(image) (image) (image) The official SuicideGirls Flip Strip iPhone app is now available to download from the Apple iTunes store. Designed by Stuart J. Moore, Flip Strip is based on the classic nudie pen concept -- with a high tech twist. Flick left and right to choose from 10 super sexy Suicide Girls,... more

The official SuicideGirls Flip Strip iPhone app is now available to download from the Apple iTunes store.

Designed by Stuart J. Moore, Flip Strip is based on the classic nudie pen concept -- with a high tech twist. Flick left and right to choose from 10 super sexy Suicide Girls, then flip your iPhone or iTouch upside down to watch her clothes disappear.

The SuicideGirls featured are Lumi, Sash, Zoli, Rigel, Coley, Radeo, Inga, Dot, Antigone and Moxi.

Click HERE to download.

Did we mention it's FREE?!!!

Have you ever played a dating sim where your character wanders around aimlessly among a sea of impossibly-large breasted anime figures? If your answer to this question was no, it's okay, there is still hope for your digital manhood! In a typical Japanese dating game, you try to charm the women through... more

Have you ever played a dating sim where your character wanders around aimlessly among a sea of impossibly-large breasted anime figures? If your answer to this question was no, it's okay, there is still hope for your digital manhood! In a typical Japanese dating game, you try to charm the women through various dialog choices hoping that she'll be into you, and you into her (pun intended). With the SG's new iPhone app "Seduce a Suicide Girl," you have more realistic and sexy options, complete with come-ons and put-downs!



This application can't really be called a "game," as it is more like the adventure books of old, but it is (PG-13) sexy fun regardless. The app plays out as a series of video clips, with decision points in between. Make a good decision and you can continue pursuing Zoli, but make a bad decision and she'll shoot you down.

The story is first-person, told from the point of view of a young man. There is no female character choice here, which is too bad for ladies who, like the Suicide Girls, don't fit in traditional gender roles, and have a hard time imagining hairy man-hands as their own.

Zoli plays very well the role of the attractive, flirtatious girl you run into at the comic book store; she definitely holds your attention. She is the star of this show as the actual choices you can make are limited, and once you have "won" the game you don't have much replay value. (I guess you masochists out there could have fun being shot down time and time again in different ways ) If you answer to Zoli's liking you will see quite a lot of her, and trust me, that's a good thing!

Overall the app is good, (semi-)clean fun, and I definitely don't regret shelling out the paltry $0.99 for it.

Where would be your ideal location for some SG seduction?

At age 22, Lady GaGa (born Stefani Germanotta) has already written songs for Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls, gone number one in two countries and topped the iTunes chart with her debut album The Fame. Named after the Queen song "Radio Ga-Ga," she's also been accused of influencing... more

At age 22, Lady GaGa (born Stefani Germanotta) has already written songs for Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls, gone number one in two countries and topped the iTunes chart with her debut album The Fame. Named after the Queen song "Radio Ga-Ga," she's also been accused of influencing the current sounds and visuals of another pop superstar, Christina Aguilera, who rocked a suspiciously GaGa-esque look at the MTV Video Music Awards and in recent promotional photographs. We spoke with this engaging ingénue in the making about these "dirrrty" claims, fame and the legacy of her idol, Andy Warhol.

Tamara Palmer: Congratulations on the success so far of your debut album. At this point, it has only been out a couple of weeks. Has it exceeded your expectations so far?

Lady Gaga: I really didn't want to put too much emphasis on the first week because, I'm not Kanye West, you know what I mean? I'm a brand new artist. I've had the album do really well in other countries on opening day, but we had a number one single [in Australia and Canada]. We didn't even have any radio play in America so I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't go on iTunes, I didn't call anybody. I just stayed focused, kept my head down and did my interviews and before I knew it, they called me and said, "You're number one on iTunes today," and I was like, "Hollllly shit!" It absolutely exceeded my expectations, but I know that it's great work and I believe in it and it's going to continue to exceed my expectations and everybody else's.

TP: You're correct to not judge it on opening week, even though there is pressure to do so in the music business. But I think a record like yours needs to grow in a more organic way.

LG: Oh yeah, and there are so many albums that come out in opening week and explode and sells a ton, and then they totally sell nothing. I was really excited to see this week's numbers, because we didn't sell too many less than we had sold the week before, which means that it's steady and I'm making an impact and it's a real record.

TP: Why did you devote this album and perhaps this phase of your career to the topic of fame?

LG: As somebody that grew up in New York City, I was surrounded by pop culture obsession and fame growing up. I was really fascinated with the idea of fame as an art form and studying the philosophies of Andy Warhol in the 70s and fashion icons from that era as well that were really inspired by the idea of fame and glamour and decadence but from a more organic place, from the street. So I tried to look at the fame as something that comes from within us and analyze how in New York City we feel fame from within, from the way that we walk, the way that we dress, the way that we live and breathe our art and our fashion. It's got nothing to do with being a celebrity or having cameras and money. So this record was a struggle and a reckoning with all those ideas.

TP: You went to a high school with a lot of famous former students. On Wikipedia's entry for it, it says, "Notable Alumni: Caroline Kennedy, Nicky Hilton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lady GaGa." Is that wild to you to be considered in that sort of company?

LG: Ha, that's funny. That's very funny.

TP: So you were even more directly surrounded with celebrity than your average kid in New York?

LG: I wouldn't say I was surrounded by it. I wasn't part of that elite group of girls. There were lots of different kinds of girls who went to my school; some with an incredible amount of wealth and some with none. So I wasn't part of that top tier group of girls, but I was very close to it and got to see it every day. Going from a school like that and then moving down to the Lower East Side, it changes the way that you look at things and it opens your eyes up to a completely different perspective on life. The thing I do have in common with all those girls is our education. I came from a really educated background and I'm very proud of that.

TP: You speak about Warhol as being a big influence, but what about that generation of artists and performers that took over downtown after Warhol passed away? That sort of Michael Alig, club kid?

LG: That whole scene and that whole lifestyle is really emblematic of something that's much bigger, and that's something that's kind of vacant right now except for a really small community in New York. And really what's missing is that group of people that really live and breathe for their art. Right now, I think the club scene is more saturated with the drugs, the alcohol and the party kids. I think what I'm really hungry for is that unity, that Factory, that group of people that decide what art is and what's not and it's part of their lifestyle.

TP: So do you think the club scene is more aimless than it used to be?

LG: I don't want to say that it's aimless because I'm really close friends with a lot of people that are in it. It's funny, it's just like anything: There's some people that are totally aimless and just drink and get drunk every night and don't pursue their art, but then there's others that do that are extremely talented and have a lot of notoriety in that community. It's both. But I will say that I don't think it's nearly as saturated as it was in the 70s and 80s.

TP: Despite the fact that this is your debut album, you're not really a new artist, are you?

LG: I've been around for a long time. It's funny when people are like, "This happened so quickly for you. You came out of nowhere," and I'm like, "Not really!" I've been doing it the way everybody should freaking do it, I'm not special. Every person who is worth their salt as an artist that's living on a tour bus and playing for 15,000 people in an arena every night should say that they've been around for a while and they've hustled. To me, that's like Artist 101.

TP: Does your experience writing songs for other people help you with your own songs?

LG: You learn how to synthesize other people's ideas and edit them and make them better. That's why I'm strong as a writer, because I work with artists who want to write music and I take their ideas and their emotions and what they want to say and I apply a pop sensibility to it. A lot of times, someone will sing me a verse or a chorus that they really like and I'll just move the rhythm around a little bit, change a couple of the lyrics and maybe just whack that hook in a little bit further so it really has that hooky pop explosion feeling. That's what I'm talented at, so absolutely. This would not be the album that it is if I hadn't been writing for other people, because I learned how to write a pop song.

TP: Are you writing for anybody right now?

LG: Yeah, I'm working on a couple of different things now.

TP: Anything you feel like talking about?

LG: Um, well, they're not for sure yet so I don't want to talk about it because it's senseless. For sure I'm on Britney's album, that's something I can talk about.

TP: How was that experience? Did you write "Quicksand" with her, or separately?

LG: She heard a song that I wrote that she really loved and then she put her own touches on it and recorded it. I was really disappointed that I couldn't be there to produce her vocals because I was in Europe but I'm hoping to get to work with her more closely soon. She really loved the song and wanted it for her album and I was more than happy to have her do it.

TP: There has been a lot of buzz on the Internet, largely thanks to Perez Hilton, that there are a lot of similarities between Christina Aguilera's current project and what you've been doing. Maybe it's the way that Perez and other people frame it, but to me it just seems so blatant that she is borrowing from you.

LG: Well, you know, it's interesting. Perez is excellent at what he does. I've got to hand it to the guy. Sometimes I look at his blog and I'm, like, "Oh my God, Perez!" He just seems so on the money. But at the same time, I don't want to get swallowed up with what the media says and she said and then what he said and everything gets twisted up and discombobulated. And at the end of the day, when I was a little girl, I was a really big fan of Christina's and I still am a fan. I think she's very talented, so I don't want to get wrapped up in all that stuff. I don't have anything bad to say about her. I think she's a legend in her own right for my generation and I think there can be both of us. I don't think there has to be one.

TP: I agree, but it also must be a little bit of a flattering thing for you?

LG: I mean, it's flattering that I could possibly be inspiring her work. But I would never say that she's copying me or that she's stolen things from me. I'm from New York and I live and breathe fashion. I mean, I sleep in my freaking catsuit sometimes. It's not a costume that can be stolen; it's in my bones.

TP: One thing Christina is really good at is morphing her look and the concepts of her records. Do you think that you'll play around with that yourself?

LG: I think that my work is ever-changing and constantly morphing. I'm not the kind of girl to sit down and go, "Okay, this album I'm going to have this look." I don't live my life in stages of looks. I'm changing from week to week and month to month. This truly is who I am. If I go out to a nightclub and I see a certain hairstyle or a certain outfit and it inspires me and starts incorporating itself into my vision, and then I see an art piece and I take something from that, it's really organic. Does that make sense? It's part of my lifestyle, it's totally not a marketing idea that I sat down and came up with. So, yeah, I'll for sure be changing for a long time.

(image) Nixon and Fractal's brainchild, Haute Macabre, is proud to present Induced Epidemics at the Chaos Gallery, in the Museum of Death, Hollywood, CA. Assembling fifteen different artists in various media, including painting, photography, and small sculpture, Haute Macabre and the Chaos Gallery... more

Nixon and Fractal's brainchild, Haute Macabre, is proud to present Induced Epidemics at the Chaos Gallery, in the Museum of Death, Hollywood, CA.

Assembling fifteen different artists in various media, including painting, photography, and small sculpture, Haute Macabre and the Chaos Gallery are bringing you what they know best : the dark and the macabre. Instructed only to represent themselves using those two adjectives, each artist has submitted a piece related to the darker side of the day.

Featuring works from Tim Kern, Cherry Vega, Raven Corviid Ebner, Jessica McCourt, Andy Yang, Zoe Williams, Taslimur, Eirik Aswang, Michael Hussar, Josh Cole, Zoetica Ebb, Courtney Riot, Vanessa Zuloaga, Scott Holloway, Sequoia Emmanuelle, Hans Linde, and Chad Michael Ward.

About to celebrate its first anniversary, Haute Macabre is a leading online resource for dark fashion, trends, home decor, and culture, covering haute couture and wearable art to affordable alternatives. Articles are posted daily to the web blog, reaching a rapidly growing global readership numbering in the millions, all agreeing that It Wasn't Just a Phase.

Haute Macabre and the Chaos Gallery will be celebrating the opening of this exhibit Saturday, December 5 at 8PM. The show will be running until December 29.

LA’s premier goth club, Bar Sinister, will be hosting the Induced Epidemics afterparty. They will be offering half off club admission with a special password available only at the gallery reception.

It's hard to ignore the Guitar Hero phenomenon. Even non-gamers see the rock game popping up in movies, on YouTube and in any gadget store. It's a simple enough premise that anyone can enjoy it. Just jam along with the notes on the screen to make the pretty music play. Wiggle the whammy bar... more

It's hard to ignore the Guitar Hero phenomenon. Even non-gamers see the rock game popping up in movies, on YouTube and in any gadget store. It's a simple enough premise that anyone can enjoy it. Just jam along with the notes on the screen to make the pretty music play. Wiggle the whammy bar on long, sustained notes to make funky sounds and tilt the guitar up to activate Star Power and double your points.

I got Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock because I got a PS3 to play Blu Rays. I've gone from Easy mode to Expert in only a few months. Yeah, it's scary. Problem is, I need more songs. GHIII has limited extra content for download, and the biggest bummer is earlier Guitar Hero games for PS2 are not compatible with PS3. So I'm waiting for Guitar Hero: World Tour just to have more songs. It's going to have a lot more than just new music though.

World Tour features a full rock band with a drum kit, microphone for vocals, and two guitar parts, lead and bass, with additional buttons and a touch sensitive pad near the bottom of the guitar neck. There is also a Music Studio so real obsessives can make their own tracks.

SuicideGirls joined Activision for an early preview of the latest Guitar Hero at the House of Blues in Hollywood. Project lead Brian Bright, lead designer Alan Flores and their team demoed the new game. In between jam sessions, Brian and Alan answered questions about this fall’s hottest request.


Question: Obviously games like Rock Band upped the ante, but what were Activision's thoughts to adding new instruments to a game that's named Guitar Hero?

Brian Bright: Activision's been working on a drum game. Some of you know the Drum Villain/Drum Hero rumors that were out there. We actually copyrighted some of those names a while back but we had a studio working on a drum game at the same time working on Guitar Hero III. When Guitar Hero III started to consume Activision's interest, resources and actually Neversoft just started taking the game up and we had a solid game to go with, the Drum Hero/Villain game just kind of got put on the wayside. It's a fun thing so it's not a no-brainer to say, "Hey, let's play drums." It's not the greatest idea ever. It's just like, "Cool, let's play drums. It's a rock game." That's the impetus for that.

Q: Just because Guitar Hero is such a hit already, was there any thought to if it ain't broke, don't fix it?

Alan Flores: I guess there is that aspect of it. There's a lot of diehards, a lot of hardcores that wanted things to be the same, but we're not really interested in just being idle and resting on our laurels. We wanted to try something new, sort of push it forward, see what we could come up with.

Q: There are some new note patterns, like the chords that progress on different beats?

AF: Oh yes, that's called an extended sustain. There's a couple of points where guys will play a chord and then they'll sort of strum it out. The way that works is you can push the button and then you could walk it up. You could either hold your finger down and then push the extra buttons to hold the sustain. You don't have to play it that way. It's optional, but if you do it that way, you'll get a fuller sound. It's a bit more realistic, a little added level of difficulty.

Q: What are the new features of the guitar?

BB: What's different about this guitar is it's a little bit larger, a little bit bigger, a little more substantial. The back button is right here [below the strum] which can be used for star power if you want. The directional pad is a little more like a knob on a guitar. Whammy [bar]'s a little bit longer to be easier to reach. Fret buttons haven't changed much. We're pretty happy with our designs but we kept them pretty consistent. We added a touch slider here [on the neck]. The touch slider is basically touch sensitive and we use it in game play.

Q: When would you need to use the touch slider instead of the normal buttons?

BB: There are a couple different uses. For game play, you can tap it and play if you want instead of strumming. We also have sections that you'll see where there's clear notes. There's a roving line in between the notes. Those are like tapping and they're also slide guitar sections, so it's kind of however you want to play the game. In those sections, you can just tap, not strum, not touch any fret buttons or you can just do this.

Q: For people used to the simple guitars, what do you expect the learning curve to be on the new one?

AF: I actually don't think it will be that difficult. People can play the game the way they want. They can play it the way they're used to playing it, but if they try and do a little bit of tapping, want to feel like they're Eddie Van Halen, they can do that and it's actually going to work. And also there's the slider parts and some of the slider stuff, it makes it a little bit easier if you want to play it that way so I think people will warm up to it. You'd be surprised. A lot of people are diehards, like, "I'll never play it that way." Then they try tapping and they're like, "Ah, it's cool. I'm fuckin' Eddie Van Halen."

Q: Have you done anything to make it more accessible to novice players?

BB: We've added a Beginner difficulty, which is easier than Easy obviously. It's really like an easy rhythm thing. For the guitar, you just have to strum. You don't have to push any frets. So it's like either for your mom when she comes over, if you try to get her into Guitar Hero, you want to give it to her and put it on Beginner mode. Or it's for your five-year-old kid who can't even do easy. You can play through a whole career like that. Even in a band, one person can dumb it down. It's even on the vocals, on the drums. It really just means you have to make a noise or you have to hit any pad at that time. You'll see just a colorful bar on the screen and that's Beginner level. We've also done a lot of work since GHIII in balancing the difficulties. We've taken a lot of work over the past six, seven months in balancing the difficulty, making sure it's more of a linear ramp for everybody. We don't want you to get blocked from Medium and Hard. Alan and I fully recognize that on Guitar Hero III, it was a little too difficult. We've done a lot of work to streamline that progression.

Q: Why was GHIII too hard?

AF: I'm going to backpedal a little bit. I don't think it's too hard. I think it gets too hard too quickly. I think that's the problem. Most people will play the game and then they'll get to this one spot, it's like tier six, and they just get slammed, right? Then it gets to a point where they're just fucked, they can't play the game anymore. It's like they're playing Raining Blood, they're playing all this super hard stuff and they just can't get past it. I think the difficulty ramping, we had a really aggressive schedule so we worked really quickly to try and get the game done, so we didn't have a lot of time to balance that. I would have liked to have gone back and made the ramping a lot more linear, a lot smoother. We did that with [Guitar Hero: Aerosmith] I think. You don't get slammed until midway through the game. I take that as a personal thing. I think we kind of screwed that up.

BB: We still want Expert for the elite players and we still like pushing that level of competition for players so the game is a big underground hit in bars and people can really compete to try to eke out as many points as possible. That's where things like playing the slide or getting the accents on the drums and stuff really can get you that extra score that you just weren't able to get if you played on different instruments or less competitively.

Q: Did you model the new instruments after any others that are on the market already?

AF: We wanted to make a more realistic style drum kit so we had a lot of actual real drummers come in and actually give feedback. A lot of real drummers talking about what they really wanted in a drum kit so we sort of just went off of that, what would people want to see: Elevated symbols, lots of bounce in the pads, that sort of thing.

Q: How can we write our own songs in Guitar Hero: World Tour?

BB: We have the Music Studio which allows people to create their own music and then we have GHTunes which is a big music community that allows people to download songs that other people have created and play them back from either one player as a guitarist or a whole band or any combination of that. Part of the YouTube underground Guitar Hero phenomenon is people using guitars to create music using a variety of different software. So that was a big inspiration for us was to see how it was embraced by the community and then apply that to our new technology which is a touch strip. We have an accelerometer, which is something cool that nobody else has in their guitars. And using that to inspire people to create music in different ways.

Q: It sounds like you've planned for a full social community with this game.

BB: Well, yeah, obviously we can exchange songs, we can play songs, download songs together online, download songs online, play them together. As far as online bands go, yeah, with Guitarhero.com we have a pretty active website. It's going to get a major facelift going forward and we track everyone's stats. We track bands and we have kind of virtual bands for GHIII and those will turn into more realistic bands for GH: World Tour. So yeah, we've been pushing for GHIII and beyond, we've been pushing the whole web based community, online community.

Q: Now what if I run out of songs again, like I burned through GHIII?

BB: We are working towards a music store and we're really going after this game with a big DLC [downloadable content]. I can't give you any specifics but we are working hard towards supplying a steady stream of downloadable content from big name bands at launch and as we move forward. That's one of the big priorities for Guitar Hero: World Tour is DLC… Around 85 songs are going to be shipped in the game. They are all master tracks… Tim Riley and Scott McDaniel, our music guys at Activision, they've gotten us A-list bands.

Guitar Hero: World Tour is slated for release in October 2008.

No need for a long introduction. You already know the work of Mister Cartoon. You see it on MTV every time Eminem reveals the portrait of daughter on his right shoulder. When 50 Cent and Joy Bryant roll around naked in Get Rich or Die Tryin', they're both flashing Cartoon tattoos. Dr. Dre, Kanye... more

No need for a long introduction. You already know the work of Mister Cartoon. You see it on MTV every time Eminem reveals the portrait of daughter on his right shoulder. When 50 Cent and Joy Bryant roll around naked in Get Rich or Die Tryin', they're both flashing Cartoon tattoos. Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Missy Elliot, Pharrell, Cypress Hill, Beyonce ... a veritable who's who of the Hip Hop elite all sport his artwork.

But the LA tattoo artist, who got his start from the legendary Bob Roberts, doesn't limit himself to this kind of skin trade. Mister Cartoon's signature black-and-gray fine line style has graced a T-Mobile SideKick II, collector Nikes, as well as his own clothing line Joker Brand. He's even customized Larry Flynt's car.

A true street to stardom story -- a movie on his life is in the works -- Cartoon sat down to school me on when the status is hood.

Photos by Estevan Oriol.

Marisa DiMattia: A lot of people know you by the celebrities you've tattooed, your murals and lowrider art, the Nikes, and gadgets you've put your mark on. How do you want be known? What would you like people to think when they hear the name Mister Cartoon?

Mister Cartoon: I want to be known as a tattoo artist who started out as a kid going to car shows and fantasizing about candy painted Impalas. Entertainers, gadgets and shoes are just benefits from tattooing gangsters, strippers, and regular everyday folk. What would I like people to think? Originality and tradition. Originality with a low rider attitude.

MDM: You've been tattooing over a decade and, since that time, things have changed in the tattoo community. There's two tattoo reality shows, glossy tattoo fashion mags, and a heavily tattooed lawyer interviewing you right now. People are now calling tattoos a "trend" -- how do you answer that?

MC: They called hip hop and lowriding a trend too. The trends will always be set by the most hardcore. When trendy people move on, we'll still be here. All the shows, sports figures with tattoos, and even lawyers, open it up for all tattooers to make a living.



MDM: How do you see the future of tattooing in light of its popularity?

MC: I see all the new shops that are not owned by tattooers eventually falling off, and the consumers going back to the tattoo legends and new masters. People will be more focused on a tattooer's reputation and longevity.

MDM: If you had your own reality show, what would it be like? Would it be different from the upcoming film on your life?

MC: It would be called Skid Row's Finest and we would shoot it three blocks from my studio. We would focus on toothless crack whores blowing passing businessmen, homeless sex in card board boxes, and every week we'd see a young, egotistical cheerleader smoke a rock and fall from grace. And we would mix in some classic cars and bum gymnastics to keep the viewers' attention. Different? It would be extremely different because I'm not homeless. I'm a homeboy and a homeowner. I'm not interested in doing a show about myself. I find the street life of LA more interesting. My life story needs to be told on the big screen, with the big budget, and nation-wide exposure so everyone can trip out.

MDM: What's the status of the film? Have there been major changes to its concept since you were first approached by Universal?

MC: We just got back the first draft of the script, made changes, and are re-writing right now. As soon as we love the script, pre-production starts, and we'll be filming in 2007. No major concept changes. We are clear on what we want to see, and it helps that my best friend, famed photographer, Estevan Oriol, is directing.




MDM: I heard the movie will also show your time in Japan. They love you there and have flown you out for murals and tattoos. What's the tattoo scene like in Japan? How do you compare tattoo culture between Japan and the West Coast?

MC: They do not play around about tattoos in Japan. Kids that are into hip hop and lowriding want to get black and gray, old school, Chicano tattoos. You would think that they would just want dragons and koi fish, but they want to collect and embrace our culture. It's a lot like Americans getting Japanese traditional icons. You always want something from somewhere else. The big difference is learning how to tattoo. The Japanese masters make you hang out for a year before they decide if you can apprentice or not. If you survive the year and the master trusts you, he moves you into his house and you draw dragons for six months every day, you draw koi fish for six months every day. And you do everything the master says, no matter how ridiculous. But after a couple years, you'll be able to attach the master's name to your name and you'll have a successful career ahead -- as long as you don't get caught up smoking ice because they've got a lot of that shit out there.

MDM: What do you think attracts people all over the world to your particular artistic style?

MC: I think they like the fine line and script, combined with the Latina pin-up girls and the gangster clowns. When I draw, I want to create a fantasy of a sexy woman with double D bolt-ons, fat lips, hair down to her ankles, a 20-inch waist, and an ass like J-Lo, Chevys slammed on the floor, glass shiny candy paint jobs, and hundred dollar bills falling from heaven. Some people come for a consistency of detail. Other people want to get tattooed where Eminem got his tattoos.

MDM: Why do you get tattooed?

MC: I started getting tattooed because I wanted to let people know that I'm not a weekend warrior with this lifestyle. As a kid I always looked up to the older guys with the full-sleeves, and I always thought that to be a man you had to have ink from your shoulders to your wrists. I still get tattoos because I hang around a tattoo shop everyday and I have a vision of myself with a body suit. And for every new kid I have, I have to get their name blasted on me.



MDM: Who would you love to get tattooed by today?

MC: I would love to get tattooed by Horiyoshi III of Yokohama, Japan. He's a legend.

MDM: Everybody has their own reasons for getting tattooed but one reason that doesn't get discussed often is sex. Do you think sex plays a part in why people get tattooed -- say, tattooing to make your body more attractive to others?

MC: At the end of the day, everyone just wants to get laid anyways. Most women I know wouldn't ever fuck a guy who didn't have a gang of ink.

MDM: What do you think of heavily tattoo women? (Be careful, this is going on Suicide Girls!)

MC: I think it's cool, if they go about it in a sexy way. I don't want to pork a broad that looks like a circus side show freak. When they have the tattoos accenting their body lines and done professionally, they look incredible. My woman only has one tattoo on her back, yet she is on me to do a full backpiece -- and I've been with her for ten years.

MDM: What's next for Mister Cartoon?

MC: The next big thing for me is a graphic novel through Time Warner Books (Sin City, Road to Perdition), which I will be writing and illustrating.

Gentlemen, we are in the midst of an epidemic. No, it’s not Flying Pig Flu; it’s not penicillin-resistant syphilis; it’s not masturbation induced hairy-palmism. It’s Creepiness. Internet creepiness. This comes in many forms: Douchebagery: Symptoms of douchebaggery include an undeserved sense... more

Gentlemen, we are in the midst of an epidemic. No, it’s not Flying Pig Flu; it’s not penicillin-resistant syphilis; it’s not masturbation induced hairy-palmism.

It’s Creepiness.

Internet creepiness. This comes in many forms:

Douchebagery: Symptoms of douchebaggery include an undeserved sense of self-importance, bragging about sexual prowess, forgetting that internet women are real people, and a proclivity to show a disembodied erect penis.

Stalkerism: Symptoms of stalkerism include premature proclamations of love, defensiveness, and bad poetry.

Sexcreeperism: Symptoms of sexcreeperism include requests of sexual acts by the female in question, a sense of entitlement (a.k.a. “I paid my $4, now spread yer pussy!!”), and model-casting calls for their “professional” photo-shoots. Untreated sexcreeperism can lead to kidnapperotamies.

Assholery: Symptoms of assholery include spamming, starting threads that are going to “change the site”, whining about cliques, and generally acting like they are better than everyone else.

Pityrosis: Symptoms of pityrosis include complaining about always being the friend to hot girls, whining about being a virgin, and putting complete strangers on a pedestal.

Gentlemen, we must fight this plague. The consequences could be dire. If we do not defeat Creepiness, we might as well all get fitted for polo shirts and make appointments for spray-tans. So, gents, it is time for a simple guide to combat the rampant creep-factor.

1. Don’t expect instant insider-status. The people who have been on a site for a time have developed relationships, just like they would in real life. Some love each other, some hate each other, and some spend all their time trading double entendres. These are not exclusive cliques. These are just groups of friends who like each other. Don’t expect instant acceptance, but also don’t think that there is a wall between yourself and veteran members. At one point or another, all of them were new, and had to make new friends. Take your time, relax, and don’t get bent out of shape if you get flamed a bit. It is just a bit of trial by fire.

2. Treat everyone with respect. These ARE real people, no matter that they are on the other end of a computer connection. They do not exist just for your own pleasure, and insulting them will result in a variety of responses, from flaming to banning. Behave as if we could tell your mother what you’ve done.

3. Don’t expect others to change for you. Maybe there is something about a website that you do not like. That is bound to happen. Deal with it. If it bothers you too much, go elsewhere. The website existed before you, and it will exist after you take your ball and go home.

4. Get the lay of the land. Look around at what sort of topics get good responses, and which end in tears. If you think of something clever, look around to see if you are the first one, or if 20 other people have done the same thing. Find out how the website works, how to search, and the true purposes of the various areas of the site.

As online communities grow, we must keep in mind that they ARE communities, very much like any other gathering of people. There are rules, both spoken and unspoken that are specific to that society, and transgression of those rules will have consequences. That is not to say that you cannot try something new and different. Just be smart about it.

Or, to put it simply . . . Be a Gentleman.

While fans of the Distillers and other next-generation punk bands should ultimately find this transition natural and easy to follow, Spinnerette --- the new vehicle for former Distillers lead Brody Dalle -- has a decidedly more gentle rock edge as debuted on their first release, the "Ghetto Love... more

While fans of the Distillers and other next-generation punk bands should ultimately find this transition natural and easy to follow, Spinnerette --- the new vehicle for former Distillers lead Brody Dalle -- has a decidedly more gentle rock edge as debuted on their first release, the "Ghetto Love EP."

With languid, thumping rhythms and wiggling guitar underscoring Dalle's considerably quieter but no less fierce vocals, tunes like "Ghetto Love" and "Valium Knights" are the perfect comedown to a rowdy gig from the Distillers, the soothing medication to take after amped Distillers albums like 2002's Sing Sing Death House. The first Spinnerette album, A Prescription for Mankind, will emerge in June.

In a telephone chat with SG, Dalle spoke about her current project, old musical formats, and a fresh approach to creativity in light of becoming a mother in the years since the Distillers parted ways. (She has a daughter, Camille, with her husband, Queens of the Stone Age/Eagles of Death Metal frontman Josh Homme.) In both talent and attitude, she could be in the running for Hot Rock Mom of the Year.

Tamara Palmer: In the few years since you last put an album out, there have been so many changes in the music industry. Have you had to take any precautions against your album or material leaking online before you could have a chance put it out?

Brody Dalle: You know what? I haven't thought about it. We haven't been particularly precious about it and I think having an attitude like that totally helps. If it happens, it happens but I haven't thought about it. You can manifest things if you get too precious and scared or if you think about something too much so I'm glad that's not been a part of my mental process, worrying about whether it's gonna leak or not. I know the Yeah Yeah Yeah's [album] did and that really sucked for them.

This is under a different name so people don't really know it. I think that's one thing that we have going for us. People are probably like, "Who's that?" or "Who cares?" if they have seen it. If it was the Distillers, there'd probably be more of a danger of that happening.

TP: It can go both ways, either by stimulating sales or by cutting into them.

BD: It used to help bands. I remember when we were on [record label] Hellcat and the Offspring album leaked. And they sold 12 million fucking records, so it didn't hurt at all, you know? That was way before the downloading thing took over, when people were excited and they'd hear [the bootleg] and then they'd go get the hard copy. Whereas now, when people have it, they have it. The ADD generation, they're just -- they're movin' on.

TP: That's what I'm afraid of, that the market for the physical product might not be the same as it used to be.


BD: Yeah, it's true, it's really, really unfortunate. There's so much stuff out there for people to buy, we're just getting bombarded with things. I think people just either get overwhelmed or they don't care anymore? It sounds really fucked up, but people are getting really complacent, and if they can just download songs straight to their iPod, why would they need to have this extra thing laying around unless they really are a fan or they really give a shit.

TP: I feel like a dinosaur because I DJ with vinyl and I've got lots of vinyl in the house.

BD: No, that's a dying art and that's beautiful. You should just hold on to that because pretty soon -- I mean, actually, vinyl's kind of had a resurgence, I'm sure you know that.

TP: It seems like it, and right when everyone seemed like they were putting the final nail in the vinyl coffin. Are you doing any kind of vinyl?

BD: Yeah, of course! Yeah, we're doing a single for "Sex Bomb" with a remix by Adam Freeland, and that's coming out in about a month. That's kind of a special release thing that we did, and we'll definitely press up vinyl [for the album]. It's just been a long process to try and just even have this record crown itself. It's been a real uphill battle.

TP: Well, you've had a lot going on as well.

BD: Yeah, but the changes within the industry and people being so gun shy about signing new bands or something they don't know about and people having a hard time having any faith in anything. I looked in the LA Weekly the other day and there were, like, no shows, and I was like, "What the fuck is going on?" I know there's a recession, but entertainment, that's a leisure.

TP: You'd think it'd be more plentiful at this time.

BD: Fuck yeah! But there's nothing going on, I don't know, there's something depressing in the music I'm hearing right now, but hopefully that'll change.

TP: Are you finding difficulties when it comes to booking shows or are you going to tour?

BD: We're definitely gonna tour, it's just a matter of raising the profile of Spinnerette. If if it were the Distillers, it'd be no problem, we could play wherever we wanted and it'd be easy-peasy. But because it's a new band, people don't know about it, but we're going on tour for sure. It starts May 29 on the East Coast and then the record comes out. Then, we'll do the West Coast and the touring will start. Because I have a little girl, it'll be spread out.

TP: That sounds way more civilized anyway.

BD: Yeah, and at this point in my life, even if I didn't have Camille, I don't think I could do an eight-week tour. I think I might just go crazy.

TP: That kind of lifestyle is either for you or not for you: A different city every day for months on end.

BD: Yeah, have you ever toured? I know you guys do the Suicide Girls tour and perform?

TP: I mean, I'm not a performing . . . [laughs]

BD: You're just the writer.

TP: Exactly! But I have been on the road with a band, just not for more than two or three days. I have slept in the little bunks on the tour bus before and don't understand how anyone could do that for very long.

BD: Believe me, it becomes your safe place, like, "I just want to get to my bunk! I just want to get to my bunk." It's like your little haven.

TP: It's a little bit too claustrophobic for me.

BD: That's what we all thought when we first started doing it, but then it becomes your womb.

TP: I can see how it could be.

BD: Also the movement -- a lot of people get car sick, but I don't have that problem so it's like being rocked to sleep.

TP: Okay, I can see how it could sort of be like Magic Fingers.

BD: [laughs] Totally!

TP: So, since you'll be doing short stints on the road, will Camille come with you?

BD: No, not to start, not until we can build a bigger profile and enough momentum. She'll be at home with her daddy. He has a break in his touring cycle, so it works out really good.

TP: Will this be the first time you have been apart from her?

BD: No, we've been apart here and there. My dad died and I was gone for four weeks, which was gnarly, but it was in Australia. That was the longest; that was pretty brutal. She was about a year old, but my husband was here and his family was there so that made a big difference. That was so intense; that's not a good example because my mind was on this awful thing. Josh and I have gone to England once for eight days, he played and it was just kind of a mummy and daddy get-away. You gotta have them. But she's been on tour; she's been on tour with Queens a couple times. She's ready to be a road dog.

TP: What's her interest in music? Is she a rock child?

BD: She has really eclectic tastes and I think it's because we do. I'm not trying to shove anything down her throat. She picks what she likes. She loves Eagles of Death Metal, of course. Basically, she loves the stuff that she hears a lot. When we're in the process of making a record, that's what she hears all the time so she's obsessed with Spinnerette. I remember one time [Distillers/Spinnerette guitarist] Tony [Bevilacqua] and I were driving in the car and she wouldn't let us take it out and play something else. She threw a little tantrum, it was really cute.

TP: She's probably also your own harshest critic, too.

BD: Totally! She will also hear the first bar and she'll know what it is. She loves Cibo Matto actually lately. She loves the Ramones.

TP: Kids love the Ramones!

BD: They do! But come on, how could you not?

TP: So Spinnerette is really almost as new as having a child, or are they about the same age?

BD: It's a bit younger, we've had a couple of incarnations. It started in 2006 after Camille was born. The Distillers broke up before I got pregnant and I played with a whole bunch of people including one of my girlfriends who played bass. Tony and I would just play for hours and gather people together to start something new, and then I got pregnant and put everything on hold. As soon as Camille was born, I went over to [writing partner/member of Eleven] Alain Johannes' house and started demo'ing. It wasn't really even spoken about; it just blossomed into this thing. One of the first songs we wrote was "Ghetto Love" and once we had written it, we were like, "Wow, let's do another one!" And onward it went and then it had a title and became this thing, and the record company wanted us to make a record so they paid for it and onward and upward, that's what happened.

TP: So you didn't cook up any musical concepts when you were pregnant, it just evolved later?

BD: I mean, I did have a lot of ideas, but nothing's really come to fruition until now. It's taken a long time. There's no such thing as accidents, I don't think.

TP: Did you have more to do on this project than you did on the Distillers records? It seemed like that band went through a lot of lineup changes, but you remained at the core. Did you have to handle everything yourself?

BD: I was very hands-on, and if you're talking about the music part, I played everything from Wurlitzer to bass to guitar to percussion. So it's a much more musical project. It's definitely what I want to be doing and is a bit more intricate than the Distillers were. I love the Distillers, but this is really just straight-ahead, easy, not much to think about - except my lyrics, I thought about my lyrics a lot. But the music was simple. And Spinnerette is definitely shooting in a different direction.

Berkeley Breathed is one of the most unique cartoonists of recent decades. Bloom County is one of the comic strips that helped to make newspapers interesting again and helped define and popularize topical political humor throughout the 1980’s and won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Breathed also started... more

Berkeley Breathed is one of the most unique cartoonists of recent decades. Bloom County is one of the comic strips that helped to make newspapers interesting again and helped define and popularize topical political humor throughout the 1980’s and won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Breathed also started a new trend, ending his strip on his own terms in 1989. Since then he’s made two Sunday strips for newspapers, Outland which ran from 1989-1995 and Opus which ran from 2003-2008.

Breathed has also written and illustrated a number of picture books for kids of all ages including A Wish for Wings That Work, which was made into an animated special, Goodnight Opus and Mars Needs Moms which is currently being made into a movie. Breathed has been trying to get an Opus movie made at multiple companies over he years but to no avail.

This year is a banner year for Breathed and his fans. Bloom County is being reprinted in a series of gorgeous hardcover editions from IDW Press, the first volume of which is out now with the second scheduled for release in April. Besides two years of strips, the book also contains annotations, early comics from when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas and other extra material including many strips that have never been reprinted before.

Breathed’s first novel Flawed Dogs, which is ostensibly for young adults, is out now as well. The book which manages to balance the dark and disturbing with the outlandish and hilarious is a love story between a dog and a human. Breathed was kind enough to take time to talk about his past, present and future projects, animal rights and the “bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty.”


ALEX DUEBEN: As a fan of your work who wasn’t reading Bloom County at the beginning, I was amazed to see how very different the early strips are from what it became, but at the same time the sensibility is there. You may not have known the subject or found the characters and their voice but it is undeniably you. The grandfather pretending to be Alexander Haig and so many little gags are what we would come to think of as Bloom County. When you read through the strips, do you see yourself in them or do they feel like the work of someone else?

BERKELEY BREATHED: I don’t remember drawing a single one – they were all done in a fog of sleeplessness and deadline panic in the wee hours of the morning. So yes, absolutely, it is an experience in creative dissonance when I read these things. I can’t imagine that I had anything to do with them. People I trust assure me that I did.

AD: Given that you don’t remember creating them, I have to ask, when you read them now, do you enjoy them? Do you think they hold up?

BB: An impossible question to ask an artist or writer-- whether they enjoy their own creations. I'd love to know if Spielberg could ever enjoy one of his movies once enough time is past. I certainly don't read my own work. But I DO enjoy reading it to my or other kids... and seeing them respond.

Does Bloom County hold up? Oh, much of it no. Far too timely to the times it was created. But I was surprised to find myself laughing at strips I hadn't seen for 25 years and reading as new again... usually not the ones mentioning Michael Dukakis or Ronald Reagan. Which goes to answer the first part of your question I suppose.

AD: You wrote in one of the annotations that editors had no idea what to do with all the pop culture references you used in the strip. Was it really that jarring and confusing?

BB: It was because it had simply never been done before. Hard to imagine now, I know, as awash as we are in the vomitious wave of pop culture snark that is the web.

But this was 1982. A daring comic was still Garfield eating lasagna.

AD: I wanted to ask about that time because you, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson are often mentioned together as voices who emerged on the comics page and then left the comics page on your own terms. Did the three of you know each other or ever have a drink together?

BB: Ha! Comic artists are renowned for being loners. I ran into Gary occasionally because we lived in the same town… but we had NOTHING in common. Or Bill. Watterson and I shared a large number of letters with very caustic drawings at the bottom of each, as we struggled with copyright battles with our syndicates… but we would have had little to talk about over a beer. I tried going to one session of the National Cartoonist’s Society. Perfectly ridiculous affair. I can talk film with people. I simply could not muster up any cartoon small talk.

AD: The first Bloom County book is out now. The others are in production. Are there any plans to reprint Outland and Opus once the Bloom County collections come to an end?

BB: Oh, the publishers of the new collection would love that you asked that question. We’ll see.

AD: I know that I’m not the only reader who wants to know. Have we seen the last of Opus?

BB: Lives on only in our hearts, I’m afraid. I like closure in all my stories. He has one.

AD: Broken hearted. I’m now going to switch gears. Your work in more recent years, the picture books and now your novel Flawed Dogs, has been aimed at younger readers, or an all-ages audience. What made you shift and what do you enjoy about writing for this audience?

BB: I'm not a natural cartoonist. At all. But I am passionate about a good original story.  A picture book is a very efficient way to tell a very basic, visual story. That pretty much defines the audience as children: the medium is the demographic. I found myself writing stories for the young.   

Which is not bad: kids understand and respond to story in ways adults do not. I had the best moment with my 6 year old boy yet when we both wept like idiots when Marley died in that ridiculous dog movie. And the filmmakers really hadn't given us reason to even love the damn dog. But it was the first time my son reacted to a fictional character and his disbelief was wholly lifted -- the holy grail for any writer. I want to deliver that. Who knows why. But it's why I write stories now and not cartoons.

AD: I’ve read that Flawed Dogs started when you read about Michael Vick. What was it that compelled you to come up with this story and how did it end up as a prose novel?

BB: It was a photo in the New York Times of one of his brutalized dogs experiencing its first love from a human in a Utah dog shelter. He sat in the snow, folding his head, eyes closed, below the warmth of the woman’s chin. He had turned back into a dog while he had every reason to have been only a monster. That was my story. Too long and too brutal for a child’s picture book. So time to find out if I could write a short novel.

AD: The book sounds madcap and it is, but it’s also very brutal. Was it hard deciding what to include, what to describe and just how far you could go?

BB: Not hard. I’ve been doing it by instinct as a cartoonist for years. But I did have to be careful to walk a very fine line. I “pan away” at the moments that are simply too much. But I think I leave enough idea of the horror to linger in the mind of the reader. And yes, it is funny on purpose—the humor leavens the horror… and balances it into a digestible whole. At least I hope so.

AD: There are two really amazing images, both as written and drawn that I think really define the book. One is Sam the Lion and Heidy dancing, which however I describe it, won’t do it justice. Where did this idea come from?

BB: From whence does the stuff from my id come? You're asking the wrong guy.  I will admit that it suddenly occurs to me -- years later-- that I must have been referencing images and books from my past when I look at one of my illustrations. An image will pop into my mind in illustrating a moment in a story... and its all I can do to try to use my very limited drawing skills to make it appear remotely close to what's in my head. To see it actually approach the initial mental image is about as close to the exuberance of good sex as I can get without the actual sex. Puts masturbation to shame.

AD: The other great image is the dogs in the pound. Where did you come up with the idea for them to watch Lassie Come Home[/I[?

BB: Wouldn’t that have been the favorite film of any unwanted, dog shelter wretch? We project our own dreams and hopes onto the characters in a film. They would want to be Lassie—beautiful, ageless and forever desired.

AD: I couldn’t help but think about how few good pet stories there are. Usually animals just end up anthropomorphized. Other than Lassie and Flawed Dogs, do you have any favorites?

BB: I wanted to tell a love story between a human and a dog… but from the dog’s perspective. And to keep it real, I couldn’t have the dogs behaving like people… which is what happens in most dog movies of course. When we set this up as a film, I will be all over everyone that we keep these dogs, dogs. We may hear them speak, but their hopes and dreams stray no further than those of my pit bull sitting below my legs as I type this: to be loved by us.

AD: There’s a great line describing the people looking to adopt dogs as “just as varied and imperfect and splendidly flawed as the dogs were.” You placed the dog shows on the same spectrum of abuse and neglect that we exhibit towards animals. Was this one of your targets from the beginning?

BB: I could have written the same story about f*cking beauty pageants. Whether dogs or women, we have applied a bizarre set of physical expectations on the things we want. This is both cruel to those that don’t measure up… and corrosive to our culture. How fitting that I’m talking to Suicide Girls regarding bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty. I feel right at home with your beautifully diverse comeliness.

AD: How did you first become interested in and involved with animal rights and animal adoption?

BB: Married into it, I’m afraid. I did quickly have a Come To Jesus moment when I received a postcard mailer from the Doris Day Animal Fund… featuring a photo of a beagle puppy laying in the back of a metal cage in a research lab, a perfectly square patch of skin raw and bleeding from where they’d burned it to test new ointments or bandages or god knows what. I’d never felt ashamed as a human before. We’d betrayed the one animal who goes to bed at night and probably only dreams of us. I’m still angry. Listen, you asked.

AD: Patrick McDonnell who does the strip Mutts put out a book the other year, Shelter Stories, which was done with the Humane Society. Is there any chance of a Bloom County/Mutts team-up for animal adoption?

BB: Who knows? He’s still on the page, though. I’ve moved my efforts to the movie screen, hopefully. I like sliding my messages under the door when nobody is looking.

AD: Fair enough. I know you’re focusing on film right now. Mars Needs Moms is coming out next year. Could you tell us a little about that and what else you’re working on?

BB: Working to get Flawed Dogs onto the screen—always a challenge. Disney is bringing Mars Needs Moms out in about 19 months. And I’m writing the next project, which I look forward to talking about in about one year!

Until then, may I say SuicideGirls Rule.

Available now, Flawed Dogs

Go here for more Berkeley Breathed information.