Stil da Vida
Stil da Vida (SdV) is a news magazine that reports on political and cultural events happening in the Kingdom of Talossa. It is produced and edited by Éovart Grischun. Stil da Vida translates to ‘Style of Life’, or ‘Lifestyle’, in the English language. The first four issues of the magazine were titled Stil da Vida Monthly (SdVM).
Production and Format
SdV is produced using open source desktop publishing software and released in PDF format. The style of the publication's layout has changed several times, with the later 2012 issues following a tabloid-esque template. The earlier 2009 editions make heavy use of colour when compared to the muted, black and white versions appearing in 2012.
History
April 2009 to July 2009: Issues 1 to 4
The first issue of SdVM was released on March 30 2009 and was dated April 1 2009. Issue one was produced in full colour, including coloured backgrounds and images, to give the look and feel of a glossy magazine. This, however, raised concerns amongst a few Talossans regarding the printability of the production with worries over the volume of coloured ink that would be required. A poll was put to the magazine's initial readership asking whether future editions should remain in full colour or if the magazine should be released in a more printer friendly, black and white version. Ten votes were recieved in the poll with 60% favouring the full colour version and 40% requesting black and white versions. The issue contained articles contributed by Mha la Mha (Baron Hooligan), Xhorxh Asmour and Danihel Forestal.
Issue two was released on April 30 2009 and was dated May 1 2009. This edition was less colour intensive, however, still made use of a pale yellow background colour. The issue also contained articles contributed by Flip Molinar and Danihel Lupulet as well as featuring letters to the editor.
The third issue of SdV was released on June 2 2009 and was dated June 1 2009. This edition was billed as a pre-election special, being released just prior to the general election for the 40th Cosa. It contained adverts from political parties and Senatorial candidates. Contributions were included from Flip Molinar, Mha la Mha (Baron Hooligan), Owen Edwards, Gödafrïeu Válcadác’h and Danihel Lupulet. The production of issue three saw the dissapearance of the coloured backgrounds.
Issue four was released on June 29 2009 and was dated July 1 2009. It contained an article contributed by Danihel Luplet, now a regular columnist. There were no major changes to the layout or style of this issue compared to issue three.
Issues one and two were released under the banner of the Ministry of Culture as Grischun was the then Minister of Culture. However, he resigned from this post during production of Issue three and as such issues three and four were produced and released as a private and non-governmental project.
July 2009 to March 2012: Dedicated website and hiatus
On July 29 2009, Éovart Grischun, editor of SdVM, announced that due to time constraints the monthly magazine would go out of production and would move towards delivering breaking news on a 'when it happens' basis. A dedicated website (www.stildavida.com) was purchased and a content managment system was implemented to allow for quick and easy news reporting. The site also offered an RSS news feed. Unfortunatley, the website did not flourish as intended and lay in a dormant state after around a month of use until the web hosting contract expired ten to eleven months later. The hosting contract and domain name was not renewed. Stil da Vida fell out of production completely from August 2009 until April 2012.
April 2012 to present: Issues 5 onward
The project returned in April 2012 with a new look and format, although content was very similar to the earlier editions from 2009. The fifth issue was released on April 1 2012 and was simply date stamped as April 2012. There was no use of colour in the new version, with a layout similar to a tabloid newspaper, making use of columns reading from side to side. All articles were written by Grischun with one birth announcement being authored by Mha la Mha (Baron Hooligan).
A special edition of SdV was released on April 20th 2012 to celebrate and commemorate Reunison. Officially, this is not the sixth issue of SdV but rather a stand-alone edition.
SdV Talossans of the year contest (2009)
Beginning July 18 2009, SdV organised a Talossans of the year contest. The results of the contest were posted on the now closed stildavida.com website and as such the results are now lost.