Fresh Loaf

I don’t think Abbott and Costello were Creative Loafing employees back in the day. But at least they understood the confusion that our name can create:

In my time here, CL’s been mistaken for a bakers’ magazine and furniture periodical. When I was a reporter, I had a hard time explaining the name to, say, serious business or political sources in New York or Washington; they’d start cracking up and wouldn’t take me seriously. But Roger Brown, a former writer here who started the Blotter, used to tell the best story of anyone: He swears that a farmer he was interviewing heard the name and translated it in his mind to “the Casual Relaxer.”

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CL has launched a new blog called Sideshow that exists merely so happy party-goers can see their happy faces the day after.  We want to help people remember exactly how much fun they had before they were hungover. And we need a couple awesome photographers to do that.

We’ll be giving you the access to the coolest shows, parties and festivals. You’ll be posting wicked photos to our website. And we’ll pay you. It’s an exceedingly symbiotic relationship.

If you think you’re down for the task or know someone who is, contact me at taralynne.pixley@cln.com. Send me some shots you’ve taken that pass for “nightlife photos” (i.e. you and your friends at a party, drinking in your backyard or wreaking havoc elsewhere) and you just might get picked to be CL’s photo ambassador to the nightcrawlers of Atlanta.
Email me with any questions but check out the Sideshow photo galleries first to get an idea of what we’re looking for.  Don’t send me photos of your dog, your grandma or that artsy shot of a fire hydrant. Party pics, people.

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We’d like to thank the record number of readers who have entered into our Summer Guide Contest for tickets/passes to 11 of the 111 best things to do this summer. (I say record number in that, it seems like a ton more than last year, which was my first year doing this, which will then count as the entire history of CL Summer Guide contests. So there.)So consider this a final reminder of the deadline for the contest, which is today (Friday), 5 p.m. We’ll then gather up all the applicants and place them in a lottery system so complicated I probably couldn’t even explain it to people. (Although it might involve printing out the answers, wadding them up into balls of paper, and drawing from a garbage bag. We’ll see.)

We’ll announce the winner on Monday, June 2, in the PopSmart blog. Until then, if you haven’t played the game, you have about two hours left. It’s really easy: Simply visit the Summer Guide online (either by clicking here or on the Summer Guide tile on our homepage), and scan through the 111 options, looking for hyperlinks on 11 of those coolest of cool events, and then filling out the form as described. We’ll take it from there.

Get crackin’.

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Creative Loafing has named Luann Labedz as the new publisher in Atlanta.

The company and Dave Schmall, the paper’s publisher since 2006, have parted ways, Chief Operating Officer Kirk MacDonald told the Atlanta staff Thursday morning.

“It’s not broken here, so I want to build on that,” Labedz says. “There’s a great deal of energy here.”

As publisher, Labedz will be the top manager for Creative Loafing — Atlanta, reporting directly to MacDonald. While her primary duties relate to sales and marketing, Editor Ken Edelstein and managers of other departments report to her.

Labedz joins CL after 18 years at Gannett Co., where she began her career at The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. Since 2001, she’s worked for the company in Asheville, N.C., as director of market development at the Citizen-Times, that city’s daily. In both cities, she was responsible for niche publications, product development, strategy and advertiser partnerships. During her time at Gannett, the marketing team won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, the International Marketing Association, the Newspaper Association of America and Gannett’s Multi-Media MAC competition.

Prior to Gannett, the Buffalo, N.Y.-native worked eight years in sales at Burroughs (now Unisys Computers) in New York City. Labedz holds an MBA from SUNY-Buffalo and earned her undergraduate degree from Oswego College.

“I like the diversity here,” she says, when asked what she enjoys about Atlanta. “The amenities that are available across the board — the nightlife, entertainment, dining. The energy and excitement of the big city. I also like the youth — with that comes a vibrancy that’s very attractive.”

When asked if she’s been given a heads-up about the city’s biggest stain, she rolls her eyes and laughs. “Yes, everyone’s warned me about the traffic.”

Labedz starts on June 2 and says she welcomes readers’ input and ideas about the paper. “I’m very excited to be here,” she says. “This is a new beginning and start for me professionally.”

Creative Loafing Inc. is based in Tampa, Fla. It operates alternative weeklies in Charlotte, Chicago, Sarasota (Fla.), Tampa and Washington, D.C., as well as Atlanta.

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Sure, Creative Loafing’s got desks of award-winning designers, but we also know that Atlanta’s got talent.

So, we’re asking Georgia students to submit their cover designs for CL’s 2008 College Guide: The Student Body Handbook.

We’re taking the phrase “student body” literally and figuratively this year, and providing a guide for students’ heads (academics), hearts (activism), stomachs (food and drink), arms and legs (partying), and feet (moving about Atlanta and on from college).

The first-place winner receives $200 cash and prizes.

Start sketching; the deadline is midnight, Tues., July 1.

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Nearly one hour after a heavy thundershower briefly caused CL’s roof to leak, almost frying a computer, I received this e-mail alert from The Weather Channel:

SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR EXCESSIVE LIGHTNING AND HEAVY RAIN IN DEKALB…COBB…GWINNETT AND FULTON COUNTIES UNTIL 5:00 PM EDT…

Gee, thanks.

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This photo was taken by Flickr user PhotoColletta nearly a month before a tornado tore through Oakland Cemetery, severely damaging tombs and gravestones, and closing the park to unescorted visitors. It’s ostensibly a graveyard photo, but in my mind it’s really a sky photo. The clouds look weaved together.

Please keep the photos coming. We’ll pick another weekly winner next week. Also, the Creative Loafing Atlanta Flickr Group member who submits the most photos to the group before the end of the month also wins a nice prize.

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In this week’s Summer Guide, we did something a little sneaky to make your summer a fairly cool one. Embedded in 11 of the “111 things to do” is a little sentence that reads: “Wanna attend this event for free?”
If you click on that sentence, you will be whisked away to a magical place, where you can enter our contest for tickets to those 11 fun things. Within that link is a link to a form to fill out all 11 events once you’ve found them. Then email that form to: summerguide@cln.com.
You’ll be glad you did.
Oh, and that photo? Take it as a very nice, very broad hint about one of the 11.
Start clicking …

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Bragging is tacky, I know, but the CL You Shoot Flickr photo contest has been a smashing success. 40 new members have uploaded hundreds of great photos in just two weeks.

This week’s contest winner is mateofiero’s lovely snap of two smokers in Little Five Points.

The photo was apparently a happy accident. He was trying to take a photo of the woman when the man walked into the the frame.

You know, my only sibling is seven years older than me. I’m a happy accident, too.

So, mateofiero, contact me at andisheh at creativeloafing.com and come claim your prize — tickets and VIP to the 11th Annual Country Fair this weekend at Lakewood, and four tickets to Center For Puppetry Arts.

Keep the photos coming. There’s another prize for our favorite photo next week, and a prize in two weeks for the person who adds the most photos during the month that can be used with Urban Explorer listings.

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The response to our CL You Shoot Flickr photo contest has been somewhere between very whelming and overwhelming. There are dozens of great photos of Atlanta in our Flickr group now, thanks to you.

This week’s winner is Flickr user rblairg for this moody, b&w shot of the Midtown skyline taken in Piedmont Park.

Not only is it the most artful and original take on the most popular subject in our Flickr group thus far (skylines), but Piedmont Park is also one of our Urban Explorer picks for Midtown.

rblairg, to reward your awesomeness, there are two Radiohead tickets and a VIP parking pass on my desk for you. Please come get them before one of my co-workers hits me over the head and steals them.

We’ll announce another winner next Wednesday, so keep submitting your Atlanta photos. A hint from one of the judges — we’re going to try to pick a photo next week with people in it.

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Yes, Christa, we can’t help ourselves! What better way to enjoy the cluster#$@! that is sine die, the 40th and final day of the legislative session, than with your cyberfriends? We’ll be heading to the Capitol in the next hour, setting up the proverbial shop, and hammering away at our keyboards while the House and Senate lob amendments back and forth at one another. If you work at one of those really cool places where you can curse and drink while you sit at your desk, please uncap the jug and take a swig every time one of our distinguished Golden Sleaze recipients stands before his or her colleagues.

Feel free to chime in and contribute your thoughts. If you want to watch the festivities, click here and select your chamber of choice.

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The 19th annual Golden Sleaze Awards, our annual serving of the knuckleheaded misdeeds of the state Legislature, has now gone live. The awards cross party lines and recognize our state’s politicos for a variety of offenses — be it pushing legislation whose benefactors contributed to your campaign, or just plain playing nasty politics.

Let us also not forget that there are saints among the sinners. Click here to view the recipients of the illustrious Arnie Awards.

If we missed someone, fret not — the General Assembly still has a couple of days left to hash out some mischief. But please also feel free to chime in and let us know who we overlooked.

Enjoy!

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Creative Loafing Atlanta is looking for a visual arts writer with the knowledge, wit and point-of-view to become Atlanta’s next great arts critic.

Check out PopSmart for more info.

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Creative Loafing columnist and firebrand preacher John Sugg was on CNN last night.

Here he is sitting next to Neal Boortz discussing the college student who asked Chelsea Clinton a question about Monica Lewinsky last week.

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Victor Ellis, who worked at Creative Loafing from 2004 to 2006 as a marketing and promotions coordinator, has died. He was 28.

If you’re a college football fan, his name may sound familiar. From 1998-2001, Ellis was a linebacker at the University of Alabama.

Last year, Ellis was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He died Tuesday at Memorial Hospital Chattanooga. His funeral takes place Saturday at Noon Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church in Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

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For anyone who was involved in the Atlanta music scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Russell Shaw was the most influential writer in the city.

He wrote CL’s popular “Music Menu” feature from 1978 until 1984 and was a fixture at local clubs. He championed bands he liked and wasn’t afraid to write witheringly about the ones he didn’t.

After