Music
Pop Culture
Playing Ukelele Can Save the World

Last week we saw Amanda Palmer perform live (and totally drunk-Tweeted her afterward, oops) — but right before the show, we saw her hubby, author Neil Gaiman, read a new, unpublished short story. (To seven hundred freakin’ people, holy shit — some of them queued all day to get a good seat!) Anyway, as a […]

Pop Culture
Janeane Garofalo Wants to Make Love to Bob Dylan

The right soundtrack can transform a so-so sexual encounter into something memorable (just ask Hollywood producers). And the wrong soundtrack? Well, that can really screw things up, as it were. Imagine: you’re feeling all lovey-dovey and want to hold your lover’s face while you make sweet missionary love… and then your partner puts on some […]

Pop Culture
Amanda Fucking Palmer

Singer/pianist/lyricist/composer/performance artist Amanda Palmer, a.k.a. Amanda Fucking Palmer or AFP, is the epitome of an American indie artist. She’s bold, unapologetic, bisexual, with awesomely hairy armpits and actual pubic hair. She organized an unbinding flash mob wedding between her and  writer Neil Gaiman in 2010, then made it legal in 2011 in a private ceremony hosted by literary power couple Ayelet […]

Pop Culture
A Musical History of Wooing Women

CDZA (short for Collective Cadenza) is a group of mostly Juilliard-trained music geeks (and we use that term in the most loving and respectful way) that “creates musical video experiments” — in other words, fun viral vids that play upon all sorts of musical themes and genres (think “Evolution of Dance” but with live musicians and no dancing). […]

Pop Culture
Great Music to Have Sex To: Patrick Watson

photo via Flickr Or maybe we should say “great music to make love to” (if we actually used that terminology). It definitely works for making out to. Not frantic rip-off-each-others’-clothes sessions, but more deliberate, sensual interludes that last longer than an hour, the kind earnest teenagers in love engage in. Patrick Watson, the Montreal-based band (fronted by singer-songwriter […]

Pop Culture
“Bounce That Dick,” Feminist or Not?

When we were sent a link to the new YouTube video “Bounce That Dick” on the Jenna Marbles channel, we didn’t know what to expect: some kind of safe-for-work sexual technique advice video by a porn star turned educator? Then, during the first 30 seconds, our hopes were raised, as the young “blogger and entertainer” began […]

Music
Did Mariah Carey Invent the Sexy Santa Look?

Earlier this week on our site, we asked our Wise Guys what was up with the sexy Santa lingerie thing. Which naturally lead us to thinking about Mariah Carey, and how she basically owns the entire sexy Santa category, not to mention the sub-category of soft-core porn Santa. We know she didn’t exactly invent the […]

Music
New Fiction (and Film and Music): “Lola, California”

The amazing writer Edie Meidav (who also happens to be our friend and neighbor) is out today with a new novel: “Lola, California”, called “brilliant” and “awesome” by Publisher’s Weekly. Meidav is such a force of inspiration that art practically gets spontaneously generated in her wake: above is a beautifully haunting short film created by Snapdragon […]

Pop Culture
People of Walmart Song

It surpassed 2.5 million views on YouTube last week. Jessica Frech‘s original song and video set to images from PeopleOfWalmart.com is a prime lesson in successful self-promotion: take an Internet site that thrives on our love of laughing at people and pair it with a seriously catchy tune (seriously, don’t listen to it more than […]

Pop Culture
Weird European Music Videos, Tres Sexee?

Our L.A. writer friend Charlie Amter recently launched a labor-of-love blog called EUROPOPPED, what he describes as “a little epic sideblog” to “turn on more people to the crazy Euro music vids” he finds every day. And they ARE crazy. Or just foreign. Or maybe something is just getting lost in translation. Whatever the reason, […]

Pop Culture
Was Facebook Created Just to Help a Geek Get a Girl?

According to the movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK (in theaters October 1st; we got a sneak preview last week), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg –portrayed brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg — was just trying to prove himself cool when he created the site while he was still a student at Harvard. He was a geek who couldn’t get […]

Pop Culture
Katy Perry’s Cleavage Knows How to Get to Sesame Street

Or rather, how to get kicked off Sesame Street. Perry shot a music video with Elmo for the pre-schoolers’ show featuring a version of her “Hot n’ Cold” hit, this one about playing dress up (natch). Sesame Street does this all the time — kidifying a pop tune with the actual artist; check out Feist’s […]

Pop Culture
Know Your Meme

We’ve been long-time fans (well, long-time in terms of Internet years) of the website and podcast “Know Your Meme,” a “web series and online database dedicated to documenting Internet culture, one scientismic investigation at a time.” They give you information on the back-story, viral development and spin-offs of every crazy contemporary meme out there, from […]

Pop Culture
Adam Lambert Macks with a Scissor Sister

Scissor Sisters are in the middle of the US leg of their tour to support their new album, Night Work, so Scissor Sisters News just released this update: Katy Perry Watches Adam Lambert Make Out with [lead singer] Jake Shears. Check it out to see the silly backstage shenanigans and get some serious kissing tips […]

Pop Culture
Crush of the Week: 6th Grader Performing Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi"

It may sound a little creepy, but we’re totally smitten with Greyson Chance (what a name!), the 6th grader who recently did a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” at a school event. (In only a motherly sort of way, of course!) No singing lessons, only three years of piano! He’s so good even Ellen had […]

Music
Christina Aguilera Replaces "Vajayjay" with "Woohoo"

We’re predicting the big pop hit of the summer is here — and it’s a going to be an anthem for girls nights out all over the country. For Christina Aguilera’s new song “Woohoo” featuring Nicki Minaj (from her album Bionic out this June) is all about the joys of cunnilingus. Best line ever: “All […]