AltWeeklies Wire
Director R.J. Cutler Talks About 'The September Issue'new
Cutler talked with us about Vogue, creative director Grace Coddington and coming face to face with the devil herself, only to find she's not that scary after all.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Molly Eichel |
09-15-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Upside Down in Pontiac: How Investors Walk Away from Disasternew
Many Pontiac houses sit and continue to decline in value, blight the community, attract nuisances, cost lenders and the city money in maintenance, and pull down the values of nearby properties. Some have resold for a fraction of their taxable values, further driving down home prices around them. Others will sit vacant for years.
Metro Times |
Sandra Svoboda |
09-15-2009 |
Economy
Philly Anarchist Newspaper Keeps Delivering the News Nobody Else Sees Fit to Printnew
The Defenestrator is released quarterly, or as often as finances and personal schedules allow. It is one of the longest-running and few remaining anarchist publications in the U.S., and it began as a photocopied newsletter.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Matt Stroud |
09-15-2009 |
Media
Life in Texas, One Year After Hurricane Ikenew
Back in December, we spoke with a number of people in Galveston, Bolivar and along the bay about how they were coping with the storm. For the one-year anniversary, we tracked most of those same people down and talked to a few more. Here are their stories.
Houston Press |
John Nova Lomax |
09-15-2009 |
Disasters
Scrapping Connecticut's Public Campaign Financing Could Trigger Other Problemsnew
The fate of Connecticut's new system of using taxpayer dollars to pay for political campaigns is about to be decided by a federal appeals court. And, if part of this public-financing scheme is ultimately declared unconstitutional (as seems likely), it could trigger one bad-ass mother of a legislative brawl.
New Haven Advocate |
Gregory B. Hladky |
09-15-2009 |
Politics
Tags: campaign finance law, Connecticut
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's Impotent Dictator
How many Americans will continue to see Hamid Karzai as viable -- and be willing to continue to pay the price of propping him up?
Cartoon: Rejection.comnew
Rejection.com: the company that not only accepts the awful truth that there are no jobs out there for you to find -- but also exploits it. Finally, a win-win!
Steven Soderbergh's Satire 'The Informant!' Pales
Soderbergh has loads of fun with a perky musical score and jaunty '70s-era visual hat-tips toward a certain Get Smart aura of goofy charm. But the filmmaker is unable to tease out substance from what is essentially an off-key one-note samba.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
09-14-2009 |
Reviews
In Miami's Jungle of Condo Towers, 16 People Have Jumped to Their Deathsnew
Some cities have fabled bridges where the hopeless go to end it all. Others have eerie cliffs where bodies plunge into rocky canyons. In Miami-Dade, the suicidal have found their own vehicle for death: posh, shining, and often brand-new condo towers.
Miami New Times |
Natalie O'Neill |
09-14-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Drew Barrymore Skates to Directorial Success in 'Whip It'new
She's been easy to stereotype -- blond and unbearably cute. But the endearing scion of Hollywood royalty and now queen of the rom-com can no longer be dismissed as just a people-pleasing personality.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
09-14-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Whip It, Drew Barrymore
Is Toronto's 'Bike War' Really a Class War?new
In the wake of Darcy Allan Sheppard's death, the debate has raged about whether the bike and the car can get along on the road. But what's really at stake are competing visions of the future of cities and democracy itself.
NOW Magazine |
Andrew Cash |
09-14-2009 |
Transportation
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Reveals a Journalist Who Went Over the Edgenew
The most complex character in the movie, the one who provides the viewer with an entry point into this hothouse of violent fanatics, is herself a journalist -- Ulrike Meinhof, a columnist for the left-wing magazine Konkret who stunned her family and colleagues in May 1970 by throwing in with a cadre of self-styled revolutionaries.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
09-14-2009 |
Reviews
Chicago's Olympic Bid: What's In It for the Arts?new
Why are the city's nonprofit cultural institutions lining up behind a bid that looks dicey enough to send almost half the sports-besotted Chicago public running the other way?
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
09-14-2009 |
Sports
We Found the First Jackson Five Recording, and It's Earlier Than Anyone Thoughtnew
This was supposed to be the story of the Jackson Five's first single, cut in Chicago in 1967. But while writing it, we picked up the trail of a tape nobody knew existed: the earliest known studio recording of Michael Jackson and his brothers.
Chicago Reader |
Jake Austen |
09-14-2009 |
Music
Ganjapreneurs Are Cashing in on Colorado's Booming Medical Pot Businessnew
To meet an increased demand, at least seventy new Colorado dispensaries have opened, forty in the metro area alone. Many of these are operated by what insiders are calling a "second wave" of ganjapreneurs -- savvy, experienced businesspeople and professionals.
