this is fyf

FYF Friend (and favorite librettist) Tony Asaro has a rather distinctive voice; a gay one, apparently.

He also characterizes himself as a monkey (he can certainly howl?) - a relentless one, even - thus dubbing his website "The Unrelenting Monkey" and his weekly posts to Crazytown "Monkey Business".

His post this past week delved into the au courant yet timeless assimilation vs. segregation debate as it concerns friendly advice he receives urging him to make his work "universal" rather than "too gay". His points are compelling, his argument taut; I encourage you to read the full post, here.

On a rare visit to a Hell's Kitchen nightlife establishment recently, a small party of gays debated the merits of "blending" vs. flamboyance. Homosexuals have traditionally been credited with adeptness at both, depending on context. Our context for this conversation was one where flamboyance would ostensibly be welcomed, yet blending seemed the modus operandi for the surrounding randy horde. 

Is this progress? Is it decline? Does it indicate anything other than evolution/adaptation?

While some don't care (or have no reason) to differentiate between the right to same-sex marriage and full equality (in all regards) for homosexuals, many of us do, in keeping with our individual position on the assimilation/segregation continuum. For me, change needs to happen in people's minds and whatever motivates that change deserves my support and participation. Flamboyance, ACT(ing) UP! and "OUT & PROUD", in your face demands for recognition remind people we exist and challenge them to rethink their assumptions concerning what it means to be human (and humane). Blending, while frequently more "blanding" than compelling, may underscore the commonalities we all share as humans. It's only logical that, together, these different approaches stand to create change in more people than either one on their own. The question then becomes, how to support both viewpoints without undermining/creating conflict with either? Can we do it?

This weekend stop by MoMA on your way to Versailles.

Google Art Project has taken the concept of streetview from its maps and taken it inside museums worldwide.  The selection for now has less than twenty museums participating, but what a group it is.  For an idea of how it works check out Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum below, or just check it out yourself.

Anyt'ing You Want, a show of new works on sex and gender expression at the Krause Gallery, opens tonight; includes my sister, The Poodle.

Ok, so yeah...M.I.A.'s been there. So has 2 Live Crew. Now Edwin Ramoran takes his turn co-opting the famous Full Metal Jacket scene/quote by curating a show of new works by contemporary artists from Hanoi, Los Angeles and New York. Methinks the result gets at the Southeast Asian experience of gender, sex and its myriad forms in ways neither of the two recording artists were able (or even intended...2 Live Crew.).

For the show, Tai Chi Alfonso teamed up with Isauro Cairo to create a series of photos of his Black Poodle alter-she-go. Shot in Miami over the New Year, the pics are SICK.

So...check out the show starting tonight at 6pm (and keep a look out for more of The Poodle down the road).

The Krause Gallery is located at 149 Orchard (at Rivington).

Make your own Andy Warhol screen test. Show it at the MoMA.

It's a great parallel.  Andy Warhol's screen test were similar to today's Chatroulette.  MoMA is asking for you to create your own screen test in the Warhol style and provides instructions to do so.  In conjunction with their latest exhibition of the Warhol films, they're posting them on their site in a very familiar way.  Check it out.

Fun (and utterly NSFW) but surprisingly old video of pantsing surfaces

Nu Hander det igen from They Will Never Catch Us on Vimeo.

It's two years old, but suddenly pops up now?

Oh internets...how you toy!

 

Taylor Mac goes full fish.

Usually known for surrealistic or gender-fuck looks, performance artist Taylor Mac went full fish for the cover of Next.  The issue features an interview about Taylor's new show at LaMama (starting this week) and the photos by Mister Karl Giant.

Nudity, Sodomy in a Brazilian play? Please make it to Broadway!

I don't understand Portuguese very well and Google Translate ain't quite cuttin' it with this article, but, looking at the pictures, you get the gist.

As best I can understand, Theatre Workshop is a 52 year old institution in Sao Paolo and - like any true Brazilian - is not at all shy about its naked body...or rather its actors' bodies. The theater completed its season with a production apparently called "The Banquet" that was also quite the feast for the eyes if we are to judge by pictures from the show.

Not only were the actors naked and copulating (I assume this was feigned copulation.) but there was a "cheering section" of men in their 40s (What Google Translate??) who disrobed to watch every show.

What exactly was the show about? I'm really not certain, but here's what Google Translate translates the article to say: "The closure was "The Banquet", so apotheosis during five hours of show. Were there any references that established the workshop on post-modern pop world, from the '90s: the irreverence in adapting classical Greco-Roman costumes, nudity and sex without guilt, the beauty of the lads, the savagery, and popular communication and tropicalia."

Got it?

One additional - and sobering - note: the head (from what I gather) of the Theatre Workshop, and also one of the actors, conducted a memorial (as he does annually) before one of the shows for his brother on the anniversary of the brother's murder by stabbing, apparently because he was gay. The play itself also referenced a recent gay-bashing, reminding us that - male nudity in plays aside - there's much work left to be done for we homosexuals to even exist...much less acknowledge our sexuality openly onstage in a play.

More photos (not censored by using the "burn tool" - probably not a good idea in retrospect?) after the jump and via the link above...

Sing it, sisters; we feel you.

Take one old favorite from Skee-Lo (seriously an ex of mine in the late 90's didn't get why the original was on every, every, every party mix back in the day), add two Brooklyn art ladies, throw in some lyrics that way too many of us will understand and, yeah, you get this.  Maybe you get this to tears.  Maybe you wish you had a rabbit in a hat ...

Via Flavorwire

Dispatches from a blizzard (Pt. 1)

 

Jamie Stuart shot and edited this film in a day during New York's blizzard of December 26th. Roger Ebert sees in it a whole homage to a 1929 silent film classic, "Man with a Movie Camera" (perhaps he dubbed it "Man in a Blizzard" instead of leaving it "Idiot with a Tripod", then?) but - even without a film school pedigree, this film is a great piece...evoking the blizzard succinctly and even beautifully.

More of Jamie's work here and here.

(Click)

Let's hope this is a forecast for 2011 (and specifically the Stock market) that proves true.

Tangentially, you snooze (and by snooze I mean work all day, but delay posting because you figure tomorrow's fine to post it.), you lose (Somebody posts it ahead of you. Not such high stakes, really, but still.).

Also (and with more info on the artist/an interview) via Towleroad.

A travesty of compassion/empathy/good judgement.

David Wojnarowicz "A Fire in My Belly" - Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery Edit from ppow_gallery on Vimeo.

 

The level of indifference and callousness and the utter lack of compassion shown by the National Portrait Gallery in the controversy over the removal of David Wojnarowicz' "A Fire in My Belly" from the  "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" exhibition on display now is as epic as the significance of the mounting of the show in the first place.

Despite inviting the controversy and going to the trouble of mounting a giant exhibition focused on sexuality for the first time, The National Portrait Gallery removed a "controversial" piece showing ants (God's creations, no?) crawling on a (poorly!) manmade object depicting a horrific torture/capital punishment technique of the Roman empire, because this was deemed sacrilegious to individuals who put way too much emphasis on the temporal and material in their spirituality, not to mention who have giant chips on their shoulders and are on constant guard for a "fight"; i.e. - are bullies.

Now, despite the insensitivity of removing something deemed offensive to a group/religion's sensibilities who have almost everything to do with the continued ostracization and - implicitly - abuse/death of homosexuals (the primary focus of the show, remember?), the National Portrait Gallery has chosen to turn down a request by an artist - a homosexual personally touched by the AIDS crisis, which was the subject of the piece that was removed - to have his piece (which remains in the exhibition) removed from the show. What's worse? The piece is a picture of the body of his partner Felix, shortly after his death from AIDS in 1994. So basically...The National Portrait Gallery wants their cake (AIDS included in a show about homosexual art. Which is a no-brainer, obviously.) and eat it, too ("Oh, sure Catholic League! We'll remove a piece important to the people the show's actually for because you got your knickers all in a twist!").

Way to undermine practically any good this exhibition might have done, inept governmental officials improperly influenced and bullied by idiotic blowhard politicians who seem primarily to like to hear themselves speak, as opposed to engaging in any real thought.

I applaud the Gallery for undertaking mounting this exhibition, but utterly denounce their handling of the ensuing (and likely welcome?) controversy. Way to utterly piss us off, asshats.

AA Bronson's Felix, June 5, 1994 after the jump...

Just say "Ho Ho Ho", a drug-friendly guide to your New York holidays.

Note:  This post is part of NYC BLOGGERS DO THE HOLIDAYS, a compendium of holiday stuff for the city dweller:

• A Child Grows  Where to See Santa in New York City and Brooklyn
• Eater's Digest  10 "Warm-You-To-the Bone" Holiday Eats in NYC
• Give and Get NYC  Give and Get for the Holidays
• 'the improvised life'  Design (or Hack) Your Own Holiday E-Cards
• Manhattan User's Guide  The Gift Guide: 21 Over $21
• Markets of New York  Festive Food at New York's Holiday Markets
• Mommy Poppins  11 Experience Gifts for NYC Kids
• NY Barfly  Holiday Cocktails, And We Ain’t Talkin' Egg Nog
• offManhattan  The Anti-Holiday Travel Guide: 5 Quick Getaways from NYC
• the skint  11 free and cheap non-holiday things to do this holiday season
• Patell and Waterman's History of New York  Christmas with Andy Warhol
• Walking Off the Big Apple  A Mortal's Guide to the Angels of New York City
• We Heart Astoria  The Best Places To Shop Local - WHA Holiday Gift Guide

So, like, this past weekend on Thanksgiving night, it was just shy of four o'clock in the morning, and this compulsion to head home hit me.  On went the coat and hat and goodbyes given to the guys and ladies assembled in the lovely Chelsea home which served as the post-dinner meeting spot.  Stepping outside though, there was the invigoration of fresh air (and whatever), so a walk was taken.  Somehow my location shifted to Fifth Avenue, walking north in the Flatiron, and suddenly there they were, shoppers getting "special discounts" at Baby Gap at, like, four in the freaking morning.   A long pause later and my eyes perused the shoppers who, well, were just in a different state of mind than me.  A moment of consideration happened, but the store was not entered, because, yeah, these people and me didn't need to see each other.

Something about the holidays, brings drugs to the fore.  Maybe it's the festivity or the twinkling lights or the long nights or the bonus checks, but yeah, drugs are everywhere.  You can't just pair them randomly though.  Otherwise you'll be outside a Baby Gap feeling perky, yet horny, and that's creepy.  With that in mind, please consider the following pairings, all of which totally work!

Cocaine
All coked up and up late at night?  Head out to Astoria or Bay Ridge and take in all the twinkling lights of the lawn displays that fill the lawns of these neighborhoods.  They really go all out.  And you can go on Grindr or Scruff or Radar or whatever and make a new friend!

Anti-anxietals
Popping a Xannie and sitting on those red steps in Times Square is a great place to go to write out Christmas cards.  You get the energy from the tourists milling about, but you don't get annoyed with them!  Since cards tend to go out to your out of town people, they'll enjoy that you are in Times Square.  PROS ONLY:  Step up to a manly pill and pop an aprolazam and go to Queens Mall or Paramus orWoodbury Commons and just sort of mill around, picking up holiday merchandise and considering it briefly before dropping it to the floor.  Bonus round?  Say hello to the elderly!

Marijuana
Spark up a holiday bud and head uptown a little to the Origami Christmas Tree at AMNH and then visit the planetarium or wander the exhibits.  Go even further uptown and go full on boho, making candles of your own design at the Dyckman Farmhouse!  From there a holiday visit to the ever-cruisy Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park.

Liquor
The holidays can't be fully self-indulgent, so dig into your closet or buy new a coat for the city's GLBT homeless youth.  (Seriously, the city just slashed their funding.)  Anyway, bring that coat to Excelsior in Brooklyn this Saturday for the annual LGBTQI Homeless Youth Coat and Clothing Drive.  Get nice and toasty drunk and then gather your funnest buds and sing out carols in Park Slope.  (The event ends early and those Slopers will be charmed.)

Ecstacy
Party like it's 1999 and take a hit of ecstacy.  When you're starting to roll head out and give a visit to Santa Claus.  No, not the commercial version at Macy's or Bloomingdales or ABC Carpet and Home.  Go to the REAL Santa in Central Park's Belvedere Castle.  Just don't ask him to suck your finger.  You can head down to the Ramble for an afterparty.

Psychedelics I
Mushrooms, hooray!  Don't go overboard and you can enjoy a hilarious trip to F.A.O. Schwartz.  Follow it up with a trip to view Simon Doonan's latest window creations at Barneys.  (This year's theme is food?!) Then giggle your way up Madison stopping by Hermes, Ralph Lauren and oddly-named shops that only trophy wives know, arriving at the Met where you can buy all your friendsBaldessari-themed gifts, like the "Wrong!" eraser!

Psychedelics II
Again, moderation is key here, so like, just one hit of acid, and then go to the best windows in the city at Bergdorf Goodman.  Then decide you are on a secret mission and go stealthily down to the Lord & Taylor (which are possibly better than Bergdorf's while tripping).  Finally, PULL IT TOGETHER and go full force to Bryant Park for ice skating (yes, really) at "CitiPond" (being sure to wonder aloud why Citibank is doing this and not protecting your money).  Then put on your own Skating with the Stars performance of Swan Lake.

 

MTA creates unintentionally amazing piece of conceptualist sculpture.

If it weren't in the Canal Street E station it would be in the MOMA.

Civilization Progress Report: Men and women with pens will save the entire damn world

Heavens to Zeus! This week has been a delightful blur, hasn't it! Well, it has for me, because--and I feel that after so many weeks of heavy-lifting (what with all the rebuilding of civlization one brick at a time!), I've earned a couple shameless plugs!--I had a lovely little short story about volcanoes and love and death and bodily waste chucked online somewhere! And so in honor of this little feat--and the slightly larger feat of having a collection of my stories out next month--I'd like to dedicate today's report to the incredible men and women who are keeping culture from coming apart at the seams, by writing stories and sharing their art with the world. Because without words, we'd be nothing more than cave dwellers. We'd be nothing more than a pack of wildebeests closely resembling Ke$ha. And wouldn't that be a fright!

• Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is getting the graphic novel treatment thanks to Derek Ruiz and Daniel Sempere. [GalleyCat]

• HOLY MACKEREL! Neil Gaiman doesn't know who sent him the Home Sushi Kit. [Neil Gaiman]

• In case it wasn't apparent enough by the sprawling, poorly-edited text of the last book, J.K. Rowling will not be writing another Harry Potter book. [The Guardian]

• READY FOR THE WEEKEND!There are a lot of literary events throughout New York City. Very few of them are worth going to. EARSHOT, a Brooklyn-based series curated by Nicole Steinberg, features Eric Nelson, Chris Tarry, and several others tonight. It is absolutely worth going to. [Facebook]

Get in to...

Lori Nix

Get some art up on your walls, sugar!

(To be clear, don't put art up on your sugar walls.)  

FYF pal Chris Barreto and Alexandra Laporte curated a collection of art that will be up for silent auction with bids starting at less than $50.  The last event brought out both the competitive ("Who outbid me?") and the sneaky ("I'll just bid at the last second.").  It also brought out some fun folks.  Check it out tonight at Gallery Bar tonight, 6:30 - 10:00.  And preview some of the art here!

Male prostitutes adorn the walls of The Vatican in the paintings of Michaelangelo.

"The muscular figures in Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel were based on male prostitutes he encountered in homosexual bathhouses and brothels" - The Telegraph brings forward claims of an Italian art historian that the gigantic painting that took four years to complete is "replete with homosexual imagery, including a man being dragged into Damnation by his testicles and kisses and embraces between male figures." (Click here to explore the subjects close up.) h/t: Christopher Conry

Civilization Progress Report: 'Glee' sucks and sometimes that is all the news that is fit to print!

Bring It On was a fine piece of cinema, wasn't it!

Apols for letting civilization collapse on itself last week, y'all. But y'know what? Sometimes you've gotta let your hair down! you've gotta throw caution to the wind! you've gotta shove some Doritos into your damn maw and pass out because you're too tired to cook a balanced dinner! But this week, it's back to business as usual. And what's the lay of the land this week? That Glee absolutely, positively sucks. Like, vacuum-cleaner sucks. Like, sucks worse than the sky when you've accidentally popped open the emergency doors while your plane's at a cruising altitude. It just sucks. (But that shouldn't really be news, should it!) Then there are other things! But here, follow the trail of breadcrumbs into the large gingerbread house and I promise I won't push you into the oven! (Someone else already did...)

• A man who, while being King of America, managed to drive an entire nation into the ground, has somehow released a book. Some people are doing strange things to the book for the sake of "political activism." [The Guardian]

• Glee sucks. [Queerty]

• UHH-MERICAN SPIRIT Several positively mad individuals have somehow taken offense to Google's Veterans' Day logo. [The AtlanticWire]

Civilization Progress Report: The Ladies We Love Edition

Much of my extended family--relatives who are so distant that they believe that a trip down the aisle via Shaadi.com still remains a strong possibility in my future--use bizarre terms like "ladies' man" and "casanova" when I explain to them who my friends are these days, as it sounds like I'm reading off a laundry list of lady-loves. And sadly! mine is a culture where two members of the opposite sex can't seemingly just pass around a bottle of wine and wail along to Tori Amos' "Leather" without inviting implications of matrimony and suburban dreamscapes. But this week, I thought I would take a break from the usual bit of rubble-sweeping and doom-predicting and celebrate some lovely things that lovely ladies are doing that make this world a much better place for the rest of us to exist in!

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says China is not the enemy. She may have a point because it's not as if they've blocked their citizens off from playing Farmville entirely...they've just branded it differently. [NYT]

• And here is her "It Gets Better" contribution. [Feministing]

• Meanwhile, now that Padma Lakshmi has popped out a sprog, she likes to keep fit by running up 70 flights of stairs. [New York Daily News]

• SHE CAME TO HAVE A PARTY, BUT DO NOT OPEN UP THE BACARDI! Not to be outdone, Mariah Carey has taken to rooftops to announce that soon, she will also be popping out a sprog. [Daily Mail]

Civilization Progress Report: Don't pluck the forbidden rose! & other morality tales

Hello, world! How is everyone? Hello? Is this thing on? No? HOW' S THAT THEN? TOO LOUD? (Okay, Rod, I'll stop.) Anyway follow me down into this week's rabbit hole of kaleidoscopic queerent events! And what a kaleidoscopic week it was. 'Twas the week when we learned that should we wear a color popularized by such foods as aubergines and plums, we could cancel out the altogether-ooky feelings that the Dementors of our youth wrought on us. It was also the week when our fearless leader made us groan again and so...we sought reprieve in foreign rip-offs of animated Disney classics dating back to last century. Grab your CPR dummies and let's get crackin'!

• THE SEX TRADE The domain Sex.com has sold for $13 million. [BBC]

• The Obama Administration has decided a good thing to do would be to block the repeal of DADT. [HuffPo]

• Or not! DADT confusion mounts! [NYT]