Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jul 24, 2006 12:07AM
We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network!
Austinist starts us off right by filling the famous person quota by interviewing Lewis Black, covers the social cause with a non-profit car sharing company, and gives us more wacky local facts than we can handle with Austin by the Numbers. So far, so good!
Torontoist's famous person is a strangely dykey Wayne Gretzky, their cause is hate (they're against it), and their fact: their National Film Board makes some wackily great animation.
Will Seattlest keep up the theme? Guess that depends on whether or not you think the Seattle Supersonics still count as famous if they're decamping to Oklahoma. The social issue they take on is the trouble at Seattle's LiveJournal community (check out the comments!), and they got the wackiest ever local facts off Google.
Bostonist brings us a picture of their arguably famous Governor doing something vulgar looking (we love that his name is "Mitt"!) , they recommend a wacky local-fact filled webcast, and the social cause for one interviewee is MassPirg canvassers (he's against them!).
SFist sinks especially low by considering an Amazing Race winner famous enough to mention. Of all the social causes in San Francisco, the one that garners the most comments this week is sidewalk cafes, and their local fact is that they, themselves, are a wacky two years old!
Phillyist's famous folks are themselves, as they celebrate a birthday of their own! Their social cause is scary cars, and they have wacky local facts galore in the comments to these posts.
LAist's Little Loca isn't that famous yet, but she's a big star to us. Their cause is rejected CitySearch reviews (if you click on one link today, click on that one, it's really godamn funny). Their local fact: In Hollywood, "There's more than enough schadenfreude to go around."
Shanghaiist is all over the undeniably famous Black Eyed Peas. In the not always gay friendly atmosphere of Shanghai, Shanghai Fag Hag bravely advances the social cause of their gay/lesbian community, Hooray! And they serve up a bunch of local music facts (watch that video for the wacky part).
Houstonist Alexandra tops their list of famous -- or, at least, most popularly named folks. They mock a local TV station's report on a "new" social cause, but, hey, maybe that's what causing the seriously wacky local fact that Houston has somehow become the third-slimmest city in the country.
Londonist corners the market on bad ass famous people with this piece on an Iron Maiden member's humanitarian efforts. Their social cause is (no we're not kidding) wanking, and their wacky local facts center around their Great Eastern Walk.
Gothamist takes on the sartorial foibles of their famous mayor. Who isn't concerned about the social cause of bad plastic surgery (they're against it!)? Oh, and here are some wacky local facts you won't find in the guidebooks -- their drinking water is dirty and their subway's full of poo.
Miamist gets double famous person points for their piece on a notorious criminal whose life will be made into a film. But will they shoot that movie in Miami, given the social issue of hurricanes endangering shoots in the area? And this seems like a wacky local fact to us -- Soho house is building a club in Miami? But what about those hurricanes?
Chicagoist's most famous local, Oprah, is not gay. Speaking of powerful women, Chicagoist Rachelle lends herself to the women in blogging cause. If you can't make it to BlogHer, how about learing some of those wacky local facts at the Chicagoist-sponsored private El tour?
DCist's extensive coverage of the Capital Fringe Festival contains more famous people than we can list here. They take on the social issue of transportation funding. And (in our final and absolute favorite link of the week) here's a wacky local fact for you: someone doesn't want DCist to write about Baltimore any more.
Images by Bostonist Josh Michtom
Links compiled by SFist Eve "My Favorite Famous Person Is Jen Chung" Batey