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Evil Still Exists
NY top court says lap dance isn’t art, is taxable
By Michael Virtanen – Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. – Lap dances are taxable because they don’t promote culture in a community the way ballet or other artistic endeavors do, New York’s highest court concluded Tuesday in a sharply divided ruling.
The court split 4-3, with the dissenting judges saying there’s no distinction in state law between “highbrow dance and lowbrow dance,” so the case raises “significant constitutional problems.”
The lawsuit was filed by Nite Moves in suburban Albany, which was arguing fees for admission to the strip club and for private dances are exempt from sales taxes.
The court majority said taxes apply to many entertainment venues, such as amusement parks and sporting events. It ruled the club has failed to prove it qualifies for the exemption for “dramatic or musical arts performances” that was adopted by the Legislature “with the evident purpose of promoting cultural and artistic performances in local communities.”
If ice shows with intricately choreographed ice-dancing routines to music haven’t been regarded by lawmakers as qualifying, then it was “surely … not irrational” for a court “to conclude that a club presenting performances by women gyrating on a pole to music, however artistic or athletic their practiced moves are, was also not a qualifying performance entitled to exempt status,” wrote Judges Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, Victoria Graffeo, Eugene Pigott Jr. and Theodore Jones Jr.
Sniffing Mold and Rifling Through Trash In Search of Genius
The Numero Group has become the world’s greatest reissue label by tirelessly chasing dead-ends, following every detour, and ringing doorbells at their own risk. DAVID PEISNER trails the label’s founders through Louisiana as they sniff mold, rifle through trash, and maybe expose a few lost geniuses.
This is what it’s come to. When a man isn’t listed in the phone book, when he doesn’t respond to emails or letters, when nobody seems to know how to find him, sometimes you just have to roll up to his last known address and holler at him. Literally.
“Mr. Gibson! Mr. Gibson!”
It’s 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning and Ken Shipley is standing on the sidewalk outside a tidy, one-story brick house in the Carrollton section of New Orleans. Hands cupped around the sides of his mouth, he’s trying to summon Joe Gibson from what may or may not be his home. Shipley surely would’ve preferred knocking on the door or ringing the bell, but the small home is separated from the street by not one, but two, locking wrought-iron gates.
“Mr. Gibson! Anyone home?”
In the early 1970s, Gibson wrote and produced two 45s by a group called the Soul Emotions, which featured his three young daughters. Not many copies of either record were pressed, not many of those were sold, and by the time Gibson’s eldest daughter was a junior in high school, the Soul Emotions had quit performing. The records quickly went out of print and just about disappeared from the Earth entirely.
But one made it into the hands of Rob Sevier, a partner of Shipley’s at the Chicago-based reissue label, the Numero Group. Sevier thought one song — a charming pop-soul nugget called “It’s Time for Love” — would fit perfectly on a compilation called The ABCs of Kid Soul, which documented the post-Jackson 5 explosion of such groups. So he tried to find Gibson. That was more than five years ago. The ABCs came out in 2007, but now Numero has decided to do a second album, The 123s of Kid Soul. Which is what has brought them here to the doorstep of this mini-Fort Knox in Carrollton.
Moving the Still
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to Judge Animated GIF Contest
BY RYAN BORT
What has Michael Stipe been up to since R.E.M. called it quits last year? Well, we haven’t heard much, but it was recently announced on the band’s website that the former frontman will be judging an animated GIF contest called, appropriately, “Moving the Still.”
And these aren’t your typical cat-falling-off-a-treadmill GIFs; there’s certainly some artistic integrity attached to the contest, and joining Stipe on the judging panel will be author James Frey and a number of other celebrity fashion designers and photographers.
Nasonex Corral’ed
Writers Leave the Book Covers to Him
By MATT MCCUE
Rodrigo Corral is the darling of the literati—even though he’s not a writer, agent or publisher.
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NY-BW713_COVER_DV_20120909195900.jpg)
Over the past 15 years, Mr. Corral has designed more than 500 book covers for works such as Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club,” Jeffrey Eugenides’s “The Marriage Plot” and Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story.” He draws inspiration for his bold, memorable illustrations from lines in the books, his personal experience and other, more peculiar places.
The idea for the cover of James Frey’s infamous “A Million Little Pieces”—an outstretched hand covered in a rainbow of sprinkles—came from a Nasonex nose spray commercial that showed medicine traveling through a human body, coupled with his spotting the tiny decorative balls at an industrial cake shop on West 25th Street.
Mr. Corral’s next design will debut Tuesday, for Junot Diaz’s short story collection, “This Is How You Lose Her.” To create its multi-colored image of a broken heart, Mr. Corral looked inward. “It is a classic example of how I bring my own experiences to a cover,” he said. “I was going through a bad relationship and it was my ‘don’t think about what I am doing right now’ way of distracting myself.”
Richard Prince LEMON FIZZ
Richard Prince Gets His Own Arizona Drink
It’s called Lemon Fizz
(Courtesy Arizona)
It’s true. Richard Prince and Arizona have teamed up on a new drink. It is called Lemon Fizz, and according to Bevnet — ”The Beverage Industry’s Source” — is “a slightly carbonated beverage that contains natural lemon flavor and is sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, honey, and sucralose.” Sounds delicious.
Emmanuelle Gone
Sylvia Kristel, Star of Emmanuelle, Dead at 60
by Alexis L. Loinaz
AFP/GettyImages
In a cinematic era marked by burgeoning sexual frankness and a more fluid acceptance of movie eroticism, Sylvia Kristel was at the forefront of a cresting wave.
The Dutch actress, who starred in a string of mainstream ’70s erotic films including Emmanuelle and its sequels, died Wednesday in the Netherlands after a long battle with cancer. She was 60.
The actress was just 22 years old when she shot to fame in the 1974 French hit Emmanuelle, which told the story of a restless housewife and her sexual escapades in Thailand.
The film was notable for being one of the first erotic films to be shown in mainstream theaters, even though it was slapped with an X rating in the U.K.
At the time, the zeitgeist was ripe for Emmanuelle, nipping at the heels of more hard-core films like Deep Throat, which was released two years earlier.
Although that film was unabashedly sexual, it tempered the cinematic climate enough for the arrival of films like Emmanuelle — with its provocative yet velvet-soft approach to erotica—and for stars like Kristel.
‘A perfectly callipygian rear’ and other Koonsian delights….
Jeff Koons Press Release Has Best Sentence in Any Press Release Ever
By GalleristNY
Jeff Koons is having his first exhibition in Brussels in 20 years; it open[ed] Oct. 6 at Almine Rech gallery. And that is news! But far more impressive than that news is the following sentence in the exhibition’s press release which may, as indicated in our headline, be the best sentence in any press release ever released in the history of press releases released to the press.
“Neither Koons nor his art can ever stay static: his oeuvre is like a quivering organism, ceaselessly buzzing with life, producing ever new and more surprising, vivid forms.”
Remarkable! According to this sentence, Jeff Koons’s art is, pretty much, that cavernous, gothic outer space WMD chamber in Prometheus, packed with obsidian vials leaking dark ooze that turns into—well, any number of quivering, buzzing, surprising organisms, such as slickly-fanged worms that invade people’s bodies via the mouth and, in turn, giant mouth-like creatures with countless tentacles and what you might call a violent lust for regeneration (talk about vivid; this is why going to outer space in the first place is a bad idea).
Elsewhere in the press release mention is made of “high points,” “intimate juxtapositions,” the “pulse of humanity,” “the libido and the core of our humanity” and “a permanent state of tumescence”; a sailboat is called “an erotic visual double entendre” and a statue has “a perfectly callipygian rear,” as in ass.
Aftermarket Testicles Shot by GoPro
Bob’s Yer French-braided Uncle
Twists and turns in history of hair
By John Laurenson
Dyed and curled, slicked-back or straightened, tied in tight little buns or floating out in the breeze like a windsock, human beings have been cutting and styling their hair for an extraordinarily long time.
Cheveux Cheris or Beloved Hair is a new exhibition at Paris’ Quai Branly museum that brings together anthropology, art, fashion and philosophy to explore how individuals and societies express themselves through hair.
“People think prehistoric men and women had wild hair,” says the curator, the aptly-named Yves Le Fur.
The reality was very different from the caveman image – as some of man’s most ancient artworks testify.
Hair, he says, is something that differentiates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Animal fur looks great with the occasional lick. For human hair to look good, it requires effort.
Her shoulders and hips rotate at the same time, if at all.
Top 10 Dystopian Demises For Mankind
Big Cool (and can run over any stupid Metro bus that pulls out in front of it)
Shuttle treks across L.A., headed for its space
Looking like a behemoth out of a Hollywood film, space shuttle Endeavour makes its way down Manchester Boulevard.(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
By Kate Mather, Andrew Khouri and Christine Mai-Duc, Los Angeles Times
The space shuttle Endeavour arrived in Los Angeles last month with an air of majesty, soaring over ocean and mountains, swooping past the Hollywood sign and Disneyland, and dazzling crowds gazing up from the ground.
Endeavour lost a little of that grandeur Friday, towed by four trailers, inching down city streets from Los Angeles International Airport toward its new life as an exhibit at the California Science Center. But it was greeted with fanfare by large crowds who marveled at its sheer size against the city backdrop.
Anudari Does TED
How a contortionist plays music
We are thoroughly impressed with contortionist Anudari, who performed last week at TEDxUlaanbaatar in Mongolia. She has been studying contortion since she was 6-years-old. But it’s not just her outrageous flexibility and ability to fold in impossible ways that makes her so fascinating to watch. It’s the fact that she can play a musical instrument while balancing on a stick held in her mouth, as her legs and back press over the rest of her body. Bravo Anudari!
Moby Dick Big Read
Crack Pipe
Police Say Erratic Driver Hid Meth, Pipe Inside Herself
CIRCLE PINES, Minn. (WCCO) – A woman who Centennial Lakes Police pulled over for driving erratically has been charged after a drug-sniffing dog found methamphetamine hidden inside the woman’s body.
Police pulled 23-year-old Nicole Lynn Denzer, of Circle Pines, over early the morning of Oct. 2 after officers observed her pulling into the median while traveling northbound on Lexington Avenue.
According to the criminal complaint, Denzer was arrested on the spot for possession of a controlled substance.
However, when she was taken to Anoka County Jail, a drug-sniffing canine performing a search of the jail’s containment units began closely sniffing Denzer’s crotch, the complaint says.
Denzer told police she was hiding drugs in her vagina, the charges state, and pulled out a clear plastic bag containing 17 grams of methamphetamine and a pipe.
Optimus Brown
California Officially Legalizes the Robot Car
by MATT GALLAGHER, Red Herring
California became the third state to legalize self driving cars, thanks to a special visit to Google’s Mountainview headquarters by Governor Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation after taking a “test drive” in a Google driverless vehicle, according to Tecca. Though Google has had robot cars on California roads since 2010, and the practice has always been officially legal as there was no legislation to prevent it, the state passed the law in order to make it official before any anti-self driving legislation reared its ugly head in the state.
Though California was the first place Google tested the cars, Nevada and Florida beat the sunshine state to make the practice officially legal. Its fleet of a dozen robot cars has logged more than 300,000 miles. The only accidents that have ever taken place with the self driving cars were the fault of another driver.
“Today we’re looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow’s reality — the self-driving car,” Brown said. “Anyone who gets inside a car and finds out the car is driving will be a little skittish, but they’ll get over it.”
Reefer Maceness
Disabled Grandma Uses Bear Spray To Fend Off 13 Attackers After Her Marijuana Grow
DIXON (CBS13) – It was one disabled woman versus 13 intruders, and she won.
She went to answer an early morning knock on the door, but not before grabbing a can of bear spray. It was her only defense against 13 intruders.
She was staring down the barrel of a shotgun, facing seemingly impossible odds. Most wouldn’t dare fight back, but this disabled grandmother did.
“I’ve always jokingly said, ‘if someone tries to take my income, I’m going to fight. They’re going to have to fight me,’” said the woman.
She says the intruders were after her medical marijuana grow in her backyard. They were apparently so distracted that even the gunman didn’t notice what she was hiding in her hand.
“I couldn’t get the safety off,” she said.
As they were yelling “where’s the marijuana?”, she flicked off the safety and emptied the can of bear spray on three of the men, including the guy pointing the shotgun at her.
When Bling Doesn’t Adorn One’s Scrotum, But Rather Is A Scrotum
Male model wore lover’s testicles on his wrists, lawyer says
He used his lover’s testicles as a talisman.
Renato Seabra, a Portuguese male model, said he was so tortured by his May-December romance with Carlos Castro that he beat him to death, castrated him with a corkscrew, then wore the dead man’s manhood on his arms to harness what he believed was its healing powers, his defense lawyer said at Friday’s opening of the murder trial.
“He put one on each wrist,” said lawyer Rubin Sinins said. “He did this for his protection. He could also harness the power. He wandered the streets of Manhattan, touching people, because he had the power to cure people from AIDS, because he had the power to cure them.”
Seabra, 21, killed his 65-year-old lover — a noted Portuguese society journalist and gay activist — in a sudden psychotic onset, said the lawyer.
Debate Night
Why Japan Is Just The Best
Japan’s first ‘cuddle cafe’ lets you sleep with a stranger for Y6,000 an hour
By Steven Simonitch
TOKYO — Sometimes, after a long, stressful day, there’s nothing more comforting than crawling into bed with your significant other and falling asleep in their arms.But what if you don’t have anyone to cuddle with in the first place? If you’re in Japan, you might think to go to a soapland or some other kind of brothel, but then you’d have to deal with all that sex when you really just want to close your eyes and rest in the warmth of another’s body.
But wait! Before you resign yourself to another lonely night of shedding tears on your Rei Ayanami dakimakura, why not stop by Soineya, Japan’s first “co-sleeping specialty shop,” where customers can pay to sleep in the arms of a beautiful girl—with no strings attached.Soineya (literally, “sleep together shop”) opened its doors on Sept 25 in none other than Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics district, hub of otaku culture and birthplace of other eccentric establishments like maid cafés. Soineya defines itself as a “co-sleeping specialty shop,” which we’re going to denominate “cuddle cafe” because it has a better ring to it.
According to the homepage, Soineya hopes to offer patrons “the simple and ultimate comfort of sleeping together with someone.”
hearsay
Oh great – so now where is the semen supposed to dry? Jeez, way to think ahead there, auto industry! (or, We Might Be Going To Hell In A Bucket, Babe…)
Automakers kick bench seats to curb
Current Impala will be last to feature them as more car buyers prefer sportier bucket seats
BY MICHAEL MARTINEZ
The 1976 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe with a front bench seat. The 2013 Impala is the last North American passenger car in the industry to offer a front bench seat. (Chevrolet)
For many, car bench seats evoke another era, when you could squeeze friends into the front seat or inch closer to your sweetheart for some one-on-one time at the drive-in movie.
But the front bench seat — long a staple in cars and trucks until bucket seats became the rage — is going the way of the ashtray and cassette player to become relics of the automobile’s past.
The current Chevy Impala will be the last passenger car in production in North America to feature three-across-the-front seating. General Motors Co. has no plans to continue the seating arrangement when the 2014 model begins rolling off the assembly line next year.
Like other carmakers, GM will replace the front bench seat with sportier bucket seats.
I Haz a Catnip in Mah Head
Stop Pussy Riot From Rioting!
Angry Kremlins
Created by: Magnus Vulp / Almondi Esco
Angry Kremlins must stop russian punk-rock band Pussy Riot from rioting. You have to use a slingshot to launch authorities at those rebels. ‘Angry Kremlins’ is a game that in its aesthetics and composition imitates the game ‘Angry Birds’.
Jorge Ben’s Umbabarauma
Herding Marmalade
INTERVIEW: Lee Scratch Perry & Orb LP
by Thomas Hasson
Tom Hasson talks to reggae genius. Complains afterwards that it was like “herding marmalade”…
“I expect from what I give to get. What I give I’m going to get. Compulsory.”
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is telling me what he looks for in a collaborator. As one of Jamaica’s most prolific sons, Perry has worked with some of the most well known artists to emerge from the Caribbean island and beyond. As an engineer he teamed up with Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd and Joe Gibbs; as a producer he was hired by Bob Marley and The Wailers, Junior Murvin, The Congos and the The Clash (to name a few); and simply as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry he’s worked with Dub Syndicate, Mad Professor, the Beastie Boys and even starred in a series of Guinness ads.
He sets out his rules for those he’s willing to work with thus: “Those that don’t eat meat. Those that don’t eat chicken. Those that don’t eat anything that is dead. Those who don’t smoke cigarettes. Those that don’t take coke, or make home made joke. Or take coke. Don’t take cocaine.”
As this conversation continues it becomes increasingly difficult to decide which of these rules are made up on the spot and which he genuinely lives by. Though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind people making up their own jokes in his presence, he is clear on one thing; if he wants to collaborate with someone, it will happen.
Still someone making house calls to fix an Underwood or Olivetti
A New York Story: Gramercy Typewriter Co.
Eight million people live in New York City. The great metropolis needs no more introduction than that, but Paul Schweitzer does.
Paul, at 72 years old with thinning silver hair, stands like a relic from a bygone era in a three-piece, tailored suit and tells us that he fixes typewriters for a living. On its face, especially in today’s 24-hour tweet-a-thon, who Paul is and what he does might be forgettable. We would click through or change his channel, but Paul’s story needs to be told precisely because he makes up the fabric of this city, this country. He’s a regular guy, the kind we see a million times a day on an Uptown A or the cross town express. We’ve seen him in elevators and in giant lobbies on Park Avenue and once in a awhile we might even ask ‘what’s he up to?’ But the latte is ready and the phone buzzes and when we look again, he’s gone.
The facts of Paul and his ancient yet still surviving business have all been relayed before: the smaller-than-it-once-was office across from the FlatIron building, near Madison Square Park. The “No Credit Cards” sign hanging neatly above that battleship of a desk. The ringing of a telephone and the surprise when Paul or his son Justin picks up the line. But to see Paul in action, working in the back room on an Olivetti or an Underwood is something like confirming Mays actually played center field. We know it happened. We’ve seen the video, the catch, the throw,the smile, but we have nothing to touch or point to.
ZipCarp
New Zipcarp Service Offers Short-Term Carp Rentals
BOSTON—Announcing its plan to offer short-term, affordable carp rentals for urbanites and college students who don’t own a carp of their own, Zipcarp Inc. launched a brand-new fish-sharing service earlier this month.
According to company officials, Zipcarp’s inaugural fleet consists of 8,000 carps in six major American cities and several university towns, providing customers with the option to rent a carp by the hour or day.
“A huge perk of city living is avoiding the costs and hassles of owning your own carp,” Zipcarp chairman and CEO Carl Potter said at the opening of the company’s carp-rental hub in downtown Boston. “But as all urbanites know, there are times when you just really need a carp. That’s why we’re thrilled to launch Zipcarp as a convenient alternative to fish ownership.”