For the “Magazine Editing” class at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I made a complete mockup issue of Men’s Vogue magazine, including conceptualized stories, heds and deks, and layout choices.

Click image for PDF of entire magazine mockup.

As seen in the Men’s Vogue Motoring Blog.

The straight, open highway is one of the more enduring—and revealing—American symbols. Whether on a growling Harley or a low-slung Shelby GT500, there’s no better way to decode the national genome than by taking to the road—wherever it may lead. And if the Yancey Richardson Gallery’s latest show, “Easy Rider: Road Trips Through America,” is any indication, the possibilities are endless.

[see a slideshow of images from the exhibit here…]

The exhibit—which also delves into social commentary and cultural geography spanning 1935 to 2006—runs from July 11 until September 8. Highway culture and its ties to the American identity intersect around every corner, through the lenses of William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Allen Ginsberg, Stephen Shore, and others.

Danny Lyons brings motorcycle gangs into the light, while Alec Soth dips into the Mississippi River culture. Ed Ruscha shows exactly what Route 66 was really made of. From the lowly, vacant dust bowls captured by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to Eggleston protégé Christian Patterson’s rainbows and blue sky, the road is all about optimism. What could be more American than that?

As seen in the Men’s Vogue Motoring Blog.

If Ivan Pavlov had employed men instead of dogs in his most famous experiment, he could have used some of the gems from the McMullen automobile collection as bait.

Mcmullen_packardMcMullen is a 79-year-old Michigan car dealer who turned his full-time job into a lifetime passion. Kicking off the collecting habit in 1986 with a two-tone, blue-and-cream 1932 Packard, McMullen has since put together one of the most impressive private collections in the U.S. His 275-acre farm just north of Detroit has been home to everything from an 1886 Benz (pre-”Mercedes-Benz,” of course) to ’60s muscle cars, while several of his choicest have competed and won at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, including a 1932 Packard 905 Twin Six Sport Phaeton (left) that captured the Most Elegant Car award.

Mcmullen_phaeton_2On June 9, McMullen and RM Auctions will put up an array of cars restored to 100-point (a.k.a., mint) condition, including a 1913 Packard Model 1-38 Roadster, a 1930 Cord Cabriolet, and a 1901 U.S. Long Distance Model A. But the real drooling starts with the show’s duo of stock market crash-era show-stoppers: A 1931 Duesenberg Model J Tourster (pictured below) with coachwork by Derham–originally owned by actor/comedian Joe E. Brown and formerly owned by Howard Hughes–and a 1930 Cadillac V16 All-Weather Phaeton (at right), the only Murphy-bodied V16 Caddy in existence, decorated with a “Best in Class” at Pebble Beach and “Most Significant General Motors Car” at the Meadow Brook Concours.

As the auction catalog puts it: “Already in the engineering and planning stages well before ‘Black Friday’ was a development that Cadillac Motor Car Company President Larry Fisher hoped would be the mechanical coup of the new decade–a V16 engine. In a letter sent to dealers on December 27, 1929, he revealed this secret new sales weapon, and one week later at the New York Auto Show the public got their first viewing of this ultra-luxurious machine. Power was the king in the sales race, so one can only imagine what the public, accustomed to fours, sixes and an occasional 8-cylinder engine, must have thought when this magical power plant was unveiled.”

Mcmullen_duesy_5For sure, not too many people have 16-cylinder bragging rights. But the real attraction is the fact that this car, like many others The McMullen Collection, looks like it’s accelerating even when it’s standing still.

(The catalog also makes a point about the Duesenberg that taught us something we didn’t know: “The [car's] outside exhaust pipes inspired generations of auto designers and remain, 60 years later, a symbol of power and performance. ‘She’s a real Deusy’ still means a slick, quick, smooth and desirable possession of the highest quality.”)

The Phaeton is expected to fetch between $850,000 and $1 million, with the Duesenberg at a slightly higher $1.2 to $1.5 million. Hard to choose between them, of course. But then, if you can afford to bid on and win one of these marvels, you can probably afford to go after both.

As seen in the Men’s Vogue Auction Blog.

On April 21, a trove of rock memorabilia will be on the block in New York City at an auction benefiting Music Rising, a charity co-founded by U2′s The Edge to replace equipment lost by musicians during Hurricane Katrina.

Despite the quality on display–a signed Epiphone guitar from Coldplay; a Telecaster used by Bob Dylan; a pair of black and white zig-zag striped pants worn on stage by KISS’ Gene Simmons (and, we presume, subsequently laundered); The Edge’s own beloved 1975 Gibson Les Paul–the star of the show is a 1966 Red Fender Mustang (right) that Jimi Hendrix played on both “Axis: Bold as Love” and “Electric Lady Land.” The guitar is expected to fetch upward of $100,000.

The highest price ever paid for an electric guitar was $2.8 million in 2005 for an Arctic White Fender Stratocaster autographed by a host of guitar giants including Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Brian May, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Mark Knopfler, and AC/DC’s mad schoolboy, Angus Young. Hendrix, of course, ranks higher than all of them when it comes to fretwork, having been tagged a few years ago as Rolling Stone’s “greatest guitarist of all time”–in which case, a hundred grand starts to sound like a steal.