by A.J. Focht

As the New Year begins, a lot of people are looking for ways to cut their spending. If you’re one of these people, you might want to start by scrapping your cable bill. Having any kind of network programming bill (cable, satellite, etc.) is becoming unnecessary. Even in those awesome ‘bundle’ packs you are paying significantly more than you have to, since most of the content included by the cable and satellite companies is now being offered by internet streaming services.

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by Edward Kelly

My friends and I used to hang around in parking lots quite a bit. Loitering was something of a past time, but not because we were latchkey kids or looking for someone to buy us beer. We just always ended up in parking lots. Didn’t matter how cold it was or how many cars were there, we’d be seen standing around talking about whatever for a couple hours. As we grew up we traded parking lots for apartments, bars, and diners.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise when one night a few months ago I, now way beyond appropriate parking-lot-loitering age, and my friend, who also put his parking-lot years behind him, ended up in a parking lot, doing the same thing we did as teenagers: arguing about entirely insignificant stuff. Or in other words, shooting the shit about Star Wars. See, I had had the audacity to suggest the unthinkable – that with the right creative team and a few tweaks, the original trilogy of Star Wars could and should be remade. This, in nerd terms, is the equivalent of videotaping yourself having sex with your best friends’ mother.

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by Tamara Palmer

“I was a really big fan of Christina’s…”
– Lady GaGa

At age 22, Lady GaGa (born Stefani Germanotta) has already written songs for Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls, gone number one in two countries and topped the iTunes chart with her debut album The Fame. Named after the Queen song “Radio Ga-Ga,” she’s also been accused of influencing the current sounds and visuals of another pop superstar, Christina Aguilera, who rocked a suspiciously GaGa-esque look at the MTV Video Music Awards and in recent promotional photographs. We spoke with this engaging ingénue in the making about these “dirrrty” claims, fame and the legacy of her idol, Andy Warhol.

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Kraven Suicide in Steam Dream

• INTO: Magic, mythology, animal rights, stupid jokes, smart-asses, feminism, napping, creating trends, standing out, making statements, making a difference.
• NOT INTO: People not being honest, people who can’t drive – I mean seriously, get off the road.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Singing in a hot steamy shower, dancing in my birthday suit, bubbles.
• MAKES ME SAD: No hot water.
• HOBBIES: Playing poker, baking sweet goodies, painting, drawing, photography, being awesome – it’s a 24-7 job!
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Family and friends, laughter, sleep, my camera, Pepsi – and I’m adding on to the 5, sorry, deal with it. I also can’t live without my phone, fun road trips, art, music, and cup cakes baby!
• VICES: Being on the computer WAY TO MUCH, changing my look, dying my hair, lust, caffeine, gambling, spending money, waiting till the last minute to do things, being late, talking too much, guys who sing or play guitar.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Napping.

Get to know Kraven better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by Brett Warner

It’s a brand new year, and if you’re anything like me – young, broke, and sitting on a dust-gathering fine arts degree – you’re probably thinking: okay, this is the year I start/finish my (insert writing project here). A lot of us have them – those nest egg ideas, gestating deep in our brains, waiting for just the exact perfect moment to materialize in some quantifiable, word-countable form. Sure, there’s a lot of reasons not to write nowadays: we’re job hunting/working, seeing somebody, going back to school, finally getting into Lost on DVD, etc. Nevertheless, 2011 is as good a year as any to finally take that secretly amazing television pilot idea (The West Wing meets George Washington’s first term in office), Star Trek fan novel, or earth-shattering poetry collection out of the realm of “maybe someday” and into the nitty, gritty real world.

Every writer works and thinks differently, but just about every professional will tell you that writing successfully is work – damn hard work, usually, and needs to be approached as such. In the spirit of aggressively engaging your long put-off writing projects, I’ve compiled a list of five off the wall methods that have helped me over the past few years. A few standards, one or two drastic measures – these not-fucking-around variety techniques have pulled me out of many a blinking cursor bind and, who knows, might help others do the same.

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by Damon Martin

The ball has dropped and the calendar has flipped, and now that we are entering 2011, comic book fans are looking forward to the biggest books and events for this upcoming year. The landscape over the next few months will most likely be shaped by DC Comics juggernaut series Green Lantern, which will feature expansions into a new series, with one mega event wrapping up while another begins, and of course the summer release of the new Green Lantern movie.

The Green Lantern was often thought of by comic book fans as a second tier character to the bigger named heroes like Batman and Superman, but over the last few years current DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns has turned the book into the most popular series for the comic giant.

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by Carrie Borzillo

“It’s like going to your high school reunion.”
– Rob Zombie

When Rob Zombie got to work on compiling the White Zombie box set, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, his first thought was “I don’t really remember all of this.” The second thought was, “What were we thinking?!” Anyone familiar with the musical horror show that is White Zombie knows that the band’s 1998 demise wasn’t exactly an amicable one. So, putting the 5 CD/1 DVD career-spanning box set together wasn’t exactly a fun trip down memory lane for Mr. Robert Bartleh Cummings.

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