AAN names best newsweeklies – or should that be AVN?
2June 19, 2006 by Colin
A Canadian success story from the latest Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards – and a touch of homegrown porn.
The Coast, a Halifax weekly, (yay Canada!) took “both first and second place in Editorial Layout, as well as first place in the Illustration and Web site categories (small circulation division). The Coast also earned an Honorable Mention for its Special Section entry.”
I’m a BIG fan of the “holiday planner” cover that won the illustration award. (The second place winner, “confessions of a substitute teacher,” would have been my class. In fact, that’s almost a Mattel Football game the kid is playing in the back row of the illustration.)
Also out this week were judgements on applications for membership in the association. In past years, the comments from the review committee have been scathing at times. This year things were more relaxed.
Yes! Weekly of Greensboro was turned down for association membership due to a number of editorial criticisms and perceived conflicts on the part of management, but this comment from the review committee caught my eye:
“The hometown porn-star story certainly caught everyone’s attention. But it “didn’t have much information at all and even though the adult film star offered to take off her outer clothes … all we see is her in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. That doesn’t seem very edgy. Have more fun!”
Well, as someone’s mama once said, why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?
That story is amusing, if only for the insight it offers into the reporter’s active fantasy life:
” … She calls herself RayVeness these days and makes California her home, but this woman grew up just across the city limits in Jamestown before leaving at age 18 to become arguably the biggest adult film actress this area has ever produced. (been doing research, have we?)
She’s pretty in a way one wouldn’t instinctually attribute to an adult film star, with crystalline blue eyes set off nicely by her dark tresses and creamy skin. Her body is voluptuously trim, like a young mother with a strict Pilates regimen. And she’s reserved, thoughtful and wise like any 33-year-old career woman would be after a life of hard-won victories, some unfortunate setbacks and a maybe a few regrets.
Someone’s been mainlining Knots Landing and Desparate Housewives!
Not gonna argue with the comment about my “active fantasy life” but I’m not sure how my efforts to portray RayVeness as something other than an ass for hire reveals that fact — the things I was thinking were much dirtier. Also: not sure if you’re familiar with our market. We’re right about at the buckle of the Bible Belt, and even though the woman wore clothes on our cover we still got quite a bit of crap from advertisers for the picture (and also the word “porn” in the hed and the photo shoot at the adult bookstore with the dildos in the background). We don’t get may porn stars around here, part of the impetus for running a piece on her.
And if you didn’t ‘get’ the bit about hardships in her life — her introduction to the business by a shady boyfriend, her exposure to HIV, her desire to get out of the business and the economic necssesity that she remain in it — I guess that’s my fault. But fuck you anyway.
See you in hell,
Brian Clarey
editor, YES! Weekly
thanks for the comment. You’re right – I didn’t give your article a full analysis and critique. But that wasn’t my goal.
I “got” the details of her life: you’re the one who opened up your article by understating those hardships by characterizing her as any other career woman.
Setting the stage with a writer’s wry analogy may be amusing at the keyboard, but it also had the effect of slightly minimizing the complications you explore later in the article.
After all, having a “career” implies a conscious decision to stay in that “career.”
Classy way to close out, though.
http://boss.streamos.com/download/capi001/beastieboys/misc/acapella/hey_fuck_you_acappella.mp3