Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

stayfree - Stay F---! | August 17

stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Free, promotional email list for Stay Free! print magazine

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay F---! | August 17
  • Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:50:41 -0400

Hello. Here are recent highlights from Stay F--- Daily. For full text, links, images, comments, and more stories, visit http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org



NEW FROM STAY F---! MAGAZINE

Francis Heaney made a fine crossword puzzle for the most recent Stay Free! and, thanks to modern crossword technology, you can now do it on your computer at work. It requires special software, which you can also download. The puzzle is titled "Brooklyn Unreal Estate" and that's the only hint we'll give you (unless you count the answers, which are also here).
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/crossword_brook.html


BLURB RACKET

Gelf Magazine's Blurb Racket is a fine column documenting the more egregious misrepresentations of reviews cited in advertisements. The column needs some editing, but with a little filtering you'll find some outrageous examples. For example:

Fantastic Four (Twentieth Century Fox)
Blurb from Charlotte Weekly: "Fun!"
Actual line: "Fantastic? Not exactly, but Tim Story's take on Marvel Comic's first family of superheroes can be fun if your expectations are low enough."
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/movie_blurbs_ad.html


BABY CAN'T BOARD

I'm not big on faux security but I can't say I'm against anything that keeps babies and children off planes. Apparently, every major airport has prevented a child under 2 from flying because his/her name was the same as someone on the no-fly list.

(Be sure to read the comments on this one)
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/baby_cant_board.html


QUICK LINKS

"Our Global Food-Service Enterprise Is Totally Down For Your Awesome Subculture," Starbucks knockoffs, styrofoam hummers, penis-fixation as anorexia, and the new male consumer.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/quick_links.html


AND SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS A METAPHOR

A new study by a Cornell researcher has found that men whose masculinity is threatened are more likely to buy an SUV, support the war in Iraq, and gay-bash.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/suvs_men_mascul.html

WHAT DO PHARMACEUTICAL GIANTS AND ANTI-ABORTION NUTS HAVE IN COMMON?

The Wall Street Journal reports that drug companies have started putting language in their contracts with medical institutions to shape what doctors can and cannot tell patients about specific drugs. Case in point: Eli Lilly offers a discount to major purchasers of antidepressant Cymbalta as long as those purchasers refrain from "negative D.U.R. [drug utilization review] correspondence to physicians" or "negative educational counter-detailing" -- in other words, as long as they shut up about side effects and the drug's high costs.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/cymbalta_eli_li.html


MAYBE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IS ON TO SOMETHING

You know there's something wrong with a given trade when it launches a feel-good ad campaign; the question is only a matter of *what.* So when American Medical Association launched its new "Everyday Heroes" campaign, you had to wonder: is the group worried about the public awareness of medical errors? ...its reputation as an opponent of patients' rights? ...its sagging membership? Well, I don't know, but there has been a lot of solid reportage lately on the sorry state of American medicine.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/cymbalta_eli_li.html


MY CUDDLY NEW PET IS A SMITH & WESSON

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about new gun industry promotions - "now with adjustable safety... in fashionable olive green or 'urban camouflage!'
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/gun_industry_ad.html


GANGSTA GANGSTA

Going back to an earlier post about Freakonomics, recall that the authors attribute the 1990s drop in violent crime to the legalization of abortion (in combination with increased jailing and tougher gun laws). But anthopologist Grant McCracken has a still more novel hypothesis: the drop in crime, he argues, can be attributed to hip-hop. (After all, they coincided...)
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/freakanomics_cr.html


MUSICAL ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

At first I thought I was just tired of my music. I'd had an iPod for a year or so and increasily found myself skipping from song to song on shuffle mode, vetoing each one after about 5 seconds. Was I really tired of all 3,800 songs? Or was something else happening?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/musical_attenti.html

HOW TO GET A SUIT FROM FEDEX

Wired News has a story about Jose Avila, a broke kid who, instead of buying actual furniture, decided to build his own out of Federal Express Boxes. His bed, couch, desk, chairs, shelves, and dining table are all made from Fed Ex shipping boxes. He even made a website about it called Fed Ex Furniture. Now FedEx has come after him for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/how_to_get_a_su.html


GENIUSES OF (CHRISTIAN) ROCK

So I was listening to one of my favorite WFMU DJs, Dave the Spazz, the other night and was surprised when he invited a Christian punk rock band to play on his show. Dave usually plays 60s r&b, soul, country and punk, and so it wasn't much of a stretch, particularly considering the band was playing Maxwell's that night and did indeed rock. They also had a delightfully goofy sense of humor. Their album is titled My God Is Alive! Sorry About Yours!; a song about Catholics' gambling is "Father Bingo"...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/geniuses_of_chr.html


DEATH RIDES THE BUS

I don't like bus wraps; the rolling billboards are intrusive and they make the view from inside the bus hazy and depressing. So damn you, HBO, for finding a bus ad that I can't resist! Claire Fisher's lime green avocado hearse is going to roll down New York's streets like a harbinger of death to us all for the Six Feet Under DVD release. San Francisco and Los Angeles turned down the ad because they thought it would reduce ridership, but New York (and Chicago) approved it. More proof that New Yorkers are tough, unflappable and looking for any source of revenue.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/death_rides_the.html


TAMPONS FOR TWEENS?

So a bit ago Carrie posted something about deodorants aimed at pre-teen girls... Relatedly, a friend of mine working at an ad agency here in LA tipped me off to a new Procter and Gamble product: pre-menstrual tampons. They're called Almost, and I think they will be sold under the Always brand.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/meet_me_before_.html


WHY I LOVE MY LITTLE BLACK BURKA

While in Spain, I saw an exhibit that included work by Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian. I couldn't find images of the particular pieces online but the subject was more interesting that the execution anyway: Ghadirian discussed how the Iranian government will censor magazines from the US and Europe by physically blacking things out -- particularly, models' skin. In women's magazines, for example, the government will black out any place where a woman's body is visible. Kind of ambitious, huh?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/07/iran_censorship.html


-- Posts by Damian Chadwick, Steve Lambert, Carrie McLaren, Charles Star, and Jason Torchinsky



  • Stay F---! | August 17, Carrie McLaren, 08/17/2005

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page