The annual dilemma when it comes to Halloween is whether one’s costume should be creative or slutty (it’s a specifically feminist dilemma, BTW; most of the guys I know have fairly firm opinions on the matter). Halloween, when you’re female, is one of the few nights you can dress like a sexy devil, naughty nurse stripper with a Get out of Cliché Jail Free/No Questions Asked About Daddy Issues card.
I have never dressed as a devil/nurse/stripper myself, although a combination of laziness and frugality did lead me to costume myself as a variety of “angels” several years in a row (Ice Angel, Sweet Angel, Girl Wearing Shirt That Said Angel On it Angel). But my two best Halloween costumes, IMO, were when I emulated my favorite sci-fi action heroines. One year I went as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an empowering costume only slightly deflated by the endless “You should never be blond” comments I received throughout the night. Last year I went as Alice from Resident Evil, complete with my own Zombie, and it was the total shiznit, although I froze my ass off. (I also got props for the year I went as Amy Winehouse, possibly because I managed to stay in character for most of the night; method acting, works like a charm).
This year I’m back to a concept costume (stay tuned), but for those of you with more wherewithall, here are Five Sci-Fi Action Heroines worth dressing up as—with my two cents for how to pull it off right. Continue reading »

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.

Today Sen. Jeff Bingaman backed New Mexico Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Management State Director Tim Manning for the Deputy Administrator post in FEMA. To quote from the press release:

“Since his arrival at the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security Tim has met and exceeded expectations.  He is a true professional who has steeped himself in the needs of the state at all levels.  Because Tim has worked his way up through the state emergency preparedness system he understands the needs of communities of all sizes…Because Tim knows the importance of being prepared he has the best team possible and all the necessary information in place before a disaster hits.  Tim’s emphasis on planning and education will serve him and the nation well as he moves to take a national role at FEMA.  While the state is sorry to see him leave we know that the nation will benefit from his work.”

In SFR’s Halloween issue, “Things to Do in Santa Fe When You’re Undead,” Manning took control of the situation from the emergency management bureau HQ at the west end on I-24. Although the scenario was fictional, we had tried to be fairly realistic, conducting interviews with all levels of emergency response leadership, including Manning. You have to hand it to a civil servant who will take the time to answer far-fetched (or not) hypotheticals about a zombie apocalypse.

I’d also like to point out that under his leadership (as well as Mayor David Coss’ and Sheriff Greg Solano’s) Santa Fe survived.

Manning’s big scene after the jump.

Continue reading »