Your Mom is a Sex Addict.

I suppose it is possible that I am going to sound strange by saying this, but has anyone else out there been running across all sorts of books and articles and documentaries later telling you how addicted to sex we all are? No? Just me? Okay, well now I feel weird about myself.

Sadly none of these books or articles or documentaries are about how everybody is getting laid and having a good time. No, it would appear that we are in the grip of a sexual-addiction epidemic, or so said a recent NEWSWEEK cover story.

I do not doubt that there is a sexual-addiction epidemic, but I very much doubt it is anything new.

I did recently read that the prevalence of free and easily accessible internet porn (and let me tell you, there is A LOT of it out there! Or so I am told) has been dangerously and unreasonably altering what we expect out of our sex lives, or rather what we EXPECT out of our sex lives RIGHT NOW GODAMMIT! And that I can buy prêt easily.

I don’t really have anything to add to this debate, except that if you’re getting some action regularly, I hope that you are being healthy and kind and sexy about it, in which case, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN READING THIS BLOG RIGHT NOW?

Anyway, here is the NEWSWEEK ARTICLE I thought it was interesting.


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Ke$ha, Still Better than Metallica.

So if you happen to actually know me, which most of you do (except for the one guy in Denmark who stumbled across this blog looking for naked pictures of Jessica Alba, sucker!), then you probably know that I have been on a regrettable Ke$ha bender the last few months. I am not simply a Ke$ha apologist, no I’m an advocate, an apostle if you will.

With the notable exception of the Black Eyed Peas, I try not to proselytize about my Pop music predilections (yes, I am purposefully trying to use large words so that I sound less lame. Is it working?), however sometimes Pop music comes along that is just the right mix of engineered and yet somehow invigoratingly not sterile. Also, I have been going through some difficult times and Ke$ha’s music is both fun and completely lacking any emotional resonance, so it works for me in that way too.

Anyway, why bring this up other than to embarrass myself on the internet? Because I came across this article: The Anti-Gaga, in a recent NEWSWEEK and I found it to be sort of interesting and humanizing. I mean, yes, she is still kind of just a dumb pop star girl, but I think that the idea of this music as a sort of anti-glam self-expression-for-the-poor is interesting, especially in an era when all of the symbols and sounds of punk have been appropriated by the marketing machine, maybe there is something to the idea of getting the marketing machine to propagate the anti- (‘anti-‘ whatever, it doesn’t really make any difference).

Or am I just intellectualizing?

That might be possible too.

Anyway, while you’re scoffing, I should tell you that my taste in music is just as good as yours, only I remember that Elvis was Pop once, so were your precious Beatles, so were the Stones. I argue that Metallica always was, so too Rancid, Nine Inch Nails, The Smiths, The Stranglers. Shit, Nirvana was somebody’s Pop music too.

Anyway, read the article, or don’t. It is an exercise in freedom.

Here is Ke$ha’s “TiK-ToK” video. The video is both low-budget and low-concept, but I challenge you to play it and not get this song stuck in your head.



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Mark Twain Weighs In On Mark Twain.

So if you’re a lover of books or words or the people who write books filled with words, then you should go and pick yourself up a copy of the current NEWSWEEK with a picture of Mark Twain on the cover.

Why?

Well most specifically, there is a love letter of an article to Twain, it is ostensibly about his new autobiography (which he declared was to be released until 100 years after his death). But really it is an article about Twain as the best kind of paradoxical American malcontent.

Here is a link to the article: MYSTEIOUS STRANGER

But please don’t just read the article here, go to the corner store and buy a copy of NEWSWEEK. They could really use the money. They just got bought by a gazillionaire who was told by everybody in the industry that the magazine is a dead horse.

The article, by one Mister Malcolm Jones, includes a line that I love. He is talking about Twain’s use of humor and he writes, “But it’s his humor, more than anything, that makes him seem like a friend, a contemporary, maybe not anyone you know, but someone you wish you knew. Humor is famous as a leveling device, but it doesn’t just cut its subjects down to size. It makes democrats and equals of us all. You can’t be funny and talk down to people.”

Anyway, it is a wonderful little article about Twain.

Additionally there is an article about the growth of self-publishing in the digital age, as well as a breakdown of all the interesting and important books that you might have missed out on over the last year.

So go get it and then come back here and leave a comment thanking me.


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100 Books, in List Form! You Love Lists!

So click this link to go to NEWSWEEK.COM'S list of the 100 greatest books of all time. I love lists like this. This one should actually be called, “100 Books You Need To Read In Order To Live In The World”.

Since I’m basically an English Major, I have to listen to people talk a lot about “the canon of English literature!” but no one exactly maintains a list or anything. English professors seem to feel that they are specifically tasked with carrying the burden of maintaining the canon. They seem to feel that they have some almost divine responsibility. And maybe they do, but they should relax about it.

Anyway, sorry about the digression.

The point is that I wish that this list could become the list that English professors the world over used when assigning reading. This list has Winnie the Pooh, among others.
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