Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Magazines: Gone Digital, Going Paperless.

The fall and rise of magazines from print to digital. I remember the first time I bought my very first magazine from a Drug Store and the clerk being female asked me why I was buying this. I came out with an answer that I needed it for my Art Class, stupid response at the time and that was the first last time I did that. Later in life I subscribe to receive my magazines at home great idea no one would ever know, until the cost of putting them out was out weighed by the Digital Age. That's when I received a letter stating that my subscriptions were being cancelled and I was given a choice to receive alternates magazines. Boring, I called the Distribution center and cancelled everything. Now I have many magazines stored away and I thought it might be fun to put them out for you look at and see how it goes.

Stay tuned....

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Michael Stokes

Photographer

Beauty of Men

There is a beauty of men
Who sit with words
Robust in their delusions
Simpletons of form and grace
Erasing all illusions
A man who’s heart is beating
Still, endearing language
with his quill
may write his words upon my hips
crushing pomegranates
writhing lips

Monday, January 28, 2019

Sebastian Castro

"Theban"

Sunday, January 27, 2019

cen·sorship

[ˈsensərSHip]

NOUN

the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security

Nazi content survived Tumblr’s “adult content” purge … but so did X-rated images

By Daniel Villarreal /QUEERTY*

“One month after its controversial adult-content purge, far-right pages are thriving on Tumblr,” the website Think Progress recently wrote, pointing out numerous instances of Nazi and white nationalist propaganda on the site.

While Think Progress is right and such content is horrendous, it’s worth nothing that you can still find much gay adult content on Tumblr too.

Tumblr’s massively unpopular decision to ban adult content last December largely drove away its droves of queer sex workers, sex educators, erotic artists, body-positive activists and everyday users all in the name of stopping underage sexual content.

And yet, Think Progress reports that an hour-long search helped them easily find 37 different Tumblr sites “promoting Nazism, white supremacy, ethno-nationalism, and far-right terrorism” even though these pages are a “flagrant violation of Tumblr’s Community Guidelines.”

Tumblr’s guidelines prohibit “content that promotes, encourages, or incites acts of terrorism … hate speech … [or] supports or celebrates terrorist organizations, their leaders, or associated violent activities.”

However, Think Progress easily found two sites celebrating Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi terrorist group connected with the brutal 2018 murder of a gay student. Other pages glorified white supremacist murderers and contained links to propaganda encouraging the slaughter of people of color.

When Think Progress reported these pages to Tumblr, the website quickly took down the content. But that merely shows that Tumblr’s administrators have passed the responsibility of flagging such content onto users rather than themselves.

Meanwhile, Tumblr’s automated system for detecting adult content continues flagging pictures of sand dunes, women sitting on desks, wrestlers and other non-explicit content. Lots of adult content remains on its site despite its recent crusade against it.

Granted, Tumblr is nowhere near the thriving playground of queer sexual expression it once was. Largely gone are images of people copulating, erotic drawings and hardcore kink. Instead, it’s mostly now just soft-core nudity and the occasional cis-male dong.

But Tumblr’s tolerance of racist content shows it has a very real problem on its hands, and it’s not alone. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have all helped far-right, racist ideology go viral — enabling the harassment, threats and doxxing of marginalized people to continue — and none of them have yet come up with consistent systems to stop it.