Unhappy Hipsters

A contact of mine on Livejournal directed me to this site, which is a lot of fun.

Five great performances

I watched The Paper Chase (1973) with my flatmate tonight. It inspired me to post this list of five great cinematic performances I've seen recently.

John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase. (Photo above.)

Liz Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Susanne Sachße in The Raspberry Reich.

Abbie Cornish in Bright Star.

Burl Ives in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

Raspberry Revolution

Bruce LaBruce is a funny motherfucker. The other night my roommate and I watched The Raspberry Reich, which I hadn't seen before - surprisingly, Netflix has it! Where Otto: or, Up with Dead People is sort of a softcore porn gay zombie movie with satirical and political underpinnings, Raspberry Reich is more of the sort of film Andy Warhol may have made about midway through his film career if he had been working in East Berlin in the early 2000s and simultaneously more overtly political and more hardcore pornographic than Warhol ever was.

There's no denying it's a very homoerotically - no, homosexually - arousing film, and at the same time, I found it more entertaining than I expected. There were definitely moments where I felt, "LaBruce is just using the appearance of political subtext to satisfy his desire to see cute 'straight' young dudes get it on with each other." Well, no harm there, imho. BLB obviously has the same taste in guys that I do. The film is replete with hypersexualized Marxist propaganda and slogans such as "Out of the bedrooms and onto the streets!", "Heterosexuality is the opiate of the masses!" and "The Revolution is my boyfriend!" Of course, historically in Communist countries pornography has been outlawed and repressed, but that would only enhance its usefulness as a talisman of the sort of rebellion and revolution yearned and struggled for by the film's characters (particularly the hilarious Gudrun, portrayed by Susanne Sachße, who is much like the figure of Medea Yarn - an anagram of Maya Deren - in Otto.)

No doubt about it, this is fun stuff, bridging the gap between art and hardcore porn, with a heavy dollop of radical socialist politics thrown in. Not everyone's cup of tea, no doubt. I won't be recommending it to mum any time soon. But somehow, despite the explicit sexual sequences, I never found it more than...innocently charming. If you enjoy/can stomach films such as Shortbus, Caligula, Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, Warhol films like Flesh and Chelsea Girls, and early John Waters movies like the infamous Pink Flamingos, this may work for you. If not, just play it safe and read about it here.

As for my own attitude, Perry Farrell summed it up best years ago: Nothing's shocking.

And...

We just got our dining room table a new cloth, it's lookin' good. Good Taste will host many nutritious epicurean gatherings here. And just wait until it's painted BURGUNDY with gold trim!

A room of one's own

Check out this photo of the bookshelf I got (for FREE! bottom shelf needs bracket fixed but that'll be a jiffy) today, it really transforms and solidifies this section of the room. I am so proud of my room. It is my art right now. Haven't been painting, or writing much (except journal), but this room was EMPTY - and poorly painted - ...when I arrived. I have never invested so much in my living space before. An not just my room, but the entire flat I live in is undergoing a major renovation and rejuvenation. In the past year or so I've started "thinking outside the canvas," and lately the creative mediums I have worked in most are food and decoration/interior design.

My crush just got crushier...

Check out young Brit beauty Ben Whishaw with his newly shorn locks! I'm loving the cropped look on this elfin thespian maestro...currently on stage in "The Pride" (directed by Alexi Kaye Campbell) in which he plays gay, again (and apparently rather explicitly) with Hugh Dancy. Here is a titillating interview with the two of them talking about the play from New York Magazine.

Hey Bay Area boys who like to cook and dine...

My cooking / dining club "Good Taste" is seeking to revitalize itself with new members and a focus on in-home dining! Check out the Craigslist ad I just posted.