“It’s the economy, stupid!” Truer today than it was in the Clinton era. It’s even truerer in the publishing industry. Do you know the cost of printing a full-color, glossy magazine? Well, it’s a cost I know all too well and, recently, it’s a cost none too easily borne by the bar industry (back to the stupid economy). We would heart to be all color, all the time. Hell, I would love to print the magazine on billboards on sides of trucks and have them whiz past your house while Cher does backflips on a flaming horse, but reality is reality.
All I ask is that if you look past the black and white, you’ll see that Nightspots is still the hardest working magazine in GLBT show business, bar none. Well, bar ALL—because NOBODY comes close to our variety of nightlife coverage!
Thanks, soapbox. Couldn’t have done it without you.
Briefly, hello to Chaz Bono, the Creaoke DJ with whom I became fast friends at Jackhammer’s annual Mardi Gras Undie-oke. Had it not been for the memory-eradicating juice, he might be able to draw my crotch from memory at this point. Thanks, memory-eradicating juice. Couldn’t have done it without you.
Much luck to all participants in the Bar-lesque competition, the cyber-stripping effort to raise funds for TPAN that’s really taking off. Do your part (and the parts of many of your favorite local bartenders) at www.chicagotakesoff.org/Bar-lesque.html. And I’ll see you at Chicago Takes Off at the Park West on Sat., March 6!
kirk@windycitytimes.com