I saw this the other day, linked on Metafilter, and the pictures just aren't leaving my head.
Survivors - in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time the U.S. dropped atom bombs on their cities - drawing and painting their memories of that experience, part of a project by UCLA Professor, Dr. James N. Yamazaki (who has a book by the same name). Simply put, these pictures, and their brief explanations, convey the horror of those days in August 1945 better than any photos or written descriptions I have ever encountered.
Truly, this is the art therapy of atrocity, taken to a far extreme. You are warned.
So you may have read about Myra Hindley's little 'China Pig' with the wasp on its nose? Its creators' name now known to all, is this pottery piece destined for some sort of rehabilitative artistic re-evaluation? Will it become the subject of ceramic pilgrimages by thano-tourists? Vandalism and smashing by would-be do-gooders?
Did making this pig help Myra at all? Was it healing? Therapeutic? Were the insects her idea? How is the pig supposed to feel about all this, hypothetically? Is it funny? Did it make her laugh? Was she proud of it when it was finished?
The Galleries of Justice Museum in Nottingham will likely continue to have the attention of the UK for the next few days at least, and it may be interesting to see what fate befalls this most unlikley focus of outrage.
In the late 90s, Other People's Music began putting out The Punk Hole of Fame, CDs of vintage 70s Toronto punk bands - The Ugly, The Mods, The Secrets, The B Girls, and so on. In many cases, this was the first time the bands' music had been available in 20 years, and there were tons of bonus/unreleased material to boot, so it was a Big Deal.
One of the CDs I most enjoyed in the series was that of The Curse, a sexy, sleazy treasure called "Teenage Meat". The Curse were noteable for being North America's first female punk band, their premiere gig (after only three weeks of practising) being an opening slot for The Viletones at Crash'N'Burn in 1977. A month later, they were in NYC playing CBGB. A year after that, they headlined at Max's Kansas City!
The Curse were known for crazy shows - singer Mickey Skin spraying the audience with whipped cream or throwing phallic hot dog weenies at them. To say nothing of bloody tampons... Their songs are short and rocking, sometimes dubby, sometimes slinky; the lyrics are amazing, full of freaky scenes and hot summer nights. Imagine if they'd put out an LP at the time, how different punk history might be. Joining Skin were Trixie Danger on guitar, Dr. Bourque on bass, and Patsy Poison on drums.
Not surprisingly then, most of the music on "Teenage Meat" is basement recordings and lo-fi to the extreme. Still rules though. Be sure and check out "If It Tastes So Great, Swallow It Yerself!"
*Singer Mickey Skin also appeared on "Raw", the first track on "Teenage Meat", of which more here:
The building that was housing [Crash'N'Burn] was owned by the CEAC (Centre For Arts And Communications) who recruited The Diodes and The Curse (actually just vocalist Mickey Skin ranting) for a double-sided single. The extremely rare single, "Raw/War", was a propaganda newsletter for the CEAC and was issued under the guise of Crash And Burn Records.
I've wanted to do something on Gianna Michaels here for awhile - she is my absolute favourite 'actress' currently in porn, and has been so for a long time. Aside from having an incredible body, she is very funny & personable, and provides an energy and style during her scenes that is second to none. She can also be quite nasty.
I felt her recent DVD showcase "G for Gianna" was a bit too glossy & pretty, personally; if you're looking for somewhere to start, I would recommend any of the many things she's done for BangBros. Quality however is a constant with Gianna - she's never boring.
"In a world of copycat porn where everyone spots a trend and follows it, Gianna doesn't follow the crowd. She has an all natural look to her that sets her apart from all others to the point that you would never mistake her for another porn star. Gianna is all woman and is not afraid to speak her mind or afraid to call you out."
If you've just got to hear Gianna herself, Roger Pipe has graciously made the audio of their interview available online. Listen to it over and over while you work at your desk, and smile at your co-workers with the benefit of your present company.
Although man is a self-domesticated animal, the domestication process is only partial. We see this in certain types of schizophrenics who apparently experience something very similar to the flight reaction. When approached too closely, these schizophrenics panic in much the same way as an animal recently locked up in a zoo. In describing their feelings, such patients refer to anything that happens within their "flight distance" as taking place literally inside themselves. That is, the boundaries of the self extend beyond the body.
Disgust helps mark boundaries of culture and boundaries of the self. The boundaries of the self extend beyond the body to encompass a jurisdictional territory, what Erving Goffman calls a territorial preserve, which may be defined as any space that if intruded upon would engender rightful indignation or disgust in us.
In general, schizophrenia is an extremely introverted, psychospiritual mode of perception, or way of relating to the world; or state of consciousness involving (what I have called) 'extreme empathy'. This simultaneous blessing and curse is due to a fragile, fragmented, dead, or lost ego, or conscious personality structure. The normal, ego-enforced boundaries between the self and the world have broken down, such that schizophrenia sufferers - for better and worse - find themselves identifying with everything within their scope of perception.
- Maureen B. Roberts, What is Schizophrenia?
What happens when the physical body and the subjective sense of self part company? How do we explain phantom limbs and alien abduction? What are the cognitive, neurobiological mechanisms that support such phenomena? ...when 'body' and 'self', soma and psyche are dissociated from each other, within or beyond the body's surface. Some disorders constrain the space of the body (as in neglect and dissociation syndromes), others seem to extend the boundaries (as with phantom limbs and autoscopy). Still others suggest a permeability of those boundaries (as in alien control and thought insertion, each occurring in schizophrenia). Finally, the body may itself be perceived as having passed into space, the most extreme exemplar being 'alien abduction'.
- Pathologies of Body, Self and Space (write-up)
One of the most prominent characteristics of severe borderline pathology is a mechanistic and self-destructive relation with the body, in which the latter is conceived of as non-functional, inanimate or even dead. The view of one's body from without, as if the borderline places himself separate from his body and observes it, is characteristic. The patient experiences his body becoming alive only when he activates a ritual of perversive order, pertaining to a relation with substances, with food, a paraphilia or a combination of some of the above. The sexuality of the borderline patients, which is under the shadow of perversity, prefers skin contact, contact through touch. It concerns a perversive sexuality, which remains attached to sensations and emotions, rejecting penetration or the bodily depth. In the end, in severe borderline pathology, the sexual contact fails to provide satisfaction of genital order while bringing about a mere satisfaction of psychic order. It is a peculiar satisfaction since it derives from a never-ending search for satisfaction through perpetual excitation of desire, which is finally obtained via self-satisfaction and in most cases in the absence of the external object.
- M. Chatziandreou, Sexual aspects of the body in borderline patients (abstract)
The other day, one of my favourite music blogs - WFMU's Beware of the Blog - linked to another wacky youtube video, something I can usually give or take.
This one however was pretty incredible: a guy going by the handle of tonetta777 who records his own songs, and then films himself - in what appears to be a very small room - dancing & frequently lip-syncing to his own recordings.
Sometimes he is wearing a suit, sometimes he is dressed in drag. Sometimes he pretends to be a little girl, sometimes he wears warpaint. Sometimes he wears a skull mask, sometimes pumps. And sometimes he wears next to nothing at all.
For some, the appeal of his home-recorded songs may be elusive; the single-shot videos may suggest nothing so much as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs; the lyrics, mostly *extremely* sexual but also on occasion quite sweet (or even political), will certainly be a stumbling block for many - but for those with whom it clicks, it really, really clicks. And I am such a one.
Simply put, I am now addicted to tonetta777. And there's a lot of tonetta to get addicted to - to date, he has posted 66 songs, tunes which he records alone, and which he is apparently too shy to perform live. How great would it be to see tonetta play a set somewhere?
If all this were was just another youtube freakshow, I wouldn't be so evangelistic. tonetta though, beyond the memorable performance, has that rarest of things - tons of greatsongs which seem to come very naturally, and a knack for arranging these catchy songs in unique albeit simple ways.
His voice, his picking style, his back-ups, his basslines & drum machine beats - it all works in sync beautifully. I'm crazy about his lyrics too. The costumes and sexy dancing are the icing on the cake. He also plays a mean $10 axe and wrote a love song to Karla Homolka. It's actually kind of ridiculous how great tonetta is.
The requests from his fans for a CD release are gathering force. My own efforts to comb the web & learn more about this rather mysterious wunderkind have met with precious little reward: some lyrics, a brief interview, an entry on a motorbike forum of all things.
His youtube profile tells us he lives in Toronto (!!!) and enjoys watching westerns. His favourite video picks suggest a predilection for ladies with the large posterior. He has another youtube account under the name tj1749, and this account gives his name as toni. Whence sprung the awesomeness? Details are few.
Let's hope $ucce$$ locates tonetta777 before he ODs on the drugs drugs drugs, allowing him to release these amazing jams for posterity and sweaty dancefloors everywhere. Songs these amazing are too good to disappear, and I can't figure out how to download them.
***Aug.25/09 - Youtube has removed all tonetta777's videos and says his account is suspended!!! Nooooooo!!! Please post anything you find relating to the man below. The world must have more tonetta777!!!!***
***Sept.1/09 - Hurray! For anyone that missed it in the comments, tonetta/Tony has a new Youtube account up under the name tj1749! Thanks, Brad Farless!***
***Sept.5/09 - I'm an idiot. I actually mentioned that other account in the original post. Oh well. There has really been a wellspring of support on Youtube since August's suspension of his main account, which is nice to see. If you're a fan, subscribe to TonettaShock's account as well.***
