experience. this. Tour de Fierce!

WANT.

Where.What.How

:: Details, anyone? ::
D E T A I L S  ?

So yeah, June? June’s a busy month ’round the Clintsville.

Apart from my hustle peddlin’ word at The Poetry Brothel and collaborating with Paris Sadonis and Zoetica Ebb for a special performance at Salt Lake City’s Dark Arts Festival 2010,

this month I’m honored to be part of two feature-length premieres.

✷ (And yes, I plan on being at both events!) ✷

Up first, we’ve got

“just another” genre-hopping, stop-motion animation experiment in contemporary celluloid communications, interspersed with autobiographical super 8 docudramitization of writer/director Hilary Goldberg‘s disparate experiences spanning a wasteland of family, palm trees, a violent car salesman and a stint in a mental institution…

before fact is eclipsed by the story-line of a fictive post-apocalyptic, “unincorporated community formerly known as Los Angeles,” where riot police, Amy Goodman, and Queer Superheroes run rampant.

Uh-huh. You read that correctly, and I may or may not very well play the role of a character known as Gaylord Wilshire (I’m sorry, what was that about a ‘cape’?!)

Guess you’ll have to wait until its world premiere at the National Queer Arts Festival 2010

“Hilary Goldberg’s recLAmation is a feature-length experimental documentary/narrative film shot on Super 8 in which capitalism in contemporary Los Angeles is overthrown, and queer superheroes navigate a possible future. recLAmation illuminates historic connections between private and public systems of oppression, and explores how worldview shifts caused by personal trauma rendered the capitalist paradigm nonsense.

In the first two sections  1) Consumption and Colonization, 2) Collapsepersonal narratives interact with moving images of contemporary Los Angeles, stop motion animation, and sound design. Writer/director Goldberg’s memoir unfolds, offering reflections on time spent with her mother’s violent fiancé and in a mental hospital. Then, a fictional narrative envisions a dream of Los Angeles after it has been liberated from capitalism. Queer superheroes explore a possible future for the city that includes housing for all, truly free markets, the end of prisons, and more. The World Premiere Film Event is accompanied with live narration.”

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

8 p.m. at The Garage,

975 Howard, San Francisco, 94103

Tickets range from $12-20, and are available on-line through

The Queer Cultural Center

★ ☆ ★

Then, four days later…

Same city, different festival—and an incomparable project to contrast:

Renown documentarian Christopher Hines is “following fast on the heels” of his success last year with The Butch Factor, by examining not only mannerisms and varying degrees of masculinity among gay men, but also the broad spectrum of ways in which the pursuit for perfection—or perhaps merely a desire to “belong”— manifests [itself] physically.

For those of you whom I haven’t seen in a while (or ever?), watch for me in the first 60 seconds of this clip. I’m the tan guy, no shirt, pecs so pumped-up; you might as well call ‘em “mam”s.

See me there? No, not that one, and definitely not that one…are you kidding me? I’m that one, there, by the dude wearing a baseball cap!

“Do looks matter? When it comes to the male physique in the gay community, the answer is of course a resounding YES. In this fascinating, thought-provoking documentary, filmmaker Christopher Hines (The Butch Factor, Frameline33) turns his camera on guys of all shapes and sizes to explore how body image affects status among gay men.

Through intimate interviews with men across the United States, including several from the Bay Area, Hines uncovers the very common, often unsettling reality of how many gay men struggle to achieve and maintain a particular image in order to be accepted. As he talks with experts and everyday folks, we hear how body discrimination can lead to feelings of inadequacy, as well as issues around drug abuse and severe eating disorders that transcend sexual orientation.

One especially muscular guy admits that even though he knows it’s superficial, he “feels more respected and accepted” when people compliment his look. Hines explores how these issues trickle into other areas of our modern world by looking at everything from the gay porn industry to a naked yoga class in San Francisco that helps students feel more comfortable with their bodies.

The Adonis Factor deftly balances diverse viewpoints and voices to paint a picture of a complex world where beauty is too often considered skin deep.” — BRENDAN PETERSON

★ ☆ ★

The Adonis Factor World Premiere

★ ☆ ★

Saturday, June 19, 2010

2 p.m. at The Victoria Theater,

2961  16th Street, San Francisco, 94103-3633

Tickets vary in cost for those who are organization members versus non-members, and if you’re able to actually find those exact figures at

Frameline 34 – San Francisco International LGBT Festival ?

You’re a more astute person than I!

*(Please comment or send me a message via the “Contact Clint” option, and I’ll be happy to update this listing.)

★ ☆ ★

Oh, & HI—

Official Event Flyer

★ ☆ ★

& Movie Poster

Below…

★ ☆ ★

Hope to see you there!

All Best,

Cx

]]> http://www.clintcatalyst.com/blog/three-cheers-for-celluloid-premieres-flaming-queers-hurrah/feed 0 http://www.clintcatalyst.com/blog/i-make-very-expensive-clothes-that-are-very-uncomfortable-to-wear http://www.clintcatalyst.com/blog/i-make-very-expensive-clothes-that-are-very-uncomfortable-to-wear#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 06:22:35 +0000 Clint Catalyst http://www.clintcatalyst.com/blog/?p=3538 Mildred Von Hildegard’s Twitter bio might seem terse to some, pretentious to others. Whereas in my case? The concise and brutally honest description made me that much more intrigued about meeting and collaborating with her this Saturday past.

I Don’t Do ‘Friendly’ ☀ Photo: Dirk Mai ☀ Make-Up: Stacey Hummell

In a city illustrious for back-handed, capped-teeth “compliments” and unpredictable, unspoken disdain thinly disguised by a veritable check-list of publicists’ blanket statements, Hildegard’s choice for her 160-characters-or-less section on The ‘Twits seemed fitting with the images I’d seen of her clothing designs: anachronistic—a fetish posture collar adorned with tattered lace, roses in an array of shadowy hues and elements of Victorian mourning attire;  sensual—soft tattered edges, the type of attire that fingertips long to touch;  unapologetic—ruched leather, straps and buckles arranged without regard to which body parts “should” or “shouldn’t” be exposed. Essentially, her handiwork is the antithesis of all that is red carpet Hollywood and relentlessly bourg.

Known to her public by the moniker Mother of London, Hildegard is a seminal talent both coveted and revered by fashion cognoscenti . Consequently, she’s rabidly hunted by L.A.’s handful of fashion-forward stylists—hence her stitch-witchery gracing the cover of the latest S Magazine (on the explosive Juliette Lewis), along with editorials in Numero, AnOther magazine, Bizarre, Playboy, Marquis, et al.

Said another way? While I’m unsure how many details of aforementioned ‘Secret Project’ I’m permitted to share at this juncture in time, I can tell you this: upon arrival at the studio, I discovered a stylist had hoarded the collar Mother intended for the shoot.

Photo: Dirk Mai ☀ Make-Up: Stacey Hummell

The nerve. All the same, we had an excellent afternoon. Not only does The Mother corrupt traditional perceptions of fetishwear and period costume, she’s also adorable, donning death metal t-shirts and boundless charisma while doing so.

Yes, my choice of verbiage was deliberate (just as one can be over-dressed in attitude), and yes, I hope to be swathed in her sublime regalia again in the not-too-distant future. Of more immediate import, however—particularly for those quite a distance from her L.A. showroom—I have advantageous news:

Between October 2008 & now (‘now’ being this 22nd of May, Two Thousand and Ten), this textile fascinatrix has posted a mere six items in her etsy shop.

Two of the six are fresh on the market, & while they’re categorized as menswear, I’d classify them as UNISEXY…

an asymmetrical leather collar

:: detailed view (of both the handiwork & model Dylan Monroe) ::

&

detachable sleeves, made of 100% vegan faux ostrich texturized leatherette

Grab your credit cards while you can, style fiends. Who knows how long it’ll be till the next opportunity presents itself…

The Dark Side Of Fantasy/Fantasizing The Dark.

Or, in the words of fashion editor Panos Yipanis—who styled

Steven Klein‘s provocative editorial for

issue 30 of  Arena Homme Plus —the title

“Games & Restrictions, Candy, Twilight & Guns” was chosen…

which, considering the theme for this 15 year anniversary commemorative was “Hard Times!”

begs the question: “Double entendre much?”

★ ☆ ★

At any rate, I’m by no means the first to have admired the cinematic quality of Mr. Klein’s photography, but

when one click led to another to another, to the video embedded above

I’ve gotta tell ya: the lyrical quality, the beauty and brutality expressed therein?

Inspired some awe, yes.

★ ☆ ★

However, the impetus for this post isn’t to alert you, gentle reader, as to what’s New! Hot! Now!

Besides, not only did the story run in the fall 08/winter 09 release of the bi-annual;

the sense of time is immersive.

—Instead—

I feel compelled to remark upon what I find equally as impressive/astounding as the work itself:

for all the homoerotic overtones, for

this chic cult of sexual predators Klein has amassed—

for a narrative in which outré images are so tightly bound, laced with gunpowder and black magic…

The context of where the photographs were published,

the framework from which Klein’s story was “hung,” so to speak,

bears great cultural significance.

★ ☆ ★

For those unaware, or for those who are, even—

humor me one hot little moment while I reiterate a fact so basic; I’ve yet to come across a journalist or blogger to bring attention to it:

Arena Homme Plus is not a gay (that’s “gay” in air quotes) publication.

On the contrary, it’s an internationally-distributed, mainstream men’s luxury magazine that’s neither underground nor back-alley whatsoever in terms of niche or scope.  Case/Point: last week, Santa Monica boardwalk, Barnes & Noble, window display.

★ ☆ ★

As with the hemoglobin-laden editorial in February ’09s French Vogue, in which Klein cast supermodel Lara Stone as the antithesis of All That Is Twilight—i.e., sexually-charged, ultra-violent, and void of humanity’s trappings: namely, a moral compass—

an aberrant mileu is presented outside of its predicated parameters.

For me, as an observer, the feeling his work conveys is not so much that he “crosses a line” as it is

he doesn’t care to acknowledge it.

★ ☆ ★

There’s a rebellious nonchalance, of sorts, that’s as sexy

as the ambiguous sexuality of his subjects, as

the demarcation between fine art and the notion of ‘fashion photography’

disappears, along with the boundaries between

the commercial and the transgressive.

View the archived editorial in its entirety at homotography.

★ ☆ ★

[ men bound to the cult of beauty no more masochistically than the viewer to them ]

sidewalks double as catwalks

double as nightclub stages

our reality continues to turn virtual, &

THIS.

IS.

LIFESTYLE,

Baby

don’t dis, where it comes from’s like this…)