Ethnographic fieldwork is dope, grant writing isn't. Call this the premisses behind the launch of "Car Customizing and Outlaw Aesthetics" – American Ethnography's new independent research program – and the funding thereof.

Alright, maybe it's not so much that grant writing sucks, but rather that we suck at grant writing. We think we'd be wasting our resources if we try our hand on that rather energy consuming process of applying for financial hand outs, so instead we'll do this: We're going to pay for our research by t-shirt sales. Yes, that's right – we will finance our study through merchandise!

What's that you say? You think it's un-scholarly? First of all, fuck you, and secondly, why don't you just buy a t-shirt and shut up!? It'll make us both feel much better, it really will – you'll put the shirt on, and you'll be wild and unreal, and we'll be wild and unreal, too.

Fine. But, what's the goal of the "Car Customizing and Outlaw Aesthetics" research? In one sentence, here it is: We will examine and analyze the visual rhetoric of outlaw aesthetics as employed in Californian automobile customization.

Now, of course, when we use words like visual rhetoric and aesthetics and employ in this manner, it sounds fairly grant proposal-ish, doesn't it? And didn't we just say that we won't play the grant game? Yes, we did. So are we just pretentious frauds, then, phony nitwits full of shit? No, it's not that we have anything against the academic, or its language. As a matter of fact we love academic. It's true, we once wrote a research paper called "I Want My Car to Look Like a Whore." That's a good title – perhaps we'll use it again. But, nope, we have nothing against the academic language. It's just that we'd rather be doing research, not working on some doomed proposal. We know you'll understand.

If you still need more grant committee spiel, here's another thing you might like to know about the study: Each step of the research – empirical data and intellectual reflections – will be proficiently documented and made freely available to the general public, as the study moves along. This means that the aforementioned general public – as a result of our research – will be more enlightened and more perceptive, wiser, sagacious and cool to hang with, and those are qualities we believe in here at American Ethnography.

Grand, isn't it? So get your ass over to our online shop, and order one of those babies. You will, as we mentioned, be wild and unreal.

We made a limited edition print to finance American Ethnographys research project "Car Customizing & Outlaw Aesthetics." Its a 1 color print (black) on a 15" x 32" (38cm x 81cm) sheet of Arches 88. Beautify your world and support independent science.

We've got Philippe Bourgois' and Jeff Schonberg's new book Righteous Dopefiend. The book is an ethnographic tour de force, the result of a decade the authors spent doing field work with two dozen homeless heroin and crack addicts on the streets of San Francisco. We also have a killer excerpt from Michael Agar's Dope Double Agent ("I finally got around to trying heroin myself," writes Agar. "A guy I'd helped out with a couple of phone calls asked me if I'd ever used it. No, I hadn't. Wasn't I curious? Of course I was."). And finally we have Howard Becker's classic article from 1953, "Becoming a Marihuana User."

Go check it out! It's free ... and it's exciting.

We figured you might like it, too, (and if you don't, you should maybe know more about it?) so we put together an issue we have called EXHIBITION OF SUFFERING, SPECTACLE OF DEFEAT.

Satan's Angel, the Devil's Own Mistress

Satan's Angel was a burlesque star in San Francisco in the 1960s and Las Vegas in the 1970s. Her signature act was to light her tassels on fire, then twirl them around until the flames went out. At 64 she still performs the act. American Ethnography went to visit her, and we give you the interview in this month's issue, which we have called   TANTALIZING THRILLS AND BUXOM SENSATIONS.

Korero Books have graciously provided us with a gallery of images from their upcoming release Burlesque Poster Design: The Art of Tease. This means you can already feast your eyes on " the finest, raunchiest, most teasing poster art from the world of burlesque ..." Go ahead: Indulge!