Seven Years of Cross Dressing - Some Thoughts When I Started
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Posted:Aug 23, 2014 6:48 am
Last Updated:Sep 5, 2014 6:46 am
10476 Views
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July 29th, 2007 10:51 am EDT
On the morning of 24 June 07 I placed a “t4m” ad on Craigslist casual in Boston. Over the previous weekend I had answered an ad I happened across on Craigslist “m4m” casuals. An ‘admirer’ had posted looking for ‘fem’ or ‘CD/TV’ s. I answered and sent a picture of myself nude with a little bit long hair, and a hairy chest and legs. I’m 5’5” and 155, so I can look gurlish in a way. He wrote back and attached some pictures of ‘girls’ he’d transformed. Nice looking Tgirls with sexy clothes and make up. He said I had potential, but that for one thing I had to shave the body hair.
I did a lot of posing in the mirror, and found different articles of women’s clothing I had put at the back of a closet, or were left behind by women moving out of my building. I picked some simple things and covered my hair with a danskin that covers arms and has a nice scoop neck that gives the impression of female cleavage without having any, I also found a sarong for a previous adventure in romance.
I took a few pictures of myself dressed, no make-up, I just combed my hair and faced the camera. I took six pictures and posted four of them on “Craigslist”
I got about twenty answers from ‘admirers’ and a few Tgirls over the next two days….
I answered every one, even the one liners…..
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August 5th, 2007 8:16 am EDT
On a lazy Sunday like today, I was meandering through the fantasy world of personal ads on Craigslist Casual Encounters – m4m, I answered an ad for a ‘Tgurl” six weeks ago and have been ‘dressing’ seriously since But there were other clues that I might like “dressing” a lot, as I think back….
When I was a little I got my big sister’s hand me down girls figure skates to wear for a couple of seasons on the frozen ice up the park. I was much more into figure skating than I was into hockey. I liked looking down as a slide across the ice and saw those streamline white skates. (I still skate almost every day…roller blades on the street, quads indoors, ice skates in winter…)
My first bike was my sisters girls Raleigh three speed. I figured what the heck, it’s probably faster and lighter. It was easier to get on and off with the lower bar.
I remember sitting in the kitchen in girls underpants when I was about seven. There weren’t any boy’s briefs in the laundry, so my mother gave me some of my sisters girls underpants.
Since I was in high school I’ve let my hair grow when I can. I always associated it with rock music, but secretly I always liked when I looked girlish. I wasn’t a “dresser” but I liked attracting men, and women, because they thought I looked a little ‘fem.”
And as I think back I was always more attracted to guys with girlfriends, or married men. I liked being with men who were usually with women.
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August 9th, 2007 5:26 pm EDT
"And the days dwindle down to a precious few, September, November..."
I've been calling this my 'Tgirl Summer' and as the boys of summer pass....
I missed my 'date' last weekend with my admiring 'boyfriend.' He was on vacation and I had a chance to catch my breath. I've only been dressing as a 'Tgirl' and dating a man for seven weeks.
I have a closet full of clothes, I have a couple of men who call me to chat, and might meet. I interact and flirt with women at work, but I haven't been making any effort to meet women to date.
I'm happy having sexual meetings with a man while I'm dressed as a woman.
It occurred to me the other day when I was asking myself how deep I was going to get into this as a 'lifestyle?' and I thought, "What the heck, this is Massachusetts, I can actually marry a man and be his 'wife' if I want to. Let's picture me as June Cleaver with pearls and a nice dress doing the house cleaning while I baked fresh bread for my man. I think I'd rather be the young bride in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca."
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A Visit to 'The Art' in Hartford - A 'Couples Only
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Posted:Aug 16, 2014 8:02 pm
Last Updated:Aug 23, 2014 7:10 am
11100 Views
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The Art Cinema describes itself as one of New England’s oldest XXX theaters in a classic theater environment. It’s , just south of downtown, and from the exterior it does look like an old theater where as we might have gone on a Saturday afternoon to watch a “Creature Double Feature” (people of a “certain age” will know what I’m referring to here…).
Hubby and I have been three times in the last year. I have to admit that the first time he suggested an adult theater, I was really reluctant. But, trusting him the way that I do, I was willing to keep an open mind. We made the trek and drove around the neighborhood in the afternoon. It’s not the greatest neighborhood, but it’s not the worst either.
What’s alluring about The Art Cinema from a woman’s standpoint is that it has a “couples only” balcony. Maybe realizing that women might not want a bunch of single guys crowding her in some dark XXX theater trying to get off, the owner created the couples only balcony. The “couples only” means exactly that – no single men allowed up there.
The first time we tried The Art, it was a Sunday afternoon and that might have been a good move for us since we were both a little nervous. As you walk in, there’s a friendly guy at the counter who greets you. We bought tickets for “couples” which was $20. He asked if it was our first time and when we told him it was, he smiled and said the couples balcony was a good choice.
As we went past him, there was another employee who welcomed us and offered a short tour. He pointed out the stairs to the balcony and assured us no singles would be going up there. He also let us know where the restrooms were (not that we’d really be using them) and even a dressing room on the way up to the balcony (again, not that we’d use it, but it’s there).
We climbed up the narrow stairs with nervous anticipation. We got to the balcony which was dark – really dark. Here’s my suggestion about this: bring a small flashlight. Fortunately, Hubby has a flashlight app on his iPhone and he turned that on so that we could climb down the stairs in the balcony. We couldn’t see anyone in there so we made our way to the front row and took our seats. There was a porno playing on the screen.
It was dated, but it seemed a bit “couples oriented.” Once our eyes began to adjust to the darkness, we looked down to the main floor. There were a number of single men wandering around. Then I saw a group of guys huddled around a seat. It turns out it was a woman who was there with her guy and she was enjoying a few other strangers. Hubby and I looked at each other in surprise – it was the first “gang bang” either of us had seen. She seemed to be enjoying herself and after about 15 minutes or so, the show was over.
Being in the spicy mood now, we started having our own bit of fun. You can do this here in the balcony. That’s where the spice comes in. Within a few minutes my shirt was off, my bra was off and Hubby’s pants were down. We saw another couple on the other side of the balcony watching us for a little bit and we saw some of the singles down below trying to see too. It was very hot, though, putting on a bit of a show.
We started getting hot and heavy and in awhile we were done. After being spent, we were now both a little sheepish and fumbling to get our clothes back on. Here’s another hint: bring a small towel and some hand sanitizing wipes. You can bring your pocket book in, but it’s so dark in there make sure that you pack up everything before you leave.
We’ve been two more times since. Saturday nights tend to be the busiest. On the night that we went, there were other couples who were openly in “the lifestyle.” They asked us if we were interested and we politely declined. They were polite right back and there was no pressure put on us to join in. My opinion of the place is that if you want to go and just sit and watch, you can. If you want to put on a “show,” you can. If you want to “play with others,” you can. If you’re looking to add some spice in your life and want to take a little walk on “the wild side,” The Art may be the ticket.
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Sin of the flesh: Woman arrested for videoing porn in Austrian church
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Posted:Aug 15, 2014 1:58 pm
Last Updated:Aug 16, 2014 8:03 pm
11137 Views
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An Austrian woman has been arrested for filming pornographic videos inside a church. She was apprehended by police after avid viewers recognized the house of worship - and also her breasts. The videos which were posted online, showed the woman, who is 24 and originally from Poland, according to the Local, opening her top and playing with herself. Despite having her hands full, she was still able to hold a bible and rosary beads, while creating the clip.
She did not show her face while filming the clip, however porn fans were still able to track her down. One person recognized the Catholic Church in Hoersching, which is near the city of Linz, while another ardent follower notified a priest after recognizing the woman’s breasts. The woman, who immigrated to Austria with her parents when she was young, had uploaded the films to the internet under the name of ‘Babsi’. The pastor, Bernhard Pauer immediately contacted the police after the incident had been reported. They arrested the 24-year-old for offending religious feelings and desecration of a church. Police spokeswoman Simone Mayr told AFP that the woman, who has not been named, could face up to six months in jail for "vilification of religious doctrines."
"The woman has confessed and has apologized," Mayr said. "It is now up to state prosecutors to decide whether this will go to court ... She could also be fined instead of jail."
"We have identified a suspect. She has already been questioned and has made a full confession," said police spokesman David Furtnerteich. The incident caused a debate amongst local Catholics as to whether the church would need to be re-consecrated, due to the women’s actions. However, speaking the Kurier daily, Pauer said, "The church does not have to be re-consecrated ... The presence of God cannot be driven out by sin."
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The One-Sided Culture War Against 'Bad Parents' - Liberals Join Conservatives
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Posted:Aug 15, 2014 11:46 am
Last Updated:May 13, 2024 8:36 pm
11541 Views
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Have a look at the unsigned editorials in left-of-center newspapers, or essays by columnists whose politics are mostly progressive. Listen to speeches by liberal public officials. On any of the controversial issues of our day, from tax policy to civil rights, you’ll find approximately what you’d expect.
But when it comes to schooling and education, almost all of them take a hard-line position very much like what we hear from conservatives. In education, they endorse a top-down, corporate-style version of school reform that includes prescriptive, one-size-fits-all teaching standards and curriculum mandates; weakened job protection for teachers; frequent standardized testing; and a reliance on rewards and punishments to raise scores on those tests and compel compliance on the part of teachers and students.
Admittedly, there is some disagreement about the proper role of the federal government in all of this—and also about the extent to which public schooling should be privatized—but otherwise, liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, the New York Times and the Daily Oklahoman, sound the identical themes of “accountability,” “raising the bar” and “global competitiveness” (meaning that education is conceived primarily in economic terms). President Barack Obama didn’t just continue George W. Bush’s education policies; he intensified them, piling the harsh test-driven mandates of a program called “Race to the Top” on the harsh test-driven mandates of “No Left Behind.”
Applause for this agenda has come not only from corporate America but also from both sides of the aisle in Congress and every major media outlet in the United States. Indeed, the generic phrase "school reform" has come to be equated with these specific get-tough policies. To object to them is to risk being labeled a defender of the “status quo,” even though they have defined the status quo for some time now.
Many of the people who have objected are teachers and other education experts who see firsthand just how damaging this approach has been, particularly to low-income students and the schools that serve them. But a key element of “reform” is to define educators as part of the problem, so their viewpoint has mostly been dismissed.
What’s true of attitudes about education is also largely true of the way we think about in general—what they’re like and how they should be raised. Of course, politicians are far less likely to speak (or newspapers to editorialize) about parenting. But columnists do weigh in from time to time and, when they do, those who are generally liberal—like the New York Times’ Frank Bruni, the Boston Globe’s Scot Lehigh and the late William Raspberry of the Washington Post—once again do a remarkable imitation of conservatives. Articles about parenting in general-interest periodicals, meanwhile, reflect the same trend. The range of viewpoints on other topics gives way to a stunningly consistent perspective where are concerned.
That perspective sounds something like this:
◾We live in an age of indulgence in which permissive parents refuse to set limits for, or say no to, their .
◾Parents overprotect their rather than let them suffer the natural consequences of their own mistakes. would benefit from experiencing failure, but their parents are afraid to let that happen.
◾Adults are so focused on making feel special that we’re raising a generation of entitled narcissists. They get trophies even when their team didn’t win; they’re praised even when they didn’t do anything impressive; and they receive A’s for whatever they turn in at school. Alas, they’ll be in for a rude awakening once they get out into the unforgiving real world.
◾What young people need—and lack—is not self-esteem but self-discipline: the ability to defer gratification, control their impulses, and persevere at tasks over long periods of time.
These “traditionalist” convictions (for lack of a better word) are heard everywhere and repeated endlessly. Taken together, they have become our society’s conventional wisdom about , to the point that whenever a newspaper or magazine addresses any of these topics, it will almost always be from this direction. If the subject is self-esteem, the thesis will be that have an oversupply. If the subject is discipline (and limits imposed by parents), the writer will insist that today get too little. And perseverance or “grit” is always portrayed positively, never examined skeptically.
This widespread adoption of a traditionalist perspective helps us to make sense of the fact that, on topics related to , even liberals tend to hold positions whose premises are deeply conservative. Perhaps it works the other way around as well: The fact that people on the left and center find themselves largely in agreement with those on the right explains how the traditionalist viewpoint has become the conventional wisdom. rearing might be described as a hidden front in the culture wars, except that no one is fighting on the other side.
Writing a book about the conventional wisdom on childrearing, I’ve had to track down research studies on the relevant issues so as to be able to distinguish truth from myth. But I’ve also come across dozens of articles in the popular press, articles with titles like “Spoiled Rotten: Why Do Rule the Roost?” (New Yorker, 7/2/12), “How to Land Your in Therapy” (Atlantic, 6/7/11), “Just Say No: Why Parents Must Set Limits for Who Want It All” (Newsweek, 9/12/04), “Parents and : Who’s in Charge Here?” (Time, 8/6/01), “The Trap: The Rise of Overparenting” (New Yorker again, 11/17/0 , “The Abuse of Overparenting” (Psychology Today, 4/2/12), “The Trouble With Self-Esteem,” (New York Times Magazine, 2/3/12), and “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation” (Time again, 5/9/13), to name just a few.
If you’ve read one of these articles, you’ve pretty much read all of them. The same goes for newspaper columns, blog posts and books on the same themes. Pick any one of them at random and the first thing you’ll notice is that it treats a diverse assortment of complaints as if they’re interchangeable. Parents are criticized for hovering and also for being too lax (with no acknowledgment that these are two very different things). In one sentence, are said to have too many toys; in the next, they’re accused of being disrespectful. Or unmotivated. Or self-centered.
Anything that happens to annoy the writer may be tossed into the mix. are exposed to too many ads! Involved in too many extra-curricular activities! Distracted by too much technology! They’re too materialistic and individualistic and narcissistic—probably because they were raised by parents who are pushy, permissive, progressive. (If the writer is an academic, a single label may be used to organize the indictment—“intensive parenting” or “nurturance overload,” for example—but a bewildering variety of phenomena are offered as examples.)
In fact, the generalizations offered in these books and articles sometimes seem not merely varied but contradictory. We’re told that parents push their too hard to excel (by ghostwriting their homework and hiring tutors, and demanding that they triumph over their peers), but also that parents try to protect from competition (by giving trophies to everyone), that expectations have declined, that too much attention is paid to making happy.
Similarly, young adults are described as self-satisfied twits—more pleased with themselves than their accomplishments merit—but also as being so miserable that they’re in therapy. Or there’s an epidemic of helicopter parenting, even though parents are so focused on their gadgets that they ignore their . The assumption seems to be that readers will just nod right along, failing to note any inconsistencies, as long as the tone is derogatory and the perspective is traditionalist.
Rarely are any real data cited—either about the prevalence of what’s being described or the catastrophic effects being alleged. Instead, writers tend to rely primarily on snarky anecdotes, belaboring them to give the impression that these carefully chosen examples are representative of the general population, along with quotes from authors who accept and restate the writer’s thesis about permissive parents and entitled who have never experienced failure.
Oddly, though, even as these writers repeat what everyone else is saying, they present themselves as courageous contrarians who are boldly challenging the conventional wisdom.
Perhaps the experience of reading all those articles—sloppy, contradictory or unpersuasive though they may be—wouldn’t have been so irritating if it were also possible to find essays that questioned the dominant assumptions, essays that might have been titled “The New Puritanism: Who Really Benefits When Are Trained to Put Work Before Play?” or “Why Parents Are So Controlling...and How It Harms Their ” or “The Invention of ‘Helicopter Parenting’: Creating a Crisis Out of Thin Air.” If anything along these lines has appeared in a mainstream publication, I’ve been unable to locate it.
The numbing uniformity of writings on and parenting, and the lack of critical inspection on which the consensus rests, is troubling in itself. When countless publications offer exactly the same indictment of spoiled and entitled Millennials—and accuse their parents of being lax or indulgent—this has a very real impact on the popular consciousness, just as a barrage of attack ads, no matter how misleading, can succeed in defining a political candidate in the minds of voters. But of course what matters more than whether a consensus exists is whether it makes sense, whether there’s any merit to the charges.
Consider the accusation that parents involve themselves too closely in their ’s lives and don’t allow them to fail. It’s common to come across—in fact, it’s hard to avoid—hyperbolic references in the media to “ who leave for college without ever having crossed the street by themselves” (New York Times, 2/9/09) and “‘Lawnmower Parents’ [who] have ‘mowed down’ so many obstacles (including interfering at their ’s workplaces, regarding salaries and promotions) that these have actually never faced failure” (Business Insider, 8/17/12). Just in the few years before my book went to press in 2013, articles about overparenting appeared in the Atlantic (1/29/13), the New Yorker (11/17/0, Time (11/30/09), Psychology Today (4/2/12), Boston Magazine (12/11) and countless newspapers and blogs.
In each case, just as with condemnations of permissiveness, the phenomenon being attacked is simply assumed to be pervasive; there’s no need to prove what everyone knows. The spread of overparenting is vigorously condemned by journalists and social critics, but mostly on the basis of anecdotes and quotations from other journalists and social critics. On the relatively rare occasions when a writer invokes research in support of the claim that overparenting is widespread (or damaging), it’s instructive to track down the study itself to see what it actually says.
A case in point: In 2013, several prominent American blogs, including those sponsored by the Atlantic (1/29/13) and the New York Times (1/25/13), reported an Australian study purportedly showing that parents were excessively involved in their ’s schooling. But anyone who took the time to actually read the study realized that the authors had just asked a handpicked group of local educators to tell stories about parents whom they personally believed were doing too much for their . There were no data about what impact, if any, this practice had on the , nor was there any way to draw conclusions about how common the practice was—at least beyond this small, presumably unrepresentative sample.
More remarkably, only 27 percent of the educators in the sample report having seen “many” examples of this sort of overinvolved parenting. (This low number somehow did not make it into any of the press coverage.) If anything, the effect of the study was to raise doubts about the assumption that overparenting is a widespread problem. But the study’s very existence allowed bloggers to recycle a few anecdotes, giving the appearance that fresh evidence supported what they (and many of their readers) already believed.
Another example: In 2010, Lisa Belkin, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, devoted a blog post (7/19/10) to an article in a California law review (UC Davis Law Review, 4/12/10) that declared a tilt toward excess “has dominated parenting in the last two decades.” But how did the authors of the law review article substantiate this remarkable assertion? They included a footnote that referenced a 2009 New York Times Magazine column (5/29/09) written by...Lisa Belkin.
It’s striking that evidence on this topic is so scarce that academic journals must rely on opinion pieces in the popular press. But in this case, the popular press was actually claiming that the trend had already peaked. That was true not only of Belkin’s column (“Could the era of overparenting be over?”) but of a Time cover story (“The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting,” 11/20/09) that was cited by an essay in another academic journal. The latter essay began with the sweeping (and rather tautological) statement that an “epidemic” of overparenting was “running rampant”—which is exactly what its sources claimed was no longer true.
So who’s right? There are, as far as I can tell, no good data to show that most parents do too much for their . It’s all impressionistic, anecdotal and, like most announcements of trends, partly self-fulfilling.
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I hate my twin 'sister' She's the evil one, and more popular!
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Posted:Aug 14, 2014 5:01 am
Last Updated:Aug 21, 2014 4:44 am
10972 Views
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Everywhere I go, 'she' seems to be there. I just realized: I hate her. She's like myself, so that doesn't make logical sense, but, "go figure" as it says in the Bible.
A while ago I signed up for this dating site. I was having fun - answering 'naughty' questions, asking myself some questions I hadn't thought about for a while. Enjoying the idea of meeting some new people. But, my twin sister seemed to be reading over my shoulder. The green eyed monster - jealousy - entered the body of that blue eyed sibling.
So, she signed up for another site with a similar theme -- but -- she's wearing my clothes in her pictures! Those boudoir photos in the low light were in my bedroom. Of all the cheek!
Then my saucy sister starts getting a lot more views than I did. What? I had seven movies, and she had five. I had more pictures and answered more questions. I had more literate blog posts; he blog was almost all visuals. Some of her blog is crayon drawings she scanned. Why do people like that? Why do people like her?
Of course as someone with 'multiple personalities' I pay the credit card bill for both our accounts. We even have the same first name - I'm ' Shauna Dorothy ' and my evil twin 'sister' is ' Shauna O'Dorothy .' I guess since 'she' is a little more Irish she has more of that Banshee appeal the men all like in a 'lass.'
But still, I hate her.
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Swiss Miss: Secretary takes nude ‘selfies’ in parliament building
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Posted:Aug 8, 2014 6:17 am
Last Updated:Aug 14, 2014 5:39 am
11623 Views
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A Swiss woman has caused a storm by posting nude pictures of herself from the country’s Federal House online, local media report. The secretary however insists they are part of her private life, which hardly amounts to rule breaking.
The unnamed woman took the majority of the ‘selfies’ at the Swiss government and parliament building in Berne, according to the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ).
The selfie-taker, who works as a secretary at the parliament, had been doing it “regularly,” the paper said.
However, recommendations for the staffers say that only those images and texts can be published on the web that “you would at any time to show your colleagues, employees or superiors.” Restrictions may extend into private life since any actions putting the employer’s reputation at risk are advised against. When the woman was asked by the NZZ if she was worried that her colleagues might see the pictures, she said: “The issue is on my mind constantly.” The publication did not explain why she had decided to post the images. Attempts to find her page on Twitter proved fruitless, indicating that she has likely deleted her profile.
Meanwhile a spokesmen for the Swiss government’s human resources department said that he had only heard of the unusual case following the news report on Wednesday. "Parliamentary services will have to decide, based on the specific circumstances, whether this case breaches good faith obligations between employer and employee," Anand Jagtap said.
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Leaving Los Angeles: Porn industry flees condom requirements, welcomed to Las Vegas
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Posted:Aug 7, 2014 11:40 am
Last Updated:Aug 8, 2014 4:32 am
11800 Views
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As Los Angeles County’s requirement that adult film stars wear condoms in all porns filmed there threatens to spread statewide, the industry is fleeing California for less-regulated areas.
Permits issued for adult entertainment productions in Los Angeles plummeted to just 40 last year ‒ a decline of 90 percent ‒ according to the latest data announced by FilmL.A. Inc, the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and county. The jurisdiction is on pace to lose even more X-rated film business, as only 20 permits have been issued so far in 2014. As many as 5,000 porns were shot in LA in 2011, according to the Los Angeles Times, but LA County will likely only issue 35 porn permits this year.
"We've seen a dramatic drop in permits," Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A., told the LA Times. "It is a cause for concern that people who are manning the cameras, lights and other things on those sets are not working anymore.... It's not helpful to have another segment of the industry leave the region."
Audley noted that the porn stars aren’t the only ones hurt by the exodus.
"Adult film making might not be something everyone approves of, but the people who work in that industry are your neighbors. A cameraman may be working on this one day and a sitcom the next and a feature film in six months," he told KABC.
The flight from LA began after first the city council (with the City of Los Angeles Safer Sex In The Adult Film Industry Act) then the voters (with the Measure) enacted legislation requiring adult film actors to wear condoms during all sex acts on set. Both laws came after intense lobbying from the LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). Before that, only gay porn stars wore condoms ‒ a reaction to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.
Production started moving from LA to other counties, including Ventura, actress and director Kayden Kross told the LA Times’ Jim Newton. But now those areas are at risk of losing the industry as well.
In January, State Assemblymember Isadore Hall III (D-Los Angeles) sponsored AB 1576, a bill that would require porn actors to wear condoms at all film shoots, mandate testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and force porn studios to keep a “log” of all porn stars’ “sexual activities” performed on-set anywhere in the Golden State.
The industry is responsible for 10,000 jobs in California, according to Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. The majority of heterosexual adult film production is based in LA’s San Fernando Valley, while the gay industry is split between San Francisco, LA, San Diego and New York, sitcom reported.
"We've estimated this is a $6 billion industry and by losing them, you are going to lose a lot," Waldman told KUSA. "The performers and the caterers and the camera guys all live and work in the San Fernando Valley and when they start to leave, they're going to take all their money with them."
The first major move came in July, when San Francisco-based sitcom announced it had begun shooting in Las Vegas, where it is opening new facilities. Kink founder Peter Acworth said a few other adult studios, including Brazzers and Bluebird Films, had already made the move to Sin City, according to LA Weekly.
“Vegas is looking more and more attractive as time goes by. The cost of doing business out there is lower. The resources are slowly moving there. It’s becoming easier and easier to do business [there],” Acworth told SFist. “I think that a lot of companies are doing what we’re doing. They’re setting up satellite offices and getting their feet wet with Vegas as a potential place to shoot.”
Along with Vegas, porn crews are shooting in locations in Florida, Brazil and Eastern Europe.
"This month we're shooting 10 movies in Brazil," Kelly Holland, managing director for Penthouse Entertainment, told the Times. "Last month, we shot five movies in Europe. It's just too complex to shoot here." (Penthouse is based in The Valley.)
Even before the news of how bad the porn industry’s LA exodus was revealed, the California Senate Appropriations committee suspended AB 1576, the statewide version of Measure B, on Monday. Diane Duke, head of the Free Speech Coalition, told LA Weekly that the suspension could be a sign of waning support by lawmakers.
The more legislators hear about the bill, the more they don’t like it. This bill will have major financial cost for the California, while doing nothing to improve the safety of performers,” she said. “And it’s not just performers and producers who are opposed to the bill, it’s HIV and AIDS outreach organizations, sex worker rights organizations, LGBTQ organizations, and business organizations.”
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Vietnam hosts third gay pride parade as attitudes soften
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Posted:Aug 6, 2014 7:59 pm
Last Updated:Aug 7, 2014 12:08 pm
11782 Views
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Around 300 activists led a colourful parade through Hanoi on Sunday in the nation's largest ever gay pride event, as communist Vietnam shows signs of increasing tolerance of sexual difference. The city streets were awash with rainbow flags, as a mainly young crowd cycled and danced through the capital urging an end to discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
Homosexuality remains taboo in Vietnam, but a series of gradual advances, including the removal of fines for same-sex wedding parties, have been welcomed by the LGBT community in recent years.
In 2012 lawmakers even briefly considered legalising gay marriage -- a move which would have thrust the authoritarian country to the forefront of gay rights in Asia -- but stopped short.
Sunday's event was the third gay pride parade in Vietnam and attracted a wide range of people including local activists, foreigners and curious bystanders. "I'm here for the rights of homosexuals. I want them to be treated fairly like everyone else," Le Kieu Oanh, a 20 year-old art student told AFP. Another activist praised the government's move to end curbs on same-sex wedding ceremonies -- which are symbolic but non-legally binding.
But "public opinion is not ready for same-sex marriage," the sociologist added on condition of anonymity. Hanoi faces frequent criticism by international watchdogs for human rights abuses, making it an unlikely champion for the region's LGBT community.
One of the parade organisers, Nguyen Trong Dung, said homosexuals need to be "accepted by their families" before wider society ends its prejudice. "If they are recognised by their own families, they have a high chance of integrating into society," he added.
Demonstrations of any kind are tightly controlled in Vietnam, especially following riots in May in protest at China's placement of an oil rig in Vietnam's East Sea or commonly known as South China Sea. Police, however, did not intervene in Sunday's parade.
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Remember, wherever Gay Rights are advanced, and protected, everyone else's Sexual Freedom is usually also advanced.
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CDC - 97% of Adults Straight
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Posted:Aug 6, 2014 6:25 pm
Last Updated:Aug 6, 2014 6:51 pm
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I was looking for the original 'Washington Post' article on the CDC Sexual survey and only found this. There was a Breibart article on 'reddit' but the site has so many pop-ups that I'm afraid to stay on the site for a second. I also expect an extreme twisting of facts on the Breibart 'News' site.
This is a Right Wing take on some CDC Sex questionnaire. I present this article as a way to see an opponent's thinking. I seek to counter his arguments, and all people who support individual sexual freedom and choice should. What we do with our bodies, and who we love is none of his business.
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I remember back in the nineties, “experts” constantly claimed that one in ten people are gay. This was used to argue or imply that something so prevalent could not possibly be a deviation from a moral norm. Ten percent of people can’t be wrong, can they?
It was always an invalid argument, but it is worth pointing out that the numbers were made up. The National Health Interview Survey has come out with its findings. According to the 'Washington Post' with this survey is “the government’s premier tool for annually assessing Americans’ health and behaviors.” According to this research, 1.6 percent of the adult population identifies itself as homosexual and 0.7 percent of the adult population identifies itself as bisexual.
The overwhelming majority of adults, 96.6 percent, labeled themselves as straight in the 2013 survey. An additional 1.1 percent declined to answer, responded “I don’t know the answer” or said they were “something else.”
The figures offered a slightly smaller assessment of the size of the gay, lesbian and bisexual population than other surveys, which have pegged the overall proportion at closer to 3.5 or 4 percent. In particular, the estimate for bisexuals was lower than in some other surveys.
So it is this small group of people who are threatening the First Amendment in this country and are destroying the definition of marriage.
Actually, they aren’t. No minority this small could really do that. No, these numbers mean our national agenda is driven, not by homosexuals, but by a group of mostly heterosexuals who, for other reasons than their own personal felt need to engage in homosexual behavior, want to redefine the family, marriage, and restrain the freedom of religion and conscience in this country.
The Washington Post story keeps pretending that these sexual self-identifications are born into human beings—like being left-handed versus right-handed. It is nonsense. As Robert Gagnon points out about the survey:
The examination by age revealed that the percentage of adults who identified as gay or lesbian was similar for adults aged 18–44 (1.9 percent) and adults aged 45–64 (1.8 percent), with the estimates for both of these groups being higher than the estimate for adults aged 65 and over (0.7 percent). The percentage of adults who identified as bisexual also varied with age. A higher percentage of adults aged 18–44 identified as bisexual (1.1 percent) compared with adults aged 45–64 (0.4 percent) and adults aged 65 and over (0.2 percent).
If homosexuality was a natural human mutation, then why would it vary with different age groups? I suppose that one could claim that non-heterosexuals are more likely to die sooner, but why would the bisexuals be less healthy than the fully homosexual ones? (Though I suspect death rates vary widely between male and female homosexuals, so it may be useless to talk about generic homosexuals). Another possibility is that our sexually perverse culture has gotten worse over time and led more young people into confusion. So it is not some inborn “orientation” but a pattern of desire and practice that is set through the media and perhaps sexual initiation at a young age.
Gagnon cites another CDC study.
From pp. 29-30 of a 2011 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study of 150,000 teens aged 14–18 years (mean age 15) in various US cities, of which 93 percent said they were heterosexual, 5 percent homo/bisexual, and 2.5 percent unsure: Across eight sites (Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco) that assessed having ever had sexual intercourse, less than half (44 percent) of heterosexual teens said that they had had sexual intercourse compared to slightly more than two-thirds (68 percent) of self-described gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens. Self-identified gay and lesbian teens were four times more likely (20 percent) to have had sex at the age of 12 or younger than their heterosexual counterparts (5 percent) and almost three times more likely (30 percent) to have had sexual intercourse with four or more persons than their heterosexual counterparts (11 percent).
Notice that this means that people who end up identifying as homosexual start way earlier and way more intensively than heterosexual teens.
So once again, as intelligent homosexuals know, they are not merely 'born that way.' It is all a lie. But as the tiny minority of homosexuals is used to undermine and marginalize heterosexual morality, you have a chance to confuse developing youth and increase the numbers.
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There you have it folks. I do not agree. What the questionnaire proves is that when the government asked people: 'Are you Gay?' Most people said, "Nope!" A wise answer for anyone.
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Exploring an area through the lyrics of a road song - Massachusetts in Lyrics
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Posted:Aug 6, 2014 4:24 am
Last Updated:Mar 24, 2018 1:34 pm
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I've heard of people walking around Dublin with copies of James Joyce 'Ulysses' in hand exploring the details of the main characters movements around the city. I've walked the streets of Paris myself thinking of literary events and story book happenings in that town. But, Massachusetts? I'm from there.
I was delighted to come upon a piece by a woman from the UK who came to my town to investigate the places named in the lyrics of a song written over forty years ago.
Here's what Laura Barton wrote in 2007 for the UK Guardian:
The car, the radio, the night - and rock's simplest song about Massachusetts
Dusk in a supermarket carpark in Natick, Massachusetts. Outside there is snow in the air and the wind is up. A shopping trolley whirls its way across the tarmac unaided and the cars of Route 9 rush by. I wind the window down. It's cold outside.
People make rock'n'roll pilgrimages to Chuck Berry's Route 66, to Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey Turnpike and Bob Dylan's Highway 61. They flock to Robert Johnson's crossroads, to Graceland, to the Chelsea Hotel, hoping to glean some insight into the music that moves them. In January this year, I made my own rock pilgrimage to the suburbs of Boston, to drive the routes described by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers in the song Roadrunner, a minor UK hit 30 years ago this week.
Roadrunner is one of the most magical songs in existence. It is a song about what it means to be young, and behind the wheel of an automobile, with the radio on and the night and the highway stretched out before you. It is a paean to the modern world, to the urban landscape, to the Plymouth Roadrunner car, to roadside restaurants, neon lights, suburbia, the highway, the darkness, pine trees and supermarkets. As Greil Marcus put it in his book Lipstick Traces: "Roadrunner was the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest."
One version of Roadrunner - Roadrunner (Twice) - reached No 11 in the UK charts, but the song's influence would extend much further. Its first incarnation, Roadrunner (Once), recorded in 1972 and produced by John Cale, but not released until 1976, was described by film director Richard Linklater as "the first punk song"; he placed it on the soundtrack to his film School of Rock. As punk took shape in London, Roadrunner was one of the songs the Sex Pistols covered at their early rehearsals. Another 20 years on and Cornershop would cite it as the inspiration behind their No 1 single Brimful of Asha, and a few years later, Rolling Stone put it at 269 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Its impact would be felt in other ways, too: musicians playing on this song included keyboard player Jerry Harrison, who would later join Talking Heads, and drummer David Robinson, who went on to join the Cars. Its power was in the simplicity both of its music - a drone of guitar, organ, bass and drums around a simple two-chord structure - and of its message that it's great to be alive.
Maybe you don't know much about Jonathan Richman. Maybe you've heard the instrumental Egyptian Reggae, which hit No 5 in 1977 and earned him an appearance on Top of the Pops. Or perhaps you recall his cameo as the chorus in There's Something About Mary (the Farrelly brothers are dedicated fans). But if you want to know what Jonathan Richman was about, first think of the Velvet Underground, and then turn it inside out; imagine the Velvets cooked sunny side up. Imagine them singing not about drugs and darkness, but about all the simple beauty in the world.
What characterises Richman's work, and Roadrunner especially, is its unblighted optimism. "Richman's music did not sound quite sane," Greil Marcus wrote. "When I went to see him play in 1972, his band - the Modern Lovers, which is what he's always called whatever band he's played with - was on stage; nothing was happening. For some reason I noticed a pudgy boy with short hair wandering through the sparse crowd, dressed in blue jeans and a white T-shirt on which was printed, in pencil, 'I LOVE MY LIFE.' Then he climbed up and played the most shattering guitar I'd ever heard. 'I think this is great,' said the person next to me. 'Or is it terrible?'"
There are plenty of versions of Roadrunner. The Unofficial Jonathan Richman Chords website lists 10 discernibly different versions: seven given an official release and three bootlegs. Richman apparently wrote the song in around 1970. The 1972 John Cale version was a demo for Warner Brothers, and only saw the light when the Beserkley label in California collected the Modern Lovers' demos and put them out as the Modern Lovers album in 1976. Two more 1972 demo versions, produced by the notorious LA music svengali Kim Fowley, would be released in 1981 on a patchy album called The Original Modern Lovers, and a live version from 1973 would appear a quarter of a century later on the live record Precise Modern Lovers Order. In late 1974, Richman recorded a stripped-down version of the song for the Beserkley, which apparently took a little over two hours. This would be the Roadrunner (Twice), the most successful version. A further take, extended beyond eight minutes, and recorded live, was titled Roadrunner (Thrice) and released as a single B-side in 1977.
While every version of Roadrunner begins with the bawl of "One-two-three-four-five-six" and ends with the cry of "Bye bye!", each contains lyrical variations and deviations in the car journey Richman undertakes during the song's narrative, though it always begins on Route 128, the Boston ringroad that Richman uses to embody the wonders of existence. In one, he's heading out to western Massachusetts, and in another he's cruising around "where White City used to be" and to Grafton Street, to check out an old sporting store, observing: "Well they made many renovations in that part of town/ My grandpa used to be a dentist there." Over the course of the various recordings he refers to the Turnpike, the Industrial Park, the Howard Johnson, the North Shore, the South Shore, the Mass Pike, Interstate 90, Route 3, the Prudential Tower, Quincy, Deer Island, Boston harbour, Amherst, South Greenfield, the "college out there that rises up outta nuthin", Needham, Ashland, Palmerston, Lake Champlain, Route 495, the Sheraton Tower, Route 9, and the Stop & Shop.
My pilgrimage will take me to all of these places. For authenticity's sake I have chosen to make the trip in January, because, as Richman observes in Roadrunner (Thrice) on winding down his car window, "it's 20 degrees outside". Having consulted a weather website listing average temperatures for Boston and its environs, I find it is most likely to be 20 degrees at night-time in January. And, as in Roadrunner, I will drive these roads only at night, because "I'm in love with modern moonlight, 128 when it's dark outside."
Richman was born in the suburb of Natick in the May of 1951. It was there that he learned to play clarinet and guitar, where he met some of his Modern Lovers. But that is not where I begin my journey. If you want to find out where Richman was really born, musically speaking, you have to head to a redbrick building in central Boston. On my first afternoon, as I prepare for my inaugural night drive, I pull up on Berkeley Street, within spitting distance of the Mass Pike, trying to find the original site of the Boston Tea Party, the venue where Richman first saw the Velvet Underground as a .
Richman was infatuated with The Velvets, from the first moment he heard them on the radio in 1967. He met the band many times in his native Boston, opened for them in Springfield, and in 1969 even moved to New York, sleeping on their manager's sofa. Roadrunner owes its existence to the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray, though the three-chord riff has been pared back to two, just D and A.
A live recording from the Middle East Cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts, made in October 1995, has Richman introducing his song Velvet Underground with the recollection that he must have seen the band "about 60 times at the Boston Tea Party down there at 53 Berkeley Street". So along Berkeley Street I walk, counting down to number 53, the cold from the pavement soaking up through my boots, the air before me hanging in frosty white wreaths. The venue is gone now, and today it is a civilised-looking apartment block with no hint of the rock'n'roll about it save for a plaque announcing that Led Zeppelin and the Velvets, BB King and the J Geils Band all played here. It does not mention Jonathan Richman.
That evening I drive along Route 128 for the first time. I head up towards Gloucester, as the night drifts from rain to sleet to snow. All the way there, the road is quiet; the rush-hour traffic has thinned, and I drive behind a minibus emblazoned with the words Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center. The street lights peter out and at times I can barely see the road markings; by the time I reach the North Shore I am hunched over the steering wheel squinting at the road. In Gloucester, I draw into the carpark of Dunkin' Donuts. Cars swish by on Eastern Avenue, rain falls heavily. Inside, one lone figure in an anorak is buying Thursday night doughnuts. This is the very end of R128.
It feels exhilarating, alone out here in the darkness. I peer through the windscreen at the cosy houses of Gloucester, a seaside resort and home to 30,000 people. Televisions blink behind drawn curtains, and I think how cold and late it is and how by rights I should be indoors. But what matters right now is out here: the radio, and the dark and the night and this glorious strip of tarmac before me.
Route 128 was opened in 1951, and is also known as the Yankee Division Highway. It runs from Canton on the South Shore up here to Gloucester. At times it intertwines with I-95, the interstate highway that runs from Florida to the Canadian border. Route 128, and what it represents, is an important element in Roadrunner. Between 1953 and 1961, many businesses, employing thousands of people, moved to lie alongside Route 128, and the road became known as America's Technology Highway. During the 1950s and 1960s, Boston's suburbs spread along the road, and the businesses were joined by people, the residential population quadrupling in the 50s and then doubling again in the 60s. This was the world in which Richman grew up, a world that rejoiced in technology, that celebrated the suburbs and the opportunities offered by the highway.
In Tim Mitchell's biography There's Something About Jonathan, Richman's former next-door neighbour and founder member of the Modern Lovers, John Felice, recalls the excitement of driving that route with his buddy: "We used to get in the car and we would just drive up and down Route 128 and the turnpike. We'd come up over a hill and he'd see the radio towers, the beacons flashing, and he would get almost teary-eyed ... He'd see all this beauty in things where other people just wouldn't see it. We'd drive past an electric plant, a big power plant, with all kinds of electric wire and generators, and he'd get all choked up, he'd almost start crying. He found a lot of beauty in those things, and that was something he taught me. There was a real stark beauty to them and he put it into words in his songs."
Driving back towards Boston, past factories and blinking red lights, I head down to the South Shore, to Canton, where Route 128 becomes I-95, heading off towards Providence, Rhode Island, and way on down to Miami. Canton is the home of Reebok and Baskin Robbins, and I drive aimlessly through its dark streets before scooping back up to Quincy, where Howard Johnson's and Dunkin' Donuts began, and out along Quincy Shore Drive. I put on Roadrunner (Thrice), my favourite version of Roadrunner. "Well I can see Boston now," it goes. "I can see the Prudential Tower/ With the little red lights blinking on in the dark/ I'm by Quincy now/ I can see Deer Island/ I can see the whole Boston harbour from where I am, out on the rocks by Cohasset/ In the night."
The next day I head out to Natick. My mission is to see the suburban streets where Richman grew up, and to visit the Super Stop & Shop, on Worcester Street. The Stop & Shop is a supermarket chain founded in 1914 and which now boasts 360 stores, most of them in New England. The Stop & Shop is one of the key locations in Roadrunner, for it is where Richman makes a key discovery about the power of rock'n'roll radio: "I walked by the Stop & Shop/ Then I drove by the Stop & Shop/ I like that much better than walking by the Stop & Shop/ 'Cause I had the radio on."
The experiment is important. Richman states that having the radio on makes him feel both "in touch" and "in love" with "the modern world", and the presiding connection with modernity throughout Roadrunner - with the highway, with the car, with rock'n'roll, conveys Richman's delight at living entirely in the moment.
Natick Stop & Shop looks too modern to be the same store Richman walked past, then drove past. "How long has this Stop & Shop been here?" I ask the cashier. He is young and slightly built, a faint brush of hair on his top lip. "Uh, I dunno ... " he frowns. "Did you know there's a famous song that mentions the Stop & Shop?" I press on. "No." He looks at me, hairs twitching, and his colleague interrupts as she packs my bags: "Can I take my break?" she demands, squarely. Outside, I walk slowly past the Stop & Shop. Then I climb into my silver Saturn with its New Jersey plates and drive past the Stop & Shop, with the radio on for company. I feel in touch with the modern world.
Some hours later, having driven out along Interstate 90 - the Mass Pike - and down the 495, past Framingham and Ashland and Milford, I find myself in the Franklin Stop & Shop, standing at the Dunkin' Donuts counter. "Oh my gawd! We've almost run out of glazed!" cries one of the attendants. "The other day we sold one glazed all day!" "Mm-hmm," replies her colleague, in a world-weary tone. "Some day you sell none at all, other days they all just go." They are playing Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract in the cafe, and I sit there with my doughnut and my coffee and my map of Massachusetts, plotting my route out towards Amherst and the University of Massachusetts, and up to Greenfield, about two hours west. I love to think of Richman making this drive, about the "college out there that just rises up in the middle of nuthin'/ You've just got fields of snow and all of a sudden there's these modern buildings/ Right in the middle of nothing/ Under the stars." There is the glorious feeling of driving for driving's sake, away from the draw of Boston, away from the ocean, and delving deep into the heart of Massachusetts.
It is late when I get home. After staying a couple of nights at a hotel overlooking the harbour I have moved to the Howard Johnson, out by Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. It is a low-rise hotel across from a McDonald's, inside it is filled with a weary light and the stale smells of the Chinese restaurant attached. In its heyday, Howard Johnson's was a hugely successful chain of motor hotels and restaurants, famous for its 28 flavours of ice cream. Richman loved the Howard Johnson's chain, devoting an entire song to it in his early days, in which he declared happily: "I see the restaurant/ It is my friend." At one point, Tim Mitchell writes, Richman personalised his Stratocaster guitar by cutting out a piece of it, spraying it the recognisable greeny-blue of the Howard Johnson logo and then reinserting it. Today, there are only a couple of Howard Johnson's restaurants in existence, none of them in Massachusetts, and the logo lives on only as part of a budget hotel chain.
Outside the hotel tonight the snow is deep; it piles up around wheel arches and lies thickly across bonnets and windscreens. I haven't really spoken to anyone for days, and my firmest friend has become the radio. I'm tuned to AM, in homage to Roadrunner, with its gleeful shouts of: "I got the AM!/ Got the power!/ Got the radio on!" Tonight in the neon glow of the carpark, I flick through stations broadcasting only in Spanish, music shows, adverts for dating websites, custom replacement windows, car loans, Dr Kennedy's prayer show, until they blur into one long rush of song and speech and advertisement "Truththattransforms.org, for $29.99 you get one free, You wouldn't stay away as much as you do/ I know that I wouldn't be this blue/ If you would only love me half as much as I love you."
For my final night's drive it is snowing heavily. I decide to cover every single geographical point on the Roadrunner map in one long drive, setting out shortly after nine o'clock for Gloucester. It is a beautiful night, the roads empty, the snow falling onto my windscreen in great beautiful plumes, I put my hand outside the window and the flakes float gently, coldly on to my fingers. I drive past the Stop & Shop, I drive out towards Amherst, to south Greenfield. I take in Route 128, the Mass Pike, Route 3, from R9 I loop down to R495, down towards Quincy, I head out to Cohasset, to the rocks. And as I spiral about the snowy landscape I feel like a skater, pirouetting across the ice.
I drive for hours. "But I'm hypnotised," as Roadrunner (Thrice) puts it. And it is a funny thing, driving alone, late at night; pretty soon you come to feel at one with the car, with the road, with the dark and the landscape. This is one of the themes that rises up out of Roadrunner, that feeling that "the highway is my only girlfriend" that here, loneliness is a thing to be cherished. "Now I'm in love with my own loneliness," he sings. "It doesn't bother me to feel so alone/ At least I'm not staying alone at home/ I'm out exploring the modern world."
It is the early hours of the morning. I am tired. My mouth is thick with coffee and my throat dry from the car heater. As I loop back towards Route 128 for the final time I turn off the radio and put on Roadrunner (Thrice): "One-two-three-four-five-six!" Suddenly there is a lump in my throat. I pull over and wind the window down, let the cold night air rush in, and through the falling snow I watch all the lights of the modern world, blinking out over Boston.
"Well you might say I feel lonely
But I wouldn't say I feel lonely
I would say that I feel alive
All alone
'Cause I like this feeling
Of roaming around in the dark
And even though I'm alone out there
I don't mind
'Cause I'm in love with the world."
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Not the 'Official Massachusetts' state Rock Song - Roadrunner, Roadrunner
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Posted:Aug 6, 2014 4:09 am
Last Updated:Aug 6, 2014 4:15 am
3935 Views
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"I'm out exploring the modern world, By the pine trees and the Howard Johnsons,
On Route 128 when it's late at night,
We're heading from the north shore to the south shore,
Well I see Route 3 in my sight and I'm the Roadrunner."
“An Act designating the song ‘Roadrunner’ as the official rock song of the Commonwealth.” Bill H.3573 was not brought up for a vote in the Massachusetts legislature this year. The bill died in committee after facing a conflict with backers of the song 'Dream On' by Aerosmith. The efforts of long time rock fan, concert organizer, and Democratic Party activist Joyce Linehan had failed. For now.
Joyce Linehan is from the same Dorchester neighborhood as former State Representative Marty Walsh. She asked him to introduce the bill over a year ago. In an article in the now defunct 'Boston Phoenix' Marty was not as passionate about the song as his constituent: "Walsh, 45, says he was 'aware' of Roadrunner' but that his tastes run more to U2."
Ms. Linehan is now the City of Boston's Chief of Policy, appointed by Mayor Marty Walsh. She is a tireless organizer - from rock shows to campaigns for Democrats. Joyce will be back with this song.
She wrote on Facebook: “Despite the valiant efforts of sophisticated music fans from every corner of the Commonwealth, ‘Roadrunner’ did NOT make it through this formal session, Hopes are diminished, but not lost, as we can try to do it in the informal sessions. It’s been a while since I lost one. It’s good for me. Strengthens my resolve.” She wrote on Facebook as the session ended without the bill coming up for a vote.
People around the US, and even the world, took note of the effort. Stories were carried by 'The New York Times,' the Canadian CBC, and the UK Guardian. Lots of people have heard the song and love the simple depiction of a ride down the highway at night through Massachusetts.
Brookline native John Hodgeman, often seen on the Daily Show, wrote “It is woven as deeply into the cultural landscape of Massachusetts as the Turnpike itself It is the pulsing sound of the night and the future. It connects the midnight ride of Paul Revere with the dream of every Massachusetts who has just gotten their license and is discovering the Freedom Trail that is Route 128 after the last movie lets out.”\
Simply put - "Roadrunner" is a song written by Jonathan Richman and recorded in various versions by Richman and his band, in most cases credited as The Modern Lovers.
Critic Greil Marcus described it as "the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest". Rolling Stone ranked it #269 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“Roadrunner” mainly uses two chords (D and A, and only two brief uses of E)
Richman’s lyrics are passionate and candid, dealing with the freedom of driving alone and the beauty of the modern suburban environment, specifically the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The introductory countoff, "one - two - three - four - five - six!", and lyrics about "going faster miles an hour" with the "radio on" have endeared the song to many critics and listeners since it was first released.
Former bandmate John Felice recalled that as teenagers he and Richman "used to get in the car and just drive up and down Route 128 and the Turnpike. We'd come up over a hill and he’d see the radio towers, the beacons flashing, and he would get almost teary-eyed. He'd see all this beauty in things where other people just wouldn’t see it."
The Sex Pistols' vocalist Johnny Rotten has said that although he "hates all music", "Roadrunner" is his favorite song. This did not mean, however, that he took the time to learn the lyrics before recording his vocals. "Roadrunner" was also recorded by Joan Jett who did manage to learn the lyrics. Phish opened their concert with "Roadrunner" in Mansfield, MA on 09/11/2000.
Guardian journalist Laura Barton has described "Roadrunner" as "one of the most magical songs in existence". In July 2007, Barton wrote an essay published in the newspaper about her attempt to visit all the places mentioned in Richman's recorded versions of the song, including the Stop & Shop at Natick, Massachusetts, the Howard Johnson's restaurant, the Prudential Tower, Quincy, Cohasset, Deer Island, Route 128, and Interstate 90
Jonathan Richman, the person who wrote the lyrics and song, however came out against the adoption of the song by the state, saying, “I don’t think the song is good enough to be a Massachusetts song of any kind"
But, like a song you can't get out of your head, 'Roadrunner' lives on, at least as a song on Youtube and Dailymotion. Let's hope the legacy of the basic fun in the song is not officially associated with the government and politicians of Massachusetts.
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Silly 'Slot' Walkers Help No One
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Posted:Jul 29, 2014 5:47 am
Last Updated:Aug 1, 2014 11:54 am
4065 Views
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I had to use the word 'slot' to get past the robot censor.
Keli Goff writes: Dear Feminists, Will You Also Be Marching In N erwalk? Because I Won't.
The only thing more irritating than people doing absolutely nothing to make the world a better place are those actively trying to make it worse, but coming in a strong third? Those whose well-meaning efforts to make the world better are so misguided that they make things worse by default.
I was reminded of this when I happened upon the Slot Walk protests taking place in New York this past weekend... with my mother. (If you're looking for something super memorable to do with your mom in the Big Apple, Broadway shows have got nothing on watching a bunch of adults parading around in their underwear in broad daylight in the name of allegedly making a serious political statement.)
Now before the Slot Walk army gets their undergarments in a twist and adds me to their enemies list, let me state for the record that we are on the same side when it comes to the issues. But when it comes to execution in addressing said issues? Not so much.
For those who don't know Slot Walk (yes that's the actual name) originated in Toronto when a group of students organized a protest in response to a police constable's comments that "women should avoid dressing like slots in order not to be victimized."
Months later, the first so-called Slot Walk was held.
As I noted on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show, like every person with a brain and any person with a heart, I find that constable's comments appalling. Just as I found the acquittal (on the most serious charges) of the so-called NYC "rope-cops" appalling. But we've all heard the saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right." Well two stupids don't make a smart, something Slot Walk is a powerful reminder of.
According to CBC News in Canada, the event's website at the time read, "Toronto Police have perpetuated the myth and stereotype of the slot, and in doing so have failed us... Barnett [the organizer of the event] said she wants to use the walk to reclaim the word and also demand that victim-shaming change."
That's certainly a worthy goal. But here's a newsflash for Barnett and the organizers of the other Slot Walk protests which have begun to spread throughout the world: you can't "reclaim" a word defined by a predominant group in power unless you are a part of that group. Just ask all of those people on a mission to "reclaim" the N -word for black Americans or the F -word for gay Americans. (How's that working out by the way? Perhaps we should ask critics of Rick Perry. He had a weekend family cottage at a 'Certain' lake) As long as heterosexual white males in power (or anyone else) can use a particular word as a pejorative to denigrate a particular group -- and you acknowledge that them doing so will offend you as a member of that group -- then you using it is not "reclaiming" it but simply perpetuating it.
My point? Me walking through the streets of New York with a group of black Americans to protest any of the nonsense that comes out of the mouths of David Duke, Don Imus or the like by proclaiming the protest a "N walk" doesn't do anything to make the world better at all -- except for perhaps members of the media, who will get a great story out of it, just as they did this weekend. Twenty-something women in a lingerie show in the public square is a break from the usual news. The photos ad spice to any news outlet.
Let me be clear. I have no problem with sexually liberated women defining feminism on their own terms. As I have written before, I consider a woman who chooses to make her living shedding her clothes no less of a feminist than myself, as long as like me and every other feminist out there, she supports gender equality. But I do have a problem with Slot Walks. Not because they play into the stereotype of women being "slots" but because they play into the stereotype of women being intellectually inferior. Fair or not, the images from Slot Walk send the message that when push comes to shove, young women will always fall back on taking off their clothes to get attention, even when it comes to making a serious political statement. The same women who probably ridicule the Kardashian sisters essentially employed the same tactics -- a little T&A -- to get a lot of camera time this weekend. And the sad part is that doing so didn't really make any difference, at least not to victims of assault, but perhaps to members of the media who got a few nice soundbites and some sexy images to broadcast.
Watching the fishnet- and bikini-clad Slot Walk protesters strut around Union Square Park, I did not think of any of the women participating as "slots" but I did think of them as pretty silly. Because when it's all said and done, "Slot Walk" will make very little difference in the lives of sexual assault survivors and those doing work to make their lives better (some of whom I have written about). Of all the pressing issues facing survivors -- including the need for eradicating the statute of limitations for sex crimes that remain on the books in some states, tackling the DNA backlog that has slowed countless rope prosecutions, increasing funding and training for sexual assault nurse examiners (who can make a huge difference since they are the first line of defense survivors interact with following a crime) -- I have a hard time believing that dressing in underwear while walking down the street is the issue that keeps most of them up at night. Because you know what keeps a lot of them up at night? Actually making sure our criminal justice system works better for them and every other assault survivor, something Slot Walk will have very little impact on. (For the record, I am far from the only feminist critic of Slot Walk.)
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