Johns Hopkins Magazine says Smith led a university newspaper staff "fueled by coffee, beer, and drugs." Several former fellow underclassmen express shock that the devotee of Hunter Thompson has morphed into an acerbic conservative columnist. The alumni magazine calls the The New York Press, which Smith founded in 1988, "a gadfly: loud, vulgar, self-indulgent, disrespectful, and bracing." Smith's "Mugger" column "can veer from political diatribe to vitriolic media critique to accounts of Smith's domestic life, all in one week," Dale Keiger writes. Smith recently sold the paper and has plans to move from New York City to Baltimore.

Continue ReadingRuss Smith’s College Days

There is a "philosophical disconnect" between LA Weekly's corporate owner, Village Voice Media, and its own avowedly liberal publications, Erin Aubry Kaplan writes. "There are other things writers cannot say about the places they work that I am going to say here, too, because the Weekly is still a place where you can say them." She writes that the company has "been sharpening its nose into that of a corporate shark," with its controversial deal with New Times to close papers in competing markets and its opposition to unionization attempts in L.A. "I wish VVM had taken the ironies of its position more seriously," she concludes.

Continue ReadingLA Weekly Columnist Bites VVM
  • Post author:
  • Post category:Uncategorized
  • Post comments:0 Comments

Despite the Bloomberg administration's unprecedented refusal to allow war protesters to march in New York City, peace activists insist that hundreds of thousands of people will assemble within sight of the United Nations on Saturday, urging the Security Council to pursue further weapons inspections in Iraq, not war. The U.N. protest is only one of hundreds around the world set for this weekend, which organizers estimate will drawn more than a million people in "a global uprising against President Bush's push for war." In a Village Voice exclusive, Sarah Ferguson looks at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "Orwellian logic" in labeling the protests a security risk.

Continue ReadingPeace Marchers Prepare to Defy Bloomberg
  • Post author:
  • Post category:Uncategorized
  • Post comments:0 Comments

A battle is brewing in Greenville, S.C., over creating a county holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. In one corner, those opposed to granting "another government holiday to celebrate civil rights," in the words of one City Council member. In the other, Greenville native Jesse Jackson, who held one of his signature peaceful protests after a recent council meeting to urge city leaders to join the rest of the United States in honoring the slain civil rights leader. Will the hometown boy make good, or merely drive the community farther apart? MetroBEAT looks at the controversy from both sides in two articles: "Judgment Day" by James Shannon and "Who's the Boss" by Chris Haire.

Continue ReadingJudgment Day on MLK Day
  • Post author:
  • Post category:Uncategorized
  • Post comments:0 Comments

Nowhere in America does a hometown brewery -- in this case, America's largest -- have such a statistical vise grip on local beer consumption as Anheuser-Busch has in St. Louis. Whereas Miller Brewing is lucky to carve out a 50 percent market share in its hometown of Milwaukee, A-B manages 70 percent of the St. Louis area market without having to resort to shameless gimmickry or price-slashing. That said, thanks to a combination of factors -- chief among them an attitudinal migration toward working-class chic among twentysomething hipsters that's steadily infiltrating watering holes nationwide -- subpremium "anti-brands" such as Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller High Life are enjoying an underground comeback of sorts. Riverfront Times' Mike Seely takes a two-fisted look at the new drinking ethos.

Continue ReadingDrinkin’ Dirt