'Apocassession' for Writerkind

Last week, the Eugene Weekly was "Pregnant with Possibility." This week: laying off five of its media darlings, among them, my writer buddy Charles Quincey Adams.

With a recession-proof spirit defying paystub-less blues, Chuck's glib: off to fence, travel, and climb. But for a budget-strained weekly, the future looks grimmer.

Weeklies are newspapers' hipper foils; blogs' papery counterparts. Good for tearing apart mass media conventions, excellent for grassroots and local business advertising, perfect for blending art and sass, and even better for papier mache. And now: disintegrating faster than they do in a dirty gutter, fueled by a Eugenian drizzle.

We gave up gasoline. We've given up our foreclosed homes. Now...we're slowly bidding farewell to the paper-thin fabric that binds an artistic community. That, and an excellent commode companion.

"Love your local newspapers this year," warns Chuck. "In a year, they will all be gone."



Also, all in favor of the new moniker of Apocassession - say aye. Courtesy of CQA.

Age and grace

Today's presidential inauguration speech was written by Jon Favreau, a 27-year-old writer who penned speeches from coffeeshops and then stayed up til 3am writing even more. Speech days were for blearily, wearily, gratefully and proudly watching said speeches roll off the tongue of the Presidential hopeful (and now President).

Freelancers: clearly, he's one of us. (Except he looks waaaaay too pulled together. Maybe it's an East Coast thing.)

In the same vein, Nora Hardwick bore all for a local charity calendar. Pretty sassy for a lady who's 102 years old. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312234,00.html

Which is all to say, age matters! Mostly because of the fact that when it comes to doing what you love, it really doesn't.