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.
by Damon Martin
After a stunning debut that drew in over 5 million viewers last week, AMC’s new series The Walking Dead has been picked up for a second season with a 13 episode run already approved by the network. Indeed, the zombie filled show, based on Robert Kirkman’s comics of the same name, has broken cable records for viewership among adults 18-49.
Now that The Walking Dead can be called a legitimate hit, television networks will likely mine the comic book world vein, looking for more material that can be turned into TV gold. Shows like NBC’s Heroes and ABC’s No Ordinary Family have drawn upon the superhero myth, but weren’t actually based on any established work. So as The Walking Dead continues on AMC, let’s take a look at five series comic book series that have the potential to make it big in TV land.
The Huntington Library is world-renowned for it’s collection of rare books and manuscripts, which include a Gutenberg Bible and a first folio edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays. Eyes were therefore raised four years ago when the institution acquired something a little racier – a collection of artifacts relating to Henry Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), donated by his widow Linda Lee Bukowski.
Known for his hard-drinking and hell-raising ways, Bukowski gained notoriety and fame chronicling society’s underbelly in his hyper-real, gritty and pithy poems and prose. (The screenplay for the 1987 film Barfly, which starred Mickey Rourke, was written by Bukowski and is semi-autobiographical.) However to see his work though the bottom of a glass is to see it only in one dimension as poems like “Bluebird” and “Laughing Heart” attest.
“We have fittings and sip violet champagne.”
– Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is one of the world’s most dazzling women. The Swarovski-adorned mistress of striptease has done more to preserve and promote the hallowed art of burlesque than any other performer alive today. Her sexy and spectacular shows feature stunning costumes and larger-than-life props, but are always grounded in the purity of the classic art form. Thus they have an innate dignity that never relies on the kind of bump and grind sleaze that many of Dita’s contemporaries mistake for erotica.
“I realized that I’d outgrown porn.”
– Tera Patrick
Tera Patrick has one of the most recognized names, faces – and bodies – in porn. The Asian adult film actress made her first movie in 1999 and has managed to stay at the top of the proverbial pile for over a decade. Over the course of her career she has won numerous industry awards, and was inducted into the elite AVN Hall of Fame earlier this year.
The product of a broken home, as a teenager Tera craved attention. Her ambitions were simple: she wanted to be a model and marry a rock star. She achieved her fist goal early in life when she was discovered by a talent scout at the age of 13. She subsequently signed with a Japanese agency, and moved halfway around the world to fulfill her dreams. Alone. When she was just 14. Though successful at landing assignments, without any parental supervision, Tera’s life soon spun out of control.
by Ryan Stewart
“If my IQ test comes in low, I’ll never live it down.”
– Baba Booey
Baba Booey. Fa-fa-fooey. Ta-ta-toothy. Ma-ma-monkey. Gary Dell’Abate goes by many names, but his job has been the same for over twenty years: he’s the guy who runs the Howard Stern Show, booking all the guests, running the show’s back office, and when necessary running interference between Howard and upper management. He’s also one of the show’s most recognizable on-air personalities, thanks in no small part to his iconic nickname “Baba Booey,” a moniker which stuck to him like glue after an on-air slip-up in July 1990, in which he repeatedly mispronounced the name of his (professed to be favorite) cartoon character, Quick Draw McGraw sidekick Baba Looey. Since that day, the name has spread like a virus throughout pop culture, popping up as a punchline everywhere from comedy shows like Saturday Night Live and The Late Show with David Letterman to news shows like Larry King Live and Peter Jennings’ ABC newscast, thanks to the efforts of dedicated crank callers. The title of his new memoir, which recounts some of his personal and show-related drama, says it all: They Call Me Baba Booey.
by Brad Warner
Everybody’s talking about this new book on sex. According to Dan Savage it’s “the single most important book on human sexuality since Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior of the Human Male on the American public in 1948.” That’s pretty strong praise. And I’m a fan of Dan Savage so when I was in New York a couple weeks ago I bought myself a copy of Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha. And while it’s very good, I’m not sure it’s quite as massive as they’re all saying.
The basic premise of the book can be stated pretty simply. The authors contend that the story we’ve all been told that human beings are by nature monogamous or pair-bonding creatures is wrong. The evidence they’ve collected leads them to conclude human beings evolved as sluts and playboys, that our bodies tell the story of animals designed by nature to have as much sex as possible with as many partners as we can lure into our caves. This, they contend, explains why monogamy is such a difficult thing to accomplish. It clarifies why marriage has always been protected by the threat of dire punishment even death, and why so many people chose to risk everything just for a little piece on the side.
