Speaking From the Diaphragm
The Vaginal Davis Blog
. . .From the Counsel of Inter-Continental Balistic Principalities
Saturday, May 16, 2009
DA SAGT KEINE FRAU NEIN
Ali Janka of the Austrian art kollective Gelitin and his hot elderly lover Baby Papi Choulo came by my art studio the Cheese Endique Trifecta for a wonderful visit. I first met Ali back in 1998 through Bob Ostertag who performs with the Kronas Quartet. Ali and Bob had a thing going on at one time. Ali is one of the most unique artists i know and quite rebellious and whimsical. We are both cut from the same clothe of insanity, and I have always found him marvelously fascinating on every conceivable level. One of the things i love the most about him is that he is not wrapped up in the cult of youth and beauty. He is a young strapping gay man, swarthy and handsome in a grungy sort of way with bright sparkling eyes, and a friendly smile, but sexually he is what is known in the underground sex world as a granny bopper. Which means in lay terms that he only finds older men desireable. His long time lover Baby Papi must be in his mid 60s. The Baby Papi is trim, fit with a nicely shaped white Santa Claus beard. He looks decades younger then he is with a youthful infectious spirit, and gorgeous mischieveous eyes. Ali and Papi are deeply in love, and can´t keep their hands off each other. There aren´t many gay male couples whose relationship i respect. Ali and Baby Papi are the real deal, and I treasure and adore them.
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Back in 2002 when i got kicked out of my huge Koreatown apt in Los Angeles i started writing about Gentrification and that i felt the collapse of Advanced Capitalism was coming near. At that time i was just dismissed as a sour grapes, disafected poor person and a crackpot. But its funny how a few years can change things. I predicted financial collapse and the bursting bubble during my weekly club Bricktops rants. Now I its 2009 and I feel vindicated.
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There are some excellent articles in the latest issue of the German gender magazine Hugs and Kisses, including an interview I did with cute Tim Stüttgen that features lovely portraits of me by Annette Frick, Paula Winkler and Christiane Stephan. Grab a copy at your local teutonic newsstand.
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The Doll is feeling a bit depressed and forlorn. Was in the Tiergarten park studying my text for the play Daddy that I am in directed by Ron Athey, when a very cute and well built blondine boy of 19 named Lars came up to me while i was sitting on a bench and started flirting with me. I had seen this kid many times in the park usually sunning himself naked on the infamous Cancer Shelf, where all the most hideous faggots in Berlina lie out in the nude showing off their giant lumpy penises. This boy stood out because of his radiant youth, twinkly bright eyes, and marvelous non steroid muscular body. As we chatted while I took a break from studying my lines, I could tell something was off with him. I asked in that blunt manner of mine if he was on any kind of medication, thinking that perhaps he was suffering from bipolar disorder or something of that sort. Well it turns out he is a grade A schitzophrenic. Just my luck the only true beauty to approach me with strong desire, and he is a raving lunatic. Someone actually crazier then I am.
The other day I ran into my Berlinale intern Jacob of the Samson hair and mighty rack of pectorals at the American Biblioteque. He was his usual coy muscular self, but when i gave him the hairy eyeball he retreated in haste. So is it any wonder with these latest notches on my belt loop, I am falling deeper into a dulldromic state of melancholia and despair. Only a hot spring love affair can get me out of this funky cold Medina.
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The German version of Fathers Day-Männer Tag is coming up. Its actually a nutty male bonding/bromance ritual where the men escape their haus frau und kinder to spend the entire day getting drunker then humanly possible which usually culminates in some sort of violence, and a trip to the hospital. Sounds utterly charming doesn´t it?
.: posted by Vaginal Davis 3:30 AM
SONG OF BERNADETTA
Received a joyous emug from the famous experimental film guru of Germany, Wilhelm Hein who along with his sexy young girlfriend the incredibly talented art photographer Annette Frick are on a dazzling European tour exhibiting their work. Annette has a huge museum show Everywhere, Sexual Diversity Policies in Art at the CGAC Museum of Santiago De Compostela in Northern Spain. The exhibit features work by Ron Athey, Leigh Bowery, Bruce La Bruce, George Dureau, Herve Guibert, Keith Haring, David Hochney, Derek Jarman, Herbert Tobias, Andy Warhol and David Wojnarowicz. Then they are off to Portugal for a show with Otto Muhl. Cant wait to hear all the details when they return to Berlin.
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I forgot to mention a while back when doing shows in Zurich and Hamburg that I went to a gay sauna, and in both places it happened to be bisexual nite. This is becoming quite a trend at gay bathhouses, as few young gays go to these places. All gay boys under 30 get sex exclusively from the internet and don’t even patronize gay bars so these establishments are having to get creative to survive in this new global financial reality.
Bathhouses the world over since the 90s have always been hit or miss. But nowadays they are downright dismal. I liked the fact that these places are allowing women inside. Women in a traditional all gay male environment bring a much needed softness and civility. Gay men arent as brutal when forced to confront women in a sexual mileau. The social anthropologist in me likes this new trend, I just wish the bisexual men and the women who are now coming to saunas were a little more attractive. I felt like I was at a suburban swingers party.
.: posted by Vaginal Davis 2:46 AM
Monday, May 11, 2009
SCHNELLER, STÄRKER,SCHLANK!
Listening to NPR Berlin´s Hearing Voices program, and to my utter surprise one of the Mother´s Day stories was produced and narrated by Ben Adair, a former collegue from my LA Weekly days. Ben was a lanky, adorably cute dorky looking white boy, who I sort of had a little crush on. Ben is now married with a child, and heads some bleeding heart liberal organization of which i cannot remember the name at the moment. He and his wife use to come to my 1920s speakeasy Bricktops on a semi regular basis. Ben is great, a bit self absorbed in the way some nerdy boys can be, but i really enjoyed listening to his NPR report featuring his mother searching through her old South roots in Mississippi. The entire Mother´s Day program was fascinating and Ben´s tale was a lovely bookend. Ben use to work for Pacific Drift at publc radio station KPCC in Los Angeles and even did a report where he interviewed The Doll on Hollywood Blvd about gentrification. I think you can still access this podcast somewhere on this very website.
I was supposed to do another Pacific Drift segment with Ben, but i calously blew him off. Hey I´m a drag queen, and we’re sometimes horrible human beings---what can I say. Ben is a little bit of fruit fly, but I was just too needy for him to deal with on a regular basis. I am happy he is doing well. Someone out there has to be more normative I guess.
UNORDNUNG UND FRÜHES LEID
Beloved comedian/actor Dom DeLouise died age 75. Dom was a notorious faggot, married with kids. He and his wife had worked out an arrangement where he was granted the freedom to haunt Santa Monica Blvd cruising spots looking for hot boy trade. Once he even tried to pick up my good friend the Canadian singer/songwriter Glen Meadmore. They didn’t have sex, but had a wonderful, hoot of a time together just talking and shooting the shit. Mr. DeLouise was a plucky goodtime Sally with a genuine heart of gold.
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Cooked a sweet dinner at my Rote Insel Cheese Endique Trifecta studio for Anna Mülter and Christian “F” Weber. Anna has been the production manager for traveling CHEAP productions since 2007. She is also involved with coordinating the Jack Smith Live Film event for the fall, and Daddy the new play written by Travis Jeppeson that Ron Athey is directing for HAU 3, and also Bruce La Bruce´s Macho Family Romance and The Bad Breast which will premiere at HAU 2 in the fall. Christian F is a film theory scholar who worked with CHEAP on the Gossip Studio during the 2008 Berlinale. Christian is writing his thesis on patrician fagula Gus Van Sant.
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I’ve been gettting lots of emugs from people congragulating me on winning the Ethyl Eichelberg Award from PS 122. It is a commission prize that goes to putting on a performance piece in the Spring of 2010 at PS 122. I am really excited that the downtown artist community of Manhattan awarded me this great honor. It seems that once i moved from LA to Berlin I started to get taken more seriously by the art and theater worlds. Well if you continue doing the work you have always done and don´t die, eventually you will get some recognition.
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Last year i reported on a group art show at the Golf & Rosenthal Gallery in Berlin called The Dulcet Clime of the Bed Chamber. I didn´t properly credit a young artist named Jo-ey Tang whose work Burning Library on pleximirror was a particular standout. Well i am now correcting that grievous error so that the millions who read this blog can know about a knockout young art talent orbiting the heavenly firmament. I predict that Jo-ey Tang will be a major art star, and believe you me, that Vaginal Davis knows what she is talking about. So there.
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Oh i also want my publicum to be aware of the new book RE.akt! Reconstruction, Re-enactment, Re-porting edited by Antonio Caronia, Janez Jansa and Domenico Quaranta, this hot off the press art book also features essays form Jennifer Allen of Art Forum, Jan Verwoert and Rod Dickinson, so if you have half a mind you must go online immediately, search for this book and buy it. You won´t be disappointed.
.: posted by Vaginal Davis 2:25 PM
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