Ellen Forney has for several years been illustrating and interpreting the most interesting ad in The Stranger's "Lustlab" classified personals each week. Now they are collected in a new book, Lust: Kinky Online Personal Ads from Seattle's The Stranger, released this month by Fantagraphics. In addition to the illustrations, the book has interviews with some of the advertisers conducted by Forney, plus an introduction by syndicated sex columnist and Stranger editor Dan Savage.

Continue ReadingIllustrated ‘Lustlab’ Ads Collected in New Book

Texas Observer publisher Charlotte McCann will emcee this special ceremony honoring the late columnist and former Observer co-editor on the one-year anniversary of her death from breast cancer. The event will feature an interfaith ceremony, a number of speakers, and musical entertainment. In addition, the winner of "The Ballad of Molly Ivins" songwriting contest will be announced at the Jan. 31 event. Tickets are $10, and more information can be found at www.raisehellformollyivins.org.

Continue ReadingMolly Ivins One Year Memorial Scheduled for Jan. 31 in San Francisco

Late last week, the art blog Modern Art Notes raised questions about Christian Viveros-Faune's editorial independence, noting that he was involved in organizing two major commercial art fairs at the same time he was the Voice's art critic. The blog argued that he should either resign from the fairs, or the Voice should stop publishing him, and the flap lit up the blogosphere on Friday. On Saturday, Voice editor Tony Ortega explained to readers that, in light of "an appearance of conflict," Viveros-Faune would no longer be writing for the paper.

Continue ReadingAmidst Ethics Questions, The Village Voice Parts Ways With Critic

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced the nominees for their annual awards on Sunday, and the Weekly's Lauren Smiley was among those nominated. Her story, "Girl/Boy Interrupted," is in the running in the "newspaper article" category, alongside two pieces from the New York Times, one from the L.A. Times and another from the St. Petersburg Times. The Weekly notes that the story was the first long-form story Smiley wrote as a Village Voice Media fellow. Winners will be announced in March.

Continue ReadingSF Weekly Writer Up for 2008 GLAAD Media Award

In court this week, a Guardian witness disavowed a key piece of evidence -- AAN's financial standards report -- that the paper was using to prove its predatory pricing charge against SF Weekly, the East Bay Express and Village Voice Media. The witness backed away from the AAN report after the Weekly's attorney's produced an affidavit from the woman who had compiled it asserting that it was unaudited and self-reported, "rendering it meaningless as a measure of financial performance," the Weekly reports. After considering this and motions from both parties on Wednesday and Thursday, the Weekly says the judge "ultimately concluded that the Weekly deserved additional time to respond, a decision which could delay the long-awaited trial." Naturally, the Guardian sees this week's developments a little differently. "If this is how the SF Weekly and the VVM guys from Phoenix are going to cover the trial, we're going to have to spend a lot of time correcting the record," Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond writes. He says that the Weekly's attorneys had "tried desperately" to keep the Guardian's witness from taking the stand at all, and sees the disavowal of the AAN financial data as inconsequential. The witness had developed two scenarios to show how much money the Guardian had lost, and not being allowed to use the AAN data, he will just rely on the other standards instead, according to Redmond.

Continue ReadingBay Guardian/VVM Trial Begins