by Laurelin

What defines a healthy relationship? People are always judging relationships, their own and other peoples, comparing them to those we see in real life, on TV, in romantic comedy movies. Is there really such a thing as a healthy relationship? I know that as a bartender I am surrounded by unhealthy lifestyles, so by default I think any relationship I find is most likely going to be unhealthy. I have this image in my head of the 9-5 types that gather at a few bars I’ve been to downtown, young professionals with their loosened ties and top button unbuttoned, holding a beer (only one, they have work tomorrow) and living their perfect lives. These are the kind of bars I run from, but some reason I feel like “downtown” is a lifestyle, a perfection in healthy relationships that I will never have.

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by Laurelin

Heartbreak. It happens to everyone, and people deal with it in different ways. I remember the first time I ever felt it, the impossible sadness and emptiness that just washes over your body in a wave when someone decides they don’t want you anymore. I was in high school, having dinner with my family and the phone rang. He always called around that time. We talked for hours every night. That night was different.

“You didn’t see this coming?” He asked. “L, school’s over. I want to be free for the summer.” I hung up the phone, wanting to scream and cry, throw the phone through the window…but I stayed silent. I swallowed it all, and in that moment I decided that that’s how I would get by. I walked calmly back to the dinner table, smiled and carried on. My parents never even knew anything was wrong. Inside, I was crushed and angry, outside, I was calm, cool and collected.

I didn’t date anyone else for two years, but eventually high school ended and college was a new start. I met someone, and it was a fairy tale. I still consider myself lucky to have known anything like that. It ended well enough, looking back, but it took me another solid two years to get passed that one as well. After we agreed to call it quits I just wanted to give up. It couldn’t be over, but it was, and it was next to impossible to move on. But, after college, just as before, I did move on. The next guy and I dated on and off for a few years as well. He was different then the rest. He was a bit controlling, but I was all too ready to accept the roll of housewife after spending the last few years drinking my face off in dark bars. I didn’t go out, just came home after work, crawled into bed, and loved him with everything I had. My friends didn’t trust him; I thought they were crazy.

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by Aaron Colter

Back in my post about Emerald City Comic Con, I highlighted Rexa a monster pornography art book by Jason “JFish” Fischer, and hoped I’d be able to preview some pages from his upcoming work. Well, Fischer was kind enough to send me a couple pages from a book he’s debuting at the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland this weekend called Junqueland written by Robin Bogert. He says the story is about “a couple of monsters having tasty fun in a bakery.”

So . . . yeah. Check it out. Shit’s crazy, and as far as I can tell, about some dinosaurs fucking, but it’s probably much deeper than that. Or not. Whatever. Who cares, it’s rad.

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by Laurelin

When I first came up with the idea for this column, the name “Life Beyond the Bar Scene” just seemed perfect. The life I lead is so immersed in the service industry that I really can’t see past it right now; everyone I know in Boston I met at a bar. Literally, everyone. Everywhere I turn, it’s bartenders, servers, bouncers, barbacks, nightlife, my life. It wasn’t always this way.

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by Erin Broadley

Ghost towns have a bad reputation: Shop doors creak, saloons swirl with phantoms of unloved prostitutes, rotting jail cells are haunted by remorseless outlaws, and the dusty streets are patrolled by spirits of hardened deputies.

For some, ghost towns are merely creepy roadside attractions; for others they are American landmarks brimming with history’s shadows and latent inspiration. The abandoned mining settlement of Jerome, Arizona is one of the oldest and largest American ghost towns. Until recently, its roads lay ruined and its doors were boarded up. It quietly waited for some headstrong thrill-seeker to dust it off and polish its potential. Now a vibrant artist community, Jerome is the place that Maynard James Keenan calls home.

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by Laurelin

Relationships are funny. I remember thinking when I was dating my ex that two people couldn’t be more perfect for each other. I was so lucky to be with my best friend and I couldn’t imagine facing the world with anyone but him by my side. As time went on I think I realized that maybe that was part of our problem – maybe we were always just meant to be friends. The world started looking a little different to me when I finally pinpointed that what I had always viewed as one of our strengths was actually a fatal weakness.

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by Laurelin

Missy recently posted something on SuicideGirls that got me thinking. She asked us to make videos of how SG has changed our lives, what it meant to us and how it has shaped our pasts and futures. Even though I am not a Suicide Girl (not for lack of trying!), I couldn’t help but think back on everything that SG has brought to my life…

I remember the first time I ran across SuicideGirls like it was yesterday. It was 2005, and I was at Newbury Comics, happily clutching some Tori Amos CD singles and a pair of fuzzy leopard dice to hang from my review mirror. A book caught my eye. There was a topless girl with tiny black pigtails, looking quite surly staring back at me from the cover. “She’s adorable,” I thought. The inside pages carried a strong statement, one that is captivating to alternative women of all ages, races and body types. Most of us have spent our entire lives feeling like we don’t belong. These girls looked like they didn’t fit in either. They were covered in tattoos, some had pink hair, others seemed to have more metal than skin – but in that, they were perfect. And naked. In front of everyone!

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