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Here we go again: A couple months after digital comics seller Comixology pulled (and then reinstated) an issue of the popular series Saga from the Apple App Store for fear that the comic was too racy for Apple's guidelines, they've just announced that they've pulled 56 titles from their app's store for the same reason. Robot 6 says Saga is unaffected this time around, but Comixology pulled titles ranging from local publisher Fantagraphics' Angry Youth Comix to Joe Casey's new Image Comics series Sex, to... ...Jess Fink’s Chester 5000, Reed Waller and Kate Worley’s classic Omaha the Cat Dancer, Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit and the gay-comics anthology No Straight Lines, which features the work of Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse and Eric Shanower, among others. These books are still available from Comixology's website, but they're not available from Apple's Comixology app. That distinction is probably enough to pacify many people who'd otherwise be angered by this move, but I still think this is bullshit. Apple needs to sell adult content—not even pornography, I'm talking about comics created for adults by celebrated cartoonists like Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse, for fuck's sake—and not be stupid Puritan fucksticks about it. Those books have been available in Barnes & Nobles around the country for years now, to no great controversy. When the biggest digital storefront for comics in the world restricts the books they sell to all-ages content, they are holding the medium of comics back from what it could become. (And this is especially ridiculous when you acknowledge the fact that you can buy 50 Shades of Grey in the iBookstore any time you want.) [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

So much good stuff today, including: (Touchy Feely screens at 7 pm tonight at the IKEA Performing Arts Center in Renton, and again on Saturday at 1:30 pm at the Egyptian in Seattle.) (Barzan screens at 7 pm tonight at the Harvard Exit.) (More Than Honey screens at 8:30 pm at SIFF Uptown.) Full guide here! [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

*Robert Griffin III’s father believes that the Washington Redskins should devise an offensive game plan that has his son passing more and running less. Robert Griffin Jr. expressed his opinions to The Washington Post on Wednesday. “I just know that based on what I know Robert can do, he doesn’t have to be a runner as much as I saw last year,” Griffin Jr. told the newspaper. “To me, you’re paying these [receivers] a lot of money to catch the football. I’m his dad — I want him throwing that football, a lot. A lot.” Griffin III, recovering from surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right knee suffered in the Redskins’ playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, has said his goal is to return in Week 1 if he’s healthy enough to do so. He appears to be making good progress in his rehab and even did jumping jacks for fans at the team’s draft event in April to show how good he is feeling. RGIII ran the ball 120 times for 815 yards in the Redskins’ zone-read offense. Griffin Jr. told The Post that his son has talked to coach Mike Shanahan and his son, Kyle Shanahan, the team’s offensive coordinator, about the offense. “I think for [Griffin III], he likes some of the things that they do. And he feels any area where he had a concern, he addressed it. And I think [the Shanahans] have concerns, too. We want to have a united community,” he told the newspaper. “That first year everybody was just, ‘Wow.’ And now we have to look at sustainment. It can’t be a ‘Wow’ again.” Shanahan has said he’s hoping his young star learns from his injury and will choose to slide rather than look for contact when he does run.

Earlier this week we spilled quite a bit of pixel dust in praise of Blank Realm’s LP Go Easy, out now via Fire Records. As such, we thought we’d conjure up the opportunity for one of you to get your hands on the release, on glorious pink vinyl. “Blank Realm has been knocking around Brisbane, Australia for over half a decade, spurting out small-press underground rumblings on all sorts of formats. But with the release of Go Easy they are swaggering confidently into a bigger spotlight. The record actually came out last year and kicked up a fair amount of positive dust, but in the end that response just wasn’t satisfactory, for the UK label Fire Records has recently given it another well-deserving and higher-profile press, this time on pink vinyl. Listeners favorable to a meeting of Royal Trux’s more rocking moments and the raggedy thrust of the current garage scene should find it a keeper.” “The group is composed of two brothers and a sister, Daniel (vocals/drums), Luke (bass), and Sarah (synths/vocals) Spencer, with Luke Walsh (guitar/engineering) completing the lineup. Based on a casual first impression, the foursome seems to be tapping into a definite ‘90s indie vibe, a circumstance that’s only deepened by the comparisons between the band and the early/mid-‘90’s recordings issued by Royal Trux… Very frequently when listening to a record, a song will arise and immediately reveal its destiny as the consensus “hit” of the platter. That’s not the case here. Understandably, lots of folks are currently celebrating the odd pop of “Cleaning up My Mess,” but from where I’m listening, Go Easy has four more cuts out of a grand total of eight that are just as strong. And that’s a downright impressive feat. Due to the surface familiarity of their sound, Blank Realm is likely to be underrated a bit, but with this LP they’ve charted a fresh entry in the annals of Australia’s rocking history, and that’s a circumstance deserving of generous praise.” Enter to win our pink vinyl copy of Blank Realm’s Go Easy by sharing with us in the comments below the coolest record you own on any color vinyl. (There’s actually a Best of 70′s Porn Music LP here at TVD HQ and uh, yea…pink vinyl too. No joke.) We’ll choose one winner on 6/3! The band’s on tour too—would it kill you to check ‘em out live? Didn’t think so. Blank Realm Tour Dates: May 24 – Chicago, IL – Burlington May 25 – Cincinatti – Chameleon May 26 – Columbus, OH – The Summit May 27 – Washington – DC – Black Cat May 28 – Brooklyn, NY – Death By Audio May 29 – Philadelphia, PA – Ortlieb’s Lounge May 30 – Chaos in Tejas Red 7 – Austin ,TX June 1 – San Francisco, CA Hemlock Tavern June 2 – Permanent Records in store, Los Angeles June 3 – San Diego , CA – Che Cafe June 5 – Portland, Rotture June 7 – Seattle, Cairo Advertise here with BSA

The Seahawks have reportedly offered former University of Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin G/T Jake Bscherer a free-agent contract, and he'll be signed pending a physical. Bscherer and his complete disregard for normal vowel-consonant principles was one of Seattle's rookie mini-camp tryouts a few weeks back, and apparently impressed the coaching staff enough for another look. Bscherer's path to the VMAC is an abnormal one. He was a blue chip out of high school in 2005 - a SuperPrep top-25, USA Today All-American, Wisconsin Gatorade High School Player of the Year and Rivals' No.4 OT in the nation - and landed at Wisconsin, the famed O-Line U. After spot-duty and special teams work his first two seasons, he redshirted in 2008 due to injury and in 2009 he saw action in 13 games for the Badgers, starting six of them at both left guard and right tackle, losing out in a competition with Gabe Carimi for the coveted left tackle spot. He then took two years off from football, before returning for his final year of eligibility at UM-Duluth, a powerhouse D-II program. Now, at 25, the guard/tackle looks to extend his career into the pros, and hopefully the two years off, resting his body and getting back into shape, will pay off. As for measureables, Bscherer compares favorably to 2nd overall pick Luke Joekel, so that's generally speaking a good thing. Bscherer measured 6063, 305 pounds with a 5.22 40 yard dash, a 4.60 short shuttle, and a 7.40 3-cone. Compare to 6'6, 305 pound Joekel, who ran a 5.25 40, registered a 4.68 short shuttle and a 7.40 3-cone. Does that make Bscherer ACTUALLY comparable to Joekel? Of course not. One was the 2nd overall pick and an elite tackle prospect and the other is a 25-year old undrafted free agent that played D-2 ball last year after taking two years off. They're just similar athletes with strikingly similar size/speed numbers. Here's an hour and a half of scouting tape on Bscherer (#79) - if any of you actually watches this whole thing I'll just go ahead and give you Field Gulls. --------- The one thing that does strike me about Bscherer is that he's fairly light on his feet. His forty isn't pretty, but his L-cone and short shuttle change-of-direction is pretty damn impressive, honestly, for a guy his size. He wastes almost no movement planting his foot and going the other direction, and though he's anything but fast in a straight line, that short area quickness is way more important for linemen anyway. The term 'dancing bear' is thrown around for the elite tackles - humungous, agile offensive linemen and the key attribute they all share is good, quick feet. While I'm definitely not going to say Bscherer is a so-called dancing bear, I am going to link to this video of a bear fighting a guy, because talking about dancing bears reminded me of this and how much I loved this in high school or something: For a little perspective on Bscherer's 3-cone and short shuttle times - it's worth noting that the 4.6 short shuttle would have been 6th amongst tackles in this year's class and his 3-cone of 7.4 would have been tied for 2nd best, behind only Lane Johnson and tied with Joekel. Bscherer may not be the elusive dancing bear but he's pretty damn athletic for a 6'6, 305 pound fella. The team hasn't announced the signing quite yet but it's being reported in numerous spots that he'll be a Seahawk as soon as he passes a physical.

This has been all over the news, but I thought Slog might care as well—yesterday, in advance of Obama's speech on national security today, the administration admitted it has killed US citizens with drones, some on purpose and some accidentally. From the Guardian: Earlier, the White House marked this new effort to draw a line under the controversial drone-strike policy by admitting for the first time that four American citizens were among those killed by its covert attacks in Yemen and Pakistan since 2009. In a letter to congressional leaders sent on Wednesday, attorney general Eric Holder Holder claimed one of the US citizens killed, Anwar al-Awlaki, was chief of external operations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) and had been involved in plots to blow up aircraft over US soil. However, Holder said three others killed by drones – Samir Khan, Abdul Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki and Jude Kenan – were not "specifically targeted". The second of these victims, Anwar al-Awlaki's son, is said by campaigners to have been 16 when he died in Yemen in 2011. The US government carrying out assassinations of its own citizens is obviously a major problem—especially if they're accidentally killing other American citizens in the process. But Obama did his artful pivot move by releasing this information into the public sphere just before announcing in the speech that he was going to bring the drone program out of the "legal shadows" of the CIA and transfer it to the Pentagon, giving Congress—and, ostensibly, the rest of us—more oversight. (That move should go down in the history books as "the Obama": Announce something bad just before you announce that you're going to take strong action against that bad thing, making you the good guy in the situation, even if the bad thing happened under your watch.) And how many non-American citizens have been assassinated—or accidentally killed—by our covert drone program? The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that between 240 and 347 people have been killed in total by confirmed US drone strikes in Yemen since 2002, with a further 2,541 to 3,533 killed by CIA drones in Pakistan. That, I would venture to guess, has not been winning hearts and minds. But in general, Obama's speech (transcript here) promised to take the US off the "perpetual war-time footing" it has been on since 9/11, and recognized that our national security apparatus may undermining, and not simply defending, the democracy we claim to love: All these issues remind us that the choices we make about war can impact – in sometimes unintended ways – the openness and freedom on which our way of life depends. And that is why I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing. We'll see. UPDATE A protester/heckler tried to interrupt the speech—to condemn the Guantanamo facility, the drone strikes, etc.—but Obama handled it very suavely, and the crowd was happy to clap in order to drown her out. You can see video of that here. And this part of the speech, in which he discusses closing the Guantanamo facility, is also worth quoting: The glaring exception to this time-tested approach is the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The original premise for opening GTMO – that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention – was found unconstitutional five years ago. In the meantime, GTMO has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law. Our allies won’t cooperate with us if they think a terrorist will end up at GTMO. During a time of budget cuts, we spend $150 million each year to imprison 166 people –almost $1 million per prisoner. And the Department of Defense estimates that we must spend another $200 million to keep G

Dear pants, Things lately have not been going well between us. What with summer approaching and the Hawks offseason smorgasboard, I have been feeling some distance. Things were great during the many 100-loss seasons for the M's, the rebuilding after the Huskies 0-12 season and the cold empty winters of no NBA basketball. You were my go to thing when i needed to feel some warmth inside. But recently the Hawks started getting good...very good. They signed and traded for some unbelievable players, had another underrated draft class and appear on their way to forming a dynasty to end all dynasties. These events have been causing a lot of excitement for me and has torn us apart. The more I try to hang on, the more distant you become with each successive franchise move. For that reason i think we need to go our seperate ways. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the line we'll meet up again. Like at the next Mariner game I attend with Aaron Harang as the pitcher. Please don't cry, its not you, its me. Till we meet again. Sincerely , Eric Dear pants, Things lately have not been going well between us. What with summer approaching and the Hawks offseason smorgasboard, I have been feeling some distance. Things were great during the many 100-loss seasons for the M's, the rebuilding after the Huskies 0-12 season and the cold empty winters of no NBA basketball. You were my go to thing when i needed to feel some warmth inside. But recently the Hawks started getting good...very good. They signed and traded for some unbelievable players, had another underrated draft class and appear on their way to forming a dynasty to end all dynasties. These events have been causing a lot of excitement for me and has torn us apart. The more I try to hang on, the more distant you become with each successive franchise move. For that reason i think we need to go our seperate ways. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the line we'll meet up again. Like at the next Mariner game I attend with Aaron Harang as the pitcher. Please don't cry, its not you, its me. Till we meet again. Sincerely , Eric

You're invited! Hear compositions by @UWSchoolofMusic grad students performed by SSO musicians on June 4 at 3:30pm:

I have news from Morgan Stanley for Jeremy Griffin and the SAFE activists attempting to block his eviction in South Seattle: "We do not own the loan and had no involvement in the foreclosure process," says Mark Lake, a Morgan Stanley spokesman. This despite Morgan Stanley, along with Deutsche Bank, being listed as plaintiffs on the eviction order. This stuff is complex, but from what I understand based on my reporting, Morgan Stanley was responsible for packaging a set of loans together, including Griffin's, and selling them to investors. This process is called securitization. Deutsche Bank represents those investors, and probably hired Wells Fargo as the servicer to carry out the foreclosure. I asked Lake whether Morgan Stanley has any comment on the practice of securitization, which contributed to the financial collapse in 2008. "No comment," he replied, after a pause. The securitization "food chain" was a "ticking time bomb," according to this a clip from the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, which explains how investment banks including Morgan Stanley sold packages of loans to investors, and in turn, helped wreck the economy: Charles reports that Pope Francis is "calling for a more ethical banking system and curbs on financial speculation." Hear hear! SAFE, the group organizing the eviction blockade, sent out text messages this morning asking supporters to "please be on alert." They say King County Sheriff detective Pierre Thiry has warned them the eviction is likely to happen in the next several days. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Robert Griffin III says he cried after his knee surgery and changed his cellphone passcode to the date of the Washington Redskins season opener as he began his rehabilitation process. Griffin held his first in-depth news conference Thursday since his reconstructive knee surgery in January. He also took part in an offseason practice session in which he wore a large black brace and ran drills with other teammates recovering from injuries. Griffin says he’s “hashed things out” with coach Mike Shanahan, who was widely criticized for leaving Griffin in the game after the quarterback was injured during the playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Griffin says the next steps in his rehab involve “explosive sprinting” and “cutting.” He remains confident will be play in that season opener on Sept. 9. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.