Monday, January 18, 2010
News Rebuilding the Loaf
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:51 PM
I honestly don't remember when I started reading Creative Loafing, though it must have been around the time I got my driver's license. That's when the paper first became useful to me, a suburban teenager in search of the tools for navigating the city's music scene — both its all-ages shows and the ones I tried to sneak in to. The paper introduced me to the Somber Reptile and International Ballroom, the Point and the Masquerade, Fantasyland Records and Wax 'n' Facts. It was the guidebook for those who hoped to escape the homogeny of strip malls and chain restaurants and high school life in general.
Over the years, the paper became useful in other ways. I began to soak up the Best of Atlanta issue, which revealed other worlds within the city that I'd never had the occasion to enter: the political scene, the arts circles, the better restaurants. By the time I was 22 and writing crime stories for the Macon Telegraph, I started to view Creative Loafing as still something else: an avenue for exploring the deeper meaning of social issues. Within a few years, I began to search for a publication that would grant me the space to tell in-depth and longer-form stories. I wanted to work for a paper whose ideals and aspirations matched my own. Creative Loafing was a natural fit.
All of this is to say that I came of age with the paper. Its sensibilities made journalism seem ... relevant. I might have learned the basics of the trade at UGA's J-school and cut my reporter's teeth at the Telegraph, but Creative Loafing ultimately allowed me to relate to readers in a way I couldn't before, to find a voice that served both of us, to be part of something that was smart and cool and important. At the risk of sounding hokey, I consider it a badge of honor to work here — even when I have to explain to out-of-towners what we are ("You know, the Village Voice of the South"), or when I find myself repeating the paper's name to a confused source in New York or L.A. ("Not Creative Living, Creative Loafing. Yes, Loafing.")
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