Daily Loaf

Creative Loafing Editor David Warner made this announcement today:

Mitch Perry, who served for over 9 years as assistant news director of WMNF-FM and created the WMNF Evening News in 2003, joins the staff of Creative Loafing as News & Politics editor beginning September 21.
A respected voice in Bay area journalism with broad experience in covering local, national and international news and community affairs, he brings multi-media expertise and deep knowledge of the local scene to CL’s print and online publications. He has already won readers as a contributor to the Daily Loaf blog, where he worked with former CL Political Editor Wayne Garcia, and his appointment as Wayne’s successor reflects CL’s continued commitment to fair, thorough and intelligent coverage of the issues that are important to Tampa Bay residents.
“I’m thrilled that Mitch is joining our team,” said CL Editor David Warner. “I’ve long admired his work as anchor and reporter on the Evening News, and I’m looking forward to the new dimensions he will bring to CL — including that unmistakable Mitch Perry voice.” That voice will continue to be heard in a new daily CL podcast hosted by Mitch, along with a weekly print column, in-depth feature reporting and daily coverage in CL’s news & politics website, cltampa.com/news.
“The new owners of Creative Loafing have expressed strong support for good, solid journalism,” said Warner, “and this hire more than meets that standard. I’m looking forward to adding further depth to the newsroom as the year progresses.”
Perry, a San Francisco native, worked as an anchor and reporter for KPFA Radio in Berkeley, CA before his tenure at WMNF. He has moderated candidates’ debates in the Tampa Bay area, and regularly appears on local news and public affairs television and radio programs. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

After nearly five years of documenting the inside story of Tampa Bay and Florida politics, my time here is coming to a close.

I have accepted a yearlong appointment as the Freedom Forum Visiting Professional at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, where I am teaching four sections of investigative journalism and editing this fall. For the past four years, I have worked to complete a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, and teaching was a goal of mine that the editors at CL have always supported. I have already started working on campus this week, while finishing up some projects for CL and editing the blog through the end of this week. Read the rest of this entry »

On this week’s very special Reel Projections podcast, Host Joe (that’s me) is joined by PoHo Wayne Garcia for a conversation about the career of director John Hughes, who died on Thursday at the age of 59. Joe and the PoHo play audio clips from Hughes most famous movies and dissect the director’s influence on the 1980s specifically, and on film-making in general. And go here for video clips of Hughes’ films.

Listen to the podcast here.

Podcast player after the jump …

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This week, Brian and Taylor invite PoHo Wayne Garcia in for a special food-related recession session. We drink vodka flavored with baby aspirin and discuss the reduction in creamy splooge at Dunkin Donuts, SoHo Sushi’s so so sushi, Taylor’s list of recession wines, and the problems restaurants are having in this economy.

Download the episode here.

This week, our podcast team was sans Jeff Houck, but we were delighted to have PoHo writer Wayne Garcia join in on the fun (and he gave us a new theme song). Otherwise, it was the regular crew of Taylor, Stephen, and myself (Katie).

In this episode, the master chefs had to put a spin on a junk food dish for their Quickfire challenge, and everyone loved Michael Chiarello’s (former Food Network chef) balls – fish balls, that is. We in the studio also chatted about our fondness for fishsticks.

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Crossposted from Political Whore blog

Because Creative Loafing Political Editor Wayne Garcia would be far too modest to tell you himself, I’m reporting that “The Political Whore” won first place in the category of Blog-Affiliated last night in the Sunshine State Awards, the Florida-wide prizes given out by the Society of Professional Journalists/ South Florida. New Times Broward Palm Beach’s “The Juice” and the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel’s “Broward Politics” came in second and third, respectively.

And Wayne wasn’t alone in bringing back first-place honors for the Loaf. Food Editor Brian Ries won the top spot in Food/Beverage Writing for “Anywhere But Here,” his story on the lack of healthy food options for Florida families on public assistance. The Miami Herald and MIAMI Modern Luxury took second and third places.

Brian also took a third place in Criticism for his review of MJ’s tapas menu when it was under the direction of Domenica Macchia. And CL’s theater critic, Mark E. Leib, took second place in the same category for his review of the innovative American Stage production of Hamlet. The Naples Daily News‘ Harriet Howard Heithaus took the first-place spot.

Finally, the entire staff of Creative Loafing won kudos for our website, cltampa.com, placing third in the News Web Site category. I like the judges’ citation: This is not your typical news site. cltampa.com represents a new way of presenting news and information to its reader/user. Through a simple design, Creative Loafing offers a wide collection of headlines from just as many distinct sources. (Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and the Orlando Sentinel took first and second in this category, respectively.)

More judges’ comments follow after the break. Read the rest of this entry »