Category Archives: Uncategorized

An encapsulation of queerness and otherness

For years I mistakenly thought that one of my fave visuals, Toulouse-Lautrec Wearing Jane Avril’s Feathered Hat and Boa (ca. 1892, above) was by Nadar.

Today, I learnt that it is in fact by Maurice Guibert.

In the process of finding that out, I discovered two fine blogs. The first The Esoteric Curiosa, the second the enigmatic ACravan.

Lautrec dressed in drag encapsulates queerness and otherness, better than any other photograph.

I’ve previously posted a photo of Lautrec, the delightfully scatological Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the beach at Le Crotoy, Picardie in 1898[1].

Stolen kisses

Stolen kisses from Cinema Paradiso

Stolen kisses from Cinema Paradiso

The enigmatic and highly original blogger “Ombres Blanches” is back with a series of posts on surrealist cinema, French surrealism and all the things “Ombres Blanches” is into.

Illustration:  deleted kiss scenes from the film Cinema Paradiso (click to see a partial list of indentified fragments) mentioned by Ombres Blanches. The collage gives a whole new meaning to the concept of the stolen kiss.

You can see it as a film scene here.

Icons of counterculture #3

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvaSnmqZ40&]

On this day 20 years ago, in 1989 in China Tank Man, the Unknown Rebel halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. It was the last anyone has seen of him. He is probably dead. He is a personal hero. It’s hard to watch this footage[1] without getting very emotional. He is Icon of Counterculture#3. Number one and two are here[2] and here[3].

Parisian “Exposition Universelle” @120

In 1889, 120 years ago tomorrow, the Exposition Universelle world fair opens in Paris.

via expositions.bnf.fr

At the Exposition (see photo), the French composer Claude Debussy first heard Javanese gamelan music, performed by an ensemble from Java. David Toop, a modern musical critic, denotes Debussy’s experience at the fair to mark the start of an ambient music. Toop (see previous  post) expounds upon Debussy’s importance in his 1995 exegesis on ambient sound, Ocean of Sound.

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

Elizabeth Báthory (1560 – 1614)

The legend attached to the name of Erzsébet Báthory lives on in the ‘Carmilla‘ of J Sheridan le Fanu, the Hammer ‘Karnstein’ trilogy of movies, and the influential role of the female vampire in today’s psyche. Lilith Silver in ‘Razor Blade Smile’ is the latest incarnation of the female vampire begun with the Hungarian Countess nearly 400 years before.

Erzsébet Báthory was a psychopath.

The two factors that determine whether you are a psychopath are: emotional detachment and lifestyle.

Factor One looks for a selfish, remorseless, individual with inflated self-esteem who exploits others.

Factor Two describes a lifestyle that is chaotic, antisocial and/or criminal, marked by impulsiveness, a lack of responsibility and reactive anger . According to Hare, a psychopath will score high on both factors, whereas someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder will score high only on factor two. [1]

The items are as follows:

  • 1. Glibness/superficial charm
  • 2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
  • 3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
  • 4. Pathological lying
  • 5. Cunning/manipulative
  • 6. Lack of remorse or guilt
  • 7. Shallow affect
  • 8. Callous/lack of empathy
  • 9. Parasitic lifestyle
  • 10. Poor behavioral controls
  • 11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
  • 12. Early behavioral problems
  • 13. Lack of realistic, long-term goals
  • 14. Impulsivity
  • 15. Irresponsibility
  • 16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  • 17. Many short-term marital relationships
  • 18. Juvenile delinquency
  • 19. Revocation of conditional release
  • 20. Criminal versatility