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The Hooksexup Insider
A daily pick of what's new and hot at Hooksexup.

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Your daily cup of WTF?

Hooksexup@SXSW 2006.
Blogging the Roman Orgy of Indie-music Festivals.

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The Daily Siege
An intimate and provocative look at Siege's life, work and loves.

Kate & Camilla
two best friends pursue business and pleasure in NYC.

Naughty James
The lustful, frantic diary of a young London photographer.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: kid_play

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: Super_C

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: ILoveYourMom
A bundle of sass who's trying to stop the same mistakes.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: The_Sentimental
Our newest Blog-a-logger.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: Marking_Up
Gay man in the Big Apple, full of apt metaphors and dry wit.

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Naughty and philosophical dispatches from the life of a writer-comedian who loves bathtubs and hates wearing underpants.

The Hooksexup Video Blog
Deep, deep inside the world of online video.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: charlotte_web
A Demi in search of her Ashton.

The Prowl, with Ryan Pfluger

Hooksexup @ Cannes Film Festival
May 16 - May 25

ScreenGrab
The Hooksexup Film Blog

Autumn
A fashionable L.A. photo editor exploring all manner of hyper-sexual girls down south.

The Modern Materialist
Almost everything you want.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: that_darn_cat
A sassy Canadian who will school you at Tetris.

Rose & Olive
Houston neighbors pull back the curtains and expose each other's lives.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: funkybrownchick
The name says it all.

merkley???
A former Mormon goes wild, and shoots nudes, in San Francisco.

chase
The creator of Supercult.com poses his pretty posse.

The Remote Island
Hooksexup's TV blog.

Brandonland
A California boy capturing beach parties, sunsets and plenty of skin.

61 Frames Per Second
Smarter gaming.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: Charlotte_Web
A Demi in search of her Ashton.

The Hooksexup Blog-a-log: Zeitgeisty
A Manhattan pip in search of his pipette.

Date Machine
Putting your baggage to good use.

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A Perfectly Cromulent Beat-Em-Up

Were you aware that newly-released XBox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers is a revival of the old arcade genre known as the beat-em-up (or brawler) that flourished in a roughly five-year period? Of course you are. You're reading a gaming blog, for Christ's sake.

But you might not be aware of this absolute fact: The Simpsons, Konami's take on the genre--seemingly perfected a few years earlier with their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--is the best damned beat-em-up to ever exist. Here's a brief reminder:

Capcom would eventually move things to the next level with their Dungeons and Dragons arcade games, but no beat-em-up was more fun than The Simpsons.

Where is Doug TenNapel?

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

Over the past few years, I've become convinced that Doug TenNapel is one of the most enviably original dudes in the history of mankind. The man has been the creative voice behind some of the most original animation (Catscratch), graphic novels (Creature Tech), films (Sockbaby Watch it. You will love it.), and video games (The Neverhood) in recent history. He won an Eisner Award (the top honors for comic book creators) for his work on Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror!

But his most famous creation is the quirklicious Earthworm Jim. He designed the characters, wrote the story, even voiced Jim himself in the first two games. In the past two years, more or less since the disintegration of the Earthworm Jim PSP remake, Doug's disappeared from the world of games.

So where's he been?

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.

CONTRIBUTORS

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

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