Voices of SN&R

This week—like every week—the paper is crammed with fascinating voices. The breadth of SN&R’s expression amazes me.

In this week’s cover story, “Honest work,” Jaime O’Neill introduces us to Jian Wang, one of Sacramento’s most successful painters, who landed here 20 years ago after leaving his home in China at age 28. Wang speaks of his struggle to be true to his inner voice and why that is more important than his choice of subject. “What matters is how I painted—the fingerprint of the artist.”

In her Nothing Ever Happens column, Becca Costello’s unique style intrigues as she explains why she spent time on a pre-Halloween weekend at Evangeline’s Costume Mansion: “I felt a strange compulsion—part zombie, part lemming—to witness the chaos.”

We hear the voice of a little-known candidate for mayor in West Sacramento as she takes Kel Munger for a ride through that town. R.V. Scheide reports how Cindy Sheehan sounds when talking about President Bush and her protest activities across the country and around the world.

There’s Joey Garcia’s sensitive yet practical advice to a questioner about who should pay when a bear hug goes wrong.

Then there’s Jackson Griffith’s riff on listening to local Sacramento bands on his iPod as he wandered the Museum of Modern Art in New York earlier in the week: “It’s odd to be jostled by German tourists in front of Salvador Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ with Th’ Losin Streaks blasting in your head.”

Everyday folk tell us in Streetalk what they think of the media. Plenty of readers give us an earful in Letters to the editor.

Kate Washington ascribes almost human characteristics to the food she eats in her review of The Ravine in Folsom: The carrot puree is “sweet and subtle”; the red pepper, tomato and goat-cheese salad “was not at all shy.”

And, of course, there’s the edgy rant of Bites. Well, you know how Bites sounds. Those are just some of SN&R’s voices; there are many more in this week’s newspaper and in every other week’s. Astonishing!

Finally, don’t forget to listen to your own inner voice after taking in the array of positions represented in our editorial endorsements And be true to your own inner voice when you vote next Tuesday.