|
By C. Antonio Romero
SAN FRANCISCO, 13 MARCH 2008 - We keep our
eyes open for curious collisions of events and details in the
torrent of news and web pages that streams across our desk in
any given day, usually seeking out the ironic turns that twist
wry grins onto our often mock-dour faces.
Today, three elements combine to catch our particular fancy:
- One of the peculiar details of the sudden "bimbo implosion"
of Democratic party rising star Elliott Spitzer is the name of
one of the front companies for the prostitution ring that did
him in:
The Emperor's Club of Contemporary Art
The web site of the Emperor's Club has of course vanished,
but the Internet's collective memory (Google's cache of the
Web) is of course nigh-infallible:
"One of the many ways by which we create and add special
value to already extraordinarily affluent lives, is by
enabling direct access to some of the world's most
captivating, authentic contemporary art available....
the best advice is always the same: make visual pleasure and
quality the benchmarks of your buying so you are certain to
derive a deep satisfaction from the piece [sic].
"Representing artists of superior mastery, and catering to
members of the absolute highest financial and cultural
affluence, experience for yourself the deeply satisfying joy
of owning Emperors¢ Club Contemporary Art..."
No word on whether the art in question included any
interpretation of the Ars Amatoria.
(And we'll refrain from recycling old jokes about
horticulture.)
- Those whose budget doesn't permit collecting art on an
ongoing basis might be more interested in sampling it by the
evening at the Hotel
des Arts San Francisco, which has transformed many of its
rooms into exhibitions, by enticing local artists to design the
interiors and paint the walls as murals. Some of the rooms may
prove a bit too distracting to sleep in, but they're bound to
be fun to look at.
Far less charming, but somehow bound up with these other two
in our reading, was a BBC story out of France about the
sordid side of the
French rental housing crisis: people exchanging sexual
(or more innocuous) services for free or reduced rent, often
finding their contre service arrangements on the
Web.
Take a quick look through the bookshelves of any
decent-sized newsagent, and tucked between the biographies
of the former French First Lady and the former American
First Lady is the extraordinary account of Laura D. Her
book, My Dear Studies (Mes Chères Etudes
), details the anonymous young woman's slide from being a
fresh-faced undergraduate, to a poverty-stricken student,
to a 19-year-old selling her body to pay the rent....
We cannot help but remember an old Benny Hill sketch that
featured a lodging establishment called the Hotel Sordide.
Photo above: Larry Fink:
Homage to George Grosz
Photo courtesy of The powerHouse Gallery
C. Antonio Romero is the Nouveau and technology editor
of Culturekiosque.com. He last wrote on Obama Super Bowl Ad and
"Yes We Can Song" Show Campaign's Media 2.0 Savvy
Related Culturekiosque Archives
Comment:
Senator Larry Craig Talking Action Figure
Book Review:The Warhol
Economy
Mitt
Romney: Faith, Freedom, and Mormonism Unseen
Jeff
Koon's Hanging Heart Sets Record at Auction
Eroticon 2006: Sex and
the Conservative City
Oleg
Yanushevsky: Iconic Russian Artist Finds Asylum in
London
British
Art Dealer Detained in Moscow Over Naked Putin
Pictures
Larry Fink's Forbidden
Pictures: A Political Tableau To Greet Republican Convention
Attendees
Two-Minute Art:
The New Kitsch
Sex,
Glitter and Doom in the Weimar Republic
Movie
Review: Das Leben der Anderen (the Lives of Others)
Art Market:David LaChapelle: Artists & Prostitutes
Reagan Louie: Sex in Asia
Cinema:
Unfaithful
Culture
and Censorship Invade U.S. Elections
|
