It’s not easy being the only smartass, largely uninformed Social Democrat in a family of complacent, church-going conservatives – but somebody’s got to do it. In the debut installment of my new SG column Armchair Politics, I’ll be taking a half-assed gander at the week’s political news with the un-researched perspective of an underpaid know-it-all college graduate with a twenty year-old car and $160 thousand dollars in student loan debt. Why does my opinion matter? Because it’s on the internet, duh.
““Its shuffling and its surfing and its really bad for the brain.”
– Reuben Wu
Ladytron is the last band one would expect to see wandering through the haunted shacks and abandoned junkyards of California’s high desert. But in the video for their new single “Ghosts” there is a sun-drenched sinister nature to that environment that suits the British band perfectly. Shot entirely on film, the video follows the impeccably dressed quartet through a dusty landscape of weather worn pianos and broken down vintage cars; a surreal place inhabited by oversized rabbits and where cars speed down the highway with no driver behind the wheel. Its the video that Ladytrons Reuben Wu considers his favorite the band has done thus far.
Scott Ian, the driving force behind Anthrax (and SG’s Food Coma columnist), has a lot of situations going on right now, so we thought it high time we checked in with him. Just before Christmas he released a new album, Ironiclast, with The Damned Things, a supergroup he formed with Rob Caggiano (of Anthrax), Keith Buckley (of Every Time I Die) and Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley (of Fall Out Boy). The band are currently on the road with the Jägermeister Music Tour (which also features Buckcherry and Hellyeah) and are also doing a select few headlining dates.
In addition, Anthrax, alongside Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica, are scheduled to bring The Big 4 Tour, which made some major noise in Europe in 2010, to America. The four monster metal bands will be taking over the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, CA the weekend after Coachella for the first ever Stateside Big 4 Festival (to be held on Saturday April 23rd).
“If you care about what others think, youll never feel comfortable”
– Carrie Borzillo
There comes a time in every rock chicks life when even the most badass of the bunch needs a little refresher course on self-empowerment and simple life maintenance like properly preparing absinthe. Enter the new book from entertainment journalist Carrie Borzillo, titled Cherry Bomb: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, and a Hotter Girlfriend, and to Living Life Like a Rock Star.
Subway trains come fitted with the perfect poles for dancing – and an inbuilt audience – so it’s almost churlish not to make use of the facilities at hand.
“They handed Franco the bag of weed. They gave me the lighter.”
– Seth Rogan
Seth Rogen is not a pothead. He only plays them in movies. His Knocked Up character sat around smoking all day, and his newest movie, Pineapple Express, is an action comedy about a stoner and his dealer on the run after witnessing a corrupt cop shooting.
In the previous installment of our futuristic fiction series, Please Use Rear Exit, Mikhail, who recently x-ed his GF (Katya), ventures out for his first major post-break up night on the tiles with the boys. Unable to cut the ties completely, and with reminders in the form of text messages still causing his phone and his emotions to vibrate, in this flashback Mikhail recalls his first breakup with Katya a year ago after temptation moved into the next cubicle at work.
***
Please Use Rear Exit: Chapter 8 – Slow Jam Filly
Despite the constant typing, the Office of Emailing People (OoEP) was a cushy job for anyone who didn’t give a fuck about words. The entire gig was built around brainstorming sessions in the morning that tried to discover new loop-holes in the legal language surrounding spam. Equally as time-consuming, the afternoons were spent circumventing the morning’s laid-out illegalities with clever scams. Some days, Mikhail was writing persuasive paragraphs about the financial benefits of a perverted pyramid scheme. Other days, he was a Nigerian prince. And then there was the completely non-sensical part of his job.
But the OoEP paid pretty well and was a significant setting in his relationships with Katya and Saffron. And he was really, really good at the work.
