I spent a few minutes this morning talking to our old pal Zac Crain, who now says he can't believe he ever wanted to be mayor in a city where 71,000 people turned out to vote -- an "apocalyptic" figure, says the wanna-be candidate booted off the ballot. "I feel like I wasted a year, beating my head against the wall," he says. "There are so many important things going on right now, you'd think it would spur people to action. Maybe we didn't have the best field of candidates, but at least you'd think they'd go out there and say, 'Well, this person sucks the least.' I certainly don't want to see a lot of people bitching. If Oakley or Leppert suck as mayor, it's a little late to bitch, becuase it's not like this wasn't in the news."
There are probably plenty of reasons for low turnout: the high number of candidates (I guess, though you'd think you could have found one to vote for), the lousy media coverage (TV barely touched the elections, even Saturday night), the fact most folks just don't give a shit (ding, ding, ding, ding). Let's put it this way: On Saturday, you could walk into any polling place and vote right away -- no lines, no sweat -- but God forbid you wanted a cupcake. My 3-year-old roommate and I were out running Mother's Day errands, and as we drove through Preston Center, the line to get into Sprinkles was wrapped around the block.
Speaking of Z.C., turns out getting booted from the mayoral race probably wasn't a bad thing: If nothing else, it gave him the free time to write for Esquire. In the June issue just now hitting stands, the one with Jeremy Piven on the cover, Zac has the lead music-section piece on Joe Strummer, the Clash frontman now the subject of a new book and Sundance-bowed documentary. Z.C. isn't replacing Austin-based Andy Langer as the mag's music critic, but he does have more pieces forthcoming. We're still tracking down the rumor that Gary Griffith's now writing for Phone Magazine. --Robert Wilonsky
