G&P is not designed to be read alone. This magazine should not be read quietly. It is meant to be pulled part, both literally and figuratively – the articles are here to be removed, reproduced, distributed and talked about. Find those you like the most, or hate the most, or a couple that contradict each other. Then, use them as raw material for your own salon, with your own people, in your own way.
Does a salon sound intimidating? Or slightly French? Don’t be afraid! You can do it your way. Have a conversation with a group of friends over dinner or at a bar. Or you could be bolder. You could invite 20 people somewhere and do it in high style. If this all sounds too open-ended, don’t worry, dear reader, we’ve got all the parameters you need. Read How to Have Your Own Salon, and by the end of it you may find the idea of a salon quite demystified.

Every article in G&P has a URL across the bottom, which links you to some ideas for jumpstarting the conversation. These links provide ideas for other sources that may help you make that “salon magic” happen.

The theme of the first issue is “Home and Away.” It explores the connection between place and identity from a variety of perspectives. For a wandering people who have long thought of themselves as homeless, Jews have had plenty of homes in the diaspora. This issue examines how locations, both real and imagined, memorable or forgotten, have shaped the Jewish past and present.

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Abracadabra. It's the MAGIC issue of Guilt & Pleasure, and not a Kabbalah bracelet in sight. There are few better ways to frame an argument than to debate the difference between reality and illusion, the earthly and the supernatural, religion and the occult, and "good" magic and that deemed "bad." What separates a supernatural act from witchcraft? What is ritual and what is magic? And where does belief in God blend into blasphemy? Magic is where religion, the supernatural, the scientific and the spiritual collide. Perfect fodder for a brainstorming salon or two. As usual, we have left the fiction in the issue to the eye of the beholder, but offer the following as possible framings for some of our non-fiction offerings. All can be emailed to your friends via the links on this website.

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This is not a normal edition of G&P in that all of the articles are responses to the same question – a no-holds barred discussion of how you view the world and your place in it – from the perspective of North America, Israel, and Europe. The salon fodder also reflects the unique nature of this volume. Our advice is simple. Pick the two or three articles that engage you most and frame the conversation around what you know about a particular situation, where that information comes from, and what if anything you should be doing as a result.

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The Healthy Issue features a litany of suffering…Howard Jacobson has back spasms, David Rakoff is everyone’s therapist, and Dan Crane has tinnitus! Not to mention: health tips from our ancestors, Naomi Harris profiles aging beauty, and a exploration into a little-known phenomena: the healthy Jew.

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The Sound Issue features the following: Davy Rothbart outwitted by the deaf, Hillary Frank rap battles her past, and Leon Botstein waxes rhapsodic on the art of listening. Plus Dylan as seen by the great Neal Adams.

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