Rapper David "Sir Dyno" Rocha tells Justin Berton he was just playing a role when he recorded a norteno gangsta CD glorifying gang life. But federal authorities say he was part of a recorded recruiting exercise for Nuestra Familia, Northern California's most notorious prison gang. Now Sir Dyno faces a possible life sentence on a RICO charge.
The state Senator from Thousand Oaks is "simultaneously nonchalant and stiff"; he "makes bargain-shoe salesman look charismatic" by comparison; and his take on social issues is "to the right of Dwight D. Eisenhower." So why are the lefties at OC Weekly endorsing the most conservative candidate in the race to replace California Governor Gray Davis? R. Scott Moxley explains.
Payments to access personals and dating; business and investment; and entertainment and lifestyles categories accounted for 65% of all online content buying in the first half. That was up from 61% a year ago.
From the unconventional My Own Private Idaho and the experimental Gerry to the "feel good" Hollywood hit Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant has consistently defied expectations. Van Sant's latest film, Elephant, a fictional account of two teenage boys on a murderous rampage at their Portland high school, may be his most shocking work yet. Some say the movie, clearly inspired by the 1999 killings at Columbine High School, is little more than a snuff film. Willamette Week's David Walker talks to Portland's prodigal filmmaker as he prepares for the storm of controversy likely to result from his insistence on following his own vision.
"Commuter papers have been shown to be read by huge numbers of professionals and attract lucrative advertising, while paid dailies face limited growth prospects and have all but lost the ability to charge a premium for home delivery," says a new report from the International Newspaper Marketing Association, according to Editor & Publisher (paraphrasing from the report). E&P also talks to a consultant who says he's "been told of (free commuter dailies) being planned in three cities."
U.S. auto sales slowed in September from their torrid August pace, but automakers on Wednesday said car and truck buyers shopped at a brisk rate last month, thanks to incentives, new models and an improving economy.
Signaling yet another mixed signal for the ad spending outlook, the ad industry equities research team at Merrill Lynch Wednesday issued a report revising the firm's advertising forecasts down from earlier predictions. The move follows a modest upward revision made recently by Zenith Optimedia Group, as well as a MediaPost survey of media planners and buyers that pointed to a markedly lower traditional ad spending outlook for 2004 than those issued by major forecasters including Zenith and Universal McCann.
