Departing quietly, Stage Right

I was exhibiting at one of the expos some time ago- from memory it was the Tradesman’s Expo 2010 when I was approach by a couple of gents who had a proposal for a Aussie garage/shed magazine and whether I might be willing to be one of the writers for it.

Initially it was being proposed to be called “Top Garages”, to position it alongside Top Gear.  At some stage in the piece, the name changed to the (somewhat unfortunate) “ManSpace” (And yes, any time that I mentioned that I write for “ManSpace Magazine”, I’d get some very strange sideways glances.  Probably much the same as those now given to writers for Playboy Magazine, now that it is abandoning nudity)

Over the course of the first 15 editions of ManSpace, spread over 5 years, I wrote about 38 articles in total, a few short, a few long.

When the 15th issue came out, it didn’t list me as a contributor (although my segmented clock article was still inside) – in hindsight the writing was on the wall, and apparently issue 16 has been on the shelves a few weeks, with my last article left unpublished.  The magazine has decided that it no longer wants a regular “how to” section (it had already stopped the tool reviews), and so, it seems, that is it.

I was actually having a conversation with someone not two days ago, who was lamenting that with the aging population there was an increasing shortage of casual paying jobs, as the retired generation were looking for something to do, and are willing to give their time for free.  In one respect, it seems that my Stu’s Shed section of the magazine has tripped over the same experience, as any future how to articles are to be written (for free) by those in the Men’s Shed organisation.

C’est la vie.  It was fun while it lasted.

Apparently there is a second season of ManSpace TV on the way, although in season one it seemed to only give a passing nod to the magazine that started it, (although they ‘discovered’ on air many of the collections and sheds that had been featured in the magazine).

It is not all bad news if you do enjoy my magazine articles, you can still get the bi-monthly “The Shed” magazine, which is an awesome read, and has a large Stu’s Shed section (not that I’m biased!)