Saturday, June 11, 2005

They kiss beautifully, with their hands. Kissing with your hands? Yep--Kissing with your hands: Do you ever see people who come at each other, and the girl slips her arms inside the guys arms as she kisses him, and they join hands so that he's cupping her hands, but his hands are cupped backwards, away from his body? Yeah, that's Kissing With Your Hands Held Backwards. I want to do that someday.

Kiss again (teenage style): well start with kissing, then kiss down around her neck and gently nibble on her earlobe (really gently mind). then go back to kissing her for a while, next step is to remove her top. urmm next thing is can you remove a bra? (while kissing with your hands behind her back without fumbling, and making a mess of it?)

Bowie explored: Since the album dates back to the early days of sexual liberation his songs are still about women (though the lyrics are vague). Bowie only hints at his bisexuality with lines like, "I'm a phallus with pigtails." sounds like he's balancing his pop stardom.

A different stroke to Tom Cruise and his love life. Rumours are he's gay, although now some people say he is bisexual. This is what Google has to say, let the Almighty Engine Speak: Tom Cruise is suing Kyle Bradford for defamation. Bradford, a gay porn star whose real name is Chad Slater, allegedly told French celebrity gossip magazine Actustar that he had an affair with Cruise during his marriage to Nicole Kidman. What do actions imply when you use the law to deny something: We're not quite sure what's allowable in courtrooms these days, but Tom Cruise is ready to "prove in court" that he is not gay. Where there is smoke there's fire, no? No. Just a saying. But there's more: "[Cruise] is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but he's not gay, and he's ready to prove this in court," Fields said at the time. "Tom is tired of it and it hurts his children. It's something that will be there forever. And damn it, he's going to stop it."

Going back to Bowie, here's how his conundrum has been postioned: Glam rock and its proponents implied that youth could experiment with lifestyles without conviction or consequences. While artists such as David Bowie were open about their bisexuality, the image produced was more a media-hyped style than a youth/sex, gay rights revolution. That's not to say that gay/bisexuality people didn't "come out of the closet" because of Bowie and the genre, but it did little to inform young people about the issues and problems concerning this lifestyle.

Different times, different strokes--or different inflections of the right.

Peter Schlesinger's profile is quite interesting:

Born: 1948
Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Gay
Occupation: Photographer, Artist

Level of fame: Somewhat
Executive summary: Photographer and painter

Boyfriend: David Hockney (painter, relationship began 1966)
Boyfriend: Eric Boman (photographer)

Author of books:
Checkered Past, A Visual Diary of the 60's and 70's (1-Oct-2003)

I particularly like the "level of fame" rating: "Somewhat." Hockney in 1966. Check the goods: His life was professionally successful - he had no fewer than five one-man exhibitions in Europe in 1966 - and personally happy. In 1966 he met Peter Schlesinger, a young Californian art student who became his lover and favourite model.

Jon from Paramount who Andy is talking about is Jon Gould Collection (Gould was a VP of Paramount Pictures). I believe he's the same Jon who did not like Andy sending him flowers... Here's proof that not even artists are safe from Love: But what most people didn’t know was that Warhol was a shutterbug. Not until after his untimely death were more than 70,000 photographs found, apparently shot over a period of ten years. From 1976 on, he almost always carried a small Minox 35mm pocket camera and constantly took pictures for his own amusement. While he did use a Polaroid camera to photograph subjects for his commissioned portrait screenprints, these black and whites were never intended for public consumption. However, during their intimate relationship in the early ’80s, Warhol did give Paramount Pictures’ marketing exec Jon Gould some 300 candid shots of public figures and personal friends.

Death threats. Let's see how Andy did in this area of pop-culture... Nothing comes about under death threats. But I did get some interesting material on "He's disturbed." Given that Joey Sutton was paranoid over a song with the title "miss you"-- one cannot help but wonder about the song title in relation to the idea of taking away something from somebody, and therefore "missing that which is gone." So, He's... Disturbed (vertabim) give us the following:

1) He's disturbed, he's disturbed, someone plucked his nerve 'Cause this guy is mentaly disturbed

2)When he is disturbed, he locks himself in his ready room until she makes him talk about it. Sisko doesn't have a counselor. When he's disturbed he talks to his family and friends.

3) Salt and Pepa's in the game:

He's disturbed!

We're disturbed, we're disturbed
We're the most disturbed
Like we're psychologically disturbed

Oddly enough, many of the statements about someone being disturbed are disturbing on their own.

Andy in disguise, is what is all about: Warhol's 1964 "Self-Portrait," taken in a photo booth, captures his ambivalent nature as he struggled with his conflicting desires for disguise and public scrutiny

Let the curators make the obsession become a metaphor in the name of art: The PAFA divides the Warhol exhibit into seven thematic sections: Disguise, Death and Disaster, Politics, Advertising, Cover Stories, Celebrity, and Symbolism. Warhol's unique strategy of social engagement permitted him to be seen while at the same time remaining invisible.

And then it starts to sound like postmodern academism: Organized into rather arbitrary sections on "Disguise" (Warhol’s self-concealment), "Death and Disaster," "Politics," "Cover Stories," "Advertising," "Celebrity" and "Symbolism," the heavy sarcasm of the work in the show was obvious at the time it was made — so obvious that it was rarely discussed. Irony was the attitude of high art of the era. Our new century can be relentlessly literal and earnest.

Morrison. Everytime there's a movie made about someone famous, I end up remembering the actor or actress who played the celebrity. Ed Harris is Pollock in my head now, instead of the real Pollock. But then again, Pollock with his cigarrette sneaks in my head... Oh no, that's Greenberg.

In any case, Kilmer is Morrison in my head. The first time I saw Val Kilmer was in Willow. Odd movie it is, made by that geeky guy from Happy Days, Ron Howard. When I started to see the kinds of movies Howard was making after having played a part in happy for so long just did not fit in my head. I stereotyped the hell out of Ron Howard, I came to realized. He's made some decent flicks though. Okay flicks, not great. So we got to Howard because of that Willow film he made. Heck, I even waited in line with my brother to see it, just because it was the thing to do at the Mann Chinese in Hollywood. In any case, Kilmer played a mercenary in Willow, a thief of sorts. He also played Ice Man in Top Gun, I love Kilmer's lips in that film. They are so worked-up, and his teeth are over exposed. Top Gun has been heavily analysed for homesexual subtexts. Check how Kilmer deals with a real life situation, where fans try to reenact a toilet scene with him:

Screen star VAL KILMER showed his softer side when approached by a TOP GUN fan in a restaurant toilet.

The volatile TOP GUN actor was dining at London celebrity restaurant THE IVY with PULP FICTION director QUENTIN TARANTINO and actor KEVIN SPACEY, when he paid a visit to the lavatory.

Kilmer played along when the fan approached him as he stood at the urinal in the men's toilets.

A source says, "This guy quoted Top Gun and said to him, 'You can be my wing man anytime.'

"He was expecting Val to get a**ey. But Val said, 'No man - you can be mine.'

"They had a good laugh, and then the guy asked Val if he could greet him at the bar like he's an old friend, to wind his old pal up. Val agreed."

Where did Morrison go? Talk about a genius, he had the IQ: Morrison was early interested in literature, he excelled at school, and he had an IQ of 149. Morrison studied theatre arts at the University of California. With his fellow student Ray Manzarek, keyboardist, John Densmore, drummer, and Robbie Kriger, guitarist, he formed a group which was in 1965 christened The Doors.

Billy Name was a true player in the scene, eat your fifteen minutes of fame out: Photographer Billy Name was a close friend of Andy Warhol and a trusted player in the creation of Warhol's artistic environment during the mid-60's. Based on his credit, he helped Warhol create the aura of pop art, and then some:
Billy Name lives in New York state and continues to do photography. In August 2002, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring a photograph by him of Andy Warhol. I mean, can it get cooler than that? A stamp, up there with Elvis, Marylin & Babe Ruth (unlikely couple?), and then up there with Andy himself. Of course, Andy had to have his stamp launched with the big timers, the social elite: Introduced to the public for the first time, the Andy Warhol stamp unveiling took place at the Gagosian Gallery, one of the leading dealers of Warhol art in the country, 980 Madison Ave., New York, 10021. The new stamp will be issued in the summer of 2002.

Clowns. Their darkside is a cliché that's always worth checking out. The Killer Clown movie is stating the obvious. Then there is the classic a thousand clowns: A Thousand Clowns is a great example of the slacker character as hero in American cinema. Based on Herb Gardner's play, it is the story of an unemployed television writer, Murray Burns (Jason Robards),  who lives in New York in a one bedroom apartment with his twelve-year old nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon).

It appears that clowns once they are focused on can never be seen as performers who simply make one laugh... for what is laughter, what is comedy? There exists a certain psychological state which tends to produce laughter, which is the natural phenomenon or process of ``humor'', or ``humor perception''.

Heavy duty the clown is: The woman punched the clown, shouting “sockeroo!”  She kicked it, sat on it, hit with a little hammer, and so on, shouting various aggressive phrases.  Bandura showed his film to groups of kindergartners who, as you might predict, liked it a lot.  They then were let out to play.  In the play room, of course, were several observers with pens and clipboards in hand, a brand new bobo doll, and a few little hammers.

Halston getting sick and in the hospital may have been the beginning of his last days:
Throughout most of the seventies he epitomized the glamour, as well as the decadence of the era, becoming a central figure in the nightlife scene of New York’s Studio 54 disco and eventually succumbing to the ravages of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

In a few years it would be Rock Hudson who died of AIDS: 2 October 1985-- His death at 59 of complications from AIDS astounded many of his fans, who were unaware of his homosexuality. His search for a cure focused worldwide attention on AIDS. He was the first major public figure to acknowledge openly that he was suffering from the disease.

Celebrities play it low key when it comes to AIDS. VH1 actually did a special where the history of AIDS through the media is examined: ACT ONE: SILENCE (1980 - 1985)
On July 3, 1981, The New York Times reported a disturbing number of deaths attributed to a rare cancer and pneumonia among homosexual men. Shortly after, doctors noted that IV drug users' immune systems were similarly deteriorating.

Hmm... portraits by Andy. Where to start? Ici: start with Jane Fonda, Mick Jagger, Jean Cocteau, Queen Beatrix, Jimmy Carter (I like that one), Richard Nixon (like it even better), Ted Kennedy. Next: The main man. Can't get enough, make me younger. And when there is no more, cuando no mas, there is always (absolut) Mao. Mais, il y a plus. Got to give it to the intellectuals, from Kafka to Einstein.

Just like Beuys's bottles did not cut it for Andy, neither did he for a portrait. Bad myth.