Playboy: I Read the Articles

Now as many of you may know I have made no bones about my love of the famous Men’s Magazine and I have never tried to cover it up when people come to my home and this has been met by various reactions though not as many as you may think.

I am reminded of a Decade and a half ago when I was 20 hanging out with The Gang and my girl and she was giving me a hard time when she saw the stack of Playboys sitting on my desk to which I stated “I Read the Articles”. This fact was soon verified by my friend Slick who stated it as an almost annoying part of my personality. 

Yes I read the Articles. I’ve been saying it for years now…it has had its fair share of controversies. The truth is that many who see the Brand of Playboy or the iconic Bunny find themselves unable to see past the fact that there are pictures of women without their clothes inside the magazine.

The Lifestyle is what appeals to me. Great Times Beautiful women and intelligent conversations and views on life and freedoms. I like the music and the movie recommendations and the leisure.  

I remember getting my first Playboy in the mid-1990s and like many young boys you think it is going to be cover to cover naked ladies and then you open the pages and after sifting through the many advertisements there are far more articles on politics, relationships, life and the pursuit of the good materials. 

Not too long after this when I would flip through the pages some articles would catch my attention and I would stop and read them and eventually I was buying the magazine more for the articles rather than the pictures especially after the internet came along and you can get much better nudie pics there.

Founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, Playboy became the magazine for upwardly mobile young men who lived hard and partied hard as well. Leading to television shows like Playboy after Dark, a TV channel and Clubs and Casinos all across the earth.

The Lifestyle presented within it’s pages was that of the Jet Setting bachelor that lived well had a great time and the ladies adored. Jazz music was loved and Literature abounded.

Playboy’s articles range from the in-depth interviews with various personalities to drink recipes utilizing which liquor is sponsored by the magazine. 

The Magazine would also feature Adult cartoons and illustrations such as Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny and The works of Dean Yeagle and many more artists.

I personally like the work of Doug Sneyd

I like the interviews due to the fact that sometimes the subject goes off on topics from their work or politics and anything goes in them.   Many will claim that Jimmy Carter was cost reelection due to his interview in Playboy. Jesse Ventura’s interview stirred up much controversy as did recently Gary Oldman.  My favorite was Pierce Brosnan's interview from 2005 

The fiction in the magazine featured many of the best writers of our time Many of Ray Bradbury’s works were published in the magazine as Arthur C. Clarke, Chuck Palahniuk, Ian Flemming’s 007 stories and many other fictional greats of the modern age.  

I have always held the pictures to a different Standard. There was a day when being selected to be a Playmate was a honor and it looked great on the resume for a young model and took your career to a different level.

I personally prefer the artistic direction of the pictures such as the fact that many of them tell a story for the subjects and their personality and the camera itself is a character and the object of the model’s affections.

I mostly like the work of Arny Freytag as I have always wanted to shoot in his style and lately I have become a fan of Cassandra Keyes.

The truth is that admitting that you were a reader  has not always simple because at some point the powers that be deemed playboy to be pornography and I have never considered this to be true and at one point I had a “friend” threaten my life because I would not adhere to his views on the subject.

There was even an article in the September 1997 Issue where in the Forum there is an article where the writer logs his experiences while publicly reading the magazine with the reactions of those around him. While many simply ignored him he seemed to take more angry looks from men that were with their women than the ones that you would expect to have these problems.

All that I have encountered with  reading the magazine in public are various snickers and comments from various males and it is also the experience with buying it in stores as when you were younger there was always the funny exchange in trying to be nonchalant. Granted I never had this problem as I was never embarrassed when buying an issue. As a matter of fact there was a memorable occasion where I had a funny exchange with the checkout girl at Barnes and Noble where I was buying an issue, She agreed that there were better pictures on the Internet.

Now in the past couple of years it has gotten easier with the use of an IPad or Tablet of your choosing with the IPlayboy as you can read any issue including the current issue and the back issues all for the monthly price of $8.99 which is the price of a single issue which I will recommend to all of you 

In recent years there have been quite a few changes in the company. In 2009 Hugh Hefner’s daughter resigned from the company which she had worked as CEO for decades and the current CEO Scott Flanders has stated to the Wallstreet Journal that the company was quickly becoming a primarily a branding company.

This would explain why you are often seeing the logo pop up on many products from Cologne,  Energy Drinks, Tobacco Products, Barware and ,mostly women’s clothes and accessories.

Playboy Magazine’s primary compeditor is none other than Maxim which has gained ground in the past two decades and is able to expand it’s distribution due to the fact more newsstands are willing to carry them, Where Playboy’s distribution has gone down in recent years due to the opposite effect as many news vendors consider this as adult content. Also let us face it the newsstand is quite frankly going the way of the Dodo.

There also had been some recent changes to the website. The creation of the Playboy Now App and Smoking Jacket.com which has now become Playboy.com featuring articles, games, etc. The Website has also dropped nudity with the exception of PlayboyPlus.com.

It was recently announced that Playboy Magazine will no longer be publishing nudity in the magazine and while I understand this direction I have to say that I am not too happy with it.  Not just due to the lack of nude playmates but I like the nude cartoons as well. I honestly like the more adult magazine that I can read without Standards and Practices.

Now that PlayboyPlus has openly stated that it will keep the nudes ,it isn’t that too big of a deal and will be a great way to sell memberships to the site.

What I will miss is the cartoons and illustrations and the Adult Humor in the magazine. I hope that this aspect of the magazine remains but I will miss the nudity there.

Playboy now has the chance to prove that it is the articles and the lifestyle that carries it and not the nudity and I am curious in the direction that this will take.

Another Year in the Twilight Zone

Well Another Holiday season has come and Gone and I have to say that it was not a bad one This year. Usually I am in quite a mood during this time of year but I am feeling in a mood to celebrate this past year. There are many plans that I have and small successes and wins that I am quite proud of

I have Goals that I mean to accomplish and a new business plan to work and a series of projects to bring you in the coming year.

Let us face It I have had some rough ones lately and it is no time to dwell in the past but to look forward to the future.

Now it is ironic that I make that statement considering that I am looking forward to one of my favorate traditions.

For the Past two decades the Sci-Fi Channel now known simply as SyFy has been showcasing their annual marathon of another world created by Rod Serling, the 5^th dimension known as The Twilight Zone.

The Zone has been a pioneer in the Sci-Fi/Horror Genre for half a century and has showcased works from the greatest writers and actors in the industry featuring established stars as well as up and comers who are now industry leaders The Twilight Zone is often imitated but despite two attempts at revival has never been duplicated.

A former Boxer and WWII Soldier himself before becoming a pioneer in television writing, Rod Serling has taken us to a universe with tales of an Airman searching a town where he is the only living being wondering “Where is Everybody” to a Bewitching Pool that is the portal for children feeling unloved can find a place to belong and thrilling us with tales of passengers seeing monsters on the sides of planes in a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, and beauty in a world of ugliness which is all in the “Eye of the Beholder”.

This year the marathon is changing as it goes to a new format covering four days and all episodes of the zone in the order of airing. Granted I admit I prefer the older format with the shuffling of episodes but this is a treat for fans of the zone.

I feel the need to give you my Top 10 Favorites of Zone episodes Submitted for your approval. I know that there will be some shocking picks in my list as these are my episodes that I love the most and I am sure that many of you have your own.

I am not going to go into too much detail in theses episodes as I will recommend the Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree for your reading pleasures.

I will begin with the second episode in the series One for the Angels starring Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton where a street pitchman meets Death himself and takes on the task of saving the life of an 8 year old girl.

My next pick is Mr Bevis also from the 1^st season. Following Henry Bevis the local “Oddball” after a bad day in his life he meets his guardian angel who seeks to give him a better life and adventages by molding him into someone that he does not want to be.

Walking Distance takes on a theme that Serling often visits is the nostalgia of the past where an Add executive running from his life in the city walks to his hometown and transports back intime to a summer of his childhood.

What you Need where a man that can see the future is bullied by a man who wants to exploit his abilities for his own gain.

Another pick is Two where Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery are two wartime rivals who are the last man and woman on earth after the fallout of a war.

The Masks where a wealthy Dying man puts his greedy family in their place by showing them their real faces.

The Hunt where a man and his loving dog die while on a coon hunt and while reacting to their families and friends have to go on Eternity Road to meet their destination.

The Shelter which features no Science Fiction element just the primal instincts of human nature at it’s worst where a Doctor and his family have to face their friends and neighbors inside their bomb shelter.

Passage on the Lady Ann which also feature no Science Fiction element where a Married couple find romance once again onboard a cruise ship and their elderly passangers who seem to not want them there.

Finally No Time like the Past starring Dana Andrews as a time traveling scientist who after failing to stop events in history resides himself to a small town in the past but can’t avoid history.

Do you agree with my choices please feel free to comment with your picks. 

Krampus

I am getting pretty tired of this damn so-called "War on Christmas"!

If I want to say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, or Happy Life Day it is my right. I feel the need to point out that when people say Merry Christmas no one says anything but if you say Happy Holidays to someone who even slightly resembles your stereotypical Right Winger I get yelled at where they say “NO, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!”  Then I say Get a Life.

Just when you think it can’t get any lower then comes this recent deal with Starbucks where people are complaining that because there are no Snowflakes or Reindeer on the Red cups that it is an Attack on Christmas.  This actually gets on my nerves because are they that desperate to find an excuse to complain that they have to just complain that something isn’t Christmas Enough to appease these Bullies.

Now I am a firm believer in something that Bill Maher said last year that the best way to save Christmas is to make it something that we don’t have to endure but just enjoy.

That is why I have made the decision to give my best effort to enjoy this season.

I have my Mondo Friday the 13^th Christmas sweater that I won at a Friday the 13^th Screening and I have been keeping busy shooting for HauntShooter and The Video Creep among others.

Bri, Anjanette, and I have been shooting for The Krampus Sociaty as well as some videos for The Dark Hour Haunted House in Plano.

The Dark Hour is a Year-Round Haunt that opens occasionally for special Holiday Events such as the Creepy Christmas themed Wreck The Halls that I will be shooting.

Naturally with all the Krampus themed events that I have been doing I decided to keep up the theme as well as my decision to enjoy the holidays I decided to check out the new film that has been released in theatres.

So I called up Alan and we headed over to The Alamo Drafthouse to catch the flick.

Krampus is helmed by none other than Trick R Treat’s  Michael Dougherty creating yet another yearly tradition for me to enjoy Krampus takes a look at what the Christmas holiday has deteriorated to for many of us with the shopping Savages, the corporate commercialism and the ignoring of traditions.

Following a family in their holiday misery with an awkward reunion the young son frustrated with the events tears up his letter to Santa which attracts the attention of Krampus.

Soon the family finds themselves trapped in a Blizzard that has them cut off from the rest of the world with the beast outside hunting them.

Now for those of you that are unaware Krampus is the henchman of Santa Clause who punishes the naughty children and drags them to hell.

 Well Krampus is not alone as he has an assortment of Demonic Toys, Impish Gingerbread Men and Elves aiding him in the torment of his victims which adds an element of creepiness to the flick.

The cast is great ranging from Toni Collette to comedians Adam Scott and David Koechner with character actress Conchata Ferrell providing much of the comic relief for the film.

I have often stated that Horror and Comedy if properly used can go together like Peanut Butter and Chocolate and this flick is a great example with the use of comedy and the creepiness of the effects for a great 1-2 Punch.

The Effects are a combined use of Practical Effects and animation to add to its factors and I particularly like the use of one simple location to give us a claustrophobic feel and the coldness of the situation.

The movie keeps you entertained however it does fall to one of the standard pitfalls of the horror film which is when the characters do the opposite of what they should but if they do…Well there would not be too much of a Movie.

13 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts (PG-13)

9 Beasts

Creepy Gingerbread Men

Child Eating Toys

Flames of Hell

Killer Elves

Christmas Fu

Child Fu

4 Stars

Check It Out as it is a New Holiday Tradition.

Creed

It takes a real man to admit that he was wrong. I am a real man and I can at least admit when I was wrong. 

Yes I am a Rocky fan. Have been since I was a child and was introduced to Rocky III and was soon introduced to the WWF through Hulk Hogan’s appearance in the film as well as become a fan of boxing and MMA and have closely followed the series through all of the films.

The films have greatly influenced my life as well as the lives of many others.

When I first heard the announcement for Creed I was none too happy to find out about the plot as I thought that Rocky Balboa was the best way to finish out the series. I thought that the film would suck.

I was also not happy to find out that Burt Young and Tony Evers would not be in the film. Next to Stallone these characters are main stays in the franchise as they have been in all of the films.

Now on the plus side I always felt that there was much to be done with the character of Apollo Creed and when the character was killed in the fourth installment at the hands of Ivan Drago the character and his legacy was all but dropped, with the exception of a few mentions in the next two films.

I apparently was not the only one.

Hot off the success of Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler pitched the idea to Stallone of a spinoff film that followed the son of Apollo Creed as he starts his fighting career and is trained by Balboa.

Fruitvale Station also starred Michael B. Jordan in the role of the ill-fated Oscar Grant and would take on the Title Role of Adonis “Donnie” Creed.

We soon learn that Donnie is the illegitimate son of Apollo and after the death of his biological mother found himself falling thru the  cracks of the system and getting into fights landing himself in Juvenile detention until one day he is found by Mary-Ann Creed and raised as her own.

Now where many people will think that this is history repeating it’s self we soon learn that Adonis has been given the best education and has a great life lined up before him but wants the path of a championship boxer.

Being spurned by Mary-Ann and Apollo’s Academy including the son of Duke,  Donnie travels to Philadelphia where he seeks out Rocky Balboa.

Rocky is pretty much where we left him nearly a decade ago running his restaurant and visiting the grave of his late wife and now his best friend Paulie and soon decides to take on Donnie as his protégé.

While Donnie is romancing a young singer Bianca Rocky soon finds that he is ill and fighting his most deadly opponent…Cancer.

This was an amazing story that while watching with a packed house and hearing the reactions of the attendees who were all into the flick from beginning to end with the humor and highs and lows in emotions in the flick. There was even many with tears in the theatre.

The Camera work was amazing and I am going to get many dirty looks but this was probably the best fight in the sequels from a technical and story perspective.

The film also maintains continuity to the Rocky series and answers the question as to who won the third fight between Rocky and Apollo in the end of the third film. 

There is also a scene where Rocky shows a picture of his son and it is of Sage Stallone who played the character in Rocky V. Sadly Sage passed away in 2012.  

I want to say that I was impressed with Stallone but I have always had him pegged as a great actor and filmmaker but I was more impressed with Jordan who could stand next to Stallone playing the character of Rocky Balboa and still maintain to keep the focus on the film on the Creed character.

Credit also needs to go to Tessa Thompson for her performance as Bianca.

There is already talks of a sequel.

5 Stars

Check it out