Alicia Rodriguez on MySpace Management

We at Chief Magazine just launched our MySpace page.  Yes!  Goddamn right.  Be our friend.

To celebrate and further emphasize, we asked our contributor and MySpace OverLord, Maggie Lee, to interview Columbia student and Red China Magazine editorial assistant, Alicia Rodriguez... two young, aspiring go-getters mentally sparing over profile aesthetic, internships, and J.D. Sallinger.


Chief Magazine: So how long have you worked at Red China?

Alicia Rodriguez: For about six months... since the end of the spring semester.

That’s a bit longer than I’ve worked at Chief.  What exactly do you do there?

I started off reading submissions, but then they slowed down. Now I act as an administrator to their Myspace page and help organize the parties.

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That seems like a demotion to me…

Well, it’s not.

What exactly do you do on MySpace?

I lurk around and find friends for Red China... manicure the inbox and comments board.

I do that too.  But I mean, what do you look for in prospective Red China friends?
Is there a science to it?

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There’s a science, oh yeah. I definitely start with profile pics—cute boys, baby pictures are always fun. It’s a cop out to put a piece of art or a baseball card up there. 

I hate those stupid animated icons, or when people have photo backgrounds that make it hard to read how much money people pull in a year and other important criteria. Anything you see that pisses you off?

To be honest? I hate it when you know there were five people all smiling in the picture and they cut everyone else out and it’s just this little sliver of them.

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Who’s the cutest Red China friend?

Ummm… Mike Reilly. His pics don’t do him justice, but he’s really very handsome in person. He’s a poet. He was in one of the recent issues. And he definitely parties harder than any of the others. I think he has a girlfriend though.

Would you ever consider a love affair founded through MySpace? (The editors made me ask this.)

I don’t care where I meet somebody. They just have to be cool. If they’re cool online and totally stupid in person, well…

OK.  What are your biggest Myspace turnoffs? (Again, the editors.)

Uh… People who are too sincere. People who constantly change their pics and name. People who like shitty books; there are a lot of those.

So what do you find are the most popular books on Myspace?

Definitely The Picture of Dorian Gray. All the hot girls like Dorian Gray. Girls who didn’t stop reading after high school always note Marquez. I see lots and lots of Bukowski, Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, the books you’d expect…

You don’t like these writers?

It’s not that. They’re fine. But most people haven’t read a book they enjoyed since they were 15: Atlas Shrugged, Catcher in the Rye, Gatsby. Come on. When you ask an American what their favorite book is, nine times out of ten it’s going to be Catcher in the Rye. Nine times out of ten.

What’s wrong with Catcher in the Rye?

Nothing.  I guess.

OK… well… how about this?  When we interviewed Alex Smith of Red China, he said literary magazines were “filled with highly talented networkers and a bevy of intern-slaves.”  What do you think of that?

He doesn’t even come into the office. The other day, Duddits [Cavell, Red China’s Managing Editor] got a $40 supply check from Duckbill [Red China’s parent not-for-profit] and I was asking him to reimburse me for subway fare and he was, like, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll figure it out.” He played around on eBay for about an hour, and then DJ [DeJaniels Hudson, Dick Pig Review editor-in-chief] comes by and they’re all laughing and giving each other titty-twisters in the storage room. They finally come out with their coats on and just leave. I had about 2,000 envelopes left to stuff, so I was stuck there listening to podcasts until seven thirty, and they show up plastered, I mean, totally shit housed. I ask Duddits about subway fare again and he’s, like, “Don’t you get it? I spent the money. There is no fucking money.”

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I can relate.  Not on that sort of level, I mean, they bought the film for the Bob Powers shoot, and seem pretty nice in their own way, but… I mean… is interning just a way of life?  Why do we do this?

Well, you can’t argue with the intent of the magazine or Duckbill as a whole. I mean they might be pricks, but pricks fuck assholes right?

Was that a Team America reference?

Fuck yeah.

Websites

www.myspace.com/chiefmag
www.myspace.com/redchinamagazine

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