When reports emerged that a group of Republican activists were fiddling with the phone of a Democratic U.S. Senator in Louisiana, it was impossible not to draw comparisons to the bungled burglary of Watergate.
Soon after, it came out that one of the so-called "teabuggers" was Joe Basel, a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Morris, where he was a well-known conservative provocateur.
We set out to chronicle his rise to power, from editor of the Counterweight to palling around with James O'Keefe, the young firebrand who dressed up as a pimp for a video expose of ACORN.
St. Paul native Brett "The Grim" Rogers will face Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in a non-title fight.
In an exclusive interview with MMAjunkie.com
(www.mmajunkie.com) today, the Strikeforce heavyweight champion said he
is likely to meet Brett Rogers (10-1 MMA, 2-1 SF) in a non-title fight
on an as-yet-unannounced card set for May 15 in St. Louis, Mo.
Andy Mannix, the Village Voice Media Fellow working at City Pages, has taken second place in the 50th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program for his investigation into alleged sweetheart real estate deals inside the University of Minnesota's wrestling program.
The cover Barb Johnson claims was altered ... to make her prettier.
Barb Johnson now: The beauty thousands in campaign expenses buys
David Brauer has just filed a MinnPost dispatch putting the lie to Barb Johnson's claim that City Pages manipulated her image on the cover 5 years ago to make her teeth whiter and her lips fuller.
The Minneapolis City Council President bizarrely used this as the explanation for having to spend campaign money on $90 haircuts, although that fails to account for all the money on other personal luxuries, like Internet and cable TV (perhaps that's TV Guide's fault?).
This week's feature story profiles Dan Buettner, a local boy made good who went from Star Tribune delivery boy to appearing on Oprah to discuss his New York Times best-selling book on longevity, The Blue Zones. A go-to source for national media stories on wellness--most recently in Outside--Buettner still stays true to his local roots--you're likely to meet him out and about if you spend any significant time in Minnesota, especially at Chino Latino. Although his Rolodex could stock a red carpet, he's remarkably charming no matter your station. Perhaps it's because he possesses the most important trait of our modern age: the ability to turn interesting ideas into revenue streams.
This week's cover story begins with an unmarked record in a bin destined for the Dumpster.
When I listen to it, I dream that it is some long lost demo recording of a great regional band that never hit the big time ...
That discovery opens a door into the '70s, where we meet a pair of black brothers infatuated with the Beatles. They start a band named Haze, release an album, and swaddle themselves in all the trappings of success--including some of the gaudiest bell bottoms you've ever seen.
Then it all falls apart.
The members retreat to quiet lives in suburbia.
Until one day, they hear from someone who has discovered an old record ...
"Legalize it!" used to be the stuff of Bob Marley songs and dorm room bull sessions, but increasingly, efforts to decriminalize marijuana are gaining traction across the country. At least 14 states have legalized pot in one form or another, with New Jersey jumping on the bandwagon just this week.
We believe medical marijuana will be in more than half the states in
two years...and maybe 47 states in the next 10 years," says attorney Sean T. McAllister, who led a successful crusade last fall to get pot legalized.
So whether you inhale or not, the pro-marijuana movement can no longer be ignored. And if you like the story? Puff, puff, pass it to a friend.
No, your eyes aren't lying--that's Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl on the cover of this week's issue. Our favorite food alum has released an incisive new book on wine, which seemed like a fine excuse for a homecoming. Dara sat down with Rachel Hutton for a meeting of foodie minds that got so raucus they almost got ejected from the bar. If you care about the Twin Cities restaurant scene, this may be the most important story of your year--and you can only find it in City Pages.
You never know who may be reading your work. We learned that this morning when we stumbled across props for City Pages basketball writer Ben Polk on the Wall Street Journal's blog.
There's not usually much occasion to link to game stories about the ultra-moribund Minnesota Timberwolves in this space, which is why -- despite the fact that his pieces are consistently among the very best basketball writing appearing on the web -- you seldom see anything in this space from Benjamin Polk of the Minneapolis City Pages. That said, your Fixer always goes out of his way to read Polk's stuff, and has enjoyed (if that's the word) watching him grapple with the struggles of Minnesota's young squad to adjust to new coach Kurt Rambis's triangle offense.
Andy Mannix, who will be starting a fellowship with City Pages in January, appeared on KARE-11 at 6 p.m. last night to discuss his investigative story on real estate deals by the University of Minnesota wrestling coach.
For those of you who may have missed it over the Thanksgiving Holiday, City Pages staff writer Matt Snyders appears on MSNBC to discuss his recent Michele Bachmann cover story.
After watching Snyders dissect the Bachmann political strategy, stay-tuned till the end when a national GOP operative says he only agreed to the interview on the condition that the City Pages cover story not be discussed.
This week's cover riffs off a classic porn scenario--we're guessing she ordered the sausage--at a time when the industry is grappling with the new problem of digital distribution. The feature by Emily Kaiser uses one local boy's adventure in pornland to survey the business's many burdens, from overexposure of surgically-altered blonds to the impossibility of putting the naked genie back in the bottle once it's been uploaded to YouPorn.
"The entire porn industry is in trouble," says Lux Alptraum, editor of the sex-oriented blog Fleshbot. "Adult entertainment used to be a business that was considered recession-proof, but it's hurting like everything else."
We are very proud to announce that City Pages food critic Rachel Hutton will have an article featured in Da Capo's "Best Food Writing 2009" book. The annual round-up of the best pieces of the year will be out in November.
Editors chose Hutton's Spam piece, "Spam: It's Not Just for Inboxes Anymore". The article profiles the Minnesota-based product, which has gained popularity as a legitimate (and cheap) food item again in the recession. Hutton offers some suggestions on how to make the canned meat edible.
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced its 2009 award winners last week, and City Pages earned two first place and two third place awards for papers with a circulation of 55,000 or more.
L.A. Weekly, also a Village Voice Media publication, led the large-circulation division for the second year in a row with four first-place wins. Santa Fe Reporter took four first-place awards in the small circulation division.
City Pages, Washington City Paper, Phoenix New Times, and The Village Voice all took more than one first-place award.
Today City Pages is launching Twin Cities Reader, a news aggregator designed to round up the most important headlines affecting the Twin Cities.
Named for the alt weekly with which City Pages competed in the glory days, Twin Cities Reader will link to and send traffic to a variety of sources, from traditional print operations like the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, to online-only enterprises such as MinnPost, Minnesota Independent, and MnSpeak, as well as national publications that cover areas of interest to Minnesota.
The Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists held their annual Page One Awards banquet Thursday night to honor the best journalism in the state.
City Pages took home 27 awards, including 15 first-place honors. In 2008, CP won 16 SPJ awards, eight of them first place.
Pioneer Press won 28 awards, nine of them first place. Star Tribune brought home 15 awards, 8 of them first place. Duluth News Tribune was another big winner with 23 awards, 15 of them first place in the under 50K circulation category. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal won 21 awards, 11 of them first-place honors.
We had a great time at the banquet and want to congratulate all winners. Check out the full list of the CP wins below. We will update with the complete list of winners later this morning.
When Rep. Michele Bachmann spits out her weekly (sometimes daily) gaffe or gets a major fact wrong, should we be covering it? MinnPost's David Brauer raised the question yesterday in a search of local publications and the amount of coverage Bachmann receives compared to other politicians in the state.
The debate made it to Politico this morning and City Pages editor Kevin Hoffman's quote on the issue was featured in the post. Whether you'd call it a plane crash, a train wreck, or just a political embarrassment, Bachmann has the game down.
Staff writer Matt Snyders won four individual awards: Best single online news story, general opinion column, spot news, and general feature.
Staff writer Bradley Campbell won for sports feature, Editor Kevin Hoffman won for spot sports news, Editorial Assistant Ward Rubrecht won for short feature, and former staff writer Jonathan Kaminsky won for best investigative story.
Art Director Nick Vlcek will take home seven awards. Three for layout, four for photography. Associate Art Director Mike Kooiman won for spot news graphics/illustration. Freelancer Kevin Cannon won best editorial cartoon for his contribution to our annual Comix Issue.
The City Pages newsroom received five awards, including two for the Republican National Convention (for continuing online coverage, and for the RNC field guide). Blotter won for best news blog, while Citypages.com earned best website honors. Last year's Best Of issue won for best special section.
View the full list below. We compete in the 50,000+ circulation category.
Yeah, OK. You can go ahead and start the "OMG you guys are sooo late on this" remarks, but you'd only be half right (there's a long-abandoned CP account floating in Twitterland but the dog ate our password).
Follow http://www.twitter.com/city_pages for links to standout content, local news, gossip and music news around town and the world at large, Twin Cities happenings, and maybe even a contest or two when the time is right.
Twitterds unite! (Twitter + nerds. Yes, we made that up).
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced the nominees and honorees for its 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards and a recent City Pages cover story made the cut.
Former City Pages Editor Craig Cox has a very deep appreciation for David Carr, coke lines and all. Carr, a New York Times writer and former Minneapolis journalist, has received nationwide attention for his new book documenting his journey through journalism as a drug addict and alcoholic. In a piece published on the Minneapolis Observer Web site, Cox weaves a review of Carr's latest book, The Night of the Gun, with personal anecdotes about Carr and the Twin Cities alternative weekly scene.
During a whirlwind tour of the Carolinas yesterday, nowhere I scurried had a reliable wireless access point. Separated from communications and work, I don't mind telling you I felt a little naked. And not like Paul Demko naked, either. Finally, sitting down inside the Charlotte airport, I got my fix.
Bless you, Charlotte airport! You and your free WiFi connection have salvaged my trip! Now, let's dial up the City Pages blogs and see what the magic elves have concocted in my absence.
Wait. What's that you're trying to tell me, Charlotte airport?
Jay Maynard, also known as Tron Guy, has opinions and anecdotes galore. His well-honed attitude toward media types is that he will give an answer to all questions. It was no different with City Pages, even when the conversation swerved away from Internet fame and toward, say, gun ownership or national healthcare. Here are a few moments left out of the feature story, with videos – including footage of him taking City Pages on a flight in the Tron Plane – mixed in.
Da Capo's annual Best Music Writing anthology collects great pieces from the previous year into one handy volume. Authors whose work has been collected for the tome are notified well in advance, but each season there are Honorable Mentions announced later.
Welcome to This Week in Blotter, in which we pithify news shorts ripped fresh from your favorite newsweekly: City Pages!
Let us back up a moment: You like the new website? Yeah, so do we. For one thing, it's purdy. For another, it's sleekish. Brass tacks, it's all the beige, twice the doohickeys.
A word to the wise, though: Make sure you're not missing out on our one-of-a-kind weekly content. Housed in a separate aluminum tube from our superlative everyday offerings, it's now just a scroll's length to the south on your citypages.com.
1. My boyfriend went on a date with Caroline, the hottie I refer to in my story. According to him: "She's a bitch." She made fun of him for still being in school. Even so, I still want to know what happened between her and Ken.
2. Roberto, the blood drawing medical technician who sounded so creepy in the story, has a lighter side. Dance is his passion, especially bopping and moon walking. He also likes to watch Lifetime.
Post a Comment
