1) The NYT’s article on the “burlesque comeback” in New York and elsewhere.
Burlesque, that fabled if slightly soiled fantasy realm whose heraldic totem was the twirling pasty and whose undisputed queen was Gypsy Rose Lee, has returned to New York, dripping with rhinestones and trailing clouds of glitter. Under the rubric neo-burlesque, a Depression-era genre whose hallmarks were smut with attitude, bargain-barn glamour, rock-bottom ticket prices and a proudly stuck-out tongue is reasserting itself, flourishing in unexpected corners around the city.
Of course, many of us have been giddily romping around under the burlesque umbrella for a number of years, while a few others have already gotten burned out on burlesque. Either way, for many performers and fans, burlesque is a fact. As Jo Boobs succinctly puts it, “[burlesque is] still being treated like it’s ‘back’ when it’s clearly, simply, HERE.”
I’m thinking two things: 1) That the mainstream/media just doesn’t really want to believe that women and men all over are embracing such a brazen, grassroots culture and entertainment that burlesque brings in a major (and for some, life-altering) fashion– therefore likening it to a fad in reports; and/or 2) A great part of media is about creating hype, and so almost anything can be spun from a “-*- is the new black” angle.
2) From the blogosphere (ok, I admit I cringed a little when I typed that word): On the tail of satirical blog “Stuff White People Like” is another blog devoted to “Stuff Hot Bitches Like”, which lists burlesque shows as #23.
Hot Bitches love Burlesque Shows.
Whether its watching (less likely) or participating (more likely), HBs love the classy, artsy and sexually suggestive nature of the art of burlesque performance. Burlesque has had a resurgence in the 21st century largely due to the 2001 film “Moulin Rouge!” (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title, which lends itself to a future post on how Hot Bitches love Using Exclamation Points). If Nicole Kidman can prance around in hose, heels, leather and lace, then HBs feel that they have the right to do so as well. We have also seen the rise of the infamous Pussycat Dolls as well as the spread of burlesque shows on college campuses everywhere. And you know you’ve made it as official stuff HBs like when not only is this humble blog covering it, but when the New York Times is featuring a slideshow on it. So, keep performing in your leather and lace HBs, and remember, it’s not stripping if we can’t see nipple. And yes, you’re still covered if you’re rocking the hanging tassel pasties.
Ahem. A satirical blog posting about a female stereotype that embraces a form of entertainment historically based on satire. Pretty meta.
3) The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) has been re-released on DVD. From GreenCine:
Narrator Rudy Vallee announces that he knows we are a “real high class audience,” thus he has “some swell story to tell.” Thus begins The Night They Raided Minsky’s, set in the rarefied world of burlesque in the 1920s. Quaker girl Rachel Schpitendavel (Britt Ekland) comes to New York in hopes of securing work as a dancing interpreter of religious stories. She gets a job at Minsky’s burlesque house, where the dance numbers are “Biblical” only when some gum-chewing stripper performs Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils. The many subplots leading up to Rachel’s accidental invention of the striptease during a midnight Minsky’s show involve many: top banana Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom) and womanizing straight-man Raymond Paine (Jason Robards Jr.); Billy Minsky (Elliot Gould), whose efforts to stage girlie shows at the National Winter Garden are looked down upon by Minsky Sr. (Joseph Wiseman), who holds the lease on the theater; gangster Trim Houlihan (Forrest Tucker), who intends to shut down Minsky’s if he can’t get a piece of the action; Ekland’s preacher father Harry Andrews, who shows up in New York just in time to see his daughter bare all in front of a cheering audience; and Vance Fowler (Denhom Elliot), self-appointed protector of public morals, whom Paine hopes to embarrass by having Rachel perform her religious dance. A straightforward adaptation of Rowland Barber’s novel The Night They Raided Minsky’s would seem to be called for here, but novice director William Friedkin and film editor Ralph Rosenblum seem determined to turn the film into a kaleidoscope Hard Day’s Night clone. Happily, producer Norman Lear is able to accommodate several nostalgic re-creations of such burlesque chestnuts as “Crazy House” and “Meet Me Round the Corner,” as well as six delightful in-period songs penned by Bye Bye Birdie’s Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, the best of which is the ribald “Perfect Gentleman.” Bert Lahr [who is probably best known as The Cowardly Lion, but started his career in burlesque houses] makes his last appearance on screen in the role of washed-up funnyman Professor Spats; he died during production, and had to be extensively doubled throughout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Here’s a clip:
Popout
4) The 2008 Seattle Film Festival will be showing the world premiere of “A Wink and a Smile”, a musical documentary following students enrolled in Miss Indigo blue’s Academy of Burlesque and the local Seattle burlesque scene.