Holy Batdyke!

Batwoman hero returns as lesbian
Batwoman’s new look has been designed by artist Alex Ross
Comic book heroine Batwoman is to make a comeback as a “lipstick lesbian” who moonlights as a crime fighter, a DC Comics spokesman has confirmed.
Batwoman – real name Kathy Kane – will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month. In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya. 52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007. The series is set in a world in which established superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman no longer play a part.
The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe. Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle – who replaces the character’s previous white incarnation – and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored team of Chinese superheroes. Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively. The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole. Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.

The Age of AIDS

Just when I thought it was hip to be glib about my T-cells, Frontline reminds me it’s been 25 years—most of my 37-year-old life—since I first saw that magazine article at the checkout stand.
It reminds me of how our neighbors graffitti’d and tried to burn down our house.
It reminds me of my AIDS biology class at UCLA where we demonized Dr. Gallo for fucking over the French and how America played Solomon with the credits.
It reminds me of how long the 80’s felt when some of us waited, paralyzed, with bated breath for hard-won breakthroughs that turned to breakdowns lost as easily.
It reminds my accent-free self, that under Reagan’s watch—20 years to the date—he declared the infected unfit for entry into the land of the free and home of the brave.
It reminds me of how pre-Colombian people had a plethora of words for gods but no word for syphillis.
It reminds me of my mom in her alcoholic stupors after the hospital visits, the wakes, the funerals, for friends who were nowhere near as famous as Rock Hudson but just as sick and desperate.
It reminds me of my promise to her that I would never let this happen to me.
It reminds me of how still, 4 years into my experience, I have not come clean and confessed my failure.
It reminds me of this perverted countdown to our respective graves.
It reminds me of my contempt for the fact that my brother’s sex adds to life while mine substracts.
It reminds me of how little good I have done in my better days, and how much damage I have done in my worse nights: abusing the privilege to abuse my body, my self.
It reminds me that walking 6 miles through Central Park stoned once a year on a Sunday with a cup of coffee and my best friend—even for my birthday—is not enough, even if the day ends on a bionic $6 million note.
It reminds me of how knowing better does not translate into doing better, despite being multilingual, well-educated, and attended by some of the finest doctors in the Capital of the World at the turn of the 21st Century.
It reminds me of getting cruised at casting calls for pharmaceutical campaigns, as well as in clinic waiting rooms, clutching the clipboard like a raft.
It reminds me of how reluctant I am to enter another relationship because I neither wish to burden anyone with my condition, nor do I wish to be burdened by anyone else’s.
It reminds me that a major unspoken attraction to this Croatian doctor last summer was how safe and relieved his profession and attention made me feel.
It reminds me that in my Catholic imagination, mixed status relationships still don’t seem fair or viable, despite the lusty emails in my “fan club” folder.
It reminds me of my Chicago doctor’s warning when the Ex seroconverted first 10 years ago, around his birthday: “Beware Survivor’s Guilt; making yourself ill will not make him any better.”
It reminds me how, despite my nightly phramaceutical regimen, and my consequent morning sickness, I forget.
I forget what’s unfolding in my body by the second is really unfolding in my body and by the second.
I forget that banking on a last-minute silver bullet is a loser’s lot, even if it’s done hiding in plain sight and sound and fury.
I forget that “undetectable” is really just a measure of technology’s inability to measure.
(Accurately, what counts.)

In the bathroom I offer what few shavings remain on my head to everyone in particular; I shower off this sweet, early summer grime with my botanical, tingling products; I pop my candy-colored corporate-subsidized caps.
Clean and comfortably numb, puffing and typing while the midnight sitcoms rerun, the glib impulse returns. “Co-pay per visit: $20 dollars. Monthly blood-work: Free. Time off work: Paid. Peace of mind: Priceless. P.S. Cure: non-existent.” The technicolor laugh tracks fail and one scene from Frontline slips through the cracks.
In Thailand, there is a Buddhist temple. In the temple, there is an altar. Before the altar, a pile of sandbags. In each sandbag: unclaimed ashes.

Om sweet Om.

#

Now You See It…

Speaking of a new era…
Imperial College reports:
Scientists conjure true ‘cloaking’ device
A way to vanish matter before your eyes has become a serious possibility thanks to theoretical research announced today by British and American scientists.
The researchers propose to build a special material that wraps around an object and which would ‘grab’ light heading towards it and make it flow smoothly around the object rather than strike it. To an observer the light would appear to have behaved as if there was nothing there.
“What this device would really do is a bit like making a black hole” said Sir John,”There would be no communication between the object that is cloaked and the outside world.”
The scientists from Imperial College London and Duke University, USA, announced their findings in a paper published in Science Express today (26 May).

#

12:21:2012:11:11: Brave New Mundo

The date December 21st, 2012 A.D. represents an extremely close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun) that ancient Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. This is an event that has been coming to resonance very slowly over thousands and thousands of years. It will come to resolution at exactly 11:11 am GMT.

The place where the December solstice sun crosses the Milky Way is precisely the location of the “dark-rift in the Milky Way …’xibalba be’ – the road to the underworld.”

The Mayan Calendar – The Mayan Prophecy for 2012
The Mayan Calendar is something profoundly different than just a system to mark off the passage of time. The Mayan Calendar is above all a prophetic calendar that may help us understand the past and foresee the future. It is a calendar of the Ages that describes how the progression of Heavens and Underworlds condition the human consciousness and thus the frames for our thoughts and actions within a given Age. The Mayan Calendar is not predicting the end of the world 2012, but the start of a new era; the golden age. 2012 is by many separate sources of wisdom seen as being a portal into what some people call the Golden Age. The concept of a coming Golden Age is widely recognised among many spiritual authors, spiritual traditions and teachers.

“I think that by 2012 you will have people that are enlightened (open, honest, caring, loving, united to the divine) and those that still seek humanity’s lower natures (suffering, misery, hate, separation from the divine) but at least the scale may be tipping more toward enlightened.” - Hermes Trismegistus

Star Crossed 30 something

May 22 – my seventh 30th birthday, the most blissfully uneventful yet. Of all the musical and entertainment options available that day — new Pet Shop Boys “Fundamental,” Sandra Bernhard, Gnarls Barkley live, the Harmonica Sunbeam benefit — none were exploited. Instead, I spent the day sleeping in late, having lunch and reading in Morningside Park watching a family of geese defend their hatchlings against Chihuahuas, day-tripping, meditating on my brown, bipolar, 190 pound lot. Two things came to mind. One, on my birth certificate there is a small, but ominous typo: instead of “hijo” it reads “hija.” Two, I should make like my ancestors and consult the stars.

Rising Sign is in 14 Degrees Aquarius
You like new ideas and concepts, but you prefer to discover them by yourself — it is not easy for others to convert you to anything. You are an intellectual — emotions and emotional people are difficult for you to understand. You are known for being calm, cool, detached and objective.

Sun is in 01 Degrees Gemini.
You have a quick, bright and agile mind, but an extremely short attention span. You tend to avoid (and even fear) deep, close emotional involvements. You get quite listless when things around you become static and dull. Chatty, inquisitive and quite playful, your moods change quickly and often. You are known for your versatility and adaptability.

Moon is in 17 Degrees Leo.
You always want to be proud of yourself and will never do anything that will make yourself look bad. You need the respect and admiration of others and enjoy attracting attention to yourself. Everything you do tends to be self-emphasized and self-exaggerated. Your need for love, affection and reassurance, and your tendency toward vanity, allow you to have your head easily turned by flattery. Be careful of a tendency to be snobbish and uppity — it does not become you.

Mercury is in 10 Degrees Gemini.
Your mind is active, quick and agile. You are very restless and you get bored easily. Unless you receive constant mental stimulation, you become extremely nervous and begin to act in an unstable manner. Try to develop the mental discipline to finish what you start.

Venus is in 19 Degrees Aries.
You are a very affectionate person but you hate to be tied down. Once you have set your sights on someone, you tend to pursue him or her ardently and passionately. But you do demand your own way in a relationship. Try to give in to your partner’s needs and desires once in a while.

Me 2.0 + the Medium We Hate to Love

Article from current Mobile Insider—Texting: The Medium We Hate to Love
“Text messaging also came out of nowhere…in an age of technology geared towards convenience and time-saving, about a third of mobile phone users employ one of the most tortuous and slow modes of communication yet devised. Go figure.”
Yeah, go figure. In less than a year and a half the chat department at work has grown from 1 person on 1 English code, to 3 people and 9 codes catering to English, Spanglish and Psychic users. Now I’ve been charged with finding 2 more, one of whom should be “a clone, a 2.0″ of me so I can make like the Jeffersons and “move on up,” away from management and into development. The position is a dynamic convergence of technology, language, sexuality, culture and politics that unfolds 24/7/365. It does strange things to one’s head when pondered too deeply. Nice thing about selling out for a subsidized lifestyle is the insurance keeps one from doing just that.

Earplug 69: Profound Sounds

Earplug 69 is up, featuring a Q+A with Matthew Herbert and a rev of Josh Wink’s latest double CD mix.

Music Tools of War

First, the good hip hop news:
FREE HIP HOP IN THE PARK – Tools of War grassroots Hip Hop invites you to take part in the richest cultural tradition that Hip Hop has to offer – FREE HIP HOP IN THE PARKS! Confirmed partyrockers include POPMASTER FABEL, KING UPROCK, CHARLIE CHASE, GRANDMASTER CAZ, THE ORIGINAL JAZZY JAY, GRANDWIZZARD THEODORE and KOOL DJ RED ALERT. More DJs and info to be announced!

Then the bad hip hop news: beef here, beef there, beef everywhere. Seems like every week another rapper is shot and/or killed; the most recent being Philly’s Beanie Siegel. Google “dead rapper 2006” and see for yourself.

Through it all, Movement ‘06 opens in “Glock City.” Detroit’s 3 day line up includes: Audion, Doc Martin, Superpitcher, Ron Trent, Dabrye. Part of one day’s roster: MONDAY MAY 29TH – MAIN STAGE: Adam X, Neil Landstrumm live, Derrick May, Nitzer Ebb live, Richie Hawtin; UNDERGROUND STAGE: Miss Honey Dijon, Roy Davis, Jr., Greenskeepers live, Derrick Carter; PYRAMID STAGE: CARL CRAIG, Louie Vega, Blaze live

Zebelle Tolls

Ask not, but methinks da bitch be back…

Cabaret Voltaire will see you now…

This just in from E at Forced Exposure: “I am covered in jealousy when I tell you that, Richard Kirk will very gladly do a telephone interview with you.”

Sensoria Video here; Sound samples here; more Cabaret Voltaire, Sandoz info at Soul Jazz.

#

DJ Aphrodite: Brother from Another Jungle

From the dead letter office, Q+A with Gavin “Aphrodite” King, circa 2002. I met him at the Winter Music mess in Miami that March. Starlets popping out of sponsored swimsuits passed Mimosas and other brunch booze around on a sun-blazing rooftop in mid-day. We drank until we agreed to do the interview on spec, knowing well that Drum & Bass music and interviews don’t sell stateside. Sometimes when you’re wasted on other people’s money, it’s easy to let the lips flap and the bitterness fly.

Aphrodite | BROTHER FROM ANOTHER JUNGLE

JH: Your last album (Aftershock) featured cameos by Hip Hop stars Rah Digga, Big Daddy Kane, Schooly D. Yet Americans, specifically the Hip Hop community, seem quite resistant to Drum & Bass.
A: There are several things that come into play here. First reason is, it‘s a bit of “Ah, That‘s a European thing, it‘s not what we‘re about over here.” The other thing is color. If yoi‘re not of Black origin, then a lot of the Hip Hop artists are not going to give you that much credibility. Another reason: it can be too drastic, you‘ve got to ease into it, and no one‘s really taken a huge risk yet. There‘s not enough original material coming through from D&B. It keeps borrowing acapellas and re-serving them. There‘s not enough material for the R&B/Hip Hop scene to really take note.
J: Have you ever been approached by any American Hip Hop artists?
A: No it‘s always the other way. It‘s always me seeking them out. There‘s a few artists that break down barriers. One of [them] has to be Eminimen.
J: What about The Streets?
A: When you listen to [him], you‘re listening to his lyrics and kinda empathizing with him. The music could be any old back track to be honest, and it‘d still be captivating.
J: Who‘s been open to working with Jungle producers?
A: Missy Elliot did a D&B tune on her last album. The problem with it was (full credit to her because she took the bull by the horns) it introduced the sound but the tune itself wasn‘t strong enough for the D&B crowd.
J: How‘d the Mary J Blige “Dance with Me” remix come about?
A: Her London record company asked me to do it, on “spec.” They liked it, it got played on the radio here, but she didn‘t like it, so it got rejected.
J: I heard you were approached by Janet Jackson.
A: A couple years ago, but that never developed.
J: Flavor of the month curiosity?
A: Probably.
J: You try to please everybody and you end up not pleasing anybody.
A: A track comes out and you get all these different versions. I don‘t understand why if the Hip Hop thing is about having 6 mixes on your 12″, fuck it, why not have a D&B mix, a House mix, a garage mix? And, you have problems like the color issue as well. The Fugee remix was offered as an official remix, but because the camp wasn‘t a homeboy camp, it was refused. Same thing with “No Diggity” as well. We sent it over, they plainly rejected it, and then got Goldie to do one which was rubbish.
Everyone wanted ours. The record company should strike a deal and allow the people to buy it. If you look at it from my angle it‘s a big deal; if you look at it from their angle, they don‘t care because they‘re in the business of selling millions of records. That‘s the nature of the music biz.
If you look at Urban Junglist as an album, does it reflect my sets? Yeah, in a way, but there‘s more in my DJ sets that wasn‘t allowed to be on this album simply because they can‘t get legalized as tracksŠeither the artists in question wants too much money or a deal can‘t be struck.
J: What about mash-ups/bootlegs?
A: Bootlegs have always been around that are really good. But it‘s a shame that whenŠsomeone wants to put [DJ culture] into album [format], it doesn‘t tell the whole story because of the legalities involved.
Take the Moby track. Moby wanted more money than anyone else. And, because I think it‘s a really good tune, I end up paying for it, and I don‘t really think that‘s right. I would‘ve thought Moby has enough money by now to not do such a hard business deal on such a small album tune.
J: When it ends up as a mp3 online, are you gonna freak out?
A: Nah, I‘m past it.
J: Was Urban Junglist a vinyl or studio mix?
A: Vinyl mix. I sat in my studio, rehearsed it and then I did it. There‘s a little bit of cheating in there, but it‘s not 100 % studio; there‘s a lot of vinyl noise in there.
J: One of the things I enjoyed about Junglist was there was no electro on it.
A: “Planet Patrol” is electro to me. Mantronix was the beginning of Hip Hop, early Rap to me.
J: Any plans to work with electro people?
A: No, no plans to work with electro people. Don‘t feel it. It‘s just not for me. I grew up on that and I‘m not going to listen to it now. There‘s nothing new about it now, it‘s the same 80‘s, same shit over and over. You might as well go the break beat route, it‘s more exciting.

#

Light of the World

Suppose you’re an aging groove junky in the ripe throes of midlife nostalgia, and you find yourself loitering the web for early music videos late into the lightening-splashed hours of the night. Now suppose you turn that scenario into an idea for another article. Still sad? Or a touch inspired?
Bookmarking Spandau Ballet’s “Chant #1“ and Wham’s “Club Tropicana“ it occured to me that the full-frontal horns in both tracks packed a similar lusty wail. As trivia would have it, both groups owed more than a passing bit of their ballsy blue-eyed boogie to the short- (but mighty well) lived disco-funk lords Light of the World, UK’s answer to Earth Wind and Fire.
Taking their name from the Kool and the Gang album that featured “Summer Madness,” LOTW featured a young Sade on their debut cover and one of the members later went on to form Icognito. Another, to less effect, worked with the producer for the Gap Band and Yarbrough and Peoples.
Catch them in all their “Swingin‘” glory on Top of the Pops in 1979.
Good enough for me. But will it pay? “Dear editor ….”

Your Love is so Edible

Defendant: ‘I wanted to eat him — I didn’t want to kill him’ “The next one must be young but not so fat,” Drescher quoted Meiwes as saying after the killing.

I like spice, tasty and nice
Looks trim, vitamin, forget the dieting
Mmm such a dish, I can’t resist
Healthy recipe, what you got it’s good for me
All I wanna do, is make a meal of you
We are what we eat, you’re my kind of meat

Pimpin aint Easy

From the sex worker files…
I met Jason once through a mutual friend. He was living in that Soho loft, and preparing special crudite while we talked and toured the space. He had one of the few Playboy pinball machines. He liked the fact that I had done PR there; so much he asked me to do it for him. Produce photo and video shoots, promote the website, throw parties, etc. As tempting as the cash and the idea were, the whole thing made me twitch so I never called back.
Heidi is the daughter of L.A. pediatrician Dr. Fleiss. She went to Marshall High a couple years ahead of our class, grew up in Los Feliz. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were his patients, including my nieces. I never knew her then, but she’s everywhere these days, even on “Blind Date.” Sorry, I don’t have a link, but the guy had no idea who she is or what she’s saying; she thought he was cheap and boring. Pimpin may not be easy, but it can be entertaining.


CREEPS are coming out of the woodwork to besmirch poor Charlie Sheen now that his estranged wife, Denise Richards, has trashed him in divorce papers. The latest finger-pointer is publicity-loving pimp Jason Itzler, who says the sitcom star hired two of his hottest girls to dress up like cheerleaders and do a lesbian act.
The oily owner of the New York Confidential escort service called from Rikers Island to say that in 2004, Sheen shelled out more than $20,000 for Cheryl, a blond ballerina and Juilliard grad, and Victoria, a dark-haired former Hotel Gansevoort hostess, for romps at trendy 60 Thompson in SoHo.
“They loved Charlie. They said he was a great guy, a great lover and had a big [bleep],” Itzler said from prison, where he’s cooling his heels on money-laundering and prostitution charges. “One time, he had them dress up like cheerleaders and they chanted, ‘Charlie, Charlie, he’s our man! If he can’t do it, nobody can!’ ” Itzler also said Sheen would play X-rated movie director, guiding Cheryl, 20, and Victoria, 19, into steamy lesbian scenes.
“Charlie says the story is 100 percent bogus. [Itzler] is just trying to save his ass,” Sheen’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, fumed to Page Six.
Of course, it’s wise to take everything a jailbird says with a grain of salt. Still, Itzler’s claim comes only weeks after the release of nasty court papers in which a bitter Richards complained about Sheen’s ongoing love of hookers and Internet porn, saying it endangered their kids.
Sheen who’s been in rehab for booze and drugs in the past, is no stranger when it comes to high-priced ladies of the night. He once admitted being one of the many well-heeled clients of Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, blowing as much as $50,000 on her sizzling stable of red-hot vice girls.
Richards has also claimed the 40-year-old “Two and a Half Men” star threatened to kill her. And Sheen’s name has come up in the case of one of his old conquests, Chloe Jones, a Penthouse Pet and porn star, who overdosed on pills in her Texas home. Jones’ mother told the Globe she feels Sheen may have made threats that drove her daughter to suicide.
And poor Charlie is suffering other indignities, too. Last week, one report that was furiously denied by Sheen had him going to Las Vegas to see transvestite Kayla Coxx.

Village People Shoots, PopBitch Scores

Speaking of phones…
From the folks at PopBitch, via YouTube…
The Village People’s long lost, but not forgotten, classic paean to the days of BBS’s and 976 numbers: Sex Over the Phone.