Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Postmodern burlesque queen Dita van Teese says that she sees striptease as a classic art form. Back here, I praised "The Notorious Bettie Page," a biopic about one of Dita's inspirations. Here's Dita's own website. Here's one list of essential reading for those interested in striptease and burlesque. Dita deserves a lot of credit for her role in helping revive the form, by the way. Don't overlook one of my favorite books of recent years, Toni Bentley's "Sisters of Salome," nonfiction about four women of effrontery and talent who made nudity expressive in dancing the role of Salome. Bentley -- steely, reckless, incisive, sensual -- is a seriously sexy writer. She's notorious for "The Surrender," her arty memoir of erotic awakening. Hey, I'm thanked in the acknowledgments of that book. Read it and guess which thankee I am. (Read an excerpt from "The Surrender" here.) I wrote previously about Toni Bentley back here , here, and here. Oh, and here too. Toni Bentley's website is here. On this page, you can read an excellent review that Toni wrote of a book about the history of striptease.

Isn't it fun when free-associating winds up turning into a great big circle? Interesting the way that sometimes just happens ...

Here's hoping that "Conservative Bohemian" Alias Clio will be fascinated by this line of linkage. After all, Conservatives know about the virtues of restraint, while Bohemians know how to turn abandon into a virtue. Restraint and abandon ... That's a nice description of the appeal of striptease. A. Clio muses about beauty and beehive hairdos here.

Best,

Michael

Abandon without restraint never runs into a surface to press and rub itself against.

Posted by: agnostic on January 24, 2008 5:27 PM

Thanks for the link again. I fear first-time visitors to my site will be disappointed, after that introduction. I'll have to see if I can come up with something to say that isn't too prudish.

Posted by: alias clio on January 25, 2008 9:22 AM

Quite oddly, DITA is a information model standard for technical writing (which I refer to on a regular basis), and whenever I'm searching for google I end up coming across Dita von Teese's stuff.

Posted by: Robert nagle on January 27, 2008 1:42 AM

Excellent. I love Dita's stylized, intelligent retro style- no wonder she's so popular with the fashion crowd. Interestingly, though she conjures the sweet Bettie Page, she also evokes a slightly more sinister memory too, the tragic Black Dahlia. Her brief marriage to Marilyn Manson makes me think that slight echo is intentional, in a post-mod sort of way.

TMZ recently ran a "Guess Who?" high-school picture of Dita, a pretty, smiling blonde (!) late-80's teen. That sort of self-transformation I really do find fascinating.

And yes, i prefer the imagination to the full-frontal too!

Posted by: Deschanel on January 27, 2008 1:40 PM






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