Having tackled such topics as prostitution, the nature of violence, and the Imperial Valley, author William Vollmann‘s certainly navigated a few of the world’s darker corners. His just-released work of non-fiction, Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, seems like it’s going to strike that typical Vollmann balance between the bleak and the beautiful.
Here’s how Vice describes it:
As its title suggests, it is a sociological exploration of the strange, veiled world of Noh and its practitioners. The book is filled with transvestites, geishas, sex fiends of the red-light Kabukichō district, and many other interesting characters both elegant and perverted. It also marks the first time that we have read the word “neovagina.”
Vice is also carrying an excerpt from the book’s Chapter 16, “They Just Want To Look In The Mirror.” In it, Vollmann recounts his session with a makeup artist (see above photos) whose clientele includes a large number of cross-dressing Japanese businessmen:
Only about 10 percent of her customers dare to go out. They often wear femme-executive or businesswoman outfits when they come to her; a few play with lingerie, but never here; some keep secret apartments furnished with their woman things, so that their families will never know. They tend to order clothes on the internet, a circumstance which requires them to buy repeatedly before discovering a garment which actually fits; but anonymity remains infinitely more important to them than cost or convenience.
“Why do they do it?”
“Stress,” she replies. “And they have the pleasure of hiding something secret.”
Sorry, but it had to be done. In honor of 420 I give you one of the finest pot songs ever recorded. Be careful though, this will stick in your head for days.
For years now, and at GREAT personal expense, I’ve been quietly putting together a convincing Prince Charming outfit, praying waiting for the day I could sneak into Disneyland and cavort undetected with Jasmine and Pooh.
Well, thanks to Natasha Narula (above right) and her daughter, Drew, I can now kiss that dream goodbye. Hey, Natasha, next time you wanna “blend,” maybe pick something more elaborate than that shabby 40-dollar wedding dress?!
The mother-of-two told yesterday how she was left ‘stunned and humiliated’ after being ordered to return to her hotel to change when staff insisted she could not enter the complex in fancy dress because she could be mistaken for a Disney princess. She said that one of them then told her the dress was ‘too pretty’ and may be confused for a member of staff in character.
‘But I spoke to a manager and she said they were concerned children would think I worked there and wanted to have their picture with me. ‘I didn’t even have any make-up on and didn’t look anything like the characters in the park, it wasn’t like I was wearing a big Mickey Mouse outfit, it was just a dress. She was forced to change into an old pair of jeans and a shirt before she was eventually admitted to the park. Drew was allowed to keep her dress on.
The divorced mother said: ‘I was just a bit of fun for me and my daughter but we were treated like criminals. ‘The only things I had left were what I’d worn the night before so I had to go into the park wearing dirty clothes. Disneyland confirmed it had a global policy banning adults from wearing fancy dress in their theme parks. A spokesman said: ‘No one over the age of nine is allowed to enter our theme parks in fancy dress. It prevents confusion.’
Ah, yes, “confusion.” I’m sure that’s exactly what it prevents!
Mother and Daughter Banned from Disneyland…Because They Were Dressed as Fairy Princesses
My friend Matthew Lee, London food critic at large, just published this article about Horton Jupiter, a Stoke Newington DJ who converted his living room into a restaurant—sparking a trend across the United Kingdom. First person to import to the US wins.
The neighbours must find it rather odd. Every Wednesday evening since January, two dozen strangers have congregated outside a small flat on a Stoke Newington housing estate. The flat belongs to Horton Jupiter, a musician, DJ and amateur chef whose decision to open a restaurant in his front room has sparked a phenomenon. Within months, numerous home restaurants, also known as supper clubs, had popped up throughout the UK.
Using applications such as Facebook and Twitter to get the word out, these courageous cooks have dragged the restaurant industry into the social networking age. And home restaurants are, above all, social. Guests are seated at large tables, dinner party-style, and encouraged to chat to strangers. It’s a world apart from a candlelit dinner for two.
Horton had no intention of being a pioneer. ““I have a book called This Diary Will Change Your Life and each week it sets you a task”,” he explains. ““Week two was to start a restaurant in your front room, so I did.””
Red pandas are the cutest animal in existence on this planet. This is indisputable. It may not be argued. It may not be contradicted. It is fact. I don’t make these rules. I merely report them. And I report red panda sightings on the Internet:
These guys are native to the forests in the Himalayas, and there are only 10,000 to 20,000 of them worldwide. In the past they had been misclassified as being in the same families as raccoons and bears, but have recently been reclassified in a family all their own; they are considered “living fossils”, which means they’re more closely related to animals found in fossils than any living species. The people native to the red panda’s region call them “Wha” after the sound they make. They are slightly bigger than a house cat and eat a diet of mostly bamboo shoots and leaves. They spend most of the day time napping in the tree tops, and are most active at dusk and dawn.
Here’s another excellent fan-made video syncing print to music via Michael Mantler’s wonderful 1976 LP The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories. It’s a collection of delightful and dark children’s verse by Edward Gorey set to music by a stellar cast including Wyatt, Carla Bley, Jack Dejohnette and Terje Rypdal. I’m pretty sure I could listen to Robert Wyatt sing a shopping list and find it to be genius but this is a real treat, a match made in heaven.
Here’s a smashing excerpt from part two of Richard’s interview with the incomparable and incorrigible Kim Fowley. It’s a sure hit !