If you can't call your magazine Rolling Stone ...

We were walking past our local newsstand on the way to the gym this morning and noticed something strange: A new issue of the Chinese Rolling Stone (well, it didn't say "Rolling Stone," but it felt like Rolling Stone). This was strange to us because we thought the plug had been pulled on China's Rolling Stone after its first issue. We stopped following this story a while ago and somehow missed a Danwei post entitled "Rolling Stone: raped but still alive" from more than a week ago. That post links to the blog of Hao Fang (郝舫), the editor of the magazine, who explains what is going on (kind of).

The magazine goes only by its Chinese name now -- 音像世界 or Yin Xiang Shi Jie or Audio Video World -- but somehow they managed to make that Chinese logo look like it began with an "R" and had two "L"s in the middle. Kudos. And the magazine still appears to be full of translations from the English Rolling Stone ... with very little about China at all. Think we should expect a review of the Ferris Wheel/Mint show from Friday night in May's issue?

While on the topic of Rolling Stone, the current issue of the U.S. edition has George W. Bush on the cover and wonders aloud if he might be the worst American president ever.

Photo taken by Shanghaiist. We got a free keychain with this issue.