The old Love & Rum is gone... again.
Fact: This website goes through more design changes than it does actual writing. I guess I like changing the look of this place more than I enjoy having to read my own stories. Personal blogs are always a kind of vanity project. They have no real goal other than to share your own life with the few who may be interested just enough to suffer 600 words worth of rambling and a few Instagrams worth of bragging. Self roast. I'm getting married, you can't roast me.
However! Stories well worth reading more than whatever gets put up here are those from the writers of a new print magazine called Later. The whole thing was started by a couple friends who live for, "Travel. Surf. Fiesta," and all the secrets in between.
“He points his gun at my mouth and tells me these local whores will steal everything he owns, likely after killing me in my sleep.”
Expressing the need to get my hands on a copy of the magazine, Eric Greene (one of the founders, whose writing can be found littered throughout the entire first issue) said, give or take, "This damned thing is all about travelling and it will fly on any plane, ride any bus to get where it has to go to those who live for the sea."
It arrived thirty days later. Mexico, by way of Petit Paquet.
You're the same as I am and don't pretend you're better. You'll grab a magazine, treat it like the first look at a maybe-babe, glancing judgementally, flipping through the pages as quickly as you can. Skimming the content as it blurs by, stopping briefly on a bikini ad. Next, flip, flip, flip.
We are all disgusting consumers. Show me a beautifully designed magazine that people have poured their time, energy, heart, soul and bank accounts into and I will show you a stack of magazines at the back of the toilet seat graveyard.
All the old habits of magazine browsing went down the drain figuratively, literally and grammatically when I ripped Later from its well travelled manila envelope. Pouring a fresh cup, I went out on the balcony and opened it to the note from the editor. Not only am I sure I've never read a full note from The Editor (and you haven't either), but I then did the unthinkable. An act reserved for novels and breakup texts: I read the whole thing and wondered at the end, "How did I even get this far?"
With its first issue, Later has found the sweet spot between being functionally drunk and black out wasted (sort of).
It is the bullseye between every other boardsport/lifestyle magazine chained to boring copy in an attempt to please advertisers and the NSFW content challenged by Vice to prove they're not bound by The Man, man.
Without wasting any more of your time or the rest of this cheap wine, I'll share a few highlight quotes from the magazine, then leave you to head out the door and go find a copy to call your own.
“The impulsive choice for adventure is what will ultimately have you living your life rather than watching it pass by you, and nobody can hate on that. Enjoy the issue. We’ve got plenty more where this came from.”
“Risk of infection can increase proportionately to one’s distance from the ground, as proven in the establishment: Four Floors of Whores in Singapore”
So go ahead, visit Later Mag's website, Tweet at them on the Twitter or Like them on Facebook, but whatever you do... just go grab a damned copy.
“The first time I went surfing was in the summer of 1991. As a recent college graduate I was quickly hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and assigned to their Los Angeles offices, where I was placed into the bank robbery department. At the time, Los Angeles County was the bank robbery capital of the world, with 1,322 of them in 1990 (which was up 26% from the year before) and the F.B.I. solving over 1,000 of them. I was a rookie in every sense of the word—young, dumb, and full of cum—but I was ready to take on anything. ”
