Stonewall riots @40

Stonewall riots @40

From the New York Times of June 29, 1969:

HUNDREDS OF YOUNG MEN WENT ON A RAMPAGE IN GREENWICH VILLAGE, shortly after 3 A.M. yesterday after a force of plain-clothes men raided a bar that the police said was well known for its homo-sexual clientele.

Thirteen persons were arrested and four policemen injured. The young men threw bricks, bottles, garbage, pennies and a parking meter at the policemen, who had a search warrant authorizing them in investigate reports that liquor was sold illegally at the bar, the Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square.–New York Times, June 29, 1969[2]

The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between New York City police officers and groups of gay and transgender people that began during the early morning of June 28, 1969, and lasted several days. Also called the Stonewall Rebellion or simply Stonewall, the clash was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, as gay and transgender people had never before acted together in such large numbers to forcibly resist police.

Except for Illinois, which decriminalized sodomy in 1961, homosexual acts, even between consenting adults acting in private homes, were a criminal offense in every U.S. state at the time the Stonewall Riots occurred: “An adult convicted of the crime of having sex with another consenting adult in the privacy of his or her home could get anywhere from a light fine to five, ten, or twenty years—or even life—in prison. In 1971, twenty states had ‘sex psychopath‘ laws that permitted the detaining of homosexuals for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California sex offenders could be locked in a mental institution for life, and [in] seven states they could be castrated.” (Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, by David Carter, p. 15) Castration, emetics, hypnosis, electroshock therapy and lobotomies were used by psychiatrists to attempt to cure homosexuals through the 1950s and 1960s.(Katz, pp. 181–197.)(Adam, p. 60.)

Subsequent nightclubs, such as The Sanctuary, often billed as the first modern DJ-led nightclub of New York, epitomized the post-Stonewall era, “when gay men had won the right to dance intimately together without worrying about the police.” –Peter Braunstein

RIP Stanley Chapman (1925 – 2009)

RIP Stanley Chapman (1925 – 2009)[1]

via www.tate.org.uk

Cover illustration for Subsidia Pataphysica, no.1, 19 December 1965

Stanley Chapman (1925 – 2009) was a British architect, designer, translator and writer. His interests included theatre and pataphysics. He was involved with founding the National Theatre of London, was a member of Oulipo of the year 1960, founder of the Outrapo and a member also of the French Collège de ‘Pataphysique, president the London Institute of ‘Pataphysics and the Lewis Carroll Society. His English translation of Hundred Thousand Billion Poems was received with “admiring stupefaction” by Raymond Queneau.

“Sex Without Stress” is WMC #288

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OtuZjBc_H0]

“Sex Without Stress” by the Au Pairs

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. As I explained, I now do music on Facebook almost exclusively (join me there at Jan Geerinck with a brief note).

It’s been so long that I need to explain what WMC stands for: World music classics is an ongoing series of World Music Classics.

It had been a while since I’d heard “Sex Without Stress” by the Au Pairs.

“Sex Without Stress” is a musical composition by the British post-punk band the Au Pairs first released in 1982. It was also released on their album Sense and Sensuality. The song is also featured on Stepping Out of Line: The Anthology.

From the lyrics:

“Would you like to express

your sex without stress?

Would you like to discover

physical conversations of different kinds?”

The Au Pairs were a post-punk band who formed in Birmingham in 1979. Musically they were very similar to bands such as Ludus, Gang of Four and the Delta 5. That is, the rhythm section was tight and funky (obvious influences were James Brown and Funkadelic), but the guitars were light and “scratchy” (like Subway Sect). All these bands shared a strongly left wing social outlook, but the Au Pairs stood out due to their frontwoman, Lesley Woods, being an outspoken feminist and lesbian: the band were greatly influential in this respect on the riot grrrl movement a decade later. Music historian Gillian G. Gaar noted in her history of women in rock (She’s A Rebel: The History of Women In Rock & Roll) that the band mingled male and female musicians in a revolutionary collaborative way as part of its outspoken explorations of sexual politics.

Introducing Outrepart

Outrepart.com

Outrepart.com is an image aggregator run by French web designer Omer Pesquer.

Omer Pesquer also runs  Lewub.com and maintains Stéphane Blanquet’s site.

Stelarc’s third ear

Stelarc’s third ear, photo by Nina Sellars from the Flickr stream of  k0re

Stelarc’s third ear[1] is performance by Australian body artist Stelarc consisting of a subdermal implant of a cell-cultivated ear in his left arm, thus becoming a living example of transhumanism.

Jahsonic’s canon

Gargantua and Pantagruel illustrated by  Gustave Doré

Surreal Documents writes[1]:

Genealogically, one can link the Medieval coq-à-l’âne to the Renaissance works of Rabelais, to Paul Scheerbart, Christian Morgenstern, Lewis Carroll, Pétrus Borel, Molière, Quirinus Kuhlmann, the Russian and Italian Futurists, and the Dadaists – and from there to ‘Les Légions Noires‘.

…

Surprisingly, Jahsonic hasn’t posted yet about Mikhail Bakhtin‘s Rabelais and His World…

As I’ve commented on Surreal Documents’ blog, I did “blog” on Rabelais and Bakthin back in 2004, but that was before I started the WordPress blog.

Of course it is impermissible that querying Rabelais on this blog brings up naught. Rabelais is canonical to me and my anthology which celebrates laughter and its rhizomatic proxies (theory of laughter, A History of Derision, laughter in literature, history of laughter; (too much overlap there, I will have to sort it out))

To set the omission straight, here is the list of Jahsonic’s canon. A list of individuals who have been formative and continue to be formative. They comprise of 173 people.

A Adrian Sherwood Alain Robbe-Grillet Alan Moore Alberto Moravia Alex van Warmerdam Alfred Jarry Alfred Kubin Andy Goldsworthy Andy Votel Andy Warhol Antony Balch Aristotle Arnold Böcklin Arthur Russell B Baruch Spinoza Bettina Rheims Bill Laswell Boris Vian C Camille Paglia Carl Theodor Dreyer Carlo Mollino Catherine Breillat Charles Baudelaire Chuck Palahniuk Clovis Trouille D Dalida David Cronenberg David Lynch David Toop Denis Diderot E E. T. A. Hoffmann Edgar Allan Poe Enrico Baj Eric Losfeld Ettore Sottsass F Fela Kuti Francesco Alberoni Francisco de Goya Franz Kafka François Ozon François Rabelais Freddy de Vree Friedrich Nietzsche Fyodor Dostoevsky Félicien Rops Félix Vallotton G Gaston Bachelard George Clinton George Grosz Georges Bataille Georges Méliès Georges Pichard Gershon Legman Giambattista Vico Gilles Deleuze Gilles Néret Giovanni Battista Piranesi

G cont. Giulio Romano Giuseppe Arcimboldo Glen Baxter Grandville Gustave Courbet Gustave Doré Guy Bourdin Guy Debord H Hajime Sorayama Hans Baldung Grien Hans Bellmer Hans Memling Hieronymus Bosch Hokusai Honoré Daumier J Jackie Mittoo Jacques Callot Jacques Tati Jake and Dinos Chapman Jan Lenica Jan Saudek Jean Painlevé Jean-Jacques Pauvert Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Pierre Bouyxou John Currin John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester John Zorn Jorge Ben Jorge Luis Borges José Guadalupe Posada Juzo Itami K Karl Marx Ken Wilber King Tubby Kodwo Eshun Kraftwerk L Larry Levan Lars von Trier Lee “Scratch” Perry Leslie Fiedler Louis-Ferdinand Céline Luc Sante Luigi Colani Luis Buñuel M Man Ray Marc Moulin Marcel Duchamp Marco Ferreri Marquis de Sade Martin Amis Matthias Grünewald Max Ernst Michael Haneke Michael Nyman Michael Winterbottom Michel Foucault Mikhail Bakhtin

N Nancy Cunard Neil Young Nicolas Roeg Nobuyoshi Araki O Odilon Redon Otto Dix P Park Chan-wook Parker Tyler Patrice Leconte Patrick Adams Paul Virilio Paul van Ostaijen Pedro Almodóvar Peter Sloterdijk Piero Manzoni Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Molinier Pietro Aretino R Radley Metzger Raymond Williams Richard von Krafft-Ebing Robert Fludd Roger Corman Roland Barthes Roland Topor Roman Polanski Ron Mueck Ryū Murakami S Salvator Rosa Samuel Palmer Serge Gainsbourg Sigmund Freud Simon Vinkenoog Simone de Beauvoir Slavoj Žižek Spike Lee Stephen King Steve Albini Sun Ra Susan Sontag Sylvester James Søren Kierkegaard T Tanino Liberatore Thomas Hirschhorn Théodore Géricault Trevor Brown Tzvetan Todorov U Umberto Eco V Vito Acconci W Walerian Borowczyk Walter Benjamin William Gibson William S. Burroughs Wim T. Schippers Woody Allen X Xavier Forneret Y Yoshifumi Hayashi É Étienne-Louis Boullée

For those of you wondering how I arrived at the canon, here is the list of themes and sensibilities that engendered it quite naturally:

A Aberrant Abnormality Absurd Alternative Avant-garde B Banned Bizarre C Censorship Clandestine Controversy Cult D Degeneration Difference Disgust E Esotericism

E cont. Exotic Extravagance F Forbidden G Gratuitous H Hermetic Hidden I Illegal Illicit Incongruous Inconspicuous K Kinky L Ludicrous M Macabre Monster N Non-mainstream O Obscure

O cont. Occult Offbeat Originality Outlandish Outsider Q Queer R Rare S Secrecy Supernatural Surreal T Taboo Transgressive Travesty U Ugly Unconvent

Maybe?

Scatole d’Amore in Conserva

Maybe Marinetti‘s 1927 book Scatole d’Amore in Conserva (boxes of love conserved) later inspired Piero Manzoni so famously to can his own excrement. “Conjecture, your honor!”

“Merda d’Artista” by Piero Manzoni by Flickr user  [AMC]

Introducing Dino Valls

Introducing Dino Valls

Click for credits

Click for credits

Dino Valls is a Spanish painter born in 1959 in Zaragoza, presently living and working in Madrid. This self-taught artist studied Italian and Flemish masters of the 16th and 17th centuries and currently makes use of egg tempera.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaZ1vzqOecI]

Having previously obtained a degree in medicine, he is now one of the Spanish representatives of the vanguard of new figurative art[1], along with Odd Nerdrum in Norway and John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage in America where there is also the Lowbrow art movement, presided over by critics such as Suzanne G..

His work is also classified as fantastic art.

Here is an interesting YouTumentary with a soundtrack by Funkstörung.[2]

What the Butler Saw in Düsseldorf

What the Butler Saw

What the Butler Saw in Düsseldorf (2008)

The butler visited Diana und Actaeon – Der verbotene Blick auf die Nacktheit with a fellow butler and a maid.

He was thrilled to see Étant donnés[1] by Marcel Duchamp. And he did not realize it also looked like this[2]. He saw the famous metal doll sculpture[3] by Hans Bellmer and Bad Boy by Eric Fischl. He saw the most beautiful penis in post-war photography, yes he meant the Robert Mapplethorpe one[4].

He saw and liked photographs[5] of the Linley Sambourne collection, paintings by French figuratist Jean Rustin[6], paintings by Michael Kirkham[7], his first viewing of the fauvist Erich Heckel[8], Phryne[9] by French academic cult painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, waxworks by Belgian sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere[10], and paintings by Roland Delcol[11].

The butler was also very much taken by Johannes Hüppi[12]; his first viewing of his fave John Currin[13]; his first real Félix Vallotton; and a Lisa Yuskavage[14]. But not that one.

Butler wants you to know that the works he pointed to are for reference only and may not correspond to the works at the exhibition. He also wants you to know that some of the links may be NSFW.

World Cinema Classic #70

In search of nonspace and unthought thoughts.

Sans Soleil

In search of nonspace and unthought thoughts.

I’ve been mulling over French director Chris Marker‘s Sans Soleil for four days now. The key scene for me was the shooting of the giraffe, which gave its origins away as far as genre-theoretics are concerned.

The key phrase was perhaps the “salute to all unposted letters,” but is safe to say that the film is brilliantly written throughout.

I saw the film at MuHKA on last Saturday, introduced by a Belgian scholar (who?). He stated that the film was unclassifiable, because the “film essay is not a genre but a small category”. However, in my opinion, the film fits the mondo film category, and functions as a highbrow counterpart to Mondo Cane. The film also begs a viewing of the masterwork Blood of the Beasts. But Sans Soleil is a different film altogether. It is a philosophical film that raises questions of medium specificity, multimedia, memory and authenticity.

I have a feeling that Sans Soleil can be invoked to clarify Gilles Deleuze‘s any-space-whatever (see B. C. Holmes – “The Deleuzian Memory of Sans Soleil” [1]), but to prove that would need some more studying of Gilles Deleuze on film.