speaking of spoilers!

Post by **miftah** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:53 am

Bah... a few years ago they were wearing tennis visors upside-down. Now they put the tennis visors on their cars. It's really tough being a teenager, trying to work out your sense of identity and all. But do any of them recognize how utterly stupid they look? Fuck the 2Fast2Stupid generation. May they all drown in a sea of Mountain Dew and be buried in a blanket of half-assed titty magazines like Maxim.

AsaJay · Post by **AsaJay** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 10:32 am

Spoilers like that are all driven by an unusally difficult part to find, most of us call it an E.G.O. valve. Oh we all have one. In my case, it looks more like this:

Factory Original, low profile, aerodynamically efficient, (functional? who knows)

or

Low Profile, matching the clean lines of the car, functional? who knows, but just LOOK at it! <drool, FOOOP> damn,, I think my penis just disappeared

jc · Post by jc » Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:21 pm

spoilers also look damn snazzy with the kids' bleach-blonde bowl cuts with the long bangs look... and southern mullets

Post by **bio** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 2:18 pm

It all depends on the car.

On the Mach-1 and Ferari pictured above... they look just fine. On a Kia they look like ass.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 2:48 pm

I've wandered into strange territory

AsaJay · Post by **AsaJay** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 2:49 pm

bio wrote:It all depends on the car.

On the Mach-1 and Ferari pictured above...

Ferarri? Hmmm, maybe I should have posted this view of the car instead.

I'm not sure -any- wing looks good on a Ferrari.

Nickp · Post by **Nickp** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 4:34 pm

I'll defend Mt. Dew here, it's the best sugarwater money can buy.

I'm not a big fan of Maxim, especially because they constantly rip off other people's ideas, or use shit from websites without asking and branding it as their own (like Ebaum).

Yeah, I have a hatred for a lot of people my age, but at the same time, when I'm on a belltower going postal, they'll make easier targets. You can spot a bright orange tshirt and yellow slick-pants a mile away. Blonde hair, too.
-Nick P.

Post by **miftah** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 6:32 pm

Nick, I think you're sort of missing my point.

My problem isn't with Mountain Dew per se. Hell I'm a caffeine enthusiast myself and if I still had the metabolism of a 20-year-old, I'd probably enjoy one now and again (watch out for your mid-20s when your waist will begin to expand from all that sugarwater). My issue is with the cultural dogma it now drags around. With the moron thrill-junkies in their commercials - the dumbass, neolithic sportos. Mountain Dew has positioned itself as a "youth" drink. Fine, but you lay down in a whore house, you're gonna get fucked.

As for Maxim, I'm really speaking of the whole variety of publication. Advertising-positioned "lifestyle" publications that only seem to exist for telling young men that they need to be as shallow as women's magazines suggest they should be, and create clones who line up at stores for fashionable trends... The metrosexual who finds it, fucks it and forgets it, and drives off in his brand-name clothes, in a brand-name vehicle, with the latest hip MTV soundtrack. If you're gonna look at porn, look at real porn - not some anorexic model/actress who's getting naked for a men's magazine so you'll go see her new movie in which she "really stretches as an actress" ...yeah, her theighs maybe.

I hate the Eminem Youth. They're the real Boys from Brazil.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 6:48 pm

Okay:

1) men were always like that, they didn't need a new culture to train them that way. I'd rather have a metrosexual who dresses sharply than the avarage boy of ten years ago who wouldn't get it throught their thick skull that you DON'T wear white sport socks with a suit. Both varieties like to fuck-over women, so at least this way us girls have something nicer to look at. Believe or not, every woman DOES love a sharp dressed man.

2)The girls in MAXIM are way hotter than the skeezes in most porn. They dress them up in things most girls I know would enjoy wearing, like little ruffly panties or dorothy-style short gingham skirts and pigtails. Regular, run-of-the-mill porn likes to have girls dressed in things like circa-1984 swimwear with huge, black shiney stilleto pumps, leaned over ugly-ass cars like corvettes. And what's the other option? socially-acceptable Playboy, with it's vaseline-coated lens shots? Is that really supposed to pass as less sleazy somehow? MAXIM girls scream fun. If I was going to pose, it would be here.

The fact is, as long as we all live on this planet, we are going to be subjected to marketing. What's the big deal? Why are people so freaked out by it? Just take the parts of it you like and leave the rest. Stop being so holier-than-thou about it. Stop acting like it's a conspiracy personally aimed at you. (not you specifically, people in general)

*UGH*

Nickp · Post by **Nickp** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 6:55 pm

And Mt. Dew doesn't hydrate you at all when doing "extreme" sports. The opposite.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of "following" trends. Possibly because my money goes towards film, and film kills my poor ass. I agree, buy a decent magazine or buy porn. Maxim just doesn't do a decent job of either. I've seen magazines with worse messages, though. It's all how you take it in.

The sugar in Mt. Dew is nuts. I rarely have it, but I still love it. The only drinks I've drank in the past month or so are water, coffee, iced tea, cranberry juice, and Red Bull.

I'll hold backon the Eminem comment. It's a double-edged sword. Battle axe, even.
-Nick P.

Post by **miftah** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:51 pm

1) You don't need to be prone to labels to have a sense of style. How about cultvating your own? I dress well. Maybe not in Armani, certainly not through ready-made buy-a-personality-ready-made-off-the-rack House of Gap. But I pick my clothes consciously and deliberately. And I do not look bad at all. For crying out loud, one of the first bands I was ever into as a young Miftah-In-The-Making was Duran Duran. I don't have an issue with Metrosexuals in general, nor do I think it silly to be well-groomed and conscious of your appearance.

And as for fucking women over.... nevermind. I've got no room to talk. Been there, did that and learned from it.

My issue is that it all comes with a price tag and a standard that most cannot afford, but will likely pursue rabidly until they lose their ability to get an erection. Surely most women would agree that self-confidence on a man in cheap clothes is a hell of a lot better than a weeney with a $3K suit on. Just try to make a relationship last based on the killer wardrobe.

2) Two words: Suicide Girls. The maxim girls may scream fun to most but there's nothing sexy about getting bruises on my hips from protruding bones on an anorexic, vacuous bimbo who's willing to sell out her "craft of acting" because her agent thinks its a good career move. The SG girls may have a varying array of tattoos and piercings (not my fetish), but the girls on that site look a hell of a lot more like the girls I meet that anyone in conventional porn or Maxim.

So you learned to swim the seas of commerce and you know how to deal with it? Tell the girls you perhaps know who have eating disorders that they don't need to look like fashion models. Tell the ones who work insane hours paying off a wad of maxed-out credit cards that they don't have to follow the happiness-by-commerce lifestyle. Tell the kid who takes a gun into his school because he's tired of getting picked on for not measuring up to the finances of his peers. There's a load of problems in our society that you can solve by telling people who don't know better that they can be happier letting go of pursuing someone else's version of their ideal life. But few do and many suffer.

As for the conspiracy aimed at the public, well, you ever heard of the Advertising Industry? It does just that. It is the very nature of it to get inside the head of the average consumer and redesign their priorities for commerce. They'll tell you about their successes to this pursuit without shame. It isn't conspiracy theory. It's conspiracy fact. And it doesn't take a great deal of effort to see how the lack of concern for the consequences of their work has lasting ramifications on our culture.

Which leaves me with... "Stop being so holier-than-thou about it."

I never postured myself above anyone in my post. And if by that you mean you'd like me to stop fighting and learn to love the lie, I can't do that Moxie, and I'm not to sad to say it. More than that... well, you don't know me. I honestly don't think its very fair to make such assumptions about my intentions or my character. I am extremely sincere.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 10:58 pm

Accidently posted twice- read next post...

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:07 pm

Moxie wrote:Just take the parts of it you like and leave the rest.

(not you specifically, people in general)

All I meant was that Maxim was a step up from the sleazier porn out there, not that women should be rail-thin. And I agree with you on the fashion thing- Personal style is of great importance to me, because I think it really does tell you a lot about a person. Hence my comments about metrosexuals. You got me wrong, baby! I'm just trying to convince people that they can have it all- killer wardrobes AND a sense of well being. I shop everywhere from Banana Republic to WalMart. I don't own a credit card by choice. Not being a label whore is a two-way street. But I've argued against boycotting places like the Gap for reasons of reverse snobbery before, so I wont get into that again here. I'm not saying we should all bend in the advertising wind and let them run over us, I'm saying that just because something has a slick ad campaign doesn't make it bad. Should I avoid something I really like because the cool kids disaprove? I doubt you would, and I wouldnt either.

No worries

I'm not nearly as much of a snob as I sometimes seem. I wasn't trying to make assumptions about you, in fact, the post wasn't even really aimed at you, it was just my going off about how silly it all is.

The SG do have nicer bodies, but they have boring style. They seem to be all wearing punk/EMO costumes over there. Counter-culture is not counter-culture if half the free world is doing it, you dig?

Post by **miftah** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 12:08 am

In the interest of full disclosure, I should confess that I have a sweater from one of those places... Crap, now i gotta go look at the label. J CREW! My ex-girlfriend bought me a sweater from their catalogue because it was the only place she could find me a sweater without dancing snowmen or some such crap on it. A good, basic black sweater, crew neck and the survivor of two years of good ol' fashioned artist's lifestyle. I agree with you about the reverse snobbery thing. But I've been in those places and as much as I don't fit in the demographic of their average customer, I always feel dirty when I walk out. Can't bring myself to go in 'em anymore. It doesn't help any when you hear the vacuous people talking a little too loudly about the glory of GAP. Monkey see... monkey most certainly DO NOT!

I used to feel the same way about Old Navy. Then I went in one. Walked out with three pairs of shorts. The prices were fan-freaking-tastic and the shorts are built like tanks. I wish I had 20 pair of 'em.

But inside the counter culture you begin to see the unending futility of it all. You get the goth kids bitching about the ones who blow their load at Hot Topic or Gadzooks, but bitch how the mainstream doesn't embrace them or even recognize them. I've bought some damn good belts from Hot Topic and I've got no problem saying it. The truth is that sometimes we're ALL a little too preoccupied with what our neighbors are doing. Most people find it easier than looking inward.

As for Suicide Girls, you're right about them being skeezy. And that's what I like about them. Nothing glamourous or airbrushed (though I concede glamour has its place). That shaved crotch has visible razor burn and a few ingrown hairs. That girl with the big ass? Well she's got a few stretch marks here and there. They put up the most radical girls on the front pages and the guys with the tatt and piercing fetishes do drive the site. I guess they know what they like. But there is more than just the run-of-the-mill rivetgirls past the front pages. And I think its a fantastic statement alone that it is *there,* because porn is in the eye of the beholder.

But its funny... Porn is really all mentally-activated. It's about fantasy. When I see porn I rarely see a woman that I would actually want to sleep with. No character in most of them. Nothing that makes her distinctly "her." I'm attracted to character and identity. I guess thats how most end up in the industry: Not distinctive enough to make it into the film business, but there's always a job for the aspiring actress in the porn world. The girls at SG may have just taken off their mass-produced t-shirt, but they are who they are and they are *so* them. Even if its seen as ugly by most of the mainstream. And it's not a conjob either. I have a dear internet pal who has done a couple of shoots for them and she makes a pretty decent buck from it. Shoots all her own photos too.

I don't see you as snobby at all Moxie. Never have. That's the thing I like about the women on this site. You're all take-no-bullshit and you say what's on your mind (and its worth hearing). Plus, you're all openly involved with people, so there aren't any hanging worries about the flirting meaning anything more than fun. This is where I come for stress relief. Well, after a stop by SG.

As sincere as I am, I'm not lost on irony. Irony just ceased to be funny to me quite a while ago. You're right. It's all very silly. But it isn't any fun either and I've been trying to seek a solution for a while now. I know I'm a bit long-winded and heavy sometimes, but its all because I care so passionately. I'm a second-wind idealist and an artist, so I'm prone to wanting to take on the world. Forgive me if I'm a bit hard to swallow sometimes. I can only be myself.

In the immortal words of Johnny Cash, "You have to be what you are. Whatever you are, you gotta be it."