Alec Soth pix & Ax Wound

Here are some pictures from the Gothic Lolita portion of my shoots
with Alec Soth. I submitted an article to Ax Wound, an e-zine on horror
and gender from a feminist perspective (Ax Wound get it?).
The article was about black women in horror films.
I sincerely hope it is accepted and posted in the upcoming issue.

Bleedy V-Days

Happy bleeding vagina days!!
Oh wait is that just me?
ha!
If you yourself are not bleeding at this very moment
there is a great chance that someone you know is!
Stop acting like it never happens and talk about it,
laugh about it,joke about it,read about it,write about it.
Now onto other matters of blood-stained importance;
I finally watched Harold and Maude.
It was great!
Also awesome was Daughters of the Dust.
My fascination for all things Baroque show
no signs of waning. I believe, in earnest,
that I have found a most exquisite Baroque
drawing for a future tattoo.

Queef-o-nomics

I have been catching up on recent episodes of South Park.
One of the episodes I watched was entitled "Eat,Pray,Queef"
and tackled that oh so taboo of subjects
the "queef". The queef is when trapped air escapes
from the vagina causing a rush of air followed by a fart sound.
The episode revolved around the "controversy"
that is stirred when the kings of farts (Terrance
and Phillip) are canceled and a new show takes its
place. This new show is composed of, you guessed it,
twin sisters who fart....from their vaginas.
Massive uproar ensues, the boys and men of South
Park are utterly disgusted. The girls and women see the hypocrisy
in this double standard. Queefing begins on a massive scale.
A well known female talk show hostess even queefs
on her male partner, much to his horror.
This episode stands out in my mind because
is blatant double standard is tackled
(Women are chastised for something
men are applauded for; in this case
it is farting). The end of the show culminates
with a song about queefing and the realization that
queefing is not gross but a natural occurrence,
just like farting.
Eat,Pray,Queef is
possibly the most feminist episode
of South Park I have ever seen,
the absurdity of double standards
are showcased, hypocrisy,
and the social skittishness that
surround feminine
bodily functions all take the spotlight.

The Painted Lady

Nowadays it is pretty common to see copious amounts
of tattoos decorating a variety of people.
What was once the domain of sailors and criminals is
now fair game for soccer moms and sorostitues alike.
It is no secret that I am a fan of tattooing and show no
signs of stopping my collection.
That being said, a very disturbing revelation was
recently brought to light.
Many are of a mind that women should not tattoo their
bodies, as if to decorate your own private space
is some kind of disgrace. A perfect example of this
is when I googled Kat Von D, a heavily inked female
tattoo artist,on various blogs first the comments attack her looks
(because this is very typical when people look at a woman's
picture; everything is based on whether or not she is pretty.)
and the second thing is people commenting on her tattoos,
not her ability to do them per se but on her personal ink collection.
Women and men alike bemoan that she has "too much ink"
(for whose taste? It is her body after all)
Tattoos are a way to say this is my body
and I adorn it as I see fit, just like plastic surgery
which people do not seem to mind.
There is always much fuss stirred when
a woman steps out of the realm of what
is acceptable. Anytime a woman stands and
says "this is who I am and how I want to be perceived".
For so long women have been dictated to as to
how we should look,carry ourselves,
and what we should and should not do with our bodies
(case in point; the "abortion debate" rages on,
really what is there to debate about?
Against them? Don't have one !)
Of course it is painfully easier to idly sit by and let
others via religion,politics,media or what have you
dictate what women should look like.
It is easy for armchair beauticians and critics
to criticize and voice faux concern over her
projected image (What about her tattoos when she gets older?
That looks tacky! ).
My advice to those that find heavily tattooed women
"gross" or "appalling" is simple; do not get tattoos yourself
or date women decorated with ink
and shield your eyes when they walk by as to not be offended
by them and all their painted glory.
Otherwise stop littering message boards and
blogs with your ignorant diatribes and do get a life.

Girl on Girl

Alec Soth recently sent me a couple of prints from the photo shoots
and a disc of pictures.
The prints are of startling color and vivid detail.
Frames will be necessary to showcase them.
I have yet to view the pictures on the disc but anticipate awesomeness.
The books I am currently reading are American Psycho by b.e.e.
and Witches Brew,
a compilation of stories about Witches
from Shakespeare,Hawthorne,Chekov and many others.
I think I may read 120 days of Sodom by Marquis De Sade next
and am considering ordering The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez from Ebay.
A couple of gifts arrived from Amazon.
I now have purple opaque tights and the Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack.
Yesterday I watched a Japanese film called 2LDK,
already it has made it to my favorites list.
It is an interesting look at the dynamics
between two female roommates.
Jealousy,cattiness, and violence come into play.
Here lately movies involving women in head to head duels
with other women have been making it to my favorite movie list.
For so long in cinema woman to woman conflict has been
negated and pink washed as some cutesy, hair pulling,
"cat-fight"( grrrr I loathe that term).
What film makers are just beginning to realize and
what I,like other women, have known for years
is that women can be ridiculously brutal and cruel to
one another on a subterranean level.
What can I say? I love some girl on girl.

The Catsuit

It came from China.
I had to order it specifically with my
measurements in mind.
When you are built like a fairy
one size fits all is often a cruel
and mocking joke.
My favorite part about it is the hood
which completely covers everything.

The Informers

Happy Day of the Dead,
boils and ghouls
I finally have the catsuit from China!
Which should come in handy for more than a Halloween costume!
It is a 2 piece affair (catsuit and hood) of a bubblegum pink shade.
Yesterday I wore it sans hood as part of "My Little Pony" costume.
I finished reading b.e.e.'s The Informers,
the same day that the library sent me a postcard telling me that they have his
American Psycho waiting for me.
My favorite part in The Informers was the scene with Miranda and Jamie at The Ivy.
I wonder if that scene made it to the film; who played Miranda ?
and did she wear Lagerfeld?
The Informers read to me like a romp on a playground full of nihilists
where everyone wants to play with your toy but no one wants you to play with their toys.
( As Anne said in one of her letters to Sean; "....existential in
the best sense of the word.")
The narratives flitted back and forth through characters points of view in an a la Rules of Attraction
sort of manner. A tawdry cast of intertwined characters lead the way down
a self absorbed course dusted with cocaine and cassette tape ribbons strewn like
gaudy tinsel. I have come to expect nothing less from b.e.e. whose characters
thrive in glittering moral wastelands. Perhaps the reason I enjoy his work
so is because his characters unapologetically and narcissistically relish in their
own realm of vapid voluptuousness,
like the American Dream weaned on a diet of cocaine and designer threads.
His works are not the story of the masses and his books are
not loaded with feel good plots and so-sweet-they're-gooey characters,
his literary landscapes are littered with selfish,existential characters and
above all, what most fans and critics fail to notice, a scathing,satirical
often humorous glimpse of our consumer driven culture as well.