The Last Days of the Good Ol’ Days
So we’ve had a couple of days over here to process the sale of City Paper to its first new owners in 25 years. For us in editorial, we’re still not sure what exactly this will mean—we’re going to have to cut an already tight budget, but that was probably going to happen in any case. The most upsetting part of this is by far is that our local production operations are almost certain to be moved to Atlanta.
Say what you will about what actually goes in the paper (and you certainly will, judging from the comments on any CP-related DCist post), but never have I heard a sour word about the beautiful paper that the folks in our production department—led by award-winning art director Pete Morelewicz and production director Mike Kalyan—have put out over all these years. More than that, they’ve been wonderful friends and colleagues, and it’s heartbreaking to think we’ll no longer be sharing beer and snacks at our Wednesday closes.
So we’re going to enjoy our last few weeks together as much as possible. And when Pete sent this to me to post here, it was my honor to indulge him:
The recent sale of City Paper to an Florida-based newspaper chain cast a dark pall over the office here. Last night’s long-ago-planned staff weenie roast—an event normally filled with blissful drinking—felt a bit like a wake. There was still drinking, but it was more of the mournful type, the kind my Aunt Dorothy reserves for the passing of a loved one. And in a way, the party marked just that.
The new owners of City Paper have promised “efficiencies” by outsourcing creative operations to Atlanta and slashing the editorial budget. News stories are often shared among the different papers the company owns, so readers in six different cities can experience the same cover story. City Paper, of course, has always prided itself on unique, local coverage. But what good reason is there for that to continue?
D.C.’s sense of individuality—its very spirit and passion—has been under attack for some time. The serial D.C. haters, long complaining that D.C. is no New York or no L.A., have succeeded in stripping D.C. of its character. Chain stores and suburban implants have changed the city’s complexion. U Street, with its two Starbucks in a three-block stretch, is no longer the seedbed of local creative talent. Places like State of the Union and the Grand Poobah have yielded to a bland mix of chain stores and “luxury” lofts.
The new owners of City Paper obviously understand this changing dynamic. The new residents of U Street enjoy national chains. They like to have a dose of NYC or L.A. (or their own hometown) in D.C. They crave to be a part of a larger whole, sharing the common experience of a standard-issue latte with the millions of others who do the same each day. These people will respond well to a “local” paper whose vital parts will be made elsewhere and shipped back into the District.
There was a certain appeal to a local paper back when D.C. was a city of neighborhoods, with pride in its distinctiveness, however quirky. But the landscape has changed, and the comfort of the generic has set in. The time has come for our local paper to be just another mass-produced import.
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2:29 pm
I’ve never been moved to write a CP comment before, but the latest bit of hand-wringing warrants it.
That the CP is going to have less local production and, presumably, less local content after the paper’s sale is lamentable. And I would agree that Mike Kalyan’s Art Department’s quality is not the source of most CP criticism. I have to say, though, that his cynical, indulgent post pretty much represents the height of the arrogance and ignorance that has seemingly consumed the CP’s editorial content for the past several years.
I would qualify myself as a D.C. ‘tweener: I wasn’t raised here and I never went to the old 930, but I’ve been here long enough to witness most of the transformation of the past 10 years and the demographic changes that come with it. And yes, I roll my eyes at the occassional newcomer’s surprise at the realities of urban life. But I don’t hold them in contempt, and I’m not so smug to believe that the Starbucks and chains are here because “the new residents like them.” The people who moved here last year don’t think with one mind any more than those of us who already lived here do – it takes different strokes, Mr. Kaylan. By the way, have you thanked the “suburban transplants” for the betterment of city services? For a reduction in crime?
The denizens of the CP, of all people, should understand that urban neighborhoods go through familiar cycles of development, maturity, age, and renewal. Just because you arrived and moved to U Street when it was “cool,” at that energized moment between stabilization and renewal doesn’t mean that it was always that way, or that it was always meant to be. There’s no shortage of bright, creative people beginning new and exciting ventures in this city – they’ve just doing it in other evolving parts of the city like H Street, Petworth, and Arlington. U Street, for the first time since its original heyday, is actually being valued by people as a place to be and to live, so much so that the price to do so is beyond many people’s limits. Can’t you understand what a good thing that is for the city as a whole? For so many who worked so hard for many years to stablize the neighborhood among rampant crime and city indifference? Are you so fixated on being the cool people that had this bankrupt, violent city all to yourselves that you can’t accept the change that comes with new people?
Get over yourselves. There are plenty of great local rags and blogs that we can read to plug into our city without the CP’s regular dose of piss in our Wheaties.
2:31 pm
the grand poobah closed in like 1995.
2:34 pm
CP, The Current, Hill Rag, DC North, etc, always have excelled at local coverage. In the end, this is the only reason to read them, as everything else can be done better and cheaper elsewhere. To a great extent, WP’s lack of focus on DC, understandably driven by the suburban and national markets, is why this DC native doesn’t subscribe anymore.
The new CP owners need to understand their market, or have a real plan for abandoning it. ‘Cause, to the readers, it’ll be obvious in short order.
2:37 pm
Self-important jerks to the bitter end. Gee, I wonder if HQ in Atlanta will be able to maintain your editorial policy of “insider” snobbery?
I know blaming the victim is easy, but please leave the fine citizenry of DC out of it. Pete, the national chains are buying up this city only because assholes (like the City Paper) are putting it up for sale. Yes, it was do-or-die time, and the City Paper caved.
The paper’s “can’t beat them, join them” attitude is the perfect sentiment to accompany the lazy arrogance and feelings of entitlement that permeated its pages. As you noted, without local coverage there will officially be no reason to read the City Paper–except maybe now we will be able to read an article without that obnoxious dose of attitude which was always a City Paper byproduct.
3:04 pm
City Paper’s a good paper. Shut up, “None,” you anonymous blowhard. Read this:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=2170
3:32 pm
If the new owners happened to be waiting on me in a restaurant, I definitely would not give them a very nice tip.
3:36 pm
It was me; I confess. I was the one that forced that cracka “None” to read the paper, against his wishes.
That’s right, that IS my name:
SHUT THE FUCK UP
3:48 pm
look. have a little fucking compassion. these folks, whether you like them or not, work damn hard at their jobs and many of them will be out of them in the very near future because the OWNERS of the City Paper turned out to be materialistic sell-outs. i only hope that you (and that’s the dicks who’ve vented above) lose your job, with less than two weeks notice, and as you are searching for another one to find a way to keep eating and living under a roof, that you are publicly ridiculed by some jackasses who have nothing better to do that tear you down because they don’t have the fucking self esteem to realize a movie review, even if it is over the top and obnoxious, is JUST A MOVIE REVIEW, and not a fucking personal attack on you.
thanks for letting me share, and good luck guys.
4:04 pm
Re: my posting
No one’s arguing that the recent prosperity has led to better city service, higher bond ratings, etc. But that transformation has supplanted not just individuality (just ’cause you put some historic b&w photos in the front window, a CVS here is still the same as a CVS anywhere else), but the need for a mouthpiece that serves as an alternative voice. When DC residents reach the level of prosperity, comfort, and complacency that we have, the need for a voice that challenges the status quo evaporates. That’s evident in Jeff and None’s comments. They see the status quo as fine, and bringing up the history of U Street is met with their accusations of “insider snobbery” and “smug”ness. And that was my point exactly: as long as DC residents are complacent living a status-quo lifestyle, they’ll be happy to read a non-descript newspaper. That’s not snobbery; that’s reality.
4:05 pm
Gosh, Kelly. Thanks for calling people names and reading whatever unstated meaning you want into the messages above. It’s very helpful.
Of course I sympathize with anyone who’s livelihood is at stake with this acquisition. I just don’t think it’s necessarily an excuse to use a public forum to vent and complain about the stereotypical gourmetcoffeeCoachbag yuppies, as if they have anything to do with a financial decision made by corporate ownership.
If Mr. Kalyan or Mr. DeBonis used their considerable talent to rip the decision to sell the paper and throw the staff under the bus (in this forum or any other), I’d be all for it. Instead, the published rant manages – in the all-too-familiar-tone of recent years – to turn all the venom on the people who used to read CP, but got fed up at all of the editorial snobbery.
4:17 pm
Mr. Morelewicz,
Your blantant misunderstanding of my comments couldn’t have substantiated my point any more clearly: Is it really impossible to understand that there are many, many people who recognize that the city has problems and difficult issues and are working through them, yet can still disagree with the CP?
Do you really honestly believe that a criticism of the CP’s slide to an increasingly petulent editorial viewpoint is the same thing as accepting the city’s status quo?
4:20 pm
For anyone who cares I’m not that kelly above. Everyone around the office keeps asking me so I thought I’d just throw that out there.
I will say that having worked here for 10 years I’m tremendously sad about everything that’s happening. Times are tough for folks in our business and I knew it would be slog and there would be some pain but I’ve stuck with it, as have many of these folks (and sure got paid a wage). Still a lot of folks I’ve worked with for a long time are out of a job, how many nobody even knows yet. I don’t even know if I have a job.
If nothing else we’ll be losing some members of the community and some jobs will be leaving that will never be coming back.
I don’t recommend this experience to anybody.
K (but not that K.)
4:24 pm
i’ll not jump into this brewing cesspool of finger-pointing, and “take that you arrogant cp people” bashing. it seems pretty ridiculous to me.
the only two cents i’ll put in is that a) i agree with Pete’s write-up 100%, and b) when i moved to DC many years ago, the washington city paper was my introduction to the city. every thursday. free. you could count on it and i always found it more readable, diverse and entertaining (and yes, quirky) than current reads like, say, OnTap or DC North.
its a great paper and its been here longer than probably 80% of the population of NW. and knowing several of the folks that work there (including folks in the departments that are getting slashed), i’d attest to the fact that the city paper’s greatness (for me at least) was due in no small part to those many fine folk… who are now… in order outsource a made in the district product to a (hypothetically) more “efficient”, not-so-made in the district product… being tossed out on their asses. and for this CP reader, its a pretty fucking sad.
that is all. carry on with the smacks in the face…
hopefully, one day you’ll be downsized too… and then when you go to give your opinion on the situation, everyone will be there ready and waiting to tell you what a self-righteous, arrogant prick you’re being too… ;)
4:29 pm
“And that was my point exactly: as long as DC residents are complacent living a status-quo lifestyle, they’ll be happy to read a non-descript newspaper. That’s not snobbery; that’s reality.”
Oh, Jesus wept. Somebody wake up Galileo! The universe apparently revolves around the narrow needs and comforts of Pete Morelewicz!
4:38 pm
Wow, a lot of snide, mean attitude from people bitching about CP’s snide, mean attitude. Not enough that CP folks work their asses off for peanuts and find local stories other papers won’t touch, not enough that they get called out smugly and publicly on blogs for typos like transposing “their” and “there,” not enough that they’re encouraged to be edgy and in-your-face to distinguish the paper from other local rags and generate reader interest, and then get shit all over by readers because of it. Talk about a no-win situation.
Pete’s note contains a lot more than concern for his own “narrow needs and comforts.” I read in it passion and concern for the CP, and for the city it’s served. If what he says is more true of some DC neighborhoods than others, give it ten years before the other ‘hoods you identified follow suit and become one giant outlet for Abercrombie & Fitch. I’ve been in DC long enough to remember when *Georgetown* was edgy — so yeah, there are trends and the phenomenon goes neighborhood to neighborhood. That doesn’t change the fact that much of what Pete identified — the gradual loss of local, individual uniqueness to a sort of faceless Everymanbrand and corporate WeThink — is a national trend, being helped along by corporate media. It’s a trend that shows no sign of slowing. That this is happening to newspapers all over the place is no less reason to grieve it.
(And while I wouldn’t immediately lambast the new owners or the decision to sell — again, this is happening to newspapers all over; it’s a reality that everyone in print journalism ’s trying to figure out how to cope with it — asking a staff that’s wondering whether they’ll have jobs tomorrow to blast CL or the Reader seems doubly foolish … a little like suggesting they pour gasoline over their own heads and go cha-cha with a Zippo.)
5:00 pm
What Carrie said.
11:03 pm
Im with DCeiver. CP’s an embarassment. Local is good. But Good and Local is way better.
2:17 am
As part of the creative department at the WCP, it saddens me to think we are soon to be gone. The design department has more talent in one room than many papers creative operations combined. Truly, this will be a case of someone not realizing what they had until it was gone.
Of course the changes in the industry reflect SOME economic, social and political realities. Some people do want to live in a culture that is homogenized. The ‘new consuming class’ has no issue with drinking the same branded coffee, driving the same brands of cars or wearing the same brand of clothes. And while some of the social ethics of this clan may be more progressive than in the past, they can be nothing short of pure self-interest. The city will be made better so that the lofts, upscale markets and chain store shopping experiences are never sullied by the underclass. There will be no questioning of the power elites, because they will serve the interests of the new social rulers. And the outsourced product formerly known as The City Paper will be leading the way for the new consumer class.
So, it is no surprise that the business people recognize where things are headed and where the revenue comes from. They will serve up McCulture on a platter. They will purchase the “alternative voice” to get the market share and sell the product. But I am willing to bet that just at the time when true alternatives are being shut down, the need for their voice will only grow.
Out of these losses will come the need to speak truth to power. Their will be the need to call into question what leaders are doing. So the new class of elites within the community and their servants will once again be held accountable. Out of the ashes there will surely rise a new voices of dissent. Don’t be surprised if a new alternative journalism is born in the near future.
Alternative media is not supposed to be the voice of Madison Avenue. We are the voice of the small business person, the homeless man/woman , the abused, the voiceless. As creative people, we have an obligation to serve our communities. Not only to help business grow, but to see that we create a better culture, a more balanced, fair and humane culture.
“SHELTER FROM THE MAINSTREAM” DC is going to wish it could actually find some.
8:25 am
Okay, I’ve had enough of the bullshit that is being spouted from people who have no clue what our operations are.
Jeff Beam, READ the post before you tear into me for comments that were attributed to Pete Morelewicz. The only thing I’ve said on this forum before this post was that my staff took first place in ad design at AAN’s most recent awards ceremony. And Pete had every right to say what he thought, as this is a public forum, just as you have a right to respond.
For those of you who don’t know: the production staff has nothing to do with content. We design the ads, the edit pages and see that it gets to the printer by the final deadline on Wednesday night. We don’t write the stories, or have influence over what is printed in the paper.
Over the past few years, I’ve seen the production staff – which was already a solid team when I joined in August 2004 – grow into one of the most creative teams I’ve ever worked with. I would put them up against any creative team in the country.
They’re on the cutting edge of design, using all the latest applications, and most recently just added doing the web design/ads as well with Flash. Yes, they all have the talent and skills and can probably find better, higher-paying jobs in the area, but we didn’t choose to work at CP because of what it pays (well below market, I might add). We work(ed) here because we loved CP. And it’s doubly worse when you’re being forced to leave a job that you truly loved and didn’t mind waking up for every morning. How many people can say that they truly love their jobs?
For those of you who have been saying “get over it,” I hope you never walk into your office one day and unexpectedly find out that your entire dept. is being outsourced in the name of efficiency…
My department is already efficient. They have TRIPLED the workload that they carried over the last three years, and we still saw a reduction in the number of hours we’ve billed in personnel costs from year to year. They do the entire print product, all of the marketing, sales and promotional pieces, upload the print content to the web every week, and design all the online ads. In working with sales and editorial, we’ve also pulled back on the time we’ve been spending in the office on Tuesday (our production night) and Wednesdays (our deadline night) by NINE hours – over only two days.
I understand the business model of consolidating dept. work in the Atlanta office, but it’s a tough pill to swallow when you and your entire staff faces the loss of your jobs after accomplishing the goals I outlined above. Often, departments are only outsourced when they’re not performing, so this was a complete surprise when it was announced.
YOU try and not feel bitter after working your ass off, doing an excellent job and helping to cut thousands of dollars of expenses and increase revenue, and then getting the boot.
I will say this publicly to our new owners at Creative Loafing: I only ask that you examine the talent you are about to get rid of and see if there is another solution than the only one currently presented of “relocate to Atlanta.” If there truly is “plenty of work for everyone,” can we see if it is possible to re-allocate this work so that an entire staff of award-winning designers doesn’t lose its job?
12:06 pm
It’s a shame that the most talented folks at the CP are the ones getting the boot. The Production Staff are more than award winning– they’re excellent people.
What actually happened here, over the course of about ten years (and this is going on all over the place in the alt.weekly world) is that nobody ever figured out how to make the print product viable in an electronic market. And that’s not Production’s fault– they actually KNOW how to do that. So the fact that they’re the ones getting the ax is deplorable. But, since they really are that talented, they will be scooped up by an employer who will regard their award winning work and celebrate it.
As for all these people who want a McPaper… were they around when CP was actually good? Writers from CP went on to do pretty amazing things, like win Pulitzers. But that was in the early ’90s. These folks weren’t living here then, so obviously, that must not have existed.
12:55 pm
Sad, sad, sad. I worked in editorial for a few years, but I had the privilege of working closely with the production guys every wednesday, even before Kalyan and Morelewicz were there, and even then it was a top-notch team. Regardless of what CL’s purchase of CP means in terms of industry changes of the shifting dynamics of DC as a city, is it so impossible to empathize with a rack of superbly talented, dedicated team players suddenly sold down the river? My thoughts are with all of you in all of your future endeavors. It must be incredibly frustrating and difficult for all of you, no thanks to these cockbag commenters pissing in your collective face. Snacks on me for old times’ sake! –Hagan
2:18 pm
My solution: keep the smart, talented production folks. Boot editorial.
11:16 pm
Man, I tell ya guys. I really felt for you (and for Kiki and folks at the Chicago Reader) but did you really mean to lash out at US, the READERS, when complaining about YOUR predicament? I mean, really, I read the UNICORN TIMES before picking up the City Paper in Georgetown in Jr High which HAD to mean 1982 at the earliest, so while I probably wasn’t there at the onset, I cut out “Poodle with a Mohawk” dudes, I was reading this 25 years ago.
The City Paper had a lot more coverage than the music-only Unicorn Times, but to an extent, it wasn’t as “good.” Shocking that someone thinks you all supplanted the existing status quo and dumbed it down, but sue me, I’m old, I do. However I read the CP almost every week, wrote for it very infrequently and was the subject of more than a few positive articles and probably negative gossip. I also pitched a handful of stories to the Reader, none of which made it into print.
But on the flipside, as early as 1996 I told Dave and others that they needed to move into the future with a more elaborate website mining the depth of what the CP already paid for to earn double the advertising profits: creating local indexes of movie, restaurant and art reviews. I specifically talked to CP employees about moving classifieds into their own online space to combat ebay- this was years before Craigslist stole your lunch money! These ideas were rejected and the City Paper never took advantage of the internet. I’m not trying to paint myself as a genius, just remind people that the ideas were being thrown to you but no one acted on them until the website redesign 10 YEARS after these conversations. Those ideas would have bolstered the bottom line for the last 9-10 years.
I don’t know why Mike DeBonis and Pete Morelewicz decided to print and write what they did, but I can say as a lifelong resident of the region that they wrote like they were jackasses who know nothing about the city. Why they’d print something that displayed their ineptitude for all to see is probably some kind of odd death wish, a wish to harm themselves before someone else harms them- a child starting a fight with his best friend before his parents moved just so he wouldn’t feel a pang of guilt or sadness inside. Frankly, it’s both depressing and mentally sick. I hope they recover from this period of despair they showed themselves to be in. Just reading it made me feel so sorry for those of you who have to work with them.
The fact is that for most people my age, when the attack piece ran against Ian Mackaye that was the last print edition we picked up. I haven’t read the print issue since- I wouldn’t dream of reading it any more than I’d read the Washington Times. I knew many people who told me at shows that I shouldn’t read the CP and they were boycotting it. The article was a cruel lash-out at DC residents. This blog post is a cruel lash-out at CP readers. I can say with all honesty that I don’t understand you guys unless it’s all about being kids whose parents moved, scared of feeling lonely over lost friends and that need to break off all friendships prior to the big day. Well, CP, I’ve been there with my friend Travis in 1977 and I’m here now. I’ll miss ya in the long run, but I’m offended that you took away my chance to feel sorry you’d be gone.
11:36 pm
And it’s doubly worse when you’re being forced to leave a job that you truly loved and didn’t mind waking up for every morning. How many people can say that they truly love their jobs?
———-
Mike, at this point in my life I only know a handful of people who WEREN’T forced out of a job they truly loved. The dotcom boom Mike, remember that, everyone had wonderful jobs they really loved and almost everyone got laid off. How could you not know that? I watched a company I loved more than any job lose so much money so fast after 9/11 that I may never get over it. But this happened to all of us 5-7 years ago Mike. How can you not remember that as a DC resident?
Did you ever know anyone who worked on a losing campaign? What you claim to be a unique experience is extraordinarily common and certainly so in this city where wonderful political teams go home empty-handed. This reader anger is over the CP’s hubris and you attempt to explain it away with even more hubris.
Whoa. It’s insulting. Do you mean to be so insulting?
10:51 am
I’ve lived in Washington since the Nixon Admin and can say that the Washington City Paper has been one of the most consistant things to look forward to every week. It is very personal to the articles about the people, locations, styles, and just about everything else pretaining to Washington. It is without a doubt that it is a terrible injustice to loose such a monument to the city.
11:52 am
Sometimes they just write themselves ^^.
12:55 pm
Don,
I don’t think it was anyone’s intention to make this a “cruel lash-out at CP readers” or to be insulting at all. I put this up because Pete’s put years of his life into making this paper a beautiful paper and I think he’s earned the right to share his feelings. That’s not “hubris,” as you put it. A lot of us are more optimistic about things than Pete happens to be, but then again, we aren’t losing our jobs. (For a good representation of editorial’s feelings on this, read Reader editor Alison True’s memo here.)
1:34 pm
I really don’t get the perceived relationship between Starbucksification of the universe (no, it’s not just DC) and the future of the city paper, or the quality of DC’s residents, both old and new.
I’ve lived here nearly 20 years and there has NEVER been less apathy, or more interest in local affairs by the population. People in my office – who don’t even live in the area – know and care about things like Mt. Pleasant’s live music debate. People know the names of our city council members and what they’re up to. People – lots of people, not just a handful of activists – actually care and are involved and vote.
The city paper certainly plays an important part in informing and reporting – and it will be sad if that changes substantially. But CP is not the only place where people get local news. While it may have held that mantle at one time, it is now merely one of dozens of outstanding sources. The internet, stupid. Where we’re reading and discussing this now. There are dozens of high quality blogs, and probably hundreds more individual ones, mailing lists, and discussion groups with hundreds, even thousands, of active members. All about DC local issues.
DC’s concerned core is bigger than ever and it’s easier than ever for people to be involved in local issues. This is obvious, and is happening despite the fact that there are two Starbucks on U Street. Or maybe, just maybe, some of the people who drink Starbuck’s coffee, actually care about the place in which they live. Well how about that – it’s possible to embrace a community without shunning (or blaming) inevitable change.
6:27 pm
Yeah, well – did CP die when what was originally a Baltimore rag was sold by founder Russ Smith to Scranton, Pennsylvania-based Time-Shamrock Communications, a family-owned news company that paid them $3.5 million. They also sold their remaining share in the Washington paper to its majority owners, Chicago Reader, for $1 million. Will anything change? I doubt it. It sucked in 78, it sucked in 81, and it has sucked ever since. It is a substandard waste of trees.
10:53 pm
I put this up because Pete’s put years of his life into making this paper a beautiful paper and I think he’s earned the right to share his feelings. That’s not “hubris,” as you put it.
———–
the act wasn’t the problem- No one here questioned his “right” to complain, just that it made him look bad and made me feel like I misplaced my loyalty to the old CP. Why do you think people are saying he didn’t have the right to make such a mistake? You gave him the rope and he hung himself.
The issue was that someone at the City Paper mistakenly thought the paper wasn’t part of the gentrification and therefore Starbucksification of the city. It’s like you have no idea who you are, what the content of the paper is, or what your place in the city is. If there’s one thing the CP has always been, it’s a gentrifying force. It seems like you want to deny that and that’s strange.
11:12 am
i agree with #26, as a native i grew up with the free pleasure of picking up CP and sitting over in dupont or on the fire station bench in cleveland park and reading away the afternoon. few cities have such a luxury. i’m hoping things won’t change for the most part but i’m willing to concede another loss, along with the all the condos, the red LED warning lights in metro, and all the other little things that have changed the face of the district.
11:17 am
The Washington City Paper has been one of the best alternative weekly newspapers in the United States for the past 25 years–and that is an objective comment. The City Paper has covered local government and politics, arts, features, people and places like no other urban weekly paper. The City Paper has consistently beaten other, bigger rivals in its local arts coverage, and through the years has employed literally some of the D.C. area’s best critics in the arts, including but not limited to the great Joel Siegel (sp?), Joe Banno, Dana Tai Burgess (again, the spelling may be off, but the point is there), Mark Jenkins, Mike Joyce and many others. Loose Lips has been, again literally, one of the best local politics columns in the city, hands down. And their extensive, insightful and well-researched cover stories are classics much of the time. Any company that would mess with this, take away the distinctive local artwork and throw in generic articles from out of town will be just STUPID, inane, moronic and will contribute to the death of the newspaper as we know it. Creative Loafing needs to practice some basic journalism–it’s your business–and do some research and know your audience and keep the City Paper the way it is. Anything else, and it’s a death knell, which would be pathetic.
11:28 am
“If there’s one thing the CP has always been, it’s a gentrifying force.”
I half-understand what you’re trying to say here. But not exactly: Care to expand on this comment?
I’ll say this: If keeping our editorial focus exclusively local, valuing honest assessments over boosterism, refusing to indulge in alt-weekly-cliche lefty bullshit, and agitating for a functional District government makes us gentrifiers, guilty as charged. I admit it!!!
11:34 am
You bring up a good, though slightly misguided, point, Don. No where in the original post do I mention gentrification. Why? Because there’s a distinction between gentrification and “Starbucksification”. Gentrification doesn’t have to mean chain stores. (Plenty of cities have done it.) Gentrification doesn’t have to mean sacrificing our local identity. And I certainly don’t believe that we should have to lure chain stores in order to fill the city coffers to get better city services, as Jeff intimates. We know there are plenty of folks who are in the trenches fighting to improve our city each day, and those people have traditionally been the bread-and-butter of City Paper. But when residents’ solution to improved city services is to say, “Hey, let’s get another Ruby Tuesday’s!”, its difficult to think that these folks will further expand City Paper’s audience. But believe me, I’d like to be proven wrong.
1:56 pm
What? I didn’t know Ruby Tuesday’s causes better city services. If that’s the case, let’s install them on Metro escalators.
But I really don’t think the residents or newcomers clamored for a Ruby Tuesday’s. I think the developers are giving us what they think we want, based on what goes up around suburban strip malls and does well there.
And you know, lots of people read the City Paper, even those who go to restaurants you think are corny. I don’t anymore, because I think the paper has gotten gradually snobbier and snottier, but that’s another story.
3:41 pm
“But I really don’t think the residents or newcomers clamored for a Ruby Tuesday’s.”
No, but we (well, not me personally, but lots of others) did clamor (and continue to clamor) for Starbuck’s, Fresh Fields, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe’s, Target. These are staples of every suburban mall, is it surprising they would make an intellectual leap to anything else found in a suburban mall?
Apparently overpriced organic food stores and coffee shops are OK with gentrifiers who lament gentrification, middle-class chain restaurants are not??
As much as I despise the restaurant, Ruby Tuesday’s probably serves the mixed-income market that is CH a lot better than a Whole Foods would.
4:02 pm
Let’s face it – the City Paper is a great idea and is well designed, but some of its contributers should be shown the door.
Case in point, the movie reviews – this section has so much potential, given the opportunity to expose the community to non-corporate fare, but is wasted on jaded, affected poseurs. Who reads a Mark Jenkins review anymore? They reek of elitist treacle, straining for attention and relevancy (which is itself ironic, given that they alienate serious film-lovers who are the only ones who even bother to read it). We stopped reading film reviews a couple years ago. Which is a shame.
CP writers, you can keep it real without sounding like pretentious twats. D.C. has already met its quota.
4:38 pm
Re: Tim–
Too bad you stopped reading film reviews, because you’ve missed the many, many articles on “non-corporate fare,” including interviews with directors like Todd Solondz, Danae Elon, Hans Weingartner, Shin Sang-ok, and many, many more. City Paper routinely gives pride of place in the section to the independent and foreign films and let’s the Post go ga-ga over whatever blockbuster is opening that week.
You find Jenkins’ work “elitist treacle”– that’s your prerogative. What can’t be disputed is that he takes cinema seriously and writes for others who do the same.
But thanks for reminding us to “keep it real.” Admittedly, we’ve been distracted by gettin’ jiggy with it.
2:55 pm
Hey Dave! Brilliant! You (or your post) is exhibit A.
I actually do still read the interviews – they are well done. But copping an attitude (oops – is that within the lexicon you hip kids use these days?) in reviews with faux-elitist ennui is so tired. Which is why people like me, who treat cinema “seriously,” don’t bother to read his reviews anymore.
But good for you for standing up for pretension. You really showed me!
3:40 pm
“Me” is amused that someone who says they haven’t read CP reviews in years, refers to himself as “we,” and uses the French “poseur” has the nerve to lecture anyone about being elitist or pretentious. (”We” stopped reading? Who, you and your mother?)
Your posts make no freaking sense, Tim. CP should expose people to non-corporate fare? “They do,” says Dave, going on to list a variety of indy/non-corporate directors they’ve covered (and acknowledging your right to not like Jenkins’ reviews).
“Exhibit A,” sez you. “You hip kids” sez you. “Standing up for pretension” sez you.
“What the fuck?” sez me.
Dave’s response to your nasty swipe was friendlier than you deserved. Methinks you sound like someone who wishes he had a movie column in which to wax pretentious once a week — and who’s a little too delighted to shit upon the guy who has the job.
1:00 pm
filmbuff dude: read my post, then get back to me when you understand it.
if you had read it, you would understand that i generally praised the CP film section for its potential, and its interviews, but denigrated the tired content of its world-weary, pissed-in-my-wheaties movie reviews. Maybe, for you, i should have spread those sentences out, or written in all-CAPs. but thank you for being impressed by my word choices.
And sorry if this is news to you, but yes, many many people have given up on CP for guidance on movies. “We” includes my friends in the community who relish independent films. But you obviously care enough to write in, so just keep telling yourself that the movie reviews of the CP are relevant. Just like success in Iraq being just around the corner.
and you made me laugh with your “methinking”
best,
tim
4:25 pm
Tim dude: praising it for its potential? what does that even mean? praising something’s “potential” is not praising it; it’s pointing out a perceived failing. you didn’t praise ANYTHING about CP’s movie coverage until your second post, after you were called out about it.
i majored in film, love to talk about it, have written about it, and enjoy many of CP’s reviews. the ones I don’t, whatever. people have different tastes. i’m not going to write an aggressive personal diatribe against the reviewer. i don’t know jenkins from adam, but i can read english well enough to know sarcastic, and superior when i read it — and i can write english well enough to point out the hypocrisy of someone criticizing elitism and wheaties-pissiness while embodying those qualities.
generally speaking, tim dude, what i’d like to see on blogs more often — not just this thread, and not just CP’s blog — is criticism that isn’t so personal and vicious. criticism that seems to get that “a Mark Jenkins review” has a human being, named mark jenkins, behind it and reads more like a measured and reasonable critique than some sort of character assassination. like dave said, you’ve got a right to not like the reviews and to say why, but you can keep it real without sounding like such a dick. CP’s blog already has its quota.
5:29 pm
well that’s the problem with the internet. anonymity + audience = asshole. i wonder how many of the hyper-critical, obnoxious people on the net would speak to others that way face to face.
5:58 pm
I agree with film buff. It would be one thing if the Jenkins Haters actually pointed to a review that they thought was off base or not well considered. Instead we get trash talk….I mean whoever the fuck “Tim” is actually invoked the Iraq War for a slam.
While I too mourn the loss of Joel E. Siegel every week, no one in this town knows film–Iranian to whatever–better than Jenkins. And no one has devoted more space and more words and more time to the obscure and the indie then Jenkins.
6:01 pm
Scott, exactly. At least Tim used his name. Tho who knows if it’s real — and obviously i’m not going to crap on anonymity when i’m here under “film-buff-98″!
This shit drives me crazy: There are so many blog threads where people who’re probably perfectly nice sound like total sarcastic assholes and then are all surprised and offended when their assholery is taken at face value. Hello, this is the web: we can’t see each other, we don’t know each other, we have only what’s said to figure each other out. so if you say something assholey, don’t be shocked when it generates more of the same, and don’t be surprised when it degenerates the entire blog thread into stupidity.
i can understand the temptation, god knows i’m guilty too. blogs allow you the time to come up with the snappy comeback you can never think of on the spot — or that you’d hesitate to say to someone’s face. Take away the face and the time limit and people are free to jerk it to the max. most of the time i just let it lie, but crapping on CP people when they’ve taken a hit like this seemed a little like kicking a sick dog.
7:21 pm
Seriously, one way or another with the removal of local ownership to City Paper a slice of the District’s being is carved away. New comers, Old timers fight your fight, but just remember what allows that fight to exist in the first place-the essence that is DC. It is that foundation on which you’re standing that is slowly eroding.