If you suspected a few members of the Justice League of America were gay (hello, Aquaman?) and always wished they’d come out of the closet, there’s now a new ALL-gay superhero comic just for you. It’s called Spandex. What it lacks in artistic skill (visually speaking, this ain’t no DC Comic), it makes up for in fabulous gay pride. There’s “Liberty (glamorous transvestite superhero), Diva (a lesbian Wonder Woman), Prowler (absorbs the abilities of gay people), Glitter (male Dazzler), Indigo (beautiful French teleporter), and Mr Muscles & Butch (strong twins)” (see above). We would have thought there’d be at least one big buff or bearded super dude and one super butch without cleavage, but that’s just us (and we’re neither gay nor comic-book readers, so what do we know?). It’s available from the U.K. but you can download a pdf of the first 40-page comic in the series via Paypal here. More excerpts after the jump.
We weren’t sure how or why the sex symbol with diarrhea of the mouth, Megan Fox, got an entire cover article dedicated to her in the New York Times Sunday magazine. Is she really such a cultural force? She’s been in like a whopping two movies (we’re counting TRANSFORMERS I and II as one)! Well, we guess a billion Google searches can’t be wrong. We weren’t expecting to be riveted by the article, but surprisingly there was a ton of fascinating stuff on sex and gender roles — and not just out of skilled profiler Lynn Hirschberg’s mouth. Here are some of the best bits (in case you just can’t bring yourself to read a prettied up version of an US Weekly article):
Consumer Reports recently tested a whopping 15,000 condoms (bought by one dude!) representing 20 models. Alas, there was no actual-use testing done in the lab on the slab, just the boring scientific stuff: packaging examination, stretching, measuring, filling them with liquid to check for leaks, and inflating them with air to the size of 5-gallon water jugs to check for strength until they popped! Wait, who said science was boring? (Check out the video above to see how they do it — try to ignore the cheesy wink-wink-nudge-nudge commentary.) Seven out of the twenty got a perfect score — they include one Durex, two Lifestyles, and four Trojan models — but to get the specific models and their exact ratings you have to be a subscriber. Damn you, Consumer Reports! But a little birdie told us that one of the best ones (receiving a perfect score in strength, reliability and leakage) was Trojan Her Pleasure Ecstasy and one of the worst ones (for strength and leakage) was the Night Light glow-in-the-dark model (though it definitely would give wearers the chance to recreate that awesome scene from Skin Deep).
Some people have been questioning Rihanna’s choice to wait to talk about her domestic abuse right until the release of her new album. But that’s just the way the magazine-TV-PR-celebrity-promotional circle jerk works: celebrities don’t tend to chat to magazine writers or TV presenters just because they feel like it, they do it because they are contractually required to promote something. And magazines, TV shows, et al are more than happy to comply, because celebrity cover stories sell like hotcakes.
When Condé Nast decided to cease publication of Gourmet Magazine my heart sunk a little bit. Though I rarely used a recipe from the book I often times found myself perusing the pages for inspiration. It was a quality magazine.
As the publishing world changes at a drastic pace it is interesting to watch what becomes of print media. For someone who escaped as a child into the pages of magazines, and who still does, it’s a bit saddening to see these guys become extinct.
On the website Last Days of Gourmet Kevin DeMaria wrote “October 5th, 2009 in shock and disbelief, using garbage pails for long exposures, I took these photos of the last days at Gourmet.Although at times it was hard for me to shoot the common places in the offices at Gourmet, I knew I needed to document where I loved working for the last 8 years.”
The images captured will resonate with more than just those who work in print media. They capture the sorrow of many Americans who have lost their jobs.
Damn it! Why, or why, didn’t we get off our asses and pitch Time the “Sex and the Eco City” piece in this week’s issue? It’s all stuff we’ve covered before! [Shameless self-promotion alert:] Vegan condoms? Check. Hand-powered vibrators? Check. JimmyJane products? Check. Phthalates? Check? Safer material options? Check. In fact, we covered it all in our 2006 book Sex Toy: An A-Z Guide to Bedside Accessories — but that was back when sex toys were still “dirty.” Oh well. Maybe there’s still time to pitch the New York Times.
The brand new Filament magazine in the U.K. calls bullshit on the so-called common knowledge that women don’t like to look. The real problem, they figure, is that women have just never had anything decent to look at. According to their “Female Gaze” mission statement: “From research we’ve learnt that what most women find erotic does not at all match what is typically thought of as an erotic image of a man designed for women. For example, on average, women prefer: men who are not muscle-bound; men with more feminine face shapes; men with attractive faces; images that show the subject’s character and the environment he is in.” Oh yeah, and sometimes women like to see erections, too. And there’s the, er, rub.
In their hook up issue (Jul 2-8, 2009), Time Out New York launched a new sex and dating section. One fun feature you can access online is called “One-Night-Stand Confessions” where New Yorkers reveal one thing they’ve always wanted to tell a past fling. This being the age of Twitter, these revelations aren’t eloquent personal essays mining the lascivious liaisons of days gone by for philosophical gold, but instead are just blunt blurbs on Post-It notes (natch). Of the 44 in all, some are romantic (”I still dream about that night”), some are fake or at least fake-sounding (”I wish we weren’t related”), some are rude (”Thanks for telling me I could do whatever I want…I did and I bet ur ass hurts”), and a lot are angry and/or body-fluid-related (”Thanks for peeing the bed then never returning my favorite earrings”) — but all have really nothing to do with New York and everything to do with the awkwardness of casual sex — i.e. collectively, they’re universal.
You read the New York Times weekend edition cover to cover; you spice up cocktail party conversation by quoting Proust and Kant; you adore obscure indie shorts on SundanceChannel.com. You’re an intellectual who never shies away from metaphysical debates or multi-syllabic words. BUT…you’ve got a deep dark secret: you’re addicted to trashy romance novels or, worse, you read Playboy — and not for the articles! Don’t worry, your secret is safe on the commute home with Clever Covers — book and magazine covers to hide your private shame while making you seem erudite. The book-size cover is titled “Complete Japanese for International Business” and the magazine-size cover is “Advanced Quantum Physics” (8 Canadian dollars each). But be warned: You’re on your own if you get hit on by a Japanese PhD candidate or Henry Stapp. (Look it up.)
