If you've never taken a peek, click on this and look at
www.rollingstone.com.
It's a music industry type publication with an entertainment and culture type slant, but it's also fairly political. This is nothing new, really, just probably not what everyone thinks of when they hear "Rolling Stone" because they picture all those cover photos of rock stars.
One of the most interesting authors of our time (and I'm calling it "our time" because he has written during my lifetime and still isn't dead yet) is Hunter S. Thompson (see
The Great Thompson Hunt or his interview with
Salon or
a list of his books at Amazon) who wrote
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (see
series in Las Vegas Sun or
this site dedicated to the movie). Before it was a movie, it was a book, and before it was a book,
Fear and Loathing was originally published in series of Rolling Stone pieces.
Fear and Loathing is a very interesting work in itself, but it's primarily concerned with a bygone era. However, Dr. Thompson is still alive and writing and obviously still opinionated and not afraid to say what's on his mind. He does so in his own inimitable fashion in
Fear and Loathing 2004.
Also of interest is the
current cover of Rolling Stone which features John Kerry the week before election day. I looked back at some of the past covers (which due to the subject matter and quality of photography is an interesting pasttime in itself), and didn't notice and George W. Bush covers.
There is a possible pattern in the cover series... Interspersed with all the rock and move stars, there are covers of
Howard Dean in February,
Doonesbury is pictured and Bill Clinton has a big headline in August,
Michael Moore in September,
"Rockin Rebels" including the Dixie Chicks on the October 14 cover, followed by
John Stewart on the October 28 cover and finally John Kerry on the November 11 cover.
I am just hoping that the folks at Rolling Stone aren't already planning on featuring Bush the following week after winning the 04 election!
Yes, let's just come on out and say it... I voted for Kerry and I hope to God he wins!!
And apparently some folks at the Rolling Stone feel the same way, since this article is openly pro-Kerry:
John Kerry for PresidentLest this entire blog turn into a big list of photos, I'll point out that Rolling Stone has an entire section of their website devoted to
Politics.
It ain't Newsweek or Time, of course... and in many ways that's a good thing. In an era when the people reading USA Today know less about current events than viewers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, it's good to know that there are other alternative news sources that are doing a good job of it.
These alternative news sources, that do not consider themselves news sources, are much more interesting to read, possibly because if you don't have to concern yourself with being a fair and balanced news organization, you can really say what you think, balance or current administration be damned!
If you want to go a step further without actually reading mindless party propaganda or candidate's own website, you'll probably have to read
Playboy, or better yet Penthouse or Hustler. Yes, they do all have articles (in the print versions, that is, although Playboy does offer editorial content online), and some of them actually transcend the quality of the photographic subject matter (which is actually pretty good in Playboy, much less so in Penthouse and, sorry, Hustler I'm afraid to pick up altogether).
If you're not into print or the Internet, I'd say
NPR is probably the best place to get your news.
Not that anyone asked me. But that's what blogs are for, right?
#end
[also fished out of the sent-mail]
