Not Without My Pug

My not-so-secret pug obsession is running into ovHERdrive. I bought German literature: Nicht ohne meinen Mops, you guessed it: Not Without My Pug. Es ist ein “WG-Roman”; all about the Turbulenzen of sharing a flat. The pug in the book is called “Earl of Cockwood”, and of course belongs to a faggy fag. Coincidence?

Tanja found her dream apartment in downtown Stuttgart. Too bad she can’t afford it by herself and so she’s hosting a casting for flat mates. Tanja decides on Chris, a florist who works at a call centre and Rolf, a mailman who moves in with his pug “Earl of Cockwood”. Tanja is head over heels for these guys. Of course she is the last to know that Chris and Rolf are becoming a couple.

Thanks Zesty.

Got The Bossypants

I just finished Tina Fey’s fun memoir, anecdote collection Bossypants. If you’re watching 30 Rock, you’re definitly going to be reminded of Liz Lemon in some parts. One of the best chapters is “Amazing, Gorgeous, Not Like That” in which Tina goes on about photo shoots for magazines and Photoshop:

“Do I think Photoshop is being used excessively? Yes. I saw Madonna’s Louis Vuitton ad and honestly, at first glance, I thought it was Gwen Stefani’s baby.
Do I worry about overly retouched photos giving women unrealistic expectations and body image issues? I do. I think that we will soon see a rise in anorexia in women over seventy. Because only people over seventy are fooled by Photoshop.”
(…)
“Why can’t we accept the human form as it is?” screams no one. I don’t know why, but we never have. That’s why people wore corsets and neck stretchers and powdered wigs.
If you’re going to expend energy being mad about Photoshop, you’ll also have to be mad about earrings. No one’s ears are that sparkly! They shouldn’t have to be!

About the 4-Ohh

The Rei Kawakubo chapter is one of the best in John Waters’ book Role Models (published in May). These few black and white pages have caused considerable damage over hurrr. I mean, not that I didn’t crave Comme des Garçons before, but now, the flood gates of hell (aka my purse) are wide open. I simply can not resist a CdG item any more (just spare me the CdG Play line).

Ok, here is one of the crucial paragraphs. And what I believe is also very important: You can never start too early. Gobble up some torn & combusted CdG BEFORE you hit the big 4-ohhh:

You don’t need fashion designers when you are young (…). But past the age of 40, you need all the help you can get. Now is the time for designers, and believe me, Rei Kawakubo has made it possible for older people to be as fashion daring as the young. “Too rich, too nuts?” Yesiree, these are Rei’s customers, and we are proud to be her cult members on “Planet Rei”. Rei Kawakubo was “the first to make polyester cost more than silk,” the model Linda Evangelista told me when I met her at a film festival in France. Rei is not a fashion designer; she is a magician.

The chapter about his friendship with Leslie van Houten is available at HuffPost.

The Magic Begins …

… at home.

When Toffi and I stayed at the Mirage in Las Vegas, we were of course a little sad that we couldn’t experience the magic that is Siegfried & Roy. Guess we came a couple of years too late.

Anyways, we had a great time visiting the Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy with all the wild animals. In the little shopette by the zoo I found the book “The Magic Begins At Home” by S&R. The style is a good companion to the Michael Jackson auction catalogue.

More pictures after the jump, the full glory is on flickr.

MMM 20

Pictures from the exhibition catalogue to celebrate 20 years of Maison Martin Margiela. More on flickr.

Thanks bitz.

Earlier: MMM in M on M

On -itits

Ok, I thought I would not use this word again, but here we go:

Fotzeritis [vulg.], German
I guess it translates into English as “cuntitis”. Heard it first a couple of years ago from the dearest CvB, also known as the wife of the professorin.

Now recently, I got Annie Leibovitz At Work as a present. On the book jacket there is a quote by Annie that reads:

“The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt.Fuji.”

Sounds like the perfect example of fotzeritis to me.

The Castro in the 70s

The fun East Village Boys has an excellent post about and by photographer Dan Nicoletta, a friend and photographer of Harvey Milk and the Castro of the 70s. Below are just three pictures out of many. Make sure to head over to evb.

“(above right) Divine terrorizing the Trockadero Dance Club, October 29, 1978. He had just thrown an entire cake into the audience, nailing many, and was on his way to the other side of the stage to tear down the Trock”™s other white and silver faux palm trees. I guess he didn”™t like the decor. This was just after his starring role in John Water”™s, Female Trouble.”

Castro Street cruising, August, 1976

The recently released “œMilk: A Harvey Milk Pictorial Biography“, foreword by Armistead Maupin, introduction by Lance Black, the screenwriter of the film “œMILK”. It features many photographs by Dan Nicoletta.

(via omgblog)

The Disco Files

The Disco Files 1973-78 is a new book by Vince Aletti and djhistory.com, to be released April 20 (pre-order here). It sounds very much like a new nerd bible, containing Vince’s weekly reports from New York”™s club scene, his magazine articles, 800 club and DJ charts and tons of record reviews.

Aletti was the first person to write about disco in an article published in Rolling Stone in 1973. He became a senior editor at The Village Voice, and is currently the photography critic for The New Yorker.

The 30 page pdf preview of the book includes an excerpt of his ’73 disco article and some great pictures. Some of the pictures might look familiar, as they have been published in the other disco bible Love Saves The Day by Tim Lawrence.

From an interview with Vince Aletti:

Did people at [Paradise] Garage regard the Studio 54 as the anti-Christ?
To an extent. I certainly did. It was not what we thought this was all about. David’s [Mancuso] idealism was very widespread in terms of the way people felt. I think disco was, to some extent, a movement and a lot of people felt very strongly. And a lot of people got very caught up in what they felt it should and shouldn’t be.

What was the reaction when Studio 54 took off?
It’s hard for me to say, besides what I already said. There’s a scene at the end of the Last Days Of Disco one of the characters has this very idealistic speech where he says disco was a whole movement. It was funny, but it was really true and people felt that. They felt disappointed that the idealistic quality of it was being trampled over, in favour of money and celebrity. As much as disco was glitzy and certainly loved celebrity culture when people came to clubs, there was never a sense of it being driven by that. It was much more driven by an underground idea of unity.

(via disco delivery & more information)

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, dear readers.

I would like to share a quote from Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal, which I am currently reading. It uses one of my favourite holiday related words, which I had never heard before this December (thanks to El Bear Ho): Bauble.

“I preferred to be Greer Garson, a gracious lady whose compassionate breasts were more suited to be last pillow for a dying youth than the baubles for the coarse hands of some horny boy.”

Me Loves Bücherstapel

Above is a photo of a page from Place Space, the magazine featuring John Waters at home. So, of course, this is showing one of his many book piles.

And what can we see CLEARLY in the pile to the right? John Waters has a copy of Ausserirdische Zwitterwesen / Alien Hybrid Creatures, the book by die Professorin Michael Krebber.

Below is my personal re-visualisation of the book pile for your viewing pleasure.

Well done.