ADVICE New magazine serves as guide for men who enjoy acquiring

Cargo is mainly a guy-gadget friendly magazine .
SCRIPPS HOWARD
What do you get when you combine a metrosexual, a gadget freak, a clotheshorse, a car guy, a flower appreciator, power tools and lots of very attractive young people?
1) A great party to which you have no chance of being invited.
2) Not your father's softball team.
3) The premiere issue of Cargo magazine, a shopping guide for men.
Fact is, Cargo is not so much for guys who enjoy shopping as for guys who enjoy acquiring and styling. In a bit of Y chromosome hair-splitting, the cover line proclaims it a "Buyer's Guide For Men," and doesn't mention "shopping."
The magazine is a little "Queer Eye" and a lot of "Straight Guy." Thom Filicia of QE/SG turns a blah living room into a stylish guy-cove in one of the features of the premiere edition ($3.50, on newsstands).
It is the testosterone version of Lucky, Conde Nast's sister shopping magazine for women. It even borrows Lucky's little stickers that men can peel and affix to products and stuff that interests them. Thanks, but most of us will just write it on our palms.
Makes men drool
Cargo's products editor is quoted in the premiere issue as saying she wants her pages to have the "drool effect." Cargo traverses many aisles in the Men 'R' Us market, from things that flash and glow to things that snuggle up against your form.
Much of the editorial matter is expanded coverage of the kinds of style things that appear in front-of-the-book features in Gentleman's Quarterly or Esquire, both provide the lowdown on rum in their current issues.
Indeed, Cargo barges into a guy-magazine culture wallowing in manly style.
Some of the features are virtually wordless. A page of duffel bags is accompanied only by price, fabric, size and a telephone number or Web site.
The magazine cuts a broad economic swath. A feature on cowboy shirts saddles you up and heads you off to Wrangler for a $35 cotton shirt as well as to Gucci for a $795 silk model from Tom Ford.
Hints on dressing
The most creative fashion piece is a two-page spread on how to choose the right suit for the season, occasion (work, date, wedding, funeral) and build (slim, average, athletic, full), along with recommended shoes (laceups, loafers or sneakers). Half of the women they surveyed said it was OK to wear sneakers with a suit. The other half, presumably, took one look at your feet and said, "My boyfriend just went to get me a drink."
Cargo wants to help you do some things to your body, especially the hair on it. Too much body hair, it says, is, well, too much. Many salons will trim your turf or you can do it yourself. Cargo tip: make sure you get a clipper with adjustable length settings (longer for chest, shorter for stomach).
Two pages are devoted to shaving your face, with ideal products recommended for a variety of conditions (normal, sensitive, dry, etc.) and a guide to what various ingredients in shaving cream actually do to/for your face.
Cargo is guy-gadget friendly. Digital camcorders get eight pages of concise, well-organized and informed coverage and a primer on digital video recorders offers the basics of the machine that's eventually going to turn your VCR into a doorstop. Eight detailed pages on the latest in cell phones are helpfully organized by manufacturer.
Things that go vroom get their due from a comparison of the Maserati Quattrope vs. the Volkswagen Phaeton to a roundup of five new sports cars from Europe.