Subverse Aphrodesia

It's just too repulsive to be true.

Currently running at Berlin's Komische Oper, the production was described by James Mackenzie via Reuters as featuring "rape, torture and masturbation, a nude bass singing an aria in the shower and a cross-dressing hero who rounds off the night by slaughtering a troupe of semi-naked prostitutes ..."

Bieito claims he wanted to use the piece to "cast a light on the plight of women exploited in the sex trade." If you can reac German, you might want to read this.

The Hollywood Reporter quoted Cuomo as saying: "War is too violent for kids." (This film) tells you about war. War is too violent for adults." The film apparently contains violent images and some questionable language, but Moore and Cuomo have posed that younger viewers should not be kept from the film's POV since they may be called upon to defend American in their near future.

And, naturally a concern, the R rating would mean decreased profits for the film.

Read the story in the Hollywood Reporter.

"I invite those that may object to my choice of subject, or who fear the exploitation of a disabled minority, to consider the words of author Robert Bogdan when he said:
'Freak' is a frame of mind, a set of practices, a way of thinking about and presenting people. It is not a person but the enactment of a tradition, the performance of a stylized presentation.
As a Victorian sideshow talker might say to draw a crowd and 'turn the tip', "Here they are, splendidly fraudulent yet marvelous, brought forth for your edification and amusement. This Congress of Oddities awaits your intimate and learned inspection."-- James G. Mundie, June 2003

Giant George Auger and Midget Tom Sordie
glossy photograph from Kobel collection, 7 x 5 inches, printed circa 1950

Most intriguing, however, is Mundie's own artwork.

"Conjoined (2002)" is an image of "skeletal conjoined twins, such as one might find on display in a medical museum. The Latin inscription "HOMO NON SEPARET" is borrowed from the traditional wedding service, where it is often translated as 'what God has joined let no man break asunder.'"

SIgned woodcuts of "Conjoined (2002) are available for sale via Mundie's site and inquiries may be made there regarding the artist's other available artwork.

"It isn't quite what you expected... It isn't porn, that's for sure... In popular conscious smart is not sexy and sexy is not smart... if H Bomb has a philospohy... it is that somewhere beyond porn and beyond esoteric scholarly inquiry there is a happy medium where intellectual is sexy and hot is genuis...

This is not Billy Bob Thornton in attendance at the opening of "Getting Along" at the About Thyme Cafe in Scranton, PA on June 10. Neither is it an advertisement for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

Lakshmi Chaudhry's "Stepford Wife: You've Come The Wring Way, Baby," is by far the best Stepford Wives op-ed I've read. It does, however, spoil the ending of the film (just saying it's a significant surprise is probably saying too much).

Take the link if you dare and maybe in a couple of years when the conversation is too old to be relevant anymore because they'll be a whole new socially constructed complexity summing up our choices or lack there of -- then we can have a public conversation about the film.

Because my country has sold its soul to corporate power,
Because consumerism has become our new religion,
Because we've forgotten the true meaning of freedom,
And because the 'war on terror' has hijacked our national agenda,
I pledge to do my duty . . . and take my country back.

Visit www.unbrandamerica.org

Happy to wrap it but forgot to pack the jacket?
If you were in Sweeden you could call the condom ambulance and a white van with a red condom with wings logo will deliver a 10-pack to your door.

Read the Reuters story here.

It sounds scrumptious. We're talking pink champagne and marachino cherries, lollipops, Dali-esque dance numbers, sacrilege, glitter-coated tampons and irreverent panties.

You could ask for more, but why bother?

The show plays at Ars Nova at 511 West 54th Street (212.868.4444).

I think I love the idea of the romantic traditions of the circus more than the circus itself. I'm dying to go to Gibsonton, Florida where all the freaks settled and the carneys retire. I hear it's nuts in February during the annual carnival convention.

Close your eyes if you're afraid of clowns. I'm totally tickled by this pretty picture.

Her CD really surprised me. This is what the LA Weekly wrote about it: "This is how songs can be, without most of the pop filters and preconceptions. Nash is naive enough to revel in head-sticking melodies and bold-faced drama, yet sophisticated enough to try unusual sounds, structures and subjects just because the road feels right."

I think it's just lovely -- but not as lovely as the fact that Heidi has come back from NYC to play with us this summer.

Click here to see more pictures.