In a world saturated with social me-dear surveillance and suffused with surplus selfies, being ‘interesting’ becomes ever-more compulsory – just as it becomes ever-more elusive. Not only for artists in this brave new connected, visual, attention-seekingworld, but for civilians too. Little wonder that Cecil Beaton, a man who essentially invented… Read More »Cecil Beaton: Valour in the Face of Beauty
When I first saw the images of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, the ones he had so helpfully included in his press pack that accompanied his ‘manifesto’, two thoughts immediately popped into my net-addled head: a) They look photoshopped. Especially the soft-focus glamour one in the Lacoste jumper with the collar… Read More »Anders Breivik: Metro-Psycho
The Naked Civil Servant is the best and funniest TV drama ever made. And I’m sorry, but it’s a scientific fact. And like its subject it could only have been made in England. Even if Crisp said he hated England – and he did, over and over again. So many lines… Read More »Quentin Crisp & Hurtian Crisp
How a naughty new D&G ad sums up our self-regarding, clonosexual world (Arena Hommes Plus, Winter 2008, collected in Metrosexy) Most ads these days aren’t worth a first glance. But earlier this year D&G Time launched a heavily-rotated global campaign directed by Hype Williams that was definitely worth a second. If… Read More »Twinsome Devils and the Narcissus Complex
Why Elvis the ‘virile degenerate’ refuses to let us rest in peace by Mark Simpson (Independent on Sunday, April 2000) Elvis didn’t want to be black, he wanted to be Tony Curtis. A natural blond, Memphis’ belle boy dyed his hair in imitation of his fifties idol’s shiny black… Read More »Elvis Hasn’t Left the Building