Category Archives: 1001 things to do before you die

Icons of erotic art #21

The illustration Artist and Model in the Studio by Albrecht Dürer, first published in The Painter’s Manual in 1525, is a woodcut that has been readily used to illustrate the dominance of the male gaze in Western visual culture, as well as the general consequences of mechanizing the relationship between the viewer and the viewed. In 1993 French photographic artist Dany Leriche appropriated Dürer’s original image as Hanneke et Elise [1], interpretable as a feminist-inspired rejection of the male gaze. The image is part of a diptych – the second part is a photograph of the model taken through the grid from the point of view of the observer.

Previous appropriations at Jahsonic included Balthus’s The Guitar Lesson [1] by Japanese photographer Naoto Kawahara in 2007 [2].

Tip of the hat to Lemateurdart.

Previous entries in Icons of Erotic Art here, and in a Wiki format here.

Paul Rumsey’s cinémathèque

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tP9s8y2Ic&

Le Cochon danseur (The Dancing Pig, 1907), Pathé

I recently asked Paul Rumsey if he could be persuaded to contribute to my ongoing World Cinema Classics series. Paul came up with more than I bargained for, pointing me to a dozen of his favorite films in an ongoing email conversation.

Included were French director Jacques Rivette‘s films Duelle and Noroit (Paul pointed to the similarities in Rivette’s and David Lynch’s work); the work of Czech stop-motion animation director Jiří Barta, the American film “Return to Oz“[1] (a nightmarish reinterpretation of the Oz story where at one point Dorothy (played by Fairuza Balk[2]) is sent to a nightmarish Victorian mental institution, to be given electro-shock therapy [3]) and many more such as The Baby by Ted Post, etc….

I’ve finally settled to feature the short 1907 French film above, a film that clearly demonstrates the fairground antecedents that cinema has. Paul describes the film as “beginning almost erotic and ending almost sinister,” a fitting description of this silent film cult rarity. Paul got to see the film via the intriguing blog Hugo Strikes Back!.

I’ve mentioned a similarly exciting French animation here (scroll to the bottom for the Automatic Cleaning Company, a short about a room that cleans itself).


World music classics #26

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb8S51M2GAc&]

Currently in heavy rotation is this track by Hercules and Love Affair. For a longer mix of better quality check Hercules & Love Affair on Myspace.

I’ve heard two remixes, which were unremarkable.

Best track of 2008, so far. The video reminds me of Moroder’s “Knights in White Satin” sleeve art. The whole track is Moroder/Cowley – influenced, not strange if you consider that the track is published by DFA Records, the leading label of electroclash (the eighties revival that has taken the dance music world by storm since 2002/2003 and which was the ideal soundtrack to accompany the nihilism of the post-dot-com era.)

Update: full lyrics,  the percussion on the MySpace version of this track reminds me of musical drummer hero Earl Young, and who does the horns? They are sublime.

Previous World Music Classics.

Icons of erotic art #20

Jeune fille en buste 1794 by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, a typical illustration for the blog Femme, femme, femme

Consider me: my hands can not cover my breasts, I cling to them tightly to hide my shame. But also consider this: sunlit windows gaze down upon me like undeniable eyes, millions of bronze eyes; and shame turns into pride.

Jeune fille en buste 1794 by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, a typical illustration for the blog Femme, femme, femme.

Previous entries in Icons of Erotic Art here, and in a Wiki format here.

Guilty pleasures #7

I’ve recently taken the decision to watch more pulp and listen to more pop. Let’s start with the pulp.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c92TGgK68ZE&]

From: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) is the sequel to the 1999 film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Rob Schneider stars as Deuce Bigalow, a male prostitute who must go to Europe to help his pimp T.J., played by Eddie Griffin, find a murderer who is killing the greatest male prostitutes of Europe. Film critic Roger Ebert includes the movie in his most hated films list.

This particular scene is about African American stereotypes . Don’t worry, plenty of European stereotypes in this American nouveau exploitation: the gross-out film. My previous male prostitute film was American Gigolo, I suppose. My latest male prostitute novel was Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet.

For pop I have an enduring classic of camp and pulp by Belgian’s own Lou Deprijck, principally known for his underground disco twelve inch “Que Tal America”. While the previous is considered the “high art” of disco, what I’m about to present you is truly guilty. Here is

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsJun-ZtqTs&]

“Disco Samba”

The dodgiest things about this track are that a) it is a medley; and b) it is rip-off of Jorge Ben but nevertheless succeeds in spreading a joyous vibe; c) the song originated in Belgium, a country of which American journalists have remarked in post-9/11 hysteria that they ” have trouble enough fighting bad breath, never mind a real enemy soldier.”

Introducing Chris Morris

The list of sensibilities published in my recent post on Grillet prompted a regular reader to alert me to the work of Chris Morris.

“Sex for Houses“

Chris Morris (born 1965) started his career on radio, the clip above is from his television work, which – so it is said – is a little less powerful than his radiophonic work, but works better on the blog format.

The clip is very disturbing and funny, it appropriates the tropes of reality TV shows.

I’ve long stopped watching television on a regular basis, but I have known periods of serious telephilia. The BBC has always been a haven to the telephile.

Recent British television I did enjoy (on Youtube) have included:

Cult fiction #3

The Nuba and Riefenstahl

From Leni Riefensthal’s book

[Amazon.com]
[FR] [DE] [UK]

I have a habit of running into ontological problems, so my third entry in the “cult fiction” series [1] is appropriately not really fiction. It’s documentary photography, a problematic genre that is neither fact nor fiction. The Last of the Nuba belongs to the realm of documentary, faction, pseudo-documentary and pamphlet.

Leni Riefenstahl, better known for directing Triumph of the Will and Olympia, published a collection of her photographs of the people titled The Last of the Nuba in 1974. The book was extensively reviewed in Fascinating Fascism by Susan Sontag.

Fascinating Fascism is quite an essay. It was first published in 1975 and republished in Under the Sign of Saturn, in 1980. The essay considers the link between fascist aesthetics to sadomasochism.

[…] Between sadomasochism and fascism there is a natural link. “Fascism is theater,” as Genet said. As is sadomasochistic sexuality: to be involved in sadomasochism is to take part in a sexual theater, a staging of sexuality. Regulars of sadomasochistic sex are expert costumers and choreographers as well as performers, in a drama that is all the more exciting because it is forbidden to ordinary people. Sadomasochism is to sex what war is to civil life: the magnificent experience. (Riefenstahl put it: “What is purely realistic, slice of life, what is average, quotidian, doesn’t interest me.” As the social contract seems tame in comparison with war, so fucking and sucking come to seem merely nice, and therefore unexciting. The end to which all sexual experience tends, as Bataille insisted in a lifetime of writing, is defilement, blasphemy. To be “nice,” as to be civilized, means being alienated from this savage experience—which is entirely staged.

I started reading the essay last evening, and haven’t finished yet, but time and time again, Susan Sontag strikes me as one of the most insightful cultural critics of the 20th century, way up there with Walter Benjamin.

The essay is of an era that also saw Salò by Pasolini and The Night Porter by Cavani, both aesthetic meditations on fascism and sadomasochism.

World music classics #24

Embedding disabled by request, click to play

“Can You Feel It” (1986) by Larry Heard

In the beginning, there was Jack. And Jack had a groove. And from this groove came the groove of all grooves. And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared, “Let there be House!” –first lines from the lyrics

I remember listenin to this song on Grand Theft Auto! I was speeding down the highway then ended up in the ocean and the song stopped and I went crazy and jumped off my house (in the game). -Youtube comment

Previous World Music Classics.

World cinema classics #40

Today’s World Cinema Classic is Glen or Glenda Youtube, sorry embedding disabled, a film on transsexuality directed by Ed Wood, Jr. and released in 1953. I only saw this a couple of years ago. Since the arrival of the VCR, the film has been marketed as one of the worst ever. I would have to disagree with that statement, it’s very enjoyable. There is a dream scene in this film (a bit similar to the one shown in the clip) which ranks way up there with “genuine” surrealist films such as Un Chien Andalou. By all means, see it.

The defining sentence is “Pull the stringk!”

Caveat emptor: There is the slightest of chances that I liked the soundtrack (I cannot identify it, does anyone have the details?) so much that it prejudiced me in a favorable way.

Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.

World cinema classics #39

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Xgn63o7UU]

Erotissimo is a 1968 French–Italian film directed by Gérard Pirès. Its theme is a satire on the use of sex in advertising and sexual objectification of women. I’ve mentioned this film before and posted a different trailer, but this trailer is superb, good rhythm, extremely funny (sorry French only!), nice score and stunning visuals.

Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.