Dear Garage Mag Editors and EIC Rey Ilagan,

You should have noticed by now how you screwed up with the layout of September Mahino‘s article on Gang Badoy and RockEd Philippines entitled “Leader of the Gang” on page 156 of your April/May 2009 issue of Garage Magazine. If you still do not know what happened:

1. It did not tell the readers where the article will continue after you decided to make it jump to another page after it was abruptly truncated,
2. It did not read seamlessly as a continuation of what it left off,
3. It duplicated several paragraphs of text from the jump off point, and, thus
4. Resulting to an unfinished read because, sadly, you have ran out of space all because the texts, all garbled, have become redundant.

[click on the image above to enlarge]

Instead of apologizing to the readers next issue, because waiting for me will be truly unacceptable, I think it would be more appropriate that you:

1. Apologize to September Mahino for screwing up his piece,
2. Apologize to Gang Badoy and RockEd, and, more importantly,
3. Publish the article on its entirety online so I can finish what I started reading already!

The point of this bitching is, your glossy’s not cheap. It costs P75 more than T3 Magazine. It costs like Rogue which would have been a better buy if only I felt like being intellectual and profound the entire Holy Week break. It costs a buck more than Playboy Philippines! For this argument, let’s assume P200 don’t mean shit to me as a consumer. I’ve only bought two issues of your magazine so far and the last one was quite OK, IMHO. Come this month, I gave it another try and came across this serious/glaring error in an article about a person I truly respect as a writer and idealist and about a cause I really believe in.

I have enjoyed the other articles, don’t get me wrong. That “The Ultimate North-South Summer Road Trip” got me all excited. The 298 style must have suggestions made me realize I’m OK with what I have and currently wearing, thank you very much. I just felt that “Leader of the Gang” would have made a difference, or an impact if you may, with apathetic people who may have already forgotten that we can fight the funk if only we do something about it. If only we can not feel tired and hopeless even for a day. People like me…

If more consumers think the way I do and if I don’t get what my P200 deserves, which I already said is a reprint of the entire article online or elsewhere before your next issue, then it’s byebye Garage and hello Rogue.

Very sincerely yours,

Fritz Tentativa