After weeks of uncertainty, details started to firm up by the day before the former president was due to arrive in Little Rock. He'll take only two questions -- none about Hillary -- his handlers said, and it would be nice if one of them was about Clinton's new school of Public Service. But then Elvis showed up back stage, "flanked by Secret Service agents and more handlers, and all bets were off," writes Westword Editor Patty Calhoun, who by then had been anointed Clinton’s designated interviewer. "I would have packed something other than flip-flops had I known my feet were going to be on stage," says Calhoun.
The 53rd annual Unity Awards in Media, announced May 15, recognize "contributions to continuing standards of excellence in media through efforts that reflect accurate exposure of issues affecting minorities and disabled persons." Westword Editor Patty Calhoun won first place in Editorial Writing for her story "A Piece of the Action," while former Riverfront Times writer Mike Seely (now at Seattle Weekly) topped the Politics category with "The Resurrection of Carl Officer."
Or perhaps "speculates" would be the proper way to describe Savage's remark, which was made at the beginning of a presentation promoting his most recent book, "The Commitment," at the Tattered Cover book store in Denver. Apparently Mr. Savage Love and the editor of Westword went out for a couple of drinks prior to the speech. Unfortunately, Savage's other slanderous allegations cannot be published on this family-friendly Web site. For the 20-second MP3 version, click here. And if the kids are out of the room, you can listen to the entire speech here.
San Francisco was invaded by 261 enthusiastic newspaper professionals last weekend when the AAN West conference hit town. The highly-anticipated Saturday keynote speech by Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, passed without physical skirmish, despite a lively question-and-answer session. Many of the seminars were equally lively, and the parties -- well, you had to be there.
Patty Calhoun gave up the (cowboy) shirt off her back during pledge week on Denver's KBDI-Ch. 12, and in so doing she gained the attention of the Denver Post (here, third item). What happened, in her words: "The lovely teal cowboy shirt in question spent much of its life in my truck, and only got hauled out for respectable events -- such as AAN conventions and an occasional appearance on "Colorado Inside Out," the weekly public-affairs TV roundtable I'm on. One day, Westword's music editor reported that he'd run into some of the TV techs at a club, and they were talking about how much they hated that shirt. So the last time I wore it on TV, when the host was talking about how it was pledge week but our show was never pre-empted, I said I'd donate the dreaded shirt to whoever pledged $100. Someone did, so during last week's show, I took it off." But don't get the wrong idea -- Calhoun was wearing another shirt underneath.
Patricia Calhoun, editor of Denver's Westword, joined director John Sayles and others associated with his new film, Silver City, on a promotional tour through Colorado. She has a cameo appearance as a journalist in the film. From her seat on the Silver City Express bus, she observes what happens as the movie premieres in several cities. Also on the tour was cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, whose work appears in many alt-weeklies.
The offices of Denver’s alt weekly were transformed into a movie set last week for director John Sayles’ (pictured) next movie, Silver City. Presently lensing in the Mile High City, Sayles' film is about a “George W. Bush-like” character, played by Chris Cooper, who’s running for Colorado governor. Westword Editor Patricia Calhoun will have a small role in the movie if she doesn't end up on the cutting room floor.
