Bondage Queen Bettie Page dies at 85

Bettie Page









Bound, gagged, flogged and now blogged, Bettie Page, legendary underground pin-up of the 1950s, has died from a heart attack after a lifetime of making other people's pulses race faster.

Prime candidate for "woman your grandfather most likely spilled his seed over", Bettie was more than just a pin-up. In an age when a mere hint of cleavage got you damned as the Devil's Whore, Bettie did fetish with gusto.

In her trademark black fringe, long gloves, pinched waist and high heels, Bettie did not do missionary. She laughed at romance, bought style and class to low-rent sex, made pervs feel like lords (and vice versa, accent on "vice"), and turned women into pasha-pleasing mistresses. Men wanted to slap her around and, hey, she even enjoyed it.

But that's false consciousness, I hear you say, comrades, and opens up a whole wide world of power play and sex games. Me? I'd rather do the smacking. Sigh! Forever grappling with the dilemma of the feminist vamp.

Madam Miaow says ... Stick me in a dog-collar and corset and call me mama. Never had objectification looked so good 'til Bettie booped.




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Bondage Queen Bettie Page dies at 85

Bettie Page









Bound, gagged, flogged and now blogged, Bettie Page, legendary underground pin-up of the 1950s, has died from a heart attack after a lifetime of making other people's pulses race faster.

Prime candidate for "woman your grandfather most likely spilled his seed over", Bettie was more than just a pin-up. In an age when a mere hint of cleavage got you damned as the Devil's Whore, Bettie did fetish with gusto.

In her trademark black fringe, long gloves, pinched waist and high heels, Bettie did not do missionary. She laughed at romance, bought style and class to low-rent sex, made pervs feel like lords (and vice versa, accent on "vice"), and turned women into pasha-pleasing mistresses. Men wanted to slap her around and, hey, she even enjoyed it.

But that's false consciousness, I hear you say, comrades, and opens up a whole wide world of power play and sex games. Me? I'd rather do the smacking. Sigh! Forever grappling with the dilemma of the feminist vamp.

Madam Miaow says ... Stick me in a dog-collar and corset and call me mama. Never had objectification looked so good 'til Bettie booped.




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Artists copy Damien Hirst in advance: breadhead sues over diamond head

John LeKay, Spiritus Calidus 1993

Damien Hirst, For The Love Of God 2007. Who knew you could spend £50 million in H. Samuel?





News via Popbitch, Adam Macqueen and Private Eye that the Art World’s richest living ideas man, Damien Hirst, is suing a 16 year-old graffiti artist who used an image of Hirst’s diamond encrusted platinum skull, For The Love Of God, in a series of collages.

Richer than Croesus — ar at least his maker, Charles Saatchi — Hirst made £95 million out of his recent firesale, and sold the diamond head for £50 million. Sixteen year-old Cartrain made £200 from his exhibitiion and now Damien (anyone found the 666 tattoo on his scalp, yet?) wants it all. Bwa-ha-ha!

Hirst’s former buddy and fellow artist, John LeKay, is living in fear of the midnight knock at the door by m’learned friend due to his own clever anticipation of Damien’s output and the production of a body of artwork uncannily identical to the oeuvre of the young genius.

John LeKay, This Is My Body, This Is My Blood 1987

Damien Hirst, Name Of The Father 2006










Learning from his litigation experience concerning Hymn, the up-sized version of the Humbrol anatomy toy, and Robert Dixon's Fermat circles, Hirst is thought to be considering suing the ancient South American tribes who carved the crystal skulls that may have suggested themselves to him in his jewellery line. And the makers of the diamond-covered Berettas favoured by Russian oligarchs are quaking in their boots as Damien bravely takes them on. Not.

Madam Miaow says ... best of luck to Cartrain. Unless you are in Saatchi's stable and this is all a publicity stunt. In which case we make you eat your collages.




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culture

Artists copy Damien Hirst in advance: breadhead sues over diamond head

John LeKay, Spiritus Calidus 1993

Damien Hirst, For The Love Of God 2007. Who knew you could spend £50 million in H. Samuel?





News via Popbitch, Adam Macqueen and Private Eye that the Art World’s richest living ideas man, Damien Hirst, is suing a 16 year-old graffiti artist who used an image of Hirst’s diamond encrusted platinum skull, For The Love Of God, in a series of collages.

Richer than Croesus — ar at least his maker, Charles Saatchi — Hirst made £95 million out of his recent firesale, and sold the diamond head for £50 million. Sixteen year-old Cartrain made £200 from his exhibitiion and now Damien (anyone found the 666 tattoo on his scalp, yet?) wants it all. Bwa-ha-ha!

Hirst’s former buddy and fellow artist, John LeKay, is living in fear of the midnight knock at the door by m’learned friend due to his own clever anticipation of Damien’s output and the production of a body of artwork uncannily identical to the oeuvre of the young genius.

John LeKay, This Is My Body, This Is My Blood 1987

Damien Hirst, Name Of The Father 2006










Learning from his litigation experience concerning Hymn, the up-sized version of the Humbrol anatomy toy, and Robert Dixon's Fermat circles, Hirst is thought to be considering suing the ancient South American tribes who carved the crystal skulls that may have suggested themselves to him in his jewellery line. And the makers of the diamond-covered Berettas favoured by Russian oligarchs are quaking in their boots as Damien bravely takes them on. Not.

Madam Miaow says ... best of luck to Cartrain. Unless you are in Saatchi's stable and this is all a publicity stunt. In which case we make you eat your collages.




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culture

Melamine found in US infant formula

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it will allow trace amounts of melamine in infant formula. Earlier this week, the agency said it found the industrial chemical in at least one brand of formula sold in the U.S.

More here ...

When melamine was found in Chinese milk we all recognised this for the scandal it was. Profits should never come before the welfare of human beings especially in a nation that purports to have socialist aspirations. Chinese authorities have accordingly fallen on the perpetrators and punishment is likely to be harsh.

One disturbing byproduct of this affair was that it reinforced a widespread assumption in the West that it was somehow peculiar to the genetic make-up of the Chinese which renders us all super-villainous money-grubbing sadists. Race trumped class yet again.

The scandal of melamine found in Chinese milk now goes global as the toxic chemical that wrecks your kidneys has not only been detected in American infant formula but the US food authorities are allowing the toxin to stay in “trace” amounts.

How big is a “trace”? Would you accept a “trace” of faecal matter in your food?

One of the culprits here is our old friend, Nestlé. Not content with promoting the use of formula feed over superior breast milk in the Third World, like every other business chasing profits, the corporation moves closer to home as capitalism contracts and more markets have to be found.

And what about the acrylamides that coat your breakfast cereals?

Brecht once asked who was the bigger criminal: the bank robber or the bank? I’d ask, who is the bigger criminal: the individual killer or the corporation that markets this stuff to millions?

Madam Miaow says ... Call me mistress of the bleedin’ obvious, but greed knows no genetics.




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Melamine found in US infant formula

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it will allow trace amounts of melamine in infant formula. Earlier this week, the agency said it found the industrial chemical in at least one brand of formula sold in the U.S.

More here ...

When melamine was found in Chinese milk we all recognised this for the scandal it was. Profits should never come before the welfare of human beings especially in a nation that purports to have socialist aspirations. Chinese authorities have accordingly fallen on the perpetrators and punishment is likely to be harsh.

One disturbing byproduct of this affair was that it reinforced a widespread assumption in the West that it was somehow peculiar to the genetic make-up of the Chinese which renders us all super-villainous money-grubbing sadists. Race trumped class yet again.

The scandal of melamine found in Chinese milk now goes global as the toxic chemical that wrecks your kidneys has not only been detected in American infant formula but the US food authorities are allowing the toxin to stay in “trace” amounts.

How big is a “trace”? Would you accept a “trace” of faecal matter in your food?

One of the culprits here is our old friend, Nestlé. Not content with promoting the use of formula feed over superior breast milk in the Third World, like every other business chasing profits, the corporation moves closer to home as capitalism contracts and more markets have to be found.

And what about the acrylamides that coat your breakfast cereals?

Brecht once asked who was the bigger criminal: the bank robber or the bank? I’d ask, who is the bigger criminal: the individual killer or the corporation that markets this stuff to millions?

Madam Miaow says ... Call me mistress of the bleedin’ obvious, but greed knows no genetics.




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