Paglia v Gaga: the seX factor

There is a feeling of resignation, a feeling at the same time of refusal. Post modernism has brought us to the precipice of blandness, where even outrageousness suffers from banality. Here, looking over this abyss, there is a feeling that we are missing something. 

Recently, Camille Paglia dismantled Lady Gaga's throne in 'Lady Gaga and the death of sex':

"Can it be that Gaga represents the exhausted end of the sexual revolution? In Gaga’s manic miming of persona after persona, over-conceptualised and claustrophobic, we may have reached the limit of an era..."

We now accept simulation and imitation as fertile ground for artistic expression where once this would have been seen as lacking the necessary quality of authenticity, Kandinsky's inner necessity. Artists of the Postmodern age proudly take refuge in places that artists of the past would have been ashamed to go. There is a lack of definition, a plurality of styles. There is a shamelessness that has become acceptable, even, arguably, essential.
 

Our critical lexicon has changed: we accept what to previous generations would have been anathema to their artistic sensibilities: simulation, appropriation, co-optation, gentrification. We have reached a point where we view art in terms of economic as opposed to aesthetic value, statement of style as opposed to Truth, means to an end - fame, notoriety - as opposed to an end in itself.

Alison Pearlman talks about how the "reduction of reference to style" of art here, and its how pluralism made works of art vulnerable to misappropriation: how the commodification of art works has led to their diminished import. But does wearing a T-shirt of the Mona Lisa diminish our appreciation? Or, does our once-removed possession of her (as symbol, as myth, as masterpiece) bring us closer to genuine connection & communion with her?

Cindy Sherman addresses themes of (mis)appropriation, reproduction, (re)presentation, fragmentation, (de)mythification, denotation, (self)promotion, (self)realization. Critics of the past would have had us believe these are tricks, devices that fool the eye and this, once gleaned, should result in a reduction of pleasure. But instead of "growing weary of the song" our pleasure and wonder, it seems, grow along with our respect - Respect for the multiplicity, the plurality, the layers of meaning that have been so shamelessly borrowed, appropriated, indeed, sometimes stolen.

What we sense from Lada Gaga is an urgent need to express the Outrageous, the Untoward, the Unfettered, the previously Unimagined. Like Erica Jong's Isadora Wing & Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, she has energized, re-contextualized, and denuded her physique to create a new kind of sexuality, one that we, perhaps, don't yet have the language or vocabulary to describe or deconstruct.

While I agree with Paglia that we are seeing the death of the Sexual Revolution as we have come to know it ¹ - and that Lady Gaga symbolizes the flame-out of its star-burst - it's just as possible that what she signals is the spark, albeit almost imperceptible, of new one.

10 Questions on Poets & Technology_by Collin Kelley

A must-read @ Very Like a Whale by poet, novelist, playwright and journalist Collin Kelley:

---

"The internet, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, iPad, iPod, podcasts, digital video and who knows what else. What do they all mean for the poet qua poet? For Poetry? Is it still pretty much where the Gutenberg press left it? Is Poetry technology-proof? In our fearless ongoing quest to exploit other people’s wisdom on poetry-related subjects, we are posing ten questions to a group of illustrious contemporary poets on this topic. This week’s responder is Collin Kelley.

7. Technology is enabling poets today to take poetry off the page in ways that were previously inconceivable. Either comment on this piece by Tom Konyves or provide a link to and comments on a different piece of work that uses technology to take the poem off the page.

CC. Most computers now have the ability to make a sound recording, which is uploadable as a podcast in a matter of minutes. I started doing that on MySpace four or five years ago. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo (which doesn’t have nearly as many content restriction as YouTube) has turned anyone with basic knowledge of editing software into a filmmaker and many poets are creating videos for their work and posting it around the Interwebs. 

Poets are collaborating with artists and musicians to move their words off the page and into different arenas. Poet Steven Reigns has created installations of his work and created photography exhibits that incorporate words and images. Musician and poet Vanessa Daou created an interactive website that allows the user to hear, read and cut and paste her words into new forms" 

We Are Learning to Exploit the Amazing Plasticity of the Brain

We Are Learning to Exploit the Amazing Plasticity of the Brain

Godskitchen - Ibiza Trance Chillout: incl. my new music w/ Blank & Jones + music by Armin van Buuren, Tiesto vs Cary Brothers, The Grid

Godskitchen: Ibiza Trance Chillout

TRACKLISTING

01. Ferry Corsten – Visions of Blue
02. Jes - Ghost (Lime Chill Remix)
03. Guru Josh Project – Infinity 2008 (Steen Thottrup Remix)
04. Blank & Jones - Heart Of Wax (with Vanessa Daou) (Original Mix)
05. Bobina feat. R Kenga – That’s What I Did For You (Sensorica Remix)
06. The Grid – Flotation
07. Lange – Home
08. Cosmic Gate feat. Aruna – Under Your Spell (Original Mix)
09. 4 Strings - Catch A Fall (Breakbeat Mix)
10. Marco V – Coming Back (Nic Chagall Remix)
11. Parker & Hanson – Aim High, Shoot Low (Instrumental)
12. Armin van Buuren - Sound Of Goodbye (EDX's Indian Summer Remix)
13. Alan Connor - Sun Went Down (Simon Sinfield Remix)
14. Tiesto vs Cary Brothers – Ride (Tiesto Remix)
15. BT – Rose of Jericho (BT’s Deus Ex Machina Mix)

Vanessa Daou: Joe Sent Me - Review by Author Graham Reid

"My dad always used the phrase "Joe sent me", it was the old password to get into illegal bars and speakeasies and the implication was that you were gaining access to the illicit, and therefore rather seductive, world on the other side of the door.

Vanessa Daou's breathy, sexually-fueled electronica offers an entry to that kind of world. Her music oozes sensuality, suggests forbidden pleasures, and promises a very enjoyable, safely hedonistic time indeed where the lights are dim and the outline of entwined bodies writhe in slo-mo.

Yep, Daou delivers a wonderfully seductive line in electro-sexual-noir and her '94 Zipless is an Essential Elsewhere album.

But there has always been more to New Yorker Daou than just purple sexuality: she has a poetic sensibility and her albums often include spoken word (whispered word) pieces over a soundbed of soft electronica. Here on Hurricanes she weaves a fragmented narrative of uncertainty and confidence, masculine and feminine, and of the power of giving oneself to love over a bed of distorted keyboards and ticking percussion.

But mostly here are aural signifiers of sex and sensuality with images of beds, "all the pleasures of the tongue", love among the litter, hot skin, and a speakeasy where the password is "sin".

These images, imagistic songs and narratives taken together address existential issues, the nature and dangers of the emotional life, all wrapped in warm, hazy, jazz-influenced grooves and tone poems where a soft saxophone weaves a melodic line line (Love Lives in the Dark), angular drums keep you on edge and electronic keyboards lull you gently.

Daou's music is hypnotic, European in consciousness with a steamy Latin quality. It's quite something."

Read more @ Elsewhere

The Rockologist: The Women Who Have Rocked My World

"They say that the voice of a woman can be enough to soothe both the savage beast in man, as well as serve as proverbial nails on a chalkboard.

Nowhere has this been more true over the years than in music. My own relationship with women in music over the years has been, well let's just say that as in life, it's been complicated.

The first time I can remember falling in love with a woman's voice was when as a pre-teen boy I first heard Grace Slick sing "White Rabbit" with the Jefferson Airplane. Even though I nary understood a thing that Grace was talking about with all her talk about pills that made you either larger or small, there was still something about her sweet, yet seductive voice that made me really want to fall down that particular rabbit hole.

Even so, I would grow to develop a certain love/hate relationship with the various women of rock over the years as I grew older. For every Janis Joplin or Aretha Franklin who were able to touch some unrealized yearning deep within my soul, or for every Ronnie Spector who was able to light the flame of innocent, unconditional romantic love — there would be those angry feminist singers who could just as quickly extinguish it.

...

When it comes to pure out and out eroticism, no one has ever communicated this as perfectly as Vanessa Daou did on her tragically slept on, Erica Jong-inspired album Zipless.

And this is the point where I guess I apologize for taking you through a personal mix-tape of my own fantasies.

But hell yeah. Damn, would I like to get with a girl like this:

On the other end of Vanessa Daou's pure sexuality, lies the innocent pre-"Cloudbusting" romanticism of Kate Bush. Before Kate got corrupted by the eighties New Wave of weird chicks like Lene Lovich, this was the "Dorothy in Oz" sort of girl every guy dreams of."

Read more

'She Owns The Night: Vanessa Daou Interviewed' on The Quietus

jonny mugwump talks to the New York based songstress about speakeasies, rave culture and the poem/song divide

"A collaboration between the New York-based Vanessa and her then husband Peter with words adapted by Vanessa from Peter's aunt, the pioneering Erica Jong, Zipless is a beautiful trove of sublime erotic electronic pop with strong elements of house and jazzy melodies. And as anybody who loves pop music knows, there can be more subversiveness in the space of a three minute adrenaline shot of pop than in vast swathes of the avant-garde. The almost surreal intimacy of Vanessa's voice and delivery (like Dali's melting watches, every vocal shape seemed to take on a slight alien quality) coupled with the intense sexuality of the lyrics and the accessibility and ingenuity of the music made for an entirely unique hybrid. Vanessa and Peter had previously released the highly innovative Head Music as The Daou, had worked with NuGroove and had had a huge club hit with a Danny Tenaglia mix of 'Surrender Yourself'. Originally released independently, Zipless led to the duo being signed to MCA and Vanessa toured with the legendary recently departed Guru and Jazzmatazz.

The follow-up album Slow to Burn saw her negotiating her way out of her own big label contract for a life on the independent margins where she could retain control. Cut to 2009, with a succession of always morphing productions exploring a weird ambient hinterland between ambient pop, jazz, soul and electronica, Vanessa returned after a hiatus, polymath-like moving into multimedia production, dance, computer coding and the release of her first self-produced album Joe Sent Me. "Joe Sent Me" was the coded phrase used to gain entry to speakeasys at the height of prohibition-era America and her latest work is both more sonically sophisticated and spacious yet also more dreamy. Each album has always had a loose kind of thematic concern but Joe Sent Me is different, creating a gently strange portal between now and then, constructing a distinctive world of its own but without sacrificing the depth of insight into what makes a heartbeat.

Perhaps it's not immediately obvious but I've always thought of your music as being quite surreal, primarily (until the current album anyway) due to your vocals. The voice is so intimately placed in the mix so that's completely inside the listener's head, and it puts me in mind of the beautiful paradox of the microphone and people like Frank Sinatra where a vocal can sit clearly on top of music that would otherwise completely obliterate it.

Vanessa Daou: When I first started singing, for me, it's this weird communication between a singer and a microphone. It's this object that is conveying your voice but the experience of being in a sound proof room singing a song, it is surreal - you're cut off from the music that's being played in your headphones and singing in to this object. Right from the offset, well, I had to work out what the relationship was with this object - the microphone - so I visualise it as an ear. I'm singing into an ear and I still carry that image with me now when I sing, never forgetting that I'm not singing out to the air but that I'm singing into somebody's ear who will be receiving my...message. This relationship, I don't know if it's a metaphysical thing that every artist goes through, but it's very profound."

Link to full interview on The Quietus

Remembering Guru

It was during my tour for 'Zipless' opening for 'Jazzmatazz' in '95 that I got to know Guru - His extreme intelligence & exceptional talent was ever-present, he was fearless with his voice & creative vision. An immense loss to lovers of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Poetry, artists everywhere.

The New York Times & All About Jazz have solid pieces on his life, career, & achingly beautiful written letter to fans, friends, and loved ones.

Ben Williams @Codesignal streams his in depth 2009 interview here with the legendary Jazz-Rapper pioneer.

The Female, Nude

"Nudity is oddly taboo..." 'Art Stripped Bare - Fionna Banner on the Nude'

In November '09, I heard/saw Collin Kelley read from his new novel 'Conquering Venus' at The Tank in Manhattan. The intimacy of the space provided a perfect setting for the tenor & spirit of the novel which takes place, largely, in a Hotel room in Paris and the apartment of a woman the protagonist befriends to whom he finds himself irrevocably drawn. It is in these rooms where secrets are both withheld and revealed, where hearts come apart at the seams as soon as they are stitched up again.

What is withheld, what is revealed, this is the crux of Venus' seductive allure. Historically, the female body, once unclothed, is observed, critiqued, demystified, devoured. But the fact is, no matter the setting - whether in nature, in bed, on a pedestal or in a highly stylized room - the female nude, stands in contrast to whatever the surroundings. Artists have explored the potentialities of this contrast since the first [European] female nude was painted.

The female nude continues to fascinate, frustrate, and awe, this is especially true in this age of virtual - and therefore intangible - culture. The 'Storybook Burlesque' attested to this is their provocative set of 'literary burlesque' performances which punctuated various authors' readings at The Tank.

The Concretes' cover of the Rolling Stones' 'Miss You' provided the soundtrack to one of the standout performances. The pairing of Burlesque with Rock 'n Roll is a natural one: a certain illicit delirium sets in while listening and looking. The combination of the literary with the 'lewd' has traditionally chagrined as many as it has charmed, as the history of banned books, for instance, has proven.

There have been numerous Novelists, Poets, Philosophers, Artists, and Singer-Songwriters who have tackled the dual-natured subjects of the physical body with the philosophical and psychological - Anaiis Nin, Henry Miller, Erica Jong, Ovid, Sappho, ee cummings, Simone de Beauvoir, Dominique Aury, Michael Foucault, Camille Paglia, Marina Abramovic, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey - and who among us hasn't wondered why, given that we are all born naked, is the subject of nudity so unyieldingly taboo?

The good news is, nudity's taboo nature seems to be a code that's written in the matrix of our psyches and physical selves, and will forever provide fodder for Artists, Thinkers and Theorists. It could be argued that our very existence depends on this attraction to the female nude's forbidden essence.

There will always be those who oppose the presentation of unclothed and exposed flesh in all forms - and while exploitation is the dark side of all things taboo - the female, nude, in all its raw and uncensored forms, goes to the core of our freedom's expression.

So, back at The Tank, what struck me so powerfully about the Storybook Burlesque was, simply, the fact that in this day and age of touch-of-a-button triple-X virtuality, the female, nude, is still oddly taboo.

Author Graham Reid on 'Zipless'

"There is sexy music and there is sex music.

And there can be quite a difference between the two in execution.

Prince made a lot of sex music but slightly less sexy music; Donna Summer and Jane Birkin brought orgasms to music -- and so did Yoko Ono who screamed it to the ceiling and beyond.

Ono was sex, the other two sexy. Sometimes Grace Jones could be both.

Sexy music -- the stuff you might want to play while engaging with someone while the lights are dimmed and the phone is off the hook -- will come in many forms. Doubtless you know someone for whom Tool or Linkin Park is their ideal sex music. I'm pleased to say I don't think I do.

But when it comes to mood pieces for "that" moment then there are the ever reliables such as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue or the soundtrack to The Hot Spot where Davis teamed up with John Lee Hooker to deliver something very sultry and sex-soaked.

Into this world of steamy windows and heavy breathing came Vanessa Daou, an American multi-talent (painter, poet and dancer) whose Zipless album was inspired by the work of her husband/producer Peter's aunt Erica Jong who wrote of the "zipless fuck" in her '73 novel Fear of Flying.

Vanessa Daou had come from the electronica underground in New York and she'd almost perfected a more sensual style which made Sade sound vapid and asexual. Daou was a heavy breather in the manner of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg's Je t'aime, but also brought a poetic spin to things.

....

Electronica beats keep their distance, a saxophone eases in from down the corridor, pianos play slow and sensuously, and everywhere is Daou's remarkable voice spinning out poetry worth reading or barely suggesting melodies as if she is too sated to rouse herself fully.

It is about carnal need as much as sexual passion and delight, and sometimes a wish not to be driven by such fevers: "I think I can live without it, love with its pumping blood ... sex with its messy hungers" she speak-sings unconvincingly on Becoming a Nun.

This is electronica erotica, aural sex and the perfect soundtrack to . . .

Well, not doing dishes.

It is, as they say, an album for "special occasions".

Enjoy."

Graham Reid is an award winning writer & journalist - In 2005 Graham wrote a book of travel stories published by Random House, Postcards from Elsewhere which won the Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year award in 2006.

Read his full post on Zipless on his blog Elsewhere

A special Electro Lounge Live now featuring Vanessa Daou 89.9 FM NPR

Stream it!

David Luckin's Electro Lounge Playlist:

February 19, 2010

9:00) Miroslav Vitous – New York City

9:09) Manifesto – Vanessa Daou

9:12) Santana – Welcome (by John Coltrane)

9:20) Vanessa Daou – Black & White

9:24) Vanessa Daou – Consequences

9:28) Weather Report – Will

9:33) Club Des Belugas – Hip Hip Chin Chin

9:38) Ken Nordine – Sidewalks

9:41) Vanessa Daou – Joe Sent Me

9:45) Vanessa Daou – Hurricanes

9:48) Vanessa Daou – Life Force

9:53) Ken Nordine – Tears

Hour 2

10:00) Vanessa Daou – True

10:02) Ken Nordine – When You’re Born

10:03) Noir – Late Night Rendez-Vous

10:07) Vanessa Daou – The Hook

10:10) Vanessa Daou – Love Lives In The Dark

10:16) Duke Ellington & John Coltrane – In A Sentimental Mood

10:19) Joni Mitchell & Wayne Shorter – Moon At The Window

10:22) Alice Coltrane – Journey In Satchidanaanda

10:29) Vanessa Daou – Save Yourself

10:31) Vanessa Daou – The Poem

10:41) Freddie Hubbard – Lonely Soul

10:46) Vanessa Daou – Once In A While

10:51) Vanessa Daou – Heart Of Wax

10:55) Vanessa Daou – The Hook (reprise)

10:56) Frank Sinatra – Put Your Dreams Away

With Etienne Daho 2000

Peter Daou, Etienne Daho, moi, Juliette

2000 saw the release of 'Make You Love' on EMI, and Etienne Daho's brilliant 'Corps et Armes', which featured our duet of 'Make Believe' from 'Plutonium Glow' (1997)

The release of 'Make You Love' was followed by a one week sold out show as Etienne's guest at the historic Olympia Theatre in Paris, and a 6 week tour of France.

A special Electro Lounge Live now featuring Vanessa Daou 89.9 FM NPR

A special Electro Lounge Live with host David Luckin -
now featuring Vanessa Daou 89.9 FM NPR or online

'Snow' video | part 2 of 'Love Among the Shadowed Things'

Vanessa Daou 7digital Widget

Collin Kelley on 'Love Among the Shadowed Things'

"You simply must listen to (or download) Vanessa Daou's brilliant, Love Among the Shadowed Things, recorded for the Weird Tales for Winter show curated by Jonny Mugwump on UK radio station Resonance 104.4FM. Poetry, ghostly jazz, sinister choirs, footsteps, trains clacking on tracks, a needle endlessly circling the lead-out of a record and Vanessa's unmistakable voice -- it's like the soundtrack for a film David Lynch has yet to make. Brava!"

Collin Kelley

Weird Tales for Winter: Newsletter #10

Weird Tales for Winter: Newsletter #10

"I first encountered Vanessa Daou in the strangest of situations. I had been aimless and adrift for a few years in Manchester in the north of England. In fact, I'd been forced to abandon Manchester for the vacant industrial satellite town of Bolton as I made a final attempt at finishing a bachelors in Philosophy. A shopping centre had been opened- pure chrome and harsh electric light, a giant bunker, a 'designer' fortress dropped in the abandoned heart of Salford. The launch and subsequent management of the centre had been entirely botched so that my 10 hour shifts would involve contact with only 10 customers a day (and that was on a good day). Nobody ever showed. I spent nearly 2 years in a bleakly over lit trance- you see, I have my reasons for obsessing about Ballard.

There was a music store there specialising in discounted music- the usual array of budget classics, nothing unexpected- no surprises. One day, bored to the point of dementia, I wandered off my patch to leaf through the same cod’s just for something to do and this one fortuitous time, I found a new neon-blue artefact staring back up at me. Zipless by Vanessa Daou.

I recalled seeing something favourable about it in The Wire magazine. There was one copy, it looked out of place, surely some mistake... A collaboration between New Yorkers Vanessa and her then husband Peter with words adapted by Vanessa from Peter's aunt Erica Jong, Zipless is a beautiful trove of sublime erotic electronic pop. And as anybody who loves pop music knows, there can be more subversiveness in the space of a 3 minute adrenaline shot of pop than in vast swathes of avant-garde investigation. What gave the album an edge was the sheer surreal intimacy of Vanessa's voice and delivery- like an Yves Tanguy painting, every vocal shape seemed to take on an alien quality- strange and familiar all at once.

Cut to 2010, with a succession of always morphing productions exploring a weird ambient hinterland between pop, jazz, soul and electronica, Vanessa has moved into multimedia production, dance, computer coding and released her first self-produced album Joe Sent Me, a strange riff on the speakeasy that spirals into explorations of love and loss...

Tonight's penultimate Weird Tale is a gothic tone poem from a wintry New York City- a blurring of song, poetry, sound with her trademark intensely soft intimacy. You can check Vanessa's own web hub for the Weird Tales series here.

I look forward to joining you at the witching hour..."

jonny mugwump

Weird Tales for Winter & things that go Mugwump in the night

Weird Tales for Winter

airing Jan 25 - Feb 1 2010
every night at midnight


(tones by the time attendant)

WTFW newsletter #1

WTFW newsletter #2

'Joe Sent Me' on Collin Kelley's Best of the Decade Top Ten

I'm deeply & immensely honored to be included in Collin Kelley's top 10 best of the decade list. Collin's aesthetic is reflected in his album choices: a heartbeat of Rock 'n Roll & the pulse of Poetry ...

The List:

Aerial - Kate Bush (2005) An epic double album 12 years in the making and one of the best albums ever. Combining electronica, rock, flamenco, classical and sampled bird sounds, it's a rich, multi-layered, emotional work. Worth the wait and then some.

The Fame/The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga (2008/09) Proving that an American artist still knows how to make hooky, dance music.

Vespertine - Bjork (2001) Dreamy, sampled soundscapes and some of her best songs - "Pagan Poetry," "Unison" and "It's in Our Hands" -- are all here.

Deep Cuts - The Knife (2003) Swedish brother and sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer's brilliant collection of electropop, including one of the best songs of the decade, "Pass This On."

Joe Sent Me - Vanessa Daou (2008) Jazz, pop, and poetry in this smokey, sexy album.

Read the full list on Collin's Blog

The Chillcast with Anji Bee: Chillcast Top 20 Podsafe Tracks of 2009

I'm honored to be on Anji Bee's to 20 list for 2009. Anji Bee's Chillcast is a must for those whispered nights when candles burn, phones are off & grooves are slow -

XOV

Vanessa Daou: 'Love Among the Shadowed Things', new music & poetry for 'Weird Tales for Winter', a collective radio series on Resonance 104.4 FM, UK

Vanessa Daou: Love Among the Shadowed Things

Coming soon: New poetry, sound & music for 'Weird Tales for Winter', a collective radio series curated by Jonny Mugwump for his always mind altering Exotic Pylon radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM

Broadcast January 31st 2010
Total playing time 30 minutes

Other featured artists contributing to the "hauntological dream project":

Moon Wiring Club
West Norwood Cassette Library and Matthew de Abaitua
Dolly Dolly
Belbury Poly and Lawrence Norfolk
Radio Joy
Mordant Music
John Foxx

follow me on Twitter & Facebook & my new myspace poetry, sound & art site for updates, news & links

follow WeirdWinter on Twitter

full site pending - subscribe to exoticpylon for updates, images, resonances

Collin Kelley & The Importance of Being Venus

To give voice, to be the voice, to have a voice: Collin Kelley's Conquering Venus has less to do with what happens and everything to do with what the characters say and the consequences of their words as they are set into motion.

Words are things, and while it is possible to forget how much they matter & become inured to their potency as a result of the perpetual influx of our streaming Tweets and feeds, every once in a while, we read a poem or book, hear a voice reciting verse or prose, and we are reminded of the potency of words and are left to reflect on the invisible residue of their meaning.

Paris and The Louvre come alive in CV, providing the scenic as well as symbolic backdrop for what is a beautifully written and absolutely riveting story about Love, Desire, and the conflicts that ensue as a consequence of conflicting desires.

A central theme that runs through the novel is the statue of the armless Venus de Milo; it is both subject of various key scenes and object of the characters' commingled desires. The statue's armlessness projects a sense of helplessness, one that has been triggered by a violent breaking, yet, Venus' beauty and sensuality remain intact.

We are left to wonder; it it Venus herself who, in being so admired and defiant, is doing the conquering? How does conquering Venus play into our understanding of the fictions we create about ourselves and the tenacious objects of our own desires? Perhaps part of this conquering involves re-constructing one's unique reality into a mythical picture that projects one's own fictive life, not unlike the aptly imagined twin-limbed Venus de Milo on the cover of Conquering Venus.

Daouhaus: The Classic Remixes - featured & available on iTunes

Daouhaus: The Classic Remixes
featured & available on iTunes

Welcome to the Daouhaus: A Conversation with Vanessa Daou, by Collin Kelley

"Jazz. Pop. Trip-hop. House. Spoken word. Vanessa Daou has put her unmistakable voice to all these genres, but many clubbers also know her as a dance icon thanks to floor-fillers like "Surrender Yourself," "Near the Black Forest," "Two to Tango" and "A Little Bit of Pain." From the beginning of her career with former husband/producer Peter Daou as part of The Daou to her solo success in the ‘90s, Daou has been a favorite with DJs and remixers, especially Danny Tenaglia.

Coming off the success of her latest album, Joe Sent Me, Twisted Records has just released a compilation called Daouhaus: The Classic Remixes. Seven of Tenaglia's reinventions are here, alongside deep grooves by David Morales, Olive and Mood II Swing. The album opens with the 1992, fourteen-minute opus that is "Surrender Yourself," which rocketed to the top of the Billboard Dance chart and heralded a new direction for club music, bringing it from the underground to the mainstream."

Read full interview by poet/novelist Collin Kelley at Soldout

'Conquering Venus' by Collin Kelley

sipping green tea, deeply engrossed in 'Conquering Venus' by Collin Kelley - poetry meets prose in this novel; it begins with these beautifully sculpted lines "In his dreams he can remember her name. From the shadowy first glimpses when she was peripheral, on the edge of a crowd or morphing into a friend..." inspired, inspiring - more thoughts to come...

The 4th issue of Ouroboros Review

The 4th issue of Ouroboros Review is out; if you crave beauty, fantasy, shades, shadows, and infinite nuance, if you have the desire to stir your poetry-starved imagination, don't wait, read it...

A highlight is Collin Kelley's engrossing interview with Cecilia Wolloch who discusses her life, influences, and her new work 'Carpathia' -

Each poem is an essential read. I'm loving Michelle McGrane's language-lovely poem 'Augusta Fabergé' [p44] & very much looking forward to her 3rd collection of poetry 'The Suitable Girl', published by Pindrop Press in 2010.

If you missed issue 3, take time to soak in every word of Michelle's interview with John Siddique. When you reach the part when he says "The Basic act of writing for me is an act of Love", pause, revel, reflect, read on...

Etienne Daho: The Invitation

Etienne Daho is a voice drenched in the sensual, engulfed by a Poet's truth and fueled by Love's fire. 'L'invitation', his latest album, speaks to every heart that is drawn to the equally destructive and seductive flame of Desire.

With a profound understanding of Desire's manifold facets, Daho puts into words and sings about its many intangible flickers: pleasure and pain, power and surrender, a simultaneous loss and discovery of self, the beauty as well as the bruising of ones manifold illusions. Daho explores the many subtle angles and sharp edges of Eros - self-doubt, self-destruction, self-sacrifice - and invites us to join him on his journey of Love and Desire through his Music and Poetry. Do we dare follow...?

I've translated 'L'Invitation' below.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Invitation

Ah I burn I burn, your tentacles trapping me from the depths of Hell
giving me the cruel sensation of walking barefoot on glass.
The goodness of your hand, generous and perfect,
beckons me to come, giving me the sweet feeling
of being alive again, invited, invited.

At the table of the guests where one lives until one dies
from those things that satiate, you invite me to take my place
to divide the honey of the honors of your heart.

Willingly I accept the best treatment that is reserved exclusively
for the guests at the naked feast, which makes the tongues
of the evening come untied.

Oh now I burn I burn to taste all these dizzying nectars,
whose black and crimson poison make the blood of lovers beat indecently.
Your confident kiss calls me to another adored destiny,
giving me the sweet feeling of being alive again, invited, invited.

What can I do, I want to share the volatile liquors
at the table of poets, of assassins, all like me, invited here.

Willingly I accept the best treatment that is reserved exclusively
for the guests at the naked feast, which makes the tongues
of the evening come untied.

L'invitation

Ah je brûle je brûle, les tentacules m'attrapant du fond des enfers
me donnent la cruelle sensation de marcher pieds nus sur du verre.
La bonté de ta main généreuse et parfaite qui me fait signe d'avancer,
me donne l'aimable sensation d'être à la vie de nouveau convié, convié.

A la table des convives, convives
Qu'on vive jusqu'à ce que repu l'on en meurt.
Tu m'invites à prendre ma place à partager le miel des honneurs de ton coeur.
Volontiers j'accepte le meilleur traitement
Que l'on réserve tout exclusivement
Aux invités le festin nu, qui fait les langues au soir se délier, se délier yeah

Oh je brûle je brûle de goûter à présent à tous ces nectars affolants,
dont le poison noir et pourpre fait battre indécent le sang des amants.

Ton baiser confiant m'appelle à tout autre destin adoré,
me donne l'aimable sensation d'être à la vie de nouveau convié, convié.
Convié yeah

A qu'y puis à qu'y puis je, la liqueur volatile je veux toute la partager,
à la table des poètes, des assassins, tout comme moi ici conviés.

Volontiers j'accepte le meilleur traitement
Que l'on réserve tout exclusivement
Aux invités le festin nu, qui fait les langues au soir se délier, se délier yeah
yeah yeah yeah...

The Horrible fact of Human Trafficking

The heartbreaking reality of most suffering is that it occurs in silence, behind the closed doors of our neighbors, co-workers, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers. The horrible fact of human trafficking is that its victims are the most vulnerable amongst us. They become nameless statistics: faceless, voiceless, shocked into their new caged-in realities of unspeakable shame and horror, swept aside by the twin tides of silence and denial.

A few years ago, I saw the this photograph which - as great photographs do - illuminates a reality that would otherwise remain hidden from view. The purpose of Art, Poetry, Literature, Drama, is to lift the veil, peel away the layers, gnaw at the bone of truth so that the terrible as well as beautiful mysteries of existence can be gleaned and confronted, if not ever fully understood.

News reports on the terrible toll of human slavery should be commonplace, not sporadic. These websites provide updated information as well as personal accounts. Bookmark them, add them to your feeds, and contribute in any way you can:

BBC Special Report on Human Slavery

CNN News & Videos About Human Trafficking

PBS Photo Essay: Confronting the Problem of Human Suffering

Human Trafficking.org

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center

UNODC - Human Trafficking

The Campaign to Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking

Could X-ray scanners work on the street? 

High School Halloween, Music & Memory

"Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know, she's half crazy
It's why you want to be there..."

Leonard Cohen, from "Suzanne"

This year, Halloween triggered my memory of this yearbook photo from 11th grade which many of you viewed on Facebook (thanks to all for your insights, witticisms & ruminations)

I've always believed that we all hold inside of us, from an early age, the seeds of our eventual 'grown up' selves. Although I didn't intentionally set out to become a singer or songwriter, when I reflect on my past, there's the impression of a clear trajectory that led me to that career decision.

Many would argue that being an artist is something that is somehow programmed inside, that true artists do not choose their paths, that it is their fate or kismet that chooses them. But it can also be argued that, for some, there comes a time to decide, a crossroads. Andy Warhol began his career in magazine illustration and advertising. Robert Motherwell studied Philosophy before he changed direction and rigorously pursued Painting.

While I was at Vassar, I was declaring a major in Aesthetics until I transferred to Barnard/Columbia and declared a double major in Art History/Studio Art. It wasn't until my senior year when I studied Poetry with Kenneth Koch that I realized I had reached that crossroads.

I've always perceived of this monumental moment as metaphorically akin to the moment when Alice picks up the bottle and reads 'DRINK ME', and after confirming that it is not marked 'poison', swallows the otherwise unmarked liquid. Her decision, while not well-informed, is not precipitous. That decision to follow the untrammeled road and become an Artist is fundamentally based on that need to do as Alice did, follow her inner need to open the door into the enchanting and mysterious adventure and explore the sometimes treacherous new terrain, come what may.

It was during this time in High School that I began discovering & devouring music that was tapping into me on all levels of Poetry, intellect & emotion: Leonard Cohen, The Ramones, Blondie, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Joan Armatrading, The Go Gos, The B-52s, Pink Floyd, The Police. Soon after, I would discover Francoise Hardy, Julie London, Juliette Greco, Nico & The Velvet Underground.

My good friend, pictured above in the photo, was as much of a music hound as I was. I haven't asked her yet if she remembers that particular night of Rock 'n Roll debauchery... Halloween & Rock 'n Roll share a similar ethos: to find trouble where you can & head into that place which is at once thrilling & frightening. Everyone at some point in their lives plants the seed of who they are to become. For me, that moment is captured here, in this photo.

The Artist is all things: creator, witness, inventor, storyteller, gift giver, shaman, seducer, rule-breaker, Philosopher, thief, magician, myth-maker, bellwether With instinct as much your guide as intelligence, the Artist chooses to follow that unruly path of most resistance, hypnotized by that the ever-present temptation to metaphorically drink that mysterious, unknown & tantalizing essence.

Collin Kelley, Storybook Burlesque, The Concretes

"Well, Ive been haunted in my sleep
Youve been starring in my dreams"

The Rolling Stones, from "Miss You"

I love this cover of 'Miss You' by The Concretes - played by the 'Storybook Burlesque' during one of their lovely & voracious performances on Sunday night at The Tank, NYC -



Novelist, poet and playwright Collin Kelley read portions from his much lauded new book 'Conquering Venus', which he lovingly signed - i'm eager to begin reading it...

iPhotos from event coming soon -

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