1/17/07, 12:00 pm EST

He Is the Champion: Mordechai Shinefield Takes the Cake for Assignment #1

We’re pleased to announce that New York native Mordechai Shinefield won the first of our “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing contests, in which we asked folks to submit 300 words or less describing their local music scenes. The Mordster will receive a brand-new First Act guitar and a Rhapsody Sansa.

Here’s what Rolling Stone executive editor Joe Levy had to say about Mordechai’s piece — and four runners-up that he also dug:

Mordechai Shinefield
Mordechai pulls a fast one and redefines his local scene as the music banging from his neighbors’ apartments and his own stereo, meaning he can bring in ringer after ringer: Young Jeezy, t.A.T.U., Dylan, Sean Paul, whatever comes up on the endless shuffle-play of life in New York City. But this pops with culture-clash energy, and it nails the music fan’s passion for new sounds.

Honorable Mention
Brett Lindenberg
Another fast one — this time writing about Grand Forks, ND, as the eternal resting place of AC/DC, GN’R and Skynyrd. Smart, funny and makes me understand why that music means so much to the people and place he’s writing about.

Janie Jones
Another stand-out from North Dakota — what’s going on up there? Nice sense of place here, as Jones — whose parents apparently named her after one of the Clash’s best songs — finds yet another way to side-step the issue of there not being much of a local scene in Jamestown.

Chrys Buckley
This was the only one that made me want actually want to check out the place being written about — not because the music sounded so interesting (it doesn’t, which Chrys knows), but because the place itself seemed so weird.

Jake Brooks
The South will rise again if Jake Brooks has anything to say about it. This is truly about a local scene and sound, and makes the idea of a new Southern rock — like a “scrappy kid on the playground that will fight anyone” (although “who will fight anyone” would have been better — whatever) –- something I want to know more about. MP3s, please.

Fear not, gentle readers: You too can be a winner. Enter the second installment of our writing contest — in which you must tell us which living band or musician you’d like to interview and the ten questions you’d ask to produce the most compelling profile — here. The deadline is this Friday at noon EST.

-- Rolling Stone