On January 30th, the class was held in TCR and Geist Magazine offices. It was a field trip to see how and where TCR magazine is actually made. The office was located in the famous Woodward’s Building at 128 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. It was a rainy day and there were few people on the street. I felt a bit lonely and quiet, so I went grab a cup of coffee at JJ Bean cafe around the corner.

          Soon, I met other classmates and visited the TCR office. Actually, it was one of the busiest times of the office, finalizing everything just before the printing. Even so, the editors of TCR and Geist welcomed us and shared their honest experiences and advice. They told us how they could get the job in the offices, what are their pleasure and pains, how it is like running the editing routines etc. I was quite surprised that such a small number of people are running the whole magazine system. I had expected that around ten to twenty people are doing the job, but I found that only a couple of people are doing all the work. I could feel that Matea, the editing manager of TCR, was bearing a very big burden. Then, I thought of other editors that I’ve met in the previous classes and imagined how much stress they had been through. Immediately, I understood one of the editors’ comment that this job is almost a kind of altruistic act.

          Viewing the actual staff and site of TCR has broken my preconception of commercialized magazine making. After recognizing their tremendous efforts and commitments, the art magazines editors feel much more familiar and accessible than before. They briefly talked to us about submitting articles. I would like to learn some more tips about that.