Girl porn

Note to my Nieces: OK, the new “Twilight” flick is opening tomorrow, and I’m guessing you guys are still big fans of the franchise, so I thought I’d put down a few thoughts on the subect:

1. Pornography isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s worth remembering that it’s porn.

2. “Twilight” is porn.

Like all porn, it’s designed to appeal to your most basic instincts and desires, in a way that real life never will. And like all porn, it can teach you some really bad lessons if you take it too seriously.

The new flick, “Eclipse,” is a continuation of the classic girl-porn threesome (guy-porn threesomes usually involve twins, often Swedish ones): There’s one guy who’s dashing and dangerous, and another who’s secure and supportive, and they’re both crazy about the girl and she has to choose one (but not right away, she can string them both along for a while — remember the early threesome in “Grey’s Anatomy”?).

So go ahead and enjoy the silly escapism of the girl-porn that is “Twilight,” but try to have some perspective when it comes to how that sort of thing relates to real life (hint: it doesn’t).

(inspirational poster via Bits & Pieces; cartoon via The Oatmeal)

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News and nerds

The always excellent Cory Doctorow has an article on what print publishers can learn from computer geeks.

Short version: Do lots of experiments, expect most of them to fail, keep the whole process cheap, and avoid proprietary standards that get you (and your audience) locked in to a certain way of doing things.

(pic via Zany Pickle)

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Web 1.0

Before there were blogs, before there was social media, there was Feed.  Along with Suck and (pre-corporate) Salon, Feed was one of the pioneers in using the Web as a publishing platform for more than just a personal homepage or a canonical list of Steven Wright one-liners.

It would be wonderful if Feed made a return, but at least they’re doing the next best thing — putting their archives back online, along with a front page of reminiscences by their contributors. Oh, and a Twitter feed just to show they’re still “with it” or something.

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Learning to eat your words

Slate’s interview with chef/author/TV star Tony Bourdain (part of a series of interviews with various people on the subject of being wrong) has some interesting insights on travel, learning to cook, dealing with mistakes (your own and others), and how getting to know people can take the edge off your hatred for them (whether they’re racist or ex-KGB or Emeril Lagasse).

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Conspiracy leery

So,  lefty watchdog group MediaMatters got hold of an advance copy of Glenn Beck’s new novel (a Ludlum-esque conspiracy thriller with the Ludlum-esque title “The Overton Window”).

And while Lewis Black of “The Daily Show” still has the all-time epic takedown of Beck’s schtick, the Media Matters folks are having some serious fun with the book’s ludicrous plot devices, internal contradictions and general looniness of it all — make sure you check out the “Don’t tease the panther” bit.

(pic via zzzlist)

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The Boulder identity

I really hope the Boulder, Colo. band 3Oh!3 catches on in a big way, because I want to be in a conversation where someone mentions one of the band members, and I get to say, “Which one is he — the one who looks like Matt Damon, or the one who looks like Andrew Ridgeley?”

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A distant shift

Scissor Sisters covering Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb“ — How much of an idiot am I that I didn’t know about this before? And how much of a Pink Floyd geek am I that I noticed they switched the lyrics (“a distant ship floats on the horizon” when it should be “a distant ship, smoke on the horizon”)? It’s a weird take on the song, but I like the way they make use of the stuttering guitar riff that’s woven throughout “The Wall” but not actually used on the original “Numb” track.  P.S. If you like this sort of thing, The Onion also has an ongoing cover project.

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Bowie iTunes Playlist

David Bowie iTunes playlist

The latest entry in an ongoing installment from This Recording features a Bowie playlist. Not a playlist of Bowie songs, but a playlist of songs selected by Bowie, with mp3 links and brief explanations of his choices.

My favorite is his entry for “Gathering Storm” by Godspeed You Black Emperor!: “GYBE is among my, erm, two favorite Montreal bands, Arcade Fire being the other. All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.”

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Not sentimental, no

For those of you who are already suffering from “Glee” withdrawal after the season finale, here’s a semi-inspiring rendition of P.S. 22 singing “Lisztomania” (by indie-rock darlings Phoenix). (via MightyGirl)

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Calvin-ism

Calvin Minus Hobbes is sort of like Garfield Minus Garfield except that it’s not really “minus” Hobbes the tiger, it just shows him as a toy (rather than real) tiger (via Neatorama). I can’t see that without thinking of David Guy‘s take on the “Saddest ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ Ever”:

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