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Unto us, a poster child is born | page 1, 2
One might be tempted to write off this collection of interviews and photographs as traditional holiday guilting, were not New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani so determined to make us all think of homeless people as subhuman. This is a battle of the poster children. The mayor is using the blond, sweet image of Nicole Barrett to arouse anger against all homeless people, even though she was attacked by just one man who wasn't necessarily homeless. The Village Voice counters his idiocy by giving names, faces and stories to those most would rather ignore. What would have bolstered the effectiveness of this feature is the inclusion of children's photographs and stories. (Jennifer Gonnerman does profile one homeless family.) As Richard Goldstein points out in his essay, "Sanctioned Sadism," "the average homeless person in New York is a child. On any given night, about 5,000 families, including 9,000 children, make up most of the population in city shelters." Children, I might also add, look really good on posters. - - - - - - - - - - - - L.A. Weekly, Dec. 10-16 "Gamecock Confidential" by David Cogan The first item of this gossip column perhaps warrants a longer piece. Just as Los Angeles is finally ready to embrace homegrown James Ellroy, the noir author has settled down somewhere else -- Kansas City, Mo., to be exact. Furthering the slight, he's donated his literary papers to the University of South Carolina. - - - - - - - - - - - - Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, Dec. 8-14 "Hot Enough for You?" by Mike Mosedale The editorial staff at the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages clearly has a penchant for quirky, long -- and I do mean long -- "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" profiles. It is their forte. (I recommend the printout version.) They've published cover stories on mosquito exterminators, parade organizers, dirt-dishing grannies and now this: the local freelance weatherman who, incidentally, predicted global warning long -- oh, and I do mean long -- before anybody else. When done well, as this one is, they make for entertaining reads for slow, casual days and airplane rides. - - - - - - - - - - - - Seattle Weekly, Dec. 9-15 "Ready (w)to wear" by Mark Driver Because you can never write too many articles about the fun and frolicking time had by all in Seattle last week, Mark Driver finds yet another angle from which to analyze the scene on the streets: fashion. "Seattle is set once again to unleash a national fashion craze. In the past week, cops and protesters alike modeled daring new looks on the world stage, accessorizing with bandannas, kneepads, and helmets, while sending strong hints that the new black is, well, black."
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