Thursday, May 12, 2011

Cultural Decay: TONY Edition #3


To the cultural observer, Time Out New York (TONY) offers a rich and varied menu of tasty bits of critical ineptitude.  Written with syrupy irony for the intellectually undemanding, TONY catalogs the decay of a once healthy and vibrant culture.  This week’s bounty includes the following tidbits:

Page 24 features a style profile of one Charley Hendee, who is “enraptured by the formal dress of Edwardian English gentlemen.”  The photos include this worthy in his “Edwardian” garb, sporting a ring through his nose.  Insert your own joke here.

Page 47 (in the Books section!) includes a notice for the Nevada Rose Book Release After Party.  This event takes “place after an exhibition of ‘cathouse’ photos from Nevada Rose at nearby Umbrage Gallery … [and features] performance artist Amber Martin, musician Julia Haltigan, fetish model Mika Tan and one of the book’s subjects, Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof.”    In the immortal words of Louis B. Mayer, “include me out.”

The Off-Off List page always offers one tasty example of cultural rot.  This week, we find a listing for the event Be Story Free.  It promises “a whole passel of Brooklyn’s finest experimentalists wage war on narrative in the ‘story addiction destruction system,’ which promises to wean your mind off conventional theatrical paradigms.”  But, that’s another story.

The most instructive article, though, is found on page 72, which features an interview with someone named Albert “Prodigy” Johnson.  “Prodigy,” recently released from prison for weapons possession, has penned his autobiography, My Infamous Life.  “Prodigy” summarizes his book by saying, “I’m just not a happy-go-lucky mother[expletive].”  “Prodigy” has high hopes that his book will raise awareness of his band, Mobb Deep.  “Intellectuals that read a lot of books might not have been interested in Mobb Deep before My Infamous Life, but now they might go ‘Who are these guys?’ and check us out.”  Or, perhaps, run for cover.

More next week!

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