Snob

All too often lately, I see some article about some idiot starlet saying she’s totally like, not a feminist or anything. Yesterday it was Lana del Rey saying she thought feminism was “boring” and “just not an interesting concept.” A couple weeks ago it was Shailene Woodley saying she thinks feminism “discriminates” or something. Taylor Swift says she’s not a feminist. Kelis says she’s not a feminist. Lady Gaga says she’s not a feminist. Nearly all for the same vastly uninformed reason–that they “like men.”

Oy.

I suppose, as a feminist, I’m supposed to clutch my pearls and/or a pile of Kill Rock Stars records and go “What is the world coming to??? Where did we go wrong? Is feminism over forever?” or something. I’m not doing that. In fact, for what it’s worth, I could not possibly care less about what a bunch of dumb pop stars and starlets think about feminism–particularly when they clearly have no idea what feminism even is. It’s like asking me for my advice on how to fix some car thing or the best place to go camping.

I’m not annoyed by their answers, because I don’t really expect more of them. I’m far more annoyed by the fact that the question is being asked in the first place. Trust me, if a woman is a feminist, she will let you know. There will always and forever be women who are petrified that if they say they’re a feminist then men won’t like them, or that they’ll think they don’t shave their legs or are somehow just less pretty. They think feminism means “hating men” or burning bras, which, by the way, no one ever actually even did. I’m sorry, but I just don’t think you should ask people what they think about “feminism” when they’re obviously not clear on what it even is. All this ends up doing is making them look even more stupid, and I don’t happen to like seeing women look stupid. Even if it’s women I don’t happen to like much to begin with.

These idiotic statements don’t cause problems for these women’s careers, but I do think they can be damaging to young women who very much need strong female role models to look up to. I think it sucks that there aren’t a lot of them out there right now, because having had them growing up did me a lot of good. I want young women today to see smart women, strong women, take-no-prisoners women.

I consider myself lucky in that I came of age at the exact right time to be a feminist. In my middle school years I had Sassy Magazine, Riot Grrrl, Queen Latifah, Salt-n-Pepa, Ani DiFranco, Roseanne, Murphy Brown, Julia Sugarbaker–hell, even Jessie Spano, etc. At a time when “Woman of the ’90s” was a certain kind of code for “DON’T FUCK WITH ME, FELLAS!” Being a strong woman was a thing–it was a thing to be proud of, and it was a thing I took to heart. Although my mom was a feminist and it was something I was raised with anyway, I’m not going to deny that the culture I was surrounded by helped to cultivate that. It definitely wasn’t “cool” to be a delicate flower or a man-pleaser.

Times have changed, I guess. But they always do, and culture is a part of that. It’s such a strong part of it that at one point it was done deliberately. If you look at movies from the 1940s compared to movies from the 1950s, there’s an obvious difference in the way women are portrayed. During WWII, because so many men were off fighting, women needed to go to work and they needed to be pretty strong and badass. Films reflected that, and you had stars like Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn rocking some serious shoulder pads and not taking any shit from anyone. When the men came back and they needed women to go back to being “more feminine” so they’d be good little wives and homemakers, you got Marilyn Monroe, Debbie Reynolds and Lana Turner. You got a lot of shows on television like “The Donna Reed Show” and “Leave it to Beaver,” and all of this was a conscientious effort on behalf of the entertainment industry to essentially tell women “Ok! You can go home now ladies!”

I don’t think that it’s the same kind of official, “We’re doing this for our country!” conscientious effort now. I think on some level, there are some women who just don’t want to feel like they have to be “strong women.” They want to feel like the fighting is over now, that we won the battles for them and they can just relax and enjoy it. They want the luxury of not having to be Murphy Brown or Kathleen Hanna. Unfortunately, in many ways, things are actually worse now for women than they were in the ’90s, and yeah, we’re gonna need some strong, bad ass bitches out there if we don’t want to keep losing all of our hard won rights.

I don’t know what reporters are trying to get at when they ask these women if they’re feminists or not. Is it to make them look stupid? Is it to make us look stupid? Is it just the new version of “Ok! You can go home now ladies?” All I can tell you is, if you want to know what a feminist is, you should probably just ask an actual feminist.

by Bradford Evans

The US comedy industry is currently larger than it's ever been, employing more writers, directors, actors, and comedians than ever before, spread across all different types of media both new and old. While the ways in which we consume comedy have changed, one thing that hasn't is the frequency of two-person comedy acts. We rounded up a list of some of the funniest duos going, pairs of comedians who move from project to project but keep working together. Many of the comedians on this list don't fall into the traditional straight man/crazy person dynamic, but those that do (like The Best Show's Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster) do it in a new and hilarious way.

Check out a collection of today's top comedy pairings below:

Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein

Musicians/comedians Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein started making internet videos together in 2005 under the name ThunderAnt before jumping to television with Armisen's SNL boss Lorne Michaels producing their TV show Portlandia for IFC. Like a lot of strong comedy duos, Armisen and Brownstein's sense of humor is greater than the sum of its parts, and the result is a Peabody Award-winning sketch show that is also oddly used in FBI training. Armisen and Brownstein's mutual voice is as exact and specific as their show's focus of the city of Portland is.

Rob Brydon & Steve Coogan

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan contend that the contentious, ball-busty relationship they exhibit playing themselves in director Michael Winterbottom's mockumentary The Trip is true-to-life. Winterbottom cast the two British actors together in the improvisation-heavy The Trip after using them in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, and The Trip proved popular on both sides of the Atlantic, with Winterbottom, Brydon, and Coogan reuniting for a follow-up, The Trip to Italy.

Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly

"Just as a movie fan, I've told them both several times like, 'You have to do six or seven movies together,'" Adam McKay said of his writing/producing partner Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, who he's directed in Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. McKay and Ferrell had been wanting to work with Reilly for years before their first collaboration, Talladega Nights, having listed him as their top choice to play sportscaster Champ Kind in an early draft of the Anchorman screenplay. Despite McKay's wishes, Ferrell and Reilly have only played the leads in two movies together, but they're set to do a third with the upcoming Border Guards.

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler

Fey and Poehler have been working together for longer than anyone else on this list, having been put on an improv team together at Chicago's ImprovOlympic Theater (now iO) in 1993. Nearly a decade later, they ended up on Saturday Night Live together where they soon became co-anchors on Weekend Update. Since their departures from SNL, Fey and Poehler have hosted the Golden Globes together twice (set to do it for a third time next year) and have starred in movies Mean Girls and Baby Mama together (set to do it a third time in the upcoming Paula Pell-scripted comedy The Nest).

Nick Frost & Simon Pegg

Four movies deep, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have been paired up together more than any other recent film comedy duo. Pegg, Frost, and director Edgar Wright first started working together on the UK TV series Spaced before jumping into movies. Pegg and Frost's three collaborations with Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End) turned out way better than their one without him (Paul), but their effortless on-screen chemistry was still on display in the latter nonetheless.

Garfunkel & Oates

After being introduced to one another by Doug Benson in 2007, comedians Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci wound up forming the musical comedy act "Garfunkel and Oates," which would eventually lead to the pair getting their own TV show. Garfunkel and Oates's songs proved popular online, and cable network IFC took notice, ordering eight episodes of Garfunkel and Oates, a series created by and starring Lindhome and Micucci that's set to premiere August 7th.

Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson

Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson successfully made the jump from web to TV earlier this year, with Broad City debuting on Comedy Central and proving to be a hit with both critics and audiences. Glazer and Jacobson met as students at the UCB Theatre in NYC and soon shifted their focus from live performance to making the web series Broad City together.

Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim

With two TV shows under their belts (Tom Goes to the Mayor, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) and a third (Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories) on its way, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are entering into their second decade as stars/creators of Adult Swim series. In the past few years, they've also become prolific as producers, ramping up the amount of shows that Abso Lutely Productions, their company with partner Dave Kneebone, is making. Their shows now include Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Eric Andre Show, The Birthday Boys, Review, and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule, which they co-created with star John C. Reilly.

Keegan-Michael Key & Jordan Peele

After meeting in the Chicago comedy scene in the early 2000s, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have been inseparable ever since. Key and Peele joined MADtv together during the 2003-04 season and spent half a decade on the show, collaborating again on their own sketch show, Key & Peele, for Comedy Central. Three years later, the Peabody Award-winning series is awaiting its fourth season, and Key and Peele are getting into movies together, producing a Police Academy reboot and writing a movie for themselves to star in for producer Judd Apatow.

Lennon Parham & Jessica St. Clair

Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, creators and stars of USA's new comedy Playing House and NBC's critically-acclaimed but quickly-canceled Best Friends Forever, both came up via New York's UCB Theatre at the same time, but they didn't actually meet one another and start working together until they both moved to LA. Parham and St. Clair quickly became writing partners and best friends, discovering and developing a strong rapport between themselves that's definitely evident onscreen.

Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster

"When [Scharpling] talks to Wurster, the only thing I can compare it to is Nichols and May," says Julie Klausner in Jake Fogelnest's 2011 Spin piece on The Best Show on WFMU, Scharpling's comedy radio show/podcast that ended its 13-year run last year (but looks to be coming back soon). Scharpling and Wurster's phone calls, which find Scharpling straight-manning Wurster as different residents of the fictional town of Newbridge, are chock-full of amazing running jokes and a dense amount of callbacks to other Newbridge residents and places. Until The Best Show does return (or Scharpling and Wurster do in a different capacity), at least there's 13 years worth of archives to dive back through.

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So you think its fun. Well it is as long you keep a regular schedule of sleepovers with your friends at your house. As long as your work timetable is tight, as long as you don’t get to stay in for above 48 hours (alone), as long as you have a sincere caring dog, and as long as the fridge is all set for the apocalypse, then what the hell, maybe it really is.  So here are the perks and not so good perks of being an only child:

1. YOU HAVE MANY FRIENDS. (REGARDLESS IF THEY’RE REAL OR FAKE)

Well since sulking in the house on a regular afternoon is not an option, you always end up into someone else’s living room, porch, or garage. Or after school, it’s always the real deal. Someone will always be grabbing your arms for a drink, for a walk, for a smoke, or for whatever the hell it is college kids should not be doing. In that case, you accumulate dozens or hundreds of people in your life, which most of are temporary. Almost all of them go away with the passage of time, only about a handful stays for good.  And during those times, you will realize one of the hitches of being an only child; the struggle to find companion. And even though you know nobody stays forever, it’s still sad that the people you got yourself attached to always seem to disappear in time.

2. YOU DEVELOP UNEXPECTED HOBBIES. 

Since you have all this time and energy, and nobody to share it with, you tend to look for the answers in the comforts of your own home. You spot a pen, and oh good lord a paper. And bam, you’ve found yourself a hobby. You force yourself to blot like Shakespeare or to draw like Picasso, or to sound like One Direction your favorite band, just because you have no choice. But then as time went on, you will make this a habit since you have to do something on your spare time, especially if you’re still a student and you’re on term break or if you’re jobless and broke at the same time.  Sometimes this habit develops or sometimes it just transforms into a new one, maybe drinking or smoking pot. Anyhow, this is one of the struggles of a loner kid each of them have no other option but to face.

3. YOU’RE THE MOST RELIABLE GUY IN YOUR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS. 

Correlated to the first struggle above, there is always the need for company. And because of that, you always make yourself available, up to the moment and ever dependable in times of struggle and before and after party struggle. You hardly miss any occasion, and if ever you did, you just tend to hate yourself for a day for doing so; it felt like you miss half a lifetime for not seeing Joey throw up or not witnessing  Sarah fell off the pool. It just sucks. Especially when the time comes when you’re the one in need for some real friends, not everyone seems to care. Because you’re always seen sometimes your presence depreciates. Again, that sucks pretty badly.

4. THERE’S ALWAYS THIS INESCAPABLE PRESSURE tO SUCcEED.  

Whether it’s your first job interview, your first recital, your first gig, your first ballet dance, your first time getting high, your first time getting it on; there’s always this underlying pressure to do good. There’s always this expectation, especially from your parents that you can’t run away from .Since it’s always been just you from the start,  you don’t want to let yourself and your lonely ego down. You take pride in doing things on your own, and if all else fails there’s no one to blame but yourself.

5. YOU LEARN TO BECOME ONE FIRM INDEPENDENT BEING.

Well ever since the moment you open your eyes to this world, there’s no one else but you and your mom and dad. It’s always the three of you, and at some point you’d think that it isn’t the numbers that count, but the value in them. Growing up with no one to share your room with, to talk with when you’ve been slammed down by this guy or girl, or when you’ve been turned down by a job is already a never ending struggle you have no choice but to face every damn day.  You learn to appreciate small things. You develop this almost blood relationship with your friends. You thrive to exceed expectations. You strive to have a good life in order to take care of the only two beings you’ve known your whole life. And you want to prove yourself to the world that being alone doesn’t have to be so bad, and in time, you will win.

Solidaridad con el Jueves.

http://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2014-06-05/rba-retira-la-portada-de-el-jueves-sobre-la-abdicacion-del-rey_142146/

El barrio compostelano regresa el sábado a los años 60 con una jornada que incluye juegos, clases de baile, sesión vermú o verbena

• Toda la programación de la fiesta «50 anos aló» de San Martiño Pinario

a comissom gastonómica da gentalha organiza um novo obradoiro de cozinha.
o sábado 14 de junho às 11h30 obradoiro de sushi!!!!!!
aprenderemos a preprar e cortar o peixe, cocçom do arroz e a fazer hosomaki,niguiri,maki e uramaki.
preço 10 € (12 nom sócias)
inscrever-se antes do dia 12 no correio gentalhadopichel[arroba]gmail.com

Ana Oncina visitará la librería Paz (C/ Peregrina 29) de Pontevedra el jueves 12 de junio a las 19:00 h para presentar su libro Croqueta y Empanadilla.

There are plenty of bad ways to show your love for your pet- start dressing them up to look like you, take them everywhere you go and treat them like a little furry baby and you've officially crossed the line from proud pet owner to critter obsessed kook.

There's one way to show the world how much you love your pet that the world will actually admire and enjoy- capturing their likeness with a portrait.

The pets in this series of 14 Adorable Animals Posing With Portraits of Themselves look mighty proud to be the star of their owner's artwork, and their owners can be proud that they're showing their love in a way that doesn't make the rest of the world cringe.

1. You don’t need to keep telling your daughter she is beautiful until she “believes it.” This is well-meaning in a society that is determined to make your daughter feel less-than and, while your heart is in the right place, you focusing on her beauty positively or negatively makes her do the same. The best thing about your daughter is not how she looks. Of course, you want her to accept and love the way she is, but in order to do that, you must also encourage and appreciate the aspects of her that have nothing to do with her beauty. Teach her to demand that the people in her life value who she is, not what she looks like.

2. You don’t need to protect her from the big, scary world of men. You are teaching your daughter to regard men as unsafe and putting her in a weak position where she cannot defend herself. If your daughter is interested in a boy, ask her about him, ask to meet him, be curious about who he is, instead of blanketing him as someone your daughter should be afraid of. Your fear becomes her fear and, while you think you are helping your daughter to be aware, what you are is teaching her to attract fearful men into her life. What she resists and what she focuses on are what she attracts. Teach her to respect herself, to respect men, and teach her to think for herself.

3. You don’t need to threaten violence if a boy comes to your door to take your daughter on a date. This is not cute or funny, despite what sitcoms will have you believe. This doesn’t just cause a distance between you and your daughter, but this puts her, again, in a weaker position, so that she is not allowed to think for herself. Teach her about men who will love and cherish her. Teach her to love and cherish men. Give her trust, an open ear, and give her the opportunity to make her own choices, rather than feeling like a princess in a castle that needs your protection.

4. You don’t need to guard her virginity. You need to teach her about sex and leave the door open, so that she can come to you. You need to stop regarding sex as this taboo thing that you can’t talk about. Sex is not gross, it is not an uncomfortable topic unless you make it so. Your daughter’s virginity is not something that she should be taught to guard and that men need to “earn the right” to it. Her virginity is not a commodity. Her body is not something men can earn.

5. You don’t need to “cover her up” or be aghast by what she wears. Talk to her about her clothing choices, instead of dictating what she wears. Ask her about what kind of clothing makes her feel comfortable. Don’t make her feel like she is to be fearful of how she dresses. Open a conversation. Don’t teach her that it’s okay for men to dictate what she wears or what meaning there is behind her clothes. Teach her to make those choices on her own.

6. Stop saying that “men don’t want the cow if they get the milk for free.” Because your daughter is not a commodity. And, one day, perhaps your daughter will want to share just the milk and that’s completely fine. Teach her to not regard sex as some transaction. Teach her that sex is a multifaceted part of what it means to be human and that, whatever is best for her and her body and her heart, is the only thing that matters.

7. You don’t need to keep giving her the idea that the only thing men want from her is sex. Teach her about what else matters. Her brain, her heart, her compassion. You are the first person in her life who teaches her about her relationship to men and she will take what you do and say as gospel. Make sure what you do and say is intentional. Teach her what to value about herself, not what the world has told her to value about herself. Teach her that she is more than just the sum of her parts. Teach her that the men she’d want to be with, would love her for who she is.

8. Treat her mom like you’d want your daughter to be treated one day. Whether you are divorced or not, how you treat her mom will be, at least for a while, what she expects from a relationship. Your every move is being watched. That’s what you signed up for as a parent. You don’t get to say one thing and act another. You don’t get to tell her that she is worth more than her beauty, but then have her watch you value a woman’s beauty over everything else. Your daughter will remember your actions before she remembers your words.

9. You don’t need to tune out “girl stuff” just because you’re not a woman. Chances are, your daughter will want to do anything to impress you. Encourage her to share all aspects of her life with you, not just the non-girly things. Meet her at the level she is at. It’s not going to kill you to have a tea party with your daughter every once in a while, if she’s into that sort of thing, of course. See what she’s interested in. Invite her into your world, whether your world is sports or collecting coins or reading books by Hemingway. Don’t see her only as a gender, but as a human being who yearns to explore and imagine, without prejudice.

10. Don’t stereotype her. Not every little girl loves Barbie and the color pink. Allow your daughter’s identity to unfold naturally and get to know her, instead of giving her the identity you think she should have. Allow her to change her mind, experiment, explore, and share with you the ups and downs of all of it. Give her the openness and tools she needs to explore who she is, determine her own desires, and find her own footing in this world.

A Linguist on the Story of Gendered Pronouns. Gretchen McCulloch talks about why we have pronouns, why gender is a thing in English, and how gender is a thing in other languages.

Her source for comparative data is the super cool World Atlas of Language Structures Online.

On the Toast as on the blue, the comments are worth reading. This one goes into some interesting detail on the problem of gender neutrality in Spanish. This one traces gendered pronouns in written Mandarin to the first translations of Western literature.

Although the WALS does not include data for fictive alien languages, McCulloch covers that too in her piece about a recent Nebula Award winner's treatment of grammatical gender.

Marcos stepping down demonstrates the strength of this autonomous community. On May 2, 2014, José Luis Solís López, better known as Galeano was murdered in the community of La Realidad in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Galeano was murdered by three gunshots after he, unarmed, was surrounded by paramilitary troops and refused to surrender. The attack took place on the eve of a meeting that the Zapatistas had planned to hold with other indigenous organizations and indigenous people of Mexico during which spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos had planned possibly to reappear after a public absence of nearly six years. During the attack, a number of people were injured, and a Zapatista school and health clinic in La Realidad, both of which were symbols of the movement's autonomy, were destroyed.

According to the Good Government Junta, the Zapatistas' governing body, those responsible for Galeano's murder were paramilitary forces that came from two rightwing parties, the Green Ecologist Party and the National Action Party, as well as the Independent Center for Agricultural Workers and Historic Peasants. These paramilitary groups responsible for the murder of Galeano were legitimate peasant organizations that struggled for land rights against the local Chiapas Government in the 1970s. Over the years however, they have flirted with the government to try and receive funding and to get their people into government positions.

These are groups that have been coopted by the government of Chiapas in the past several years to oppose the Zapatistas in exchange for funds. This is a counter insurgency plan by the Mexican government and the Mexican Army to combat the Zapatistas outside of direct conflict. All these groups are involved in violent attacks and land occupations of the Zapatistas since the beginning of the Zapatistas movement in 1994. The lands which Zapatistas obtained and hold for the indigenous people of the region with their blood, is been invaded by these groups, that then look for the local government to legitimize their take over of the land and to undermine the Zapatista movement.

Photo by Patrick D Bortz

The 2014 European Drug Report came out last week and told us exactly what we already knew: that Europeans are very fond of drugs. 

For better or worse, the Old Continent has arguably been the world's most prolific drug-consuming landmass for at least a century or so. In the 1930s, while Reefer Madness was convincing Americans that smoking weed would turn their children into rapists, Turkey was supplying Greek proto-hippies with the continent’s crumbliest hash; in the 80s, Zurich turned Platzspitz Park into a legal, open-air drug market; and, in the early 90s, half of Manchester spent their weekends existing almost exclusively on pills and poppers.  

The situation is no different today. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) report estimates that around a quarter of Europe’s adult population have taken an illegal drug in their lifetime, and states that the consumption of cannabis alone throughout the continent adds up to around 2,000 tons every year.

There’s also Europe’s recent insatiable taste for legal highs to take into account. Over the past few years, drugs that sound like Diamond Head support bands—“Exodus Damnation", “Dragon Pellet", “King Cobra”, etc.—have made their way from the quiet head-shop stalls of Reading Festival to the shouty headlines of the European press. And for good reason—81 new legal alternatives to pills, coke, and weed were discovered in 2013 alone, and each of those untested substances comes with its own unique set of risks.

Worryingly, users in many countries have progressed from snorting, smoking, or ingesting these chemicals to injecting them. That, of course, opens them up to all the regular, blood-borne dangers that intravenous users have been flirting with ever since people started poking needles full of gear into their veins.

To give you a proper rundown of the current European drug climate, we’ve taken a bunch of statistics from the Global Drug Survey 2014 and turned them into the maps you see dotted throughout this post. We also dug through the 2014 European Drug report—as well as a load of other recently released studies—pulled out the most significant points from a few of the countries surveyed, and turned them into easily digestible sentences so you can remember them at a bar this evening.

All graphs by Alex Vissaridis (Click to enlarge)

DENMARK
According to one international survey aimed at drug users, cannabis was actually more popular in Denmark than tobacco, with 66 percent of respondents saying they had smoked it in the last year.

ESTONIA
Estonia has a pretty serious problem with fetanyl, a very strong synthetic opioid. Because of this, the country has the largest number of drug overdoses in Europe, and the rate of HIV outbreaks is high.

(Click to enlarge)

FINLAND
A drug sold as legal cocaine—MDPV, a mephedrone-like substance—has caused a number of deaths in Finland. 

GREECE
As VICE reported last year, Greece is suffering a catastrophic problem with the drug called sisa, a type of methamphetamine that can be as cheap as a dollar per hit.

(Click to enlarge)

IRELAND
On average, a gram of weed in Ireland costs $27, making it the most expensive place to get stoned in Europe.

NETHERLANDS
Dutch people fucking love taking stimulants. More than 50 percent of respondents to one survey aimed at drug users in the Netherlands said they had taken MDMA in the past year, making it more popular there than cannabis. The country is also big on producing pingers—2.4 million ecstasy tablets were seized in the Netherlands in 2012, the largest haul of pills ever intercepted in the European Union.

(Click to enlarge)

NORWAY
Norway has the second-highest rate of drug overdoses in Europe, behind Estonia. According to government figures, 76 per million people will die of a drug overdose in the country, due in part to the capital Oslo's heroin-addiction problem. 

ROMANIA
Romanians are getting into legal highs. In fact, they're now so widespread that more than a third of those entering drug-treatment programs for the first time were doing so because of new psychoactive substances. In comparison, only 21 percent of first-time patients were using heroin.

This is partly due to a shortage of heroin in the country in 2010 and 2011, with users switching to the legal highs that you can just buy online. Injection of these drugs is now on the rise, with 33 percent of specialized drug-treatment participants injecting some form of legal high as their primary drug, and with one needle and syringe program in Bucharest reporting that 51 percent of their users were injecting new psychoactive substances.

(Click to enlarge)

SPAIN
Acting as the gateway to Europe from Morocco, more than two thirds of cannabis resin seized in the EU is in Spain. The country is also fond of synthetic cannabinoids—herbs sprayed with chemicals that emulate the effects of cannabis. Although only 20 kilos were seized throughout the first half of 2013, it's still the largest reported interception of this type of drug in Europe.

TURKEY
Turkey, as it has been for decades, remains a trafficking hotspot, with drugs destined for both the European heroin market and the Middle East being seized. Since 2007, the country has also held the enviable title of being the leading European country for herbal cannabis seizures.

(Click to enlarge)

UK
Since being banned in 2010, mephedrone has made a substantial dent on the black market. There were approximately 1,900 users of the drug entering treatment programs in 2011 and 2012, and more than half of those users were under 18 years old. Some injecting users of the drug have been mixing it with heroin—a cheaper version of a speedball, which is traditionally a mixture of heroin and cocaine.

You may have already worked this out from the fact that trace amounts were recently found in the national water supply, but the UK is Europe's leading consumer of cocaine, with nearly 10 percent of the population stating that they have consumed the drug at least once in their lifetime.

Follow Joseph Cox on Twitter.

One of the most common yet tired rants within the music world revolves around “how far” MTV has fallen, and the fact that they rarely play music videos anymore. The conversation has been going on for well over a decade, and I will freely admit to having contributed more than my fair share to the discussion. But the reality is, it’s time to put the dialogue to bed for good, as it’s simply no longer relevant, and honestly, it’s not MTV’s fault at all.

For more than two decades, MTV basically had the same formula: show music videos all day. Sure, there was the occasional news segment, but even in the early 1990s, you could see sports, fashion and reality programming…and of course Beavis & Butthead supplementing the videos. The reality is MTV had to adapt, and as streaming videos on the internet gained ground in the early oughts, there was less of a demand for it on the cable airwaves. Leaving the quality of their programming out of the discussion, MTV is a business, so they tried a handful of different things to see what resonated best with their audience, then delivered that new formula in excess.

Nowadays, music videos on the station are a rarity, and many have begun to question why exactly they still host their yearly awards ceremony. Consider this: where do you go to watch music videos (assuming you want to watch them)? Chances are your answer was either YouTube, Vimeo or a similar service. The medium for delivery of the music video art form has changed, much like it did when MTV supplanted radio and magazines as the “go to” place for what was new and hip in music.

On the other side of things, avenues such as YouTube allow for many massive advantages to musicians that MTV could never provide. First and foremost, ANYONE can put a video on YouTube. There is no question of getting “selected” by MTV to be aired, or having to force your video into some time or content restriction. Even if all you have is a cell phone recording, you can put it up alongside the multi-million dollar videos.

From a fan’s perspective, the demise of MTV couldn’t be better. The new reality allows fans to view any video as many times as they please, whenever they wish. If you want to watch Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” on your cell phone in the back of a taxi, or maybe force your friends to watch “Wrecking Ball” on your Xbox, you can go right ahead. Think about it: you don’t actually NEED a television or cable access to enjoy videos anymore. Access to the internet, even if it’s on your pre-paid phone or at a cyber-cafe, is all that’s necessary.

Along with this ease of accessibility, the choices are endless in terms of actual content. If you want to watch videos made by all-female Japanese metal bands, there’s plenty to choose from. No longer are music fans at the mercy of whatever arbitrary group of people deem “worthy” of airplay. Each individual is now their own station manager of sorts, curating the digital space to fit whatever moves them at that moment.

Taking this idea further, streaming videos present a far more accurate representation of what the world is enjoying. In the era of MTV, it’s highly unlikely that something like Psy’s “Gangnam Style” would have caught on at all; let alone clock over two billion views. If anything, it would have been an underground joke that ran late in the night. Even if he did get some daytime airplay, the video would have been cycled out of rotation after a few weeks, as those who remember the heyday of MTV can easily recall the half-life even the greatest video inevitably had.

While in a modern context removing videos after a given amount of time or relegating them to less desirable hours might seem unthinkable, in their prime, MTV was a purveyor of hip, and a part of that meant doing away with the newly-old and ushering in the freshest new songs. Stations still playing Top 40 radio are perhaps the easiest reminder for those of a younger generation, and it is simply the nature of the beast that is pop music.

So to those who seem hell-bent on continuing to ring the death knell of MTV, it’s well past time to move on; and when you do you’ll find that this brave new world is in most ways a far better one. Beyond allowing far more freedom of choice and accessibility within the world of visual music for both musicians and fans alike, we owe these newer streaming services thanks, as without them we may never have been able to experience the awesomeness that is The Muppets’ “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Then again, without these same services, it’s likely we’d never have Rebecca Black or The Biebs…

Joel Freimark hosts a daily music-related webseries HERE and you can follow his daily music musings and suggestions HERE as well.

Image: The Weeklings

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Each week, the film aficionados at Supercut Online do God’s work by shining a much needed light on some of the most overwrought and overused movie tropes and dialogue. So far they’ve done some crucial compilations featuring crying, slow-motion running, and any time a character has referred to some desirable trait as his or her middle name.

This time around, we’re treated to some critical times when disposable supporting character was mortally wounded and tearfully told “don’t die on me,” typically by the film’s hero.

h/t A.V. Club

Dibujando la alteridad como debe ser: nos horroriza; nos fascina.

Recuerdo cuando hace un par de años tuve conocimiento por primera vez de la loca idea del líder de Weezer, Rivers Cuomo, de organizar un festival a bordo de un crucero que fuera desde Miami hasta la isla de Cozumel, en México. Durante 5 días se detendría el mundo para los afortunados tripulantes y sus vidas sólo estarían expuestas a la diversión, la comida, los conciertos exclusivos y, casi con seguridad, la bebida. En aquella primera edición del The Weezer Cruise, la banda de Los Ángeles se embarcó junto a Dinosaur JR, Sebadoh, The Antlers, Yuck, Ozma y unos cuantos grupos más, en un viaje de placer que era un delirio, un sueño, una broma bien ejecutada. Una celebración de la vida, al fin y al cabo.

No contentos con el éxito de aquella primera expedición, Rivers Cuomo se inventó una segunda que tuvo lugar en febrero de este mismo año, con una ruta diferente y un cartel renovado: el trasatlántico partiría de Miami rumbo a Bahamas, donde el pasaje y tripulación disfrutarían de un fiestón privado en la playa, además de otras actividades propias de su sistema económico capitalista. Junto a Weezer, esta vez actuarían Cat Power, Toro i Moi, Ash, The Cribs, Palma Violets y muchos grupos más. Otro éxito al canto, tanto en lo musical como en lo turístico.

Mirando los carteles de esta chaladura y algunas de las fotos y vídeos que encontramos por La Red, no podemos más que tirarnos de los pelos y morirnos de la envidia, especialmente después de haber conocido, hace escasos días y de rebote, la versión ibérica de este viaje de placer, que os vamos a pasar a relatar después de ver las imágenes que vienen a continuación, para que hagan más daño si cabe en la cabeza de los que ahora nos leéis.

Desconocemos si los responsables que están detrás de El Crucero Ochentero tomaron como inspiración el caso de Weezer, pero intuimos que sí. Sin embargo, la adaptación a la realidad ibérica de este carajal marino es espeluznante. Todo lo que está bien en uno, está mal en el otro. Es el reverso tenebroso, la antítesis, la cruz, el yang. Una celebración de la muerte artística y cerebral de los que participan de él. Y lo peor no es que se haya hecho una primera edición, sino que en noviembre se celebra la segunda. A su favor sólo podemos decir que a bordo de El Crucero Ochentero aparentemente no se celebran corridas de toros.

El cutrerío reinante de toda la propuesta, nos recibe a puerta gayola desde el mismo momento en el que entramos en la web oficial de esta excursión para nostálgicos. El logo, los claims, las fotos, y la descripción de las actividades huelen a bar de cincuentones, a güisqui DYC con palillo entre los dientes, a Ducados y a slips Abanderado de color granate. Ni que decir tiene que estamos a favor de que cada uno elija su propia manera de divertirse, pero los escalofríos no cesan, especialmente cuando nos topamos con el cartel de la primera edición de este disparate musicosocial. Que dios os pille confesados:

No creemos conveniente comentar demasiado: sólo mirad el cartel y repasad el line-up una y otra vez. Frotad vuestros ojos, llorad, gritad. Hacía mucho tiempo que no veíamos algo semejante. Una convención flotante de cadáveres artísticos que, sobrevenida la crisis en este país y ante la imposibilidad de encontrar a pequeños ayuntamientos a los que atracar a mano armada con la excusa de la nostalgia musical, se ven abocados a atiborrarse a Micebrinas y a hacer el ridículo tocando hits que nunca debieron serlo ante indefensos fans entrados en carnes y en años que, para hacer más horrorosa la experiencia, no pueden escapar muy lejos porque están en un puto barco en alta mar. Si pensáis que exageramos o que hemos entrado en una espiral de esnobismo contemporáneo, haced click en el play de este vídeo (bajo vuestra propia responsabilidad):

Efectivamente, es lo que parece: José Manuel Casañ de Seguridad Social y Javier Ojeda de Danza Invisible destrozando Chiquilla, esa canción que se radió hasta la locura y que debió de permitir a más de uno vivir como un marajá. No sabemos qué daban en el crucero, pero Javier Ojeda entra de forma automática en nuestro Ranking Nacional de Indeseables por esos coros de karaoke de barrio marginal, por confundirse a la hora de entrar en el estribillo, por desafinar como el cuñado borracho de todas las bodas y por esa colección de onomatopeyas irritantes, que deberían estar legisladas por Ley Orgánica en todo país culturalmente sano. El público, como no podía ser de otra forma, parece estar en éxtasis. Y sabemos por qué: todo aquel que tenga por ídolos a alguno de los artistas listados en el poster de arriba, está acostumbrado a las bajas calidades. Cuando algo de baja calidad se digiere con ayuda del alcohol, la percepción positiva por parte del individuo que ingiere se multiplica exponencialmente de tal forma que cuanto peor sea el alimento y más alcohol se haya ingerido, mejor sabe (esta ecuación es comprobable empíricamente en la mayoría de los festivales de este país). Los grupos participantes de esta pesadilla marina son a la música lo que una cinta de lomo a la alta cocina: algo evitable, lleno de cartílagos e imposible de digerir cuando se ha pasado de fecha.

Y por si había alguna duda de que todo este crucero está ideado por el Diablo, Peter Hook, el bandido que un día fundó Joy Division y más tarde New Order, y que ahora gira con un grupo de becarios que recrean como pueden discos tan vitales para la Historia como el Closer o el Unknown Pleasures, también estuvo allí en calidad de invitado VIP. Y esto no hace más que confirmarnos lo que ya sabíamos: que nunca entraríamos en un club al que aceptaran a Peter Hook como socio.

 

Estamos convencidos de que sólo una minoría del pasaje supieron reconocer a Hook y un número todavía menor conocían su obra. Esto, por supuesto, no los hace peores personas. Pero tampoco mejores.

Sin embargo, todos sabemos que el ser humano siempre se va a sentir atraído por lo que más daño le hace. Esto, por supuesto, nos incluye a nosotros que, tras ver las fotos alojadas en la web oficial, hemos empezado a experimentar una sensación extraña como de rechazo y curiosidad al mismo tiempo, una especie de placer culpable por querer conocer de primera mano el nivel de caspa que puede llegar a encerrar el cartel de la segunda edición de El Crucero Ochentero que tiene previsto partir de la ciudad de Valencia el 6 de noviembre, y que tendrá parada en Marsella, Génova, Roma, Palermo, Túnez y Palma de Mallorca, para regresar al puerto valenciano, una semana después. Mientras nos pensamos si debemos o no solicitar una acreditación de prensa y los efectos psicológicos y personales que podría tener en nosotros el hecho de que nos la concedieran, os dejamos con algunas imágenes del musicidio perpetrado hace algunas semanas sobre las siempre tranquilas aguas del Mar Mediterráneo.

 

 

 

Currás vende tranquilidad pese a que él y su mano derecha, Reyes Leis, han tenido que asumir todas las concejalías. «Se é necesario, lle dedicaremos máis horas», afirma

• Un fiasco político entre las ruinas de Raxoi
• El regidor ficha al exárbitro García de Loza para asumir la gestión de Deportes
• El PSOE de Santiago pregunta a Currás por qué reparte todas las competencias entre él mismo y Reyes Leis
• El BNG de Santiago ve «inaudito» que la ciudad esté gobernada por solo 4 ediles
• Currás busca nueve concejales para Compostela
• Las marchas de la última semana dejan al alcalde como el único imputado
• Fiestas, obras y Plan Especial, entre las urgencias para los nuevos ediles
• Los siete ediles del PP de Santiago condenados dicen que dimitieron «por imperativo legal»
• El PSOE de Santiago pide que Agustín Hernández y Marta González asuman sus actas y el BNG cuestiona la legitimidad de Currás
• El alcalde Ángel Currás se queda más solo que nunca
• Golpe judicial al Concello de Santiago
• Dimiten los siete ediles de Santiago y Currás pilotará la renovación
• Los candidatos a concejal dicen estar a la espera de la decisión del partido
• El futuro de Santiago volvió a decidirse en la sede del PPdeG
• Abdicación en Santiago
• La sentencia sostiene que los ediles fueron conscientes de que la resolución no se ajustaba a derecho
• El juez inhabilita por 9 años a siete ediles de Santiago
• ¿Qué pasará ahora en el Ayuntamiento del Santiago?

Fue sancionado con 200 euros y el Concello de Santiago pidió al lucense que lo anunciase en su tablón de avisos

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THE END

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Hola esta vez os dejo la coleccion "Astrosniks" se trata por decirlo de alguna manera de la version marciana de los conocidos "Pitufos" lo que hicieron  fue algo tan sencillo como cambiarles el color, (nuestros protagonistas son verdes), trajes de estilo futurista, un par de antenas y a correr. Y ahora os preguntareis... ¿Se trata de un vulgar copia?. Pues la verdad es que no, es cierto que la idea no es muy original, pero tanto los personjes como sus historias resultan muy divertidas y entretenidas... Disfrutarlo.

ARGUMENTO
Los Sniks son los pequeños habitantes de Snikeria, (asteroide Snikeria) en el sistema solar muy cercano a la Vía Láctea. A pesar de parecer iguales son muy diferentes los unos de los otros,  pero aún así son capaces de llevar una vida feliz ayudándose los unos a los otros,  formando una piña, cuando las cosas no van bien. Alejados de ellos y en un asteroide lejano llamado Smogland, viven los Galaxo y Pérfido, o lo que es lo mismo, dos de los Sniks que no fueron capaces de adaptarse a la vida feliz de sus congéneres y que por su rebeldía,  decidieron hacer su vida por separado, eso si, intentando de todos los modos posibles e imaginables acabar con la pacífica vida de los AstroSniks.

En muchos de sus malvados planes van acompañados por su ejercito de Smogs, robots de inteligencia superior creados para acabar con los Sniks. Cuando los Sniks ven atacada su tranquila forma de vida acuden al SnikComandante el cual ayudado, entre otros, por Snik inventor, Fantasnik,HeliSnik,etc… Logra terminar con los malvados planes de Galaxo...

ORIGEN

Los Astrosniks fueron creados en los años 80 por la empresa alemana Bully Figuren, tras el éxito de Los Pitufos a nivel mundial y se convirtieron en su versión espacial. Aunque parecen iguales con ese traje espacial violeta que sólo deja al descubierto su graciosa carita color verde, cada uno tiene sus caracteristicas propias que les diferencian de los demás, así uno es despistado, otro inventor, otro comandante, otro jardinero,… A nivel mundial fueron distribuidos por MacDonalds como regalo en sus menús infantiles. En España a falta de hamburgueserías de la cadena estadounidense, también pudimos disfrutar de los muñequitos en jugueterías y quioscos, teniendo bastante aceptación. Esto animó a Bully a lanzar un cómic sobre los muñecos, en colaboración con Bruguera, que sería editado en toda Europa.

La tarea cayó en artistas españoles, los estupendos hermanos Fresnos, creadores de Benito Boniato, realizaron varios comics sobre estos los habitantes de Snikeria. Los fantásticos tebeos, serializados en alguno de los semanarios de Bruguera, fueron el primer punto de contacto para muchos de nosotros con los Sniks. En ellos vivían divertidas aventuras, a veces acompañados por su amigo humano Nick. Se publicaron cuatro volúmenes entre 1984 y 1985, que hoy son buscados por los coleccionistas. Puede que fuera un trabajo de encargo, pero Fresnos hicieron una gran labor, como los grandes profesionales que eran.

Idioma: Español.
Editorial: Bruguera.
Guion: Jaume Ribera Montañá.
Dibujo: Luis y Carlos Fresno Crespo.
Tradumaquetadores: Alphacen, Sergio Tur, Danny rand (CRG)
Archivos: 4
Formato: CBR.
Tamaño: 103.5 Mb



Descargar comics:

• Astrosniks

Ha anunciado su decisión «irrevocable» en una rueda de prensa en Santiago. Estaba siendo investigada por la jueza Pilar de Lara en la operación Pokémon.
Asegura que no infló ninguna factura, en contra de lo que dicen los agentes de Vigilancia Aduanera en un informe incorporado al sumario

• Prado y la falta de valentía
• La parlamentaria alega que nunca infló facturas y señala el camino a Currás: «Son días de saídas»
• La oposición cree que la dimisión llega con retraso y critica que siga como diputada

Los funcionarios del consistorio compostelano recriminan al regidor la «agresión tremenda» que les ha infligido en los últimos tres años

• «Es increíble que Currás no dimita»

O seu secretario xeral, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, foi dos primeiros líderes en demandar a apertura do debate sobre a Xefatura do Estado. As agrupacións locais de Pontevedra e Ferrol piden un referendo e defenden abertamente a República, o mesmo que as Xuventudes Socialistas.

Case o 40% da cidadanía do Estado tolera algunha forma de maltrato nas relacións de parella ou xustifica dalgún xeito as agresións por razóns de xénero. En torno a un tres de cada dez persoas cren que certas agresións non deberían ser castigadas pola lei.

As presuntas implicacións no caso Pokémon fan caer a número tres de Feijóo no partido, Paula Prado, que continuará como deputada no Parlamento porque "unha cousa é o labor de comunicación e outra, a lexisladora". Audio no interior