News, Shit Going On In The World, Sports

Are You A Bad American For Not Liking Olympics?

Andrew Belonsky :: Friday, February 12th, 2010 3:20 pm

The Olympics officially kick off this evening, and millions of people plan on tuning in tonight and over the next few weeks. An estimated fifty-three percent, actually. Although that number’s down a bit from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, it’s still a significant amount. Yet, unlike these people, I can’t bring myself to give a damn…not about the stats and scores, anyway. I don’t much care whether we win in figure skating, the most popular sport, or bobsledding, the gayest. Nor does roughly forty-seven percent of the nation. I wonder: Does that make us bad American, or good ones?

Guest Article: Gavin McInnes Discusses Roman Polanski And Child Predators

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, February 12th, 2010 2:30 pm

Roman Polanski’s 18^th feature film, “The Ghost Writer,” opens this week. Its imminent release has reignited the well-worn debate about Polanski’s arrest in 2009 for a rape charge that is now over 31 years old. Below, a timely discussion about what makes a predator a predator by the writer and media polymath Gavin McInnes. This article originally appeared in the fifteenth issue of Death+Taxes.

Does Your Gun Own You, Mr. Carter?

Zach Custer :: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 4:25 pm

Lil’ Wayne is set for a 12 month prison sentence starting today, February 9, 2010, stemming from a guilty plea to felony gun possession charges in 2007.

On January 14, 2010 Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was charged with carrying a pistol without a license. This stems from a December 21, 2009 account in which Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton both had unloaded firearms stored in the team locker room. Both players are suspended for the remainder of the NBA season while Arenas’ hearing is scheduled for March 26th. MORE »

White Stripes Insulted by Air Force Reserve Commercial

Johnny Sanford :: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 12:30 pm

Apparently Jack White and/or Meg White watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. What they weren’t expecting was to see the Air Force Reserve rip off one of their most popular songs in a 30-second spot that relates flying a jet to “extreme” snowboarding. On their website, The White Stripes posted their song next to a link to the Air Force ad. Doing research for this article, the link was disabled and it looks as if the Air Force Reserve has taken the ad off the internet. But Jack seemed more than a bit pissed in the press release he issued on his website. MORE »

A Flaming Lip for Your Thoughts

Gray Hurlburt :: Monday, February 8th, 2010 5:05 pm

Perhaps, because it preserves a facile link with the forebears of the genre, we tend to assume that rock music is an organic art form—one that lives and grows outside the walls of formal institutions. Of course, that’s only a falsity. People like to romanticize the musicians that they love. Popular jabber makes it out to be as though Kevin Shields or Jack White walked out of the desert one day with a new sound for the world. Well, they didn’t study to college for their craft, but they did study. Even still, many other musicians got schooled in music, like the famous Wesleyan contingency in Billysberg, with a classical focus. But, how about going to college for a BA in rock music? Could studying subject dependent on lifestyle pay off in a classroom setting, and, more importantly, would it be heresy? Flaming Lips guitarist Steven Drozd thinks not. He’s gone ahead and, with the bands Manager Scott Booker, opened The Academy of Contemporary Music at The University of Central Oklahoma. He’s teaching a masters class there. MORE »

Does Your Gun Own You, Mr. Carter?

Zach Custer :: Friday, February 5th, 2010 4:10 pm

Lil’ Wayne is set for a 12 month prison sentence starting today, February 9, 2010, stemming from a guilty plea to felony gun possession charges in 2007.

Planned Parenthood Responds To Anti-Abortion Super Bowl Advertisement

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 1:40 pm

The uproar following Tim Tebow’s anti-abortion Super Bowl advertisement has monopolized much of the media since it was announced. Planned Parenthood has responded by creating a video featuring professional athletes Sean James and Al Joyner. Its tone is wholly tasteful. It focuses on trusting and respecting women with their choices and is clearly unintended to be the least bit inflammatory or insulting to anyone (at one point in the video, James says “I respect and honor Mrs. Tebow’s decision”).

Ruth Flowers: Dinosaur On The Wheel

Gray Hurlburt :: Friday, January 29th, 2010 4:45 pm

Her bulky solar shades, blue hair, and spangled bomber jacket identify Ruth Flowers, a 69-year-old grandmother from Bristol, England, as “DJ Mamy Rock” when she spins in clubs popular to revelers around Europe. At her late age, the gumption of an old to evenhandedly master digital equipment and spin with a degree of talent should be admired. It’s a literal knobby fist in the face of withering away.
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Rielle Hunter’s Wild Ride

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, January 29th, 2010 4:20 pm

Horse murders! Scandal! Media pioneering! Passion! Generation X literature! Politico pregnancy! The Wikipedia article on Rielle Hunter is one of the most eye-poppingly bizarre things I’ve read in recent memory. Her history has already been featured in the books of Jay McInerney, her ex-boyfriend, and Bret Easton Ellis, but that was way back when she was seventeen. Since, she’s embarked on even crazier adventures, most notably seducing onetime presidential hopeful John Edwards, who sired her illegitimate love-baby. I think a new book, or possibly a movie, is definitely in order, but I’m sure the opportunists who write all those ugly political-scandal books are way, way ahead of me on this one.

According to MTV News, “Twilight” Only Important Thing in World

Brenna Ehrlich :: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 12:50 pm

Remember when MTV used to be cool? I don’t either. But I feel like at one point it was at least a little less smack in the middle of the mainstream.

Look, the Most Annoying Accessory in the World

Brenna Ehrlich :: Monday, November 16th, 2009 5:30 pm

The washboard tie-it’s from Urban Outfitters, naturally. I would make a joke about it being loud, but… Yeah… You can buy it here if you feel so inclined.

Armageddon 2012: NASA Says It’s No Big Deal

Gray Hurlburt :: Thursday, November 12th, 2009 5:40 pm

Just when you thought something incredible was about to happen in your lifetime, science or NASA has to come along and take a piss on your imagination. Remember when we thought there was cheese on the moon? Yeah, NASA had to ruin that party. Those Martian canals and that eerie face on the Red Planet?: Rock formations. So here we are, minding our business, waiting for Earth to align with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, the dead to rise up and the world to end…then NASA has to raise its hand and open its big, nerdy mouth. According to them, the world’s not going to end in 2012, and we’re going to have to stick around here for a long time after next year. Yeah, boring!

The Battle of the Mustaches III

Brenna Ehrlich :: Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 9:00 am

The Champion takes on The Hot Girl after the jump. Make sure to weigh in on who you think is the winner. MORE »

Round II of the Battle of the Mustaches

Brenna Ehrlich :: Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 10:00 am

The Revolutionary and The Stylist face off after the jump. MORE »

The Battle of the Mustaches

Brenna Ehrlich :: Monday, November 9th, 2009 11:40 am

Hello boys, welcome (belatedly) to Movember, that most special of months in which one is allowed to grow a mustache. Why is this month different from all other months? No one’s allowed to give you shit for sprouting facial hair. December through October? Well, that’s between you and God-and the rest of polite society.

It’s the battle cry that reverberates throughout the ages, the guttural shout of the manly man that puts women, stylists and advice columnists up in arms. Four little words, the last the hairiest of all: “I want a mustache.”

The mustache is the facial hair of fighters. The Goths rocked them when they plundered Rome, Charlemagne sported one, as did the French Militia, the Hassars and the Prussian Guard. During the 1860s, they were obligatory for the British Army. (Talk about a stiff upper lip.)

World War I cemented the ‘stache as a military must. When Lord Kitchener’s mustached face stared out of posters across Britain, proclaiming, “Join Your Country’s Army,” he might as well have added, “And grow a fucking awesome ‘stache!”

Over the years, all manner of men have worn mustaches: cops, firemen, cowboys and porn stars.

Still, the style has suffered its knocks, and in recent years, the mustache beat a quick retreat. Hitler, Stalin, Charlie Chaplin—all added to its downfall. No one wants to look like a dictator. Or a mime.

But now, the ‘stache has sounded that mighty battle cry once more, gracing the faces of many a cinematic badass; Josh Brolin sprouted one as Llewelyn Moss in No Country For Old Men, as did Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Nothing says “man” like blood, oil and facial hair.

Still, the road is long and hard for the mustached few—and the fight is far from done. The mustached man has many enemies urging him to take out the razor and slap on the Old Spice. Check out these everyday mustached heroes and their equally formidable foes over the course of this week. The first pairing after the jump.