by A.J. Focht


[Bob and Kemper in Droids You’re Looking For]

Superheroes are taking back Saturday mornings. A few weeks ago, Cartoon Network announced they were doing a new block of programing called DC Nation that would feature the DC heroes. Now its Marvel’s turn for the kind of cartoon resurgence we’ve been waiting for ever since Disney bought them out. The mouse-eared company will be starting their own superhero programming block called Marvel Universe. It will provide exclusive Marvel content including series of The Avengers, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor. They will also be doing a Spider-Man series based on the Ultimate Spider-Man line, but it will feature Peter Parker, not the new Miles Morales.

Thor 2 has seen a lot of trouble pre-production, but they’ve finally settled on a writer. Robert Rodat, whose previous credits include Saving Private Ryan, will be penning the sequel to the Marvel blockbuster. The script needs to be completed pretty soon as they plan to start filming this summer.

The live action Star Wars television series is not just a myth, and now it has a name. In a recent interview with IGN, Rick McCallum, producer and right-hand man of George Lucas himself, announced the working title for the series is Star Wars: Underworld. There is no sure date when it will launch; they are apparently waiting until they can economically produce it for $5 million an episode.

Star Trek 2 has added a new cast member in the form of Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. While his exact role has not been named, it is widely considered he will be a new villain in the J.J. Abrams sequel.

There is a new face to Ash William from the Evil Dead series, and she looks nothing like Bruce Campbell. Lily Collins (The Blind Side) is the first official member to join the cast of the new incarnation, taking the lead role. Now, to be fair, she will not be Ash, her name will be Mia. She will however being playing a part very similar to that played by Campbell in the 1981 original. I hope her name is actually Michael or something of the like just as a throwback to Ashley (Ash) Williams.

While were thinking about zombies, is this a good time to mention that World War Z will be a trilogy. After a chorus of complaints about the first one taking place during the actual Zombie War and not after like the book does, this may be Paramount Pictures way of making up for that, or more likely just a way to capitalize on the fad. Either way, we can hope the second and third movie will do the book some justice where it looks like the first will fail.

AMC is on a roll with innovative programming like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, and now they are bringing a mafia classic back to life. The company is producing a cable series based on the Martin Scorsese 1990 mobster classic, Goodfellas. To make the news even better, Nicholas Pileggi, writer of the movie and the original non-fiction book it was based on, Wiseguy, is set to co-write the series.

We have another classic being brought back to life, albeit in a different medium. After twenty-five years as a cult favorite, The Labyrinth will be getting a prequel in the form of a graphic novel. The long rumored project will explore the story of how Jareth, the guy played by David Bowie, comes to the Labyrinth for the first time.

Finally, just a friendly reminder to everyone wanting to attend San Diego Comic-Con 2012, they have changed their registration system. If you would like to register for a ticket to go, you first have to preregister for a Member ID. You can start this process now via the Comic-Con website. Just don’t get stuck being unable to snag a ticket the day they go on sale because you didn’t preregister.

by Jamila



Let's be quite clear, I am not an objective reviewer here. Mike Doughty's music stole my heart in the summer of 2003, when I borrowed a mix CD from my roommate to listen to in the car and track 8 was "The Only Answer" –– two minutes and 9 seconds of sheer heaven that I repeated about 6 times before grilling said roommate about who had created this incredible tidbit of music and how had I missed it before. I am such a biased Mike Doughty fan that I have the robot from the cover of Rockity Roll tattooed on my ankle. Okay, disclaimer taken care of.

Doughty's latest album, Yes and Also Yes is the perfect mix of all of the little quirky styles his other albums showcased. Haughty Melodic (a.k.a. the masterwork), was folksy and acoustic and haunting, with bright spots of silliness (and is still my favorite of his albums, to this day). Golden Delicious was a bit more experimental and electronic, while also serving to put MD on the mainstream map, at least a little bit. That album's redux of "27 Jennifers" was the first of his songs I ever heard on a regular radio station –– not counting Sirius or college radio, etc –– and I grinned until the last strains died out.

Yes and Also Yes has the earnest, sweet, hopeful simplicity of Haughty Melodic with a twist of the edginess and electronic embellishment that he used on Rockity Roll and Golden Delicious. The most glaring difference though? The naive trust, the little boy looking for love and happily ever after who was so present on Haughty Melodic, even in the sad songs about love gone bad like the glorious "Unsingable Name," is startlingly absent on this album. These are songs written by a man who's had his heart ripped out and stomped on and knows so well how to tell the story.

While this isn't the first time his fragile heart had been broken, it was the last time it will happen like this. This is not an album to cry yourself to sleep to whilst it spins endlessly on repeat, it's much subtler and far more seductive. The kind of songs that pretty much everyone who has lost their virginity will be able to relate to. The first single "Na Na Nothing" is about as close to a universal anthem of getting fucked over as it gets. And there are so many moments on this album that made me think, “Yeah, me too!”

And yet, despite the bitterness Doughty wisely lets seep into some of the tracks, that youthful, exuberant hope is still ever present. He continues on his path of growth and exudes a ready-to-learn attitude that makes him and his music so incredibly likeable. You never really know what you will get when you buy one of his albums, but so far, I haven't been disappointed.

Verdict? Definitely worth buying. And also worth paying extra for overnight shipping. Yes, that does mean I was talking about actually purchasing the *gasp* CD. This is one to tangibly hold in your hands.

by Blogbot







Leon the Pit Mix (pictured with his mistress Riae Suicide)

• INTO: Balls, bones, cookies, cats, following Riae into every room, chasing animals in the woods, watching TV, and wearing stupid costumes ( I like it when my mum dresses me up).


• NOT INTO: Being alone, baths, and the vacuum cleaner.


• MAKES ME HAPPY: Sleeping in bed with my mom and dad, long walks in the woods, bones, cuddles, and playing with the leash when I walk with my mom.


• MAKES ME SAD: Staying alone in the house and traveling by car.


• HOBBIES: : I love destroying tennis balls and puppets.


• 5 THINGS I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: My mom, food, cookies, cuddles, and my blanket.


• VICES: I want all the attention for me. I'm jealous when my mum (or dad) cuddle the cats. I'm a little nasty with other dogs.


• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Sleeping or destroying anything in the house.

by Morgan


Hello again fellow nerds! It's been awhile since I've reviewed some games. I know, I blame Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for taking up a huge chunk of my free time. But that doesn't mean I haven't been playing other games, and I've found some treasures.



1. Egress (PC / Free)

This is a pretty short game at about 30 minutes per playthrough, but it's a gem. Evoking the mood of Duncan Jones' movie Moon, this sci-fi point and click adventure puts you in the role of the captain of a 2-man space mission who has lost his crew-mate to mysterious, shadowy aliens. The plotline is engrossing and the art and music are well done, which both serve to make up for the slow transition scenes (many of which can be avoided by pressing ESC) and one very baffling puzzle. If you choose to play this interesting and unique free game, never fear if you get stuck on this particular puzzle: plenty of people have provided hints online.

***



2. Dark Meadow (iPhone & iPad / $5.99)

Imagine a slightly calmer Silent Hill run on the Unreal engine and you've got this game. When you start this your character will wake up in a creepy run down mental hospital, one of my favorite horror tropes, with a helpful stranger talking to you over the intercom system. You can then wander the halls searching for items and fighting creepy, mutant-like enemies and finding "safe" areas in which you can further unravel the story behind this sanitarium. Since your character never dies, but instead is transported back to their original room, this game decreases frustration, plus you get more background information from your intercom friend each time you awaken. The atmosphere and gameplay make this well worth its pricetag.

***



3. St. Mistu (iOS / $0.99)

On a completely different note, this cute and charming game is fantastic and is less than a dollar. You begin with a scene setting up the plot: a blind man is making pizza for himself, and realizes that he has run out of olives! Refusing to eat pizza without his favorite ingredient, he must get to the store. However, the world outside is full of obstacles, and you must show his guide log the best route to get him through each scene on his quest. The art is gorgeous and hand-drawn and the game strikes the perfect balance between cute and challenging. It's also the perfect game to play on trips, as you can play it for five minutes or half an hour.

***



4. The Gamebook Adventures (iOS / $4.99 each)

I was introduced to these when the newest game in the city, Temple of the Spider God came out and the entire catalog of Gamebook adventures went on sale. I snatched up three immediately under the assumption that if I loved playing Dungeons and Dragons I would enjoy these. I was right! They can best be described as "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories combined with classic dice-rolling RPG gameplay. Each is an interesting story set in an original world, and as you read through you are presented with options that alter the story as you go. You'll also fight battles and gain achievements along the way. The stories are long and involved, and interesting enough that you will want to go back and replay them to find alternate paths. They're excellent both for those familiar with adventure gameplay and great for someone looking for an introduction – like this little fella.



***

Related Posts:
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 7
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 6
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 5
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 4
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 3
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 2
Morgan's Casual Game Recommendations: Pt 1

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World...

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)



[THE KILLSWITCH REVIEW – CHAPTER SEVEN, PART THREE]

[THE SOCIETY OF THE LAST SUPPER]

[Previous Chapter / Next Chapter]

DeAngelo’s guest was seated at the table when Polly led him back, his mind hazy with pleasure. The dark-haired Asian girl smiled as he approached. Her right arm was missing and the right side of her face was a mass of red, blistered scar tissue. Her deformities would have been unsettling even in a culture familiar with disease and illness. To someone used to the bland perfection of plastiche-smoothed good looks and geno-immunized healthy bodies, seeing a human being so physically ruined was a nauseating experience — or would have been were Haggerty not in the grip of drug-induced euphoria. Instead he was fascinated. What would it feel like to touch that cruelly disfigured skin? Did her wounds retain the heat of the fire that had scarred her? Would those crimson ridges of hardened tissue burn his fingers?

Polly introduced the girl as Suniko. He offered her his hand.

“Welcome, my dear,” he said.

“It is a great honor to meet you, Mr. DeAngelo,” the girl said timidly.

Haggerty resumed his seat, relieved to discover that she did not know DeAngelo. “Would you like a glass of wine?” he asked her.

“Thank you,” she replied.

Haggerty studied her as she watched Polly fill her glass. Suniko’s damaged skin extended from the base of her neck downward, past the intricate straps of her gown. From the shape of her, it seemed likely her right breast had been removed.

“Most people turn their gaze away from me,” she said softly as his eyes returned to her face.

“I am not most people,” he said.

“No, you are a great and powerful man,” she said. “I could not believe it when they invited me to join you.”

“May I ask what happened to you?”

“I was caught in a chemical fire at the care center where my parents worked,” she told him. “I was twelve. They lost their jobs and could not afford to have my arm replaced.”

The longer she spoke, the lovelier she seemed to Haggerty. He realized she must have been striking once.

“That’s why I’m so thankful. I hope that you will find me pleasing. I have never paired with a man. But after tonight, I may have a chance for a new arm.”

Then Haggerty understood: DeAngelo had requested a deformed virgin to have sex with, a notion that, even drugged, Haggerty found appalling. What drove a man to be sexually aroused by a stranger with a deformity? The fact that Suniko’s sacrificing herself to DeAngelo might earn her the chance for reconstruction only muddied his feelings further.

“I’m glad I could help,” he said, placing his hand on hers.

A waiter in a kilt making the rounds stopped at the table with a cart holding canisters of every illicit drug Haggerty could think of except celtrex. Polly asked Suniko if she wanted to dose. Haggerty suggested SkyWhip, and was happy when she agreed; it would be best if she were drugged as well. Polly brought the inhaler to her mouth and popped for her. Suniko slumped in her chair, eyes glazed.

“One for you, Mr. DeAngelo?” Polly asked.

“No, thanks,” Haggerty replied. “Is Traci available yet?”

“She’s having cocktails with another guest in one of the private suites before she goes onstage. You and your guest are not scheduled for a suite until after your main course.”

“Can I reschedule?” he asked.

“I’ll go and see what can be arranged.”

A short time later, a young man strode to the table. With shock, Haggerty recognized the boy with the silk handkerchiefs from the Orphanage.

“Greetings, Mr. DeAngelo,” he said, offering his hand. “I’m Max. May I join you?” Without waiting for a response, he pulled a chair from another table and sat down. “I trust you’re enjoying my club.” His eyes pierced Haggerty.

The boy’s looks were extraordinary; he could easily have been a holostar. Haggerty was taken aback that someone so young could be the owner of this establishment. Maybe Max was another Tanner, only better at pulling off the illusion of youth — or with access to better plastiche. Haggerty had the unsettling feeling it wasn’t so.

“Everything’s wonderful,” he said.

“I pride myself on delivering whatever my guests request,” Max said, flicking his gaze at Suniko but otherwise ignoring her.

“Worth every credit,” Haggerty said, regarding the slumped girl, who refused to look at Max. “I congratulate you on the drug. It’s quite an accomplishment.”

“I’m pleased you like it.” Max’s smile seemed genuine. “I created it.”

“I’m impressed,” Haggerty said.

Max accepted the compliment as if it were his due. “I understand you’d like to change your scheduling, Mr. DeAngelo.”

“If possible,” Haggerty answered.

“I can make anything possible,” Max stated matter-of-factly. “I must admit, I thought you’d be in worse shape, given your condition. I’m impressed by your doctors. You’re one-forty-three, if I remember correctly?”

“I’ve been kicking around a long time,” Haggerty parried, sensing a trap. The drug kept him from panicking, but had not yet eradicated his ability to think. Best to say as little as possible.

“And a sports fan?”

Haggerty nodded noncommittally.

“I like football myself,” Max offered. “Funny you chose tonight to dine with us, what with the big game tomorrow.”

Was he being tested? Haggerty felt he had to respond. It was probably unwise to say football was not his sport of choice. “I assume you have a telemonitor with full access, should I find myself still in your company come game time?”

Max sat forward, his chair legs grating on the marble floor. “I pride myself on being able to meet the needs of any and all of my guests,” he said smoothly. Haggerty relaxed, sensing that the test was over. Brian hadn’t been called to forcibly eject him from the premises — or do whatever it was they did to gate crashers in this place — so he must have passed. “If you are still with us when the game is viewcast,” Max continued, “I promise you an unforgettable experience. I myself will be at the game in style.”

He signaled the orchestra.

“The floor show is about to begin again,” Max told Haggerty. “Have a nice rendezvous in your suite. I’m sure Suniko will see that you enjoy yourself.”

He gave the girl a meaningful glance. Suniko nodded, her eyes contracting slightly. Haggerty felt like he’d been slapped.

“I’ll leave you now. Perhaps I’ll join you for dessert. Be sure to dose again before you dine, Mr. DeAngelo.”

* * *

A line of young women entered from stage left, a line of young men from stage right. The boys wore 1930s finery complete with spats, top hats, and swallow-tailed coats; the girls were dressed in beaded satin gowns of the same era cut on the bias, their hair in period chignons. At center stage the lines reassembled into couples who waltzed in a circle and swept back into the wings — revealing Traci and her partner posed in a passionate embrace.

Traci was thinner than she’d been in the holophoto, too thin to be truly attractive. At first Haggerty wondered why the Last Supper Club, which prided itself on only serving the best, had hired her. Then she and her partner began dancing.

Traci wrapped herself around her partner with fluid grace. The young man supported her with skill, but it was Traci who turned a simple ballroom dance into an expression of intimate desire. Her beautifully executed arabesques, the quality of her leg extensions and pirouettes bespoke rigorous training she wouldn’t be able to use for decades, if ever. Centuries ago, a ballerina’s career was over by the time she reached forty, when her body could no longer sustain the demands of her art. But that was no longer the case. A prima ballerina could dance until she was past the century mark, her skill undiminished and her appearance still youthful. By the time today’s dance stars retired, decades hence, those who’d spent their lives denied opportunities while the grandes dames hogged the spotlight would be passed over in favor of younger talent. So it was not surprising that Traci poured all her energy and ability into this titillating dance in an illegal club with an adequate but uninspiring partner. It was as close as she was ever likely to come to a starring role.

Her partner released the closures of her gown and she spun away from him, left in a glittering skinsuit. The gown discarded, he pulled her back into his arms. Haggerty leaned forward, eager to see if Traci could sustain the atmosphere of sensuous grace when the pas de deux turned blatantly erotic.

Then Polly returned. “Your private suite is ready for you now, Mr. DeAngelo,” she said.

Haggerty could hardly tear his gaze from the stage. He nodded to Polly, reminding himself that lives were at stake, and rose from the table, taking Suniko’s single hand to help her stand. They followed Polly along an endless corridor, past ornate doors affixed with colorful carved representations of jungle palms, an antique Japanese pagoda, the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Haggerty was amazed at the vastness of the restaurant grounds. Finally they stopped before a door with a carving of two whips crossed in an X, which Polly opened.

The hard stone floor inside was strewn with archaic torture devices: a bed of nails, a stock with spaces for a victim’s head and wrists, and instruments Haggerty did not recognize but had no doubt DeAngelo would. One wall held whips and chains and other objects whose purpose he couldn’t guess and didn’t want to. Suniko stood nervously observing a small metal cage.

Polly indicated a rope pull hanging inside the door. “Ring the bell and I’ll come and collect you,” she told Haggerty, and turned to leave.

“What about Traci?” he asked.

“She said she didn’t recognize your name.”

The clock was ticking down to morning and Haggerty needed to get out of there before dosing again. He’d only dosed twice and sensed that the drug was impairing his judgment. But he couldn’t leave without first speaking to Traci.

“I was told I could have anything or anyone I wanted,” he shouted.

“All right,” Polly said.

Haggerty could not tell if she was acquiescing to the club’s policy or merely trying to make him quiet. He scratched the back of his neck.

“If you must know, I’m an associate of Shintag Lake’s. Tell Traci I have a message regarding a common friend of theirs.”

Polly nodded.

“And before you go, give me another canister or two of Sky.”

Polly smiled. She handed him three additional canisters and left, closing the door behind her.

Haggerty turned his attention to Suniko. The poor girl was shaking.

“There’s not even a bed,” she said, her normally timid voice reduced to a near inaudible whisper. She gestured to the cage. “Do you want me to get in?”

“Don’t worry, Suniko,” Haggerty said gently. “I’m not going to use any of these things on you. Here, this will calm you down.”

He held a Sky canister to her quivering mouth and dispensed the contents. Within moments she was barely conscious. Haggerty guided her into a chair equipped with iron leg and wrist straps. He tucked the other canisters of Sky into his cummerbund for easy access, next to the white box — he didn’t want Suniko to overhear the conversation once Traci arrived.

Ten nerve-wracking minutes later the door opened and there was Traci, all ninety pounds of her. She’d taken her hair down; her long red curls seemed to bounce at her shoulders. She was dressed in a gown from a later era than the one she’d worn onstage. A bodice of boned green satin molded her breasts and cinched her waist; a skirt of a lighter green chiffon billowed from the waistline, supported beneath by stiff crinolines reminiscent of a costume from a classical ballet; he wondered if it was coincidence. If not, the choice was unfortunate in Traci’s current state. The color might have been good on her once, but her complexion was pallid now and the green made her look sickly. While the 1950s gown appeared to have been altered to fit her body, this clearly had been done when her figure was fuller. The scrap of green chiffon draped over her arms like a shawl couldn’t disguise how thin they’d become or camouflage her prominent collarbone. The vintage dress didn’t hang off her frame, but it was loose enough to suggest what it should have looked like when properly filled out.

She leaned back against the door to close it, one hand on her thin waist while the other toyed with the pendant at her breast.

“You told Polly you’re a friend of Lake’s?”

“We’ve met. But the message isn’t from him.”

“Whatever.” Traci glanced at the limp form of the girl in the chair, examining Suniko’s deformity and wrinkling her nose. “Are you planning a threeway? Because I have to say — she makes me uncomfortable. I mean, I will if you want . . .”

“I’m not here for that,” he said.

She stepped closer; Haggerty could smell she was recently perfumed. She fingered the rose on his shirt, looked down at his waist, and noted the white unit. She ran her tongue across her lips. “All right, I’ll play along.” She stepped away and walked around the room, staring at the cage and the bed of nails. “So what’s this message you have that isn’t from Shintag Lake?”

“I’m friends with Regina and Sharyn. I’m trying to find out the truth behind what happened to Teardrop and Sunset.”

Traci stared at him, her face a storm of suppressed emotion.

“You’re on H, right?”

“Happy Sticks?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“Wish I was,” she said dreamily, rubbing her right thumb against her pendant. “Isn’t it fabulous? I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let me have a press?”

“Sharyn told me you dosed,” he said.

“Whatever. She’s a bagbite.”

Traci went to examine the wall of ancient instruments. Haggerty came up behind her.

“She also told me you brought home an unregistered black button unit. That’s a Federal offense.”

She stiffened. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I’m outta here.”

Haggerty grabbed her roughly as she made to leave. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me how you got that stolen box,” he said. “I’ve been blamed for giving Teardrop and Sunset those units.”

“Bites to be you then,” she snarled, struggling to pull away.

“I’ll have you locked up for a long time,” he said.

She shrugged off his grip, then rubbed her arm where he’d held it. “Like that scares me,” she said. “I’m under the protection of — ”

“Max and the Triads,” he finished for her. “They’ll be happy to know you’re stealing from them. Employees aren’t allowed to dose on Happy Sticks. It gets in the way of their doing their jobs.”

Traci threw back her head and laughed hysterically. “Max won’t be happy with me if he finds out I’m dosing, but I think he’ll be even less happy if I answer your questions.”

“He’s not your main concern now, I am. And he’ll be safely tucked away in a cell soon as well.”

“I doubt it. He has the police in his pocket.”

“But not the Feds. And they’re involved now. So you’ll tell me what I want to know if you plan to come out of this without a jail stretch — or worse, an order for deportation and exile. Did Max supply those black boxes?”

“I’m not telling you anything,” she said tightly, crossing her thin arms over her breasts.

“He already admitted to me he invented Happy Sticks,” Haggerty said. “That’s enough to indict him. You can’t protect him now and he sure as hell won’t be in a position to protect you later.”

“He only told you because he knows you won’t have a chance to tell anyone else.”

“I plan to as soon as I leave here,” Haggerty said.

Again that unsettling, hysterical laugh. “The only way you’re leaving here is in a bag. Haven’t you worked it out yet?” She flicked her gaze at the unit on his belt. “You’re already dying.”

“What?”

“It’s not sticks, like twigs,” Traci said. “It’s Styx like the river of death in the Underworld. Once you’re dosing, you’re dying. H is the most addictive drug ever invented. When the fix starts to wear off, you’ll do anything to get it back, including die — which is exactly what happens, because your seventh dose kills. You’re here to die, man, going out in style after one helluva last meal.”

* * *

Excerpt from The Killswitch Review, published by Yard Dog Press. Copyright 2011 Steven-Elliot Altman.

Steven-Elliot Altman is a bestselling author, screenwriter, and videogame developer. He won multiple awards for his online role playing game, 9Dragons. His novels include Captain America is Dead, Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires, Batman: Fear Itself, Batman: Infinite Mirror, The Killswitch Review, The Irregulars, and Deprivers. His writing has been compared to that of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton and Philip K. Dick, and he has collaborated with world class writers such as Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves, Harry Turtledove and Dr. Janet Asimov. He’s also the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology The Touch, and a contributor to Shadows Over Baker Street, a Hugo Award winning anthology of Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Lovecraft stories.

Steven also bares ink on his body, and is bi, as in bi-coastal, between NYC and LA. He’s currently hard at work writing and directing his latest videogame Cursed Love, an online free to play gothic horror RPG from Dark Hermit Studios, set in Victorian London. Think Sherlock Holmes, Jack The Ripper and Dorian Gray mercilessly exploit the cast of Twilight. Friend Cursed Love (Official Closed Beta) on facebook and you can have fun playing out this tawdry, tragic romance with Steven while the game is being beta tested!

Diane DeKelb-Rittehouse spent several years in Manhattan as an actress before marrying her college sweetheart and returning to the Philadelphia area where she had been born. Diane first worked with Steven-Elliot Altman when they created the acclaimed, Publisher’s Weekly Starred-Review anthology The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, in which her story “Gifted” appeared. Diane has published a number of critically acclaimed short stories, most notably in the science fiction, murder, and horror genres. Her young adult fantasy novel, Fareie Rings: The Book of Forests, is now available in stores or online.

Interested in buying a printed copy of The Killswitch Review? Well, Steve’s publisher Yard Dog Press was kind enough to put up a special page where SuicideGirls can get a special discount and watch a sexy trailer. Just follow this link to KillswitchReview.com and click on the SG logo.

* * *

Related Posts:
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Four
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part Two

By Nicole Breanne

The Stones, Bowie, Elvis, Hendrix, The Beatles, they all played on vinyl throughout my formative years. These guys are the soundtrack of my childhood. I was also intrigued by photographs from that era. Candid shots of the rock stars were my favorite. I would also notice the beautiful girls that were with them. I didn't know who they were or what they did, but one in particular stood out. As I grew older and the internet came into play, I did my research, Pamela Des Barres was the name.

Pamela Des Barres - known as Miss Pamela, Queen of the Groupies - is world famous, mostly for the company she's kept. But after reading her books, watching her documentaries, and being part of the music scene myself, I realized she was so much more. And as I got into journalism (I started as rock writer), my desire to meet and know Pamela grew and grew. Finally, I got the balls to shoot her an email and ask her for an interview…



Nicole Breanne: I grew up in a very musical household, not only did we have vinyl, but we had a lot of candid shots of rock stars. Those were my favorite. I always saw these really beautiful girls, you in particular, and I would think to myself, “I want to be those girls.” Now I look at groupies and I'm like, “Ugh, really?”

Pamela Des Barres PDB: You can't use groupie in a negative way like you just did, I forbid it

NB: Well, that's kind of my point, I don't see them as groupies like I see you as one. I just didn't know if I could call them star fuckers in your living room.

PDB: [laughs] I don't call them that, I don't call them anything. That wasn't what we were about. I didn't have sex for a long time, I wanted it to be special and I wanted to really love the person and have them really love me. But I did give oral sex - I really wanted to show my appreciation.

NB: Exactly! You weren't there to just screw rock stars. You were these beautiful girls that were there for the band, you appreciated the music. I really feel like you guys did so much more.

PDB: I'm glad you feel that way because a lot of the bands felt that way. It wasn't us just trying to be with them, they wanted us there. The super groupies got to be up on stage, we felt what they were feeling. It was thrilling beyond words to be up on stage when The Who was doing Tommy, The Stones with “Gimme Shelter.” I've been in some pretty amazing places.

NB: You're so good about giving details, and not giving too much. You don't go into who's big and who's not.

PDB: People ask that all the time! Who was the best? Who was the biggest? The funniest question I get asked, and I get asked it a lot, is, “What is jimmy pages dick like?” [laughs] So many people want to know that! It's like wow, sorry, if you can't find out for yourself, I’m not gonna go that far. They don't ask about Jim Morrison or Jagger. I guess everyone saw Jagger, but Jimmy is the one they ask about.

NB: You really loved these guys, was it hard to watch them live that extreme lifestyle?

PDB: Yeah, I had to walk away sometimes. I was scared for them, sure I was. I saw them doing more and more, and the drugs got harder, it wasn't just hash. I won't lie, I did it too. I did it all. I never shot up though. I guess I'm lucky that I'm not an addictive person, I could walk away. But there were a few times when I had to leave because I couldn't watch.

NB: Again, you really cared about these guys — but you weren't the only girl that was around. When I watched the documentary based on your second book, Let's Spend The Night Together: Confessions of Rock's Greatest Groupies, I was struck by how there was no jealousy. Was there any of that?

PDB: No. We all really liked each other and we were careful not to step on each other’s toes. When the scene changed and some younger girls came in — that's a different story. They just wanted us out, and there was name-calling and that kind of thing. Not all of them. There are a few good girls that I still keep in touch with. But the original girls weren't like that. I loved doing that documentary because I got to spend double time with the girls. They're still some of my best friends.

NB: What's it like when you listen to the music of that time - do you still feel that same?

PDB: Some of it is way too emotional. It brings back way too many emotional things. I get very heady. I can't even listen to “Stairway.” It brings back way too many memories. When it's on the radio I can't wait to turn it off, especially if I'm driving. I still listen to Graham Parsons. I was moved by him and his voice and his intense desire to share what he was doing with music. He was so dedicate and I’m obsessed with him still. There was a girl from France who was interviewing me because she's doing a comic book series on the GTO's and I asked if she knew him and she said no [so] I gave her CDs. I'm like that, because if someone really loves music, they need to know Graham. That's what he was about, spreading music.

NB: In your second book you talk about your divorce, your son — it's a very personal book. Did you just decide that you were going to go balls out with this and tell it all?

PDB: I did that with all my books. But my second book...it's a different book, its my favorite one. It's not as well read as the first one, the first one was a bestseller for a long time. I have fans, they're reading them, but I wish more people knew about the sequel.

NB: You're working on your fifth book now...

PDB: Yeah, my fifth book will be about my spiritual journey. My agent is having a hard time selling it because I am perceived as a “groupie” and a “groupie” shouldn't have spirituality I guess. But we have interest from a smaller house.

NB: You teach a writing class - how did that start?

PDB: I would periodically go take a refresher creative writing course throughout my life. Moon Zappa said, “I've got this really cool writing teacher you may want to check it out.” So, I went and half-way through the class I thought – I should be teaching this, I could be teaching this! So I thought about it for a year, then I decided to take the plunge and just go for it. I advertised on MySpace, because that's what was happening at the time. My first group met right here, about 10-12 girls, and they loved it. It's just great groups of women who are all like-minded, and they have these amazing stories, so life long friendships are made. It's worked out. I've been doing it for 12 years now. I've been traveling and now I teach all over and I’m doing my first European trip too.

NB: How do you feel about music today?

PDB: There's a lot of things I like, nothing like the renaissance I lived though where every thing was great – The Stones, The Byrds, The Doors. I had to choose between The Stones and The Burrito's. I remember Mercy invited me to Monterrey and I said, “I can't go I can't miss The Burrito Brothers!” Now that is one of the few things I regret. But I love Lucinda Williams. She’s the only singer that has moved me like that in decades. I liked Ryan Adams for a while. He went off the rails for a bit, but his new album is good. My boyfriend Mike Stinson is the greatest songwriter. I still go to see Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dylan always, always. I set my alarm to make sure I get up to get the best seats. Paul McCartney. Mainly the bands I liked then I'll go see now.

NB: Do you feel like it could happen again? That someone can come along and just revolutionize music?

PDB: It happened in rap, Eminem is a real big favorite of mine because he took that whole other part of music and created it for himself. That was amazing. He's the last person that has moved me in that kind of way, in the way that I was like, “Wow, this guy is doing something.” Not since Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain was the dude.

***

I left Pamela's house completely elated. She was more than I had ever dreamed she could be. She was poised and kind, and still insanely beautiful. Part of me hoped that meeting her would quell my thirst for that time. Maybe it wouldn't be as great as I thought it was, maybe she wouldn't be. But, alas, I'm left with even more of a longing – so much so, that I'll be at her January writing class. If, like me, you can't get enough of Pamela, be sure to sign up for one of her creative writing workshops. Alternatively, you can join one of her Rock Tours, during which she takes groups around Hollywood to her old haunts and reads excerpts from her book. It's a pretty kick ass trip down memory lane!

by Blogbot


[Adria and Temper]


[Temper]



Artist / SG Member Name: Zak Smith / ZakSmith

Mission Statement: I hate it when you're eating a cheeseburger and then the chef comes out of the kitchen interrupts you eating and goes, "Oh now let me tell you a little bit about why I made a cheeseburger." Oh wait, I don't hate that. Because it never happens. Because they never do that. Because that would be stupid.





Medium: Acrylic on paper for the paintings. Ink on paper for the black-and-whites.

Aesthetic: Maximalist.


[Charlie]



Notable Achievements: I have a painting in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and it's a Suicide Girl -- Charlie. I drew one picture for every page of Gravity's Rainbow. I did an illustrated book of true stories about me working in the adult film industry called We Did Porn. I painted 100 Girls and 100 Octopuses and Charles Saatchi bought it and I know that plural is actually grammatically accurate thanks to friends I made 8 years ago on Suicide Girls. Honey Manko Suicide once called me crass.

Why We Should Care: Because throughout a decade of long disconnection and difficult-to-pin-down multimicronichefamousness SuicideGirls is the closest thing to a home I've ever had. And even though I went to Yale, been to a million art dinners, and have watched Sasha Grey lick my cum off another girl's ass, I can still say to this day that most of the smartest, prettiest, and least sane people I've ever met and most of my best models are from this little pink pin-up girl website. Actually, that’s why I should care, isn't it? I don't know why you should care.





I Want Me Some: My last two books -- Gravity's Rainbow and We Did Porn were published by Tin House Books, my first one, Pictures Of Girls, was with DAP. Both are available through the usual on-line channels and by harassing finer art-book stores near you. The SG store used to sell some very nice full-size posters of my Charlie and Sawa paintings. If you complain a lot they might do some more. My site is www.zaxart.com.







***

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by Nahp Suicide



Lavezzarro comes from South America, but now splits her time between London, Berlin and wherever the wind takes her.

How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?

Monik’s set was my first time shooting a naked girl. I’m glad it got accepted. That was in 2005 and how it began.

What's your background photography-wise?

I dropped out of Fashion Design University in the 4th semester as I noticed it wasn't my thing, and I decided to learn photography without a school. I worked for different studios as assistant where I could learn something, and the main thing I learnt was that I dislike studios. So I kept on doing my thing - I still am learning actually.

What was the first photo you had published?

It probably was a band shot I did for an ex-boyfriend’s band back in 2004 when they were releasing a CD and got featured on a major newspaper.

How would you describe your style?

I am very honest. I like to photograph the girls how they are. I don't tell them how to dress or to pretend to be something, and I think that can be seen in the images. I’m a bit of dark person, so you won't be seeing rainbow cupcake pictures coming from me. I am also not a technical person, so I won't be freaking out looking for the perfect images. I like to capture what happens and I like spontaneity. I think it's raw.

What gear do you use?

All Canon lenses and body and few analogs, which are my favorites.

How important is Photoshop in your final images?

Not very. I do it very little to none, as I have no talent editing. Now I have amazing Photoshoppers working with me. They can retouch much better than I, but I ask them to keep it really natural. I can't stand airbrushed images.

What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing sets?

I listen music 24/7 and I am addicted to information. I have to be watching, reading, listening, consuming new stuff all the time - everything can inspire me because I am open to it.

What is your favorite image?



Tell us why it's your fave and how you achieved it?

It is one of my favorites because it is simple, sexy, natural. Sums up what I like to show; the girls how they really are. The lady was kind of shy and we couldn't communicate very well because of a language barrier, but I could see in her eyes she had the flame and I think it was properly captured in her whole set.

Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven't? (And tell us why)

I really want to photograph as many people as possible, travel more, discover more, so everyone that I haven't photographed yet I want to photograph one day. And everyone I already have done, I want to do again.


For more on Lavezzarro visit her SG and Facebook profiles, and see her portfolio at www.lavezzaro.com.

by Jeckyl Suicide

A column which highlights Suicide Girls and their fave groups.


[Jeckyl Suicide in Abnormal Behavior]

This week, Jeckyl Suicide gives us an exclusive peak inside SG's innermost sanctum, the super private SG Lounge.

Members: 2,916 / Comments: 330,432

WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: It's given me the opportunity to meet and get to know some of my fellow SG sisters. It's a relaxed and open space where we can all just be ourselves and be open and supportive. There's a lot of love in that group.

DISCUSSION TIP: Anything goes. The more random the better. We pretty much discuss everything under the sun.

BEST RANDOM QUOTE: "SG is a place where we can make friends or acquaintances with girls from all over the world who share our interests."

MOST HEATED DISCUSSION THREAD: What? SG's never fight or argue. EVER. +cough+

WHO’S WELCOME TO JOIN?: The place for SuicideGirls to talk amongst ourselves. Private; SuicideGirls only.


***
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by A.J. Focht



The New Year is off to a good start as nerd rage scores one over the film industry. After the massive amount of complaints surrounding Bane’s voice in The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. has cracked and made it easier to understand in the audio mix. While Christopher Nolan had no intentions of changing the voice, the studio’s fear of the fan outrage won out.

That wasn’t the only news from The Dark Knight Rises to break last week. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Anne Hathaway released some previously unknown details about scenes in the film. As if that wasn’t enough, the forty second montage from the prologue was leaked last week, and promptly removed.

Marvel Studios has released a new movie poster for The Avengers. The poster taps into the recent fad for classic looking movie posters. While the art style rather interesting, the poster is just about what you would have expected.

After five years of legal wrangling, the courts have made a decision as to the proper owners of Ghost Rider. No shocker, but Marvel will retain the rights. The case was brought to the court by Gary Friedrich, the modern re-creator of Ghost Rider. Marvel commissioned him to update their original Ghost Rider, a cowboy, and he delivered with the well-known skeleton motorcycle rider. Unfortunately for Mr. Friedrich, he signed over all rights of his character to Marvel, twice. It was on this grounds that the court decided that Marvel would keep all rights, and Friedrich, whose complaint stemmed from being cut out of the profits from the first movie, won’t be seeing profits from the upcoming sequel either. Just a good reminder to all artists to make sure they keep track of their intellectual rights.

Some more legal bullshitting coming out of Marvel; their lawyers are now proposing the case that the X-Men are not human. While the Mutant versus Human status has long been an issue in the comics, this time it’s being used in the real world for capitalistic gain. Certain countries tax less on figures that are not human, and thus, Marvel must insist that the X-Men are not humans. Perhaps these countries should change the wording to ‘humanoid’ to avoid confusion.

The largest scale model of Serenity has been found in the depths of the Universal Archives. The replica builders at Quantum Mechanix came across the model used in the Firefly series and had a chance to take several photos. Someone really should consider rescuing this piece and putting it some sort of science fiction museum, lest it disappears again into the depths, never to be seen again.

One last bit of news, Netflix has released a three minute trailer for their first original series Lilyhammer. It follows the story of an ex-mobster who enters the witness protection program. Sopranos veteran Steven Van Zandt plays the role of the protagonist, Frank ‘The Fixer’ Tagliano. This is the debut original series to come from Netflix, but they have several others in the works, including the final season of Arrested Development.

by SG's Team Agony feat. Yulia

Let us answer life's questions - because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.


[Yulia in Don't Panic]

Q: I've never really ever written to one of these before but…yea…I've been single for the last eight months, since my ex dumped me (I later found out the she was cheating on me). Ever since I've been living the single life, which is a life that i absolutely hate. Despite looking, I have been unable to find a girlfriend, and it's becoming increasingly more frustrating.

Lately I've become extremely attracted, both physically and intellectually, to a girl in one of my college classes. When I asked her out she told me that she wasn't going to date during college and I retreated with my metaphorical tail tucked between my legs at yet another rejection. Several weeks later her and I spent an hour and half just looking at pictures on her laptop after class, and a friend informed me that they think this girl actually is into me. So if that’s the case, why would she turn me down?

I mean I've heard that women find confidence sexy, but when all someone has know are liars, cheaters, and rejection, how am I supposed to be able to have any confidence? I've had two very serious girlfriends both cheat on me, and it's just made me angry and bitter. Is it something about me that drives these girls to other men? Are they just cold heartless bitches?

I'm just so sick of being single, and being lonely, and I could really use some answers.

Thanks.

A: I always feel for people who have difficulty enjoying being single. I strongly advocate single time as freedom time, meaning you have the freedom to do what you enjoy 100% of the time. I hope you find ways to take advantage of this. This might not be what you want to hear, but I think you should consciously spend a bit more time living the single life, but from now on focusing on enjoying your life for what it is and using your free time for you.

Why not join a sports team, take up a new hobby, or volunteer for a project at work? Not only will you be busier and have less time to dwell on past relationships or your single status, but hopefully your confidence will grow as your life does. When you meet your next girlfriend or even your next date, you will be happy with yourself and full of confidence.

As for the girl at college, unless you get to know her better, you'll never know her reasons for turning down the date. She may indeed find you attractive, but if she feels strongly about not dating during school and has a busy life already, those reasons may be more important to her than her attraction to you or any other potential date. Do keep in mind this is likely not personal if she's focusing on her education above all else or not dating for other reasons.

Also remember that you are also still in college, with plenty going on already in your life. Being in a relationship is great, but you have a long life ahead of you and if you're not in one right now, who's to say you won't be by the time you graduate or shortly thereafter? I know some people meet their long-term partners in college or even high school, but most don't. Try to stop focusing on having a girlfriend and just enjoy dating and meeting new people.

- Yulia

***

Got Problems? Let SuicideGirls’ team of Agony Aunts provide solutions. Email questions to: gotproblems@suicidegirls.com

by Zach Roberts

There are many different kinds of press that cover OWS: the citizen journalist (personal blog, CNN ireporter/scab), the streamer (Livestream, Ustream, etc.), the social media micro-blogger/tweeter, and the pros who make their living from it. This may be one of the first large stories that all four types have worked together on for the most part with a common goal - getting the word out. It's tough, there's many factors working against all of us - the weather, the time of day, and the biggest problem - the police. Whatever your level, I’ve compiled a list of equipment that’ll keep you and what you’re witnessing covered.



1. Like the OWS protestor, Occupy journalists are at risk from pepper spray and tear gas - but we need to keep on working through it. A face mask with full facepiece that has a large unobstructed viewing area is therefore a great accessory to have on hand.

2. Come rain or shine journalists need to be there - and so does our gear. Pics or it didn't happen - that's the mantra. So you'll need some rain covers. There are more expensive ones out there, but they take up room in your bag and once they're wet you can't put them back in your bag. The great thing about these is once the sun is shining again you can just chuck them in the trash - or hang them to dry if you're a hippy.

3. Whether you're a social journo or a pro, you'll need to be tweeting/texting your followers/editors. And unless you work off a Blackberry (I mean, really who does?), you'll need to be able to touch your screen. If you're covering OWS in NYC, Chi-town, Boston or Anchorage (yes there is a OWS in Alaska), it gets cold out there - so you'll need special touchscreen compatable gloves.

4. Speaking of phones, you're gonna need something like the Samsung Vibrant with 5 MP camera / HD 720p camcorder and GPS. And, unless you're grandfathered in on AT&T plan like I am, you won't have unlimited bandwidth on your phone – unless you’re on the T-Mobile network. The streamers on the ground at #OWS tell me it's the only way to go. Also the 4G speed will give you the quickest streaming and uploads for Twitpics. Make sure you get the Ustream and Tweetdeck apps.

5. The Nikon D7000 camera body is pricey - but when compared to the rigs the big pro's use it's a deal. It's what I use to get shots like these. For a pro-sumer level camera, it's built like a tank - but most importantly it shoots photos in the dark. No, not Blair Witch Project-style with green eyes, but with real colors that are almost better than what the human eye sees. To take full advantage of the camera's sensor though you'll want to pick up a lens with a wide 1.4 aperture - like this excellent Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens. It's what I used to shoot video with down at Zuccotti Park.

6. Finally you'll need some inspiration when you get hit with a bad case of writers block. For me it's Laurie Penny's book Penny Red. Hands down the best protest journalism I've read since...well, I'm not really sure when I've read better.

Related Posts

#D17 – Sitting on the Group W Bench – Arrested for Committing Journalism

Occupy Wall Street: The Cleansing of Zuccotti Park


***

Zach Roberts is a photojournalist for SuicideGirls, Greg Palast, and The Mudflats. His work on #OWS has appeared on The Guardian Online, in Portfolio, and now in a new book out by Alternet called The 99%: How the Occupy Wall Street Movement Is Changing America.

For more visit his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

by Blogbot


[Olga in http://suicidegirls.com/girls/Olga/photos/Party++Girl/ " target="_blank">Party Girl]

SuicideGirls’ team of Bloggers and Agony Aunts share their suggestions on how you can give 2012 a kick-ass kick start.

1. There's someone you haven't spoken to in a long time. Too long. You fear by now you've procrastinated so long that it's lame to reach out, so you've effectively paralyzed a valuable friendship that could easily re-blossom with a single call. You're not paralyzed, it's just a head trip. Guilt is useless. Make that call. Say Hi. Apologize. Laugh. Love. Life's too short. Do it right now. “Happy New Year! I suck” is a great way to start a conversation! – Steve Altman

2. Cut off deadwood! Start by defriending, hiding or blocking the toxic individuals from your Facebook and Twitter feeds. – Dalila Suicide

3. Spend time with people that make you feel taller, brighter, and more capable than you did before. – Darrah de jour

4. Try dating someone you wouldn't ordinarily date. Like, say, maybe an introverted writer-type that contributes to your favorite alt-beauty blog. Or an evangelical Christian. Those are your only two choices though: the writer or the evangelical. Choose wisely. – Matt Dunbar

5. Spend some time with a niece, nephew or cousin who are growing up and could use your advice. – Atlea Suicide

6. Talk to someone from your Facebook list face-to-face. – CoyoteMike

7. Come to terms with the fact that you mom has a Facebook. – Shotgun Suicide

8. Eating vegetarian style meals reduces the green house gas production. Try to incorporate this in to your lifestyle one day a week. It's good for you and the earth. – Aadie Suicide

9. Eat lots and lots of cupcakes!!!! What? They’re epic and always put a smile on my face! – Kraven Suicide

10. Unfuck your habitat! There's nothing like vastly improving your quality of life by having a clean, organized living space. Need tips and/or motivation? Visit unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/, because "no matter what our situations are, we deserve better than to live in filth." – Perdita Suicide

11. Clean your car and your house through and through. – Atlea Suicide

12. Rearrange a room to get a fresh perspective on life. – Rambo Suicide

13. Go through all your clothes and decide if someone could make better use of some of them. Drop the excess baggage off at a shelter or contributing organization in your area. – Atlea Suicide

14. Donate those holiday presents that you don't like. – Shotgun Suicide

15. Shop local whenever possible. – Salome Suicide

16. Eat at your favorite mom & pop restaurant, before it goes bankrupt too. – Shotgun Suicide

17. Set up a computer backup plan. Be ready for World Backup Day. – Bob Suicide

18. Start and finish a project you've had in mind for a long time. Renovations, painting a vase, knitting, really anything. – Atlea Suicide

19. Set a stupid goal and accomplish it, to prove to yourself that you can. – Darrah de jour

20. Quit saying you will do something and actually do it. When tasks, errands, and commitments are followed through with you feel much more productive. – Kraven Suicide

21. Take a risk. – Darrah de jour

22. Spend an hour with a happy dog, scratching his or her ears. – CoyoteMike

23. Try to go outside each day. Go for a walk. Make sure you have at least 20 minutes of "me" time. This way you’re incorporating self-thought and exercise. It's very important to get to know yourself. You could be pleasantly surprised. – Aadie Suicide

24. Learn a new skill: baking, crocheting, taxidermy, etc. – Rambo Suicide

25. Take a college class that you want to take, not one that you need. – Shotgun Suicide

26. Find a hobby you can dedicate some time to. Something you love and have passion for. It keeps us young at heart and sane when we can lose our selves in something. – Kraven Suicide

27. Splurge on some really fancy underwear. – Rambo Suicide

28. Add a little color to your life however you see fit. A colorful world is so much better than a black and white one. – Kraven Suicide

29. Make time for yourself. Seriously. Put it in your calendar. Whether it is daily, weekly or monthly, schedule some time and don't cut out on it for anyone. You're the only one looking out for you. – Smythe Suicide

30. Treat yourself to an energy renewal weekend, be it at the spa or simply just by unplugging the phone and reading a book. – Atlea Suicide

31. Set up an automatic transfer of money into a savings account each month. – Salome Suicide

32. Watch Fight Club. – Darrah de jour

33. Listen to Valleyheart by She Wants Revenge – Nicole Powers

34. Read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (snag a free copy here) - EisMC2 and JackalAnon

35. See more live comedy and live music. - Squee Suicide

36. Support non-profit journalism - American Independent News Network, Truthout, GregPalast.com, BradBlog.com are all 501c3's - donate to support the news that you read for free. Oh, and it's tax deductible. – ZDRoberts

37. Protest the NDAA, unless you don't care to plead the 5th. – Shotgun Suicide

38. Join the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) if you care about stopping SOPA. If you spend any time online, you should do. (For that matter, if you’re breathing, you should do!) – Nicole Powers

39. Protect your vote. The election is less than a year away, and you'll need to start working now to make sure your vote actually counts. Find out why and how by downloading Steal Back Your Vote for free. SuicideGirls helped promote the project so you know it's awesome and worth a read. – ZDRoberts

40. Get to know your presidential candidates. Look beyond the big social issues like abortion, and research their tax plans, health care ideas, and how they've voted in the past. You might find out they aren't who you thought they were based on a few Facebook posts and Twitter campaigns. The election is coming soon. – Damon Martin

41. Stop by and say hi to your local Occupy. Shake someone's hand and say “Thank you.” You’d be surprised how much it means to them. Oh, and give them a pair of mittens, it gets cold out there. – ZDRoberts

42. Write “Thank You” notes and post them to people who have helped you get through 2011. – Atlea Suicide

43. Send a letter to a friend, the kind with a stamp. – Shotgun Suicide

44. Create good karma. Treat others as you would want to be treated. In this day in age too many people are being hurtful towards one another in many forms. From anonymous hating via the internet, to being rude to a stranger just because your day didn’t go so well, to physical acts of hate out of spite, jealousy or lack of confidence. Think about how you can be a positive impact on others around you, from your family, friends, neighbors and strangers. Small gestures of kindness can go a long ways and karma will make its way back to you. – Dorsal Suicide

45. Pay for the next person in line at the coffee shop. – CoyoteMike

46. Find joy in the small things. It will help you appreciate the big things so much more. – Kraven Suicide

47. Make today count, because one day you will be nostalgic for it. – Shotgun Suicide

48. Spend more time living in the moment, and less time worrying about the past and the future. Neither of these exist – so live in the present! – Fabrizia Suicide

49. The past is over. Now move your ass. Welcome to 2012. – Darrah de jour

50. Have no regrets. It’s a New Year and that means progress. Do not look back, only forward to the happiness ahead! – Kraven Suicide

by Yashar Ali

Every election season, I ask myself the same question: Why aren’t more women running for public office?

Over the past ten years, I have been hopeful for the prospect and rise of women political candidates. While I never studied the numbers, I felt like we were heading in the right direction.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

Reporter Kate Linthicum’s brilliant Los Angeles Times article sheds light on the City of Los Angeles’ problem with proper female representation on the city council. The fifteen-member council, which had five female members eleven years ago, currently has just one, Jan Perry.

Current statistics about women holding federal office are equally dismal: women hold fewer than 20 percent of House and Senate seats. The House faced its first decline in 30 years with respect to women members.

Women hold fewer than 25 percent of seats in state legislatures. This sort of decline has not been seen in decades.

Why are we slipping back after so many years of slow but steady progress?

There exists real obstacles for prospective women politicians: media bias, lack of financial support, mediocre recruitment efforts, underfunded organizations built to help women run for public office.

I want to introduce a not-so-prominent problem: the serious deficiency of women in senior positions on political campaigns. With the exception of political fundraisers, you find very few women running campaigns or serving in top management spots.

The absence of women operating behind the scenes of political campaigns has been largely ignored. This is made clear by the complete absence of studies tracking the numbers of women working in politics. Open your newspaper and turn on your TV. You usually hear a senior-level male staffer speaking for candidates.

This isn’t just about my ideology. This is personal for me.

For the past two and half years, I worked for California Lieutenant Governor and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. In my last position with him, I managed his 2010 race for Lieutenant Governor.

Lieutenant Governor Newsom and his wife, actress and documentary filmmaker, Jennifer Siebel Newsom (who made a brilliant documentary about women’s under-representation in positions of power and the limited and often disparaging portrayal of women in the media - see SG interview) expressed in this campaign their frustration and concern about the lack of women working on his campaigns.

Lieutenant Governor Newsom always asked, when we made hiring decisions, whether we could fill these posts with qualified women. This was not just a question for him. In his first year as mayor, he appointed San Francisco’s first female police chief and fire chief. He was also the first mayor to initiate gender analysis of budget cuts.

But I couldn’t find available and qualified women to take senior positions in his campaign. The few women I did know were already working on other campaigns.

Shawnda Westly, Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, saw a need to fix this problem in California. She, along with her colleague Robin Swanson, put their money where their mouth is, and launched a website called Political Women California.

Political Women California delivers a simple, but powerful mission: to give women working in politics a place to post their resumes so employers can find and hire them for campaigns, elections and political positions throughout California — and across the country.

Their site has been flooded with postings from women already working in politics in California. Even though I am not in the business of managing campaigns anymore, it helped me realize how many women are trying to work in politics.

Usually, people run for office after being exposed to a political campaign in one way or another. So the question is: how do we expect young women to motivate themselves to run for public office when all the people running campaigns are men?

This issue is not limited to Democrats. We need more women working on campaigns and in elective office across the political spectrum. Both parties should see the benefit of female leadership. But drawing from my personal experience, I want to speak to Democrats: There is no excuse. How can we demand equality for women in the workplace and fair wage laws, when we can’t manage to hire women for the campaigns professing these issues?

I spent the better part of two years working tirelessly for Hillary Clinton in her bid to be the 44th President of the United States. My passion for her candidacy was primarily based on my belief that she was the most qualified candidate for president. I felt her unique combination of experiences would serve our country incredibly well.

But there was another strong factor for my motivation. One I will not apologize for. I really wanted a woman president.

The dream I have for a woman president is not dead. However, if we don’t make conscious efforts to hire more women on political campaigns, we are not only limiting our talent pool, but we will also face an epidemic shortage of women running for office.

We must demand that candidates we support value diversity in their hiring practices. So, my message is for two people: the candidate and the campaign manager.

Next time you are walking through your campaign headquarters, take a look at the young woman who shows up everyday after her classes to volunteer. The same one who always pays her own way on public transportation to make phone calls and to help knock on doors. The same one that you are impressed by and think is better than half your paid staff. And probably the same one you take for granted. She could be president one day…if you give her a chance.


***

Yashar Ali is a Los Angeles-based columnist, commentator, and political veteran whose writings about women, gender inequality, political heroism, and society are showcased on his website, The Current Conscience. Please follow him on Twitter and join him on Facebook.

He will be soon releasing our first short e-book, entitled, A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not Crazy — How We Teach Men That Women Are Crazy and How We Convince Women To Ignore Their Instincts. If you are interested and want to be notified when the book is released, please click here to sign-up.

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by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World...

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)



[THE KILLSWITCH REVIEW – CHAPTER SEVEN, PART TWO]

[THE SOCIETY OF THE LAST SUPPER]

[Previous Chapter]

Once Haggerty was cleaned up, Brian showed him how to clip the white unit to his waistband to keep it within reach and led him to the dining hall. Haggerty’s table, one of a half dozen forming a semicircle around a barren platform stage, was set with sterling cutlery, assorted crystal for drinks, and opulent porcelain dishes upon crisp white linen. His plush chair was made of real, elegantly carved wood, atop a floor of veined Italian marble that matched the walls of the large room, upon which were hung large mirrors in gilded baroque frames. A huge crystal chandelier floating at the center of the ceiling cast soft illumination to supplement the dim light from ornate silver candlesticks on each table.

The hostess had been right about the return of his euphoria. And the Happy Sticks had an interesting effect: Haggerty felt both languid and oddly clear-headed, mesmerized by his surroundings but aware of every absorbing detail. It was as though he were making love, his body everywhere caressed, but in no hurry to climax; the journey itself was the object. At a nearby table the lone occupant, a bearded male with a white rose in his lapel, sipped from a wineglass. The man nodded at Haggerty and raised his glass. Haggerty grinned back, the outside world forgotten.

“Your waitress will be with you soon,” the ape said politely, and left.

Haggerty sat transfixed by how the candle on his table reflected rainbow colors off a crystal goblet. He felt parched. Lifting the goblet, he took a sip of the purest water imaginable.

“Good evening, Mr. DeAngelo.”

The soft tektronic voice belonged to another exquisite android. She was dressed in the tightly laced corset and wasp-waisted gown of the Belle Epoque. Haggerty studied her splendidly sculptured face, the high cheekbones accentuated by long jet hair piled into what once had been called a Gibson Girl style.

“I’m Polly and I’ll be your waitress. You have an amazing meal ahead of you.” She presented a bottle for his inspection. “It’s over one hundred years old,” she said, her smile promising delight to come.

Haggerty frowned reflexively.

“This is the wine you ordered, isn’t it?” she asked anxiously.

Haggerty eyed the label; the French inscription was meaningless to him. He had sworn off alcohol long ago, but seeing how far he already had come tonight, he decided it was not worth refusing. He nodded that it was acceptable.

“Pity you’re an android,” he said as the beaming waitress uncorked the bottle with white-gloved hands and poured him a glass of ruby liquid. “I’d invite you to share a drink.” He lifted the glass to his lips. The wine was smooth on the tongue and utterly delicious, the best thing he’d ever tasted. He giggled like a child.

“There’s more coming,” she promised. “Do you prefer black or red caviar?”

“Is it real?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said. “Everything here is real.”

“Then I’ll have both red and black,” Haggerty said, and laughed, not only at the absurdity that caviar was accessible in this day and age but that the android found no irony in her statement that everything in the club was real.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, and swished her hips in the tight gown back toward what Haggerty supposed was the kitchen.

The wine certainly was real, he had to admit as he sipped it guiltily. At the far side of the stage, another lone man wearing a white rose was eating what looked to be a turkey leg. A large, heavy signet ring glinted with candlelight as he lifted the leg in his hand. Turkeys had been extinct since Vertibrate Spongiform Encephalopathy—what did they call it then? Mad Animal Disease — laid waste to America’s food supply and decimated its pet population long ago.

“That’s cloniform turkey he’s eating, right?” he asked Polly when she returned to the table.

“No, Mr. DeAngelo, it’s not. As I told you, everything here is real. We have access to genetic materials and the technology required to clone entire animals. We actually breed the most requested varieties. Turkey is a popular item. That particular guest is having an authentic, historically accurate Thanksgiving dinner. Cows are very much in demand but we can also accommodate more exotic requests like yours.”

She placed his appetizer tray before him, a small dish of black and red caviar, bread and Petit-Gris snails. He looked at them quizzically, torn by conflicting claims on his consciousness: a voracious appetite to devour every morsel set before him and the knowledge of the vast expense to clone an extinct breed for the sole purpose of his doing so — or DeAngelo’s as it were, and the club’s other patrons. The audacity of it, the cost of their illegal access to the genetic material alone, were obscene — and irresistible.

“Is this not what you ordered?” the waitress hazarded.

“It’s just that I’ve never actually eaten them before,” Haggerty offered lamely, his mouth salivating.

“I’ll show you how,” she said, bending across to gather the appropriate utensil and extracting a snail from its shell with a deft twist of the wrist.

Haggerty opened his mouth and let her place it on his tongue. He chewed it hesitantly, groaning in delight. The snails had been cooked in a buttery sauce ever so lightly infused with garlic. He marveled at the taste of real meat from a real animal with its own distinctive flavor and texture, not the bland flesh produced in nutrient tanks everyone else in the country had to settle for. Delicious could not begin to describe it. Haggerty sighed with pleasure.

Polly beamed at him. “I’ll give your compliments to the chef.” She fed him another snail, her delicate movements as entrancing to Haggerty as the sublime ambrosia she delivered to his lips.

He closed his eyes, ecstatic. When he opened them again he glimpsed a cloche hat rising from beneath the tablecloth of the man across the way, followed by the head of a woman then revealed to be dressed as a flapper from the Roaring Twenties, dabbing her lips in apparent enjoyment. The man seemed equally pleased as he lowered the tablecloth back over his lap and smiled at Haggerty.

Appalled and aroused, Haggerty gagged just as Polly offered him another snail. Noticing his state, Polly followed his gaze.

She put down her utensil. “If you like, I’d be happy to perform that service.”

It took Haggerty a moment to recall that he avoided sex with androids on principle, even if the principle seemed questionable under the circumstances. He was here on serious business. Lives were at stake. It was hard enough to concentrate without an android’s sexual ministrations further clouding his mind.

“Maybe later,” he said. “I’m a little overstimulated at the moment.”

“As you wish,” she replied, refilling his wineglass. “The entertainment is about to begin. I’ll be back with your next course after the opening act.”

Haggerty reclined in his chair and turned his attention to the stage.

A large portion of the platform had descended and was gradually replaced by a rising twelve-man orchestra outfitted in white tuxedos. The dimly lit room went black, save for the candlelight on the tables, as the conductor lifted his wand. The band softly played a rhythmic, repetitive motif. A spotlight targeted the ceiling above the stage.

A skinsuit-clad girl floated downward on a swing, executing graceful gymnastic movements with supple flexibility and athletic strength. When the swing reached the stage, a young man emerged from the wings to help the girl alight and led her into a sinuous, sensual dance. Other dancers —eight of the most beautifully sculpted men and women Haggerty had ever seen — joined them from the wings, the floor, the ceiling, balancing on swings and hidden pulleys as the tempo escalated from the sensual to the erotic. Haggerty recognized a holostar whose image had appeared on magazine covers displayed at the newsstand in the BBI lobby. All the while the music increased by infinitesimal degrees in speed and volume. The performers’ beautiful bodies swirled and mingled, their movements progressing seamlessly from ballet to jazz to burlesque and culminating with the full strip of clothes and every imaginable sexual activity as the orchestra reached its crescendo.

Haggerty looked over at the man at the Thanksgiving table, who absently stroked the silk-stockinged leg of the waitress seated on his lap. Beyond him at the farthest table, a dark-haired woman sporting a white rose laughed giddily as her handsome male waiter poured wine for her. She might be thirty or a hundred thirty and was clearly enjoying the show. Haggerty was fully aroused when the music climaxed and the stage went dark.

“You can have any of the performers you like,” Polly murmured into his ear.

Her words, combined with her sudden materialization at his side, had a visceral impact, intensifying his arousal to the point of pain. Haggerty closed his eyes.

“Watching was enough,” he said through gritted teeth.

Polly smiled knowingly. “Saving yourself for your guest?”

He noticed with alarm the second setting at the table. Who the hell had DeAngelo invited? Would this guest blow Haggerty’s cover? His Happy Sticks glow faded. Haggerty found himself extremely annoyed.

“In that case, please come with me,” Polly said. “The club’s owner would like you to make a decision regarding your meal.”

Haggerty followed her. The floor was like air beneath his feet.

“She’s famous, isn’t she?” he asked Polly, indicating the holostar entangled with the bearded man and two of the other performers.

“Yes, she is,” Polly told him. “We provide nothing but the best for our guests.” She led him down a dim, marble-lined corridor.

“Is Traci working tonight?” he asked recklessly.

“She’s in the next number,” Polly said evenly. “Do you know her?”

“We have mutual friends.”

“I see. Will you require her services?”

“I’d like to meet with her as soon as possible,” Haggerty said eagerly.

“I’ll inform scheduling.”

The marble surface terminated at a smooth, transparent aquarium in which large, dim shapes moved through the confined water. The waitress halted, indicating that Haggerty should observe the contents. She ordered lights on; it took a moment for Haggerty’s eyes to adjust to the sudden illumination that filled the tank.

“Dolphins,” he said in awe.

“Your main course was difficult,” Polly said. “It took months, so they made more than one.”

Whoever was behind this place had performed a miracle. Dolphins had been one of the first species to exhibit VSE and become extinct. He had never hoped to see one alive, and here there were two of them. A dorsal bumped hard against the glass.

“That’s the male,” the android said. “I’d never heard of them before I came here. I watch them sometimes. They seem really smart.”

Haggerty recalled from textbooks that they were indeed highly intelligent, some claimed more so than humans. He watched them circle the tank just large enough to hold them, bobbing helplessly. His waning euphoria evaporated completely as he realized with horror that he was looking at his dinner. What a sick individual DeAngelo must be to have made such a request. Why on earth would he do it? Tears streamed down Haggerty’s face.

“Which one will it be?” Polly requested brightly, mistaking his emotion for joy.

Haggerty knew he must sacrifice one of these splendid creatures in order to save countless humans. But he could not bring himself to choose.

“I trust you are enjoying your experience thus far, Mr. DeAngelo,” came the hostess’s soft mezzo-soprano like a dream. She stood beside him, beautiful and dispassionate, his white unit extended in her hand. “It’s time for your second dose.”

He hadn’t even noticed that she’d unclipped it from his waistband. The counter turned over to “2” as he pressed. And then the hostess was gone, along with her unsettling gaze, and somehow the unit was back at his waist.

“Your choice, Mr. DeAngelo?” Polly asked again, her soft voice soothing, caressing.

Haggerty turned to the tank. How beautiful they were. A moment ago he’d been horrified. But the horror was muted now by pleasure. The female was near the bottom, barely moving. The male bobbed above her. It seemed to Haggerty the dolphin took note of him, making the decision for him.

“The male,” he said, the regret in his voice so dim that Polly did not hear it. “I’ll have the male.”

* * *

Excerpt from The Killswitch Review, published by Yard Dog Press. Copyright 2011 Steven-Elliot Altman.

Steven-Elliot Altman is a bestselling author, screenwriter, and videogame developer. He won multiple awards for his online role playing game, 9Dragons. His novels include Captain America is Dead, Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires, Batman: Fear Itself, Batman: Infinite Mirror, The Killswitch Review, The Irregulars, and Deprivers. His writing has been compared to that of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton and Philip K. Dick, and he has collaborated with world class writers such as Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves, Harry Turtledove and Dr. Janet Asimov. He’s also the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology The Touch, and a contributor to Shadows Over Baker Street, a Hugo Award winning anthology of Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Lovecraft stories.

Steven also bares ink on his body, and is bi, as in bi-coastal, between NYC and LA. He’s currently hard at work writing and directing his latest videogame Cursed Love, an online free to play gothic horror RPG from Dark Hermit Studios, set in Victorian London. Think Sherlock Holmes, Jack The Ripper and Dorian Gray mercilessly exploit the cast of Twilight. Friend Cursed Love (Official Closed Beta) on facebook and you can have fun playing out this tawdry, tragic romance with Steven while the game is being beta tested!

Diane DeKelb-Rittehouse spent several years in Manhattan as an actress before marrying her college sweetheart and returning to the Philadelphia area where she had been born. Diane first worked with Steven-Elliot Altman when they created the acclaimed, Publisher’s Weekly Starred-Review anthology The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, in which her story “Gifted” appeared. Diane has published a number of critically acclaimed short stories, most notably in the science fiction, murder, and horror genres. Her young adult fantasy novel, Fareie Rings: The Book of Forests, is now available in stores or online.

Interested in buying a printed copy of The Killswitch Review? Well, Steve’s publisher Yard Dog Press was kind enough to put up a special page where SuicideGirls can get a special discount and watch a sexy trailer. Just follow this link to KillswitchReview.com and click on the SG logo.

* * *

Related Posts:
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter One, Part Four
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Two, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Three, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Four, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Five, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part One
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Two
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Six, Part Three
Fiction Friday: The Killswitch Review – Chapter Seven, Part One

by Blogbot


[Voodou in Robot Lament]

Artist / SG Member Name: Voodou Suicide

Mission Statement: Art can be an escape, a personal thing, a social thing, a way to meet others. It has been all these things for me. I love making and doing things, so I don't think I could ever stop. Art is a huge part of what makes me, me.





Medium: Mixed media, some favorites include Copic markers, acrylic, fineliners, water colors and my Wacom tablet for computer work.

Aesthetic: Fun, colorful, graphic, most likely containing robots and/or dinosaurs.







Notable Achievements: I won Sappi ThinkAhead Graphic Design Student of the Year. I have passed my ISTD (International Society of Typographic Design) exam, making me able to put MISTD after my name. I have been featured in House & Leisure magazine (South Africa) as a winner of their reusable packaging contest. I have also been an Emerging Creative at Design Indaba (South Africa) in 2009.

Why We Should Care: Cause everyone could do with more fun and robots.





I Want Me Some: Find more of my graphic design on Tumblr and my T-shirts via my Etsy store. I also do commissions. Message me on SG if interested. Or email robot.factory.design@gmail.com








***

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by Bob Suicide


[Bob Suicide in Bears Beets Battlestar Galactica]

To be completely honest, I never wanted or liked having Siri on my iPhone. My wishlist of features for future phones will never include the desire that my phone "talk to or at me more." The social implications of a world filled with people who own phones that talk makes me shudder down to my very anti-social core.

Imagine if everyone who currently owned an iPhone had Siri on it; you wouldn't be able to walk down the street without hearing that robotic voice making appointments, giving directions, or doing some kid's math homework. People who used to quietly access information on their phone will now yell at it until it yells back. The implication being that it takes several attempts and ultimately frustrated yelling at the phone in order to get the artificial "intelligence" to understand your request.

After the social decline that I can see Siri ushering in, I'm afraid of the "dumbning-down" of the consumer interface. People won't need to learn how to use their phone to access information. They won't need to understand how apps function or how to navigate Google maps. All they have to do now is yell at it until it tells them what they want to hear. Why learn how to use your phone when a robot can use it for you?

So, given my ardent dislike of Siri, I'm not at all surprised that she isn't performing exactly the way people want. But, what does surprise me is what everyone seems to be complaining about.

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Siri is failing to point out abortion clinics. This oversight prompted both the rallying cry of an elaborate pro-life conspiracy on the part of Apple and the hailing of a new life-saving technological advance (depending upon which side of the debate you fall on). A pro-life group went so far as to congratulate Siri (and Apple) for the, "Numerous lives [that] will be saved as a direct result." While the ACLU called upon Apple to fix the "glitch" immediately.

When asked to find a clinic, Siri says, "I didn't find any." And when you ask her this question in the middle of a large metropolitan area, whether you’re pro choice, pro life, or apathetic to the idea of children, it's clear Siri isn't looking hard enough.

Apple has since responded to the uproar by saying that Siri is young and hasn't quite learned everything she needs to know, but as she "ages" through updates she will become more knowledgeable. Clearly, no one at Apple sat her down and had "the talk" about the birds and the bees before launch. She'll just have to pick it up from the streets.

The reality is that there are a lot of things that Siri doesn't know about yet. When I first got her, I yelled "cylon" at her in varying tones for the better part of ten minutes, but she has no idea what their plan is. Just because abortion happens to be a hot-button issue, Siri is seen as having a political agenda rather than the incompetent software that it currently is. Us geeks have all lamented the missing or defective features in the latest iteration of our favorite OSs, and Siri's inability to find an abortion clinic or properly call my mother instead of my brother is another in that long list.

But, let's go out on a limb and assume that Siri really is a pro-life sentient software. Why are you complaining that this intelligent techno-butler doesn't share all of the same ideals as you? You can't have it both ways. You can't herald the creation of technology that will lead to sentient software and then get upset when that software appears to have a perspective that differs from yours.

You may be able to argue that Siri isn't properly doing her job. You might have hired her to give you all possible suggestions, directions, platitudes, and words of heartfelt encouragement, and if so, and you find Siri fails to do her job in any of these categories, then the solution is obvious: she should be fired. Get a new phone or stop using Siri and go back to accessing your phone's apps like the cavemen before you used to do.

In the mean time, let's all just laugh it off with some hilarious visions of Siri over-compensating for her latest faux pas:



For more Siri/Abortion hilarity visit HappyPlace.com/.


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by Glitch Suicide

A column which highlights Suicide Girls and their fave groups.


[Glitch Suicide in POV Dreams]

This week, Glitch Suicide gives us the specs on SG's Robot Love Group.

Members: 426 / Comments: 741

WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: Because I have a huge obsession with anything robotic.

DISCUSSION TIP: Check the threads before posting.

BEST RANDOM QUOTE:

MOST HEATED DISCUSSION THREAD: It’s all love in the Robot Love group.

WHO’S WELCOME TO JOIN?: Anyone that loves robots, or anything relating to them.


***
Related Posts:

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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Jensen on Online Dating
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Gallows on Pen Pals
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Satya on Hip-Hop
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Tovi on Veggie


SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Aadie on Suicide Boys
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Haydin on Ballet
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy – Psyche on Slut Pride
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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Chrysis on Itty Bitty Titty Committee


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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Ryker on Harry Potter
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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Setsuka on Ass Appreciation
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Noir on The Kitchen
SuicideGirls’ Group Therapy - Exning on Body Mods
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SuicideGirls’ Group Therapy - Frolic on Celeb Worship
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Cheri on Skateboarders
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Noir on SG Military
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Exning on Weight Loss
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Aadie on Cute Overload
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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Clio on Hardcore Music
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Epiic on Hirsute
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SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Rambo on Photography
SuicideGirls' Group Therapy - Thistle on Vamos Gigantes

by A.J. Focht



Another batch of photos from the Amazing Spider-Man have been released. Unlike the previous photos that have focused on Andrew Garfield and the Spider-Man suit, these photos include shots of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy as well.

Despite all the drama surrounding Patty Jenkins' departure from Thor 2, Marvel studios is pushing forward and has announced that Game of Thrones director Helmer Alan Taylor will now be directing the film. Assuming there are no other delays, the film should be set to meet the previously scheduled November 15, 2013 release date.

Walt Disney, parent company of Marvel, is getting their greedy hands into the comic giant’s upcoming projects. Despite all of the calls not to, Disney will be releasing The Avengers in 3D. The film was not shot in 3D, and the 3D will all be added in postproduction. The good news is Joss Whedon has come out and said that the film will not be “obnoxiously 3D.”

Speaking of Disney messing with the Marvel movies, they have also announced that an unnamed Marvel project has been bumped up from June 2014 to April 2014. With one other unnamed project scheduled for May 2014, there are rumors that it is because the films will be related in some way. As the two movies are still unannounced though, speculation is rife as to what they might be.

There is confirmation that Watchmen 2 is underway. Bleeding Cool published the cover art to Watchemen 2, but was then contacted by DC and asked to remove it. Most of the reposts have also been taken down, but we can tell you they featured Nite Owl by Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert.

The cast of Ender’s Game has just gained some true star power. Harrison Ford has officially signed on to play Colonel Hyram Graff. And in case Ford doesn’t provide enough box office oomph, they have also landed Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) to portray Petra Arkanian. This cast of the film is really giving me high hopes that it will end up a sci-fi classic rather than a dud.

On the day the Prometheus trailer was to release, it was leaked. Just hours after, the official trailer was “debuted” by the studio. It finally sheds some light on what the movie is about. Simply put: as humans search for their beginning, they may find their end.



More news from Middle-earth; To help celebrate the holidays, Peter Jackson posted his fifth production blog. This video focused on the location of the shooting, and includes some reasoning for filming in New Zealand.

It’s always fun to see the power of the internet in action. It’s even more fun to see the power of fanboys and fangirls – especially when they’re angry that their favorite sci-fi show has been cancelled unduly early. A few months ago, University of Wisconsin-Stout theater professor James Miller, who was also such a fanboy, posted an infamous Firefly quote outside his office to protest against the show's untimely demise at the hands of Fox.

The campus police failed to appreciate the geeky reference, or the irony – that the quote isn’t about killing but about playing fair – and removed the “offending” quotation. But it didn’t end there. The school authorities threatened Miller with criminal charges, and fearing for his job, he contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to defend his right to free speech. After the school refused to back down, the case was taken to the internet jury. This video explains how the online massive – and Neil Gaiman – helped Miller defeat the close-minded educational institution.



A final cheerful clip to brighten the last of the holidays, for those who didn’t catch it, Stan Lee had an amazing cameo in Chuck’s holiday special.

By Justin Beckner

The dawn of another brutal election year is upon us and the majority of the country has developed a feeling of distain for politics all together. Still, masses of protesters have flocked to the streets to speak out against corporate greed and corrupt government practices. Never has there been a better time for a band like Anti-Flag to make new record and gear up for another world tour.

Anti-Flag frontman, Justin Sane has relentlessly spoken out against injustice since he and his friends formed the band back in 1988. Sane has long been hailed as one of the most intelligent songwriters of our generation. While musically, Anti-Flag is a direct descendent of classic punk rock bands, lyrically they ring reminiscent of a Woody Guthrie or Billy Bragg. Anti-Flag had a few minor hits with songs like “Protest Song” and “Turncoat” which could be heard being played at almost any protest demonstration during the Bush Administration. It is rather common to find Anti-Flag playing shows at protests. They recently played at an Occupy Wall Street Demonstration. Sane draws a lot of his songwriting topics from his experiences playing at and marching in these kinds of events.

Aside from his rigorous touring schedule with Anti-Flag, Sane has also put out three solo records (one full length and two EPs) and is in the process of putting together another album. In these solo records, he has found a freedom to pursue different musical directions – often this means falling back into acoustic music and dabbling in different genres. The light-hearted solo albums are a glimpse at the other side of the charismatic frontman.

In the following interview, Sane and I discuss the roots of his love of music and activism, the causes and effects of the Occupy Wall Street Protests, and the new Anti-Flag album due out this spring.

Justin Beckner: It seems to me that there are a lot of ideological similarities between traditional Irish music and punk rock music. You came from an Irish household, is that where your passion for music and social justice came from?

Justin Sane: Yeah, it really did. My dad is from Ireland and both of my mother’s parents are from Ireland so I am 110% Irish. My parents were both really involved in activism as a result of their Catholic upbringing. In Catholicism, there’s something called “Liberation Theology” and that’s the kind of theology that Jesus preached – that you should help out in your community and work with the poor and stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves or give a voice to those who don’t have a voice in the world. With the British occupation of Ireland for hundreds and hundreds of years, there’s always been that drive in the Irish people to work for their own liberation. I think that the idea of fighting for people who are oppressed was carried along with those who left Ireland. Those ideas have been well documented in Irish folk music which is something I grew up listening to and playing. My parents had nine kids because Catholics don’t use birth control. I was the youngest of the nine and we all played instruments. It was like our own version of The Pogues or Flogging Molly within our own family. I’m not Catholic myself, I’m not really religious, but I think that I was influenced by that Liberation Theology that my parents were so profoundly influenced by. They fought for civil rights and fought to make the environment clean for their kids.

JB: Were there any non-political bands that you were influenced by on a more technical level?

JS: Yeah, I mean I’ve always loved KISS. I thought they were really cool. I’m sure there were others – I listened to Jackson Browne a lot. I listened to much of the same music my older brothers and sisters listened to and a lot of it wasn’t political. The Beatles were a band that was unanimously liked by everyone in my family and they had their political songs and their non-political songs. So there was a lot of non-political music that I drew influence from.

JB: You’ve spent a fair amount of time at the Occupy Wall Street Protests. Do you think the message that is being sent by the protesters is getting through to those who need to hear it?

JS: I think it’s definitely getting through because the protesters are being addressed quite often with brutal physical force by a police force that has traditionally been used to work for the elite. I think what we have now is a police force that is propping up a corporatocracy. Let’s look at it from this perspective – if there were protests in North Korea where protesters were trying to make a statement by occupying a square in North Korea and the police came in a brutally beat people up and pepper sprayed them and hit them with non-lethal weapons, the State Department here in the US would be on Fox news decrying the authoritarian rulers of North Korea. But we have that exact same thing happening right here in a democracy where we supposedly have the right to free speech. We have peaceful protesters making a peaceful statement and they’re being beat down by police. I think that says something about the state of our nation and it says something about the concern that those in power have about a message like that being freely spoken. If they didn’t think that message was dangerous, they wouldn’t be sending the police out there to shut those people up. There’s a very clear and directed initiative to suppress that speech and I think that’s really tragic. I’m really proud of the people who are out there making that statement because it obviously needs to be made. People are waking up and realizing that the rich in this country have been taking advantage of the poor for a very long time. So, they’re waking up and making the statement that things in this country are very out of balance – in that respect I think it’s very important that statement be made.

JB: That sense of injustice and imbalance has certainly been getting much harder for people to ignore in recent years. The top 1% of Americans control 42% of the country’s wealth and assets. That’s a pretty staggering figure.

JS: Yeah it is and I think in America there’s a sense of fairness – that everybody has an opportunity to get ahead and that’s based on an assumption that there’s a level playing field that we all start out on. Now people are looking around and seeing that there isn’t a level playing field, things are vastly out of balance, and people with a lot of money are actually breaking the law in many cases and doing things that should be illegal to make more money – all this while the rest of us are just trying to scrape by. I think Americans are pretty fair minded – most people are just saying that they want a level playing field and that’s why we see a lot of protests popping up recently.

JB: Over the past couple weeks I’ve noticed major news networks belittling the protesters on Wall Street. How do you feel when you hear people say that the Occupy Protesters don’t know what they want?

JS: I think a lot of people have a hard time verbalizing it, but in their gut they know there’s something out of whack. That’s where I think the media does a really great disservice by putting out things like, “There’s these occupiers out there but they don’t know what they want.” Because the reality is that if you spent five minutes at any of the Occupy events and walked around and talked to some of the protesters, you’d very quickly find out that there are incredibly articulate people who can tell you exactly what they think the problem is, what should change, and they’d give you statistics to back it up. They’d tell you that the corporations have bought and paid for our politicians to the point that they don’t represent us anymore, they represent corporations, and we want corporate money out of politics so we can have our politicians back. Those are the messages that we don’t see on Fox or CNN. When I go to Occupy Wall Street, as I have a number of times in several different cities, I talk to people who are really articulate, and then I turn on the news and they’re interviewing some guy who can hardly talk and doesn’t seem to know why he’s there. It makes me wonder why the hell aren’t they running interviews with the people I talked to when I was there. But those people at the top of the food chain at Fox news and places like that don’t want a clear message coming out of there. They’re doing their best to make people look stupid but the amount of knowledgeable people down at these protests is unbelievable. I just wonder why we’re not hearing those voices on the news.

JB: With the dawn of another election year upon us I’ve got to ask, how do you think these protests are going to influence the elections in 2012?

JS: One thing that was really clever about the way the Occupy movement was structured was that there is no figurehead leading the movement. That’s a good thing because leaders can be coopted, they can be bought, they can be bribed, they can be stroked in different ways. The Occupy movement is a true democratic process and a true movement of the people. I think that politicians today are just too corrupt to bring this country back to some degree or normalcy. However they will do what they need to do to get reelected and in that sense the Occupy movement is a message of what the people want. It’s not a message of what the corporations want. Ultimately politicians have to bow to the will of the people, and little by little, as a result of the Occupy movement, we see that happening. So it’s a step in the right direction. I think that what the Occupy movement is going to do is change things on a broad scale and politicians in turn will be pulled in and forced to think about what the people want if they want to get elected.

It’s going to take time and it’s going to happen as a result of attitudes and ideas changing. One of those ideas that has to change is that we can have corporate money in politics – we just can’t. There are huge payoffs for these politicians. Say I get elected to the senate and I vote with a chemical company in my area even though I know it’s really bad for my constituents. I know that even if I get voted out of office the next term, I’ll still have a cushy job at that chemical company where I can use the friends I made in Washington to benefit my company. This is what happens over and over again. Our former senator or Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, who is running for president right now, is a poster child for this type of thing. Dick Cheney is another stellar example – he was with Halliburton, then in the Senate, went back to Halliburton, and then was vice president. That is how these corporations use their influence - what we have right now is not a democracy, it’s a corporatocracy and it needs to change. The Occupy movement gives me a lot of hope. I think people went to the ballot box expecting change from Barack Obama and they didn’t get it. They’re realizing that change isn’t going to come from the ballot box and they’re going to find a new way to move the country in a different direction – it’s really exciting and I feel optimistic for the first time in twelve years!

JB: Switching gears back to music, I’ve been told the new Anti-Flag album is in the mixing process right now. Do you have a title or a release date?

JS: Yeah we’re tentatively titling it The General Strike. A general strike is generally where a city or a country is shut down to make a point that progress will not move forward without the people’s labor. The UK had a massive general strike which wasn’t even mentioned in this country’s news. They shut the entire country down. The idea behind calling the new album The General Strike is that it’s a worldwide general strike and Anti-Flag is a band that is talking about unity between all people. I think there really is a group of people who have unified in this world around the idea of equality for all people – and that’s the concept that the title came from.

JB: A lot has happened in the world since your last album; is there any certain subject matter that you focused on with the writing of the new record?

JS: After going to a number of Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations and witnessing the recurring theme of police oppression and the masses of cops working as a tools for what I refer to as the corporate state, that was certainly on my mind when I was writing for the new album. Because I’ll tell you what, when you’ve had a billy club shoved in your face or been pepper sprayed or witnessed innocent people being beat down for absolutely no reason – the videos are on The Daily Show so you don’t have to look very hard to see it – it makes you angry. Especially when it happens to an old lady or people you know, and when you see this happening day after day to peaceful people who are just expressing their democratic right to free speech. So writing about police oppression was something that happened on this record as a result of that. I’ve been having a really hard time looking at police and feeling good about them. It’s really unfortunate because I have police officers in my family and when police do their job and serve their community and protect people, it’s really nice to see them. But we keep seeing over and over again police acting outside what their role is. It’s really enraging and it’s something I’ve been putting pen to paper about because that’s my way of dealing with it.

We’ve also been writing about the exciting events that have been happening around the world like the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the ousting of Moammar Gaddafi, and the changes happening in Saudi Arabia. And then we’ve got a song about skateboarding (laughs). There’s a general theme that the songs are about what’s going on in the world, but we like to have some fun too. It should be out sometime in the spring of 2012.

JB: There will be a tour ensuing the release of that album I’d imagine?

JS: Yeah, we’re looking at starting in Australia and then playing Indonesia for the first time which we’re pretty excited about. Then we’ll definitely be doing our dates in the states and the Europe. After that we’ll see what happens, were always looking forward to meeting new people, seeing new places, and experiencing new things.

JB: I also understand you’ve been writing some songs for a solo record. What do you get out of writing songs for a solo album that you don’t get from writing Anti-Flag songs?

JS: We had an idea when we started Anti-Flag that we wanted it to be a political punk rock band and when people started to follow the band that was the impression they got as well. When we stray from that formula people don’t accept it very well, some react pretty viscerally to it. On the record Bright Lights of America, which we released a few years back, we really tried to expand and go in some different directions and people either liked that about it or they hated it. [Instead of] trying to force people [to hear[ something that they don’t want from Anti-Flag, I write solo albums. With my solo albums, if I want to write about my cat or my girlfriend I can do that. With Anti-Flag I don’t feel free to write songs like that. Another thing is the ability to write different types of music. In my family we listened to so much music and it was so diverse that it almost makes more sense to come across me playing an acoustic guitar in an Irish pub than playing electric guitar in a punk rock band.

The solo albums give me a chance to do something else and that freedom is really exciting. It’s an opportunity for people to know the personal side of me. Sometimes in Anti-Flag people get to thinking that we’re just these serious political robots all the time – it’s kind of funny. Anyways, I’m hoping to get a solo album together in 2012.