Award winnners:
‘Everybody liked Richard’: Cause of death doesn’t change compassion for homeless — Six weeks after I started at the A-J, I wrote a feature on the death of a homeless man that got real “Woodstein!” when I discovered he hadn’t died the way everyone thought he had; Morris Communications, the paper’s parent company, named it the “Best Writing of 2008.”
Wood you Believe: The sticky note said The Virgin had shown up in a piece of wood. It wasn’t quite like that. I wrote this super quick. People loved it. And hated it… and out of stories from 192 other papers, the Texas Press Association named it the 1st place feature in their Better Newspaper Contest.
Other stuff:
Bo and Me — Auburn Magazine told me I was going to interview Bo Jackson, but I didn’t interview Bo Jackson. I was allowed to post my original version on The War Eagle Reader.
Pat’s Dry Field — 3,000 word novella on Paul Conner, the man behind the magically draining field at Jordan-Hare Stadium for The War Eagle Reader.
West Texas Roller Dollz welcome Oklahoma City grudge match — So, like, it’s totally not just hipster theater. (What Scary-Go-Round said was “We knock bitches down.”) This was a GO! cover story, PDF versions here, here, and here if you want to see it.
Pastor answers question: ‘Does God care about football?’ — this story on Tim Tebow’s impact on the Christian’s game day belief set - i.e. whether or not God cares about football – made Dan Shanoff’s SECCG Eve list of “great Tebow-related stuff” along with pieces from ESPN and ABC and various other big-time sports sites. So that’s cool. The original version appeared in the A-J.
Music stuff:
Freedom brings ‘sky’s-the-limit’ feeling for OK Go — OK Go’s Tim Nordwind and I kind of hit it off. Talked to him at the height of their video warehouse-filling Rube Goldberg Machine video. Hard to believe it’s been nearly a year. // Indianapolis Star — wrote another version for Orlando Weekly
Colorblind Soul — tedious piece for The Chicago Reader that asks whether soul revivalist Sharon Jones “needs to worry that her audience is full of white hipsters.”
Halestorm gets off on you — trusty girl-in-a-band angle with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm // Boston Weekly Dig.
The devil’s rejects: Making Christian hardcore fashionable — story on The Devil Wears Prada’s post-Christian rock Christian rock // San Antonio Current
Beyond the L-Word — Talking about the word ‘lesbian’ with one half of Indigo Girls // Flagpole.
Finding Neverland: Royal Bangs bows to the King of Pop — they were listening to Off The Wall when they got the text // San Antonio Current.
MS won’t stop Exene Cervenka — I was the last person to interview her before she found out // Gapers Block.
Tex-patriate guitar hero ruminates on the rock ‘n’ roll ritual — Ian Moore beat out Bret Michaels for the cover of GO! The original last line was a quote from Moore: “Bret Michaels can suck it.”
Rainbow rockers go Rembrandt on hipster ennui or whatever — short feature on Awesome Color for GO!
