Introducing Kirsten Anderson


Pop Surrealism: The Rise Of Underground Art (2004)

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American Kirsten Anderson, founder of Roq La Rue Gallery, and co-founder of BLVD Gallery, editor of the book Pop Surrealism (depicted above) has been blogging for a while at Right Some Good. She notes that “This blog is mainly to showcase art that I’m currently enamoured with,” which includes posts on Caspar David Friedrich, Gustave Moreau, Richard Dadd and Leon Bakst.

From her blogroll also these interesting blogs:

Tip of the hat to Paul Rumsey.

You want to hug me, you want to kiss me

“You think I’m gorgeous” from Miss Congeniality.

I’ve seen the film twice. The film’s been bugging me (in a good way) for the last couple of weeks, when I started thinking about world peace (remember Bullock’s reluctance at the beginning of the film to wish for it, and than after she’s won, concedes to do so?). World peace brought to mind a passage by Georges Bataille on the impossibility of world peace which I can’t seem to re-find.

Then, when finding the clips (in nice filmed-from-a-TV-set mode) above, I was reminded of how much I had enjoyed the film and its good-natured romanticism. In such is the state of feminism I’ve defended another fluff film for its ability to portray part of the man-woman relationship in the 21st century.

So, will this remain a guilty pleasure, or get a promotion to World Cinema Classic?  I’ll have to think about it.

Decameron, Pentameron, and Heptameron

Pentameron

Cover of a German edition of the Pentameron

The roots of Western literature (as the roots of storytelling tout court) all feature some degree of gossipy salaciousness. That was the case for the original Decameron (1350s), the Heptameron (1550s, dubbed the French decameron) and lastly, the Pentameron (1630s).

Les Cent Nouvelles nouvelles also deserves mention here.

See also: Toward a Motif-Index of Erotic Humor

‘You got to,’ she said

It’s time for icon of erotic art #23.

Roman Charity by Jean-Jacques Bachelier

Roman Charity by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1806)

“Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. ‘You got to,’ she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. ‘There!’ she said. ‘There.’ Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously” —The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

Please notice the stylistic similarity (or at least a similarity in feel) with Dutch Girl, 2006 by Lisa Yuskavage

Lullaby for friends

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EAwTOujG-0&]

Tikiman, 1999

World music classic #32 is a nice and easy track by German producers Ernestus and von Oswald on their Basic Channel label. This one from 1999, from “Round One to Five”, a CD compilation which also featured more housey work by Ron Trent of Prescription Records.
If you want to find out more, follow the links from Tikiman.

Rafael Azcona (1926 – 2008)

Rafael Azcona died last Monday. I was sort of waiting until someone in the English blogosophere would write a fitting obituary (I was thinking of Robert Monell or Mike from Esotika), but it appears that his death went largely unnoticed in the anglosphere. As such, it would have gone unnoticed by me as well, were it not for the excellent Belgian literary blog “De Papieren Man” who reported Azcona’s death here.

To mainstream audiences, Azcona is best known for his writing credits on Belle Époque Youtube, which starred Penelope Cruz.

To cult film aficionados as myself, Azcona is best-known for his collaborations with über cult filmmaker Marco Ferreri, and especially as the scriptwriter of La Grande Bouffe WCC#13.

More Ferreri/Azcona collaborations include El Pisito, The Wheelchair, The Ape Woman , The Conjugal Bed, Countersex , The Man With The Balloons, The Wedding March, Kiss The Other Sheik, Her Harem, The Audience and, Don’t Touch the White Woman.

There is one Spanish obituary you may want to check by a blogger who calls himself an emotional pornographer (que bonito) [1]. Finally, this seems to be one of the more complete English language obituaries.