Quantcast
Channel: Amanda LePore – The WOW Report
Viewing all 11455 articles
Browse latest View live

13 Super-Kinky Pics of Vintage Fetish Wear from the ’20s and ’30s

0
0

yvarichardsteeldomfetishwear20salsdkjf1_465_629_int

Violet Chachki, eat your heart out. Above and below are gorgeously provocative images of Parisian models in the ’20s and ’30s, posing in the latest in French fetish wear. If you were into kinky looks back then – iron bras, peekaboo undies, or chastity belts –chances are you got them from one of two of the pioneering companies that catered to the emerging fetish communities: Yva Richard and Diana Slip.

From Dangerous Minds:

Yva Richard was the husband and wife duo of L. Richard and Nativa Richard. Getting their start sometime in the early 1920s, Nativia was not only the talented seamstress making Yva Richard’s signature risque lingerie, but she also modeled much of the companies cheeky creations and would routinely appeared in Yva Richard’s popular mail-order catalog from which the kinky couple sold everything from masks to iron restraints.

The Richards’ biggest competition back in the 20s was Diana Slip—a fetish wear company run by Léon Vidal. Vidal’s collection while very much marketed to purveyors of kink had a slightly more sophisticated air and was not as overtly deviant as Yva Richard’s designs.

Unfortunately bothy companies went under in the 1940s when the occupation of France during WWII put an end on the booming fetish business.

Below, pics from both design houses.

yvarichardcrossfetishmaskalskdjalskjdf_465_670_int yvarichardlingerfetishwear30salskdjf_465_645_int yvarichardparisfetishwear20salskdjfalskdjflasd_465_651_int dianaslipparis1920sfetishslipbackasldkfjalsd_465_656_int dianaslipfetishparis20sheelsstockinstiesalksdjf_465_648_int dianaslipfetishwearparis20sasdlkfajlsdfkjas_465_678_int dianaslipfetishwearpairs20sstrapsstockins_465_637_int dianaslipfetishwearparis20salsdkjfalskdjflasdf_465_650_int dianaslippantiesrufflesfetish20sparisasdlf_465_652_int yvarichardfetishwear1920salkdjfalskdjfalsjd_465_878_int yvarichardwifenativachainsfetish20salskdjf_465_651_int yvarichardfetishwearparis20salskdjf_465_751_int

The post 13 Super-Kinky Pics of Vintage Fetish Wear from the ’20s and ’30s appeared first on The WOW Report.


“American Horror Story” Season Six Looks Creepy As Fuck

0
0

American Horror Story

American Horror Story Season 6 is haunting it’s way into your television screens starting Wednesday, September 14th on FX – a month before it’s usual premiere date. FX released six, stunning, sickening, and petrifying new teasers and from the looks of it, it seems like this season is gonna be a horrifying farm, crop circles, and aliens galore.

CHECK OUT THE TEASERS HERE:

Cast confirmation includes:

Evan Peters
Dennis O’Hare
Matt Bomer
Angela Basset
Lady Gaga
Leslie Jordan
Cheyenne Jackson

Rumored returns (please say yes!):
Sarah Paulson (it wouldn’t be AHS without her!)
Emma Roberts
Taissa Farmiga

This post is approved by:

Chloë-Sevigny-Shelley-Asylum

The post “American Horror Story” Season Six Looks Creepy As Fuck appeared first on The WOW Report.

Style-gasm: Kanye Teams with Balmain (and a Slew of Supermodels) for “Wolves”

0
0

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.20.56 PMScreen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.02.25 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.57.05 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.57.18 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.57.47 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.58.06 PM

It’s bugle beads, braiding, metallic platelets, and tassels galore when Kanye taps Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing to produce a music video for West’s The Life of Pablo track “Wolves”. Directed by fashion’s favorite lensman Steven Klein, the track (which doubles as the brand’s campaign) features Kim Kardashian West (bien sur), supermodels Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn, Alessandra Ambrosio, Lagerfeld “muse” Jon Kortajarena, and my all-time favorite honeybunnybabylover Francisco “Chico” Lachowski (above). OMG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

Oh, and have I mentioned yet that Sia, Vic Mensa, and Frank Ocean all contribute vocals? They do, and they are SPECTACULAR.

“This is definitely one of the most incredible campaigns I’ve ever done,” says Olivier to Vogue. When I saw Kanye singing, Kim moving, the models walking and crying, the tears on Kanye, the tears on Kim—I was just like, ‘Wow,’ ”

Says Vogue of the video:

[It] is an artful marriage between the glossy world of Balmain and the grungy aesthetic West favors. In the former category are the sylphlike models that slink and dance at the Gilded Lily during Balmain’s after-party for the Met Gala, all glitz and haute glamour. West, Kardashian West, and tens of Balmain Army models were then shot in a studio in New York, teary-eyed and moody to represent West’s rawer vision. The rapper wears his outfit from the Met Gala, a beaded jacket made in collaboration with Rousteing, white tee, and Fear of God jeans. (A first, perhaps, that another brand has featured prominently in a luxury brand’s ad campaign.) “Kanye has a great culture of what he thinks is cool in fashion, and I have my ideas. I think the mix of us made this jacket. Kanye loves denim, I love couture embroidery . . . mixing my point of view with his point of view made this jacket spectacular,” said Rousteing.

Check it out below:

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.58.22 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.59.05 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 12.59.33 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.00.01 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.00.41 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.01.10 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.01.33 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.01.48 PM Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 1.02.07 PM

The post Style-gasm: Kanye Teams with Balmain (and a Slew of Supermodels) for “Wolves” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Joe Jonas Finally Reveals Which JoBro Is Most Well-Endowed

0
0

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 2.59.23 PM

Joe Jonas was on Andy Cohen‘s Watch What Happens Live the other night, and was asked which one of the most pressing questions of our time: Which JoBro is most well-endowed? He thought about it long and hard (heh), no doubt recalling the days of shared baths and nude wrestling matches of their youth…

“Ummmm…” he said, vamping for time….

“Well. These are Nick‘s words,” he finally answered, “not mine. But he said he was going to say me, so I’m going to say me.”

DING! DING! DING!

I knew it all along! I (correctly) guessed that while Nick is clearly the superior Jonai in almost every area, he’s probably a bit stumpy in the manhood department, whereas Joe is most likely a long, thick kielbasa (in that way that skinny boys often are).

And now we have proof.

Later, he and Andy play a game of Marry, Shag, Kill with his ex-girlfriends Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, and Gigi Hadid. The answers may surprise you.

Watch the sexy shenanigans below.

The post Joe Jonas Finally Reveals Which JoBro Is Most Well-Endowed appeared first on The WOW Report.

Representative Brian Sims Reppin’ Accidental Bear Shirt At The DNC

Would You Wear a Mermaid Crown?

0
0

The answer should be YASSS!! Fashion is meant to be fun and these are just that. Chelsea Shiels, 27-year-old Melbourne-based florist makes these one-of-a-kind beach inspired crowns and I can not get enough! These crowns are truly a piece of art sure to make all of your magical dreams come true. Plus, who wouldn’t want to be a mermaid!?

This Instagram post from Chelsea says it all:

Check out her Instagram and Esty to get your hands on one of these!

The post Would You Wear a Mermaid Crown? appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 30th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Writer/Director, Colin Higgins

0
0
higgins

Higgins in 1974 sitting on a hot tub built just for him by famed carpenter Harrison Ford

July 30, 1941Colin Higgins is a much loved director and screenwriter. From people that I know who have made his acquaintance, he was supposedly a real sweetheart. People in the business we call show seemed to have adored him. He is responsible for one of the most influential films of my youth, Harold And Maude (1971). I really love him for that.

Born on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia to an Australian mother and an American father, Higgins moved with his family to Southern California from Sydney in the 1950s. He attended Stanford University for a year, but he dropped out to hitchhike across the country. Higgins’ travels took him to NYC where he studied with the famous Actors Studio and then to Europe where he volunteered for the Army as the sports reporter for the military newspaper The Stars And Stripes. He eventually returned to school, attending Stanford University, receiving a degree in English and then he attended film school at UCLA. During his final year there, he wrote a little screenplay titled Harold And Maude.

Now it is considered to be one of the greatest of 1970 era Hollywood films, but Harold And Maude, smartly directed by Hal Ashby, was a huge flop when it opened during the Christmas season of 1971 with little fanfare and not much advertising. It’s an unusual story of the romance between a young man and a much, much, much older woman, played to perfection by Bud Cort and my muse Ruth Gordon, the film has had a huge impact on people my age, and although it bombed initially, it has become a cult favorite around the world.

Higgins was just a 30 years old, and ready to give up on his acting dreams, supporting himself as a pool cleaner and tennis-court sweeper in Hollywood when he managed to get his landlord, film producer Ed Lewis, to read a screenplay he had adapted from that master’s thesis for the UCLA screenwriting program. Lewis showed the script to Paramount’s Robert Evans, who agreed to make Harold And Maude.

Higgins also published a novelization of the screenplay, including some scenes that didn’t make it into the film. He had really wanted to direct the film himself and shot some test scenes for Paramount, but the studio gave it to Ashby, an experienced film editor who had just received glowing notices for his first feature, the quirky The Landlord (1970).

Higgins’ own 1980 stage adaptation of Harold And Maude ran for just nine performances on Broadway starring film great Janet Gaynor and gay actor Keith McDermott, but  a French language version ran in Paris for seven years.

Higgins went on to write and direct some of the most successful films of the 1970s and 1980s: the screwball romance Silver Streak (1976) with  Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, and Jill Clayburg; Foul Play (1978) starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase; the especially adored by the gays: 9 To 5 (1980) featuring the terrific team of Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman, plus the musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (1982) with Parton and Burt Reynolds.

Higgins had long planned both a sequel and a prequel to Harold And Maude. The sequel, Harold’s Story, focused on Harold’s life after Maude. The prequel would show Maude’s life before Harold and was titled Grover And Maude with a story about Maude learning how to steal cars from Grover Muldoon, the character portrayed by Richard Pryor in Higgins’ Silver Streak. Higgins arranged for all the original actors to reprise their roles.

Higgins established a foundation which offers The Colin Higgins Courage Awards which recognizes ordinary but remarkable individuals who have endured overwhelming hostility and hate, yet have handled themselves with the grace as they educate and enlighten others about being gay. Each winner receives $10,000 as part of their prize. The Colin Higgins Foundation also funds scholarships for gay people wanting to study film and supports HIV prevention programs in places that really need them like as Fayetteville, Arkansas and Biloxi, Mississippi.

In 1986, he had just completed a mini-series based on Shirley MacLaine‘s memoir Out On A Limb, when he was snatched away by the plague. I wonder how many other terrific films he might have made for us, maybe something tasty and inventive for Netflix. Fucking HIV.

The post #BornThisDay: Writer/Director, Colin Higgins appeared first on The WOW Report.


Keith Haring’s “Art Car” is On Display In L.A. This Weekend Only!

0
0

haring

Just kids: Keith & Kenny

Just kids: Keith & Kenny


On, Thursday night at the Peterson Automotive Museum in L.A., a rare functional sculpture/ mobile 3D drawing was seen by the public for the first time. One of the late artist Keith Haring‘s lesser-known works is this painted 1971 Land Rover “art car”.

The Land Rover was conceived nearly 70 years ago in Wales and first went into production in 1948—both the British public and military quickly took to this daddy of the SUV. His take on a 1971 version —painted in 1983 is called the Haring Defender and according to the Petersen features,

…whimsical art over olive drab paint on a vehicle designed at least in part for military use.

You can see see a flying clock, a pyramid, a wolf man, a TV head man, and lots of Haring’s iconic drawings. The Land Rover is part of the Petersen’s effort to display more vehicles that are not just engineering marvels, but moving pieces of art.

Keith’s best buddy, artist Kenny Scharf was on hand to take questions after the unveiling. Scharf has done his fair share of painting on vehicles himself. For the last 5+ years he has spray-painted in his signature style (free of charge) over 150 autos, which he calls Karbombz. (He did my ’99 lime green Beetle last summer!)

The Haring Defender will be on display in the lobby until the end of the month, which is tomorrow! An architectural marvel itself, plan a visit to the Peterson next time you’re in Los Angeles, or if you’re there now, check it out today.

IMG_5753

IMG_5755

CARS-Keith-Haring-Land-Rover-1983-g-rover-e1469613095435

CogGkSkUIAEP7qy.jpg-large

CogDgx3UsAMpzi_.jpg-large

Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles

Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles

The post Keith Haring’s “Art Car” is On Display In L.A. This Weekend Only! appeared first on The WOW Report.

#DIYDisaster: 91 Year-Old Museum Visitor Fills In $89,000 Crossword Puzzle Artwork

0
0

1468870771-680x382
A 91-year-old visitor “solved” a crossword puzzle featured in an artwork hanging in the museum, horrifying the museum staff at the Neues Museum Nürnberg, in southern Germany.

The elderly woman damaged the work by using a ball-point pen to fill out the blank boxes in a work by German Fluxus artist Arthur Köpcke, according to museum spokesperson Eva Martin. It seems that the local woman took the artist’s invitation to

“Insert words!”

a bit too literally. Shortly afterward, the retired dentist was escorted to the local police station for questioning.

The seven fellow members of the literary club of a local senior center, which organized the trip to the museum, criticized the institution and the police for what they described as ill treatment of of the woman accusing them of treating their friend like criminal. Club members were particularly upset about the authorities’ suggestion that their friend, whom they describe as enviably fit both physically and mentally, suffered from dementia. Museum spokesperson denied that the lady was treated badly,

There were probably no ill intentions, but we have to report the damage.

She added that it was not normally in her nature to call the police on an elderly woman, but she had no choice but to follow protocol and file a criminal complaint. The museum indicated that the artwork is under evaluation by the restoration department. The extent of the damage is unclear but the insurance value is $89,000.

I can relate on serval levels. My work is based on vintage paint by number, combined with words which are usually not filled in. My dealers have been asked by collectors and viewers on more than one occasion if they can “finish the work” once they buy it. People are dying to get involved with art, hence the coloring book craze. I’m currently working on one myself, a collaborative adult coloring book called YES! Transform your Life with Color By Number. So for $10, you can safely go to town, in the museum café rather than the galleries where you are likely to get into trouble. I should send this lady one once it’s out this November through Regan Arts.

Screen Shot 2016-06-28 at 12.46.37 PM

The post #DIYDisaster: 91 Year-Old Museum Visitor Fills In $89,000 Crossword Puzzle Artwork appeared first on The WOW Report.

#LGBTQ: Trump Promises To Overturn the “Shocking Gay Marriage Decision”

0
0

Donald Trump Hosts Nevada Caucus Night Watch Party In Las Vegas

Donald-Trump-Tweet-LGBT-Community-600x375
After the RNC fiasco, as if you need any more reasons to vote for Hillary Clinton. A recent interview with Pat Robertson’s TV network, Donald Trump told antigay conservatives they can be sure that he’s committed to overturning the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody asked the GOP nominee what he thought of the Log Cabin Republicans calling him,

one of the best, if not the best, pro-gay Republican candidates to ever run for the presidency.

When he was warned that Evangelicals want to believe in his stance on traditional marriage, Trump said,

I think they can trust me on traditional marriage… and frankly, I was very much in favor of having the court rule that it goes to states, and let the states decide. And that was a shocking decision for you and for me and for a lot of other people, but I was very much in favor of letting the states decide and that’s the way it looked it was going and then all of a sudden out of nowhere came this very massive decision and they took it away. But I was always in favor of state’s rights; states deciding.

Seems like he’s just as big a fan of traditional divorce. Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Trump in January,

You say now that the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land and that any politician who talks about wanting to amend the Constitution is just playing politics. Are you saying it’s time to move on?” “No, I’m saying this.

Trump responded,

It has been ruled up. It has been there. If I’m a, you know, if I’m elected, I would be very strong on putting certain judges on the bench that I think maybe could change things.

But they’ve got a long way to go. I mean at some point, we have to get back down to business. But there’s no question about it. I mean most — and most people feel this way. “They have ruled on it. I wish that it was done by the state. I don’t like the way they ruled. I disagree with the Supreme Court from the standpoint they should have given the state — it should be a states’ rights issue. And that’s the way it should have been ruled on, Chris, not the way they did it.”

Wallace asked Trump further,

Are you saying that if you become president, you might try to appoint justices to overrule the decision on same-sex marriage?

I would strongly consider that, yes.”

Watch.

(via LGBTQ Nation)

The post #LGBTQ: Trump Promises To Overturn the “Shocking Gay Marriage Decision” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Clinton Campaign Computers Hacked By Russian Intelligence

0
0

hillary-putin-clinton
According to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign computer systems were hacked by Russia’s intelligence services. The breach came after the disclosure last month that the Democratic National Committee’s computer system had been compromised, escalates an international episode in which Clinton campaign officials have suggested that Russia might be trying to sway the outcome of the election. According to the Times,

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said in a statement that intruders had gained access to an analytics program used by the campaign and maintained by the national committee, but it said that it did not believe that the campaign’s own internal computer systems had been compromised.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fund-raising arm for House Democrats, also said on Friday that its systems had been hacked. Together, the databases of the national committee and the House organization contain some of the party’s most sensitive communications and voter and financial data.

Meredith Kelly, a spokeswoman for the congressional committee, said that after it discovered the breach, “we immediately took action and engaged with CrowdStrike, a leading forensic investigator, to assist us in addressing this incident.”

The attack on the congressional committee’s system appears to have come from an entity known as “Fancy Bear,” which is connected to the G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence service, according to an official involved in the forensic investigation.

The same arm of Russia’s intelligence operation was also implicated in the attack on the national committee, in which it gained access to opposition research on Republicans, including the party’s presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

“It’s the same adversary,” the official involved in the forensic investigation said. “These are sophisticated actors.”

The F.B.I. said on Friday that it was examining reports of “cyberintrusions involving multiple political entities” but did not identify the targets of the attacks.

The Clinton campaign used the program that was hacked to analyze voter data, but it did not contain voters’ Social Security numbers or credit card information, a campaign aide said. The campaign said it was confident, based on a review by outside experts, that getting into the program would not have allowed the hackers to gain access to the campaign’s internal emails, voice mail messages or other data.

After the breach in mid-June, when the DNC said its computer systems had been breached by Russian hackers working for competing government intelligence agencies, WikiLeaks released some 20,000 committee emails.

WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, has made it clear that he hopes to harm Mrs. Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency, opposing her candidacy on both policy and personal grounds. He has said that he has more material about the presidential campaign that he could release, which has raised the specter of more embarrassing disclosures just as Democrats try to capitalize on the momentum coming out of their convention this week.

In a statement, the F.B.I. said that it

is aware of media reporting on cyberintrusions involving multiple political entities, and is working to determine the accuracy, nature and scope of these matters.

Clinton campaign officials have suggested that Vladimir Putin could be trying to tilt the election to Mr. Trump, who has expressed admiration for the Russian leader. But the campaign officials acknowledge that they have no evidence. The Trump campaign has dismissed the accusations about Russia as a deliberate distraction.

The C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, declined to comment on the specific allegations but said that

obviously, interference in the U.S. election process is a very, very serious matter, and I think certainly this government would treat it with great seriousness.

Donald Trump said Thursday that he was being sarcastic when he appeared to suggest that Russia should use espionage to find Clinton’s emails. He’s finding out that presidents nor presidential nominees, don’t get that luxury when the topic is national security.

The GOP nominee tried to dampen controversy over his apparent call Wednesday for Russia to either stage an espionage cyber hack to find Clinton’s deleted emails or to publish information it had already stolen. Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired the day after his comments at a news conference in Florida sparked a national furor and offered ammunition for Democrats who claim he’s not fit to be president.

Of course I’m being sarcastic.

Right.

tdy_jackson_trump_160728.nbcnews-ux-1080-600

(via NY Times)

The post Clinton Campaign Computers Hacked By Russian Intelligence appeared first on The WOW Report.

Stream: Queer Artist Serpentwithfeet “Blisters”, You Would Not Kiss Me!!!

0
0

serpentwithfeet-blisters1-768x960

Oh, I know this sentiment too well…being with a boy who just doesn’t give you what you need…but seems to give it to everybody else so easily. All you’re left with is this hurt, which pisses you off…’cause you still think you love him, but you can’t forgive…you want him to feel the darkness he left you with. Hopefully, this is what Serpentwithfeet is eerily describing on title track from forthcoming EP Blisters (Perhaps, I’m projecting a bit). This is the second single from the NYC-based, queer artist, aka Josiah Wise, who seems to be carrying the voices, the pain and the introspection found in old Negro spirituals, searching for a way to quench the thirst…to stop the pain. Check out Blisters below, and get the full EP September 2.

 

Tracklist:

01 “blisters”
02 “flickering”
03 “four ethers”
04 ‘penance”
05 “redemption”

The post Stream: Queer Artist Serpentwithfeet “Blisters”, You Would Not Kiss Me!!! appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 31st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Gay Rights Activist, Barbara Gittings

0
0

gittings

July 31, 1932– Barbara Gittings:

Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”

When I was 12 years old, I would scour the stacks of books and the bibliographies for information, any scrap or mention on Homosexuality at the Spokane Public Library’s main branch. Always looking over my shoulder, nearly everything I researched brought me frightening information with these terms tossed out: Perversion, Invert, Criminal, Sinful, Suicide, and Unnatural.

During an era when very few gay people dared to come out in private, much less in public, Gittings was a brave vocal and visible figure in the fledgling fight for Gay Rights.

In the late 1950s, she founded the NYC chapter of the Daughters Of Bilitis, the first national organization for lesbians, even though she lived in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, she took part in the first gay rights demonstrations at the White House and at Liberty Square in Philadelphia. In the early 1970s, she was instrumental in lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to change its position on homosexuality. In 1973, the APA invalidated the definition of homosexuality as a mental disorder. Kids, that means that for the first time in history, homos were officially not crazy.

Gittings also worked to make information about gay men and lesbians more widely available in libraries. Though not a librarian by training, she was for many years the head of the American Library Association’s Gay Task Force; she coordinated and edited the association’s comprehensive bibliography of literature by and about gay people. Gittings felt keenly aware of this need for such a bibliography. As a young woman, when she scoured local libraries just like me, seeking, but seldom seeing, something that would help her understand her own life.

Gittings was born in Vienna where her father was a member of the US Diplomatic Corps, returning to the USA when she was a kid. When Gittings was a teenager her father caught her reading The Well Of Loneliness (1928), a landmark novel of lesbian love by English author Radclyffe Hall. He told her, via a letter, to burn the book when he could not bring himself to speak to her in person.

Gittings studied Theatre at Northwestern University, but she was increasingly distracted by the need to learn as much as she could about homosexuality. This is when she began searching libraries of Chicago. She unearthed very little that was relevant and nothing that was encouraging.

Gittings:

“I had to find bits and pieces under headings like ‘sexual perversion’, ‘invert, or ‘sexual aberration’ in books on abnormal psychology. I kept thinking, ‘It’s me they’re writing about, but it doesn’t feel like me at all’.”

She left Northwestern after one year and for decades she supported her activism by taking clerical jobs. In 1958, commuting from her home in Philadelphia, Gittings started the NYC chapter of the Daughters Of Bilitis, which was founded in San Francisco in 1955. She later edited the organization’s national newsletter The Ladder.

Stonewall, watershed moment that it was, was not the only baby steps taken by brave gay people to claim their basic rights. The first public demonstration for Gay Rights in the USA, began on July 4, 1965, four full years before the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn in NYC. The name the organizers chose for the event was The Annual Reminders, selected to remind the public that millions of American citizens were being denied the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as put forth in The Declaration Of Independence.

The peaceful, orderly protest of just 39 strong souls, with lesbians wearing dresses and gay men in suits and ties, circled in front of Independence Hall with signs bearing slogans: “Homosexuals Should Be Judged As Individuals”, “15 Million Homosexual Americans Ask For Equality”, “Opportunity And Dignity”. The Annual Reminders continued at the same spot in Philadelphia through 1969, but after Stonewall the movement shifted focus to NYC.

There was very little press coverage of the original march, although Confidential Magazine ran a feature: “Homos On The March!”. Behind the protest was Gittings.

The Annual Reminders were commemorated in 2005 by the placement of a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker at 6th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

In her lifetime and beyond, Gittings received many awards, including an honorary membership in the American Library Association. The Free Library Of Philadelphia named its Gay And Lesbian Collection for her, and the NYC Public Library acquired the papers of Gittings and her longtime partner, Kay Tobin Lahusen. The letters, journals, newsletters and notes chronicle more than half a century in the Gay Rights movement.

Gittings is a major figure in the documentaries Out Of The Past (1998), Gay Pioneers (2013), Before Stonewall (1984), and After Stonewall (1999).

In 1997, Gittings and Lahusen successfully pushed AARP to grant them a “couple’s membership” giving them a discount on their health insurance. Lahusen:

“Before Barbara died, we went jointly into an assisted-living facility. Our last bit of activism was to come out in the newsletter of our assisted-living facility.”

Gittings left this world, taken of that damn cancer, in February 2007. She was 74 years old. I wish she had lived to see the changes in this country in the past nine years. Just think, from a few souls marching in Philly 50 years ago to full Marriage Equality for the entire nation is quite a journey.

“As a teenager, I had to struggle alone to learn about myself and what it meant to be gay. Now for 48 years, I’ve had the satisfaction of working with other gay people all across the country to get the bigots off our backs, to oil the closet door hinges, to change prejudiced hearts and minds, and to show that gay love is good for us and for the rest of the world too. It’s hard work, but it’s vital, and it’s gratifying, and it’s often fun!”

The post #BornThisDay: Gay Rights Activist, Barbara Gittings appeared first on The WOW Report.


#WowExclusive: Photographer Maude Schuyler Clay on Her Legendary Cousin, William Eggleston

0
0

Maude& Bill in 1974. Photo by Tav Falco

Maude & Bill in 1974. Photo by Tav Falco


300_EgglestonCatSWilliam Eggleston is a pioneering American photographer known for his vivid, poetic and mysterious images. A new exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery, of 100 works surveys his career from the 1960s to today. It’s the most comprehensive display of his portrait photography ever. Fred Maynard writes in The Economist,

Refusing to be pinned down to any viewpoint or agenda, Eggleston’s greatest strength is his almost enraging ambiguity. He is neither a sentimentalist nor a documentarian, neither subjective nor objective: he somehow captures that ephemeral moment we experience when we’re not quite sure why a memory sticks with us, why an otherwise mundane glance from a stranger seems to take on a greater significance.

Highlights of the NPG exhibition will include monumental prints of photographs first seen forty years ago: the artist’s uncle Adyn Schuyler, Sr with his assistant Jasper Staples in Cassidy Bayou, Mississippi, and Devoe Money in Jackson, Mississippi. (First and second images of Eggleston’s, below)

Adyn Schuyler is my old friend Maude Schuyler Clay‘s father and William Eggleston is her cousin. We’ve know each other since we worked together in the Vanity Fair art department in the mid-80s – she as a photo editor and I, as a designer. We have many friends in common and have remained in touch over the years, but I’ve never really asked her about her legendary relative. An established photographer in her own right, I thought this show was as good excuse as any to mix business with pleasure…

So, tell me your direct family relation to Eggleston…
His mother and my mother were sisters who grew up in the house that I now live in, in Sumner, Mississippi –Grey Gardens South. So, that makes Bill and me first cousins.

Was he well-known photographer as you were growing up, or was it no big deal…?
…just the world’s coolest relative.

Did his work influence you? Or is it in your family’s DNA to document?
Our common grandfather who built the house was a planter, lawyer, and judge who was a fanatic photography ‘hobbiest’. All his work was done on glass plate. Bill’s influence on me was huge but I started out taking serious color pictures of people with my old Rolleiflex, mainly because I did not want to ‘copy’ his color photographs. His photos, until the National Portrait gallery show, was not about color portraits per se. He has been nothing but supportive of my work from the get-go.

eggleston-1980-webWhat is it from your knowledge of how he works, that makes his point of view –his eye– SO compelling. Two of my favorite photographs are the shot of the inside of a freezer and another of the inside of an oven. Those are comparable to Warhol’s soup can paintings. They are SO absurd they’re brilliant…
Mundane everyday prosaic things and places in lush color. His compositions look like The Golden Mean most of time.

What about you? Do you still shoot film or have you gone digital?
Half and half…

Do you like the prints you get with digital…? Or are you old school?
Yes, old school here but the world has gone digital. There is a new process: digitally scanning your film negative, then they take the scan and put through a ‘water like chemical bath’… the results not unlike the old C-prints which were all done in darkroom.

What does that water process do to the final print… there are so many filters now I can make a pic I took yesterday look like a 70s Eggleston…
It makes it look like an old C-print. Yes, you can get a digital filter to do similar.

I’m curious about his process. You must have seen his contact sheets… does he shoot a ton and then edit ruthlessly or is his eye so refined he gets what he wants in a few frames?
One shot usually.

When we were at VF, I found it fascinating to look at photographer’s contact sheets – Helmut, Penn, etc… it reveals a lot.
He uses mostly Leica but sometimes Fugi. Hasselblad gave him their latest fancy one when he won that Hasselblad award. Has used 5 x 7 and very limited 8 x 10 cameras. He does not ‘linger’ in any one picture, as far as I know. Usually one or two shots at most. This from looking at his contact sheets for 40 years!

…just talked to him this morning, he’s back in Memphis.

What do you think you’ve learned from him? Personally and professionally… did he give you any advice…?
Not really,just to go out and take pictures. As the ‘assistant’ I rode around with him in late afternoon light and observed his work; then would see results when contacts came back week or so later. One thing that made me focus (no pun) on my color portraits is I really did not want to be someone who took ‘Bill Eggleston color pics.’ Since he did not and still says, as of yesterday, that he doesn’t love the NPG show because his work were not about pictures of people, a minuscule part of his output. He says his whole oeuvre is color pictures that sometimes have a person in them…

You know NPG did mini-reproductions of the Falco shot of us (above) and my Bill portrait (below) in their gift shop for I think 5 or 6 pounds!

Yes, I saw that on their website and made a lame joke on your Facebook about that being really heavy for shipping… hey, did you go to the opening?
Alas, no. Trying to get to Germany for Lang’s (husband & fellow photographer, Langdon Clay) Cars at Night, book. Not sure of the date, but supposedly soon, it’s in current Steidl catalog –Luc Sante wrote the foreword. We will most likely hop over to London. The show is up ’til October…

Btw, today happens to be Maude’s birthday! Happy Birthday! William Eggleston Portraits is at the National Portrait Gallery, London through October 23, 2016.

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston and daughter, Andra by Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston and his daughter, Andra by Maude Schuyler Clay

All work below, by William Eggleston…

6) Eggleston WEB

7) Eggleston WEB

Eggleston WEB

2) Eggleston WEB

5) Eggleston WEB

3) Eggleston WEB_0

4) Eggleston WEB

EGGLESTON_Untitled_Los_Alamos_1965-1974

The post #WowExclusive: Photographer Maude Schuyler Clay on Her Legendary Cousin, William Eggleston appeared first on The WOW Report.

#HudsonYards: Fly Into NYC’s New “Cultural Shed”, a 21st Century Marvel. Watch

0
0

Culture_Shed_Aerial_night
The designs for the new Culture Shed, by the Rockwell Group– and Diller Scofidio + Renfro– look truly AMAZING. It’s part of Hudson Yards and it runs alongside the High Line park and renderings here show a connecting staircase between the two, so visitors will be able to walk between the public spaces.

The shed will be a flexible space, available for fashion, film, design, food, live performances, art installations, trade shows, and a myriad of cultural happenings. The renderings show how the shed will “nestle” into a DS+R-designed residential building, plus how it will look opened up versus “closed”.

It’s expected to be complete and operational sometime in 2019 but there were delays, so who knows. To get a better sense of the adaptability of the space, plus the unique features and location, watch the “fly-through” video below.

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.09.11-PM.0

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.21.07-PM.0

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.21.24-PM.0

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.10.37-PM.0

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.17.52-PM.0

Screen-Shot-2013-02-28-at-1.14.02-PM.0

Shed Fly Through Animation from The Shed on Vimeo.

The post #HudsonYards: Fly Into NYC’s New “Cultural Shed”, a 21st Century Marvel. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

Four Seasons Restaurant Auction Brings in $4.1 Million –$12,500 for Ashtrays!?

0
0

four-seasons-restaurant-cr-courtesy

EERO SAARINEN, custom Tulip table from the bar of the Grill Room. est.$5,000–7,000 Result: $45,000

EERO SAARINEN, custom Tulip table from the bar of the Grill Room. est.$5,000–7,000 Result: $45,000


Whatever happened to those damn ashtrays? My first job in NYC was as a host at the Four Seasons Restaurant and although I worked there only a short time, I managed to score four of their iconic ashtrays as a keepsake. That was a few decades ago and after Seagram’s Building owner Aby Rosen raised the rent to $3.6 million a year, the eponymous NYC power lunch spot has closed. But after almost 60 years in business, rather than pack up everything to move, the owners opted to put more than 900 pieces up for bid with Wright auction house, including covetable works by architects Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen, and Mies van der Rohe. People (like me) were looking at estimates to say,

Hey, I might bid on that…

Nope. A set of four of those ashtrays went for $12,500 – some less, but not much. A bench piece called ‘Johnny Swing’ went for $112,500; Philip Johnson’s own banquette fetched $52,500; and the bronze street sign sold for $120,000!

28FOURSIDE4-master1050

28FOURSIDE7-master1050

28FOURSIDE-SPAN-WEB-master1050

28FOURSIDE6-master1050

(via CN Traveler)

The post Four Seasons Restaurant Auction Brings in $4.1 Million –$12,500 for Ashtrays!? appeared first on The WOW Report.

#GoingBackIn: Tyler Posey Apologizes for Seeming To Come Out –”I’m Not Gay”

0
0

Screen Shot 2016-07-31 at 4.52.22 PM
Actor Tyler Posey, who appeared to come out as gay on social media the other day, has now apologized for his comment. He says he only intended to show his support for the LGBTQ community.

On Friday, the young Teen Wolf actor posted a video to Snapchat while walking down New York City‘s Gay Street saying:

This is me. I am this and this is me. I never felt more alive. I’m gay!

Social media went nuts congratulating him, but it seems it was all a joke. In a series of tweets, Posey apologized for creating confusion and downplaying the act of coming out,

I am a big proponent of love over hate, and standing together during divisive times. Although I’m not gay, I fully support the LGBTQ community. This was a moment intended to reflect that. And everyone, I am truly sorry to the people I’ve offended or lessened how big coming out is. I just want to spread love in this world.

I think it’s called gay bait. I’m not sure he did it maliciously but,

I’m gay.

doesn’t contain much ambiguity. He’s pretty cute, and he’s been a good ally to the LGBTQ community. What do you think –does he get a pass?

Screen Shot 2016-07-31 at 4.42.05 PM

Screen Shot 2016-07-31 at 4.42.15 PM

tyler-posey-nip

(via LGBTQ Nation)

The post #GoingBackIn: Tyler Posey Apologizes for Seeming To Come Out –”I’m Not Gay” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Have You Taken Yr WHOREMOANS??? Stream Mister Wallace “Pussy Out” EP

0
0

mister wallace pussy out

WARNING…This child is totally NSFW!!! Straight off of putting out her hit single and video It Girl, and her packed-house performance at Frankie’s in NYC, rapper/artist/advocate Mister Wallace releases her remix EP of her debut Faggot, called Pussy Out. Needless-to-say, Mister Wallace fully embraces her ‘post gender’ status…and wears her fem fantasy proudly, and to the fullest! “Pussy Out is my offering to those who worship on the dance floor, says Wallace. Because in 2016 it’s O.K. to feel free.” Check out the tracks below. (Via The Fader, photo by Brett Lindell)

Seraah on “Venta Pussy” remix: “For me ‘Venta Pussy’ is about simultaneously dismantling and liberating perceived black maleness. It’s about embracing and engaging with the powerful femme in all of us, and using that anima and animus infusion to activate our dreams.”

Rui Ho on “Whoremoan Sushi Cunt” remix: “I love the original, cunty, sexy and ‘all in your face’ direct feeling towards sex, sexuality and love, so I’ve decided to do something similar but combining my own experience and understanding towards this topic, that’s why I added the Asian string sample and pushing the energy even higher.”

Sikh Knowledge on “FAGGOT” remix: “Sikh Knowledge’s remix evokes scenes from the height of a QPOC jam as queens find respite from the work week by shablams in the faces of their haters. As a producer/DJ, Sikh would most likely spin this.”

Hijo Prodigo on “FAGGOT OG” remix: “The remix to me is the pulse of our vibrant community, nurtured underground, breaking through the surface. The faggots are coming through hard and relentless and upending the rules of the old world. Blending genres and genders and responding to a world that moves too slow for prophets and dreamers.”

Jeremiah Meece on “IT GIRL” remix: “BITCHES BETTA BACK UP. IM ABOUT TO ACT UP!”

Rui Ho on “IT GIRL” remix: “I wanted to make something more U.K. bass with classic synth pads and FM bassline and then adding my own vision of being ‘IT,’ because for me I want the remix to be super danceable and at the same time showcasing where this come from and where it’s possibly going to be.”

davOmakesbeats on “IT GIRL” remix: “I wanted to give ‘IT GIRL’ a tribal feel while sticking to the original blueprint of Wallace’s vocal genius. This dancefloor-ready version is chockfull of club moments and bass, staying true to my Bmore club and percussive influences.”

The post Have You Taken Yr WHOREMOANS??? Stream Mister Wallace “Pussy Out” EP appeared first on The WOW Report.

Viewing all 11455 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images