On Saturday evening, adult actress Stoya published two tweets alleging that she was raped by her former boyfriend and frequent costar James Deen.
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Tchotchke
23 posts
Good morning, merry sunshine!
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For most men, the sensual pleasures of lingerie will never be fully appreciated. They will never enjoy the feeling of silken undergarments against their skin or know the joy of dressing to excite a lover. No, for most men, their exposure to lingerie is limited to an annual holiday—Valentine’s Day—and the secondhand enjoyment of seeing their significant other in something lacy. Continue reading
EthologyNerd is brave. Really brave. Since she began commenting here, EN has entertained Crasstalk’s readers with tales of sex-capades gone awry, demonstrated a razor-sharp wit, and alerted the world to a concoction called “butt sauce.” She’s probably best known for her incredible candor. EthologyNerd has had the ladyballs to share her deeply personal stories with writing that is incontrovertibly graceful, eloquent, and funny as hell. She’s a swell chick. Continue reading
Shortly after groups such as the Supremes and the Ronettes released their best work, British bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Kinks and the Who released albums in the U.S. Compared to the material that had previously dominated the American pop charts, the rhythm and blues-influenced music of the British Invasion groups sounded fresh, aggressive, radical and masculine. The musical climate of the country changed quickly and it further cemented a generational divide between the kids who embraced this new rock music and their older siblings and parents who found it repellant. The British Invasion hinted at pop culture’s future; girl groups, teen idols and doo wop invoked its past. Girl groups began performing poorly on the pop charts and quickly fell out of favor. Continue reading
The Ronettes, early 1960s
When I initially contemplated this series, I began with the intention of exploring areas of the music world I felt merited reexamination. Occasionally, this means that I choose to focus on genres and artists that have been overlooked in their significance (Twee Pop, Black Flag, New Jersey’s musical legacy) and other times, this means that I try and advocate on behalf of artists I feel have been unjustly maligned or inaccurately judged, as I did with the Grateful Dead. Rarely, and most difficultly, those two strains intersect to create a genre/artist that feels both critically under-appreciated and unfairly appraised as insignificant fluff. Such is the case with the Girl Groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading
Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplification, died this morning at the age of eighty-eight.
Marshall, often called the “The Father of Loud,” was born in West London in 1923. As a small child he was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bones and spent a large portion of his childhood in and out of London’s hospitals, his body encapsulated in plaster casts. Exempted from military service due to his sickly adolescence, Marshall became a civilian musician after developing a keen interest in drumming. Around this time, Marshall began applying his knowledge of engineering (then his day job) to developing his own personal voice amplifiers, so that his soft, crooning voice could be heard over his thunderous drumming. Continue reading
A number of us ladies (and Dogs) were discussing beauty tricks last evening and venting our frustrations with the problems cosmetics cause us. We had questions: Is the smokey eye a myth? (Answer: Yes). Why are Spanx crotchless and is that ever not funny? (Answers: Let’s not think about that too hard and no). We realized that we all have different strengths and that combined, we could probably construct the perfect beauty look.
Personally, I am useless when it comes to eye makeup and intricate hairstyles? Forget it. The one thing I am really good at is creating a nice, natural-looking base layer. Continue reading
Things have been slow for the Westboro Baptist Church recently. With the country’s attention firmly focused on the Republican primaries and slutty law students contraceptives, Fred Phelps’ goon squad has been relegated to also-ran status in the race to the bottom. Never content to rest on their laurels, the Westboro Baptist Church has abandoned its routine harassment of gay Americans, dead soldiers, Whitney Houston, and victims of natural disasters to try its hand at music criticism. Continue reading
Twee. I know, I know. Today, “twee” is often a pejorative term, a dismissal of people and objects that embody a particular mixture of hip nerdiness and self-conscious cuteness. “Adorkability,” if you will. Twee is Zooey Deschanel playing ukelele with Joseph Gordon-Levitt while kittens chase bubbles across her bedroom. It is a polka dot dress with a sweetheart neckline, a hand-knit cardigan, a teacup purchased on Etsy. Twee (or “indie pop”), however, is also a genre of music that deserves our attention. Indie pop began as an exercise in quiet rebellion and became a bonafide musical movement which ultimately, affected much of the music to come after it. Continue reading