It's that time of the year again when we, the alumni of the School of Hard Knocks bang our heads together to award the prestigious Black and Blues. Our colors are black and blue and our rally cry is ouch and we have scoured the small press, short film, and self released literature of the 2003 to find the winners.

Winners were selected based on creativity, self promotion, and quality of work. Past winners of the Black and Blues have risen to stardom and fallen to the gutter. There are no second or third prizes, only first place in the three categories. Winners have been selected from over 15,000 nominations.

The winner of the Black and Blue for Journalism is the West Coast's newest new age magazine, Pacific Pagan (www.pacificpagan.com). Finally there is a place for Pagans to place ads for anything and everything that the discerning Pagan may want to buy or sell. Such great features as "Crafting with the Crone" and "Energy Work 101" have made Pacific Pagan stand out from the crowd of new age "left coast" publications.

The winner of the Black and Blue for Film is "Love That Lumpia" (www.lovethatlumpia.com) a hilarious look at the lives of Phillipino Americans. Variety described "Lumpia" as "Taking low-budget to new heights." We agree. We love that Lumpia so much we've awarded it the Black and Blue for film.

The winner for the Black and Blue for Literature is "Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond" (www.geocities.com/rough_living)by Chris Damitio. The lucky adventures and travel tips of heavy drinking, drug using, homeless, hippified action adventure hero as he travels the western U.S., China, and Southeast Asia.Finely crafted literature and one hell of a good story.

Congratulations to all of our winners and thanks to all who nominated the over 15,000 publications, short films, and books in 2003.

School of Hard Knocks Alumni "Ouch!"