'Ugly' story wins third prize

Published in the Portland Phoenix

A dark trip through Portland’s eyesores written by former staff writer Sara Donnelly and illustrated by Westbrook freelancer Mike Gorman has been honored in the small-papers division of the newspaper competition the alternative press takes most seriously.

The story, “Ugly Portland,” published July 28, 2006, took third place in the “format buster” category in the national Association of Alternative Newsweeklies competition. (AAN defines a “format buster” as an article whose thrust and graphic presentation are contrary to usual newspaper conventions.)

One step closer to Finland: McNallica wins!

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Well, obviously.

Portland-based karaoke star McNallica won the regional competition in the US Air Guitar championship series, held last Friday at Boston's Harper’s Ferry. Next stop, the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City on August 16. Then, if she beats the 13 contenders there, she’ll head to Finland for the world title in early September.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. McNallica, operations manager at a local mortgage company, creamed the local competition at Portland's SPACE back in April. Last week down in Allston, Bjorn Turoque, one of the world’s greatest air-guitarists, gave her perfect scores in both rounds, and called her “the future of air guitar.”

Perhaps the best part (other than that level of praise) came the moment she and the four other finalists heard the song they would perform in the compulsory round: “Metal Health,” the title track off the 1983 Quiet Riot album. While she hadn’t worked up a routine for it, she knew the song, and spent the few minutes she had before going on stage planning a kick-ass routine.

“The whole left side of my body hurts from doing all the windmills,” she said Monday.

McNallica beat — among others — a woman who had flown in from Colorado, a guy who drove up from Washington DC, and Boston hometown favorite Mike “Godfather of Air” Torpey, who won that city's regional competition last year. She now has her eyes on beating Andrew “William Ocean” Litz, two-time New York regional champ, who will be among the most experienced air-guitarists in the national competition.

We’ll keep you posted on the dates, the other challengers, and vicious rumors about the personal lives of air-guitarists near and far, so keep checking back.

Support the Portland air-guitar champ

Published in the Portland Phoenix

McNallica, Portland’s air-guitar champion (see “Music Seen,” May 4), will head to the next phase of the US Air Guitar Championships on Friday, in Boston. And she’s inviting you to go with her.

McNallica could use the support — even though this contest will be judged by actual judges (rather than by popular acclaim, like the local championship at SPACE). She’s polishing up her air guitar for the performance, which she promises will feature “two signature moves” she couldn’t perform at SPACE because the stage was dampened by a previous performer’s fake blood. She’s hoping those, and her extensive prep work (she has choreographed three different 60-second routines to different songs, so as not to repeat music used by another contestant), will get her a ticket to the national finals in New York in August.

The judging will be “based on figure-skating,” she says, with a scale from 4.0 to 6.0. No word on whether there’s a Russian judge, but we prepped her with a couple Russkie niceties to drop, just in case.

To get you there, McNallica is coordinating rides down to the 21+ show at Harper’s Ferry (158 Brighton Ave in Allston, Massachusetts) on Friday evening, arriving in time for the event’s start at 9 pm. If you want a ride, e-mail her at emcnally@meridianmg.com. Get your $15 tickets in advance atwww.usairguitar.com or call 800.594.8499. You’ll also get a glimpse of Air Guitar Nation movie star (and non-winner) Bjorn Turoque, the celebrity MC.

Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll on WCSH's 207 (with Samuel James)

Aired on WCSH's 207

Air guitar competition: Music Seen at SPACE Gallery, April 28, 2007

Published in the Portland Phoenix; written jointly with Sonya Tomlinson

ST For those wondering how the Air Guitar competition went down — the event was beyond sold out. Even when the space available for the film portion came down to standing room only the audience did not hesitate to express their enthusiasm. Despite the close quarters, the laughing, cheering, and clapping during the movie mimicked what would take place in a living room full of your closest friends.

JI In fact, some of the movie’s scenes — and the live post-movie competition — might have been best done in a living room, rather than on a stage or in front of a camera. But with a movie like Air Guitar Nation, if you can’t react to the events and commentary on the screen, there’s fairly little point in seeing it at all. Air guitar is as much about the art of performing as it is about the act of spectating.

ST Let’s get back to that live competition part. There were nine contestants for the first-ever Portland Air Guitar competition. I believe you were in the front of the crowd, right? Something about your wife being sprayed with fake blood by one of the competitors?

JI Yeah, there were supposed to be 12, but a few backed out and a few signed up on the spot, motivated by the movie, no doubt. Anyway, one of them — HammerSmash — had a cup of fake blood, poured it all over himself and drank it, and then tossed it into the crowd. He was one of the few who appeared to have actually rehearsed, and he ended up in the final three. Sadly, as the youngest contestant in the finals, he appeared to be less familiar with the compulsory song — the contestants had chosen their own songs for the first round — and ended up finishing third. That compulsory song, Poison’s “Talk Dirty To Me” (from 1986’s Look What the Cat Dragged In, if you must know) was a brilliant choice on the part of the organizers, and played right into the hands of the woman who stole the show — McNallica. She’ll be competing in Boston sometime soon, and we’ll keep you posted on that.

ST And we can’t fail to mention Free Bird, who came in second. Even his fans dressed up to support him. If you missed out, be sure to catch the local action at http://www.vimeo.com/clip:179839. And you can catch the film, Air Guitar Nation, at the Movies on Exchange May 2-8.

On the Web
More photos at: http://flickr.com/photos/space538/sets/72157600161646975/