4.30.2010

REJECTED IDEAS

FOURTHOUGHT

Four Movies With Exceptional Presence Of Male Gentalia


POP ROOTS


Is Saving The World Contributing To Men's Hair Loss?
Why Action Male Movie Stars Are Losing Their Quest To Do Good.




LOST PAGES

101 Things You Can Do Tripping Balls
by Timothy Leary with Guest Writers Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey



SURVIVAL TIPS


Damn Baseball-Playing Kids That Keep Hitting The Ball Into The Azalea Bushes
with Old Man Robertson


4.27.2010

THE HEALTHY BUTTES


Hi, Butte Family! We're feeling absurdly fantastic, as usual. Right, Buttes?
RIGHT!
Welcome to another fine session of The Healthy Buttes and today we'd like to focus on a tool of the workout that's often neglected. Can we let them in what that is?
MEDICINE BALLS!
That's right seems a little strange to be talking about it, but actually medicine balls are an essential component of a work out.
I take medicine to quit smoking! I've got a patch on my arm!
Sylvia, please...Sorry, my wife there. Sylvia, how are you doing?
Great great great! GREAT! Patched and ready to go! I don't want a cigarette!
Well, can you let us in one technique to we can introduce to these people in regards to the medicine ball?
I can!
ELAINE! I mean...Elaine...this is Elaine, my mother-in-law. Elaine, I was going to let Sylvia do that.
I'm just rared up and ready to go! Marge had a spill, but she's doing fine. I've been throwing the medicine ball at her in the hospital. HARD AS I CAN! RIGHT IN THE FACE! HA HA HA! She loves it! And she catches it, too. Husband throws a fit, but he can deal with it!
Goddammit, I'm losing my mind...Okay, Sylvia, would you please?
Sure. The first exercise is a simple crunch. Down on the ground with the medicine ball in your hands and sit up with it. It's good for the abdomen. You don't even have to SMOKE!
Okay, Sylvia. Now, to demonstrate the next technique I'd like my three beautiful adopted children to all participate. Tammy, Pammy and Jammy! Say hello to everyone!
Hey everyone!
Jammy?
Hi...
Jammy...
Hello...everyone!
That's a little better. Okay, now let's explain what we're going to do. Sylvia already told you about one technique to assist with abdomen development. This next technique will help with arm and abdomen as well as your dexterity! How's it done, Tammy?
Well, you see Mr. Butte...
Tammy, it's Daddy...remember?
Right! Right! I'm sorry...Daddy!
Ahem...
Anyway, Daddy sits up holding the medicine and throws it to me...
Here ya go!
Ow! I mean...thank you, Daddy. And then I throw it back.
Throw it in, throw it out!
Work the arms and abs. It's a...ow, my hand...matter of fact.
Pammy, let's have a go with you. This time I want have some muscle in it! Toss it back to me!
Here you go...Daddy!
All right! And back to you, kiddo!
Ow! My wrist!
Whoa! Hand-eye coordination, Pammy. Anyway, I'd like to use my dear son Jammy to demonstrate an exercise you can do if you're too old and flabby to sit down. This exercise involves standing up and its simple back and forth. Just like a what, Jammy?
I dunno...
Goddammit, Jammy. We are live here. Put on a smiling face or I will kick your Butte out of this family...
It's like a game of catch.
Right? So you see, I toss it lightly to Jammy and then Jammy tosses it lightly to - AHH, MY EYE! JESUS MESSIAH LORD IN HEAVEN CHRIST! AHH! AHHH! My contact lense is lodged! AHHHH! SOMEONE CALL THE DOCTOR! SOMEONE CALL!!
Your welcome...Daddy.

4.25.2010

THE MANSOGNYST

The Ultimate Kick In The Balls
A Call For The Obliteration Of ALL Scrotums


Please excuse me for being human, but I'm a little passionate about this issue. You see, in vitro fertization is probably the greatest thing I've ever heard of. Mainly, because it believes that womyn get along just fine without men. And I'm definitely in favor of this.

In case you're not familiar with this technique, I'll flesh it out for you. Let's say you're a womyn. First, congratulations! You are officially an actual human being capable of love, emotions and common sense. Your brain isn't in your dick and your quite comparable with logical thought patterns and not blowing up helpless human beings on the other side of the planet.

Again, congratulations!

This means you never have to worry about meeting a man, going on dates, have him wine you and buy you nice things, believe him when he says he loves you, sit through a dick being shoved into you for about two minutes until he cums all inside and then have him leave you for a pretty seventeen year old.

None of that. You don't even need to feel the pregnancy. You can take drugs!

You see, my dear dear readers, I am very much in favor of this manless technique because it cuts down on 99 percent of womyn's unhappiness, which is, men. We have much better things to worry about. For example, watching Hillary Clinton bow to governmental phallus as a nation of dick worshippers pushes a six foot something tall penis into the White House. Thanks America for sucking Barack Obama's balls!

You see, in vitro fertilization means the end of this charade. With that said, it allows us to accomplish the next feat, which will no doubt save humynity as we know it.

You see, we have enough sperm frozen to continue the humyn race for years to come. And soon we'll have the ability to create sperm in the laboratory via humyn cloning. That said, let's take a look at the positive off-shoot of this.

We don't need men anymore. Now, I mean that in a metaphorical sense. I'm not going to through killing all men. That's what THEY would do. No. But we no longer need these bags of destructive juice we call scrotums because that's where all the problems START. With the in vitro fertilization of the world, men no longer need their scrotums and they can quickly be dealt with mandatory visits to the doctor.

No more wars! No more rapes! No more fucking Bill O'Reilly and his masculine misogynist agenda!

What's more, men can no longer hop in and out of your life and leave you with this huge mess of guilt, shame and what-not. They'll no longer be able to romanticize you by saying how much they enjoyed Jane Austen (even though you think she's mostly, and I hate this word, an egregious cunt...although I though Persuasion was nice) and found Judith Butler's gender criticism enthralling. They'll be able to become friends with your Nigerian adopted son and then leave him with a tear in his eye wondering where his male role model went. And they'll no longer be able to support you in your decision to take up a femininist column in a pop culture blog while they leave you not only high-and-dry in a Brooklyn apartment with nothing but a Skippo and Arm and Hammer in your apartment but then take up a rival column on the SAME blog and mask themselves under the unbelieveably ostentatious and utterly stupid psuedonym THE INFORMED OBSERVER!

That's right, Scott! You heard me world. His name is Scott Malamud and he's a two-timing, lying, son-of-a-bitch fucking whirl-a-fuck mother fucker!

And he, of anyone, DESERVES to have his balls cut off and thrown into the Hudson River.

I'm out.

4.21.2010

LOST PAGES

Ball Pits
by Jack London




Within the playplace, day had broken in blues, oranges, pinks and yellows. The man stood at the top of the ball pit and glanced at his watch. It was one thirty. He figured a short dip into the ball pit would not take that long and then he would be on his way. His small child glanced at him strangely. He smiled and put his feet into the ball pit.

The pit was comfortable. The plastic balls curled around his body and he felt as he had descended into water, bulbous and magnified. He walked effortlessly, although there was a little resistance in his ankles. Nonetheless, he kept calm and continued onward. His small child watched from the slide as he waded through the colorful plastic balls. He was not a man to age with dignity. He felt hampered by his thirties and was determined to denounce their rudiments and requirements of one in his age bracket. He flicked a pile of plastic balls into the air.

The old man at the register had told him the playplace was for children six and under and he had told him he was talking his child in and nothing more. He had no doubt the old man would disapprove of his behavior, but the man's mind did not consider the consequences of playing in the ball pit. It considered that it was childish, but the fact that it was against the restaurant's regulations never occured to him. It was childish and this was what the man wanted.

He glanced at his watch. It was two-thirty. He knew he should be getting back to the table to finish his French fries and he turned to exit the ball pit, but his foot stuck. He tried to move it and realized he couldn't. The old man at the register had told him of one man, about his age, who had gone into the ball pit and twisted his ankle walked amongst such small plastic objects. This is what the man figured he may have done. Of course, he knew he would be fine. He need only work his way to exit of the ball pit, which was not that far. Only a few feet, he calculated. But he could not move his foot. And when he tried to move it his whole body ached. He forced himself to walk a step, but tripped and fell into the ball pit. Pushing with his hands he kept himself above the surface, but he needed to return to his feet. His arms would not last this long.

He glanced up at his small child, peering from the top of the slide and cursed her for her convenient position. The man's arms began to weaken. His was not a man who did push-ups except before taking his shirt off. He thought of his French fries and then he thought of his wife, waiting for him to come back with their daughter. He thought how she would react. He thought of the shameful glance the old man at the register would give him. It occured to him that death was not so bad. So, slowly he allowed himself to descend beneath the ball pit until only the back of his heels and the top of his head was visible.

His daughter slid down the slide, waded through the ball pit and exited the play place to eat her father's French fries.

4.13.2010

POP CULTURE FACE-OFF

Two male duos with a balls-to-the-walls spirit for action as well as an indomitable friendship. One most certainly British, the other most certainly American, but who is most certainly the best? This month's Pop Culture Face Off pits








Nick Frost and Simon Pegg



vs.












Chris Farley and David Spade


Since these guys are actors, let's stage this like an actor's resume: personal life, appearance and experience.


Personal
David Spade and Chris Farley were undoubtedly friends. They met while working on Saturday Night Live and remained friends until Farley's death in the mid 90s. Spade refused to come to Farley's funeral citing, "I don't want to be somewhere where Chris is in a box."


Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were roommates and best friends before either broke into the film business (Frost not being an actor prior to this). Pegg has cast Frost in several television and film projects on which he has worked. Frost was also best man at his wedding.


Winner: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Spade's devotion to Farley is endearing, but Pegg and Frost formed their friendship long before the bright lights appeared on both of them.


Appearance

When they stand together, they look like the number 10.

Winner: Draw
That's part of the reason for this comparison.


Experience
Besides appearing together several seasons on Saturday Night Live, Farley and Spade starred in numerous movies together. Most notably are their buddy comedies, Tommy Boy and Black Sheep. Their movies maintained their SNL personas with Spade being the sarcastic twerp and Fasrley the lovable goof-ball.

Frost and Pegg worked together on several TV and film projects, all with Pegg as writer or co-writer. TV show Spaced, which focused on Pegg as a twenty-something trying to find a lifepath with roommate Daisy, featured Frost as his best friend. Movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were about, respectively, a zombie outbreak and a conspiracy in a small English village. In each movie, Pegg plays best friend or plays one who becomes a best friend to Pegg. Each movie demonstrates Pegg as the uptight but intelligent cohort to Frost's childlike naivete.

Winner: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Farley and Spade were cute together, but their films didn't back the social commentary and funny punch which Pegg and Frost managed in theirs. Plus, Pegg actually wrote their movies.



Overall Winner:

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost



Farley and Spade were children of their time, but Pegg and Frost's movie bare a near ubiquitous sensibility that transcends the SNL nostalgia Farley and Spade evoked.


4.08.2010

BALLS SPOTTING

4.07.2010

THE LIST

Nobody's perfect and no one knows this better than celebrities. Every move, every word is aggrandized by pop machine. You'll either be a saint or Satan depending upon what the media picks up on and how they view it according to their particular form of publicized morality. It's not fair, but hey, that's the game and if you want the boon you've got to pay the piper. But there are always exceptional cases where the media had to do very little to implode a famous deity. This month, we look at...


5 People Who Really Dropped The Ball



1. Tiger Woods

So, you're a media messiah and a god to the world of golf, who plucked it out of a its stuffy country clubs and saved it from extinction in the minds of many outside its small circle. God complexes are hard to resist in this sense and Woods is no exception. He defaulted many times on the wedding day words said so many years ago and now not only he but golf teeters on his (and his publicists') ability to re-market him. Saying mea culpa will only get him so far, Tiger is going to have to reinvent himself as he reinvented the game he has mastered. How can you reinvent a fallen star who was promoted as a saint? How about encouraging him to live up to much of the advertising lionization that put him in this position? Woods has owned up to his own infedility, now he should look back and reconnected much of the misconnect between his actual life and the public image in which he was cast.




2. John Edwards

What a waste. The perfect image, nearly flawless. He was the quinessential everydayman with dirt under his fingernails and a vision for all of America regardless of caste or color. To his advantage was also his sweet southern drawl and his devotion to his wife even when she suffered from cancer. What a chance, right? Unfortunately, Edwards displayed his weakness in full public view cheating on his dear Elizabeth, which is bad enough in itself...but when she had cancer. Edwards is perhaps through on the political circuit, but perhaps there's still hope for him. Ironically on the coattails of his wife. Imagine the Edwards clan taking to church circuit, showing how infidelity can be overcome through Biblical priniciples, regular church attendance and...well, it's an idea. He could also check out The Surreal Life.





3. Mark McGwire


Just when we thought we could focus all our anger on Barry Bonds and his blatant disregard of the traditions of baseball. Traditions being that it's actually you who plays the game and not beefy arms curtesy of hefty doses of steriods. McGwire has demonstrated that one of the essential of baseball's rejuvenation in the late 90s, early 00s - the homerun race - was as much a farce as Bonds record-breaking lifetime homerun record. Is there any way McGwire can make for this aside from publically asking the his homerun record be stripped from the hall of fame? Nope.







4. Steven Page

Many don't remember Barenaked Ladies aside from "One Week" and maybe "Pinch Me", but they've amassed quite a following among those who favor the quirkiness of almost-popular music from the 90s. He was the other half of the perfectly harmonized duo alongside Ed Robertson. Is it right to say he dropped the ball? Isn't 20 years enough for a group? One wonders if Barenaked Ladies are really Barenaked Ladies without the duo. Their new album is most definitely a shift in energy and Page is pursuing his own solo album. Of course, one could compare it to the Blink 182 split-up. Interesting stuff came out of it, but the magic of the group was in its unity. Has Page ruined this by absconding? Is there greener grass to come? Most definitely and no.




5. Rod Blagojevich



Who the hell doesn't think this guy deserves to be voted off the face of the earth after his unrelenting ability to acknowledge his own guilt and mock the very process of law is supposed to uphold? To have bowed to the mistress of media is the proper way to announce one's defeat, but when one attempts to subvert...that's when you become an asshole. Rod Blagojevich will be forgotten by the ADHD fueled engines of the pop radar but his name will, for some time, be a buzz word for 'incompetence' and 'government infedelity.'

4.05.2010

SURVIVAL TIPS

Baseball

















with Kandees Johnson




OMG. I just got back from the baseball game and it was incredible. Like, I think you should totally go. I know you don't know that much about baseball, but it's so easy it's fucking incredible. I was sitting there right behind the dugout cause Jake from Sigma Alpha Theta got me tickets. He's an asshole but nevermind, he's still sorta cool that he got me and Jess tickets even though he was a total dick to Jess last Saturday. Anyway, baseball is really fucking super cool. We were there for about thirty minutes and I, like, would've stayed longer but I got this text that Amanda was running late from her internship and she needed someone to pick up the beer for the party tonight and whatever. So, I went but...


...anyway, the thing about Jake is that sometimes he can be a jerk, but sometimes he can be so soooo cool because I was talking to Mindy about it and, like, she's the only one I told that I slept with Jake three times and I'm the only one who knows that she blew him her first week at school so we're real good friends, you know. We've got each other's backs and stuff. So, I think he's this jerk sometimes but I think it's really how you take him because it's really just the way he has of being funny, you know? It's subtle. He's really smart. You have to really listen to him to get his humor and I love it....


...anyway, baseball was great because everybody's there and everybody's drinking and having a good time and you don't even have to pay attention to the game cause, like, it's a big party, you know?


OMG! I saw Bradley and Jenny there! They are SOOO CUTE! Yeah, so Bradley is actually on the baseball team at school and I think it's really cool that he goes with Jenny to the game and, just, explains to her what's going on. I love it! I went up to them and said hello and they were so cool and I told Bradley how much I loved baseball and I, like, I'm totally sikked to be here at the game and he was cool and said it's cool and I asked him where Jake was or if Jake was here and he said he didn't know...so...


...so, I like haven't heard from Jake and I really want him to call me back because, like....*sniff*...like...*sniff*...I'm sorry...like...we hooked up the other night and he, you know, he didn't have a condom, so I was worried that...you know...but, like, he said it would be cool. He would pull out and I, like, know that's a stupid idea and I feel, like, so stupid, but...he's just so cool and...he's really sweet sometimes and...*sniff* *sniff*...I'm really sorry it's just...you know? What if I'm, you know...you know?! What if I am? Like, I won't be able to go out anymore and I don't believe in abortion because I'm, like, a conservative sort of but I still voted for Barack Obama cause I'm really down with equal rights, you know? And...I don't know...like...


...


...baseball, you know, it's cool. You should really go watch a game...*sniff*...

4.03.2010

BALLS SPOTTING

4.01.2010

BALLS

Balls.

Not ball, but balls.

This is not a single sphere sitting on the playground, languishing in the lazy afternoon sunlight after recess has ended.

This is not two, three, four or a hundred balls lying about of all different shapes and sizes. One ball is a simple game of catch, but balls are a field day, a game of dodgeball or a pit in the Play Place of your favorite fast food establishment.

The circular shape of a ball carries with it the inevitable sense of play it will inspire. Kittens play with anything ball-like. Children, too. Adults, too. As children balls are play and adults may stare into a crystal ball for guidance (or fun, they may say). We squeeze the life out of stress balls for relaxation. Long ago, a ball moved a computer mouse across the pad and, therefore, allowed any number of functions that would have proven far more difficult without this simple round thingamajig.

But balls are also courage. Having balls is having the werewithal to move forward with a task, to defend one's (or another's) honor, to stand up for what one believes in. It is interesting that 'to go ballastic' is to take this desire to state one's purpose too far. Ballistic. Interesting.

Without balls, there would be no sports; or much fewer sports than currently exist. Baseball, football, basketball, dodgeball, tetherball, tennis, cricket, golf, rugby...we would have to subsist on hockey and shuffleboard.

This month, we're going to look at balls. What is their importance to the pop matrix which surrounds and influences the way we say and do everything? It seems to be intricate in our sense of fun. 'To have ball' or 'to go to a ball' are common sayings for letting loose of one's inhibited self and losing it in a game or an event. 'Tripping balls' is to be wild with a drug induced ecstasy (or, to at least seem so). Balls it seems are the symbol of the carnivalistic nature of life. We long satiate our desire to escape from a framework we see as possibly constraining and celebrate manically this mystery or life; or, perhaps, we long to find a type of life that is nothing but this.

As spring is spinning its web upon us ever more deeply, the sense of play, of jubliancy is awakening in us and we hope this issue to elucidate where we can find the kernel of this emotion, this penchant in our modern world.