Salon.com > Judy Berman http://www.salon.com Sat, 25 May 2013 01:08:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Liz Phair’s hilarious novelty album http://www.salon.com/2010/07/07/liz_phair_funstyle/ http://www.salon.com/2010/07/07/liz_phair_funstyle/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/07/07/liz_phair_funstyle Over the weekend, Liz Phair put out her first album in nearly five years. Like many artists fed up with the record label system, she self-released "Funstyle" on her website, offering the track "Bollywood" (posted below) as a free sample. When I listened to the song for the first time, my reaction was similar to Hortense Smith's at Jezebel: WTF? Against a backbeat of schlocky, broad-strokes Indian pop, Phair (kind of) raps the story of how she got roped into writing music for cable TV. The result is every bit as strange and unnerving as it sounds. I immediately wrote the song off as a desperate attempt to regain relevance in a post-M.I.A. pop-music world and resolved to ignore the career death rattle of a musician I once respected. Better just to listen to "Exile in Guyville" and pretend that 21st-century Liz Phair was all a bad dream.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/07/07/liz_phair_funstyle/feed/ 29 Twitter tiff: Courtney Love vs. Billy Corgan http://www.salon.com/2010/04/27/courtney_love_billy_corgan/ http://www.salon.com/2010/04/27/courtney_love_billy_corgan/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:42:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/04/27/courtney_love_billy_corgan Today's big-name Twitter battle is a celebrity death match straight out of "I Love the '90s." In one corner, we have Courtney Love, who has recently made headlines for losing custody of her daughter, (maybe) temporarily changing her name, and putting out a surprisingly fantastic new album. In the other, Smashing Pumpkins main man Billy Corgan, who's been connected romantically to the likes of Jessica Simpson and Tila Tequila, is in the process of releasing his latest 11-EP magnum opus and has some frighteningly nutty thoughts about the origins of swine flu. Love and Corgan have been friends, lovers and collaborators on and off for about 20 years -- and this is far from the first time they've fought in public. Considering the history and personalities involved, this Twitter matchup has all the makings of a crazy-fest that could put Scott Baio, John Mayer and Ice-T to shame.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/04/27/courtney_love_billy_corgan/feed/ 9 Courtney Love kills Courtney Love http://www.salon.com/2010/04/21/courtney_love_name_change_michelle/ http://www.salon.com/2010/04/21/courtney_love_name_change_michelle/#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/04/21/courtney_love_name_change_michelle Courtney is all out of Love. That's right: One of the most recognizable women in music is changing her iconic pseudonym. Now, the Hole frontwoman and pop-culture whipping girl only wants us to call her "Courtney Michelle." In an interview with the NME, she explained her reasons for chucking "Love" and replacing it with her given middle name: "The name Courtney Love is a way to oppress me," she said. "We've all decided we don't like her any more ... We love her when she goes onstage, but I don't need her in the rest of my life."

The name change is certainly a bombshell, and given that Love/Michelle broke the news less than a week before the release of Hole's new album, "Nobody's Daughter," it's easy to paint it as nothing more than a publicity move. But it also speaks loudly to what has always fascinated me about Love -- what has, in fact, made it totally impossible for me to join the swelling ranks of those who would vilify or ridicule her.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/04/21/courtney_love_name_change_michelle/feed/ 48 Who’s afraid of the word “feminism”? http://www.salon.com/2010/03/25/venus_generational_feminism/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/25/venus_generational_feminism/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/03/25/venus_generational_feminism This morning, when music critic and "The Girls Guide to Rocking" author Jessica Hopper tweeted, "Venus' new publisher sez feminism 'isn't relevant' to the new version of the mag, hires ed from Martha Stewart," I wanted to believe she was joking. But then I followed her link to a Chicago Reader article that confirmed it: The magazine that began in 1995 as a one-woman, college-dorm-room project with the mission of covering "women in music, art, film, fashion, and DIY culture because not a lot of other publications do" is so over feminism.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/03/25/venus_generational_feminism/feed/ 34 Bra sizes balloon: Blame obesity! http://www.salon.com/2010/03/24/bra_size_increase_bigger_boobs/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/24/bra_size_increase_bigger_boobs/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/03/24/bra_size_increase_bigger_boobs Earlier this week, Women's Wear Daily gave "breast men" (and women) everywhere something to celebrate: Bra sizes are up! Way up! While the median size just 10 years ago was 36C, the median American rack now fills a porn-ready 36DD!

But don't throw a party yet: As basically everyone who's covered the spike so far has pointed out, this is not a good thing. In fact, the consensus is that we're buying larger bras because -- you guessed it -- we're fat. Amy Odell at The Cut is so sure of this that she treats it as a foregone conclusion: "Our boobs are bigger because we are more obese, of course." Of course! Wendy Atterberry at The Frisky spins the news as a silver lining to the puffy cloud that is our national weight problem: "It's no secret that Americans are getting fatter each decade (obesity rates have doubled since 1980), but the news isn't all bad. The upside to our bigger waistlines? Bigger bustlines to go with them!" At least Margaret at Jezebel is onto something when she points out that obesity alone is unlikely to have caused a "sudden 7.7 percent increase in sales last year."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/03/24/bra_size_increase_bigger_boobs/feed/ 53 When a bridezilla’s family attacks http://www.salon.com/2010/03/10/bridezilla_video/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/10/bridezilla_video/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:11:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/03/10/bridezilla_video Everyone has a story about a bride who went over the edge. You know, the one who made her bridesmaids starve themselves so as not to ruin the wedding pictures or the lady who wouldn't stop calling the florist in the wee hours of the morning, mid-panic attack, unable to choose between peonies and lilies. But no matter what horror story you have to bring to the table, here's one that'll be hard to beat: The bride who incited an all-out brawl after an exasperated shop owner wouldn't alter her wedding dress.

The scene took place last week at First Lady Bridal Shop in Lathrup Village, a small city outside Detroit, when a frustrated bride and her posse "entered the store ... made demands for alterations and began verbally abusing employees." When they didn't get any satisfaction, they called in some male members of the family, who burst into the store and began beating the shop owner, his wife and their son. (Watch security footage of the sad and ridiculous spectacle below.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/03/10/bridezilla_video/feed/ 16 Shocker: Small condoms don’t sell http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/small_condoms/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/small_condoms/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2010/02/26/small_condoms Hey, did you hear the one about the guy whose penis was so small he couldn't find a condom to fit him? Well, what sounds like a tired joke is actually the premise of a smart Atlanic piece called "The Challenge of Marketing Small Condoms." And while it may seem self-evident that most dudes aren't lining up to buy a love glove that will brand their member tiny, the effects of this lack of appropriately sized condoms (or men with the confidence and self-awareness to buy them) are nothing to laugh about: As the post's author, Menachem Kaiser notes, 45 percent of men own up to having worn an ill-fitting condom within the past three months. Since wearing the wrong size condom can lead to everything from slippage to breakage, it stands to reason that these guys are putting themselves and their partners at risk for pregnancy and STDs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/small_condoms/feed/ 38 Scariest Olympic sport? http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/olympic_skeleton_not_dangerous/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/olympic_skeleton_not_dangerous/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2010/02/19/olympic_skeleton_not_dangerous The tragic death of Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili cast a harsher spotlight on one of the more obscure Olympic events. But what of the even less known, but seemingly more dangerous sport of skeleton, where competitors hurtle down ice chutes head-first?

After brief Olympic appearances in 1928 and 1948, the sport of skeleton wasn't reinstated until 2002's games in Salt Lake City. And while, following Kumaritashvili's death, the luge event was moved to safer, shortened courses, the skeleton (the finals are Friday night) and bobsled events continued on the original, full-length course at Vancouver's Whistler Sliding Center, home of the fastest track in the world.

"The Whistler track is super-fast due to its grade," racer Noelle Pikus-Pace, one of two American women to compete in this year's event, explained to CBS News. "From curve one down to curve three, we drop so quickly so suddenly ... Any error can cause injury." Melissa Hollingsworth, a Canadian skeleton athlete and a top competitor for the gold medal, has said in no uncertain terms that the course is "dangerous."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/olympic_skeleton_not_dangerous/feed/ 6 The awful Courtney Love album no one’s heard yet http://www.salon.com/2010/02/18/courtney_love_nobodys_daughter/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/18/courtney_love_nobodys_daughter/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2010/02/17/courtney_love_nobodys_daughter Don't waste your time on the new album by Courtney Love's re-formed band, Hole. I mean, "Nobody's Daughter" isn't coming out until April 27, and I haven't even heard it yet. But if the music blogosphere -- which also hasn't listened to the record -- is to be believed, it's going to be one heck of a trainwreck. And it doesn't seem likely that the media will put Love's personal life aside to focus on her music any time soon.

Just about every publication that covers music is taking Wednesday's announcement of the record's label and release date as a chance to weigh in on the rock widow's crazy antics. At Philadelphia Weekly, the news came coupled with the perpetual question of whether Courtney Love is an "inspirational, influential, odds-overcoming tough-chick rocker, or manipulative, soulless, fame-grubbing monster." Dude site Heavy captions a photo of Love with the sarcastic quip, "How can you stand to miss this hotness?" and then (perhaps to meet some quota for the use of the word "hot") refers to her as a "hot mess." Meanwhile, the folks at New York magazine's Vulture prefer to describe Love as a "famous crazy lady" and close their post with an extra dose of schadenfreude: "We wish Love a smooth, uneventful promotional run, and look forward to the exact opposite of that happening."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/02/18/courtney_love_nobodys_daughter/feed/ 7 Video of the day: Best. Wedding trailer. Ever http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/wedding_trailers/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/wedding_trailers/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/01/22/wedding_trailers Now that it's so cheap and easy to make videos and post them online, there's a trailer for everything: Lady Gaga albums, Thomas Pynchon novels (Is that Tommy Chong narrating?) ... and, inevitably, weddings. Most of these "Save the Date" videos are as as precious as you'd expect -- a couple gushing about their first date, bragging about their unique and timeless love and making out in front of pretty scenery. There have also been the obligatory "Single Ladies" ripoffs, the awkward attempts to be funny and irreverent and even the occasional quirkily adorable clips. Hell, one photographer has even made a trailer for her wedding trailer business. 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/wedding_trailers/feed/ 15 Levi Johnston: Playgirl centerfold, deadbeat dad? http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/levi_child_support/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/levi_child_support/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:23:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2010/01/22/levi_child_support Levi Johnston's been just about everywhere in the 13 months since his son, Tripp, was born: He's shit-talked the Palin family to any and all media outlets, found his fame-whore soul mate in Kathy Griffin and attained gay icon status (not to mention a spot on Salon's "Sexiest Man Living" countdown) by posing for Playgirl. But there's one thing Johnston hasn't done this year, according to his ex, Bristol: paid his fair share of child support.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/levi_child_support/feed/ 10 Free! Online! Plastic surgery consultations! http://www.salon.com/2010/01/21/plastic_surgery_website/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/21/plastic_surgery_website/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2010/01/21/plastic_surgery_website Who needs to go to the doctor when we have the Internet? These days, we diagnose ourselves on WebMD, buy prescription drugs from overseas pharmacies and do plastic surgery consultations, all at the click of a mouse. Shocked and horrified by that last item? So was I. But, in a story that I might have expected to see on The Onion, The New York Times profiles a Web site that allows potential plastic surgery patients to post photos of themselves and a "brief medical history," along with descriptions of the procedures they're interested in. Then, SurgeonHouseCalls.com's 55 doctors respond with recommendations and price quotes.

That's right. To review: This is a site where certified physicians give medical advice and compete for the business of patients they've never seen. Hippocratic Oath alert!

When I actually took a look at SurgeonHouseCalls, my disgust only grew. Among a sizable list of procedures categorized as "Asian Plastic Surgery," I read the site's sales pitch on skin whitening surgery:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/01/21/plastic_surgery_website/feed/ 2 Is “Mad Men’s” Christina Hendricks “big”? http://www.salon.com/2010/01/20/christina_hendricks_nyt/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/20/christina_hendricks_nyt/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:21:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2010/01/20/christina_hendricks_nyt When I spotted Gothamist's headline, "NYT Distorts Image of Christina Hendricks, Calls Her 'Big,'" I involuntarily groaned. "Really, NY Times?" I thought. "Did you have to pull the combination weight-related low blow/Photoshop disaster on one of my favorite actresses?" And I wasn't alone. Bloggers at Jezebel and Flavorpill echoed Gothamist's "WTF," lamenting that we can't discuss anything about the "Mad Men" actress but her curves and reminding us that the NY Times post's author, Cathy Horyn, who has her own history of weight issues, could stand to be more sensitive about her descriptions.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/01/20/christina_hendricks_nyt/feed/ 51 What should Conan O’Brien do next? http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/open2010_conan/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/open2010_conan/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:09:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/08/open2010_conan Thursday afternoon, word spread like wildfire that, come February, Jay Leno would be resuming his 11:30 time slot on NBC. Later, when the network issued a statement insisting (albeit vaguely) that they were "committed to keeping Conan O'Brien on NBC" and consensus seemed to form that a half-hour Leno show would bump O'Brien to midnight, we remained skeptical of the plan. Why, we wondered, would someone with Conan's talent and appeal continue to play second banana to the likes of Leno?

And that's when we realized that, regardless of what happens with his show and Leno's, Conan needs a new gig. With that in mind, we asked our crack team of Open Salon  critics, "What should Conan do next?" Check out our favorite responses below -- and add your own to the Comments section.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/open2010_conan/feed/ 17 “Men’s rights” groups go mainstream http://www.salon.com/2009/11/05/mens_rights/ http://www.salon.com/2009/11/05/mens_rights/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/11/05/mens_rights When "Quiverfull" author Kathryn Joyce interviewed blogger Bernard Chapin, he insisted on addressing her as "Feminist E." You see, Joyce explains, "he never uses real names for feminists, who are wicked and who men 'must verbally oppose … until our flesh oxidizes into dust.'" Now, Chapin's slight isn't particularly unexpected coming from a voice in the "men's rights" movement, a loosely organized coalition of individuals and organizations that believe feminist-influenced society is oppressing men.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/11/05/mens_rights/feed/ 155 “Gossip Girl”: Threesome’s a crowd? http://www.salon.com/2009/11/04/gossip_girl_4/ http://www.salon.com/2009/11/04/gossip_girl_4/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/11/04/gossip_girl Get ready for a brand new scandal, from the folks who brought us Nipplegate. This time, conservative watchdog group the Parents Television Council is all atwitter about "Gossip Girl." Of course, the show has been raising parental eyebrows ever since its debut: It does, after all, feature a gaggle of rich, largely amoral teenagers who don't think twice about downing martinis and jumping into bed together. And the series has been on PTC's shit list for a while, with the organization claiming it "conveys the message that sex is a tool used to manipulate people."

Now, PTC has finally stumbled upon something it can really sink its teeth into. Those of you who have already seen the promo for next week's "Gossip Girl" episode (posted below) may remember that we've been promised a "3s0me." The ad shuffles through the (now mostly college-age) main characters' images like a slot machine, begging us to guess which trio will hook up. That's all we know about what's to come... and that seems to be all PTC knows, too. But that hasn't stopped them from writing a lengthy letter (reproduced in full at EW.com) to CW affiliates promising that there will be hell to pay if they air the episode in question.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/11/04/gossip_girl_4/feed/ 13 Politicizing a parent’s worst nightmare http://www.salon.com/2009/11/03/baby_rb/ http://www.salon.com/2009/11/03/baby_rb/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:04:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/11/03/baby_rb In Britain this week, a mother and father are squaring off in court. Although the couple is "amicably separated," their dispute has nothing to do with alimony or child custody. Their legal teams are battling over something much more difficult: whether the parents' 1-year-old son should live or die.

Over the weekend, the Times of London broke the story of two young parents who disagree on what the future should hold for their severely disabled child. Known in the press as Baby RB, for reasons of anonymity, the boy suffers from congenital myasthenic syndrome, "a rare genetic fault meaning his muscles are too weak for him to move his limbs effectively or breathe unaided." There is no cure for his illness, which has forced him to spend his entire life in the hospital and renders him unable to "move his limbs effectively or breathe unaided." Because he can't swallow, the boy must also endure painful lung-suction treatments every few hours.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/11/03/baby_rb/feed/ 11 Teen sex: a weighty issue http://www.salon.com/2009/11/02/sex_weight/ http://www.salon.com/2009/11/02/sex_weight/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:03:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/11/02/sex_weight Lately, at Broadsheet, we've been writing a lot about the fashion industry, glossy women's magazines, plus-size models and Photoshop disasters. It's difficult to quantify the effects of Christian Louboutin's howling about Barbie dolls' cankles, on one hand, and Glamour's newfound (and likely temporary) commitment to showcasing models with a variety of body types on the other. But a new study hints at the impact such a weight-obsessed culture may be having on a particularly vulnerable demographic -- teenage girls.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/11/02/sex_weight/feed/ 5 Lousy spouses anonymous http://www.salon.com/2009/10/29/lousy_spouse/ http://www.salon.com/2009/10/29/lousy_spouse/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/10/29/lousy_spouse So, you're getting a divorce. And it's not the amicable kind. You didn't talk it out over late-night coffee and come to the mature, mutual decision that your love just wasn't meant to last. Well, what now?

A new Web site is attempting to help spurned spouses figure it out. The Washington Post's Susan Kinzie attended the launch party for LousySpouse.com, an online community catering to men and women facing messy divorces. Founded by two women (one of whom wants to maintain anonymity and showed up at the event disguised in "a wig and pink sunglasses") who have been through the ringer themselves, the site is designed to combine emotional support with practical information. "One thing that kept popping up in both of our experiences was the inaccuracies and discrepancies in available information about the divorce industry," the women write. "From lawyers to mediators to friends and neighbors there is a glaring lack of reliable advice."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/10/29/lousy_spouse/feed/ 9 Is Seventeen teaching transphobia? http://www.salon.com/2009/10/28/seventeen_transphobic/ http://www.salon.com/2009/10/28/seventeen_transphobic/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//feature/2009/10/28/seventeen_transphobic What do you think your daughter is learning from Seventeen magazine? Self-esteem? Hopefully. Body hatred? Perhaps. How to buy a flattering winter coat or strike up a conversation with that hottie from homeroom? Most likely. I'll forgive you for not guessing "transphobia." But that may be exactly what teen and tween girls are getting out of a troubling Seventeen article called "My boyfriend turned out to be a girl!"

The piece, posted as a PDF at Pam's House Blend, begins innocently enough. Narrator "Sheri" (who told her story to Senior Editor Jessica Press) recounts the beginnings of her relationship with "Derek," in which a misdirected text message led to marathon phone conversations and, finally, a first date. "He revealed that he wore bandages around his chest because of a basketball injury," writes Press. "When we made out, he never let me see him with his shirt off or touch me 'below the belt.'" Still, Sheri fell in love, and their relationship lasted through Christmas break of Derek's first year of college, when it dissolved over suspicions of infidelity. 

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