Welcome to a wildly self-serving article celebrating the blog for which I write much of the content! This is the first installment of the Rangies!
First up, while the first two posts landed in late December 2010, special recognition goes to Adam Borowitz for his Food Truck Diaries series, as he visited 26 trucks and carts, introducing Tucson to mobile cuisine. Although a number of other people played a part, I don't think we would have seen the explosion of food trucks and related events without Adam's enthusiastic coverage.
Second, special thanks go to Roseanne Barr. In May, late in the day on a Tuesday, I wrote a post about an article in New York Magazine in which Barr ranted about the nature of fame. Yahoo! linked to our piece, and thousands of people came to the site, with some visitors leaving comments about feminism or something in the post. Who knew, years after her show left the air, that she's still such a polarizing figure?
I'm not sure how they'll decide how to share it, but the Rangie for "Angriest Subculture" goes to the easily offended subset of evangelical Christians. Even though I consider myself a Christian, and have probably attended the same churches as some of them, I could count on a parade of comments questioning the state of my soul any time I criticized even the most-absurd elements of Christian culture.
Enjoy the Rangie. Put it next to the stack of Left Behind books on the shelf.
The week on The Range
We watched as the Department of Justice released the damning findings of their investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office; announced that Planned Parenthood is expanding their services in the Phoenix area; listened to Sen. John McCain run his mouth about the formal end of the war in Iraq; remembered fallen Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry; criticized a TucsonCitizen.com blogger for skipping over the facts; found ourselves puzzled by Jerry Sandusky's lawyer; wondered who the intended consumer is for Arizona's centennial gun; and brought you the latest edition of Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, moderated by Jim Nintzel.
We drooled over new menus at Noble Hops and Sir Veza's; watched some weird ads from Russia; peeked inside Playground; asked to see a movie about a sushi master as soon as possible; and enjoyed a vanilla porter at Borderlands.
We noted that one advertiser pulled out of TLC's All-American Muslim because the show "sucked"; asked if you had some extra cash for kids in need this holiday season; marveled at a dolphin jetpack; welcomed Cynthia to the "Talking Comics" family; discussed some of our favorite pop-culture moments from this past year; broke the news that Dave Silver is leaving KGUN Channel 9; and thanked Old Spice for letting us virtually blow up stuff.
We wondered when Korn frontman Jonathan Davis became an expert on politics; listened to Auto-Tune'd pop star Ke$ha ably perform a Bob Dylan song; shared some Christmas music on KFMA; talked about The Great Cover-Up; suggested you head downtown for the Parade of Lights; wondered what we ever did to upset Elvis Costello; nodded our heads to music picks from our staff and contributors; and let you know that chart-topping rapper Drake and indie-pop weirdoes Of Montreal are coming to town (but not together).
Comment of the week
"At least have the cojones to comment against my words and refute them with facts. It doesn't take much character to hide behind a click on the 'dislike' button."
—TucsonWeekly.com commenter "ZomBkill," while hiding behind a pseudonym, declares that he or she isn't a fan of those who conceal their identities behind mouse clicks ("Get Out of Town!" Dec. 15).
Best of WWW
If you look around the Internet during these last weeks of 2011, you're going to see a lot of lists, recaps and posts attempting to capture the best and worst of everything under the sun. Well, we're not all that different. News can be slow this time of year, so there's a natural tendency to look back when there's little to focus on during the present. While we will have some of these lists, we're also asking people from the community to comment on their part of Southern Arizona, providing other perspectives on the year nearly gone by. Plus, we'll still be on duty looking for interesting new stuff to talk about as well. Keep watching TucsonWeekly.com ... we haven't given up on this year yet!
