Dead’s Rock Scully Gone
Rock Scully, Grateful Dead’s Manager Who Put the Band on Records, Dies at 73
Rock Scully, front left, in a Grateful Dead “family portrait” in San Francisco in 1966, soon after he became manager, in front of 710a Ashbury Street, the band’s communal home. CreditHerb Greene
Rock Scully learned his mission in life at an Acid Test, one of the drug-drenched, strobe-lit parties the author Ken Kesey staged in the San Francisco area in the mid-1960s.
Owsley Stanley, the notoriously prodigious maker of LSD, introduced Mr. Scully in 1965 to the scraggly, zonked-out members of a band that had just changed its name from the Warlocks to the Grateful Dead. “Rock’s going to be your manager,” he said.
“Hey, good luck, dude,” said the band’s guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir, according to “Living With the Dead” (1996), the memoir Mr. Scully wrote with David Dalton.
So began a long, strange trip that saw the Dead go from a makeshift sort-of-bluegrass band that played for nothing in San Francisco parks to one of the biggest, most remarkable acts in rock ’n’ roll history. They sold 35 million albums, many
No mas rimjob, no mas.
Radio Station Apologizes for Letting a DJ Get a Rimjob on the Air
by Jay Hathaway
Chilean radio station Top 40 held a contest earlier this week, offering tickets to the giant EDM festival Mysteryland, and one lucky winner got hers by giving a DJ a rimjob live on air (here I’m employing an extremely loose definition of “lucky”).
The station asked what listeners would do for tickets to an EDM festival, and the answer turned out be “actual anything, up to and including licking whipped cream out of a human anus.” The human anus in question, DJ Paul Hip, then invited other listeners to make out with the girl who’d just tongued his butt and win tickets of their own.
Top 40 hyped up the contest at first, tweeting out a photo of the on-air rimjob, but soon thought better of it and deleted the tweet.
It was too late, of course. Once a rim has been jobbed, you can’t unjob it.
Endgame : l’Appel de James Frey, interview Fnac
ENDGAME: A fascinating project in collective storytelling
Google’s Niantic Labs embarks on a giant interactive transmedia project with controversial author James Frey
Endgame is going to be a fascinating project in collective storytelling. The project started as Endgame: The Calling, a novel published in October from best-selling (and controversial) author James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton. It is the first of three books.
Before the second novel comes out, Google’s Niantic Labs division will launch its Endgame mobile game. Much like its predecessor, the geo-location game Ingress, Endgame is an alternate-reality game, set in real-world locations as the battlegrounds that 12 factions will fight over. Fans form their own factions based on the Ancient Societies in the Endgame novel. In the book, societies compete with each other to be the one faction that survives the apocalypse. One of a cast of teen characters leads each, and that individual has received training for the moment when they will face their tests.
But here’s the interesting twist. The real-world players and factions affect the outcome of the story. In fact, Frey and Johnson-Shelton will weave the stories of the most active players into the second and third novels, said Jim Stewartson, a member of the Niantic Labs team, in an interview with GamesBeat. Fox, meanwhile, is working on three movies based on the franchise. It’s one of the ultimate “transmedia” projects, or a single entertainment property that crosses multiple media.
Queen’s Scientist Says Kill The Killer Asteroids Before They Kill Us
Scientists call for killer asteroid hunt
by Richard Waters in San Francisco<
©ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger
An international group of astronauts, scientists and others have called for a rapid expansion of efforts to detect asteroids capable of causing widespread destruction on earth, warning that this is one of the biggest threats to humanity in the coming centuries.
Led by Lord Rees, Britain’s royal astronomer, and Brian May, a PhD in astrophysics as well as guitarist with the rock band Queen, the group said a hundredfold increase in the number of objects detected each year was necessary over the next decade.
Academic projects to detect and track asteroids that might one day collide with earth have been under way for more than 50 years. The work was boosted in 1998 when Nasa was given a decade to identify near-earth objects with a diameter of more than 1km — a size that would turn a collision into a potentially extinction-level event.
However, astrophysicists warn that asteroids and meteors as small as 50m across could still cause devastation on earth, with a direct hit capable of wiping out a city and killing millions. An undetected meteor estimated to be 20m in diameter entered the atmosphere over Russia last year and exploded at a height of several miles, causing a shockwave that injured 1,500 people (pictured). Even the devastating 1908 impact at Tunguska in Siberia, the largest in human recorded history, was caused by an object of only around 50m, said Lord Rees.
Only around 1 per cent of the 1m asteroids, meteors and comets that could cause massive damage on earth have been detected so far, according to a declaration by the group issued on Wednesday.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Purloined
Residents hope Rudolph thieves caught red-handed
ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. (AP) — Thieves have made off with a statue of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that’s been a holiday fixture in a Los Angeles-area neighborhood for half a century.
Residents of Rolling Hills Estates say the 200-pound wooden statue was taken sometime Friday night.
The culprits left Rudolph’s broken antler behind.
DOROTHY MUST DIE – Best Books of 2014
from KCUR Kansas City Public Media
Best Books Of 2014 For Children And Teens
By STEVE KRASKE & ELIZA SPERTUS
Books have the remarkable ability to enthrall, captivate and inspire. When kids are trapped indoors during the cold winter months books can transport them into new and fascinating worlds.
On this edition of Up to Date, Steve Kraske and three Johnson County librarians review their top picks in children’s literature.
The Best Children’s Books of 2014:
From Kate McNair, young adult librarian at the Johnson County Library:
- Dorothy Must Die by D.M. Paige (Grades 8-12): Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, has been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to stop Dorothy who has found a way to come back to Oz, seizing a power that has gone to her head — so now no one is safe!
Up to Date Intern Eliza Spertus reads from “Dorothy Must Die” – CLICK TO LISTEN
They’re Out There
Are Habitable Binary Planets Possible?
BY IAN O’NEILL
As we seek out planets orbiting stars inside their habitable zones, astronomical techniques are becoming so sophisticated that, one day, we may be able to probe the atmosphere of a distant exo-Earth — i.e. a rocky exoplanet possessing liquid water on its surface with potential biosignatures in its atmosphere.
But let’s take this idea one step further.
If there’s one thing we are beginning to realize with exoplanetary studies, it’s that there is a huge variety of alien worlds out there and, of the billions of stars in our galaxy, just about every conceivable configuration of exoplanet size and orbit should be possible.
PHOTOS: How Aliens Can Find Us (and Vice Versa)
In a new study presented at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discussed the possibility of habitable binary planets; a configuration that, if the conditions are right, life could take root on both bodies orbiting inside the habitable zone of their star.
Probably the most familiar example of what could be considered to be a binary planet is that of the Pluto-Charon system. Although Charon is officially recognized as the biggest moon of Pluto and not a binary partner, in a recent Discovery News article I argued the case for making dwarf planet Pluto and satellite Charon a binary planet.
Gimme Books’ Star-studded Pop-up
Upcoming New York City Events with Zady, Coop & Spree, More!
LOWER EAST SIDE—All weekend long, Gimme Books will host a literary star-studded pop up at 2 Rivington Street, where they’ll be appearances by authors Amy Sedaris, Meg Wolitzer, Emma Straub, James Frey, Laura Day, and the editors of Cherry Bombe. Meanwhile, peruse literary agents’ favorite books, Garance Doré-designed stationary, and t-shirts and bags by Prinkshop.
Furries Gassed By Cranimals
Criminal probe after gas evacuates ‘furries’ event
By Don Babwin Associated Press

Although some participants at the Midwest FurFest convention thought the mass evacuation was just part of the fun, investigators weren’t laughing. They were probing as a criminal matter the release of a gas that sickened several hotel guests Sunday morning and forced thousands of people — many dressed as cartoon animals — to temporarily leave the building.
Nineteen people who became nauseous or dizzy were treated at local hospitals, and at least 18 were released shortly thereafter. Within hours, emergency workers decontaminated the Hyatt Regency O’Hare and allowed people back inside.
“Nobody uses real fur,” said Frederic Cesbron, a 35-year-old forklift operator who rode a plane to Chicago from his home in France. He attended the convention dressed head-to-toe in a fox outfit that he said cost him about $2,000 four years ago but would go for $3,000 today.
Attendees said they came for fun, but also for the spiritual and artistic aspects of the convention that have them celebrating animal characters from movies, TV shows, comic books and video games. Some also create their own characters and appreciate being in an atmosphere where nobody seems surprised or shocked by an elaborate, bright purple dragon.
“Everyone is from a different background,” said Michael Lynch, a 25-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, who, like his buddy, McCreedy, dressed as a fox. “Nobody judges anybody. It’s nice to come to a place like that.”
Frey Rewrite
James Frey rewrites his story with ‘Endgame’ trilogy
By Mark Daniell, QMI Agency
When it comes to career reinventions, author James Frey is in a league of his own.
His latest project, Endgame, is a sci-fi series and a real-life puzzle. The prize? $500,000 in gold. It’s in a locked case that’s on display at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. All you have to do is find the place on Earth where the key that will unlock the gold is located.
But first, a little history.
After his famous dustup with Oprah Winfrey following the news that he’d fabricated parts of his 2003 memoir, A Million Little Pieces, and its follow-up, My Friend Leonard, Frey became a pariah in the publishing industry.
He wasn’t fazed.
The writer bounced back with his Los Angeles-set Bright Shiny Morning in 2008. He followed that with his best-selling series of young-adult science-fiction books, The Lorien Legacies.
Frey also found time to reimagine the life of Jesus Christ in his 2011 “fiction” book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible.
“I don’t ever want to have a career that you can pin down,” Frey says animatedly in a mid-afternoon interview at the head office of his Canadian publisher. “I always admired (the director) Stanley Kubrick because he never did the same thing twice. If you look at his films, they’re completely different from each other. It was just him, doing whatever he wanted. I always thought that was the way to do it, so that’s what I’ve tried to do.”
Mysterious Galaxy Moves
from the Mysterious Galaxy website
Mysterious Galaxy San Diego
Above photo is classic CMB Mysterious Galaxy
5943 Balboa Avenue, Suite #100, San Diego, CA 92111
________________________________________________________________
Mysterious Galaxy has an active young adult program, providing authors to visit, read, and teach at schools that partner with us. Our MG Junior section reflects this program and our passion for young adult literature … which we all enjoy. Our staff is composed of passionate and knowledgeable booksellers, and we share our enthusiasm for our genres through hand-selling, great customer service, and regular reviews in our print and electronic newsletters, as well as here on our website.
We are dedicated to providing readers and book collectors with a great selection of books, many of them signed first editions. Signed first editions are a byproduct of the author events in our store and books acquired at conventions or directly from publishers and authors.
The owners of Mysterious Galaxy are Terry Gilman, Maryelizabeth Hart, and Jeff Mariotte. They met and began talking about Mysterious Galaxy in late 1992 when they recognized a need for a genre store in San Diego and saw it as a way to share their passion for books, bookselling, and a love of reading with their community. Mysterious Galaxy opened to much fanfare on May 8, 1993. Among the authors who celebrated the opening of the store with hundreds of fans were Ray Bradbury, David Brin, and Robert Crais.
[ click to for directions and to read more at MystGalaxy.com ]
Ralph Baer Gone
Postscript: Ralph Baer, a Video-Game Pioneer
BY SIMON PARKIN
Year: 1972 Manufacturer: Magnavox Original Cost: US $75
Image from Edge-Online’s amazing
History of Video Game Hardware Series
Among the many engineers and inventors who purport to have fathered the video game, Ralph Baer, who died on Saturday at the age of ninety-two, has a stronger paternity claim than most. In August, 1966, while waiting outside a bus terminal in Manhattan, Baer formulated the concept of an interactive device that could be plugged into a standard television set. The following day, he hand-wrote a four-page outline of his “game box.” Within six years, the electronics company Magnavox had licensed his design and begun production on the Odyssey, the world’s first home console. The system’s black-and-white plastic casing evoked Kubrick more than Homer, but the name was apt—Baer’s journey to this invention, which accounted for just one of his more than a hundred and fifty U.S. and foreign patents, was meandering.
In 1938, soon before the Kristallnacht pogroms, the sixteen-year-old Baer and his German-Jewish family fled Cologne for New York City. Baer enrolled in correspondence courses at the National Radio Institute and worked as a technician around New York, fixing home and automobile radios, before returning to Europe, in 1943, to serve in the Second World War. (Baer told the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center in 2008 that, when he returned to the United States, he brought with him eighteen tons of foreign small arms, which he had begun collecting overseas.)
Baer attended the American Television Institute of Technology, in Chicago, on the G.I. Bill, graduating, in 1949, with a B.S. in television engineering. After a two-year stint at a small medical-equipment company, Baer returned to the Bronx, where he and his family had lived as newly arrived immigrants, and began working for Loral Electronics. It was here that Baer and his colleagues were asked to build a television set. A piece of test equipment that was used in the development of the technology allowed Baer to fill the screen with horizontal and vertical lines of various colors, which he could then manipulate. Baer suggested that the test should be built into the set—not as a game, but as something for the owner to do when he grew tired of network television—but the Loral team dismissed the idea. Still, the possibility of adding interaction to the television screen was seeded in Baer’s mind.
ENDGAME – James Frey || Reseña sin Spoilers
Muchas gracias, Ian Mellark
Shake, Smell & Spritz @ The Cinema
To Lure Young, Movie Theaters Shake, Smell and Spritz
LOS ANGELES — Having tried 3-D films, earsplitting sound systems and even alcohol sales in pursuit of younger moviegoers, some theater chains are now installing undulating seats, scent machines and 270-degree screens.
For an $8 premium, a Regal theater here even sprays patrons with water and pumps scents (burning rubber, gun powder) into the auditorium. Can’t cope with two hours away from your smartphone? One theater company has found success with instant on-screen messaging — the texted comments pop up next to the action.
“When I step back and think about what will get people off a couch, in a car, down the road and into a theater, the answer is not postage stamp-sized screens and old seats,” said Gerardo I. Lopez, the chief executive of AMC Entertainment, the No. 2 chain in the United States. “Why would they bother? What the hell, stay in the house.”
ENDGAME Worldwide
Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party Coming
Kim Dotcom will bring the Internet Party to the US in 2015
by Daniel Cooper @danielwcooper
If, after declaring that he was broke, you thought that Kim Dotcom would go quietly into the night, then you really don’t know him. After a successful bail hearing, the Megaupload founder is announcing that he will help launch a version of his Internet Party in the US next year. The political party, which failed to gain a seat in New Zealand’s most recent elections, stands on a platform of internet freedom, free university education and the decriminalization of cannabis. According to Dotcom’s Twitter account, the party will be “well funded and run by American citizens,” with the lad himself just helping out with public relations….
Safe Reads: ENDGAME
The Soon-to-be King At Court
The Finishing Line
‘The Finishing Line’: The grisly British educational film that scared kids and shocked parents
In 1977, a short film was produced in Britain to discourage children from playing on the railway lines and vandalizing trains—both problems in England at the time. But the documentary-style production did more than that: it scared the knickers off of kids and riled up their parents. The subsequent controversy surrounding this educational short was so great that it was ultimately banned. Even today, watching it is a shocking experience not soon forgotten.
Commissioned by British Transport Films (BTF) to be shown in schools, The Finishing Line (1977) is perhaps the most notorious educational film ever produced. The 20 minute short is akin to a gory episode of The Twilight Zone, or a Rod Serling-directed fake documentary. The atmosphere is so odd and the child body count so high, that it’s a wonder anyone thought this was a good idea to show to kids (the ages of the target audience was eight through twelve). Put simply, it’s a child’s nightmare come to life on the screen.
Mal-Vape
Now e-cigarettes can give you malware
Better for your lungs, worse for your hard drives, e-cigarettes can potentially infect a computer if plugged in to charge
E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer – electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports.
Many e-cigarettes can be charged over USB, either with a special cable, or by plugging the cigarette itself directly into a USB port. That might be a USB port plugged into a wall socket or the port on a computer – but, if so, that means that a cheap e-cigarette from an untrustworthy supplier gains physical access to a device.
A report on social news site Reddit suggests that at least one “vaper” has suffered the downside of trusting their cigarette manufacturer. “One particular executive had a malware infection on his computer from which the source could not be determined,” the user writes. “After all traditional means of infection were covered, IT started looking into other possibilities.
“The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer’s USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system.”
Lessons From Bunny
10 Things We Learned From Bunny Mellon’s Monster Estate Sale
Don’t crumple the Rothko, don’t refinish the antiques, and act fast
Think of it as a master class in estate planning. Earlier this month, Sotheby’s sold all 43 pieces on offer from Bunny Mellon’s art collection—Rothko to Picasso to Diebenkorn—at its much-heralded “Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Masterworks.” The estate sale brought in $158.7 million, about $40 million more than the high pre-sale estimate. Last week, jewelry and furniture brought in $59.3 million more.
Not all auctions go quite as well. So we talked to art lawyers and estate planners across the country to find out what Mrs. Mellon, heiress to a Listerine fortune and wife of banker Paul Mellon, did right when it came to planning for posterity. Here are some tips for making sure your estate fetches what it deserves, at the inevitable world-class auction of your own belongings.
1. Have flawless taste—and clear title.
Bunny Mellon was known for her discerning eye, and her art collection came to include pieces by everyone from 17th century Dutch master Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder to Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper, which clearly increased the value.
But Mellon was also careful to keep all her acquisitions on the up-and-up, which solidified that value.
“You want to make sure that the provenance [a piece’s history of ownership and exhibition] on the artworks you’re selling is clear and clean,” said Herbert Nass, a New York trusts and estates attorney and author of Wills of the Rich and Famous. “The last thing you want is for there to be some kind of dispute” after your passing over the ownership of the piece.
The Boxer
Mickey Rourke wins exhibition bout in Moscow
Image courtesy People Magazine
MOSCOW (AP) — Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke returned to the boxing ring Friday at the age of 62, defeating a fighter less than half his age in an exhibition bout.
Rourke sent 29-year-old Pasadena native Elliot Seymour to the canvas twice in the second round before the referee stopped the fight.
The bout at a Moscow concert hall was Rourke’s first fight in 20 years. He took a break from acting in the early 1990s, finishing a three-year pro boxing career with six wins and two draws.
He hinted that the return to the ring has helped him cope with unspecified personal issues.
“I’ve got some things going on in my life so that (boxing has) sort of saved me from myself,” Rourke told Russian TV. “And for a man like me, it’s better to live in fear than go on in shame.”
Rearguard Action For God
The books of revelations: why are novelists turning back to religion?
There is a sense that, in recent years, novelists have formed part of a rearguard action in response to Richard Dawkins’s New Atheist consensus. Philip Maughan talks to Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford and Rowan Williams about God in literature.
Close to the end of White Noise, Don DeLillo’s 1984 novel about a professor of Hitler studies who will do just about anything to ease his fear of dying, an elderly nun reveals the secret truth about faith. “Do you think we are stupid?” she asks Jack Gladney, bleeding from the wrist at a Catholic hospital following a botched murder attempt. “We are here to take care of sick and injured,” the old nun explains in a halting German accent. “Only this. You would talk about heaven, you must find another place.”
All the crosses, devotional images of saints, angels and popes that line the walls of the ward exist merely as set dressing. “The devil, the angels, heaven and hell. If we did not pretend to believe these things, the world would collapse,” she says. “As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” Gladney moans. “This is terrible.”
“But true,” the nun says.
Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the unlikely popularity of religion in contemporary fiction. So far this year we have seen the strange sanctification of a thalidomide victim who died in childhood (Orla Nor Cleary in Nicola Barker’s dazzlingly manic In the Approaches), an avowedly atheist dentist lured to Israel by the leader of an underground sect (Joshua Ferris’s Man Booker-shortlisted To Rise Again at a Decent Hour), a high court judge, Fiona Maye, ruling on whether a hospital has the right to administer a life-saving blood transfusion to a teenage Jehovah’s Witness (Ian McEwan’s The Children Act) and, most recently, the voyage of a prim evangelical on a mission to outer space (Michel Faber’s Book of Strange New Things).
When you consider these alongside the large volume of books about Jesus published in the past few years – Colm Tóibín’s gory reimagining of the Gospels in The Testament of Mary, the enigmatic youth David from J M Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus, James Frey’s damaged Ben Zion in The Final Testament and Philip Pullman’s warring twins in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – you get a sense of bewildered fascination, of a sore that continues to itch.
Frey On Kobo
The Many Sides of Endgame
5 Questions with author James Frey

James Frey (left) and Nils Johnson-Shelton
It all started with a simple goal: create an “experience.” After all is said and done however Endgame, the much anticipated new YA series by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, may be the most ambitious multimedia experiment ever attempted in publishing.
Based around the story of a global game between 12 ancient cultures that will decide the fate of humankind, Endgame holds an elaborate code—one that will direct readers towards a key hidden somewhere in the real world. That key will open a case containing $500,000 in gold.
To enhance the hunt, Google’s Niantic Labs has made an alternate reality game based on the plot. Two more books are coming. Fox is developing a movie concurrently, and around it all is a scavenger hunt base on cryptic numbers, coordinates, and other details hidden in the book.
We caught up with the one half of the writing team, James Frey, an author best known for his 2003 smash hit A Million Little Pieces (and subsequent), to talk about the multifaceted new project.
What prompted you to branch out from writing for adults to YA?
Basically I branched into YA because I have a short attention span and I was kind of bored. I wanted to get away from the preciousness of the literary world and do more collaborative work, and also make stories for a different audience. I also really enjoy genre fiction in general and YA in particular, so I thought, “Why not?” I’m glad I’ve done it. It’s been a ton of fun and a real education and at times humbling. Endgame specifically has allowed me to do all kinds of things that I never would have the opportunity to do if I stuck with literary books—I mean, would I ever get to pitch Google the idea of making a mobile video game for Bright Shiny Morning or The Final Testament of the Holy Bible? No, I would not.
What were some of the challenges of writing for the genre?
A main challenge for Endgame has been getting everything to work together in the way I want it to. Not just the story but the puzzle, the legal aspects of the prize, the collaboration with Niantic and the Alternate Reality Game, coordination with Fox and Temple Hill, getting Caesars to sign up for displaying the gold at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the marketing, the promotion, the social media—all of it. As for the storytelling, my main challenge has been figuring out how to work with other writers. Working with Nils (my Endgame co-author) has been great, but there are still hiccups along the way. And I imagine there will be more as the Endgame world expands and gets bigger and bigger—but in the end these are all great problems to have.
JetBooks
HarperCollins to Provide Content for JetBlue
HarperCollins Publishers has signed on as the exclusive book content partner for JetBlue’s new inflight wi-fi program, Fly-Fi, which provides content to airline passengers. Beginning November 26, the publisher will provide excerpts from a selection of bestselling titles, and each e-sample will include buy buttons to a variety of retailers.
Excerpted titles include Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean.
If Carlos Castaneda Were A Wideout
Marina Hantzis Rules
Sasha Grey: “I’d Accomplished All Of My Goals”
The former porn star talks new horizons, musical endeavours and owning her past.
It’s the era of the slashie. Pop culture figures no longer specialise in just one thing. California’s Sasha Grey, AKA Marina Hantzis, may have found fame in the noughties’ world of adult entertainment (okay, as a porn star), but today she’s a model/actor/author/musician/producer and DJ. In 2013 Hantzis published The Juliette Society, an edgy alternative to EL James’ vanilla BDSM tome Fifty Shades Of Grey. Come December, the 26-year-old will hit Australia for her inaugural DJ tour here. And, in contrast to those ‘celebrity’ DJs, she’s playing credible underground venues.
Hailing from a broken home in blue-collar Sacramento, Hantzis initially worked as a bus-girl. But, being canny, pragmatic and almost defiantly cultured and intellectual, the teenager hatched an escape plan. A determined Hantzis headed to San Fernando Valley, Cali’s porn epicentre – and hustled. This original wrecking ball sensation made hardcore porn even more hardcore with her method acting. As such, Hantzis won 2008′s AVN (Adult Video News) “Female Performer Of The Year” Award.
Along the way, Hantzis crossed paths with controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson – big on retro porn imagery – and she appears in a reprint of his coffee table book Terryworld. Today Hantzis is unsure what to make of ongoing allegations that Richardson sexually exploits young female models. “Years ago, when I was 18, I contacted him through his website,” Hantzis recalls candidly. “I had one of his assistants write me back and they said, ‘We’re working in LA, do you wanna shoot?’ He was super-chill – he’s very quiet, very reserved. That was the first time I shot with him, when I was 18 – and I’ve gone on to shoot with him four or five times since then. He’s very cool. [But] I’ve thought about these things myself. I guess it’s also true that everybody can see a different side of somebody, but all of my experiences have been nothing but positive.”
Kryptos Clue New
Sculptor Offers Another Clue in 24-Year-Old Mystery at C.I.A.
Despite many attempts to decrypt it, the final section of the Kryptos sculpture remains unsolved.
The artist who created the enigmatic Kryptos, a puzzle-in-a-sculpture that has driven code breakers to distraction since it was installed 24 years ago in a courtyard at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va., has decided that it is time for a new clue.
By 1999, nine years after it went up, Kryptos fans had deciphered three of the sculpture’s four messages — 865 letters punched through elegantly curved copper sheets that make up the most striking part of the work. (In fact, cryptographers at the National Security Agency cracked those messages in 1993, but kept the triumph to themselves.) The fourth and final passage, a mere 97 characters long, has thwarted thousands of followers ever since.
Jim Sanborn, the sculptor, having grown impatient with the progress of the fans and their incessant prodding for clues — and the misguided insistence by some that they had actually solved the puzzle — provided a six-letter clue to the puzzle in 2010. The 64th through 69th characters of the final panel, when deciphered, spelled out the word BERLIN.
Since then, the fans, many of whom keep up a lively online conversation, have come up empty-handed. And so Mr. Sanborn has decided to open the door a bit more with five additional letters, those in the 70th through 74th position.
They spell “clock.”
This means that the letters from positions 64 to 74 spell out two words: “Berlin clock.”
As it happens, there is a famous public timepiece known as the “Berlin clock,” a puzzle in itself that tells time through application of set theory. Its 24 lights count off the hours and minutes in rows and boxes, with hours in the top two rows and minutes in the two below.
When asked whether his new clue was a reference to this Berlin clock, Mr. Sanborn, sounding pleased, said, “There are several really interesting clocks in Berlin.”