Local News Junkie, the Sequel: the Obsessive Reader Returns

When Alan Rhodes is not obsessively reading local publications or lazily perambulating around the streets of Bellingham, he writes a monthly “Hamster Roads” column for the Cascadia Weekly, and an occasional piece for Whatcom Watch. He can be reached at rhodesaj@msn.com.

Back in 2004 (July, page 8 and August, page 11) I wrote a piece for these pages called “Local News Junkie,” in which I confessed a tragic addiction to reading all local publications, a pathology which has stolen my leisure hours, skewed my perspective on Whatcom County’s significance in the cosmos and left my fingers permanently ink-stained. Despite the debilitating consequences of this psychological disorder, it’s wonderful to live in a community where you can pick up a handful of free newspapers and magazines whenever you wander into an espresso bar.

I think it’s time to go back and review the local print media in more detail. When I wrote the original article I irritated a few folks by not discussing their favorite papers, even though I said that I had picked just a few publications randomly to get the general flavor of what’s out there. This time we’re going all the way: every publication gets its own paragraph.

Well, almost every publication. Here are the rules for inclusion:

•The newspaper or magazine must be free to all. (This means that the Bellingham Business Journal, an outstanding newspaper, will not be covered because it’s free only to business owners, but costs the rest of us $2 a copy.)

•It must be available at a wide assortment of venues: grocery stores, cafes, espresso bars, etc. (So while the Co-op Community News contains some very interesting articles, it’s excluded because it’s available only at the Co-op or to members through the mail.)

•It can’t be a publication that has no content other than advertising. (This means, thankfully, that we won’t have to review the seemingly infinite number of auto and real estate magazines that blow around on the ground by their distribution bins.)

•It must be published in Whatcom County. (Yes, we have to leave out the superbly raunchy The Stranger because, even though it’s available all over town, it’s published in Seattle.)

Okay, here we go: an alphabetical listing and a brief commentary on all free Whatcom County publications that meet the above requirements, along with a convenient “Quip” (Quick Uncomplicated Identifying Phrase) for each one.

This is a really good quarterly guide to outdoor activities and events in the Northwest. The fall edition, for example, included detailed information about scuba diving in the frigid San Juans in autumn, ice-axing your way up Mount Baker, and enduring a 460-mile ultra-marathon kayak and canoe race on the Yukon River. For us wimps they threw in an hour-long level hike on a paved trail to Rainy Lake. Quip: Something for everyone here, from the laggardly weekend stroller to the testosterone-fueled adrenaline freak.

This spirited monthly is, as far as I know, the only gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender publication in Whatcom County. It’s also fun to read if you’re straight, as its a rowdy, upbeat, irreverent little tabloid, with more energy than most of our local papers. It celebrates alternative lifestyles, but also looks at some pretty serious issues, such as its chilling story last June, “Silent Death: the Queer Genocide in Iraq.” Quip: Not suitable for children under 12 or State Senator Dale Brandland.

Full disclosure: I write a monthly column for this newspaper. The Cascadia Weekly came into being this year to replace the Bellingham Weekly, which shut down last December for reasons too baroque in their complexity to explore here. Fortunately Tim Johnson, the Bellingham Weekly’s founder and editor, gathered up much of the staff and started the Cascadia Weekly, which looks pretty much like the old paper (actually, it looks even better). This is a good thing because the Weekly’s formula works: sharp writing, sparking style, insightful coverage of local news and events and the best political column in Whatcom County, “The Gristle,” formerly known as “The Skinny.” Quip: A coffee and bagel just wouldn’t be as good without the Weekly.

This is the membership magazine of Conservation Northwest, the premier local environmental organization, formerly known as the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance. The magazine is packed with information, action items and lots of pretty pictures. You can find free copies around town, but it’s mailed to you if you’re a member. You are a member, aren’t you? If not, you’re a great disappointment to your parents and your country, and global warming is your fault. So go online and join. These people saved the Loomis Forest, for god’s sake! Quip: Printed in vegetable ink on recycled, hemp-flax, process chlorine-free paper.

Published as a supplement to the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record-Journal, this events and entertainment magazine can be found in all the usual places. It’s a good guide, but do we need another events guide in a county already awash in them? Quip: Overkill.

The Echo is a weekly advertising newspaper, but it manages to slip past rule three above because it includes a couple of articles each week, which I suspect nobody actually reads. My favorite section of The Echo is the “Wanted” column, where people list things they are trying to acquire. Here are some things people were looking for this year: apple cider press, male dancer for bachelorette party, chess tutor, anvil, vintage chicken coop windows, ride to Colorado, original radio for a 1984 Mustang, exotic fertilizers, female hamsters, plastic pink flamingo, comforter made from old T-shirts, northern alligator lizards and one dozen baby food jars. Quip: As Garrison Keillor might say, “If they don’t have it, you can probably get along without it.”

Among the glut of events publications that threatens to overwhelm local fun-seekers, this is the best of the lot. A glossy, bright, full-color monthly magazine, ENNW is consistently accurate and thorough. In addition to reviews and feature stories on art, music, theater, outdoor recreation, etc., ENNW contains a handy pullout calendar listing all the month’s events in the area. Let me grab a past issue and pick a random date ... . Okay, Saturday, September 30, 2006. On that day you could attend the Cloud Mountain Farm Fruit Festival, contra dance later at the Fairhaven library, still have time to attend the Whatcom Symphony and round it off with Stickshift Annie at the Rockfish Grill. And those are only four of 22 choices that day. Quip: ENNW confirms your bittersweet lament, “There’s too much going on in this town; I can’t keep up.”

Published at Fairhaven College and available around town, this eight-page newspaper is okay for a quick read, but it needs a niche. It lacks the depth of WWU’s excellent Klipsun magazine and the timeliness of the school’s newspaper, the Western Front. If it wants to be an edgy alternative newspaper, it needs to get edgier. Quip: Journalism 101.

If you belong to the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA), you get their newsletter Fish Tales in the mail. Non-members can find copies here and there. Much of what I said above about Conservation Northwest applies here as well: NSEA is a great group that deserves support, so join. Fish Tales doesn’t have fancy graphics and color photos like Conservation Northwest Quarterly, but since hardly anyone reads the newsletters from organizations they belong to, who cares? Quip: Everything about salmon and riparian habitat that you ever wanted to know.

Man, this magazine is good! An attractive, quality publication, it’s produced bi-quarterly by students in Western’s journalism department. Much of the writing here is better than anything else you see around town. In the March issue alone there were two pieces good enough for any magazine: Nick Riley’s “Solace,” which goes inside Sean Humphrey House to talk with men with AIDS, and Jamie Badillo’s “A Light Within,” a heartbreaking close-up on Bellingham’s homeless population. First rate stuff! Quip: Not the crappy magazine you wrote for when you were in college.

There’s usually not a lot of world-shaking news in this weekly paper out of Blaine and Birch Bay, but those are small, quiet places, which is part of their charm. This is a paper that can print large individual photos of the entire graduating class of Blaine High School, and do it in three and a half pages. This is a paper that lets a guy writing a letter to the editor fill people in on the details of his recent cataract surgery before getting to his issues with city council. How can you not like this kind of stuff? Quip: Lake Wobegon Northwest.

Yet another events supplement to the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record-Journal. Quip: See Destination Northwest above.

This events and activities guide to the Mt. Baker area features generally ho-hum articles and too much advertising. Quip: See previous sentence.

I reviewed PNR back in the original “Junkie” article, saying it was boring. It still is, with its Good Housekeeping style recipes, word search puzzle and articles with titles like “Movies to Watch With Your Grandchildren.” PNR says it’s “For the 50+ Generation.” I passed 50 more than a few years ago, and I’m still way too young for this magazine. So is every senior I know. A better motto for PNR might be “For a dull subset of the 90+ Generation.” I must, however, give PNR credit for the most entertaining letter to the editor in any local publication this year. A couple fired off an irate missive last June, objecting to the magazine’s offensive language. The offending line? Apparently a little dog in a cartoon said, “God, I’m exhausted!” Even funnier was the editor’s response: “It has never been our intention to shock our readership.” Jesus, that’s a relief! Quip: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Published quarterly at WWU’s Huxley College, The Planet is a first-rate environmental magazine, with an attractive layout, scads of photographs and interesting, well-researched articles. Quip: A good blend of enough horrors to let us know how badly we’ve mistreated planet Earth, and enough youthful hope and idealism to make us not want to kill ourselves.

This is the Thursday entertainment section of The Bellingham Herald, but if you don’t subscribe to The Herald you can pick up Take Five free at locations around town. Many people think Take Five is the best thing about The Herald, and it is indeed a very good overview of entertainment events for both the week and months to come. It covers events in Bellingham as well as other venues between Seattle and Vancouver. Quip: Find out what’s happening without spending fifty cents for a mediocre newspaper.

As WWU’s student newspaper, the Western Front covers campus life well enough to keep students up to date, and for those of us beyond our college days it often features some pretty well-written stories about the community at large. Quip: You gotta love a student paper that occasionally scoops The Bellingham Herald.

The Indy was a relatively new publication when I reviewed it rather glowingly in the original “Junkie” article, for in the first flush of youth this weekly newspaper appeared to have a most promising future. Unfortunately the bright child has not aged well, and is now cranky, stodgy and stuck in a middle age rut. The early Indy had energy and vitality and was interesting to read, but the paper has grown stale, is too often bitter and humorless, and frequently seems to function as an outlet for the management’s peevish personal ax-grinding. Apparently no one on the staff has a clue as to how to fix things, so it’s time to clean house, and bring in a new editor and a few clever twenty-something writers to recharge this weary broadside. Quip: So dull and yet so irritating.

Published by The Bellingham Herald, this quarterly magazine is a paean to pretentiousness and conspicuous consumption. Its glossy pages shimmer with photos of the self-satisfied sipping white wine in their mega-homes or motorboating in our municipal reservoir. It appears that the editorial staff wishes Bellingham were Palm Springs or Beverly Hills, so they’re straining to create the illusion. You can find a few free copies of this publication at limited locations, but the magazine made a point at its inception of boasting that complimentary subscriptions would be mailed to the county’s “top 12,000 affluent homes,” with the implied message that those pathetic losers who didn’t make the list should go get a life. Quip: Noblesse Oblige.

Full disclosure: I occasionally write for this publication, but I guess that’s pretty obvious. Anyway, the Watch is one of the highest quality newspapers in the county, with the majority of its stories focusing on environmental issues. No other publication has been as relentless in documenting our community’s willful destruction of Lake Whatcom, our only source of drinking water, and all the public and private machinations, denials and half-measures that have contributed to this disgrace. The Watch is also the only place you can read every month the voting records of city councilors, county councilors and port commissioners. That alone makes this paper invaluable to the informed citizen. Reading the Watch should be a requirement for voting or holding public office. Quip: Even those without a dual major in chemistry and environmental studies should be able to read about half the articles in an average issue.

Each month What’s Up takes a frisky romp through the local music scene. It’s probably the most authoritative source on homegrown bands and contemporary Northwestern music. Since I’m completely out of the loop on current musical trends, I won’t try to fake it here and pretend that I’m cool. Those conversant with the relative merits of, say, Yogoman, the Trucks or Gertrudes’s Hearse will find What’s Up quite useful. I did, however, really like this statement from the Anacortes band The Lonely Forest: “We’re not assholes; we’re just having fun.” With The Lonely Forest’s permission, I’d like to restate that in the first person past tense and have it carved on my tombstone. Quip: Requirements for readership include at least two tattoos and one body piercing.

Well, I think that covers it. Since the original junkie article appeared, two excellent newspapers have, alas, ceased publication. The Whatcom Sun, a livelier and more readable alternative to the Whatcom Independent lasted only a few short months. The Organic Press, a fine monthly paper, expired last summer. While the name Organic Press suggested it might be a good place to find a recipe for quinoa quiche or a blueprint for constructing a yurt out of hemp, it was something far different: a serious paper that often looked into issues in much more depth than most other local publications. Sorry to see it go. Another good weekly paper, the Foothills Gazette, which serves Western Whatcom County, has now started charging for copies and is no longer on the freebie racks. Bad news for us cheapskates.

It’s quite possible I’ve overlooked one or two publications, and it’s equally possible that a brand new magazine or newspaper is hitting the stands as I write. So send me an email if you know something I don’t (rhodesaj@msn.com.) Right now I’m heading downtown where I’ll pick up all the latest papers on the free rack at the Newstand, then hunker down at the Black Drop behind a triple Americano and start reading through them. If my television broke I might not even notice, but I could never cope without my coffee and newspapers. I agree with Pulitzer prize winning journalist Richard Kluger who once observed that “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism,” and I share the feeling of legendary film director Luis Bunuel who said that when he died he would “love to rise from the grave every 10 years or so and go buy a few newspapers.” §