Sundance Channel

“The first dating site for humans”

Em and Lo — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:00:41 +0000

It seems like just yesterday the two of us were out on the fire escape of the Nerve.com office, smoking (smoking!) and coming up with the profile questions for the original Nerve Personals (you may remember "______ is sexy; ______ is sexier"). The Nerve Personals had a meteoric rise, signing up affiliate partners like Salon and The Onion left and right. It was so successful, it spun itself off into a purely personals company called Spring Street Networks. But what goes up must come down: the personals network was eventually sold to Friend Finder long after we'd gone and the whole thing just seemed to fizzle out, at least on Nerve's end.

How different are girls’ and boys’ brains?

Em and Lo — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:00:54 +0000

It's a favorite question of ours...okay, of mine (i.e. Lo's), and my personal answer is that yes, there are differences, but not as many or as great as our culture presumes. The bias we have as a society actually influences the development of boys' and girls' brains (which are elastic) so significantly as they grow that by the time they're adults there's much more difference than there would be if we lived in a more egalitarian, less Men-Are-From-Mars world. In other words, it's a self-fullfilling prophecy. So while there are differences, we would do better to celebrate our similarities, or at least our potential for overlapping skills and desires and tendencies, so that both sexes don't feel limited by narrow gender roles...

29 sex tips from 29 sexperts

Em and Lo — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:00:29 +0000

College Candy recently asked us along with a bunch of other sex writers to contribute a sex tip, the kind of thing "that you wish your friends/boyfriends/ex’s would tell you - not the tips that you read in magazines that are impossible to achieve (rope swing in my bedroom...say what?!)." They also asked everyone to submit a "HILARIOUS" picture.

Feminist Ryan Gosling

Em and Lo — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:00:57 +0000

We never really understood the whole Ryan Gosling thing - he seemed kind of like a pompous, pretentious ac-tor with zero sense of humor. That is, until we saw him on Ellen in onesie pajamas on a stationary bike. Boy, were we schooled then. Now we're on board - well, we're not on board the crazy train of Gosling fandom, but we're at the station admiring from afar. For example, we're not so gaga for Gosling that we could tell you exactly where the whole "Hey Girl" meme came from. (According to Jezebel: "Apparently, the basic concept...

A new dating site for people who can’t have intercourse

Em and Lo — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:00:41 +0000

In contrast to the above post title, the title of the Time article we just read is "A New Dating Site for People Who Can't Have Sex." These are two very different things: you can have sex without having intercourse (hello, oral, manual, frottage, etc.), but if you can't have sex then that implies you can't do anything sexual. We thought this new dating site, 2date4love, was for people who can't or don't want to have any (or much) sex, be it because of illness, faulty equipment, low libido, asexuality, age, past trauma, religious reasons or whatever. But it turns out the site is targeted at people who can't have intercourse (says so right on the homepage).

My Body Gallery

Em and Lo — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:00:39 +0000

My Body Gallery is a new online photo collecting project with this goal: "to help women objectively see what we look like, break the pact of silence around 'weight' and come to some acceptance that we are all beautiful." The idea is that all sorts of real women upload full-body images of themselves (their faces obscured if they so desire; no nudity) and input their height, weight, shape (pear, banana, apple, or hourglass) and clothing sizes.

Portable pocket smut for the blind

Em and Lo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:00:28 +0000

Well, maybe it's not just for the blind. It could be for anyone who likes a little something left to the imagination. Or for anyone who doesn't want people watching their porn over their shoulder on the train home. For all these types, SonicErotica offers free (for now) downloadable stories and confessions "to make your ears blush."

Damn You, Autocorrect!

Em and Lo — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:00:17 +0000

The best forwarded email we've gotten in a long time is, by far, the collection of ichat and text excerpts from DamnYouAutoCorrect.com. We received the forward in public, which made the sheer joy of secretly reading it all the sweeter: we're talking uncontrollable, tear-spilling giggles. That's because autocorrect accidents are, of course, the best when they are sex-related...and totally inappropriate...and between family members, especially parents and their children. Don't waste a second wondering if these are possibly made up, just enjoy the unbridled horror.

Love letters to VS Naipaul

Em and Lo — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:00:32 +0000

A few weeks ago we apprised you of the ridiculous and offensive comments made by Nobel laureate and jackass VS Naipaul -- basically that all women writers are 'sentimental' and 'unequal to me'. There have been some great reactions to that old-fashioned fart's blatant sexism. The latest is writer Joanne Elizabeth Valin's new blog, Love Letters to VS Naipaul: "On the occasion of his declaration that no woman writer is, has been, or ever could be his equal." She's currently collecting and curating "intelligent letters with intelligent content. Be they spiked with vitriol, awash with sentiment, amused to the point of disbelief, or simply bored with the same old argument, your love letters should both inform and entertain." The first just went up by author Edie Meidav (whose new novel Lola, California we'll be excerpting here in the next few weeks) and more will be added soon. We asked Valin to elaborate on the criteria for submissions that will make the cut:

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Em and Lo — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:00:20 +0000

We’ve been bemoaning the lackadaisical nature of blog creation these days: theme+culled images+captions=instablog! Just as there is a site for every sexual fetish (giantesses, anyone?), there is a site for every combination of mild interests and/or hobbies and/or pet peeves. Last week it was Awesome People Hanging Out Together; this week it’s My Daguerreotype Boyfriend [...]

3eanuts

Em and Lo — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:00:29 +0000

We should probably post something about the royal spectacle wedding, but fuck it. No love or marriage or sex today. Just existential angst: the genius site 3eanuts.com posts Peanuts comics without the last panel to reveal just how dark and depressing Charles Schulz’s world view really was: The somber subject matter of Peanuts often goes [...]

MyBadParent.com

Em and Lo — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:00:15 +0000

Feeling bad about accidentally dropping your kid on his head? MyBadParent.com will make you feel better immediately. It's a collection of kid and parent images (culled from various Internet sites as well as submissions) that you won't see in Parenting Magazine, ranging from the choreographed-for-a-laugh to someone-call-Social-Services-immediately. It's like if FAILblog had a baby -- and that baby was still in its infancy: MyBadParent has only been around for a few months; it can't allow comments yet; it can't spell very well; and it's still figuring out how to tell a joke.

How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place

Em and Lo — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:05:25 +0000

We’ve got our TiVo hooked up to get the latest Ted Talks on our TV, so we were delighted to find Mechai Viravaidya’s presentation “How Mr. Condom Made Thailand a Better Place” in our “Now Playing” list recently. Viravaidya is an eloquent and funny speaker, which alone makes it worth watching the 14-minute talk. But [...]

Know Your Meme

Em and Lo — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:00:42 +0000

We’ve been long-time fans (well, long-time in terms of Internet years) of the website and podcast “Know Your Meme,” a “web series and online database dedicated to documenting Internet culture, one scientismic investigation at a time.” They give you information on the back-story, viral development and spin-offs of every crazy contemporary meme out there, from [...]

Chat Roulette piano improv

Em and Lo — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:00:28 +0000

Last week, fellow SUNfiltered blogger Matthew Rodriguez found a compilation Chat Roulette video that he called “the best…and most safe-for-work item I’ve seen yet of the Chat Roulette experience” (one faceless user has a handwritten sign that’s turned on its side which reads — once you turn your head to read it — “If you [...]

We always knew modern design was bad for your love life

Em and Lo — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:00:16 +0000

The things that once so defined him -- shag carpeting, Room & Board sofas, monogamy -- now suffocated him. -- via UnhappyHipsters.com If you've ever browsed the pages of, say, Dwell magazine and wondered how the hell anyone could even fart in such an antiseptic environment, let alone have an orgasm, then you'll love UnhappyHipsters.com as much as we do. The site is genius in its simplicity: photos from the pages of Dwell magazine and, okay, mostly just Dwell, with one-liner captions guessing at the inner life of the dwellers in question. Sure, we've always been proponents of clearing clutter -- especially in your bedroom -- in order to focus on the task at hand, whether that task is dinner, email, romance, or an orgasm. But there's lack of clutter and then there's austere design and architecture that seems to scream, "I DARE you to have fun in here!" A sampling from a world in which "wet spot" is a dirty word after the jump.

ThingsThatAreDoingIt.com

Em and Lo — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:00:38 +0000

If you like your humor cheap and juvenile but find PeopleOfWalmart.com just a bit too mean and depressing, then check out ThingsThatAreDoingIt.com -- a collection of inadvertently sexually-charged inanimate objects. Many of the coolest ones seem to have dubious origins (no way is that naked tree goddess not Photoshopped) but the ones that look genuine (like the friendly trees above) will lift your spirits and put a smile on your face that you can feel good about in a way that People of Walmart's "Front to Back" cannot. Here's a sample:

Beautiful Agony, the o-face video website, turns 5!

Em and Lo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:00:50 +0000

BeautifulAgony.com launched in 2004 as a response to what the founders saw as a vacuum of real erotica on the Internet. It features videos of contributors' o-faces, i.e. orgasms from the neck up. Hundreds and hundreds of videos later -- they update each weekday -- the site is still going strong. It's heavy-breathing sexy without being obscene in the slightest -- quite an accomplishment. You have to pay to join ($14.95 a month) but there are plenty of free samples in case your sex life is on a recession-induced budget. We chatted with c0-founder Lauren Olney about the site: Do you post every video you receive? Unfortunately not all the videos we receive make the cut. Mostly it’s technical problems that prevent us from using a contribution: poor lighting, framing, or flashing a little too much flesh. Anything that’s obviously faked or exaggerated will also get politely declined we’re looking for authenticity, genuine emotion -- and believe me, after five years, we know how to spot a fake! We also require a Confessions interview with each Beautiful Agony submission, so if a contributor is not willing to speak openly and honestly about themselves and/or their experiences on camera, then we can’t really use their "o-face" video, no matter how sensational it might be.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Em and Lo — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:00:54 +0000

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns Zach Galifianakis is one of those weirdo comedians you either love or you hate. We love him, mostly for his entirely inappropriate sexual humor. So if you haven’t checked out his Funny or Die series, “Between Two Ferns”, we recommend you blow off work for [...]

The Snuggie Sutra

Em and Lo — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:00:30 +0000

Years ago, we were part of the team that created Nerve.com’s Position of the Day. The challenge was coming up with the positions; the fun was coming up with the names: “The Quasimodo,” “The Wet Blanket,” the “I Can See My House from Here.” So we were really curious about the Snuggie Sutra, a website [...]

FAILblog can help mend a broken heart

Em and Lo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:00:32 +0000

We were once fond of telling people who’ve been dumped to buy a box of red wine and watch some good mindless action movies. But we’ve now got a better idea: buy a box of rose (it is summer, after all) and spend a few hours scrolling through the archives of FAIL Blog. (If you [...]

And you thought your family was bad

Em and Lo — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:08 +0000

"Happy Mother's Day!" photo from Awkward Family Photos Just in case one of your friends hasn't forwarded you this new website yet, check out AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. In the awesome tradition of FAILblog and The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, Awkward Family Photos aims to "spread the awkwardness," in their case by collecting some of the most horrendous displays of familial unity -- and hilariously captioning them.