moment: standing on the wall behind my dorm room in March, smoking a Marlboro Light 100 and speaking at length with Creative Director, Mark Sabb, about what we should do for the remainder of the year after the Southern Issue was completed. I proposed “The Great American Issue” for July, and after some discussion, smiles, a ruffled brow and some silence, “well what about The Youth Issue?” was Mark’s suggestion.

“Youth?” I inquired, and to this response, I was met with the shrug of an artist who did not know his concept, but recognized the fruition of the work we were about to do. Unlike previous issues, where we focused on specific people, certain regions, special groups, socioeconomic brackets or even, “things we do,” youth, is something that is a part of who we are and remains variable from person to person and era to era.

The topic of youth, unlike ones of preceding interest, was one without readily available answers. It failed to be effectively Googled, archived or even recognized in a regular space and it was in this interval of Anatomy Magazine’s life, where not just creativity, but also introspection demanded to thrive.

This issue prompted certain realizations about myself in how I wake up next to a cell phone, spend the better part of my day in front of a laptop, go grocery shopping with an iPad and talk shit on Facebook. I was challenged in finding good stories: figuring out what was it in this world that moves those of us young in this particular moment, understanding who is in the next wave of movers and shakers, what is it that keeps us up at night, where change in our society can be achieved and why our hearts stir in the face of finding authenticity and meaning.

Simultaneously, I handled the question of what ideas to bring in, and what to leave out. Should the youth issue consist of stories comprised of how much stupid shit we get into under the veil of night? Should I incorporate more stories with benevolent twists? Or dabble, maybe, with a sad undertone? How candid can a commentary on youth get before it gets too honest, and we can no longer look back?

In hindsight, part of me does wish that I took more risks with this issue. Part of me does wish that I had the courage to talk about my best friend’s experience with abusing drugs, the struggles of starting a good band, the plight of maintaining Facebook friendships with people who have drastically varying political ideologies or maybe even the struggles of developing a meaningful relationship with someone in a growing hook-up culture.

These things, regardless, are not what I envisioned for this issue prior to the advent of its release. I wanted to deliver a happier depiction of youth instead, and one that ideologically places the reader in the driver’s seat of a young mind that is focused on the ephemeral. I wanted to spend time highlighting the now – which for many of us happens to be the same time when are anything and everything including young and beautiful. Closing out the year with a story on Australian fashion brand Pete Vs. Toby, a piece about our Editor-at-Large’s experiment with FourLoko, an understanding of the dynamics of authenticity with RocNation’s Hugo, and some perspective on how we value cool, I would say that Anatomy Magazine is closing out this year well. Looking back on my conversation with Mark in March, the shortening days of fall, the struggle in groping for a concept, and the curbed editorial schedule that left us short of two months to work with, the final product has come out beautifully and transitions Anatomy Magazine into 2011 as a title with its own unique poise.

For this issue, you will see some new names on the masthead, and also a new feel for the publication itself. Drawing on different design elements, the closing issue is one to be characterized predominantly by its sense of juxtaposition. Looking back on the complete product, I recognize now that perhaps part of my inspiration was in not just the recording artist, Kanye West, but also the experience I was learning to deal with at the time of this issue’s production: That is, after my best friend and roommate left to go to rehab, figuring out how to rebuild a life for myself when I had not even plates to eat on and a single lamp in the shape of a Beretta to illuminate my living space. I began to realize that in moving away from home, the duality between youth and adult began to blur. I realized that backs can feasibly end up pinned against the unlikeliest of walls and that the irrational fear of the unknown reality beyond the limits of my subjective universe, college, was irrelevant: because reality was already upon me. Thus, it became time to act, and an era of fear proceeded to die.

This is the condition of many youth. Despite opportunities given, time committed, hours passed and a knot in our chest for adventure and excitement, we still have to deal with the realities of our day: for many, much of it involves struggle. For others, it involves a rebound from a shitty situation, and for a few, it demands no rebound at all. Though it would be truly wonderful to paint a romanticized picture of what youth is and disregard everything that we deem “isn’t,” never is anything so easy, because then the entire principle of youth becomes void. Youth to many of us, including myself, my 20-year-old brother Calvin who just started paying his way through school, my friend Hallum who spent some time homeless and my peoples Kathryn, Jesi, Austin & Sheina across town whose house burnt down last year, is about handling adult issues and staying young at heart.

The layout and the presentation of this issue is a testament to this principle, and the people who have upheld it. To the aforementioned few and the unsung many, this is for you. The few stories in this issue, though seemingly modest in relation to interviews with the Clipse, Diplo and other pieces of higher profile, are our greatest. They prompt memory, highlight question, force laughter and demand thought. Most of all, however, they provide the necessary luster to the few moments in between, when we can just think, feel, act and be “stupid fucking young people.”

Without further adieu, I present to you the fourth and final issue in Anatomy Magazine’s first complete volume as a publication, The Youth Issue.

CLICK ON THE "READ ANATOMY MAGAZINE" IMAGE TO THE RIGHT OF THE ANATOMY MAGAZINE PAGE IN THE SIDEBAR TO VIEW THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE MAGAZINE.

Signed,
Cliff Brett

Editor In Chief/ Publisher, Anatomy Magazine

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