Primitive Love For Me

Today I was primitive.

Wig, fox skull, fox fur, rabbit fur, macrame/bead necklace, skull dagger earrings, shirt.

Róisín Murphy's song Primitive from her album Overpowered has been stuck in my head all day, but I have no complaints about that.



Out from under a rock from the prehistoric sea we came. We are animals, animal. One unbroken chain.

The Pope Of Trash Is My Role Model

I recently purchased and read John Waters' new book Role Models. If you know me well you probably know that I'm not a big reader (something that I'm not happy about and wish to change), so it is quite a strange occurrence when I actually pick up and read a book. But for a John Waters book it was easy, simply because Waters is such a funny, original and insightful man with some very good views on the world (oh, and because the cover is beautifully drawn in grey lead pencil).

I first discovered John Waters for myself when I found out about his film Pink Flamingos while scouring the internet for interesting, transgressive films to watch. I found Pink Flamingos so hilarious and grotesque (as I imagine most people do) that I had to see more of his films. I went on a rampage of viewing his early films, the ones that mostly star the forever fantastic Divine and the always amazing Mink Stole (Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Multiple Maniacs, Polyester, etc.), and I completely fell in love with these films and the complete atrociousness of them. I have just recently finished watching his more recent, less revolting, but still good films (Cecil B. Demented, Pecker, Serial Mom, A Dirty Shame, etc.) and I very much enjoy Mink Stole's appearances, and quick cameos from Mary Vivian Pearce (both actresses have appeared in every one of Waters' films) and it's so cool that Waters' has used people like convicted bank robber Patricia Hearst and ex-porn star Traci Lords (who is so so so so hot in Cry-Baby as 1950's babe Wanda Woodward) in his films.

His outrageous cult films (particularly his early films) are like nothing I've ever seen before. From Raymond and Connie Marble's toe sucking with 'carpets' to match the 'drapes' in Pink Flamingos to Divine raping 'herself' in Female Trouble or getting raped by a giant lobster in Multiple Maniacs (which was wonderfully paid homage to by Róisín Murphy in her Movie Star film clip). Trash! Pure trash. Oh, and how could I forget Mink Stole shoving rosary beads in Divine's ass hole inside a church, also in Multiple Maniacs. T-R-A-S-H. I could go on and on listing revolting and bizarre scenes, but I digress.

Role Models is a manifesto of essays about the people who have inspired Waters, from famous to practically unknown. The list of names include singer Johnny Mathis, ex-Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten, Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo (Waters walked the runway for Comme des Garçons once in the 90's) and rock and roll legend Little Richard, just to name a few. I found it great to get some insight on John Waters as a person, especially after seeing his films. It was great to read how varied his influences are and how he's reflected them in his films.

Role Models is John Waters latest book and he has a few other books which I hope to read very soon. He's not only a film maker and author, he has also exhibited an art show with installations such as a giant bottle of Rush that has been tipped over and pictures of Hollywood children with cigarettes photoshopped into their mouths. The Sultan of Sleaze, with his signature pencil moustache, is just an all round trashy man, and definitely a role model of mine. Who'd have thought there'd be a massive hit musical based on one of his films? (That's Hairspray by the way).

I must start reading regularly because John Waters once said “If you go home with someone, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ‘em.” and I wouldn't want that, would I?

Creative Machine

Florence Broadhurst was an Australian performer, fashion boutique owner, dressmaker, artist and wallpaper designer. She was a creative genius and although you might not know her name I don't doubt that you've seen her designs one place or another.

She is most well known for her wallpaper designs, even though she only got into that field when she was in her sixties. It just goes to show it's never too late to do what you want, and if you don't know what you want, it's never too late to discover it.

Although wallpaper is undoubtedly less popular than it once was, the beauty of the designs of her wallpapers has easily carried through from the 60's and 70's to today in a timeless manner. When looking at her wallpaper designs it's hard not to think of all of the places she's been, all of the things that influenced her and her work as she was travelling all over the world throughout her life. I can just imagine all of the things she's lived through and all of the stories she's told. Whether the stories are true or false (she was known to tell tales and twist the truth) is not important, what's important is that these stories have come from her experiences and from her mind, and when she was living they had somehow become a twisted reality for her.

From an early age she began travelling performing as a singer and in a comedy troupe, she then went on to start an academy, own a boutique, exhibit paintings and eventually start her internationally successful handprinted wallpaper company. She lived such a creative and fulfilled life, which seems like such an exciting prospect. It seems she was always reinventing herself while always remaining a fascinating person.

Florence Broadhurt's life was cut short when she was brutally murdered in her studio in 1977 (her murder remains a mystery), but she lives on in her work. She was such an eccentric character and the fact that she was so productive and inventive throughout her life is inspiring. I only hope for a life as fascinating and full of creativity as Florence's was.

If I Had A Few Hundred Dollars

The other day my friend Felicity and I went to Chadstone and just as we were about to leave I remembered that Fat now stocks Comme des Garçons. So I dragged Flick to Fat and went in and browsed around and then I came to a rack which held some of the best clothes I have seen in quite some time. I'm not ashamed to say that I got quite excited (just ask Flick).

By this time in my life I've come to two realisations when it comes to clothes. One is that I like really cheap clothes from places like op shops (or clothes that once belonged to my parents), and quite expensive clothes, but rarely anything in the middle. The second realisation is that I am so underwhelmed by so many of the clothes I see when I go shopping. So many things are just so boring and pedestrian, just created to please the masses. But I was not underwhelmed one little bit while flicking through the Commes des Garçons rack at Fat. Beautiful reversible coats, kaftans, shirts with detachable scarves, drop crotch shorts, jackets with underarm holes and buttons on both sides... It was super lovely to see these clothes in the flesh and it was great to see some clothes that weren't just tediously characterless and the same as the last store I just browsed through (maybe I'm shopping in all the wrong places).

If only I had a few hundred (or thousand) dollars spare I'd purchase some Comme des Garçons to hang on my body (my birthday's coming up, hint hint).

Unlike The Story It Was Written To Be

When I first heard Joanna Newsom I think I was attracted to that slightly Kate Bush feel of her music, but after I listened more I put my Kate Bush comparisons away (although I still occasionally hear a hint of that genius woman in Joanna's music) and fully embraced her shrill 'cat getting strangled and drowned at the same time' vocals and her wonderful harp (and quite often piano) music.

 
That description of her voice sounds bad, but I truly don't mean for it to. Come to think of it, sometimes she sounds like a little girl. That is not a bad thing either and I think such a distinctive voice singing such beautiful songs deserves praise. Plus the fact that she started learning piano and harp from the age of four, and harp was her instrument of choice from that age. All of the words coming from her mouth are so enchanting and poetic, so magical. I wish I could string words together half as beautifully as she does, and she does it so effortlessly. The effects are simply mesmerising. The following lyrics are from Sawdust and Diamonds...

Though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break,
Still, my dear, I would have walked you to the very edge of the water,
And they will recognise all the lines of your face,
In the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter.

Joanna Newsom is going to be here in Australia next year for Golden Plains Festival and I'm hoping she does a side show and I'm hoping I have enough money to go to the side show. I haven't been into her music for very long but I think it would be pretty great to hear her and see her right in front of me, plucking away marvelously at her harp and singing at the very top of her spectacular voice.

Oh, and her most recent album cover for Have One On Me is pretty fantastic.

Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear

Get Used To It

Portia DeRossi was on The Ellen Degeneres Show the other today and she mentioned that she didn't have any gay role models growing up. I was laying on my bed listening to Grizzly Bear and I realised how lucky I am to have so many famous out queer role models and inspirations that span across a range of generations.

In no particular order...
Ed Droste, Beth Ditto, Alan Cumming, Patrick Wolf, Seth Bogart, Andy Butler, Antony Hegarty, Kele, Owen Pallett, Rufus Wainwright, Leigh Bowery, Boy George, Freddie Mercury, Jake Shears, Sia Furler, Tegan and Sara Quinn, Rostam Batmanglij, Gregg Araki, John Waters, Alexander McQueen, Jobriath, Divine, Klaus Nomi, Gus Van Sant, Bruce LaBruce, Keith Haring, Amanda Lepore, John Cameron Mitchell, David Sedaris... (and no doubt many more that I've unintentionally left out).

Some more obscure than others, but all very important to me. Not only are these people queer or LGBT, they are all fantastic artists, which makes them even more inspiring. They also break free from the gay stereotype and help to show how much diversity there is in the LGBT community.

 

It's such a shame that many famous people feel that coming out or not hiding their sexuality will ruin their careers. No one should have to live in fear of anything like that. It's just not fair.

The Best Costume For The Day

A couple of months ago my friend Gus introduced me to the 1975 documentary film Grey Gardens and the 2009 made for television film of the same name that was based on the documentary and the lives of Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale.

I watched the 1975 Grey Gardens first, followed by the 2009 film. The original documentary was a captivating look at the every day lives of mother and daughter living in the filth of a decayed mansion in East Hampton named Grey Gardens. The 2009 film, which stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the Edies (both do an excellent job), takes you before, during and after the filming of the documentary with flash backs to when Little Edie was young and the mansion was in pristine condition, it also recreates some of the scenes from the documentary.

I was absolutely sucked into the fascinating lives of Big Edie and Little Edie. They're both such incredibly tragic characters, particularly Little Edie, who dreams of fame and fortune but is stuck in this decrepit mansion with her bossy old mother. I was also fascinated by the conditions they were living in. Absolute filth! Heaps and heaps of cats and racoons roaming around and piles of rubbish everywhere (and this was after Big Edie's neice, former First Lady Jackie O, helped to restore the house).




Little Edie to me is a bit of a fashion icon with her iconic headscarves (worn to hide her hair loss due to alopecia), signature brooch and her plethora of outfits, or costumes as her and her mother described them. I watched a clip on youtube from The Beales of Grey Gardens, a film with footage that was not used in the original documentary, where it is revealed that Big Edie made Little Edie change her 'costume' at least ten times a day. Imagine picking out ten outfits everyday... Little Edie did it. I've seen fashion pictorials that have very obviously emulated Grey Gardens and Little Edie's style.

After the death of her mother Little Edie tried to fulfil her dreams of fame and fortune with an unsuccessful stint performing a cabaret.
Grey Gardens is an extremely captivating film and I get excited everytime I see clips I haven't seen and everytime I read about the Beale's fascinating lives before, during and after the filming of Grey Gardens.

You can check out Gus' blog here and his Grey Gardens post here.

Bisexual Twin Peaks In College

Gregg Araki's new film Kaboom was shown at Cannes Film Festival back in May this year and I am just wishing and waiting for a screening some time soon in Melbourne so I can see it. Araki has described it as "bisexual Twin Peaks in college". Now I'm a massive Twin Peaks fan and the words 'bisexual' and 'Twin Peaks' in one sentence to describe a film sounds pretty good to me, especially if it's a Gregg Araki film, and it looks pretty accurately described judging by the trailer.



I feel like it maybe has a bit of a Skins vibe as well. The character London sort of reminds me of a less spaced out version of Cassie (maybe that's just her blonde hair and british accent). But then again Gregg Araki's Nowhere has a bit of a Skins vibe to it too and it was made ten years before Skins. Either way Kaboom looks awesome!

Kaboom appears to be more of a return to Araki's earlier films Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation and Nowhere, otherwise known as The Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy. These films are great, and James Duval, who starred in all three of the aforementioned movies, was a total babe and it's great to see that he will be making an appearance in Kaboom as 'The Messiah'.

Totally Fucked Up (1993), which was described as "a queer John Hughes flick" by Araki, is about six queer teens going about their lives together, The Doom Generation (1995) follows a couple played by James Duval and Rose McGowan who get involved in a ménage à trois with Johnathon Schaech and then are on the run after accidentally killing a convenience store owner, and Nowhere (1997) (which is probably my personal favourite of the three) follows the life of Dark (played by Duval) and his friends when some freaky sci-fi shit happens. So it appears that Araki has come back to just that - teenagers and freaky sci-fi shit. Sounds mighty fine to me.

Gregg Araki is one of my favourite directors and he has been a big name in new queer cinema. I'm really glad my friend introduced me to and leant me Mysterious Skin a few years ago which lead me to find out who this man was and the amazing films he's made. I'm very looking forward to seeing Kaboom.

Amy's Party

Mark Ronson has produced a new track featuring vocals by none other than Amy Winehouse. It's a cover of Lesley Gore's 1963 hit It's My Party and it will appear on Quincy Jones' new album Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, which features other big names such as Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson and Snoop Dogg covering songs that were originally produced by Jones.

Yes, another Mark Ronson post within two days of even starting my blog, but I just can't help it, whatever he touches turns to gold, and whatever he does with Amy is just amazing. I mean, Back to Black is a spectacular album and don't even get me started on Valerie, The Zutons cover that was on Mark Ronson's album Version, such an amazing song! It's My Party is no exception, just listen here for the proof...

It's My Party Feat. Amy Winehouse

I'd like to think this is the beginning of the return of Amy Winehouse but who can tell? The woman's a mess... A talented mess, but a mess none the less. And I think her messiness distracts a lot of people from her immense talent, which is such a shame. Ugh, let's just hope she finally gets started on her third album and that Mark Ronson is attached to produce.

The Wolf Returns

I just received an email telling me of 'The Return of Patrick Wolf'. This is exciting as I am quite a big Patrick Wolf fan, I have been for about four years now, and news that some of his brand new, sweet, sweet music that has never been heard before is going to be beautifully colliding with my ears in the very near future gets my heart racing just a bit.

I believe I found out about Patrick Wolf while google image searching Siouxsie and the Banshees. In amongst images of Siouxsie's big black hair and dark eyes was a young man with red-orange dyed hair and, I would imagine (because my memory fails me), some fantastic outfit. I clicked the image, found out this beautiful man's name and spent the rest of the day listening to his music online.

Although I was looking forward to part two of Battle, which was to be named The Conqueror to go with his 2009 album The Bachelor, Patrick announced that he's "grown up alot from that battle aggression" and that the album will no longer be titled The Conqueror. But a recent quote from him states that it will still be an optimistic album, and optimistic Patrick makes me happy.
 

"The new album has a direct narrative about love and optimism surviving through adversity and recession. I wanted to celebrate the love and hope I have found in the last few years."

With the release of his new album there's no doubt he will be touring again and I will finally get to see him! I've missed out three times now due to being underage. His last show here was only five days before my 18th birthday and needless to say I was completely shattered by this.

I'm looking forward to hearing his new single Time Of My Life (which will be getting played on British radio in a months time) and I will be patiently waiting for his new album (title TBA) to be released. New music from Patrick Wolf gets me way too excited!

edit:


Here's an unofficial video of Patrick's new single Time Of My Life that was made in his kitchen. You may recognise the song from the Battle Megamix that was released before The Bachelor was released.

I Want Somebody To Love Me

I was extremely excited for the new Mark Ronson album when I heard Bang Bang Bang on the radio a couple of months ago. Then came The Bike Song, which got me even more excited for Mark Ronson and the Business Intl's Record Collection.

I got the album a few days after it was released and promptly fell deeply in love with the fourth track Somebody To Love Me which features Boy George and Andrew Wyatt. After listening to this song and the rest of the album quite a few times I was put in the mood for a Record Collection dance party by myself in my bedroom, singing at the top of my voice to Somebody To Love Me, pretending to be Boy George circa Culture Club days, which then lead me into a minor Boy George obsession.

Then the film clip was released! It's a spectacular look at an early Boy George, shot in a home video VHS style. It made me feel somewhat nostalgic despite it being set about 9 years before I was even born. After watching the film clip and falling even more in love with the song, Mark Ronson and Boy George, I started watching Boy George interviews on youtube from the early to mid 1980's. Ahhh! He was so great. His outlandish, androgynous style and the intelligent words coming out of his mouth really captured me.

Halloween was coming up and I contemplated dressing as Boy George in the Culture Club days but I just wasn't sure. I didn't know whether I'd be able to pull it off or not, but in the end after experimenting with my hair, make up and some outfit options I decided I'd give it a go.

 

I very much enjoy dressing up, and being Boy George for a night was great fun.

It's About Time

I've been meaning to create a blog for a while now, I promised myself as soon as uni holidays started I would make one and begin blogging... So I've been on university holidays for about three weeks now, and I have been lazy as fuck.
I have so many things I want to talk about, especially when it comes to film, music, fashion, theatre and art, so I'm going to start doing that here, starting from today.

"Without obsession, life is nothing." - John Waters