the hotness

music / the hotness — 3 Comments
23
Mar 09

Theremin? Theremax!

This is a very special week here at the mitchco a go go. Why? Because I’m updating.  And also because it’s EXPERIMENTAL/AVANT-GARDE MUSIC WEEK.

Today we’ll be discussing the only instrument you can play without touching it, the theremin (I feel like there should be a dirty joke in there somewhere, but I’m not going to dignify it). It was invented by Dr. Leon Theremin, a crazy Russian inventor, and brought to international fame and fortune by Clara Rockmore, its first (and perhaps greatest) virtuoso. If you want to learn more about the good doctor, check out the documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. If you want to learn more about Clara Rockmore, here, let me tell you.

Clara was born in Lithuania, and was a childhood violin prodigy. Like any childhood violin prodigy born in the Russian empire, she was sent to the Imperial conservatory of Saint Petersburg when she was five. And like many children born in the Russian empire, she developed a bone problem due to malnutrition, and had to stop playing the violin.

Clara Rockmore and her theremin

Clara Rockmore and her theremin

Thankfully, she soon after met Leon Theremin, who happened to have an instrument you could play without touching. The combination of her excellent pitch, knowledge of music and instrumentation, and fucked up bones made her an ideal candidate for theremin shredding, and shred she did. Why do you think her last name was ROCK MORE?

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music / the hotness / what are these young homosexuals doing — 3 Comments
22
Feb 09

Fresh. Pearly. Pink.

Q. What’s the guaranteed #1 best way to make anyone look more amazing, no matter how fabulous they looked before?

A. Put them in drag!

I must admit, this is both a truth universal and one of my personal favorite music video tropes. A couple of years ago (what?! 2007, where did you go? and how can we bring you back?!) Mouse on Mars and Mark E. Smith of The Fall teamed up to be Von Sudenfed and brought us the sexual & entrancing “Fledermaus Can’t Get It,” the video for which is undoubtedly one of the great achievements of that year. In fact, I think my friend Hilly and I spent most of that year watching it.

I can’t start it without watching it all of the way through, as I’m completely captivated by the various drag personalities taken on by each of the three men. Is she wasted? Is that blue lipstick? If so, where can I get some???

In this vein, the Canadian DJ Silencefiction has recently released a new single, “Lipstique (featuring Fauxnique),” which is a sort of prequel to the Von Sudenfed video. Listen up kids, because this is important: it teaches you how to put on drag makeup (insofar as this can be taught, of course). But again, it’s absolutely fascinating and pretty sexy to watch people put on drag:

The “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” video is great because each of the six characters is clearly such a hot mess– it’s like watching a sexy trainwreck. The “Lipstique” video is great because you see the evolution of drag, and in the end are rewarded with six fully-transformed characters. And both are great, really, because what’s better than sitting at home on a Sunday morning watching music videos with drag?

music / sartorialism / the hotness / what are these young homosexuals doing — 1 Comment
19
Jan 09

Just a country boy that combed his hair

LIFE has recently made their archive of images available to be searched via Google Image Search. I was digging around today, and decided to see what they had in the way of Elvis. As expected, there were a number of photos of him in uniform, and a few of him tearing it up onstage. What I could NOT have predicted were a lot of images that looked more or less like this:

Teenage girls showing off their Elvis Presley hair styles. Taken by Grey Villet, 03/57, in MI.

Teenage girls showing off their Elvis Presley hair styles. Taken by Grey Villet, 03/57, in MI.

Evidently LIFE did some sort of photo-essay in 1957 about how popular it was for TEENAGE GIRLS* to get their hair cut & styled like the King’s**. There are a number of photos of one girl in particular,

  1. “getting her cut like singer Elvis Presley”
  2. “examining her Elvis Presley hair styles” [sic]
  3. “showing off her Elvis Presley-like hair style to her friend” (who looks a lot like her grandma)
  4. “talking to an unidentified man”, and finally
  5. a man looking at two teenage girls with Elvis Presley hair styles

I know that 1957 was a very different time, being half a century ago, but can I take a moment to just say

LESBIAN

I mean seriously, did these girls go get their hair cut like Elvis so they could then go to sock hops and MAKE OUT with each other? Did they sit in front of mirrors and masturbate, thinking of Elvis? Did very confused 15 year old boys sit in their rooms with pictures of Elvis, masturbating and thinking of their girlfriends? And how did the BOYS get their hair cut?

Getting your hair cut like your sex idol does take out the middle man***, I suppose. It’s a widely accepted fact that Elvis was smoking hot, but I guess this is our proof that his hotness cut across the board, muddling the boundaries of gender and sex and confusing the shit out of everyone. Elvis! I salute you.

*presumably straight teenage girls, at that!
**the King being Elvis, not a drag king.
***literally! ha!

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