If you happened to flip through a PC gaming magazine in the late 1980s or early 1990s, you would’ve probably seen an ad for a game called Leisure Suit Larry, or one of its many sequels. It was a graphic adventure game first released in 1987 with the primary goal of helping its protagonist get laid. Since most games then leaned heavily into cartoon violence, Larry’s sexual innuendo stood out. To young boys at the time, it had the mystique of a shrink-wrapped Playboy in a convenience store.
The game was an initial flop, largely because major retail stores…
If you ever get very stoned and end up searching the Internet Movie Database for “dad,” you will find it’s actually a surprisingly popular title for films and TV shows. There are apparently dozens with the title, all ostensibly about dad(s), spanning across decades. There’s Dads (1986) and Dad (1989) and Dad (1997) and Dad (2005) and Dad (2010) and Dads (2013) and Dads! (2017). Add adjectives and nouns to the mix, and things get even more nuts. A quick scan of a few of the evocative titles: Ghost Dad (1990), Emo Dad (2013), Selfie Dad (2018), and Vampire Dad…
What happens when you challenge the individualistic assumptions of social media?
A few years ago, I launched a communal Facebook account called PublikFacebook™. I was curious: If a social media profile is supposed to reflect our individuality, what would an account that everyone uses look like? What happens when you share your login info with the entire internet?
I created an account and tweeted out its username and ultra-secure password (thepublikfacebook@gmail.com, “password1234”). For the first hour, everything was relatively quiet. Then someone in Berkeley, California, changed the password, locking the account. Since I owned the email address attached to it…
Manufacturers don’t want to get their hands dirty, so these Real Doll artisans come to the rescue
Human relationships are complicated, but one can attempt to circumvent them with some money and no shame. This is the bleak, glorious dream of technocapitalism. Case in point: Sex dolls.
The most popular (and humanoid) option is the RealDoll. For around $6,000 one can get an around 115-pound anatomically correct mannequin with rigor-mortis limbs and the vacant stare of a crash test dummy. If one is willing to lower their standards, they can even purchase “slightly blemished dolls” for a reduced price — an island of misfit toys you can fuck.
The dolls’ manufacturer, Abyss Creations, was established in the…
Joe Veix
a writer based in oakland
