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What happened in 2009? Here’s our year in review from Vogue Hommes Nippon to American Vogue.
Shutterbug wrote about Hedi Slimane's cover for Vogue Hommes Nippon back in March of 2009
Lady G. made headlines in September with this cover for V Magazine shot by superstar photog, Mario Testino.
First Lady and fashion taste-maker, Michelle Obama, graced the cover of Vogue. deadpix3l was unimpressed.
Karl Lagerfeld’s ‘peelable’ Wallpaper* cover starring his muse, Baptiste Giabiconi.
If you can’t be bothered to read this NY Times 2500+ word write-up about Jeff Koons new London retrospective (a first in the UK), you can probably stand to watch this 1.5-minute clip from the Daily Telegraph (AFTER THE JUMP). And if that doesn’t work, well then at least you’ll have seen some “pretty” pictures. Sadly, Koon’s infamous sculpture of Michael Jackson with his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles is absent from the UK exhibit.
His “Popeye Series” consists mostly of blow-up animals cast in aluminum and various metallic everyday items (ladders, pots, pans, trash bins). Koons tells the times, that Popeye is a reference to his father. As a whole the whimsey and playfulness of his latest work does sort-of conjure up images of late, great King of Pop. Thought Koons doesn’t plan on making another Michael Jackson piece anytime soon.
Oh and by the way, that aforementioned MJ statue… it sold for $5.6 million at Sotheby’s in 2001. Wonder how much it’s worth today? Try $20 million.
Ralph Ueltzhoffer Text Portrait
EVERYBODY DOES IT // In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death there’s been an abundance of specials, marathons, and shows devoted to his musical career. In watching these it is clear that though his immense talent is undeniable it is absurd that anyone ever believed he was straight. With a voice that rivals Minnie Mouse and dance moves more astonishingly fluid than a Cirque de Soleil performance on acid, how he ever elicited hordes, nay entire populations, of screaming female fans seems almost unfathomable. Riddled with accusations of child molestation, absurd marriages to rock n’ roll royalty, and surrogate children of suspicious background, his personal life made little case for heterosexuality. But yet to the bitter end the King of Pop never came out as a queen.
It’s not uncommon for popular musicians and actors of dubious sexuality to be adored by female fans. Of just the ones to be confirmed you need to only look at Clay Aiken, Lance Bass, Ricky Martin (well soon to be confirmed), Jordan Knight, Rock Hudson, and Neal Patrick Harris, just to name a few. Though they range from the ridiculously obvious to the bit more surprising, they all at least at one time had a legion of followers that would vehemently defend their sexuality. As I once argued with my best friend during a heated debate over Anderson Cooper, does this insistence that they are straight reinforce homophobia and the heteronormative assumptions it fosters, or are we merely reluctant to label someone’s private preference?
As gay men we get a lot of flack for telling our straight (girl)friends that certain celebrities are gay. They assume we want all of the hot guys to be on our team, leaving them with the chubby sidekicks. Though I find this reaction to be understandable, I think it plays perfectly into the homophobia perpetuated by the mainstream media. Though it kills me to say it, if blogs like Perez Hilton or Gawker hadn’t come along, the media would still be so frightened by litigation they would continue to avoid raising the question of someone’s sexuality, a task that had only been left to the disreputable tabloids.
Many will argue that stars are entitled to their privacy and should not be coerced to come out, and I agree. But I also think that their silence only serves to hold us back, rather than move us forward. Online we can speculate about stars, anonymous commenters indiscreetly share their stories, and as a community we at least confirm amongst ourselves whom is one of us. The power of the Internet to answer these questions is largely responsible for the strides we have made in the last decade.
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Ricardo Tisci’s hard edged, flagrant, and often questionable in taste collections have been given a lot of flak, his latest menswear presentation for Givenchy is no exception. For spring 2010 he reprised his Latino hero, this time with souvenirs from a trip to North Africa. In the context of European fashion, where Milan and Paris reign and where it’s a predominately Caucasian audience with “Europeo” tastes, his collections are indeed tacky, vulgar, and what some may consider tedious. But you move to the Latin or even the Urban world and its meaning changes from that of vapid flash and charmless bling to a harmonious mix of cultural expression, as relevant and potent as the lives beyond white Europe and North America that they are inspired by.
We all know the King of Pop was an inventor of dance moves that bended the limits of physics, but did you know that he actually held U.S. Patent 5255452 for “Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion”? The special shoes and hitch system outlined in the patent allowed him and his dancers to lean at a 45˚ angle during performances of “Smooth Criminal.” Check out the video of him using the system after the jump (at about 3:50).
Via BoingBoing.net.
"Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno"© 2009 Universal
Today Variety gave Bruno the equivalent of two dildos up; however the writers sent a word of warning about the film’s “nasty streak.”
Undeniably funny, outrageous and boundary-pushing, this further documentation of Sacha Baron Cohen’s sheer nerve will draw an abundant share of “Borat” fans, gross-out seekers and the culturally curious, making for some potent B.O. figures, at least at first. But the content will turn off some (no doubt including some gays), as will the sourness and ill will triggered by the picture’s cumulative misanthropy.
And then, there’s that “tasteless” Michael Jackson scene which Universal Films cut before Thursday’s Hollywood premiere.
In the cut scene Bruno interviews LaToya Jackson in his chic LA apartment – after getting her to sit on his “chairs” – which are Mexican workers bending over – who then serve her sushi of the hairy body of a naked man.
Bruno proceeds to steal her cell phone so that he can copy Michael Jackson’s number down.
What the above quote doesn’t tell you is that Paul-I’m-not-a-drug-addict-Abdul is also in the “sit on the Mexicans” scene. And something tells me that the Jackson scene will return in time for the DVD release.
QUESTION // Is Bruno’s message of making straight guys “visibly uncomfortable in the presence of a gay foreigner in a mesh t-shirt” a good cause? Will Bruno make straight people, less prejudiced against gay people — especially in an era where Gay Rights for Americans are in question? Or will audiences despise Bruno the way any intelligent person despises any other “self-loving,” fame-loving narcissist gay OR straight?