Sometimes it takes a village—or at least a few staff members—to bring 100 words to the page.

Dave Faries here, applauding the effort that goes into little things.

A band known as Me First and the Gimme Gimmes plays tonight, Sept. 7 at Golden State Theatre. Associate Editor Erik Chalhoub made mention of this in the Weekly’s Hot Picks section, devoting about 100 words to a costumed supergroup that performs punked-up covers of non-punk songs. How to explain that? I don’t know—Billy Idol singing John Denver or Lady Gaga his way, maybe? It actually seems like a lot of fun.

But the concert wasn’t originally in our Hot Picks plans. The section is curated by Agata Popęda, who deftly taps into a stream of sources to select Hot Picks for the week. She was on vacation, however, and Chalhoub filled in, knowing nothing of the band or its stature as a wildly unique cover group.

While the name also drew a shrug from me, I suggested that we add Me First and the Gimme Gimmes to the Hot Picks lineup—which brought up another issue. We like to find photos for this section of the paper, even if we don’t use every image. With the band making its first appearance in Monterey, as far as we know, there was nothing in the Weekly photo archives. The group’s website proved to be of little help.

Fortunately, photographer Daniel Dreifuss not only was aware of their antics, but also has seen them perform. He had a file of images not published elsewhere—just what we needed. Meanwhile Chalhoub brushed up on Me First and wrote a Hot Pick.

Now, there are many more significant stories in this week’s print edition. The cover story package by Chalhoub and editor Sara Rubin on the challenges of legislating gun safety is an obvious one. David Schmalz continued the intriguing ride on the up-and-down story of the Monterey-Salinas Transit SURF! project. Pam Marino’s 831 feature on the scale model train exhibit at the Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Museum and the volunteers who operate it is an engaging read.

But for me, in 100 words, the last-minute addition of a Hot Pick on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes shows the cooperative effort that often brings stories to the page.

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