Reston(R): The Magazine Is Finally Here; We Read the RA's Foray Into Magazine Publishing So You Don't Have To

Reston: The Magazine is "a magazine that says 'Reston,'" according to the introductory text in its first edition, which we found "on-line" yesterday. It also "provides an identifiable Reston brand, if you will." Okay, we will.

So what will you find in this 124-page magnum opus once it arrives at your doorstep? Here's what jumped out at us when we flipped through the magazine yesterday, in no particular order:

• Sweet clip art of a pen.
  
  
• A letter from Cathy Hudgins, encouraging us to get involved in the master plan.
  
  
• Some actual news about the master plan timing, including the fact that Herndon-Monroe gets studied first, followed by Wiehle Avenue, then Town Center and Reston Parkway. The village centers will be reviewed in 2011. News to us!
  
  
• A Q&A with Bob Simon, who says "I don't have a crystal ball," but says the community's future depends on "decisions made by its governing politicians and the people who elect them." Quite right!
  
  
• Something called "On the Street," which would up not being nearly as hip as that title suggests.
  
  
• Some weird avant-garde prose poem about the brutalist statues at Lake Anne, including this: "The grass is crisp and moist as a jogger and her Irish wolfhound glide past me, through the tunnel and into the distance. I hope they stop for a moment and take a seat on The Sun Boat, but I know The Pyramid is inviting at first dawn." Weren't those the lyrics from a Led Zeppelin IV B-side?
  
  
• All the camp, tennis and pools stuff that used to get mailed separately. It actually looks really good.
  
  
• An interview titled "Katie, Katie, Nature Lady," about the RA employee of the year. "A grateful and delighted look came over Katie's face," the article reads, mirroring the "New Journalism" attention to detail and narrative that drove such luminaries as Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion and Hunter S. Thompson, only they didn't generally write about earth-toned planned real estate developments.
  
  
• A surprising number of ads! We're starting to feel a bit jealous.
  
  
• Clip art of a CFL light bulb in the grass. We think this has to do with clubbing baby seals or something.
  
  
• The lengthy "List of Rules for the Use of the Reston Association Common Area." It's not the centerfold, but it should be.
  
  
• The "Stroke of the Week." Minds out of the gutter, please! Also, an ad for some guy known as the "Racket Bear" (again, minds out of the gutter.)
  
  
• Clip art of smiling senior citizens flashing the "thumbs up" sign. Matlock must be on!

All in all, it looks really good, conspicuous lack of New Yorker style cartoons featuring talking dogs notwithstanding. We can't wait until a federal uniformed agent delivers a "hard copy" to our mailbox, but if you have to see it now, click here for a "portable document format" version you can read on your fancy "portable document format reader" "soft-ware" on your "personal computer." If you start reading now, you might get to the last page by the end of the long weekend!