Subject: Magazines

• One Year Later

  Usually when a regular columnist for one of the major news magazines begins to chew through the restraints of received ideas and government press releases, it is, to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson, "like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." Jonathan Alter's latest column in Newsweek illustrates the point. A year ago, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, NEWSWEEK published a cover story called "Poverty, Race and Katrina: Les

  August 29, 2006

• 3 out of 4

  Over at Rising Hegemon, Attaturk notices a slight variation in the covers on this week's Newsweek. See if you can spot the difference. Yep. That's right. The editors of the international editions of Newsweek simply don't understand the tremendous importance of Annie Leibovitz reminiscing about her life and work. Those editors prefer instead to focus the reader's attention on the resurgence of the Taliban and the current carnage outside Kabul with some downbeat story, "Losing Afghanistan". F

  September 25, 2006

• The Mark of The Beast

  The Beast, the alt paper that howls at the world from the wintry, chicken wing-splattered wasteland that is Buffalo, now has the 2006 version of its always entertaining 50 Most Loathsome People in America online. The list of the loathsome features those you might expect (Bush, James Dobson, Ryan Seacrest), some you might not (Jesus Christ), and you. Yes, you. Congratulations-- first you were Time's Person of the Year (or as The Beast puts it: "You're Time magazine's person of the year. So wa

  January 22, 2007

• Ho no, Pimp yes

  As one of the more obnoxious members of the East Coast media elite, a man with a long history of spewing racist and other repellent nonsense, may have finally damaged his career by using the word "hos", the governor of the West Coast's largest state is about to publicly embrace "pimp" style.   As the current issue of Newsweek explains, Governor Schwarzenegger will be appearing on the April 22nd episode of MTV's "Pimp My Ride", to promote green technology for cars.  But as the San

  April 10, 2007

• Even John McCain Hates the Guatemalans

  Faithful readers of ¡Ask a Mexican! know that my favorite whipping boy is the Guatemalans. Turns out, according to Time magazine's blog, chapines also serve the same purpose for presidential candidate John McCain. Is the Mexican influencing national sentiment toward the Mayan menace?

  May 21, 2007

• Barton glad Marissa's Dead

  In Newsweek, via the AP, Mischa Barton says she's happy that Marissa Cooper, her character on The O.C., died the way she did.

  May 22, 2006

• Electric Cars Zapped to Life?

  We began our review of Who Killed the Electric Car? by describing the funeral that opens the new documentary. In his Newsweek column, Brad Stone does the same thing--before going on to say the funeral may have been premature.

  June 22, 2006

• Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Greenest of Them All?

  Grist online magazine's Muckraker says the California gubernatorial race may very well come down to who voters think is more environmentally minded, Ahnuld or Phil the Pill.

  June 23, 2006

• Ride, Russ, Ride

  The Environmental Defense online magazine has a story on Weekly contributing photographer Russ Roca, who manages to ply his trade without the use of an automobile, instead relying on a specially rigged bicycle. It's been a great arrangement for us, too, since instead of cold-hard cash, Russ accepts payment in the form of bubble-gum cards in his spokes.

  October 5, 2006

• The Pic That Won't Quit

  Last week, we noticed that a photo of me watching a 3-D presentation made it into USA Today. Earlier this morning, I was told the photo was also on AOL. And then today, I see it on Time Magazine's website (thanks KT for the tip-off!) Be nice if they actually identified me in the pic. But anonymous fame is better than none.

  August 6, 2007

• Yo Gabba Gabba contract -officially- renewed

  Feature writer Shawn Smith has the latest on the psychedelic kiddie show scene: The gamble paid off. Yo Gabba Gabba creators Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz (our cover boys a few weeks back) got the news they’ve been waiting for. Yo Gabba Gabba, the frenetically fun kids show with the dancing Cyclops and infectious beats that airs during the pee-wee hours on Nickelodeon, just got its 20-episode renewal. After years of struggling to see their vision of a Utopian dancey-dance world come to

  December 18, 2007

• What do Lindsay Lohan and Hugh Hewitt Have in Common?

  Although we're no fans of local talk show host Hugh Hewitt, we couldn't help but to feel a twinge of sympathy for the man, who's also a professor of law at Chapman University. The latest edition of the school's Chapman Magaine has a mini-profile on Hewie, whom you can listen to every weekday at 3pm on KRLA-AM 870. In the story, Hugh tells the magazine that the reason his show succeeds is because he respects his audience. "It doesn't have to be about celebrity or salaciousness," Hewitt states, an

  May 12, 2008

• OC Weekly Winners!

  Am about to return to la naranja after a week in Philadelphia for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention. Am happy to report yours truly won the Best Column award for alt-weeklies with a circulation over 55,000 for the second time in three years. And il cappo di tutti capi of investigative reporters, R. Scott Moxley, finished second in the prestigious public service category for getting disgraced former Orange County sheriff Mike Carona out of office. Do consider Moxley a

  June 8, 2008

• Upcoming in LA Times Obits: The Sunday Magazine

  Remember those Sunday mornings when the LA Times magazine was something to look forward to? Terrific profiles/color pieces/semi-newsy features—in-depth stuff you went back and read a second time (and, admit it, clipped and filed in your battered ol’ copy of Websters, under the appropriate word)? The ‘90s? Remember how enraged you were in ’99 when it was disclosed that the sleazy bean-counters had cut a secret deal to share magazine ad revenue with Staples Center? How happy you were when

  June 11, 2008

• The Zine Scene

  June 10, 1999

• En Vogue

  June 29, 2006

• Did the New Yorker Rip Off a Mexican?

  I did a double take today upon looking at the latest issue of the New Yorker, the one on the right on the left. It looks suspiciously like the image on the left on the left drawn last year in February by Lalo Alcaraz, iconic Chicano cartoonist and author of the syndicated comic La Cucaracha. Now, I know that everyone rips everyone off, but can anyone point to an image of Obama-as-Washington dated before Lalo's much-better version (the New Yorker image, btw, was drawn by Drew Friedman, one of my

  January 22, 2009

• Kogi Korean Taco Truck Makes It To Newsweek

  Like I said in my review of Pizzeria Ortica this week, L.A. seems to be having all the fun lately, especially with Kogi Korean Taco Truck, the "Tweeting" roach coach that everybody wants a piece of.  Last week, quite inevitably, it made it to Newsweek, which is great and all, but as I read the article in rapt attention, I notice this sentence:  "Kogi is currently aiming to send trucks to San Diego and San Francisco before eventually heading east."  It may be the fact that New

  March 9, 2009

• Unfortunate Acronym for Old Vine Cafe Created by Coast Magazine

  I'm not exactly sure who the audience of the Orange County Register-owned lifestyle magazine Coast is supposed to be, at least not when compared with that of the county's other two lifestyle mags, Orange Coast (middle-aged folks with some money and people who like to read good journalism) and Riviera (super-rich women of the youngster and MILF variety). But whomever constitutes the average Coast reader, I'm sure the editors of the magazine never expect them to venture outside of South County. Th

  March 23, 2009

• King of Hearts

  December 25, 2008

• Pretty Talk

  October 23, 2008

• Standing Tall

  July 3, 2008

• Girls and Cars and Cars and Girls

  February 9, 2006

• Pulchritudinous Performer

  September 22, 2005

• Youth of America

  June 16, 2005

• Zine Scene

  August 12, 2004

• Burning Bush

  July 8, 2004

• Skratch Magazine at 100

  June 24, 2004

• Not Just Your Ass

  January 15, 2004

• Bullshit Detected

  November 6, 2003

• Like Bottled Messages

  January 30, 2003

• Mirainga raped by Olsen Twins!

  December 27, 2001

• Goodbye, California

  August 30, 2001

• Not Hot, Not Cold, Just Real

  March 15, 2001

• Coxs Flaccid Report

  January 13, 2000

• The People Formerly Known as Fans

  July 8, 1999

• Bye-Bye, butt floss

  April 22, 1999

• Smells Like Teen Dispirit

  December 10, 1998

• Taylor: Start the Feud With Jonathan Alter Without Me

  AlterIn his new collection of his Newsweek columns since the 1990s, Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People, and Culture, Jonathan Alter revisits the Bushes, the Clintons, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra and Rush Limbaugh. John Taylor, who left as executive director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation in Yorba Linda to become an Episcopalian priest in Rancho Santa Margarita, was not only surprised to learn he turns up in the Alter tome but that he was apparen

  May 7, 2009

• OC Weekly Receives 8 SoCal Journalism Awards Nominations

  The OC Weekly--as in ORANGE COUNTY Weekly--plot for Los Angeles media market domination has been slow to achieve but persistent, as evidenced by the impressive showing Weeklings make on the Los Angeles Press Club's list of finalists for the 51st annual SoCal Journalism Awards.Winners will be announced June 14 at the "newly renovated" Sheraton Universal hotel. Which means several of us will be consulting MapQuest between now and June 14. Most certainly MapQuesting will be Daffodil J. Altan, who i

  May 14, 2009

• Scott "Playboy" Flanders Keeps Mum About Freedom

  Scott Flanders, just missing the pipe, robe and Depends.Scott Flanders is the president and CEO of Irvine-based, Orange County Register-owner Freedom Communications until July 1, when he becomes the first non-Hefner CEO of Playboy Enterprises. Folio, a magazine/online network for magazine and e-network professionals, did a breezy Q&A with Flanders recently, and what's interesting is what the Money Bunny did not say about his time at Freedom. But first, in light of the possibly fatal woe

  June 24, 2009

• Vibe Magazine Bites the Dust, Quincy Jones Vows to Buy it Back

  Damn, another music mag...gone. Yesterday afternoon it was announced that Vibe Magazine was officially closing it's doors, stopping it's presses and going the way of the 8-track. This extinct outlet for Hip Hop and R&B is now survived by only two major magazines of it's kind: XXL and The Source (whose had it's own battles with bankruptcy in the last year). Quincy Jones founded Vibe in 1993 along with Time Warner and focused its content on music news in the realm of Hip Hop (well, mostly Top

  July 1, 2009

• Arellano Honored Nationally for ¡Ask a Mexican! Columns

  Gustavo Arellano and his ¡Ask a Mexican! column was honored in the large ciculation category at last week's 2009 AltWeekly Awards presentation during the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) convention in Tuscon, Arizona. Arellano received honorable mention in the "Column: circulation 50,000 and over" category for his ¡Ask a Mexican! columns "Why won't Mexicans vote for a black man?," "Is It Racist to Call a Mexican Working at a Coffee Shop a 'Beaner'?" and "Cherry-Picking César Chá

  July 6, 2009

• The Crosby to Offer Scorpions for Dinner?

  The latest issue of Giant Robot checks in with Chris Alfaro, he of musical outfit Free the Robots and one of the trio who runs SanTana hipster heaven/emerging restaurant the Crosby. I don't have the copy on me, and GR's website is impossible to navigate, but I do remember this: Alfaro ate scorpions while on a recent trip to China, and told the magazine he wants to find a distributor and serve them here! That would be COOL and lead to moments like this:

  July 20, 2009

• Lil Wayne

  August 13, 2009

• Teen Vogue Haute Spot

  September 3, 2009

• Your Baby is a Racist

  ​Newsweek's got some unwelcome news out today for new parents: Their babies are racist.And it's probably the parents' fault.

  September 8, 2009

• Jon Stewart on the Shuttering of Gourmet Magazine

  Like all of you, I was SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED when I read the LA Times on Monday and saw the news about Gourmet magazine. But leave it to Jon Stewart to put even this in perspective. I need not say anymore, because really, the man has said it all.

  October 7, 2009

• OC Music Magazine Hold 'Locals Only Showcase,' Write About Walk-In Medical

  ​I wrote about Walk In Medical (pictured here in a now-outdated lineup) back in late November, in our Locals Only section. I though their EP, The Recluse, was promising, and am glad to see that they're still going and got some coverage from another publication, newly debuted local start-up OC Music Magazine. The article is here, and details the band's songwriting process and lineup changes. Only one weird thing: when writing about this year's addition of new bassist David Sachs, it neglects to

  August 21, 2009

• Balboa Island Interior Designer is the Agiest of the Chicest Woman in All the Land

  HarpersBazaar.comMary Lou Stockwell (second from the right), appears with other Fabulous at Every Age winners and fembot Elizabeth Hurley, who handled the introductions at a swanky party in New York City. ​The old money may be on the East Coast, but when it comes to the most, erm, mature of "America's chicest women," the honor goes to Balboa Island. Or, more specifically, the real estate on Newport Beach's artificial-island triumvirate lorded over by Mary Lou Stockwell, the "60s and up" winne

  November 19, 2009