ad hoc.

How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time. In the late ’80s and ’90s, when teen fare was homogeneous, Sassy magazine,a teen cult favorite,was the cool new kid on the block, speaking to girls on their level, giving them an in to alternative pop culture while acting as confidant and wise dispenser of advice. New York–based writers Jesella and Meltzer were part of the Sassy demographic and decided that a “love letter” to the publication was in order. The result is a behind-the-scenes, warts-and-all look at the magazine’s office culture, including sections on the glossy’s coverage of feminism, celebrity and girl culture. Struggles with advertisers, publishers, religious conservatives and other detractors are described in detail (in a very us-against-them tone), allowing insight into how editorial content was developed. Much of the book is written in a cooler-than-thou tone, often at the expense of every other teen magazine on the market and of the typical American girls who read them. This attitude arguably contributed to Sassy’s demise in 1996. In the end, the book—written in a style reminiscent of the magazine itself—is a testament to a publication that changed the face of teen media.

Fantastic. I loved this magazine! I wish I still had some copies, I used to read them over and over and over. While I was doing my Spring cleaning, I found that I had kept the best and most impactful issue, the one with Kurt and Courtney. Never again had they posed together. I totally fell in love with them after I read this issue. Squeeeeee!!!!!!

Phew! Patrick Wolf is not reeeaaaaally quitting. He was kind of being a baby. To celebrate, let’s peruse through 400+ pictures of him. I swear, it’s not my photobucket account.

I just heard that Peter Andre died. Not sure if it’s true or not.

Legally Blonde is out on Broadway. Gimme a fucking break. Ugh.

I also heard that Larry David will be guest starring on Hannah Montana. Not sure if it’s true or not.

Coming soon: Ewan McGregor’s face, moles and all, will appear on a postage stamp. God bless America.

Courtney Love plans on selling Kurt Cobain’s belongings. There was never a time more than now that I wished there was an afterlife. So Kurt can haunt Courtney and scare the shit out of her.

This is hopeful X-Men sequel news:

Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer is setting his sights on another superhero property - he is directing the spin-off movie to the X-Men trilogy, Magneto. The movie will focus on the young Magneto, the villain of the X-Men pictures played by Gods and Monsters star Ian McKellen, and how he became mortal enemies with character Professor X, played by Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Patrick Stewart in the trilogy. The main characters in the spin-off will be played by actors in their twenties instead of the original cast. Goyer has previously worked on superhero movies Batman Begins and the Blade trilogy.

Well, batman Begins was one of the best comic-book-to-film movies ever, so it’s promising. BUT they need to cast a hunky Jewish boy as young Magneto. My votes? Adam Brody, Zac Efron. Gaspard Ulliel can play Professor X. I seriously should work as a casting agent. I am sure it is an easy field to break in to.

I’m still doing some Nirvana reminiscing, and I can’t really put into words Kurt Cobain’s affect on me. I am still cursing the gods that I was born too late to see the early eighties punk scene, but luckily I was right age to discover Nirvana and be old enough to see their influence. I think you all know how important music is to me and how it defines my memories and experiences, and listening to Nirvana for me is exhilarating, depply disturbing, and so tragic at the same time. NME did a cool poll about people’s favorite Nirvana moments. I have seen/witnessed most of these, except Kurt and Christ making out on Saturday Night Live. That is because it only aired once, NBC cut it out of all repeats. I’ve been checking out some of these clips on You Tube, and here is a fucking awesome moment from a fucking awesome performance from the Reading Festival, which made the #1 spot on the poll.

And an SNL promo with Charles Barkley. AWKWARD, much?

Sigh.

You realize that today is Kurt Cobain’s fortieth birthday.

What would he look like? What would he think of today’s music? Would he still be with Courtney Love?

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”, in Paul-is-dead style.

More news on the Kurt Cobain biopic….it may be Ewan McGregor. Holy shit. I am still against the movie being made, but I would have to say it’s a good choice. I’ve always thought they somehow look alike.

SPIN.com: Kurt Cobain Biopic?

stereogum: Casting Couch: Kurt Cobain

If anyone wanted to honor the memory of Kurt Cobain, they would know that this is exactly the thing he would hate and not want done. I really thought Courtney Love was misunderstood, but after selling his back catalogue and this, I am done defending.

So someone made a new documentary about Kurt Cobain and get this, he narrates it. Someone took hours and hours of interview footage and spliced it into a narrative. Anyone who knows anything about Nirvana and Kurt Cobain would know that he would never had agreed to do that while he was alive. It’s like they raped his gravestone. Although this stuff breaks my heart.

Finally, one of the best music documentaries is coming to dvd.

‘Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!’ is set to make its debut on DVD, having been previously relased on VHS and laserdisc in November 1994.

The project was conceived by Kurt Cobain and overseen by Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic along with director Kevin Kerslake following his death.

Most of the footage was shot at the height of the ‘Nevermind’ hysteria between 1991 and 1992, including the band’s infamous Reading‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1991.

The audio from the footage has been remastered for DVD release, and some bonus material has been added, although it is unclear what it will be.

If Kurt Cobain were alive today, I wonder what he would think of the shit-tastic Foo Fighters.

I saw two interesting movies lately. Believe it or not, I found Sky High to be quite delightful. It is rare that I like movies aimed at kids, but that is because they usually insult kids intelligence. This one was actually thoughful and really imaginative. It was reminiscent of Harry Potter in that we get to see into a whole world of some sort of fictional characters. Plus the smart-ass, sociall conscious gal pal was a total Hermione rip-off. Maybe I look too much into movies, but is “getting your powers” symbolize puberty? Why is it that the woman of color has to replicate herself into many, indistinguishable forms? Is the binary of hero/sidekick representative of the gender binary? Ha, I’m just kidding. No, I’m not.

Although I was kind of avoiding it, I finally watched Last Days. It is based on Kurt Cobain’s last days before committing suicide. Now, I am not sure the motivation for making this movie. I think Gus was being very presumptious in thinking that he understood what was going on in Kurt Cobain’s head before he killed himself. Also, it was painful to watch in knowing what the end would be. It offered no redemption, no explanation, and no homage. Just the train wreck affect of someone who has completely lost their sense of self. The movie will also annoy purists and make film students foam at the mouth. It is filmed in the sense that we see every character’s action, no matter how insignificant, and long, lingering shots, like he did in Elephant. But he did it better than. Also, I starting to find Michael Pitt very irritating, although he did look very much like Kurt Cobain (striped sweater and hunters cap included).

Finally, my prayers have been answered. Let’s call it a Christmas miracle. John has a blog!

Ok, this is creepy:

A new Nirvana documentary is in the making - one which will be narrated by Kurt Cobain himself. Film makers were in the singer’s home town of Aberdeen, Washington recently to start work on a documentary about Cobain.

However in a unique twist the singer himself will narrate the film, with producers using more than 25 hours of interview tapes recorded by journalist Michael Azerrad between December 1992 and March 1993.

Azerrad is most famous for his Nirvana biography ‘Come As You Are’, which is regarded as one of the most authoratitive books on the band.

“The film is based on a series of interviews that Michael Azerrad conducted with Kurt while researching the book. There are more than 25 hours of these audio interviews in all, none of which have been heard before by anyone,” director AJ Schnack told NME.COM.

“I worked with Michael to cull an approximately 95-minute audio track from these interviews. While I’m not sure that ‘narrated’ is exactly the right word, you will be listening in on conversations between Kurt and Michael, with Kurt telling his life story for that book. There are no additional interviews with other figures from Kurt’s life, just Kurt speaking, with an occasional question or comment from Michael.”

The other members of Nirvana are not involved with the currently untitled film, which is set to be screened at various film festivals next autumn.

Schnack added: “It pretty much covers his whole life leading-up to the interviews with the emphasis being more on him and his general take on things rather than on general band developments. We’re not using any archival footage at all. The music will focus on bands that influenced Kurt during the various stages of his life. It’s unclear what part, if any, Nirvana music may play in the finished film.”

And, as always, the New York Times is about 10 years behind on all things cool: The Net is a Boon For Indie labels.

More on the amazing ladies of the next season of The Bachelor. Wow, 10 points if you can tell them all apart. I’ll bet you ten bucks that the women of color do not make it past the second round.

Going to Federal Prison? Need some advice? Get a consultant.

More on my new boyfirend, Andy Samberg.

The RIAA is stoooopid.

Comet liquors in Adams Mo closes. Lots of memories there- I think? Is that where we got our wine before band practice?

Some media predictions for 2006.

There is a reworked version of the tralier for V is For Vendetta. Natalie, shut up. Why would you make a movie in which Clive Owen hides his face most of the time?

Today’s highlights: today I went with my mother to a hige fleamarket. You would not believe the amount of booths that sold clip on hair and scrunchies. I suddenly realized I was in dire need of one of those beaded strings that you put on the end of your glasses to you don’t lose them. I’ve been in Florida too long. Then for dinner we had chickn broth with rice, because earlier we were “bad” and had frozen yogurt. Help!

The least essential albums, according to the Onion.

ROCK widow Courtney Love will net £70million by selling her late husband Kurt Cobain’s songs.

The actress and rock singer is selling a quarter of the Nirvana frontman’s back catalogue to disgraced US lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

Released from jail this year after five months for insider trading, Stewart wants the songs as an investment.

A friend said: “It’s an astonishing deal. It sorts out Courtney financially.”

Hey suckers, here is the new albums from both Metric and Rogue Wave. The link lasts for seven days (how Samara of it). If you know what’s good for you, you know what to do…
http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=28YUFTSFAXGOB1HUHVGB6OLBL1

And this is strange, but I guess inevitable. Frances Bean Cobain comes of age…in TEEN VOGUE?

Download all of Daft Punk’s Discovery.

Remember when Courtney Love was awesome and Hole did a cover of “Hungry Like the Wolf”?

Despite the singer’s annoying voice and the fact that this song could have been written by good Charlotte, I cannot get enough of Coheed and Cambria’s “A Favor in the House Atlantic”.

Owners swear iPods mess with their minds by controlling the music.

Rollingstone thinks these are the greatest rock photos of all time. Click on Kurtie for the rest.

Just watched Outfoxed (a documentary exposing Foxnews and Rupert Murdoch to be right-wing biased). I feel quite jaded because it did not give me the infuriation I was expecting. Yes, journalists sort of do have a moral and ethical obligation to report unbiased news, but cable news channels are a private, commercial companies. Rupert really can do whatever he pleases. The argument goes that not everyone knows that Foxnews is right-wing, so they may thunk they are getting the clear picture and are thus being brainwashed. However, those watching Foxnews are not your average American. They are usually the more educated and already interested in world affairs; shouldn’t they already be seeking out information on politics and be able to detect the bias? Who knows. Bill O’Reilly is such a douchebag. My father worships him. I think he has a “no spin zone” hat. Kee-rist. I wouldn’t dare try to engage him in a healthy debate about it though. For him, Bill O’Reilly is the real deal. End of discussion. Not to knock my Dad. He is great- he likes kitty cats more than I do.

New campaign slogan (via Brenda):

WHHAAAAT? Julian Casablancas (of the Strokes, duh) and his fiancee Juliet are registered at Target. Even hipsters need a food processer.

Strangley enough, I am in the lead with the office pool we have for the NFL. I picked the winner in about 90% of the games this week. And all I did was pick the city I thought was hipper. I don’t think this is going to last through the season.

Holy cow! Did you know that Rilo Kiley has a whole bunch of live mp3s on their site? OK, just checking.