Hip-hop: now with 12% more cock!

Today's stories that have queer people talking

Artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg have created Fleshmap, a series of studies examining “the relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation” (NSFW, of course). Studying thousands of songs from various genres, the artists visually mapped out any references to body parts and the results are fun: while about 2% of rock songs mention the penis (and gospel, none), over 12% of hip-hop songs do! Plus, while only about 5% of those songs mention “pussy,” a full quarter of them include the ass. I guess it really is all about the booty!

I thought Clive Barker’s “Midnight Meat Train” was the scariest thing in a theatre this summer but “Mamma Mia: The Sing-A-Long Edition” opens in Australian theatres this week (and hopefully stays there)! Oh well, at least a room full of ABBA fans will be able to drown out Pierce Brosnan’s singing voice.

Today is John McCain’s birthday. Shouldn’t I ease up on him a little? Nope—he had his chummy little birthday party with George W. Bush three years ago while people were dying in New Orleans. While McCain blows out his candles today, Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Let’s see if he pays attention this time.

A former editor of the late, lamented fab magazine, Scott has been writing for Xtra since 2007 on a variety of topics in news pieces, interviews, blogs, reviews and humour pieces. He lives on the Danforth with his boyfriend of 12 years, a manic Jack Russell Terrier, a well-stocked mini-bar and a shelf of toy Daleks.

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