Don’t know how I feel about this semi-new White Stripes video. Song included, it’s just too cutesy, am I right?

When Chester and I sat down at a table by the dart boards in a dive bar in Houston to write the first Culture Warrior post a year ago, a girl, a stunningly beautiful girl I dated for a couple weeks in high school, happened to be hanging out there too. She took notice of us probably because we were the only dudes in the place lit up by a computer screen during happy hour. We played it cool. “You mean, you don’t bring your computer out to bars,” we asked her coyly, adding, like we’d just thought of it, “when you do out, what do you do?” She laughed, walked away, a beer in each hand, and sat down at a table full of boys.

What we were trying to do was write the kind of site we’d like to read, something that had all the right ideas about all the different shit we like: music, politics, art, sex and whatever, done in such a way all the cool kids would be into it. Naively, we also thought this might be a prosperous adventure as well. Three hundred and sixty-eight days later we find that while this certainly has been emotionally prosperous, we have not made a penny. As far as the cool kids go, yeah, we’ve made an impression on one or two, and regular posts or no, we get fairly consistent traffic . Chester picked up a gig at Houstonist and I picked one up at Wonkette and may or may not soon be editing another such site for a pittance.

The first half of the year was just ramping up, pretty much. Eventually, a few people began paying attention and there were three notable ‘events’ Culture Warrior events, all over the summer. The first was when I said something about John Roberts being dead when, in fact, he was not. This went unnoticed by most of the Universe, but we became target du jour of the conservative wind machine for a couple days. Former prostitute Jessica Cutler drove a lot of traffic to the site a month or so later when she pointed out that I clearly had no idea where the Waldorf Astoria was located when I wrote a post making fun of her*. The third came shortly after moving to New York, when some friends back in DC became in embroiled in Assgate, Karl Rove’s final vindictive act while on the public payroll.

Many lessons have been learned about writing this kind of site in the first year. Since this thing could really have gone any way, we think, all in, this has been a pretty good year for us. Since we also believe in openness and the free-low of ideas, information, and not paying for music, etc, we’re going to share some of the lessons we’ve learned that will make our second year so much better than the first, right after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always wanted to have 6,000 Swarovski crystals individually glued to my naked body over 14 hours. Spanish actress Paz Vega beat me to the itchy privilege for Elle’s Christmas special.

See, the creative and holiday spirit do belong together. The outfit says festive whore-object, or pretty, pretty mine explosion. I mean I usually just hit up other peoples’ closets for my seasonal frock, but maybe this year I will Zebra stripe myself with a glue stick and roll around in tinsel instead.

Sources:
‘Deslumbra’ Paz Vega con desnudo en Elle El Diario
More ridiculously faked pictures Elle

I was waiting for the train on the platform and overheard a guy about my age standing a few feet away scaring his son, maybe 3, into staying away fromthe edge of the platform. He said something along the lines of “Just the other day a little boy fell down in there and he died. The train came and he died. And then the mommy, she didn’t have a son anymore. And the daddy, she didn’t have a son anymore. That means no more ice cream. That means no more hide-and-seek.” These are the sorts of moments that touch me.

(Editor’s Note: Because we can’t find any decent translated video for this particular story, we offer you a little bit of our multiculturalism with this fully Spanish, Babelfish-free post. We’ve translated it for our gringo friends at the end*.)

Ustedes ya deben saber lo que creemos sobre Hugo Chávez. Pero también sabemos lo que el Rey de España piensa del presidente venezolano después del domingo pasado.

Durante una cumbre de lideres latinoamericanos, el bruto Chávez no supo como callarse la boca durante un discurso de parte del presidente español, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, sobre como conducir una reunión entre países latinoamericanos y tener un discurso respetuoso. Chávez decidió atacar el ex-presidente de España, José Maria Aznar, llamándole fascista, serpiente e inhumano y siguió interrumpiendo a Zapatero, quien defendió a su predecesor como un líder elegido democráticamente, tanto como Chávez (aun algunos de nosotros no necesariamente tenemos mucha fe en elecciones; mira a Bush.). En fin, el mismo Rey Juan Carlos de España se salto de su asiento y le dijo a Chávez que se callara. Muy bien hecho, viejo.

Ahora los Chavistas están llorando que los españoles terminaron pareciendo como oligarcas de siglos antepasados. Ay sí; los quienes piden una pizca de respeto entre representantes internacionales son los incivilizados, pero él quien entra a países extraños demandando locuras e insultando líderes democráticos es él quien tiene razón. Pendejo…

*Translation: Umm, we’ll have two frozen margaritas with salt and some chips and queso.

Featured Video:

Featured Song: “Bad Time” by The Blackbirds (MySpace)


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Happy Monster.

The Pipettes knew what they were doing when they brought Robert Barry on board for their backing band, The Cassettes. On his own, Barry is Monster Bobby.

The 26-year-old Monster Bobby’s first album, “Gaps” is a solid combination of the best of contemporary indie pop. Yes, it suffers from a slight case of multiple personality disorder, but it’s the sort of sublte disorder that you can overlook once you get comforatable with it. There are most obviously traces of The Magnetic Fields, or at least Stephen Merritt, which I eagerly welcome.

The tracks on “Gaps” are rarely conventional. Odd beats and off-kilter melodies might scare you at first, but deep down, you’ll eventually acknowledge that Barry is a clever man, and “Gaps” is a good showing of his power and capability as an individual. Doesn’t mean he should stop spreading the wealth among his musical comrades, but I’m not going to refuse any of his solo stuff.

Featured Song: “The Closest Experience to That of Being With You Is the Experience of Taking Drugs” by Monster Bobby


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Featured Song: “The Postcard” by Monster Bobby


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Run, Persopils, Run into major artistic achievement.

An awful lot relies on these craftily manipulated black and white lines. ‘Persopolis’ tells a girl’s coming of age story against Iran’s revolutionary backdrop all in mostly 2-D animation.

The abstract style effectively conveys super-realistic themes such as war through a child’s eyes, a political exile’s sense of guilt, the senselessness of suffering, and young love lost. Yes, it’s not all too upbeat of a cartoon. But, we aren’t the glassy-eyed audience we were at 8 years-old either, and graphic artist Marjane Sartrapi takes us through her transformation in an endlessly relatable way (even if we haven’t seen dead people.)

I could write a full review, but many people already have, including the Iranian government, which tried to stop it’s screening at Cannes.

Persopolis hits the N.Y. and L.A. on December 25th — but, make this a bleep on your radar, it’s bound to come to a really expensive small theater near you.

(English trailer on Persepolis website, but you’ll get the gist here.)

Sources:
Iran Protest ‘Persopolis’ Screening USA Today