Guns & Girls
"Status 💥🔫👧🏻"
I spent some time watching Guns & Ammo TV last night. I guess it was on the Sportsman Channel. Then I watched a show that was a shooting competition between only girls. I guess you could say it was inspiring.
The 5 Biggest Challenges of Working on a Book Proposal
Image credit: Mike Stilkey
1. You have to be five different people
You're a showman. You're a marketer. You're a competitor. You're a platform. You're a storyteller. You're an intellectual. Now do them all. At the same time. This is a book proposal.
2. You've got a middleman
Unless you're stupid, there's an agent between you and an editor. This is wise. This is terrifying. This is like playing a game of telephone. With several hundred people. What are the people in the towers in Manhattan thinking? You think you know. You have no idea. So it goes.
3. It's not you, it's them, unless it's you
Maybe you've tried this before and failed. Man, was that humiliating! Yet, here you are again. Symptoms: tension headaches, strange dreams, jolts of terror. This is the ride.
4. Patience is the bear
You are a sprinter. A book is marathon. Don't forget to sssttttrrrrreeeeeetttttcccchhh.
5. One is the loneliest number
Everyone is helping, but in the end it's just you and the page, you and the deal, you and the possibility of something you don't have yet, that's coming, maybe, you hope.
Hulk v Gawk, Ad Infinitum
But, wait! There's more. Can't get enough Hulk v Gawk? Here's the latest.
One of the jurors posted to Facebook:
Those of you that know me know I take the Bill of Rights pretty seriously. This was a clear case of invasion of privacy and Gawker cloaking themselves in the 1st amendment was insulting at best.
Denton remains confident that he'll prevail on appeal:
The number was eye-popping. But in an interview on Tuesday, Denton simply called it "an indication of the strength of the jury's feelings."
Hulk claims he and Denton met at the urinal.
The same firm represents Gawker and the New Yorker, so what does the latter have to say?
“Newsworthy” is not the same as high-minded, and while many publications would not choose to publish a sex tape, the term can conceivably protect one.
Gawker alum Elizabeth Spiers reports Denton will be appearing on "The View":
Pixel Girls
Pornhub is giving away virtual realty porn, sort of:
Pornhub.com, which Alexa’s online traffic estimates peg as the 65th most visited site on the Internet, has launched a free virtual reality channel—a first in the porn industry. The company, which has been featured in Hollywood movies such as the Cameron Diaz comedy Sex Tape, has partnered with online adult entertainment business BaDoinkVR to offer free 360-degree trailers.
[Fortune]
It's Not You
"Limited edition t-shirt. Now available at http://store.wastedrita.com (direct link in my bio)"
That's Wasted Rita.
True Romance
The Cam Girl Coach
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Image credit: Sean & Seng
Mr. Weiner
A.O. Scott has a short sort of preview review of "Weiner," the upcoming doc about Anthony Weiner and what the hell goes on inside his head:
"In 2013, as he tried to rehabilitate himself with a run for mayor of New York City, he invited the documentary filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg to observe his campaign. They recorded his further self-immolation, and the resulting film has a queasy irresistibility, even as it remains a bit coy about its own motives."
[NYT]
This Is Insane
[via This Isn't Happiness]
Leg
"POP * 2010 w the divine @anja_rubik * A @louisvuitton Special * @thepopmag * Shot at my favorite motel in Wollongong * #anjarubik #popmagazine..."
Photo by Emma Summerton.
The Life of a Journo on the Sex Beat
Hulk v Gawk Ad Nauseum
Image via Dawn Embers -- and, ah, that's Stewart
Now that this stage of Hulk v Gawk is over, some folks have finally written some stuff worth reading.
Definitely check out Noah Feldman's take on Bloomberg View:
Hogan offered the highly original argument to the jury that his public persona and his private one could be divorced, so that his public statements were irrelevant. But although this argument may possibly say something about the inner life of celebrities, it isn’t one the First Amendment would allow. Public figures can’t escape their special constitutional status by saying that deep down, they’re really shy.
Denton himself just dropped a truth bomb at Gawker:
Hogan’s attorneys played this state circuit court trial as a popularity contest between the local celebrity and the miscreants from New York. It was as staged as a professional wrestling bout, with victory of the crowd favorite over the “deviant” bloggers—who were held responsible for internet pornography, the dangers of search engines to children, and the indecency of what Hogan’s attorney Ken Turkel described as “Fifth Avenue” publishers—ordained from the start. It was a classic obscenity trial disguised as a test of a person’s right to privacy.
As usual, Penenberg has an interesting point to consider, which he parses on Twitter:
The NYT chats up legal scholars on the matter and John Herrman whines annoyingly:
In the last few years, digital news sites with ambition — even the ones, like Gawker, that had originally hailed themselves as being anti-establishment — have undergone something of a self-correction. Vivid videos of random bedroom romps are out; a little bit of privacy is in.
I'll offer my view tomorrow.
19:22
Guns 'n' Porn
Watch out for those porn stars' shoulders, Rep!
[Rep. Brandon Phelps’ campaign] expenditures in 2015 included a $1,100 donation to the Central Florida Shootout, a fishing tournament in the Sunshine State. He said in an interview that he did not attend the tournament. He spent time at Lake of the Ozarks last summer and also went to Las Vegas in January 2015 to attend the Shot Show, a gun exposition. The tab for his stay at the Hard Rock Hotel during the gun show came to $1,340. Coincidentally or not, Adult Video News was holding its annual adult entertainment convention, which draws crowds of porn stars and their fans, at the Hard Rock at the same time as the gun show was in town.
Phelps said that the National Rifle Association arranged for his lodging and that he did not rub shoulders with porn stars. He says that he checked out when he discovered that porn stars were coming.
“When I heard that, I left early,” Phelps says. “They (the porn convention) came in the day after I left, supposedly. I was not there. God knows that I was not.”
Cool Resume, Bro
Slick
"more monday looks with @paolofanoli"
Image by Ryan Pfluger.
Believe Your Eyes
SXSW + VR + pr0n =
Image via FFFFOUND!
At the moment, virtual reality porn is largely aimed at heterosexual men. Dinorah Hernandez, the content manager for BaDoinkVR, a subscription site which includes virtual reality scenes, says that she soon discovered that users of the site did not want the male actor to make any sounds, or to touch the female actor, the better to preserve the illusion that she is having sex with them. “People are requesting less sexual positions and more eye contact and dirty talk and being close to the camera,” she said.
However, her fellow industry insiders agreed that as VR grows in popularity, porn will be made aimed at female and gay audiences. “The market is males,” said Hernandez. “We have released scenes from female perspective, and got a bashing because it’s a ‘gay scene’. But one user said his wife enjoyed it.”
Pool Party
Image credit: Jean Pigozzi
The WSJ has a cool profile of Jean Pigozzi and his pool parties:
Everyone, it seems, came for a swim. Elizabeth Taylor visited in 1993, and "after like three minutes she said, 'Mr. Pigozzi, are you going to buy me a diamond?' I said, 'Why?'" he recalls. "She said, 'I ask every man I meet to buy me a diamond. And sometimes it works.''
[WSJ]