by Nicole Powers

“There’s something inherently scary about kissing a cannibal.”
– Diablo Cody

“I constantly want to feel like I’m in danger,” says author and screenwriter Diablo Cody during our interview. This statement reveals a lot when you consider Cody’s resume. She punctuated a rather mundane series of office jobs by moonlighting as a stripper, phone sex worker, and a peep show girl. While still working for “the man” she documented her experiences in the sex industry in a very public space — a popular blog called Pussy Ranch. Subsequently she penned a full-blown memoir, entitled Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, which was published by Penguin imprint Gotham Books.

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by Brad Warner

I just read a horrendous news story about the Petit family in Connecticut who were murdered by a group of assholes.

According to CNN, “On July 23, 2007, men wearing ski masks attacked the family as they slept in their suburban Cheshire home. The father, a physician, was beaten with a bat and tied to a pole in his basement. His wife was raped and strangled. The girls were tortured for nearly seven hours, one sexually assaulted, then killed when the attackers set the house on fire.”

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by Brandon Perkins

In the last installment of our futuristic fiction series, Please Use Rear Exit, Mikhail, who’d just X’ed is GF Katya, had ridden the #720 to the Low bar. Having been absent from his “regular” libation center, and therefore a stranger to his “friends” Jayson and Chevy, when he’s confronted by the later (who’s a rapper, who rhymes, all the tymes) he considers his next move carefully. Of the four approaches that run through Mikhail’s mind, option D – awkwardly asking Chevy “What’s up” – could prove optimal.

D). Mikhail absent-mindedly chose (d).

But he told himself that such stumbling wasn’t all his fault. Katya called him the second that Chevy started to trail off. Mikhail instinctually paused to silence a phone that no one could hear vibrating, simultaneously losing his beat in the conversation and train of thought. Fortunately, all awkwardness was forgotten and forgiven en route to finding Jayson – who had posted up at one of the last empty standing tables – and simple small talk was okay enough.

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by Brad Warner

“John Lennon’s alcohol stinking spittle in my face…”
– Mark Mothersbaugh

There was a peculiar notion going around my high school in the white bread and meatloaf suburb of Akron, Ohio where I grew up that said that bands like DEVO were “wimp rock.” But seeing DEVO at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood where I had the privilege of sitting in on the final rehearsal for their current tour gave the lie to that. Even with several members of the band having passed sixty years old and the rest closing in quick, DEVO rocks like no other band on Planet Earth.

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by Brett Warner

There’s dust moving through the light, I notice three drinks in. It’s Factory Monday at The Necto nightclub in Ann Arbor, Michigan and I’m surrounded by a significant representation of the local gothic community. They’re projecting some anime film against the wall, which doesn’t strike me as being very goth, but that’s been the common theme of the evening: a vodka-fueled internal struggle with the definition of “gothness” and how to embody it. DJ Jinx is shaking the walls with a Combichrist song I’ve learned to recognize, which causes the textured light (equal parts smoke machine mist and various makeup powders) to twitch and sway to the relentless beat. I’ve been to a handful of Factory Mondays, and each time I can’t help but feel like Colin Farrell at the beginning of the Miami Vice movie—i.e. a total narc. Apart from my Elvis Costello glasses, penchant for black hoodies and old Depeche Mode records, there’s little to no social thread connecting me to this scene. But that’s the secret to understanding the gothic community on southeast Michigan: 1.) They don’t care about me, and 2.) Most of them only very casually care about goth stuff.

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On Sunday Nov 14th SG Radio’s special guest will be punk rock Buddhist and Hardcore Zen master Brad Warner. A beloved columnist on SG, Brad contemplates the big questions in life and comes up with some surprising answers.

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by Fred Topel

“I don’t listen to anyone else.”
– Robert Pattinson

Three years ago, anyone who wanted to talk to Robert Pattinson could have probably just phoned up his agent or publicist and gotten a lunch date with the struggling actor. Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire didnt exactly have groupies, and that was his only really visible role.

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