Author of the misandrist classic, SCUM Manifesto, and would-be assassin of Andy Warhol, Valerie Solanas is downright charming in his 1967 film, (presumably before she decided to shoot him).
The movie’s title is a parody of Swedish erotic film, I, A Woman, which Valerie, founder and sole member of the Society for Cutting Up Men, probably had fairly strong feelings about. From the manifesto:
Eaten up with guilt, shame, fears and insecurities and obtaining, if he’s lucky, a barely perceptible physical feeling, the male is, nonetheless, obsessed with screwing; he’ll swim a river of snot, wade nostril-deep through a mile of vomit, if he thinks there’ll be a friendly pussy awaiting him. He’ll screw a woman he despises, any snaggle-toothed hag, and, further, pay for the opportunity. Why? Relieving physical tension isn’t the answer, as masturbation suffices for that. It’s not ego satisfaction; that doesn’t explain screwing corpses and babies.
I wonder why the SCUM Men’s auxiliary never really took off…
David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted was a nonsensical, non sequitur musical play directed by Lynch, featuring singer Julee Cruise.
It begins with a filmed sequence with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, who were then filming Wild at Heart with Lynch. Cage’s character dumps Dern’s who then somehow turns into Cruise who floats over typically Lynchian industrial dreamscapes. Michael J. Anderson, the mysterious dwarf in the red room from Twin Peaks saws wood and repeats Dern and Cage’s break-up conversation, mocking them.
Industrial Symphony No. 1 was staged for two performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the “New Music America Festival” in November of 1989. I actually saw one of the performances. Although I was massively into David Lynch at the time, to be honest, I thought it was pretty—and very well-staged (everything is well-staged at BAM)—but a bit… boring. I’ve read that they only had two weeks to put it together and that seems plausible!
The video is probably something that you can dip in and out of, if you know what I mean.
Alien Or Satan is a short film by Norwegian artist Prins Preben. Part joke, part examination of what is interpreted to be Occult / Extra-terrestrial. As Prins tells Dangerous Minds:
The film examines a lost human facing what may be described as the hidden or the unknown. It has a kind of perspective of what emotions we see as “occult/hidden”. It’s like two directions…Hell the core of flames in the middle of the Earth. And Space a more cold and endless place….both a “kind of hidden.” And of course, Lucifer is both celestial and alien.
The United States Postal Service will be issuing a Johnny Cash stamp later this year as part of its new “Music Icons” series. The stamp features a photograph taken by Frank Bez which appeared on the cover of the album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash.
The fabulous chanteuse Anne Pigalle returns with a new exhibition of artwork, Is There Life After Sex?, which will be on show at Natalie Galustian Rare Books, 22 Cecil Court, London, from February 1st-21st.
Following on from the great success of Miss Pigalle’s last exhibition (at the Michael Hoppen Gallery), Is There Life After Sex? is a must-see show which will continue her discourse on relationships and the important role of sexuality in our lives.
Miss Pigalle will also be holding one of her legendary Salons, on February 14th, where Anne will perform a choice selection from her acclaimed erotic poems L’Ame Erotique. For those who wish to experience something new, important and very special, I suggest they go along to see the Last Chanteuse Ms. Anne Pigalle. Check here for details
Pantomime head trip and riff on Thomas Mann’s “Transposed Heads,” Alejandro Jodorowsky’s delightful surrealist short film La Cravate has fun with the whole idea of identity and the illusion of body/mind separation while evoking Melies, Cocteau and The Children Of Paradise.
In 1983, French director Bertrand Tavernier took a road trip through the American south. Along for the ride was veteran film maker Robert Parrish (who was born in Georgia). Together they documented the customs, folklore, religion and music of rural areas in and around Oxford, Mississippi. The result is Mississippi Blues, a lively, beautifully filmed movie that is permeated with the soul and spirit of a rapidly disappearing part of America.
The yin/yang of the two directors creates a nice balance between Tavernier’s romanticism (he seems to find poetry in everything) and Parrish’s down-to-earth sense of a culture he knows well.
This is truly a wonderful bit of film making that offers not only marvelous imagery but a beat you can dance to.
Mississippi Blues is out of print on VHS and has inexplicably never been released on DVD. Here’s a rare opportunity to watch it.
TV guide commissioned Andy Warhol to design a cover and a series of fashion pages with Get Smart star Barbara Feldon using photographs by fashion photographer Roger Prigent.
Warhol certainly made the March 5th, 1966 issue of TV guide pop!
Today is Robert Burns’ birthday, and across the world traditional suppers are held to celebrate the life and poetry of Scotland’s national Bard.
I have never been one for those couthy ritualistic gatherings, where toasts are given to the lads and lassies, and where some elder with a tartan to match his face, gives an address to the haggis. For me these suppers have little to do with Burns the man and poet, who could write such beauty as:
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom
is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts
for ever;
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow’s lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm. -
Nae man can tether time or tide;
No, I prefer to see Robert Burns as great poet, a revolutionary, a socialist, an egalitarian, who believed ‘a man’s a man for a’ that’ and wrote to inspire a better world:
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a’ that,)
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
That man to man, the world o’er,
Shall brithers be for a’ that.
Burns’ idealism was often compromised by the financial demands of his everyday life - and what a life. A poet, a ploughman, a lover, a drinker, a revolutionary, a government lackey, a hero, a destitute. As Andrew O’Hagan points out in this excellent documentary Robert Burns: The People’s Poet, Burns was the equivalent of a rock star in his day, a writer of songs (“Auld Lang Syne”, “Ae Fond Kiss”, “My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose”, “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”) and poems (“Tam O’Shanter”, “Holy Wuillie’s Prayer”, “To A Mouse”, “Cock Up Your Beaver”) that enchanted a nation and the world.
It was his ability to touch the heart and mind of his readers and to make them empathize with his subject matter, whether this was love, revolution in France or simply a mouse:
That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!
He was idolized by the public, and was a hero and inspiration to the likes of Beethoven and Byron. At a time of great oppression he spoke out against slavery, inequality, and poverty. Burns wanted liberty and fairness for all. Yet he died in poverty, hounded by creditors, and near-broken as a man.
That Rabbie Burns is still read, performed and celebrated 200 years after his death, says all about his importance as a poet and the relevance of his belief for a better world, where all are equal and share the common wealth.
O’Hagan’s documentary Robert Burns: The People’s Poet is no hagiography, but controversially questions many of the assumptions made about this radical poet, and examines the incredible dramatic and often tragic circumstances of his life.
