The Harrowing Tale of My Wikipedia Edit
When surfing the Web recently for info on writer/infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I notice that her Wikipedia entry contains many “citation needed” notices.
Good Samaritan that I try to be, I decide to try to improve the quality and reliability of this Wikipedia entry.
Better Samaritan that I try to be, I decide to share with [sic] readers how this process unfolds.
Awesome. Continue reading Infidel:
…with female Homo sapiens, Phoenix, Arizona (ca. 2000 CE)
Girl at Piano
by Roy Lichtenstein
(1963)
Adolescent female twenty-somethings who wear loads of pink and leave deep scratches down your back
Grown-up girls who’ve seen every Disney cartoon and can sing each song in chronological order Continue reading Sample encounters…
…for Aberrational Honesty: Arguments for Ignoring MPAA Ratings
Nine-tenths of the appeal of pornography is due to the indecent feelings concerning sex which moralists inculcate in the young; the other tenth is physiological, and will occur in one way or another whatever the state of the law may be.
—Bertrand Russell,
Marriage and Morals
(1929)
Ahead, I will discuss documentarian Kirby Dick’s This Film is Not Yet Rated and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Those involved with the MPAA claim its purpose is to warn consumers about potentially objectionable material (sex, violence, language, and drug use, for example) in films. It does this, but in a way that outsiders, myself included, often find puzzling. Continue reading This Document is Rated X…
by Jonathan Hust and Clifton Smith
This exchange took place between our contributor Jonathan Hust and co-editor Clifton Smith. It concerns Jonathan’s addition of a “Current Must-Hear Shortlist” to his Review of Autumn of the Seraphs, also featured in this issue. The list includes five additional albums and a numeric rating; it prompted the following editorial debate. Continue reading An Editorial Debate
by Jonathan Hust and Clifton Smith
This is the second part of an ongoing correspondence.
Jonathan,
Why should we bother with all of this song scrutiny? What possible good could all of this extra thinking amount to? Isn’t it enough to like whatever we like as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody?
Continue reading Song Analysis Correspondence (Part Two)
by Clifton Smith
they seem,
like anything familiar
(and pleasant),
addictive Continue reading and people?
by Clifton Smith
Collaborator: Trevor Helminski
A noteworthy aspect of John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus is that it contains explicit sex. Only a handful of serious films (films that, unlike pornography, attempt more than sexual excitation) have included explicit sex. The most noteworthy aspect of Shortbus is that it gives us explicit, realistic sex in which the participants benefit sexually and psychologically from the sex.
by Jonathan Hust and Clifton Smith
This correspondence was conceived to be an ongoing dialogue. The next issue of [sic] will contain the next series of letters.
Jonathan,
Here is my idea: we will write about lyrics! Great, right? Well, there’s more. Continue reading Song Analysis Correspondence (Part One)