cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
DANISH
When asked by the Guardian to account for the popularity of Danish television overseas, the actress Sidse Babett Knudsen – who plays Birgitte Nyborg, Denmark’s first female statsminister, on “Borgen” – replied, “I’ve no idea, because our language is one of the most ugly and limited around. You can’t seduce anyone in Danish; it sounds like you are throwing up.”
— Lauren Collins in the New Yorker
My friend George Russell (above center) is a gifted teacher, bodyworker, and chiropractor who writes an excellent blog about life in a body. His latest entry is so good, I want you to check it out. He talks about two populations who get the least amount of touch — elders and adolescents — and the connection between touch and empathy, and lack of touch and violence/death. Read his column online here.
FELLATIO
Fellatio is the nicest thing one human being can do for another.
— John Cheever, speaking to a writer class at the University of Iowa in 1973
Michael Biello and Dan Martin, partners in art and in life, have written many wonderful songs together over the years. They’re currently working on a show called In My Body, and they’ve made a demo recording of this delicious song about the legendary pleasure activist Annie Sprinkle. Sung by Michele Ragusa, the song describes the epiphanic experience of seeing Annie’s performance piece Post-Porn Modernist, where she invited audience members to the stage to look at her pussy…I mean, to examine her cervix. I witnessed an earlier version of this show, when Richard Schechner asked Annie to conduct her sex education class as part of a show he staged at the Performing Garage called The Prometheus Project, and I can attest to the beautiful, sweet, innocent, hilarious, and shamanic impact of Annie’s physical generosity. This was truly Living Theater! Dan and Michael capture the essence of Annie’s message: “To pleasure yourself is to pleasure the world!”
another eye opens 