Gambit Weekly's annual "Best of New Orleans" issue was printed but never distributed, thanks to Hurricane Katrina. Gambit printed an abbreviated list of winners in October, but the paper received many requests for the full issue. The Gambit staff decided to sell the issue for $10 per copy, with proceeds benefiting The Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, Inc., a nonprofit organization that funds projects and programs that acknowledge the importance of the performing arts to the New Orleans area. In a press release, publisher Margo DuBos said, "We hope that interested AAN members will run an ad promoting the sales of the issue on a space-available basis." The ad can be viewed here; for a different size or file format, contact Rebecca Thiel at rebeccat@gambitweekly.com.
Putting out a summer guide is not every alt-weekly staff writer's idea of a good time. To produce the Pacific Northwest Inlander's award-winning special section, editor and publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. gathered his staff in a room and wouldn't let them out until they came up with some ideas that would make the guide not only fun to create but fun to read. This is the 29th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
To create his award-winning editorial layout, "Coffin Classics," Miami New Times art director Michael Shavalier mixed studio shots of older Goths with shots of modern, drinking, club-going Goths. When designing in black and white, arresting images and good typography are key, he says. This is the 28th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
This year the Austin Chronicle gift guide features an item close to our hearts: Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005. Reviewer Nora Ankrum writes, "This is the gift for the writer or journalist on your shopping list, to be kept on the reference shelf next to the OED and the Chicago Manual and the most recent Best American Magazine Writing, but you won't find it at a bookstore, so order it online, soon." And no, the Austin Chronicle does not have a winning entry included in the book, although it has received AltWeekly Award recognition in earlier years.
Throughout his career, Ben Joravsky has worked to illuminate issues affecting Chicagoans. In his award-winning political column for the Chicago Reader, The Works, he explains how the city treats certain individuals, shedding light on the larger schemes of government. This is the 27th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
Rene Spencer Saller began writing music reviews for a fanzine when she was in her mid teens and has since made her way in a field that seems to be dominated by "white guys." She can admire a band and still take it to task for its misogyny. Her award-winning column, Sound Patrol, appears in Illinois Times. This is the 26th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
Derf (aka John Backderf) gets ideas for his cartoon through cultural osmosis. As he wanders around the city, he stumbles across all kinds of material. His award-winning cartoon, The City, is carried by alternative weeklies across the country. This is the 25th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
With his award-winning arts criticism in Madison's Isthmus, Kent Williams makes the case for the local critic: someone who will see The Passion of the Christ the way the community sees it, who will marvel at the complexity of the pipe organ in the local symphony hall, and who will notice the naked sculpture at the local museum that people have walked past all these years without ever really understanding her. This is the 24th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
You never know where a search engine will lead you. For Terje Langeland, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Independent, it was straight into a web of connections among local people who had backed pro-voucher candidates for the school board and national pro-voucher groups. His award-winning series, "Command Performance," lays out the details. This is the 23rd in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
