FITTING INTO GENE KELLY’S PENNY LOAFERS
Last night accompanied by Daniel Hendrickson and Piero Bellomo to the Arsenal´s Magical History Tour for a screening of the 1952 classic MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain starring Gene Kelly, a very young and queeny Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Its weird that Ms. Reynolds even as a teenager already looked middle-aged. The true stars of the picture being Jean Hagen and Cyd Charisse. Ms. Charisse does a spot on Louise Brooks impersonation with legs to match, and Ms. Hagen who was nominated for an Academy Award has the broadest shoulders of anyone in filmdom. Stanley Donen and Mr. Kelly shared the directing chores, but its obvious that the true inspiration came from Mr. Donen who was only 23 at the time.
I was friends with Gene Kelly’s son Tim from his last marriage. We are both the same age, and Tim was one of the partners with Matt Dyke in the 80s dance club Nairobi Room. Tim would wear some of his fathers old clothes and they were the spitting image of each other. Like dear old dad Tim´s little legs could barely contain that bubble butt. I will never forget a New Year’s eve party at their Beverly Hills mansion on Sunset Blvd, the entire backyard has hedges resembling the maze in the Kubrick film The Shining. A few years after the party the house burned down to the ground.
And speaking of Matt Dike of Delicious Vinyl Records, i got a million emugs from people who read what i wrote about him and shared in their marvel for his talent as a DJ, producer and boy beauty. The magnificent writer Nancy Rommelman, one of my LA Weekly collegues also sent me a sweet note on the subject.
***
I had forgotten that Berlin at Easter is filled with a zillion homo sex tourists stomping through the streets, highways and byways looking for whorgies. Its hysterical seeing these chubby men stuffing themselves into tight jeans and braces desperately trying to look like hot Nazi skinheads. A shaved head and Fred Perry shirt doth not the humpy football hooligan make. You´re just a middleaged pepperpot with a bald head.
And now its time to talk about the Semiospectacle event I headlined for Columbia University which took place at PS 122 on Monday March 22, 2010. The event was curated by the glamorous 22 year old academic prodigy Ms. Mashinka Firunts , who I am proud to say was one of my Bricktops girls at Bricktops at the Parlour Club in Los Angeles. Received this sweet emug from Ms. Firunts so you get a taste of her marvelous writing talentas.
Dear Vag,
Lord Whimsy hit the nail on the head in his livejournal remarks (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/610942.html), you were truly the Mistress of Ceremonies in our vaudevillian backstage room throughout the performances, spreading effusive charm to all those weary and weak and war-torn from the aggression of the spotlight.
I've made mention on multiple occasions of how formative experiences at Bricktops and with documentation of your work have been to the conception of the show, and as such obviously had not the slightest doubt as to the fact that the piece would be absolutely sensational, but really what you presented so far exceeded any recollection or expectation I held that I'm at a loss for adequate expression of gratitude for your contribution. Your piece, and your performative/lived persona transgress and cross-fertilize so many diverse communities and disciplines, producing electrifying hybrids that are essentially impossible to articulate. In discussions with friends, peers and spectators during and after the evening of the show, I frequently encountered usually grandiloquent critics being rendered speechless by your work. Graduate students at Columbia, gentlemen from the experimental poetics presse Ugly Duckling, denizens of the demi-monde, J. Hruska from Art in America, and burlesque sensationalists alike all pointed to an ineffable poignancy that eludes translation or comment. The liminal space you produced was habitable by neo-vaudevillians, academics, stripteuses, poets, playwrights. In short, I consider it a rare privilege to have been able to have a hand in showcasing something that spoke to so many, in so stentorian a boom, and on so many levels.
***
And now my notes on the evening in question. I was only able to view a little of the rehearsals of the other performers like the voltive figurine of Dr. Lucky and her Monster Beauty piece, juicy gamine Shonni Enelow and her My Dinner With Bernard Frechtmann, and the gallant Lord Whimsy and his Chimes From a Tin Chrysalis, but what I did see intrigued me to no end. The wonderful Lord Whimsy a patrician man of impecible taste and accomplishment gifted me with a copy of his latest tome The Affected Provincial´s Companion Volume One which contains a delightful plethora of essays, philosophical diagrams, poetry and other Arcadian Follies concerning the art of curious living and the reintroduction of ancient charm. I had a perfect time backstage getting ready with Lord Whimsy, meeting his beautiful wife and also sharing laughs with Dr. Lucky who is a modern day Texas Guinan, Ms. Enelow, Paolo Javier and his lovesexy crew that included Thomas Fink, Serena Liu and Geoff Olsen, Jeremy JF Thompson who completely captured the spirit of Charlie Chaplin during his glory days of 1925 when he was hosting orgies at AC Blumenthals penthouse suite at the Biltmore Hotel. I could see young Jeremy painting his privates with iodine and running madly through the suite as admirers gasped at his erection. O and the splendor of The Night They Raided Minsky Sisters rap tap tap tapping Eleanor Powell style into everyones hearts like they did at Bricktops Takes Man!hattan back in 2006. All my journalista friends were really impressed by the Mormen testimonials of Daniel Scott Snelson and houseband Granpa Musselman and his Syncopaters which featured handsome Bryan Reeder on piano. Mr. Reeder accompanied me as I sang Stichhaltiger Kunst.. I cant wait to receive a video of the evening so I can see everything as it was meant to be seen.

50 MILLION FRENCHMEN CAN´T BE WRONG
Rising Stars, Falling Stars last night was perfect. A diverse crowd in overflow for the 1913 film What 80 Million Women Want with live accompanyment from the Blue Bros. Tim&kJohnny who brilliantly wove audio tracts from Angela Davis,Eileen Wornos,Emma Goldman and Assata Shakur into a seamless score plus some original recordings by Katherine Fischer aka: Mad Kate who works with kJohnny at White Trash Fast Food A-Go-Go. Bros Blue also handed out to the audience a sheet soliciting their participation in contributing extemperaneous outbursts.Helping me introduce the film was Swedish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson who played beautifully Eric Satie on the piano as i sung a ditty called Stichhaltige Kunst which incorporated text by Adorno and Bataille. I also made it clear that 80 million women don´t want philosophers Martin Heidegger, Jurgen Habermas or Peter Sloterdink. Enjoying the free flowing vino in the Rote Foyer-Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus who celebrates her 28th birthday on April 3rd, please send her lots of juicy presents, she is the hardest working woman in Europe and deserves mucho gifts and cash$, the lovely Aston Brooks and partner Andrea of Stereo Code,Alex & Sarah of The CHEAP Gossip Studio bar, actress Susanne Sachsse with her gorgeous twins Salome & Richard Gershe, sexy Sasha of HAU,Enrico Dallman the handsome physical therapist to the stars with his sweet best friend from Bregenz, Austria, scholar Tavia Nyongo, humpy Jon from Montreal, members of the theatre group Schwartz Rock & Salomon, Mimosa Pale of the Himo Hat Shop in Neu Kölln, Dutch boy Daniel, well endowed Toby with an equally hung pal, Beatrice „Trixie“ Cordua, Evelyn Rüsseler, artist Angela Meritoupolous, Assaf Hochman with Mourning Becomes Elektra, and whitetress Helen Suhr.
***
One of my all-time favorite personalities is Billy Miller of STH, who sent me this little emug:
MAGAZINE was a fantastic publication edited and published by Didier Lestrade
from 1980-87. It was a truly unique accomplishment, especially in that era.
Unlike the homo "lifestyle" publications of today, MAGAZINE did not glamorize or
fetishize consumerism and presented interviews with interesting contemporary
homosexuals from virtually every walk of life - and from every age group! In
those days, there was no pressure to conform to industry standards and -as
fashionable and hot as Didier was back then (and he was a beauty)- he never
sucked the corporate cock or catered to fashionista dumb-dumbs. MAGAZINE was
glamourous without being exclusionary, and sexy without being body-nazi. In it's
way, MAGAZINE was pretty revolutionary and was certainly the first of it's kind
in the world. There had never been anything in the homo publishing world that
was quite as smart, or as beautifully designed, and at the same time so
completely OUT there... and if you ask me, there still isn't anything out there
now that can touch it.
CONGRATS Didier!

(click on pages at bottom of article for views of MAGAZINE):

http://www.viceland.com/fr/v4n3/htdocs/didier-lestrade-340.php

And speaking of gay magazines saw the latest copy of Butt Magazine that has the British/Nigerian lead singer of the indie rock band Block Party on the cover. The boy is very cute with a nice lean body. I saw him once in a towel at the Steam Sauna and he looks as good in person as he does in photos, but doesn´t come across as very interesting in this interview, which may not be entirely his fault. The video artist Ryan Trecartin is also in this issue spotlighted in a very truncated feature interview. The only thing i liked was the pics and one-on-one with humpy courtesan Greek Pete.

BACK TO BATAAN
Yes the Vagimule Doll is back in Berlina after a whirlwind adventure in NewYorika, that also included pitstops at Princeton University, Vassar and Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Over 400 students came to see me at Hampshire and it was SRO all the way. North Hampton residents Thurston Moore& Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and their daughter CoCo joined in the festivities as little Ms. Davis gave a performative lecture on Black Freakyness. Also in the crowd was Hampshire Theatre Professor Djola who was one of the members of The Afro Pomo Homos, and pretty video & installation instructor Kara Lynch who rode the train back with me to Man!hattan. All my thanks and kisses go out to Christian and her lucsious gal pals brainy Ft. Knoxxx and size 17 ½ footed Chris Cole who wined and dined the diva, and made her feel warm and welcome.
I arrived in New York on March 20th, greeted by a sumpteous spring day warm and breezy with the miraculous sight of humpy men in tank tops and flip flops. Mashinka Firunts, one of my gorgeous Bricktop girls curated the Semiospectacle as part of her thesis project at Columbia University. Mashinka made sure i was lodged in a residence befit a starina. Back in 2007 Deitch Projects put me up at the Off SoHo Suites between Chrsytie & Bowery, and it is the perfect place in lower Manhattan to stay, because everything is in walking distance.
As the headliner of Semiospectacle i went on last, so i didnt get a chance to see any of the other acts. But since this was a literary verbal variete´ i did get to hear them, and what i heard was resplendid. Art in America´s online edition gave the performance piece a 5 star review. I will comment in more detail on Semiospectacle and the fabulous performers in another post later in the week, once i have recuperated from jet lag, and am able to go over my notes properly, so stay tuned.
Oh and to all of you who have been writing me skads of emugs wanting to know all about the lesbianic drama between me and PS 122, and whether or not I will be doing Orifice Descending in May at PS as part of my Ethyl Eichelberger Award take note that the board members of PS including the divine Lucy Sexton and downtown legend Carmelita Tropicana have come to my rescue and we have worked out a solution. Ms. Sexton will act as artistic director supervising my performance at PS. I will do a much smaller, less involved piece in May called Speaking From the Diaphragm(after this very blog) where I will channel the spirit of such great daytime 1970s TV chat shows as The Mike Douglas Show and Dinah! featuring lesbian icon Dinah Shore. The always amazing Lia Gangitano of Participant Inc. Gallery will present Orifice Descending at her space in the fall with Jonathan Berger designing the sets, stage & costumes and co-starring Jennifer Miller, the famed bearded lady of Circus Amok.
On this trip i also did some studio visits with the wonderful NYU Barney Building grad students including lovely Cubana Jessica Gispert whose art practise just keeps getting better and better, and her video work is moving in exciting new directions. The delightful Jason Martin who works in anthropomorphic electronic assemblage and is like a male version of Kembra Pfahler with a little Joe Coleman thrown in for good measure. I really want Jason to be a part of Orifice Descending in Autumn. And i had a sweet talk with the talented and articulate Andy Slemenda, who is mystikal and majical and has some long flowing Barbra Streisand nails and creates mythical worlds and multi-dimensional universals that can outdo L.Frank Baum & Lewis Caroll. Later in the early evening on March 24th i gave an overview of the Josephine Baker/Jean Harlow performance seminar Platinum Jungle that i taught at Malmö Art Akademy to a nice group of students and faculty that included headmistress of the Art Dept and my old LA pal who really takes good care of me when I am in New York, Ms. Nancy Barton, pretty Alex Jovonovich, Performa´s RoseLee Goldberg her lovesexy son Pierce, daughter and patrician husband Dakota.
Professor Jose Munoz of NYU´s performance studies dept took me to a fab Mexican restaurant on St. Marks Place and later to a Tequila Bar where we cleaned the place dry.
Bruce „Judy“ La Bruce and i threw a Middle Aged Crazy Anti-Crisis party at the piano bar Marie´s Crisis on March 23rd that was utterly explosive and featured a veritable who´s who of celebutants including academics Chan Noriega and his enchanting wife Kathleen McHugh who had just curated an exhibit at the Post Chicano Museo del Barrio. In their party included Bibbe Hansen and hubby Sean Carrillo, Ela Troyano and her sister Carmelita Tropicana, Dr. Jose Munoz and Filipino Butch Professor Karen Tongson of USC. The cream de la creme of homosexual artistes included writer Bruce Benderson, Slava Mogutin and Brian Kenny, (who cooked a sumpteous feast for Judy & I the previous Sunday) hot singer and painter Gio Black Peter with his 11 year old lover Neil Young, Billy Millerr of STH, Glenn Belverio & Carol Pope with some handsome Bollywood stars in tow, including Sherwih Parikh and Arjun Bhasin fashion director for GQ India and top Bollywood stylist, Pierrot aka Pierre Carrilero of Voila Pierrot the knitwear design company. Pierrot use to be a top model in the 1980s for Mugler and Gaultier, the delightful sexpert Ms. Patty Powers, handsome NYC music star Xavier, My Comrade´s Linda Les Simpson, Viva Ruiz,Jonathan Berger, Bill Coleman the mastermind behind Deee-Lite and Ultra Nate, Lia G of Participant Inc., Marc Arthur and new beau, Interview Magazine´s Alec Gartenfeld, Cyril Duvall the spritelike French architectural wunderkind with Idem Item, who use to live in Japan but is now based in New York, vivacious Eliza Schwartz and humpy Leon Hilton and lover Misko. I am sure i am forgetting some peoples names, so check back in a week and i will add to the list.
It was so nice to be able to spend quality time with Jonathan Berger who is my beautiful child of high art. We had many wonderful meals together at greasy spoons, which are my favorite eateries, as there is nothing like them in Berlin. We also went to Julians the gay dive hustler bar in Greenwich Village and drank some perfect whiskey sours. I was so happy that I spent my last few hours in New York with Jonathan and Billy Miller at the Spring Natural Cafe. I was treated to lunch there a few days earlier by Emi Fontana an art historian who runs a not for profit organization in Los Angeles called Rome West. Emi and I are long lost twin sisters from different mothers born on the same day, same year. Ms. Fontana is coordinating a huge event through the Getty in which she plans to bring me to LA in late 2011 or early 2012, which would be my first time back to the city of my birth since leaving for Berlin in 2006. Is Los Angeles ready for a visit from i t s number one prodigal daughter? We shall see.
Saturday´s plane ride back to Berlin gave me the pleasant treat of the gifted scholar and gorgeous celebrity academe Juliana Rebentish. It was such a pleasure to share a taxi ride with the sparkling and vivacious Frau Rebentish.
Tonight at 9pm I will host my monthly performative silent film event Rising Stars, Falling Stars at Arsenal Institute für Film und Video Kunst with a screening of the 1913 feminist treatise What 80 Million Women Want. The Blue Bros Tim & kJohnny will provide the musical accompaniment and I will have a spezial guest in the form of Scandanavian Muslim Danny Hendrickson. So see you 2nite at the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz