skip this if you are uninterested in weeklies
2005-08-16

I was the only person on planet earth to like the old, eXile-style NYPress, basically because I like the eXile. Then Matt Taibbi "ruined" it by trashing the not-quite-dead Pope. Personally I think it's sadder that Taibbi is now writing about election fraud in Ohio, because I'm guessing everything he writes about (graveyard voting, intimidation) is true, but even if the story was put on full blast there would be more people angry about "Dancing With the Stars" and "Big Brother" being rigged. I really can't blame the guy for going a little crazy in that sort of situation.

Now the Press has hired some guy whose main achievement is editing for the Sun (right wing paper which I have never once seen a person reading) and trying to resurrect the Partisan Review in blog form*. I look forward to articles about "Yes, intelligent design/throwing kids into a crap foster care system instead of letting them be adopted by loving gay parents/Iraq is awful, BUT THE TERRORISTS HATE OUR FREEDOM" added to the endless stream of articles about how AIDS drugs cause AIDS. (How people got AIDS before AZT is never really explained.) Maybe it will be good. Or maybe it will be the one thing sadder than a sad Japanese man - fiscal conservatives trying to act like the Republican party cares about what they think.

This on the heels of the rumor that the Village Voice is about to be bought out by a "alt-weekly" chain, meaning that all articles about NYC life will be fully processed and approved by a head office in... Denver.

What's left? L Magazine? Maybe we should stop killing trees already and declare the alt-weekly dead once and for all.

* All right, some browsing convinces me that the blog is actually pretty intelligent... except guess what, one of the contributers is Russ Smith. Gee, I wonder whether the intelligent commentators or Russ's "YAY TEH BUSH" style will get more play?