tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179784222010-03-07T15:44:25.973-08:00<b>All words, no pictures. (Sorry.)</b>Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.comBlogger350125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-88920281088972410672010-02-24T17:13:00.002-08:002010-02-24T17:37:28.968-08:00

If I hadn’t been semi-retired from this blog by the time the January-February issue came out, I would have had to write something like what Michael C. Moynihan has written about its stupid, offensive travel article “Cuba Libre” at Reason magazine’s blog, Hit & Run: “Libertarian” Playboy Mag Hates Choice, Loves Authentic Communism. There’s nothing sexy about the Castro regime.

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-80983821912029492452010-02-23T16:37:00.001-08:002010-02-23T16:53:24.344-08:00

Please excuse my language, but it pisses me off that people get so chickenshit about words these days. It makes me worry about the future of free speech. In America’s endless cycles of outrage over supposedly racist comments made by obvious non-racists, whoever has the weakest sense of irony makes the rules. The inevitable result is, shall we say, mentally challenged public discourse.In context,

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-36281810474955447102010-01-30T15:49:00.002-08:002010-01-30T15:50:12.344-08:00

I don’t get Holden Caulfield, the first-person narrator of The Catcher in the Rye. His hatred of the “phoniness” of the movies alienates me. I find him sanctimonious, almost morbidly so, for damning Hollywood’s game of iconographic make-believe. A philistine like Caulfield can never admire the cultivated phoniness of Oscar Wilde, for example. If I say so myself, my own essay on the magnificent

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-89475808943092073642010-01-21T12:48:00.001-08:002010-01-21T12:54:51.878-08:00

“If corporations are capable of making the public do their bidding, then why isn’t everyone driving their Edsels to Circuit City to purchase Betamax video recorders?” So asks Bert Gall, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice. I challenge anyone who thinks of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission as bad news, not good, to answer Gall’s question. (

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-56766565566680515382010-01-14T17:22:00.002-08:002010-01-14T17:23:02.773-08:00

According to televangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson, the disastrous earthquake in Haiti was a consequence of the pact with the devil the Haitians made some two centuries ago to drive out their French oppressors. While I wouldn’t make light of the suffering in the Caribbean, I believe ridicule is the best response to callous, moronic statements like Robertson’s. Let’s have

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-42957070368185477452009-12-07T15:01:00.002-08:002009-12-07T15:01:53.456-08:00

These beautiful pundits, brought to us by Bloggingheads.tv, do a better job of extrapolating meanings from the Tiger Woods scandal than I could, so I’ll give them center stage. Keep your ears open for the dirty joke seventeen and a half minutes in.(Update on my other blog: By necessity, my output at Play It Backwards sdrawkcaB tI yalP will proceed slowly until the “Admin” at BlogExplosion

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-58254788067332989772009-11-17T19:50:00.001-08:002009-11-17T19:50:59.483-08:00

Now that I’ve pretty much retired from this blog, I can write a blog about another passion of mine: reversed audio and video. Play It Backwards sdrawkcaB tI yalP will let you experience the subliminal, satanic fun of songs and video clips played backwards. Anything that scares fundamentalist preachers ought to entertain you.

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-8169628540787348042009-10-17T13:19:00.001-07:002009-10-17T13:19:46.409-07:00

...I feel a need to make some amends to improve this blog’s feminist karma before I retire from it. Four years ago today, I started it by posting “Please don’t assume I’m a pig.” In retrospect, I sometimes question that thesis.For example, I have inappropriately sexualized the women of Reason magazine, especially Kerry Howley. I remember seeing an online video at Reason.tv of one of their editors

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-75596367495507859942009-10-15T22:00:00.002-07:002010-02-18T18:27:21.240-08:00

For the past few weeks in particular, I’ve been grateful that my attitude toward drugs resembles Ram Dass’ more than Dr. Drew’s. If Pinsky doesn’t believe in letting people decide for themselves whether marijuana can help them, he surely wouldn’t have approved of my choice to buy MDMA (Ecstasy) powder from hippies in order to treat my post-traumatic stress. After about seven MDMA experiences

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-37765827170730108932009-10-09T20:13:00.002-07:002009-10-09T20:13:42.190-07:00

Thanks to Salon.com’s Broadsheet, I’ve learned that Marge Simpson will have a pictorial in the upcoming November issue in honor of the cartoon’s twentieth anniversary. Many of the Hollywood gossip blogs claim that she gets totally naked, but according to Broadsheet, she wears lingerie. As usual, The Simpsons looks tame in comparison to Family Guy. Marge may have a sensual side, but she’s not a

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-51757747497808850432009-09-29T13:19:00.001-07:002009-09-29T13:20:13.485-07:00

The timing is ironic. Just when the memory of recent mind-opening experiences is encouraging me to admit how bored I am with this blog, the October 2009 Playboy contains a one-page article by Steven Pinker, one of my biggest intellectual influences. I would feel disloyal if I let it go unmentioned.One page is not enough space for Pinker to spread his wings and soar to the logical and rhetorical

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-13604625116878327122009-09-01T14:25:00.004-07:002009-10-18T18:42:37.430-07:00

This is the sequel to “The 37-year-old Ecstasy virgin.” Yes, I’ve met Molly. What a girl!I give thanks to certain members of the hippie community of Humboldt County, California—they know who they are—for helping me blunder my way to a purchase of approximately one gram of MDMA powder last Thursday. Their compassion and willingness to trust me compensated for my awkward lack of street smarts. With

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-66793432549547455922009-08-17T19:28:00.003-07:002009-09-01T14:49:01.436-07:00

That’s me.I’m not a very good playboy. It isn’t a matter of literally embodying the lifestyle championed by my favorite magazine. I’ve been a failure as a playboy simply by lacking the joie de vivre for which it stands. Post-traumatic stress keeps me too unhappy and distracted to work, love, or play. I don’t have the willpower to avoid flashbacks of being humiliated in school and at home during

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-91727121960765803532009-07-31T21:39:00.001-07:002009-07-31T21:39:35.911-07:00

In her naked ambition, Jamie Graham of Ohio State University has gone from the “Girls of the Big 10” pictorial in the October 2008 issue, to a March 2009 Cyber Girl of the Week, to the July 2009 Cyber Girl of the Month. Feminists might be interested to know that the Playboy Cyber Club calls her “opportunistic”—and means it in a good way. The word has often had a negative connotation, especially

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-70212638793627886452009-07-24T22:11:00.001-07:002009-07-24T22:11:54.762-07:00

In this economy, fake newspapers have been hit as hard as real ones. The Onion had to close its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices this year. For his decision to make concessions to advertisers, Onion CEO Steve Hannah has been subject to predictable accusations of selling out. A certain romantic streak in media criticism leads many otherwise intelligent people to smear advertising as the devil

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-58758776908797322512009-07-21T12:33:00.001-07:002009-07-21T12:33:34.484-07:00

Mr. Obama can prattle on about the audacity of hope. I prefer discussion of the twin prerogatives of boldness and shyness. When I reported on Rachel McAdams’ refusal to pose nude for the cover of Vanity Fair, I acknowledged the dignity of both moods, despite the frustration of us guys when a woman as beautiful as McAdams holds back. The “Tease Frame” photo on page 18 of the July-August Playboy

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-5904046148500472102009-07-20T12:27:00.002-07:002009-07-20T12:27:56.155-07:00

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-43326591739685606422009-07-11T17:16:00.001-07:002009-07-11T17:16:45.542-07:00

.suoiralih gnikaerf era esrever ni strops esuaceB ?yhW

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-90358349625265868432009-07-04T15:35:00.002-07:002009-07-04T15:38:15.950-07:00

The melody of the rocket and bomb–loving “Star-Spangled Banner” was inspired by “The Anacreontic Song,” which encourages listeners to “entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’ vine,” eighteenth-century parlance for what we now call sex, drugs, and rock and roll. On this patriotic holiday, I think America might be improved by taking less interest in the works of Mars and more in the works of the

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-18391177992755888692009-06-28T13:13:00.002-07:002009-06-28T13:13:47.701-07:00

“Life’s a pitch, then you buy.”—Billy Mays, quoted by Pat Jordan in the July-August 2009 Playboy.The superstition about celebrities dying in threes may need revision. In less than a week, we’ve lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays. Perhaps it’s fitting to his legacy that Mays died unexpectedly in his sleep at only 50. By example, he has effectively made a pitch for

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-55204705455599663162009-06-26T11:32:00.001-07:002009-06-26T11:32:40.312-07:00

Not only did I catch a performance by some of Humboldt County’s sexiest dancers, but I got to be part of the show. With only 139 seats, Eureka’s North Coast Repertory Theatre is small and cozy, which made it easy for performers of the cabaret-style variety show last week to pull audience members out of their seats to participate. The first time they brought me to the stage that night, I joined a

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-34086979965428965822009-06-25T14:02:00.001-07:002009-06-25T14:02:57.633-07:00

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-36577835001253407542009-06-19T17:46:00.001-07:002009-06-19T17:46:44.114-07:00

If the guy who fucks your mother doesn’t exactly put you in a Hallmark Card frame of mind, let’s commiserate in protest of this unjustified holiday. Take wicked inspiration from the filial impiety of my blog:The Teenage Liberation Repayment Plan™Thanks for, um, the Y chromosome, DadI deeply resent my schooling—and you should resent yours

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-85425362964277172272009-06-02T14:05:00.003-07:002009-11-27T12:53:58.632-08:00

Photo credit: June 2008 Playmate and feminist social critic Juliette Fretté at Examiner.com.“Right-to-lifers” never satisfactorily explain their reluctance to charge women who have abortions with first-degree murder, even though that’s the necessary conclusion to their premise. This leads me to support the pro-choice side of the debate. (More controversially, I support full reproductive choice

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17978422.post-162178368415219362009-05-29T13:26:00.001-07:002009-05-29T13:27:02.600-07:00

Helen Gurley Brown wrote Sex and the Single Girl in 1962, which enabled her to rise to the editorship-in-chief of Cosmopolitan three years later. She transformed it into Playboy’s twin sister, a guidebook for fun-loving single women. Appropriately enough, the August 1972 centerfold (NSFW) in Playboy showed Linda Summers gazing at the Burt Reynolds centerfold in the April 1972 Cosmo. But Brown had

Brian Sorgatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243503053154933975brian423@gmail.com0