Download or read book Superstar in a Housedress written by Craig B. Highberger and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivacious, rollicking tribute to one-of-a-kind Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis Based on author Craig Highberger’s documentary of the same name, Superstar in a Housedress is a striking oral biography of avant-garde, cross-dressing performer Jackie Curtis. Even among Andy Warhol’s orbit of dramatic personas and colorful characters in the sixties and seventies, Curtis stood out. Whether done up in drag or portraying James Dean—to whom he bore an uncanny resemblance—he dazzled in films, plays, and cabarets. Friends fondly recall how he brought his onstage eccentricities to everyday life, holding court in the backroom of the iconic nightclub Max’s Kansas City wearing tattered thirties housedresses, torn stockings, fabulous wigs, and glittering makeup. Curtis died of a drug overdose in 1985, but not before leaving an indelible mark on New York City’s underground art scene. More than just a performer, Curtis translated his fixation on fame and its trappings into his own poetry and outrageous plays, such as Glamour, Glory and Gold and Vain Victory. With snippets of his work alongside colorful recollections from his friends and acquaintances—including Lily Tomlin, Michael Musto, Holly Woodlawn, Harvey Fierstein, and Paul Morrissey—this is a fitting and touching tribute that evokes the spirited, creative energy that radiated from Jackie Curtis.
Download or read book Superstar in a Housedress written by Craig Highberger and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Downtown Pop Underground written by Kembrew McLeod and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “McLeod’s deft and generous book tells of a constellation of avant-garde squatters, divas, and dissidents who reinvented the world.” —Jonathan Lethem, New York Times-bestselling author of Motherless Brooklyn The 1960s to early ’70s was a pivotal time for American culture, and New York City was ground zero for seismic shifts in music, theater, art, and filmmaking. The Downtown Pop Underground takes a kaleidoscopic tour of Manhattan during this era and shows how deeply interconnected all the alternative worlds and personalities were that flourished in the basement theaters, dive bars, concert halls, and dingy tenements within one square mile of each other. Author Kembrew McLeod links the artists, writers, and performers who created change, and while some of them didn’t become everyday names, others, like Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, and Debbie Harry, did become icons. Ambitious in scope and scale, the book is fueled by the actual voices of many of the key characters who broke down the entrenched divisions between high and low, gay and straight, and art and commerce—and changed the cultural landscape of not just the city but the world. “The story of underground artists of the 1960s and ’70s, an amalgam of bustling radical creativity and fearless groundbreaking work in art, music, and theater.” —Tim Robbins “Breathes new fire into a familiar history and is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how American bohemia really happened.” —Ann Powers, critic, NPR Music “Honors those who were at the forefront of a movement that transformed our understandings of sexuality and artistic freedom.” —Lily Tomlin
Download or read book Glitter and Concrete written by Elyssa Maxx Goodman and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2023-09-12 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *The Millions Most Anticipated List of 2023* *A Vogue Best LGBTQ+ Book of 2023* From journalist and drag historian Elyssa Maxx Goodman, an intimate, evocative history of drag in New York City exploring its dynamic role, from the Jazz Age to Drag Race, in queer liberation and urban life From the lush feather boas that adorned early female impersonators to the sequined lip syncs of barroom queens to the drag kings that have us laughing in stitches, drag has played a vital role in the creative life of New York City. But the evolution of drag in the city—as an art form, a community and a mode of liberation—has never before been fully chronicled. Now, for the first time, Elyssa Goodman unearths the dramatic, provocative untold story of drag in New York City in all its glistening glory. Glitter and Concrete ducks beneath the velvet ropes of Harlem Renaissance balls, examines drag’s crucial role in the Stonewall Uprising, traces drag's influence on disco and punk rock as well as its unifying power during the AIDS crisis and 9/11, and culminates with the modern-day drag queen in the era of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Including original interviews with high-profile performers, as well as glamorous color photos from exclusive sources and the author herself, Glitter and Concrete is a significant contribution to queer history and an essential read for anyone curious about the story that echoes beneath the heels. "Deeply researched and featuring a cast of characters who can truly be described as fabulous, Glitter and Concrete is urban history on fire." —Thomas Dyja, author of New York, New York, New York
Download or read book Self Made written by Tara Isabella Burton and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2023-06-27 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration into the curation of the self in Western civilization from Da Vinci to Kim Kardashian. In a technologically-saturated era where nearly everything can be effortlessly and digitally reproduced, we're all hungry to carve out our own unique personalities, our own bespoke personae, to stand out and be seen. As the forces of social media and capitalism collide, and individualism becomes more important than ever across a wide array of industries, "branding ourselves" or actively defining our selves for others has become the norm. Yet, this phenomenon is not new. In Self-Made, Tara Isabella Burton shows us how we arrived at this moment of fervent personal-branding. As attitudes towards religion, politics and society evolved, our sense of self did as well, moving from a collective to individual mindset. Through a series of chronological biographical essays on famous (and infamous) "self-creators" in the modern Western world, from the Renassiance to the Enlightenment to modern capitalism and finally to our present moment of mass media, Burton examines the theories and forces behind our never-ending need to curate ourselves. Through a vivid cast of characters and an engaging mix of cultural and historical commentary, we learn how the personal brand has come to be.
Download or read book Screen World written by John Willis and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2006-04-01 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Screen World). "An invaluable reference guide for anyone who loves film." Back Stage Movie fans eagerly await each year's new edition of Screen World , the definitive record of the cinema since 1949. Volume 56 provides an illustrated listing of every significant American and foreign film released in the United States in 2004, documented with more than 1000 color and black-and-white photographs. The 2005 edition highlights Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby , which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Hilary Swank) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Morgan Freeman, his first Oscar. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator picked up five Academy Awards. Other notable films include Hotel Rwanda starring Academy Award nominees Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo. As always, Screen World 's outstanding features include: Full-page photos of the Academy Award-winning actors as well as photos of all acting nominees; A look at the year's most promising new screen personalities; Complete filmographies; A comprehensive index; and more.
Download or read book Candy Darling written by Cynthia Carr and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Must-Read: The New York Times Book Review and Nylon From the acclaimed biographer Cynthia Carr, the first full portrait of the queer icon and Warhol superstar Candy Darling. You must always be yourself no matter what the price . . . Don’t dare destroy your passion for the sake of others. The Warhol superstar and transgender icon Candy Darling was glamour personified, but she was without a real place in the world. Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. She found her turn in New York’s early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max’s Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play. Yet Candy lived on the edge, relying on the kindness of strangers, friends, and her quietly devoted mother, sleeping on couches and in cheap hotel rooms, keeping a part of herself hidden. She wanted to be a star, but mostly she wanted to be loved. Her last diary entry was: “I shall try to be grateful for life . . . Cannot imagine who would want me.” Candy died at twenty-nine in 1974, just as conversations about gender and identity were beginning to enter the broader culture. She never knew it, but she changed the world. Brimming with all the fizz and wildness of New York in the 1960s and ’70s, this is the first biography of this extraordinary figure—an unintentional pioneer who became an icon. Cynthia Carr’s Candy Darling is packed with tales of luminaries, gossip, and meticulous research, laced with Candy’s words and her friends’ recollections, and signals Candy’s long-overdue return to the spotlight. Includes 16 pages of color photographs
Download or read book The Scene of Foreplay written by Giulia Palladini and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scene of Foreplay: Theater, Labor, and Leisure in 1960s New York suggests "foreplay" as a theoretical framework for understanding a particular mode of performance production. That mode exists outside of predetermined structures of recognition in terms of professionalism, artistic achievement, and a logic of eventfulness. Foreplay denotes a peculiar way of working and inhabiting time in performance. It is recognized as emblematic of a constellation of artists in the 1960s New York scene, including Ellen Stewart, John Vaccaro, Ruby Lynn Reyner, Jackie Curtis, Andy Warhol, Tom Eyen, Jack Smith, and Penny Arcade. Matching an original approach to historical materials and theoretical reflection, Palladini addresses the peculiar forms of production, reproduction, and consumption developed in the 1960s as labors of love, creating for artists a condition of “preliminarity” toward professional work and also functioning as a counterforce within productive economy, as a prelude where value is not yet assigned to labor. The Scene of Foreplay proposes that such labors of love can be considered both as paradigmatic for contemporary forms of precarious labor and also resonating with echoes from marginal histories of the performing arts, in a nonlinear genealogy of queer resistance to ideas of capitalist productivity and professionalism. The book offers much for those interested in performance theory as well asin the history of theater and performance arts in the 1960s.
Download or read book Night Class written by Victor Corona and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The playground of the rich and the beautiful, downtown New York's nightlife spectacles and power of self-invention incubated pop icons from Andy Warhol to Lady Gaga. NYU sociologist Victor P. Corona sought a new education, where night classes held in galleries, nightclubs, bars, apartments, stoops, and all-night diners taught him about love, loss, and the living possibilities of identity. Transforming himself from dowdy professor to glitzy clubgoer, Victor immerses himself among downtown's dazzling tribes of artists and performers hungry for fame. Night Class: A Downtown Memoir investigates the glamour of New York nightlife. In interviews and outings with clubland revelers and influencers, including Party Monster and convicted killer Michael Alig, Night Class exposes downtown's perilous trappings of drugs, ambition, and power. From closeted, undocumented Mexican boy to Ivy League graduate to nightlife writer, Corona shares in Night Class the thrill and tragedy of downtown and how dramatically identities can change.
Download or read book Your Fifteen Minutes Are Up written by Catherine O'Sullivan Shorr and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conclusion of the uncensored oral history that sheds light on the infamous final years of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory. The late 1960s brought seismic shifts to Andy Warhol and life at the Silver Factory. The hub of his avant-garde scene shifted from the Factory on Manhattan’s 47th Street to the downtown bar Max’s Kansas City; new stars like drag queens Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling began to replace Warhol’s old favorites; and a shocking act of violence left him paranoid and mistrusting of even his closest friends. Told by the actors, artists, writers, and hangers-on who populated and defined the Factory, Your Fifteen Minutes Are Up is an unprecedented exposé of these tumultuous times. By 1967, it seemed to many that the Factory had outlived its fifteen minutes of fame. Superstars like Edie Sedgwick, who had reached the height of stardom only the year before, were now running out of money and falling victim to drug addiction. Some Factory dwellers had falling-outs with Warhol, while others, like Lou Reed and John Cale of the Velvet Underground, got caught up in disputes of their own. When radical feminist Valerie Solanas shot and nearly killed Warhol, the artist had already relocated to the White Factory in Union Square, leading to further rifts within the group. Intimate interviews with scene insiders and candid photos from Billy Name portray the true stories behind the legends and mystique of the Silver Factory.
Download or read book Theatre of the Ridiculous written by Kelly I. Aliano and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theatre of the Ridiculous is a significant movement that highlighted the radical possibilities inherent in camp. Much of contemporary theatre owes this form a great debt but little has been written about its history or aesthetic markers. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the important practitioners, along with critical commentary of their work. Beginning with Ridiculous’ most recognizable name, Charles Ludlam, the author traces the development of this campy, queer genre, from the B movies of Maria Montez to the Pop Art scene of Andy Warhol to the founding of the Play-House of the Ridiculous and the dawn of Ludlam’s career and finally to the contemporary theatre scene.
Download or read book Cincinnati Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 2005-02 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cincinnati Magazine taps into the DNA of the city, exploring shopping, dining, living, and culture and giving readers a ringside seat on the issues shaping the region.
Download or read book Andy Warhol s Factory People written by Catherine O'Sullivan Shorr and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the television documentary: A three-part oral history of the Pop Art sensation’s inner circle and their dazzling world of art, drugs, and drama. Featuring a new introduction by the author, special to this collection, this three-part companion volume to Emmy Award–winning Catherine O’Sullivan Shorr’s documentary Andy Warhol’s Factory People is an unprecedented exposé of an exhilarating and tumultuous time in the 1960s New York City art world—told by the artists, actors, writers, musicians, and hangers-on who populated and defined the Factory. “Different [in] its avowed bottom-up approach: Warhol as a function of his followers is the idea. This time . . . it’s the interviews that tell the tale” (Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times). Welcome to the Silver Factory: In 1962, frustrated with advertising work, Warhol sets up his legendary studio in an abandoned hat factory on Manhattan’s 47th Street. The “Silver Factory” quickly becomes the hub of Warhol’s creative endeavors—the space where he constantly works while an ever-changing cast of characters and muses passes through with their own contributions. Speeding into the Future: In a peak period from 1965 through 1966, Warhol creates the notion of the “It Girl” with ingenuous debutante Edie Sedgwick; discovers Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, and Nico, the gorgeous chanteuse who becomes his next “It Girl”; and directs—with Paul Morrissey—his most commercially successful film, the art house classic, Chelsea Girls. Your Fifteen Minutes Are Up: By 1967, it seems that the Factory has outlived its fifteen minutes of fame. Superstars like Edie Sedgwick fall victim to drugs. Factory denizens have falling-outs with Warhol, as do the Velvet Underground, who are also caught up in disputes of their own. Into the chaos comes radical feminist Valerie Solanas, who shoots Warhol and seriously injures him. He survives—barely—but the artist, and his art, are forever changed.
Download or read book Blondie s Parallel Lines written by Kembrew McLeod and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-03-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blondie's Parallel Lines mixed punk, disco and radio-friendly FM rock with nostalgic influences from 1960s pop and girl group hits. This 1978 album kept one foot planted firmly in the past while remaining quite forward-looking, an impulse that can be heard in its electronic dance music hit “Heart of Glass.” Bubblegum music maven Mike Chapman produced Parallel Lines, which was the first massive hit by a group from the CBGB punk underworld. By embracing the diversity of New York City's varied music scenes, Blondie embodied many of the tensions that played out at the time between fans of disco, punk, pop and mainstream rock. Debbie Harry's campy glamor and sassy snarl shook up the rock'n'roll boy's club during a growing backlash against the women's and gay liberation movements, which helped fuel the “disco sucks” battle cry in the late 1970s. Despite disco's roots in a queer, black and Latino underground scene that began in downtown New York, punk is usually celebrated by critics and scholars as the quintessential subculture. This book challenges the conventional wisdom that dismissed disco as fluffy prefab schlock while also recuperating punk's unhip pop influences, revealing how these two genres were more closely connected than most people assume. Even Blondie's album title, Parallel Lines, evokes the parallel development of punk and disco-along with their eventual crossover into the mainstream.
Download or read book Heroin Acting and Comedy in New York City written by Barry Spunt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on New York City-based actors and comedians who are self-acknowledged heroin users. Barry Spunt examines a number of hypotheses about the reasons why actors and comedians use heroin as well as the impact of heroin on performance, creativity, and career trajectory. A primary concern of the book is the role that subculture and identity play in helping us to understand the heroin use of these entertainers. Spunt captures the voices of actors and comedians through narrative accounts from a variety of secondary sources. He also examines how New York-based films about heroin relate to the major themes of his research.
Download or read book Warhol in Ten Takes written by Gary Needham and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andy Warhol remains one of the world's most influential artists, and his reputation has only grown since his death in 1987. He first picked up a film camera in 1963. Within the space of five years, he made around 650 films. These are now recognised as a hugely significant part of Warhol's oeuvre, vital for understanding his output as a whole. Warhol in Ten Takes provides a comprehensive introduction to Warhol's film-making alongside ten essays on individual films (from canonical classics such as The Chelsea Girls, to sorely neglected titles such as Bufferin) from leading scholars of cinema, art and culture. Drawing on research from the Warhol archives, newly-unearthed images, and original interviews with denizens of the Factory, this book explores the richness and variety of Warhol's films and interrogates accepted perspectives on them – while acknowledging the challenge of ever fully coming to terms with the life and career of this extraordinary artist.
Download or read book The Queer Cultural Work of Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner written by J. Reed and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-18 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner have been partners in life and work for more than 40 years. Over those years they have been comedic pioneers in television, sound recording, film, theater, and animation. This book explores the ways they have used and expanded notions of queer to make their unique impact on American culture.
