Johnny Murdoc

That just happens to be a Halo fan film:

I like Halo. I love space marines. Helljumper, directed by Dan Wang, is a fan film based on the novella “Dirt” by Tobias S. Buckell, a sci-fi writer I’m really fond of. Wang spent $20,000 of his own money, and crowdsouced additional funds, to make the film.

Do yourself a favor and watch it fullscreen, in hi-def.

Halo Helljumper is a short series of films that follows the life of one human ODST from his enlistment in the UNSC before the Human-Covenant War to around the Fall of Reach. Unlike a lot of soldiers, he was lucky enough to survive through 27 years of a losing battle against a hostile alien civilization, known as the Covenant. Through his experiences, we’re going to expose you to an amazing universe full of devastation, grief, affection, and most importantly, hope.

Adapted from the short story, “Dirt,” by Tobias S. Buckell

And yes, I totally selected screenshots that featured the lead star, Bradley Rose, topless because, come on guys, I know my readers.

My latest blog post for SEX+STL:

If you’re on any sort of social network, chances are pretty good that you’ve come across the following image, or one like it:

If you’re like me, the first time you saw it, the first thing you thought was “Damn straight!” This has been the most prominent reaction that I’ve seen in the numerous comment fields attached to these images. On the image’s most recent appearance on my Facebook wall, the first response is “They don’t make them like they used to…”

I’m here to call “Bullshit.” My first reaction was an emotional one—a bit like showing one’s ass without realizing your pants are down—and the second I put any thought into it, I saw these images for what they are: another form of shaming. And this isn’t just a women’s issue.

Read the rest at SEX+STL’s blog.

Crime writer George Pelecanos has a new book out this week, and he and publisher Reagan Arthur are doing something interesting with the release.

There are three editions of What it Was. A limited edition hardcover:

As well as a cheap trade paperback ($9.99) and an even cheaper e-book (.99 for the first month, $4.99 after that):

The hardcover is a beautiful piece of design:

Small publishers have been experimenting with this type of release, and with focusing on creating beautiful print editions that you would want to have on your shelves, and it’s nice to see a more mainstream author and publisher (Reagan Arthur is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company) try this model out.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet (I pre-ordered the ebook last month), but I’m definitely looking forward to it, and I have to admit that I’m tempted to spring for the hardcover edition.

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(Click to embiggen.)

You can get one here.

My buddy Walt Cessna has a great photo spread in the latest issue of Next Door Magazine, featuring artist Scooter LaForge.

Here are some of the photos, as well as some outtakes from Cessna’s Tumblr:

Walt’s Tumblr is a veritable paradise of erotic photography. He’s by far one of the most prolific photographers that I know of; he updates each day with what feels like dozens of photos, each one adding to a tapestry that reveals Cessna’s friends, culture, and life in a steady stream of revealing photos.

Writer Stephen Elliott (things I have written about Elliott in the past) made a movie, and this week that movie got a trailer:

From the website:

Cherry is about Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw), an 18-year-old girl on the verge of finishing high school. Angelina’s family life is difficult. Her mother (Lili Taylor) is an alcoholic and her step-father is violent and unpredictable. One morning her boyfriend (Jonny Weston) suggests she take naked pictures for money. She balks at first but then does the photo shoot, using the money to run-off with her best friend (Dev Patel) to San Francisco. In San Francisco, while cocktailing in a strip club, Angelina meets Frances (James Franco) a well-off lawyer who offers to introduce her to a different kind of world, a place full of expensive dresses and fancy parties. But that world is not as perfect as it first appears and Frances has problems of his own. At the same time Angelina, using the moniker Cherry, has begun exploring the San Francisco porn industry under the direction of Margaret (Heather Graham) a former performer turned adult film director.

Cherry was shot in the San Francisco Armory, home of Kink.com. At 250,000 square feet the armory is the largest adult film studio in the world. Stephen Elliott, the director of Cherry is a former sex worker who is also the author of seven books. The movie was written by Stephen Elliott and Lorelei Lee, a porn performer who is also a writer and lecturer at New York University.

Cherry challenges assumptions about porn, sexuality, and success, and faces the difficult question of where you need to be in order to find yourself.

Pfft, whatever, it’s not like my dick knew it was an ad.

Via The Sword.

I should be in bed. Instead I’m watching vegan cooking videos on Youtube. Specifically, The Vegan Zombie cooking videos. I found him through the most ridiculously circuitous route (as one finds nearly anything cool on the internet).

I kind of want to make out with this dude, and then have him make me a vegan omelet the next morning. (It is more likely—and preferable—that I will make out with my boyfriend and then have him make me vegan french toast in the morning.) (But I really want to try that omelet.)

Oh, he totally makes vegan french toast, too.

You can find The Vegan Zombie at: YouTube | TheVeganZombie.com | Twitter | Facebook (where I stole all of the above photos from.)

Like thousands of websites across the internet, I’m blacking my site out to protest SOPA & PIPA. Because the tools used to black out my website may work differently in different jurisdictions or browsers, I wanted to write a post about why I’m doing this.

All morning long, I’ve been reading posts by creators that I respect and I honestly think that they can say it more eloquently than I can in the short time I have to write this morning, so I’m going to share some of their thoughts:

You done got swindled, sons and daughters of the creative age.

SOPA and PIPA are not about piracy.

They are about control.

See, the Internet is this unruly pubic tangle of possibility. It is raw potential given form and it puts a great deal of power in the hands of the individual (are you listening, creative-types?). Power in the hands of individuals can, in some cases, wrest power from the hands of corporations. And corporations don’t like that, so they go to the government and they pour giant buckets of money into the government’s slavering maw and lobby for legislation and the result is, in this case, SOPA, PIPA, and any other naughty anti-pirate hydra-heads that pop up.

Writers and creatives — again, as individuals — have a lot of opportunity in the Internet Age, in part due to the innovation and distribution the Internet offers, in part due to the social media that connects us all. Harming these by harming the Internet then harms free expression. And that’s no good.

Just to be clear, in case you don’t realize what it means to give corporations power over censorship and the subject of artistic originality, please cast an eye no further to the MPAA, whose arbitrary and often insane ratings of films put out by the film industry help stifle creativity and the craft and art of filmmaking. You really want that kind of control over sites like YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Google, Wikipedia?

No, you do not.

SOPA and PIPA hit the issue with a hammer when what’s called for is a scalpel.

— Chuck Wendig

I believe every owner of copyrights — everyone who creates art — has these same moral and legal rights, and should have the same ability to address violations. Creators should be able to present their creations on their terms, not anyone else’s.

SOPA/PIPA aren’t the way to do this. These proposed laws are poorly constructed, overly broad and frankly thoughtless, the equivalent of dealing with burglars in someone’s home by carpetbombing every house on the street. You might stop the burglar, but the collateral damage makes it a hollow victory. The collateral damage here would be the hamstringing of the Internet, and trampling rights of speech and expression. That these proposed laws have been debated by a number of US Representatives and Senators who seemed proud of their ignorance of how the Internet works (and at least initially didn’t want to hear from technical experts) made it that much worse.

— John Scalzi

I am not American, nor do I live in America. But the internet is an interdependent creature, and unilateral SOPA or PIPA actions will affect the entire animal. One country, even a country I love and admire, should not wield that power, especially in service of a cause both confused and mendacious.

— Warren Ellis

If you don’t see the blackout page on my website, you can use the easy tools at this website to contact your legislators to do your part to stop SOPA & PIPA: http://americancensorship.org/

It’s a good problem to have.

I made the above graphic yesterday, when I fully intended to blog. It still reflects well on today, though in a slightly different way. I find myself having the first snow day of the year. Snow days are interesting, nearly as exciting to me now as they were when I was in school. It’s nice to have an open day that wasn’t planned for, wasn’t scheduled away.

The latest issue of Handbook Magazine is out:

It contains a new essay that I wrote, “Part of that World:”

I have to admit I have a thing for redneck boys in pickup trucks. With cut-off sleeves and fucked up noses. It gets better if they sneer, if they’re just a little bit ignorant. I have to admit I have a thing for the smell of grease and cigarettes. For dirty jeans and workman’s boots. For guys driving shirtless in souped-up shitty cars with shitty music pouring out of their open windows.

It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to tell you where these desires come from. Where I grew up, in a small town an hour south of St. Louis, MO, there are no gym bunnies or go-go boys. There are no twinks or bears, only lanky guys and big-boned men.

You can buy it at HandbookMen.com.

Last week I finished a story I wasn’t planning on writing. Lately, it feels like everything that I’ve been working on has been in planning stages for quite some time. It’s a natural evolution of my writing career. Stories are getting longer, my plans are getting bigger. The tendrils of friendships that I’ve built have resulted in The Making of Plans with Others, and so the work of writing has to reflect my promises, my intentions, my responsibilities.

But last week, for a few glorious days, I had a new story pop in my head and I found myself with the two or three days it took to write it free. There’s nothing quite like the rush that I get from having pieces tumble together in my brain, to have characters pull together out of almost nothing.

On that note, I should be writing.

Stay hard,
-Johnny Murdoc