Technically Not Tech: McJawn magazine’s quest to take over the world

The scholars at Urban Dictionary define “jawn” as “a word used by Philly cats to describe anything and everything.”

It’s almost as Philadelphian as the cheesesteak. Example: “Hey, hand me that jawn.” Or, “Later this month I’m going to the Geekadelphia and Technically Philly jawn.”

Which makes the word more than fitting for the namesake of the up-start Philadelphia arts and culture magazine McJawn.

Founded by Wen Vo and Yis Goodwin in the Summer of 2008, McJawn’s content ranges from the art on local bathroom stalls to what its like to spend time in a Philadelphia jail, and its blog has become a barometer of the Philly arts and music subculture.

Oh, and did we mention they are hatching plans to take over the 67th ward?
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Shop Talk: Obama Girl’s Leah Kauffman on Phrequency.com redesign

Updated: 5:33 p.m. 6/10/09 with additional attribution

This is part of an irregular series of our Shop Talk department, called The Redesign.

On a Friday afternoon in early May, Leah Kauffman dons a t-shirt to show off her gang affiliation.

A pair of hands screenprinted on the bright red tee are positioned similarly to the Bloods street gang hand signal. Fingers on the right hand are contorted into the shape of the letters ‘b,’ ‘l’ and ‘o.’ The left hand is flipped upside-down, and the index finger curled, creating a hanging “g.”

‘Blog,’ it reads.

At first glance, it’s easy to miss. But it makes sense. Kauffman runs Philly.com’s Phrequency, a news portal that covers the movers, shakers and rattlers of Philly’s music community.

In April, Phrequency was redesigned with a more streamlined, blog-esque interface; dropping the clunky, genre focus that forced users to choose hip-hop or punk, R&B or jazz, for a content-oriented design that doesn’t split hairs on artists who span all of those.

It was a move that Kauffman had wanted to make for months.
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