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30 Comments

news

Splicing XYYZ

By Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

2006_8_24xyyz.jpgTorontoist got a little tip for XYYZ.ca, a new site “for guys in Toronto.” We fit both of those criteria so we figured the site is totally for us! Sadly, we’re sure we’re not quite in the income bracket that the site’s advertisers are looking for.
The site’s got articles on everything from why undershirts are a must in the summer (they keep sweat away from that nice dress shirt) to how to get your girl to watch porn with you (make it tasteful, and maybe offer a picnic). The site’s no Esquire, heck it’s not even Toro but its fiercely local slant means that it may have its rewarding moments in the future. We’re also happy with the choice of Cary Grant as a patron saint and column idea. We think this city, heck every city, could use a little more Cary Grant. There are missteps, we doubt we’ll be smelling Patchouli at the Indie Unlimited festival this weekend Ms. Vogels. This is Harbourfront not Woodstock or Haight-Ashbury. Also, a little more practicality please. Not every man, can afford clothing from boutiques where you have to be buzzed in.
The site’s editorial collective includes one “Designer Guy,” Russell Smith, Canada’s Top Masturbator (no, not Russell Smith), and Jamie Angell of the Angell Gallery. We recommend that they get headshots that actually look good and aren’t pixellated to resemble an anonymous source on America’s Most Wanted. Also, we don’t really want to know where the “man” in the site’s logo has got his hands.

Comments

  • Malvolio

    I’ve been waiting for years to find a web site that tells me how to spend ridiculous amounts of money to look like a yuppie metrosexual while speeding in my sports car (without getting caught of course) and masturbating while watching porn with my skanky gold digging girlfriend. Thank you, XYYZ, for doing your bit to improve the world.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/dstopping David Topping

    Gotta admit, though, there is a place for a publication like this in Toronto. They’ve found a decent niche to cater to…

  • GaryC

    I had a short-lived subscription to the XYYZ newsletter before I got tired of their overcompensating hetero-macho-bullshit. From labelling cyclists as assholes through to trite “how to have a threesome” articles, XYYZ comes across as simply dull fratboy filler. Toro-lite perhaps, but without any of Toro’s whit, substance, and style. And without those, what do you have left?

  • Michael

    Po’man’s Maxim?

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    I wish they weren’t so savvy at categorizing their site, so I could view it at work. Damn you web censors! (“Entertainment” is not allowed in engineering firms, you see. But neither is flickr “personal web storage” or craigslist missed connections “dating and relationships”)

  • http://www.delineated.com Carrie

    Hmm, this would be a good time not to use the ‘we’ collective…guys who read this tripe are exactly the same guys I avoid at all costs.

  • http://htt://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    Stuff like this is the bane of my existance.
    Thankfully, most people in this city aren’t braindead Gen X yuppie journalists with disposable incomes, so it’ll be interesting to see how long this lasts.
    Then again, Rebbecca Eckler keeps finding jobs…

  • dd

    Toro has wit?

  • Reality

    “Thankfully, most people in this city aren’t braindead Gen X yuppie journalists with disposable incomes, so it’ll be interesting to see how long this lasts.”
    Beth, do you have anything to say that would earn support of an advertiser? What it comes down to is using the web to cut out the middleman, and then maybe freelance writers can earn more than a poverty wage, while pleasing the corporate sponsors at the same time. If you have a better idea, you can beat them to the money.

  • http://htt://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    What?
    I’m not sure I really understand what you’re saying. Meh. I’ll choose to disagree any-ways.
    My problem is the stupidity of the content, not the fact that advertisers are paying for it, if they are indeed dumb enough to do so. I find many young media voices these days are the ones out of touch with reality, and no one I know cares about what they have to say anymore, because while we struggle to make ends meet, they sit in their ivory tower (located on the above ground patio at the Drake), twiddling with their iPods in their 200 dollar Rock and Republic jeans.
    But I doubt this thing will find an audience, and then the advertisers will stop paying them. Simple as that.

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    I think it’s just as tacky to hate on the wealthy as it is to hate on the poor…

  • http://www.boyreporter.ca Boy Reporter

    Meh…. it’s ok to hate on the wealthy. For one thing, they’re WEALTHY. So what do they care what the rest of us non-wealthy people think? They can just go to their country clubs, fancy restaurants and ignore the rest of us.

  • Reality

    Just pointing out that this “bane of your existence” reflects where the money is. There’s no point in hating on it, especially when you’re so convinced it will be ignored. If you and your friends can make a few bucks doing a better website on an indie grass roots level, do it.

  • http://htt://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    Actually, I work for Torontoist (and so get paid by advertisers) and my boyfriend is a so-called freelance writer, who has just started to get paid to actually make and write treatments for advertisements. And there is no indie grass roots level involved there.
    I have no problem with money, I am not jealous of those who make large quantities of it, and I don’t have a problem with advertising, or the making of money off of advertising.
    I have a problem with media in Toronto promoting a machismo driven, vacant, materialistic lifestyle, calling it journalism and expecting people to automatically buy into it.
    It is what’s not “realistic” here.

  • Michael

    Wow, Ron. It’s ok to hate on people who don’t do anything to you. All they do is have a life that is different from yours. That’s fucking pathetic.

  • Reality

    “I have a problem with media in Toronto promoting a machismo driven, vacant, materialistic lifestyle, calling it journalism and expecting people to automatically buy into it.
    It is what’s not “realistic” here.”
    Oh, I must have been asleep during the years when vacant materialism wasn’t driving the media industry. If anything, it’s more innovative to do it in a “machismo driven” way.

  • http://htt://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    I said journalism, not the media industry at large. There’s a pretty big difference there.
    Like, say the difference between covering a war, and telling someone which (sponser mandated) man-bag to buy.
    That difference right there.
    And even if it is all vacant materialism, and has been for a very long time how is that ok? How is it not right to criticize it?
    Your snide comment basically disproves your own point.

  • Reality

    “braindead Gen X yuppie journalists with disposable incomes”
    That was your original problem with the site.
    No, it’s not “Gen X yuppie journalists” it’s “Gen X marketing representatives” who want to sell cufflinks and cologne and condoms.
    The journalists you despise are tailoring their efforts accordingly, instead of getting paid $5 a post on Torontoist.
    You’re all riled up at the wrong people.
    They’re not interested in what you think, anyhow.

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    I know plenty of people who buy the $250 jeans, go to the VIP parties, and came from “poor” families. It’s their attitude (and careful budgeting) that gets them “in”.
    I also know multi-millionaires who drive hybrids and would rather die than be part of the Muskokas “scene”….
    So let’s all come off our “country club” stereotypes.

  • http://htt://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    If “those people” don’t care what I think, then they obviously aren’t as savvy as you think they are, because everybody knows the number one rule of marketing is to listen to the public, and give them what they want.
    I don’t want brain-dead, presumptuous, 2 dimensional marketing disguised as journalism. It’s as simple as that.
    And you’re right Paige, most people don’t fit into the stereotypes I’ve mentioned. Most people are unique individuals with a pretty good grasp on reality.
    That’s why it’s frustrating when the voices we are presented with in the media are walking, talking stereotypes.

  • Michael

    It’s true that marketers should listen and give people what they want. But not marketers are not going after every segment. IMO, it is easier and more lucrative to aim for the big wallets. Unfortunately, it’s this laziness that skews media offerings to this ritzy stereotype.
    It’s the same reason why we will continue to see more and more media and products aimed at boomers. It’s where the money is. Do we hate on old people because more commercials are aimed at them?

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    But to be fair, Beth.. you’re not exactly the target market for these glossy (and sometimes newsprint) publications. You’re not even on their, or their advertisers’ radar.
    While we can agree that there are a lot of people who sit outside the materialistic margins, there are a lot LOT of people who don’t. And also a lot more who don’t have the high incomes, but live or strive to live like they do.
    For instance: I love love love love love Toronto Life, G&M Style section, Toro, and FASHION magazine… It’s not like I can take their purchase suggestions literally with every issue, but I don’t want to read about slummy apartment rentals and shopping at H&M. Give me high-rise gossip and Holt Renfrew goods!

  • Reality

    Are you upset that Rebecca Eckler has a career catering to these market forces and you don’t? Then do your own thing on a blog with the aim of getting a similarly prolific gig, and if you know something they don’t, you’ll be rewarded.
    And if it’s really that simple, then how come nobody does it?

  • Michael

    And really, the Spoke Club is way more an Ivory Tower than the Drake Patio. All you need to be to get up there is early.

  • http://www.bethmaher.com beth maher

    I was going to continue arguing my point, but I’m pretty bored of saying the same thing in a bunch of different ways, so I’ll just sum it up by saying that I think everyone here is pretty guilty about making assumptions about people.
    But I’m done arguing with someone who calls themselves “reality” and yet doesn’t give a real name.

  • Michael

    Enough said. Have a great weekend everybody!

  • Reality

    The problem isn’t that you’re upset with something. It’s that you think you’re the first person to find it objectionable. Or that it represents something sinister.
    I don’t really care if XXYZ sinks or swims. But doing a good job at anything is more difficult than complaining about everything.

  • http://ramblingcorner.blogspot.com Soloman

    Meh. This publication desperately needs a dose of GAY.

  • http://www.boyreporter.ca Boy Reporter

    Soloman… Torontoist (which I think has some gay) or XYYZ (which I’m not sure of)?

  • m

    dd – I think you meant to say Toro has Tit. Did you see the nipple slip stuff pics they had a few issues back!!