The Voice of San Diego hates The San Diego Reader

You know a lot of people hate on The Reader, maybe because it's free and easy to pick up at any coffee shop (guess what I'm using as my mouse pad right now?) but there is always this or that comment about the crazy old reader and it's assorted craziness (or it's meandering writing style, but hey, I GET THAT).

Voice of San Diego is hating on The Reader.

If a publisher were to show such contempt for his readers, the final product might look a lot like the San Diego Reader. Editor and owner Jim Holman doesn’t seem to care about whether anyone actually reads the weekly newspaper he’s been publishing in San Diego for 35 years. Week after week, I pick up the Reader hoping to find something worth reading over a cup of coffee only to fling aside moments later in disappointment.

Oh SNAP!

And sure The Reader is as thick as a phone book, stuffed with classifieds and display ads that are much better reading than the text that wrap around them. I can have 3,000 hairs implanted in my balding noggin for only $2,499! A boob job for $4,200! And my droopy eyelids can be fixed in just 20 minutes!

But don't call Editor Jim Holman the next Anna Wintour, because unlike some fashionable, bob sporting, fur wearing mega editors, Homan is actually a devout Catholic who has given millions on parent-notification initiatives that seek to compel doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on minors. According to a 2006 profile in the Union-Tribune, Holman attends Mass every day, rides the bus to work and teaches Latin to home-schooled students.

This makes me love The Reader even more, because not only does the man sell his soul for a little boob job/ Asian Massage Ad loving, but he does it while educating home schooled kids and fighting for his Catholic rights.

I'm not gonna rag on him, because we all know what happens to people who mess with the Catholic Church and their alternative weekly editing disciples.

Brenda Xu gets around.

Remember Brenda Xu? She caused a bit of a to do over at Street when her CD received less than stellar reviews. As I recall it was mostly "well, she's kind of acoustic-y with a side of girly and we don't love her, snarky comment, snarky comment." (NOT THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH snarky comments).

There was this diddy: Our advice: Well if you check her MySpace blog, she's already un-quit her day job ...

or this one: Overall: Since he left her all alone (mean boys), she has been writing songs with her guitar.

But it was the responses to said review that made for an interesting entry. We now give a shout out to "Jim" who wrote:

Kyle this is you huh? http://www.mediabistro.com/content/original/SD060727_allmediainsandiego_8-thumb.jpg
Man dude, no wonder why you are out to bash others, look at you, no body, no manly bit about you... You do have small man syndrome to talk down on Ms. Xu as you have...

People were up in arms, music reviewers make no friends.

And Brenda Xu presses on, right to The San Diego Reader who has a nice, fluffy feature on her. Asking her such pressing questions as Mac or PC?

"I use a PC, but I'm getting a Mac for my next computer because they are so damn cute, which is the most important factor to consider when purchasing any kind of technological equipment."

Actually, I think I kind of like her. Press on Brenda, press on. (I am going to listen to your music now, so press works, good, bad, in between.)

On the cover of the reader: Like a volcano

Chi Varnado writes this weeks cover story about her families survival of The Cedar Fire. A first person account from evacuation, through rebuilding, Varnado pushes through the hard stuff and realizes that with her family she can get through it.

For days we've been on alert to the possibility of evacuating from my sister's place. There are four fires burning now, eating up vegetation and dwellings. Authorities fear that the fires might connect and overwhelm the entire county. We sleep hesitantly, looking out the camper window at the glowing horizon. The kids stay in the house, while Kent and I lie on our bed in the camper, over the truck cab. We can see out to the mountains toward our place. "I wonder if this is what a volcano looks like," I say.

After the evacuation (where she must try to keep her head through all the chaos) she returns to survey the complete destruction of the life she had built. She describes it as being like a war zone, moving through a fire ravaged area that she once called home. She loses everything and must rebuild from the ground up.

Through red tape and bureaucratic delays she is finally able to start the rebuilding of her home in a place that her family had lived on for many generations. Despite the set back she can see past the frame and picture her home, rebuilt and strong once again.

For the entire article click here.

On the cover of The Reader:

This weeks reader: all the great concerts you missed, weren't invited to or weren't born for. I noticed Justin Timberlake didn't make the list. Nor did Britney Spears (back in the day she did some kind of great Sports Arena Concert that all the Jr. High Kids were talking about for days).

The expected are listed, The Beatles, Elvis, The Doors and some surprises, Paul McCartney, The Greatful Dead, U2 (wow). But can I just say that some of the most fun I had at a concert was watching The Matches and Reeve Oliver perform? Or how about Transfer's opening night CD party. I know, I know, we give enough props to our San Diego music scene as it is... but still, there are transcendent experiences to be had with four guys, some instruments and some dedicated fans.

San Diego is KNOWN for the music. Bands pop up around here all the time. Sd has its own Music Awards, and people are always highlighting some new concert, festival, music event. that's why I found this part of the article particluarly interesting.

Spring Fling: 5-11-69, SDSU Aztec Bowl The Grateful Dead headlined this event, held on Mother's Day.

One of Spring Fling's promoters was future mayor Roger Hedgecock, who at the time aspired to create a local concert scene similar to San Francisco's. "There was a lot of opposition from the city," he recalled in a 1980 interview. "But all the predictions of total chaos and calamity did not come true."

Seems the fight continues (Street Scene, Golden Hill) and us youngins can't go taking our local scene for granted.

Fight for your Street Scene young ones! (I'll be the old one writing about the good old days)

This week The Reader tells us how being fat ain't PHat (I had to do it, I'm sorry)

I know SD is the land of thin, beautiful people (not as bad as LA, but there was a reason why everyone kept saying to me "don't get caught up in the hype or superficiality" when I decided to head to SD, away from my Northern California roots), but it's nice to see people out there who aren't just thin and beautiful (and pseudo hipster with a side of sufer chic) and who have something to say.

Enter Barbarelle who was a fat woman and is now: "As of today, I have lost 100 pounds. But I am far from skinny. I have plenty of padding left on my hips, butt, and thighs that I expect will steadily come off as I continue to eat right and exercise regularly."

Maybe all fat girls have the same story, I don't know, but I found myself thinking "isn't this how the story goes?" Fat girl realizes how fat she is, gives up, falls in love (doesn't believe it's love but here is a really good guy), fixes approach to life (in Carnie Wilson's case... gets internet broadcasting gastric bypass surgery).

Nice that articles can start to focus more on the quest for health rather than the quest for thin... when before you couldn't be skinny enough. (Enter Nicole Richie to challenge that assumption).

Lived there, lived there, lived there next to this guy who came to worship our Christmas Tree

I'm a big fan of The Reader (who isn't, well I'm sure some people aren't) and I often imagine the people who actually work their being too cool for school San Diegans who make it their job to expose the bitter underbelly of the entertainment capital of the world. I write about "hey here's something fun to do in San Diego" and they write about "hey here's a corrupt city council men and what he's been doing in San Diego."

I am not a hard nosed, ear to the ground journalist (as I would get a little lost on the way to my in your face interviews and end up at some Transfer show) but I do appreciate The Reader's attempt to educate as well as provide pages and pages of ads for cheap boob jobs.

This weeks reader is a littl different, as explained by The Editor:

Editor's note: More than 600 San Diegans submitted stories for the Reader "My Neighborhood" writing contest. Ocean Beach led all communities with over 20 entries. Writers 10 to 87 years old sent pieces from as far north as Fallbrook and as far south as Tijuana and from most every neighborhood in between. A Marine lieutenant in Iraq wrote to us about the La Jolla neighborhood he misses. Over the next four weeks, 41 of the best neighborhood stories will appear in the Reader.

The stories are cute. The cover story recounts the home you can find in North Clairemont (I lived there, I actually liked Clairemont... they were simple times. Then one time our next door neighbor who had no other family came over and saw I put up a Christmas tree and proceeded to worship said Christmas tree, gently caressing it's blue and white lights and humming to himself. Finally he asked if we could take a picture together in front of the tree (not even kidding) and when my at the time boyfriend went to snap it, our neighbor looks down at my chest and says "man you've got some great tits." And that is North Clairemont...).

Come to discover people can make any neighborhood home, and everyone has their love for their community. Check out "Imperial Beach Needs More Girls" on Page 6.... cute (Imperial beach was where my now husband lived when I met him. It does need more girls... perhaps we'll be bringing some girls back here....soon...).

You can find the cover story here.

The San Diego Reader plays right into my evil plans...

Since we're already talking about The Reader, lets take a moment to highlight their incredible reporting skills and take a look at their cover story: So, What are you Wearing? (Or something like that).

Because don't we want to know what San Diego is wearing?!

Michelle Dalessandro is 25 and she's a Fashion Student from Golden Hill. She's wearing:

Leggings from American Apparel. Baby doll shirt with capped sleeves and string of gold pearls and plastic gold bangles from Studio 1220. The boots from Anthropologie are somewhere between 16th-century Elizabethan and Louis XIV.

Oooo, very interesting. She also thinks San Diego women need more color and more confidence.
Barbara Dooley is 27 and a Personal Banker in Pacific Beach. She is wearing one of her favorite dresses that is super cute and super comfy. COOL! She also hates that outfit you're wearing "just because it's in style doesn't mean it's right for (you)!"

Christin McLaughlin is 25 and works in Retail Management in University Heights. She's wearing a skirt from a boutique and a yellow tie-dyed shirt and some combat boots and she doesn't think that tight is sexy.

I'm all done summarizing, seriously. Anyway, you can click on the link and hear all about what people are wearing. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, NONE. I guess you have to go hunt down the issue for that one.