I returned on Monday from five days in sunny (which is to say disgustingly hot) Tucson, Arizona, where I was attending the annual AAN convention, and learning all sorts of things about emerging (and existing) technology, and hashing out the future of alt.weeklies. I also ran for the board of AAN and won (of course, I was unopposed) and now serve as that board’s editorial chair (which means I can help shape, hopefully, some of its programming and services in the coming year).
But perhaps the best part of the trip was SFR’s showing at the annual awards ceremony. We won four first place awards, the most first places of any paper in our size category (and we tied with LA Weekly, which had the most first place awards in the large paper category).
Firsts were won by Angela Moore for cover design, Richard Borge in illustration, Dave Maass, Ursula Coyote and random Zombie fans for our Halloween Zombie issue (I’ll include myself in that, since I did contribute a video) and Dave Maass and staff for our former blog, Swing State of Mind. We also won a third place award for A Qasimi’s food writing and an honorable mention for our Devour, Locavore’s Guide to Santa Fe issue.

On Saturday, June 27, a cheery contingent from the Santa Fe Reporter loaded into a beautiful ’60s-era Mercedes convertible, tied a bunch of balloons to the car’s various appendages and set forth for a gay pride adventure like no other.

The lovely ladies in the vehicle were me (Charlotte Jusinski), Classified Advertising Manager Anna Maggiore, and Account Executives Jill Carmichael and Marissa Montez-Salazar (whose aunt was kind enough to loan us the gorgeous car). As the Editorial Department’s representation in the float, I knew I had to document our epic journey for posterity (and for the Reeper).

More images below the jump, and a fantastic video to boot!

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Show us what has left the back of your eyelids burning. Send pictures
of visual trespass and peculiarities to copyeditor [at] sfreporter.com,
subject “eyedropper.”

This Saturday’s Pride parade was replete with everything such a parade needs to be a resounding success: floats, banners, people en masse wearing flamboyant costumes and, of course, a motorized harp. It is the newest model of motorized harp, Motorized Harp 350 SX, complete with two pre-recorded electric harp solos, an after-market black umbrella and gold rims. This season, don’t be seen at a parade without one.

UPDATED: Well… in the end, Team New Mex Express came in fourth place, in part due to poor penmanship, in part due to a spelling error, in part due to not looking inside a box at the Marshall’s office. It was pretty damned rad, though.

Before:

After:

Team New Mex Express driver Matt Ruybal explains the modifications made to his 95 Mustang Cobra in preparation for the Dustball 500.

(I’ll be riding along with them this Saturday, June 27, on the 500+mile “gimmick rally” … follow me here and on Twitter: @dustballdave.)