Boris goes for round two, says the Standard
In a sources say, nudge-nudge, Evening Standard-has-learned way, Boris is going to run for a second term of mayor in 2012.
Ken Livingstone, his opponent, has another hurdle to overcome to get the Labour designation, after former Enfield councillor Seton During announced his candidacy.
Photo: Matt from London
23 Jun 2010
Snipe Likes: Memory Tapes
One of the better things to come out of the recent swathe of reverb-ridden bedroom pop bands known to internet indie-kids alternately as “glo-fi” or “chillwave” is the resurgence of nice looking video clips. Stock nature footage is overlaid with educational tape stuff or crackly video of the night sky; the colours are either bleached out like old camera film or have the contrast blasted up to a lurid eleven. Everything double-exposed or rolling lazily or spinning with retro effects. This is a double-exposed gem of a video for the hyped-but-good Memory Tapes. Lovely stuff.
23 Jun 2010
Daily MPfree: Perfume Genius
Emerging indie scene darling Perfume Genius has just released his debut album, ‘Learning’. It’s a dark, intimate, brilliant record and “Look Out Look Out” is one of the standout tracks. We’ll be interviewing Perfume Genius at his debut UK show at Hoxton Hall next month: watch this space.
23 Jun 2010
How did North Korea take its 7-0 loss? NK TV cut the feed before the end
North Korea’s government is infamous for not only creating a culture that claims Korean supremacy but also for limiting the information available to the population, even to the extent that many radios do not have antennas but are basically hard-wired speakers.
So, how does the government of supermen deal with a 7-0 loss to Portugal at the World Cup. According to Current TV, not very well:
Instead of uplifting propaganda, they saw their team on the receiving end of a humiliating 7-0 thrashing – the worst result of this year’s tournament so far and enough to stop them advancing to the next round.
As the game drew to an end, coverage of Monday’s match was quickly halted. A Korean Central Broadcasting commentator curtly informed viewers, “The Portuguese won the game and now have four points. We are ending our live broadcast now.”
22 Jun 2010
Daily MPfree: Hammock
Long-running partnership Hammock‘s first gig was played at the request of Sigur Ros frontman Jonsí at the launch of his Riceboy Sleeps project, which might give you some idea of what to expect. But Hammock go much farther than many bands in the ambient / post-rock sphere, crafting truly beautiful, gentle, evocative pieces that linger in the memory.
22 Jun 2010
Live map of London Underground trains
Matthew Somerville (with Frances Berriman and James Aylett) took the newly released live data feed from Transport For London and created a Google map that shows where the trains are in the Underground. And they move! Trippy. Live Undergroud Map
21 Jun 2010
Savage Love: Not Horny, Not Happy
I’m a woman in my 20s, and I’ve been dating the love of my life for two years now. We are incredibly happy except for—guess!—we have different sex drives. When we first started dating, I initiated sex all the time and enjoyed it, but as soon as I started on birth control, my libido evaporated. After a nightmarish year of trying different methods, arguing with doctors, and hurt feelings, I decided that it wasn’t worth it, and we’ve stopped using any hormonal birth control (we’re using condoms).
But months later, I still have almost no interest in sex or masturbation. We have sex once or twice a week, but it’s physically boring. I put on my game face and endure it. I enjoy pleasing him, but it does nothing for me. It hurts him that I am not interested in sex and that he can’t arouse or please me. I want us to have a healthy sex life, because I love him and he’s worth it. Could this still be the birth control? Did I somehow flip the OFF switch?
Please help, Dan. My doctors are all sex-negative and don’t see the problem, and I want to enjoy sex again.
Not Horny, Not Happy
Your problem doesn’t sound like a case of differing sex drives, NHNH, but like a healthy sex drive that’s been derailed.
“Birth control pills can decrease sexual desire if they substantially lower testosterone levels,” says Cindy M. Meston, PhD, professor of clinical psychology at University of Texas at Austin and author of Why Women Have Sex. “The pill supplies a steady dose of hormones, so that the body stops producing its own unsteady, cyclical dose.” The pill keeps your estrogen level high in order to prevent ovulation, while also “increasing the sex-hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which binds to testosterone, thus blocking it from being ‘read’ by the body.”
Testosterone plays a huge role in female libido, and blocking testosterone doesn’t do your libido any favors. And while most women who experience a severe drop in libido on the pill bounce back a few months after they stop taking it, some women aren’t so lucky.
“One well-regarded researcher, Irwin Goldstein, found that after stopping the pill, SHBG remained high in some women and testosterone levels didn’t go back up,” says Meston. “It’s not common, but it could explain this woman’s situation. The best thing for her would be to go to a gynecologist, urologist, or endocrinologist who specializes in sexual medicine (make sure they actually know what the hell they’re measuring) and have all her reproductive hormones measured. If she’s low in testosterone, she can take testosterone supplements.”
That means you’ll have to fire your current sex-negative doctors, NHNH, and find yourself some new, sex-positive ones—and you’ll have to stick with them.
“She needs a good doctor to monitor her closely, as too much testosterone causes bad side effects in women—side effects like facial hair growth.”
I also shared your e-mail with Debby Herbenick, PhD, sexual-health educator at the Kinsey Institute and author of Because It Feels Good, and she feels there’s a chance your problem isn’t hormonal.
“In working with people, what I more often have found—and wrote about in my book—is something I call a ‘cycle of dread.’ I know that sounds ‘magazine-y’ but it’s the best way I can think of to describe it, and this woman seems to epitomize it.”
A cycle of dread—let’s call it COD—can kick in when someone keeps having sex she doesn’t want to have, or isn’t enjoying, because she feels she must.
“Sometimes, it works out all right—once they start going, it feels better. But quite often, they don’t want it, they do it anyway, it sucks (‘physically boring,’ ‘I put on my game face’), and they do it anyway and keep doing it.”
And COD, like SHBG, can flip your libido’s off switch. So what do you do if COD’s the issue?
“She should work with her partner,” says Herbenick. “Talk about the situation, acknowledge that sometimes she doesn’t want sex, or that type of sex.” Herbenick believes a temporary “ban on intercourse”—or taking “vaginal off the menu,” as I’ve recommended in similar circumstances—“can help couples learn to touch each other again with pleasure.”
I think you should take the advice of both of our guest experts: Initiate a ban on intercourse for now, NHNH, because you’re not doing you, your libido, or your boyfriend any favors when you put on that game face and go through the motions, and go get your hormone levels checked.
What does a person do when an LTR starts to feel stagnant or boring or dull?
Partnered But Jonesing
A person experiments (with partner), cheats (on partner), or breaks up (with partner).
I have a dilemma. Even though I was born in 1972, people always assume that I’m in my mid-20s. I tend to attract girls in their early 20s, and when they ask how old I am, I counter with “How old do you think I am?” They invariably guess an age that I haven’t seen in more than a decade. When I tell these 21- to 23-year-olds the truth, it’s a complete turnoff. Just last night I had to endure—that’s endure, not Ensure—my third brush-off at the hands of a hot 21-year-old girl in a row!
So what’s an apparent senior citizen like myself to do? Do I just wait hopelessly for the dreaded question to come up? Do I blurt out “I’m old” as soon as a woman walks up to me? Do I take measures to try to look my age?
You’re probably wondering why I don’t just go for women closer to my own age. Here’s why: Women my own age tell me that they’re looking for serious relationships and I look way too young for that and they worry that my looks mean I’m a total player!
You’re Only Using Numbers, Girls
First, YOUNG, maybe your problem is the lousy puns. Endure/Ensure? That would earn you a brush-off from me.
But if older women aren’t interested because you look too young, and younger women aren’t interested because you are too old—if you’re actually being discriminated against based on your age/looks—then you have a license to lie to women, young and old.
Let younger women think you’re in your 20s until they get to know you better. Then disclose and apologize for the deceit without being too abject about it. You had cause. As for women closer to your own age, well, instead of telling them you’re very nearly 40, YOUNG, let ’em think you’re a twentysomething with a thing for older women. Then if a puma—or panther or cougar or otter or whatever—decides to dump you because she’s getting too attached and the (presumed) age difference is simply too great, bust out your birth certificate, apologize, and propose.
CONGRATS: Two years ago, an openly gay student at Hudson High School in upstate New York ran for prom queen. He won—but school officials “denied him the crown.” This year, two openly gay students—best friends, both boys—at Hudson High ran for prom king and queen and won “in a landslide.” School officials didn’t stand in their way, and Charlie Ferrusi and Timmy Howard got their crowns.
Congrats to 2008’s rightful prom queen, Augie Abatecola; congrats to this year’s prom queen and king; congrats to the school officials who learned their lesson; and congrats to all the students at Hudson High.
Find the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at snipe.at/savage..
21 Jun 2010
Daily MPfree: Meursault
Impassioned, Epic, lo-fi indie from the Scottish collective’s recent album, “All Creatures Will Make Merry”.
21 Jun 2010
Vatican recommends 'The Blues Brothers' for viewing by Catholics everywhere
The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has called the 1980 film, the Blues Brothers, ‘a “Catholic classic” and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere.’
Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as two blues musicians ‘on a mission from God’ to save the Catholic orphanage from which they were raised, the Blues Brothers really has no Catholic values to impart.
Blame it on Vatican II, along with the rest of society’s degradation.
18 Jun 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
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