AAN News
Former Music Editor of The Stranger Returns as Staff Writernew
Dave Segal, who resigned as The Stranger's music editor in 2006 after secretly allowing an employee from ad sales to write pseudonymously for the paper's Line Out blog and music section, has been hired as a music writer. "Whatever Segal's missteps as an editor, he remains an impeccable music writer -- passionate, knowledgeable, diverse in his tastes -- and so, after several rounds of musical chairs, we're bringing him back as a staff writer," writes current music editor Eric Grandy. "He'll have no managerial responsibilities -- to the point, he won't be hiring any freelancers -- but he'll get to do what he's best at, which is writing about music." Segal was most recently music editor at OC Weekly.
The Stranger |
07-23-2008 10:08 am |
Industry News
Rebecca Schoenkopf on Taking Over at CityBeat and Leaving the OCnew
The "Commie Girl" columnist and former OC Weekly staffer was named editor of Los Angeles CityBeat this Spring amidst a relaunch of the paper. She says she's already receiving hate mail. One person wrote in to ask: "'Who's this inane, vulgar, rambling, trite girl who's a terrible writer and has a potty mouth'," she tells the Guardian. "And I was like, 'You live in Los Angeles, are you really that sheltered?'" Schoenkopf also says that she's now realized she willing blinded herself about notoriously conservative Orange County while she was there. "It's not the conservatism that bothers me: it's the nastiness," she says The nattering classes I'd thought were fringey were in fact the decision makers."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
07-11-2008 8:04 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Well-Represented in LA Press Club Awardsnew
When the Los Angeles Press Club announced the 50th annual Southern California Journalism Awards on Saturday night, five AAN papers and an Associate Member were honored. LA Weekly took home 16 awards, including first place in Editorial Cartoon, Entertainment Feature, Online Entertainment, News/Feature/Commentary and Signed Commentary. OC Weekly won a total of five awards, including first place for Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column, Group Blog, and Sports. Ventura County Reporter received a first-place prize for News Feature, while Los Angeles CityBeat won three awards and Pasadena Weekly won two. Associate Member Amy Alkon, aka the Advice Goddess, won four awards, including first place for Column.
Los Angeles Press Club |
06-23-2008 12:36 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Gustavo Arellano Honored by California's Latino Legislative Caucusnew
On Monday, the OC Weekly staffer and ¡Ask a Mexican! author received a Latino Spirit Award from the caucus. The award honors Latinos who have made a positive contribution to the state. "Why did I receive the award? Blame Hector de la Torre," Arellano says of the assemblyman who nominated him for the honor. At the ceremony, de la Torre "read some questions to and answers from The Mexican," according to Sacramento News & Review editor Matt Coker's report. "In an attempt to show the column is not frivilous [sic], de la Torre gave an example of the historial research that goes into Arellano's answers," using a column on "gringos vs. gabachos" as an example.
OC Weekly | Sacramento News & Review |
05-08-2008 1:10 pm |
Honors & Achievements
OC Weekly Staffer in New Feature Filmnew
Luke Y. Thompson has a role in Wicked Lake, a horror film premiering this weekend in Hollywood. According to IMDB's roll call of cast members, Thompson plays "Half-Idiot." The film was written by Adam Rockoff, directed by Zach Passero, and features music by Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen.
OC Weekly |
04-25-2008 8:39 am |
Industry News
OC Weekly Scribe's Book is the Basis for Upcoming Gary Webb Filmnew
Kill the Messenger will tell the story of Webb, the San Jose Mercury News reporter who "committed suicide after being the target of a smear campaign when he linked the CIA to a scheme to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California," Variety reports. The Universal film will be based on two books: Webb's own Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, and Weekly staff writer Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb. The screenplay is being written by former New York Times Magazine correspondent Peter Landesman.
Variety |
04-03-2008 8:23 am |
Industry News
¡Ask a Mexican! As Extinct as Kudzunew
"To paraphrase a paraphrase of Mark Twain, reports of my deportation have been greatly exaggerated," writes Gustavo Arellano in a blog entry. "I know I announced last Thursday that I was ending my ¡Ask a Mexican! column, but few people seemingly bothered to read the line where I stated my self-deportation was 'effective the feast day of St. Melito,' which happens to fall today. April Fools'!"
OC Weekly |
04-01-2008 12:05 pm |
Industry News
Los Angeles CityBeat Names New Editor & Arts Editor
The paper's founding editor Steve Appleford has been replaced with alt-weekly veteran Steve Lowery, who'll begin his new gig Monday. Lowery comes to CityBeat from the District Weekly, where he was senior editor. He's also been a senior and interim editor at OC Weekly, and a staffer at New Times L.A. He'll reunite at CityBeat with former OC Weekly staffer and "Commie Girl" columnist Rebecca Schoenkopf, who has been named the paper's new arts editor.
(FULL STORY)
Southland Publishing Press Release |
03-28-2008 9:17 am |
Press Releases
¡Ask a Mexican! Bids Adiosnew
"It's been a great run, cabrones, but all the hateful email, the attacks by PC pendejos and the fact that few of you have bothered to submit video questions to my YouTube channel wear on a guy," writes OC Weekly scribe Gustavo Arellano in this week's farewell column. The four-year-old award-winning column had also spawned a book, and caused many a stir in communities around the country when alt-weeklies began running it. Arellano, who is hosting the AltWeekly Awards luncheon at this year's AAN convention, says his work busting stereotypes and tweaking racial prejudices is largely done. "It's no longer necessary to explain Mexicans to Americans because Mexicans are Americans," he writes.
OC Weekly |
03-28-2008 8:33 am |
Industry News
'Commie Girl' Turns OC Weekly Columns into Booknew
Rebecca Schoenkopf's collection of OC Weekly columns, titled Commie Girl in the O.C., is due out soon from Verso. She tells MediaBistro that the book was a byproduct of her departure from the Weekly last year. "After two weeks, my mom called and started bitching at me and telling me I need to get a job," she says. "So I went back, and of course I didn't keep my clips, so I had to copy and paste everything from the [OC Weekly] website. I revised it a couple of times," and later got the deal with Verso, with a little help from City of Quartz author Mike Davis. "He fired off a grand e-mail for me to everyone he knows," Schoenkopf says. "And his publisher was thrilled."
MediaBistro |
03-04-2008 10:30 am |
Industry News
Fake OC Weekly Story 'Gets Internet's Panties in a Bunch'new
The response to Ben Westhoff's "The Efron Scandal," which "revealed" that Lil' Wayne and Zac Efron were working together on High School Musical 2: Non-Stop Dance Party and that the two even shared a "full-on kiss," was enough to temporarily crash the Weekly's servers, the paper reports. But not everyone got the joke: the story was picked up as truth by outlets as diverse at VH1 and the British tabloid The Sun. "The overwhelming impression I have over the hysteria 'The Efron Scandal' has generated is that some people don't recognize comedy gold, even as it's repeatedly conking them upside their thick heads," writes Weekly music editor Dave Segal.
OC Weekly |
12-20-2007 8:40 am |
Industry News
Former OC Weekly Art Reviewer Doree Dunlap Diesnew
OC Weekly |
10-16-2007 8:37 am |
Industry News
Tags: OC Weekly
Gustavo Arellano Honored by National Hispanic Media Coalitionnew
The group, which works to "improve the image of American Latinos as portrayed by the media," presented the OC Weekly writer and "Ask a Mexican!" columnist with an Impact Award for Excellence in Print Journalism. Awards were presented at a luncheon last Thursday.
OC Weekly |
09-17-2007 7:46 am |
Honors & Achievements
OC Weekly Writer Caricatured in Vietnamese-language Pressnew
On the heels of last week's story on a Vietnamese-language newspaper that has been become the target of an "anti-communist witch-hunt," staff writer Nick Schou's mug appeared "in a none-too-flattering cartoon" on Take2Tango.com, OC Weekly reports. "It's unclear just yet in what way Nick is supposed to be controlling Viet Weekly publisher Le Vu -- our translation of the accompanying Vietnamese text is still pending -- and I must say, that really doesn't look like Nick at all," writes editor Ted Kissell. "Except for the fountain pen for a hand. Totally accurate. I've been meaning to get one of those for myself."
OC Weekly |
08-27-2007 8:31 am |
Industry News
Matt Coker: Gustavo Arellano's Fame 'Doesn't Surprise Me a Lick'new
The former executive editor of OC Weekly recalls the days when, helped along by a 2002 AAN Diversity Grant, the man who'd become "The Mexican" got his start at the Weekly. "'That kid is going to be more famous than any of us some day,'" Coker, who now edits Sacramento News & Review, remembers thinking. "What did surprise me was how quickly some day came." He says Arellano's transition to "national media spokesman on all-things-Latino" was partly a function of timing ("¡Ask a Mexican!" started getting more attention as the immigration debate heated up), but also
of "a lot of shameless self promotion. Not only is Arellano the most shameless of the shameless self promoters I have ever known in this business, he also is the most self-aware of his own shamelessness, which I find kind of cute." Apparently, not everyone at OC Weekly agreed with Coker: he reports that there was plenty of jealousy of Arellano's fame -- and his six-figure book deal -- in the newsroom as well.
Sacramento News & Review |
07-20-2007 3:42 pm |
Industry News
