| ||||
|
Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body  MediaMothers Who Think News People Politics2000 Technology - Free Software Project Travel & Food  Columnists
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - Also Today For a full list of today's Salon Media stories, go to the
Media home page. - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Salon Columnists - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon Media Column Media Column Brand X Alt - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
I know what girls want | page 1, 2
"The Stranger's 1999 Queer Issue" Pride, in case you haven't brushed up on your theology lately, is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The other six are envy, anger, greed, sloth, lust and gluttony. In honor of Gay Pride week, starting next Sunday in a city near you, The Stranger compiled a stellar list of contributors including Andrew Sullivan, Susie Bright (also a Salon columnist) and of course, The Stranger's star columnist, Dan Savage, who have "put pride back in its original context -- pride as a deadly sin -- and examined it and its sister sins to see how they impact and play out in gay and lesbian lives." Not every essay is brilliantly executed, but there's plenty o' wonderful stuff here to enjoy. Spencer Bergstedt presents an interesting take on envy: As a woman he envied men until he became one. Urvashi Vaid's anti-capitalist argument in favor of sloth is hilarious. Andrew Sullivan's screed against gluttony in the gay community seems out of place until you read Savage's take on pride: "Pride isn't killing anyone — not yet, anyway — but the fwap of rainbow windsocks is definitely making us dull and slow, and leading to a resurgence of bad plays and tight pants." Sullivan and, surprisingly, Savage are calling for a more mainstream, integrated gay community -- a perspective always in danger of being obscured by the colorful parade of men in chaps and topless dykes on bikes. - - - - - - - - - - - - Austin Chronicle, June 11-17 "Playing on the Past" by Chris Baker I have a theory about why old video games remain popular, which is the topic of this article by Chris Baker. It's because journalists like Baker, unnaturally obsessed with the commercial products of their childhood, can't seem to stop writing article after nostalgic article after goddamned article in praise of the outdated things. Pac Man was great. Point made. Game over. - - - - - - - - - - - - Boston Phoenix, June 17-23 "Cruel to be Kind" by Chris Wright When I ran over the family cat, Bugsy, back in 1990, it cost $600 to replace his hip. Personally I felt this was outrageously expensive. In addition to the vet's bill, Bugsy had this incurable skin condition that made him gross to pet, so I lobbied hard to give the poor bugger a one-way ticket to kitty heaven. I lost the argument. Nine years later, there's Prozac for animals, CAT scans (that's funny, by the way), dog-food cookbooks, even plastic surgery and acupuncture for pets. Chris Wright takes a refreshingly critical look at the proliferation of medical care and expenses for pets, and reports on the latest, most ridiculous innovations in animal care. - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week, June 16-22 "The Graduates" by Nigel Jaquiss When I set out to write a weekly critique of the alternative press, I hadn't anticipated reading dozens of articles about teenagers, proms and "Dawson's Creek." And, quite frankly, I can't read too many more. Discussions of high school are something I save for the therapist's office. Teenagers are, in my opinion, the best argument against procreation. But Nigel Jaquiss' interviews with five graduating seniors is praiseworthy -- precisely because it's not another cheesed-out feature on teen culture. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but this story made me cry. Precisely because of their awkwardness, these unlovely interviews bring back with painful vividness what it feels like to be in high school. - - - - - - - - - - - - Village Voice, June 16-22 "The Hillary Clinton Cheat Sheet" by William Bastone Why Hillary Clinton would want to campaign for a Senate seat in New York when running, and possibly winning, will only mean years more of nasty articles like this one eludes me. For my sake, I wish she'd dump Bill, move to Ibiza and live her remaining days in obscurity. But since she's clearly asking for it, William Bastone sure does let her have it with this amusing list of past scandals, rated according to how serious a threat they pose to her candidacy. Note: This is quite possibly the first time in Village Voice history that they've done something to help out Mayor Giuliani. Shocking. - - - - - - - - - - - - Phoenix New Times, June 17-23 "The Terminator" by Amy Silverman Dr. Brian Finkel is a foul-mouthed abortion doctor who arms himself with semiautomatics, decorates his office with Elvis paraphernalia, calls the procedure he specializes in "the deed" and refers to one of the pro-life picketers of his clinic as a "double-butt-ugly mean-spirited bitch." Abortion foes have called for his death and Planned Parenthood would like to pretend he didn't exist. Although the illustration topping this article is in extremely poor taste, the profile itself is well-written and fascinating. - - - - - - - - - - - - San Jose Metro, June 10-16 "Computer Cleansing" by Michael Learmonth While the product placement gurus on the set of "Felicity" are trying their damnedest to convince you that no dorm room is complete without an iMac, this solid report from Apple's home in Silicon Valley points out dwindling numbers of Macs in real-life college campuses. - - - - - - - - - - - - Kansas City Pitch Weekly, June 16-22 "Losing Control of Airline Safety" by Jarrett Murphy I once dreamt I was on a plane that was tumbling backwards into the Puget Sound. Everyone was screaming and crying. My dream-self stood up, turned around and loudly demanded that everyone please shut the fuck up so I could die in peace. It's the best plane-crash dream I've had, and I've had plenty. My fear of flying is not diminished by my strange compulsion to read every book, article and report that proves flying is an unnatural activity for earthbound humans. Jarrett Murphy's piece (first published in the Hartford Advocate) on how FAA improvements could lead to disaster and how the agency's safety inspections haven't been all that thorough is well-reported and scary as hell. Narrow aisles prevent easy evacuation; flammable seats lead to death by smoke inhalation; planes are aging; air-traffic controllers don't get enough sleep. It's the stuff from which nightmares are made, though in reality, the problems are far less serious than stories like this may lead you to believe. (The Seattle Weekly also takes on airline safety this month with a report on allegations of assembly-line sabotage and shoddy manufacturing at Boeing headquarters.)
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer Sound off - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
