The current L.A. Alternative Press cover story, Dangerous Curves Ahead, explores the SuicideGirls web phenomenon that began in the Pacific Northwest and now is based in Los Feliz. Is it porn with tattoos and piercings, or something more artistic and culturally important? As the paper asks, "empowered erotica for real women or simply internet porn for hipsters?"

So it would seem, then, that suicidegirls.com is less about showing porn, and more about showing artfully-shot pinups. With daily journal entries from the girls, places where readers can comment and dialogue, and friend networks, each model’s page goes a long way towards making her a fully-realized person, and not just a montage of body parts across a screen.

"These womyn have all kinds of agency and they appear to be enjoying themselves at the same time," notes Regina Lark, Ph. D. and Assistant Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. "They’re also quite adept at the technology that allows them to put their images on line, to webstream into their homes. And quite honestly I really applaud that kind of innovation."

Tonight at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood is the first performance of what is billed as the "SuicideGirls Live Burlesque Tour" across North America, subtitled "the absolute best time you can have with eight girls, six firearms and five bottles of chocolate sauce." (Links are not what most would consider "work safe"). Also in the L.A. Alternative Press, Marc Haefele looks at the ethnic politics behind the troubles at downtown's troubled Los Angeles Theater Center.

* Not to be forgotten: CityBeat did a SuicideGirls cover story last September.