The Pop Chart starts here in just moments, and runs from 10:30-2:30 EDT. I’m really excited to be back on the air Sunday mornings, counting down the week’s forty best pop singles. This week I’m also going to take a peek at the MTV Video Music Awards, which, despite whatever you might think, are a lot better now than they were in 1985. MTV wasn’t so aggressively youth-oriented then, and that year nearly all the major awards went to Don Henley, Phil Collins, Glenn Frey, and “We Are The World.” Tina Turner and David Bowie won awards two, but both of them had been recording for about two decades at that point, too.
Filed under: art, books, gay, heterosexuals, hookers, hot, magazines, music, Norwegians, not hot, people from rhode island | Tags: ben roethlisberger, books, breakfast at tiffany's, dark skies, david bazan, don carcieri, drinking, guns, holly golightly, jonathan lethem, miquel brown, nick hornby, prostitution, sandusky, sex ed, sex toys, soldiers, sondre lerche, teenagers, the thing, uruguay, utah, van jones, you know my name
I’ve been a little swamped this week; I’m still adjusting to real pro blogging, plus I’m trying to deal with an art show I’m curating, a couple of other writing projects, and the Mixtapes For Hookers two-year birthday party, which is (OMG) two weeks from tonight.
So, here’s some links and stuff to stories I’ve been reading/thinking about/getting distracted by.
BlogHer on sex and money.
The Guardian on Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Holly Golightly’s sordid reputation; none of the several Breakfast at Tiffany’s pieces I’ve read lately have mentioned how completely racist Truman Capote’s original novella is, so I’m guessing the new West End production doesn’t climax with a group of dark-skinned children coming out of the bushes and hurling stones like savages from darkest Africa, or whatever the hell happens in the book.
News reports from amusement park mecca Sandusky, Ohio, say that the flourishing sex trade there is “inseperably linked” to the drug trade.
Rhode Island’s governor is defending his decision to speak at a fundraiser for an anti-gay Massachusetts group.
Salt Lake City high school senior Emma Waitzman is attempting to reform her school’s sex ed curriculum.
The Jonathan Lethem-designed new issue of experimental publication The Thing is out this week, and I want it I want it I want it.
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS AMERICAN SOLDIERS LIKE OVERSEAS HOOKERS.
Dreamy Sondre Lerche has a new video, which is mainly notable because it’s Sondre Lerche and he’s a dreamsicle. But both the song and the video are a little lackluster, I think. Still, I might head up to Boston to see him at the Paradise on Sunday because he’s amazing live, and the last time he played at the Paradise (on my birthday, no less) it was one of the greatest shows ever.
The lawyer for the woman accusing Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of rape is now asking for a list of every woman he’s ever had sex with.
Nick Hornby likes mp3 blogs. I still like Nick Hornby, no matter how wildly uncool people keep insisting he is.
The Fleshlight-Liberator combo is endlessly hilarious to me, if only because it makes me think only of the facial expressions of its users.
Mixing and mastering notes for the new David Bazan album, which I still have yet to hear.
Uruguay allows same-sex adoption.
Potential police ramificiations of a fake gun vending machine set up outside a London school cause British video artist to change his mind.
John Crace at the Guardian on teen bloggers.
Was Van Jones brought down by a plot to stop climate legislation?
Dark Skies Awareness. Though I know nothing–literally nothing–about astronomy, I’m all for this.
Books about drinking. I hated Miss Lonelyhearts and never finished Big Sur (though I liked it; it’s just one of those books I started and then lost, or something.) But The Long Goodbye is pretty awesome!
You can map the popularity of your first name state by state and year by year. Mine peaked in Massachusetts in 1984, which isn’t surprising since I was born in Rhode Island in 1981.
[video: Miquel Brown, So Many Men, So Little Time, a song that has been very dear to me lately.]
