Entries from July 2008 ↓

All in the family: The Deaves and their offspring, Celeste

I was prepared to walk away from posting about this London Times piece, “I had sex with my brother but I don’t feel guilty,” on mere ick factor alone:

On New Year’s Eve Daniel went to a party and by the time he got home I was already asleep. I was extremely sleepy when he crept into my room and curled up on my bed, which was something we’d both done for years, especially if we wanted to share some snippet of gossip. When he started stroking my hair and face it was a surprise, but I could feel myself drifting pleasurably back to sleep as he caressed me gently. Then I became aware of his hand drifting lower and suddenly I was wide awake as he stroked my neck and started sliding his hand down my vest top. I wasn’t scared but I was surprised as he started stroking me, though my overriding sensation was one of sheer pleasure. I instinctively lifted my mouth to his as he kissed me and then he hugged me very tightly and left.

Then I saw the article had generated 347 comments, but, even more, many actually approved of the arrangement, or at least were tolerant of it.

But even that was before I watched an Australian 60 Minutes video (via Jezebel) of John, 61, and Jenny, 39, Deaves, a father-daughter / common-law husband-wife couple from that country, and their granddaughter / daughter / half-sister, Celeste, 8 months of age, above.

The piece also profiled a Scottish couple of half-siblings, though it doesn’t mention the Germans ones of which I’d heard first. Thinking about the Deaves, of course, reminded me of Kathryn Harrison’s controversial 1997 memoir, The Kiss, which details an adult sexual relationship with the author’s father. The title of that 1994 movie I’ve never seen, Spanking the Monkey, was still floating around in my head, too.

I was starting to drown. Is incest, somehow, becoming hip? How did so many otherwise sane, normal, adults come to agree that the hottest sex is with one’s next-of-kin?

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Glimpse Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid’s new, $400 shoe design for Melissa Plasticdreams.

The melissa + Zaha Hadid shoe is out in the UK this September, avaliable in eight colors.

Madonna, 49, left; Dame Helen Mirren, 62, right.

It takes a lot for me to watch white people dance with Black people and forget that I’m watching white people dance with Black people. Target’s “Happy Together” spot, agencied by Wieden + Kennedy Portland (of NIKE fame) and directed by Mike Maguire, doesn’t come close, but may be pointed in the right direction. (YouTube has it linked to the screenshot, above. However, I’d suggest you check out the QuickTime on the Coloribus.com web site, which is, as well as being clearer, downloadable.)

And since you’ve been wondering, the sexy track and video is “Calabria 2007” by Enur feat. Natasja.

Also, did you notice the line we just crossed?

This is MEDIA ASSASSIN’s 250th post!

We couldn’t have done it without you! Thanks to all of you for reading, subscribing, commenting, blogrolling, trackbacking, and your supporting!

Up yours: James Bond (Daniel Craig) flips on a foe

When the family of the late Albert R. Broccoli, producers of the James Bond film series, decided that the archetype needed a reboot, and hired actor Daniel Craig to play the titular superspy in the 21st Bond movie, 2006’s Casino Royale, the fan response was overwhelming…and stupendously negative.

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Now we come to the payoff: After seeing naught but Bond’s shadow in the earlier teaser poster, the second advance delivers the goods with an original, double-sided, rolled, 27″ x 40″ one-sheet, $40 at MoviePoster.com.

Please pee in this cup: Food service at its nadir. Photo by Lena West

Airline service is at a depressing low. As the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index recently noted, Americans are more disastisfied with today’s carriers than they are with the IRS.

But the weight of this didn’t hit me until last week, when I flew round-trip, New York-to-Austin, on Oprah’s favorite carrier, American Airlines (“Something special in the air!”).

During my sojourn, I was charged $15 each way to check a duffle bag; nasally assaulted upon entering Flight 732 to New York—a plane that when boarded smelled like a combination of lavatory sewage, stale cigarette smoke, and moldy jockstraps (something special in the air, indeed); and, with a great deal of fanfare, served the drink in the above photo.

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Please stop staring at me…: Carl Panzram, serial killer & tough guy

If you knew you were about to be executed, what would be your last words?

Most of us would want to offer encouragement to our children or loved ones, or make a profound summary on the meaning of life.

Not these guys. In “The 11 Most Badass Last Words Ever Uttered,” Cracked.com have put together a list of ne’er-do-wells who, mere seconds before the the state was about to have their way with ’em, were still out to prove whose cojones had the greatest girth and the most metal.

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While I’m glad that BestWeekEver.tv hipped me to this French Orangina television ad, above in English, I want to wash all of it—including the sight of a bear, above, grinding a busty deer on a swing—out of my eyeballs. Now. Please.

McDonald’s “mixed race” “cha cha slide” kid

“The biracial look is in vogue in advertising. The process of changing racial definitions continues, and dramatic new developments may be on the horizon.”—Anthony J. Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), p. 113

Always count on BlackCommentator.com to, once again, boldly go: “Biracial is the New Black,” by K. Danielle Edwards, laments what the author sees as a new light-skinned color standard for Black people in advertising and related contexts:

What’s up with all the olive-skinned, spiral-curled, hazel-, blue- and green-eyed folks standing in for black people in commercials and print advertisements these days?
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