The Basic Issue

Die BLONDE put out a new issue—they’re calling it Basic, which as a title is almost aggressive in its refusal to be clever. It’s the kind of magazine you don’t think about constantly, but when you encounter it you remember why you liked it in the first place.

They threw a party in Kreuzberg to celebrate. St. Georg, Sarah Farina DJing, someone had made the space feel intentional instead of just rented. The band SHI played at some point. People from the design world and the music world and the just-thinking-about-things world were all in the same room, which is rarer than it should be.

These parties happen constantly in Berlin. Most of them are forgotten by morning. But the ones that stick are the ones where you can feel the people actually care about what they’re celebrating. Not performing. Real care. It changes everything in the room.

I’m not sure what’s inside Basic. Probably a mixture of stuff that matters and stuff that’s beautiful. The point of Die BLONDE has never been to tell you what to think—just to remind you that other people are out here thinking carefully, making deliberately, not trying to convince you of anything.

That’s harder now. Everything’s a pitch, everything’s content, everything wants something from you. A magazine that just sits there being a magazine, saying here’s what we made, come celebrate with us if you want—that’s almost transgressive. Worth throwing a party for. Worth showing up, even when you’re spent.