• Best Fantastic Erotica from Circlet Press. This is a small press just down the street from me. I met Cecilia Tan back in 1998 (wow! ten years ago!) at the International Bisexual Conference IV at Harvard. She and her partner have been running Circlet Press for years and years, and the cover letter that came with my review copy pointed out something interesting I'd never thought of: Circlet Press has had an impact on the scifi genre as a whole. Good examples? Uber-sexxay Tricia Helfner as Number 6 in the new Battlestar Galactica. Inara in Firefly. Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. Is it a girly thing? A pervy thing? Who cares? Science fiction is no longer JUST about hard science or sociology. Me likey.
  
  The anthology itself can be rather uneven but still totally worth the read. Winners of the contest appear first in the book, and I thoroughly enjoyed the lush, sensual descriptions of the winner, "Monsoon," by Arin Dembo. It's also nice to see Indian mythology penetrating American culture. Uh huh huh. I said "penetrating." "Marked," by Cody Nelson, evokes shades of the AIDS epidemic. Plus, really hot, kinky gayboy sex. "The Night the New Hog Croaked," however, echoed every annoying thing about typical kinky pr0n that you can think of (uber dominant females in tight corsets and 5-inch platforms). The prose of that piece lays in the stomach like one of Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, but parts of the story still please. "Copperhead Renaissance" fascinates and disturbs at the same time and serves up a little ironic twist in the last paragraph. "Nocturnal Emissions," about a Catholic priest's relationship with a wild spirit, will be a great read for anyone interested in the history of the rise of Christianity in Europe. And "Twilight" (the first story I flipped to), while less than stellar in the prose department, offers a compelling story about an oft-explored subject: vampires and Van Helsing. Plus, the descriptions of the New York subways made me homesick.
  
  Overall, I would recommend searching out this anthology. It's still rare to find straight-up erotica mixed with science fiction and fantasy. As with comix and fanfic, the genre allows for unexpected possibilities you won't find in the mainstream.
  


• Echo, from Terry Moore, the artist who brought you Strangers in Paradise. Early in my entree into the world of comics (I came to it late -- you can blame Hugh Jackman and Brian Singer), I was discussing the dearth of female comics with Tony, the awesome proprietor of Million Year Picnic. He mentioned that many people assumed that Terry Moore was a woman since Strangers in Paradise had such a strong female voice and since the female characters lack the bizarre boobie phenomenon so prevalent in most mainstream comics. Alas, Terry Moore is an XY, but we won't hold that against him. The story line of his new self-published title contains many familiar comic tropes (secret agent, girls with super powers), but Moore manages to inject a freshness to the old themes with brilliant characterization, suspenseful storytelling, and his characteristic pleasing, accurate drawing style.
  



• Buffy Season 8 For those of you who have been hiding under a rock (or who don't keep up with the Whedon fandom sites), the Buffy story didn't end with Season 7 on Fox, or Angel Season 5. Whedon continues the line, sans the restraints of the TV medium, with Buffy Season 8. You'll find plenty of reviews online, so I'll just mention the highlights: hot Buffy girl-on-girl action in the latest issues, combined with Whedon's characteristic humor and wordplay. Artwork varies but for the most part provides more accurate depictions of the female form than you'll find in, say, the Marvel line
  



• Angel: After the Fall Not my favorite comic of all time. Too many monsters and not enough character development. But folks who fell in love with Wesley Wyndham-Price, everyone's favorite green demon, and the rest of the gang will have fun reading about their further exploits in the hell that broke forth over L.A. at the conclusion of Season 5.



• Misericordia The only bona fide new title written by a woman I've come across recently. Better than some efforts I've seen, but not quite A-list material. Mostly wordless, with evocative drawings and an interesting story line involving a dystopian, possibly post-apocalyptic society.



• Bitch Magazine. Feminist response to pop culture. Can be a bit dour at times, so I recommend reading Bust (for women with something to get off their chests) as a counterpoint, which can be a bit too frivolous at times. Mix them together like cheese and crackers.

• Firefox I missed Angelina Jolie's early work and have been rectifying this omission slowly via my Netflix queue. Gia, the drama-mentary about the first supermodel to bring "fierce" to the catwalk, should be a staple for lesbians looking for more recent evidence that we exist. Firefox, however, holds together much better as a movie. It's a rare thing in modern media, a bildungsroman for girls. Empowerment, rebellion, sexual awakenings, and haunting endings, plus a kick-ass revenge scene for all girls who have ever survived sexual abuse at the hands of authority figures.
  


• The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman Laura Kightlinger joins the ranks of women in the film industry sick of men's stranglehold on production and writing and makes her own damn series. Acerbic, satirical, sometimes cynical, and often funny, it tells the story of two women out to scramble to the top of the heap in L.A. Makes me glad I live in Boston. Favorite line so far?
  Magazine editor: "You can't write for someone else! That would be cheating!"
  Jackie Woodman (gesturing to her clearly female form): "Do you see a ring around this cock?"
  

1. XKCD continues to surprise and impress me with its depth and breadth of subject matter, and the ability to express so very much with such simple lines. You can't make everything better for other people no matter how much you want to.


2. I woke up yesterday morning feeling more like a human being and less like a stoned alien life form trapped in a 34-year-old woman's body. This cold-abatement period is actually the most dangerous of times for me. When I was younger, I would tend to think that I was immortal and unbreakable. Now that my breasts are sagging a bit and the wrinkle between my brows is never entirely gone, I'm a bit more careful with myself.


3. Increased sense of my own mortality did not prevent me from going on a date with an ex-Army-Seargent-come-nursing-student last night. Best opening line ever (via email): "Is Strangers in Paradise still good?" He's like me with the hidden layers and surprising facts. Like the tattoo of a Griffin rampant between his shoulderblades. I can't remember if I told Ace about this new acquaintance, but we've got a pretty good sense of expectations around the sort of relationship we have with one another. My cultural programming around compulsory monogamy goes pretty deep. I constantly feel like I have to apologize for wanting to date other people and generally be a free little uncaged bird. But the guys (and the girls) get it. "I think I'm just so crazy and demanding that I need more than one lover to satisfy me," I said to Army Guy last night. "There's nothing crazy about asking for what you want," he replied. Sensibility is almost as sexy as good wrestling skills.


4. The Pixies' Come on Pilgrim is perhaps the most perfect album ever made. Punk in Spanish ROXXX. Your Daddy's rich, your Momma's a pretty thing! (rhythmic screaming) Vamos a jugar por la playa!


5. I'm planning to read at Gender Crash this Thursday. I am nervous -- not unreasonably so. The Boston poetry scene is about as friendly as Bostonians are in general. It's Valentine's Day. I've begun a series of Valentine poems--not just Valentines in honor of erotic love, but also in honor of platonic and agape love. This will be the first cohesive collection of poems I've put together in about four years. I've made up my mind to stop farting around on the Intarwebs and start my own micropress. Stay posted. And if you really want my undying devotion, send in your pre-orders once I've got my tits together and put my nefarious printing plans into motion.

Sex and religion prompt newspapers to censor "Opus" comic

In Opus -- Berkeley Breathed's comic strip followup to Bloom County -- the ever-changeable Lola Granola has taken up conservative Islam as her latest fad. In response, chickenshit newspaper editors across America have pulled the strip, scared of offending people with sex and religion. As Dan Gillmor writes at The Center for Citizen Media Blog, "Puritan prudishness and political cowardice: Now there's a combination that's just certain to attract more readers."

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