AltWeeklies Wire
What Charlottesville Businesses and Government Can Do Right Now to Up the Eco Factornew

Is it really time to party? Even in Charlottesville, where people try to live softly, an ever-growing stream of waste can threaten to offset major gains.
C-Ville Weekly |
Andrew Cedermark |
12-09-2009 |
Environment
John Hillcoat's 'The Road': Brutalism on Celluloidnew

"One for The Road," I said to the ticket taker. "Ha ha ha, that's not the first time I've heard that," he said. And that was the last laugh I had at the movies that day.
Dig Boston |
David Day |
12-09-2009 |
Reviews
Celebrating with Beer This Holiday Season: A Foolproof Guidenew
So as the holiday season creeps up yet again, many will face that timeless question: What to serve or bring to the Hanukkah, Christmas—whatever your flavor is—feast. Cheap and boring is not the way to go.
Dig Boston |
Jason + Todd Alström |
12-09-2009 |
Food+Drink
Coverup Worse Than Crime? San Francisco Outspends Other Cities Fighting Graffitinew
The scenery at Warm Water Cove isn't what it used to be. The aging buildings that front the bay along this bleak patch of shoreline once teemed with bulging, bright graffiti letters. Now their only distinction is large rectangles of cream-colored paint — evidence of where the city has obliterated the work of artist-vandals.
SF Weekly |
Peter Jamison |
12-09-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Bay Area Organizations Appear to be Part of a Secretive Group with a Bizarre Radical Pastnew
Knowledgeable sources say that the Physicians Organizing Committee is one of several Bay Area front groups set up to disguise a strange political cult. Although a representative for the committee denied the link, it has shared personnel with an alleged cult front group and received a grant from a nonprofit linked to the cult.
Twin Cities Musician Finds New Life - and a Kidney - Through Social Networkingnew
When Chris Strouth found out he had kidney disease, he named his sickness Harold. It was a way to deal with something that might kill him, and the name was a lot easier to remember than IGA Nephropathy. When Harold overstayed his welcome, Strouth turned to Twitter.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Hart Van Denburg |
12-09-2009 |
Tech
Allison Pottinger Going for Curling Gold at Winter Olympicsnew
Allison Pottinger, a member of the U.S. Olympic team, will be traveling to Vancouver in February for the 2010 Games. A working wife and mother of three-year-old and 15-month-old girls, Pottinger must sandwich her Olympic dreams between the everyday realities of job and family.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Matthew Smith |
12-09-2009 |
Sports
El Mensaje de Mérida: Restoring Wilderness is Vital to Saving the Planetnew

Slash-and-burn agriculture and deforestation had unintended consequences on the early Maya. But these weren’t the only people doomed by unsustainable environmental practices or rapid shifts in the climate.
San Antonio Current |
Greg Harman |
12-09-2009 |
Environment
Watch Wieden+Kennedy's Portland Music Documentarynew
Anytime you make a documentary on the Portland music scene, a few common topics are brought up. Portland is cheap. Portland has lots of basements. Portland is creative. And, of course, the biggie: it rains ALL THE TIME. But there are a lot of stories that haven’t been told.
Willamette Week |
Michael Mannheimer |
12-09-2009 |
Music
Cops' Recent Blowup with their Chief Surprised Many, and It Shouldn't Havenew
In her 3 1/2 years as Portland police chief, Rosie Sizer has been called many things. She once joked in a City Club speech she’d been called the B-word too many times to count. But she has also been praised as a transformative leader, a gifted communicator, a role model to women and a champion for minority rights.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
12-09-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Books for Cooks: Have Yourself a Tasty Little Christmasnew
It's a perfect moment to give cookbooks for the holidays: They're relatively inexpensive and they'll keep home cooks safely cocooned, exploring the boundaries of the pantry rather than the limits of their bank accounts. So, don we now our vintage aprons (also a nice cook's gift, by the way) to recommend a few.
Orlando Weekly |
Jessica Bryce Young |
12-08-2009 |
Food+Drink
'Conspiracy Theory' Host Jesse Ventura Talks 9/11, JFK, and Vietnamnew

Jesse Ventura wants to talk. He's growling. "You want an exclusive?" The guy hates the press. During his governorship, he famously printed press passes that read "Media Jackal." Why's he calling? "My new show on TV," he says.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Hart Van Denburg |
12-08-2009 |
Politics
La Santa Cecilia, an 'It' Band and L.A.'s Next Big Genre-Bending Latinonew

Every couple of years, a Latino band emerges from this area who match their neighborhood and times, who transcend Latino L.A. to become a regional crossover hit. La Santa Cecilia is next.
Kansas City's Hip-hop Wants a Piece of Hot 103new

Jaz Brewer has engineered albums for some of the biggest names in Kansas City rap. Some songs that Brewer has produced have made it to the city's only commercial hip-hop station. The vast majority, however, have not, and it's not because they aren't up-to-par productionwise.
Why Do Hot Chicks Always Play Bass and Why Do I Love Them So?new
I have a fetish for hot-chick bassists, a low-grade obsession that traces back to my early teens. In the mid-'80s, I remember feeling vaguely scandalized (and excited) the first time I saw the Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth lay down that throbbing arterial bass line on "Psycho Killer." That was just the beginning.
Phoenix New Times |
Craig Outhier |
12-08-2009 |
Commentary