I like naked ladies as much as the next guy, but I gotta admit that the mainstream pornification of "son" is what I'm most excited about.

One of the most significant writers of our time. His passing is a loss to the literary field.

One of the great free-thinkers of our time, author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson (or simply RAW) passed away yesterday from complications arising from post-polio syndrome which had affected him all his life. Writer and lecturer Douglass Rushkoff had recently made a public plea on his blog and in ‘Arthur’ magazine on Wilson's behalf for financial support for Wilson who was in dire economic straights due to a combination of medical bills and trouble with the IRS. He would have turned 75 years old next week.

Wilson is probably best known as the co-author, alongside Robert Shea, of ‘The Illuminatus! Trilogy,’ an award-winning and extremely popular Discordian mythology and satirical examination of paranoia and conspiracies, as well as the ‘Cosmic Trigger’ series, and ‘Prometheus Rising,’ which Wilson described as an “owner's manual for the human brain.” Much of his work could largely be credited for the popularization of, if not claimed as the direct inspiration for, the “conspiracy fiction” genre of authors like Umberto Eco and Dan Brown, comic book writers like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, and screenwriters like Chris Carter. Additionally, elements of his philosophies and creative works have been cherry-picked countless times by the creators of various pop-culture phenomena, from the movie ‘The Matrix’ (which contains references to the number 23) to the situationist musical act The KLF (whose name is derivied from ‘The Illuminatus! Trilogy’), most specifically the popularization of a fictionalized version of the Bavarian freethinker movement known as The Illuminati as the conspiracy-masters du-jour in most forms of popular entertainment.

Wilson was also a member of the Curch of the SubGenius, which was founded by fans of the ‘Illuminatus!’ books, and whose “founder” J. R. “Bob” Dobbs is considered by some to be a stylized representation of Wilson himself.

Fnord.

The heroic Hebrew who created the Amazing Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Uncanny X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and many other classic comic-book characters, Stan Lee turns 84 today!

And he's still in near-mint condition!

Jaime Pressly and Nadine Velazquez are looking mighty foxy in the latest issue of 'Arena.'

Originally posted at A Berg Above The Rest:

Back in 2000, I was fortunate enough to meet Poet Laureate of that year, Stanley Kunitz. He was reading from his latest collection of poems. Seeing him read his work, he reminded me of my father...a man who held everything in a quiet regard. His poetry was written in the same way.

Stanley Kunitz died in his sleep early Sunday morning. He was 100.

The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. His father commited suicide in a public park a few weeks before he was born. His mother opened a dry goods store to support her family. Later, Kunitz went to Harvard where he graduated Suma Cum Laude in 1926. His Jewish background however prevented him from becoming an assitant in the English department.

During WWII, Kunitz served three years in the army, even though he was a conscientious objector. His experiences in war were fuel for his collection 'Passport To War' which was published in 1944.

Read More —

While my Hebrew brothers in Israel are hacking away at porn the only way they know how, Muslims in Indonesia are being treated to the first ever edition of 'Playboy' magazine, especially published for the country.

It's a tamer brand of 'Playboy' than the one we're used to here in the states ( no nipples or other nudity ), but it's still offending the sensibilities of some Islamic hardliners while the nation's government sees things a little bit clearer.

Tubagus Sidiq, a senior leader of FPI, told Reuters: "FPI opposes (Playboy) in whatever form."

"According to our commitment, if they don't withdraw it then we will act in our own way, the forceful way. Our crew will clearly hound the editors ... We even oppose the name Playboy."

The government took a different view.

"The laws that we can use in this case (are) whether there is a publication that violates decency. So, we need to check the content first. Just using the name is insufficient to ban it," Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told reporters.

There are apparently already more explicit local publications on Indonesian newstands though and it appears as though it's just the idea of a western lifestyle brand like Playboy infiltrating their homeland that the conservative Islamists don't like.

Me, I just like the picture of the guy rocking the crazy "Hammas" head-wrap holding up the magazine.

There is not much I can say about Octavia Butler that won't be said by anyone else. But it's always, always terribly sad when an incredible author passes on. Sounds cliche, but obviously there's something that all great authors have - and the rest of us wish we had - that makes us endeared to them. Octavia Butler was not merely the first major black woman to excel in a white man's literary sub-genre, but she helped to lend the overlooked genre of Science Fiction more legitimacy in the mainstream literary fields. And, her work was relavent. Sci-fi gets a bad rep because too many readers associate it with ugly-faced aliens and other pop-culture mish-mosh. But Butler's work was real, human, and significant. She passed too early - but her work is indelible.

I was at Barnes and Noble picking up a book to help me build my portfolio when I saw this gem on a bargain table. I started reading and I seriously laughed my buttocks off!
(I think I pissed off the woman who was sprawled out on the floor reading her romance novel)

Yes... it is a baby guide and no... I don't have a baby. But any book that refers to a baby as a "model" and a doctor as a "service provider" is downright okay in my book. So maybe I do want a baby. Big whoop wanna fight about it?

It's the answer to every new parent's first question: Doesn't this thing come with an owner's manual? At long last, yes!

Through step-by-step instructions and helpful schematic diagrams, The Baby Owner's Manual explores the common concerns of every first-time parent: What's the best way to swaddle a baby? How can I make my newborn sleep through the night? When should I bring the baby to a doctor for servicing? Whatever your question, you'll find the answer here -- courtesy of celebrated pediatrician Dr. Louis Borgenicht and his son, Joe Borgenicht. Together, they provide plenty of useful advice for anyone who wants to learn the basics of childcare.

- Barnes and Noble

In case you didn't already know, 'Wax Poetics' just may be the best periodical on the topic of music currently in publication. It's sub-title reads "hip-hop, jazz, funk & soul," but it's really about a lot more than that. Yes, it's musical starting point generally is that of beat-digging music snobs of the hip-hop generation. And yes, it usually features informative articles on the jazz, funk and soul artists of yesteryear, complete with exhaustive discography and record-cover photo-spreads. And sure, some of it's prime features are often scholarly disertations on various vinyl curiosities both well-known and obscure. But it also features profiles of artists, musicians, producers , engineers, label owners, disc jockeys and others whose contributions to the soundscape of post-modern America more often than not go ignored. And not to be relegated to discussions of any specific genres it also features articles on reggae, electro, disco, bluegrass, folk, obscure electronica and bizarro foreign music as well as various other musical niche cultures that have sprung up around the world. So you see, 'Wax Poetics' is more than just another "music magazine," it's a document of our living musical herritage, a herritage that if it were up to average music magazines and other traditional music-centered media would be ignored completely and likely die a quiet death.

The newest issue ( issue #14 ) of the magazine, which hit stands ( and my mail-box ) last week, continues the publication's tradition of excellence. Features on Mulata of Ethiopia, drummer James Gadson, the grand-daddy of sexually explicit music Blowfly, pioneering hip-hop DJ Jazzy Jay, indie hip-hop superstar Edan, UK jazz-dance God Gilles Peterson, Reggae originator Clancy Eccles, street photographer extraordinaire Ricky Powell, Brooklyn New York's haven of black-nationalist-jazz The East, old-school UK electro-funk and indie-dance with DJ Greg Wilson, Quantic Soul Orchestra and '80s hip-hop mecca The Fever grace the inside pages. But the cover-story, the first half of a two-part in-depth personal interview with legendary producer/arranger and jazz-fusion inventor David Axelrod, is really where it's at!

The interview with Axelrod, an architect of so-much that was good about soul, jazz, pop, rock, and the psychedelic mixture of all of them in the '60s and '70s ( not to mention hip-hop, where his music continues to live on via sampling ), is the sort of thing that makes 'Wax Poetics' a must read for anybody who loves American popular music. Of course it's incredibly inspirational to see him talk about the creative process, and the kind of drive, spirit and mentality it takes to really create. And it's marvelously informative and not just a little entertaining to see him speaking so candidly about his career, the industry, the people he worked with, and the people he didn't, how he triumphed, how he failed and how he got dicked over. But somewhat suprisingly, it's all also insanely funny, especially when he gives interviewer Eothen "Egon" Alapatt some "real man talk" about producer Phil Spector.

So your production and arranging style wasn't a response to that of, say, Phil Spector?

I never paid a lot of attention to him anyway. I wasn't aware of him. What did I care what Phil Spector was doing? I didn't listen to his records. And I never went for that "Wall of Sound" thing. Spector just booked the studio. It was Jack Nitzche who did the arrangements. He was a weird dude, but I liked him a lot.

So you're saying that the arranger should have gotten the credit for developing the Wall of Sound?

I always thought the engineer at Gold Star [Studios] should have gotten about half the credit for that. He had a studio that would hold fourteen people, and in walks Spector with twenty people. You have to give credit to the engineer to make it possible to hear anything. And still to have room to record the singers. He probably called Spector a fucking idiot.

We can't print that, can we?

Why not? Is he paying your salary? Fuck him...

He goes on to relate an anecdote about seeing Spector in a band at someone's pool-party, but that last part is totally the "laugh-out-loud" and shout "oh, shit" ( which is exactly what I did when I read it ) moment. A couple other stories he relates, particularly one about threatening an executive from Geffen Records and another about bassist Carole Kay's sassy mouth, are also side-splittingly funny. But the most important thing that comes through the printed page of the interview though is surely Axe's independent sprit and his refusal to back down from who he is and what he does for anybody. In an era when music producers are more like assembly-line workers and most people are perfectly happy going along with the crowd, towing the company line and just being another faceless cog in the machine the Axelrod feature gives us a rare, and oh so crucial glimpse at a true American original, one who's not afraid to speak his mind or fight for what he knows is right.

It's articles like this that make a publication like 'Wax Poetics' which is in the business of showing us a rarely seen glimpse of our past, so important for those of us trying to fingure out where we are today, and more importantly where we should be going tomorrow.

So stop fucking around and subscribe to 'Wax Poetics' already! Starting with issue #14 they now publish bi-monthly, so there's never been a better time to do so.

For nearly 30 years, Jamel Shabazz has been documenting his different communities across the five boroughs of Manhatten. Between the b-boys of Brooklyn to the drag queens of the West Village, Shabazz has been able to capture moments in history just by talking to the people who were living it.

In his new book, 'A Time Before Crack,' Shabazz takes a different approach, showing the affects of the crack epidemic through photographs of how neighborhoods were before the drug became so wide spread.

With essays written by the likes of Charlie Ahearn (Of 'Wild Style' fame) and Claude Grunitzky (Editor of 'Trace' Magazine), the book will appeal to a Hip Hop audience, But Shabazz doesn’t want to be recognized as a Hip Hop photographer. He’s still just trying to show what life was like “back in the day.”

Shabazz’s photographs from 'A Time Before Crack' are being shown at the powerHouse Gallery in New York City.