By Matt Dunbar
In a depressingly pointless attempt to integrate the two activities occupying most of my time these days – Politico and Hulu (yes, I’ve excluded pin-up sites and pornography) – I’ve created a crib sheet for the political sympathies of the characters on The Office. Reflecting on the exercise, I am not only ashamed at how unnecessarily nuanced the analysis is, but also extremely disheartened that I actually spent a good hour designing a ven diagram representing Andy’s politicial socialization at Cornell.
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by Brandon Perkins
This is the second installment of our futuristic fiction series, Please Use Rear Exit. To catch up with Brown BTWN bus, find Part One here.
Please Use Rear Exit: Chapter 2 – How to Buy Low
After swiping his card and traversing the turnstile, Mikhail casually crossed the #720’s brightly-lit corridor and walked into Low without having to show his ID. Once his eyes had adjusted to the damp dimness of the bar’s dingy interior, he was immediately struck by the sharp shift in the bar’s demographics since his last visit. The beer-belly boisterousness of the blue collar set had miraculously transformed into an invasion of fashion-challenged bro’s and vodka-slamming sorority sluts. It was only a few months prior, one of those rare times that Katya had let him meet his friends for a night out, that Mikhail observed the usual Budweiser-sipping factory rats as he quickly drank a Jameson on the rocks. Back then, nothing had changed — it was exactly as he knew it, for every pre-Katya Friday night over a three-year-span, when he’d stop in Low for a quick fidolo drink to start his evening.
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by Nicole Powers
“You can’t keep a good dog down.”
– John Lydon
John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) says he doesn’t like tattoos, but try not to hold that against him. If I’d been calling in on behalf of a golf magazine, he’d probably tell me how much he’s offended by the sport. Not because he’s disagreeable — he really isn’t — but because first and foremost, above all else, the OG punk rocker is a provocateur and contrarian.
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by Blogbot
On October 14th, CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker will unleash a new Level 26 serial killer. Picking up where his first digi-novel*, Dark Origins, left off, Dark Prophecy follows Special Circs investigator Steve Dark, who this time finds his destiny entwined with that of the Tarot Card Killer.
In the run up to the book’s release, the SuicideGirls community has been invited to participate in a very special mystery. Follow the clues (pictured), and visit this link, and fate may lead you to what Zuiker promises will be “some kind of cool surprise.”
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by Blogbot
It’s debatable whether Die Antwood is plain special or a bit special-ed if you catch my drift. And that’s kinda the point. It may be shit, it may be genius, it may be carefully manicured shit genius, or it may simply be genius shit. As founding member Ninja says, “Is this Die Antwoord fucking terrible, like fucking retardedly the worst thing ever or the most amazing thing in the entire universe?”
The subject of much (BoingBoing-fueled) speculation and a bizarre music vid – Enter the Ninja – which spread like Ebola over the interwebs, it’s been hard for even the most curious to decide either way. But this month the elusive Cape Town rap/rave meets “zef-so-fresh” trio (comprised of rapper Ninja, vocalist Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek) will finally drop their pants and show us what they’re made of. (For the record: District 9 director Neill Blomkamp “fucking” loves them, and Davids Lynch and Fincher are said to be fans.)
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by Nicole Powers
“Restraint means more to me now.”
– Jake Shears
When Scissor Sisters first burst forth with their debut self-titled filthy gorgeous album in 2004 their brand of hedonistic dance was too hot for mainstream America to handle (the CD was even pulled from Wal-Mart’s shelves). It was a different story across the Atlantic in the U.K. however, where the band were welcomed with open arms – and notable record sales. There the release spawned a total of five Top 20 singles, and became the country’s top-selling album that year (and the 9th biggest seller of the decade). The band’s follow up full-length, Ta-Dah, released in 2006, also fared much better outside of the U.S. It went straight to the top of the U.K. album charts, and the first single, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin'”(a collaboration with Elton John), also hit the number one spot – and stayed there for four consecutive weeks.
The wide chasm in reception and record sales between the two continents – the Scissor Sisters’ first two albums each sold in excess of 3 million units across Europe – can easily be explained when looked at in the context of cultural attitudes. The more liberal Europeans have been dancing continuously since the ’70s and dance-based music is ingrained in the fabric of European life. In America however, seizing on the opportunity afforded by AIDS, the disproportionately influential Christian right whipped up a frenzy of anti-dance “disco sucks” hysteria, stopping the party in its tracks and creating a deep-seated prejudice against the genre as a whole that remains prevalent to this day in significant pockets of society.
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by Fred Topel
“Eventually I’ll have to do something so I earn some money.”
– David Cross
David Cross is so deadpan, you might not even be able to tell he’s joking. Certainly when you type his text out and read it, it feels totally straight. That’s why it’s funny. He says things that are inappropriate or ridiculous in casual conversation, then moves on. It’s not that he’s “on” like a lot of comedians who aren’t comfortable unless someone’s laughing. Cross might prefer if you didn’t get it and reported a sarcastic remark as fact. Not so fast, David Cross – we’re onto you.
His new show, The Incredibly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, gives Cross another vehicle for that type of humor. The IFC series stars Cross in the title role. He created and wrote the show about an energy drink salesman sent to England to head up the company’s U.K. sales force. Todd keeps lying about his accomplishments, his abilities and even his home address. It makes his bad decisions worse when he tries to cover for his fibs.
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