A sign hangs on the door of Gotham City Video, one of the places McClear used to work.
Photo by Bjorn Roche

I wouldn't have been able to identify author Sheila McClear as she walked in for our interview if I hadn't already seen her photo on the back of her new book, The Last of the Live Nude Girls. Tall and slender, with straight brown hair that breaks against pale, almost translucent skin and green eyes framed by glasses, 30 year old Michigan native Sheila McClear looks more like a bookish intellectual than a former peep show dancer. 

McClear, who is the daughter of two lawyers and holds a college degree in theater and costume design from the University of Michigan, was unable to find steady work after moving to New York City. "Like many college graduates, I actually had very few marketable skills," McClear reflects in her book. Going by the name of Chelsea, the first neighborhood where she had ever danced, McClear began performing at several different live peep shows at age 25 before retiring about a year and a half later to work as a full-time writer for Gawker. (McClear is now a features reporter for the New York Post.)

 Nowadays, no major chain misses the opportunity to brand you when you leave the store with a nice shopping bag that identifies you, at least until you get home, as a happy customer of their empire. But what do these bags say about you?

Eva and Her Virgins

    A performance by Eva and Her Virgins is as evocative for the theatrical antics and energy of its band members as it is for the luster of its dark electronic pop sound. Playful, gritty, histrionic, and sexy, Eva and Her Virgins is a band that you want to keep your eye on.

    I was excited to chat with front woman Emily Powers about the band, where we also discuss time travel, superpowers, and using Beethoven’s body as a flotation device.

I'm not saying there's anything fundamentally wrong with a fanny pack. It seems very practical. It's a backpack for your butt (provided you are not using the British meaning of the word fanny). However, practicality aside, I just don't see a fanny pack as a major bonus to anything, especially if you happen to be a fan, of say, Kesha. Excuse me, I mean Ke$ha. Apparently the marketing geniuses behind Ke$ha's new VIP tour disagree, and they think it's exciting enough to help entice you into paying extra to be a Ke$ha "VIP" on her new tour, as evidenced by the actual promotional email ticketmaster sent out.

Interestingly, they note that this is a "new design!" as if people weren't sufficiently excited about the old design, but of course, the concept itself wasn't the problem....

SCENE: Ke$ha Marketing Headquarters. Team Meeting.

Ke$ha Marketing Analyst: "People aren't really excited about this whole fanny pack, thing. We're getting only a 7.8 percent response rate and that's all negative."

Ke$ha Marketing Intern: "I have to agree. People are making fun of it on the blogs and talking about how disappointing it is."

Ke$ha Marketing Director: "I guess we should redesign the fanny packs, then."

Ke$ha Marketing Analyst: "That's not really what I meant--"

Ke$ha Marketing Director: "Okay folks, that's a wrap. Any other business?"

 Meet Alex, the teenager I always wanted to be when I was a teenager. Actually, scratch that; at *censored* years of age, I still want to be like Alex, the fourteen year old rock star heroine of Joyce Raskin’s new book My Misadventures as a Teenage Rock Star. Through playing music, Alex gains a strong sense of self-empowerment and identity, making Misadventures a positive model for women both young and old. Just as importantly, Misadventures is fun to read – in fact, I read it straight through without putting it down.
The book also inspires curiousity about its author, Joyce Raskin, who is a rock star in her own right, playing in the band Scarce. Here’s what she has to say to Chicktellectual.com about being a teenage girl, rock star and risk-taker.

     "Kaboom" is a candy-coated color-blasted appeal to the senses as loud and cartoonish as its title. A frenetically paced sci-fi sex romp (yes sci-fi sex romp), the film is centered around a group of impossibly pretty teens and their college escapades. Throw in some magic cookie dust and whirling dervish cinematography, and you get something that feels like MTV's Skins ate Alice's mushrooms.

 Moma's PS1 currently has a display on view called "Pole Dance" which is the work of the architectural firm Solid Objectives, winner of the eleventh annual MoMA/MoMA PS1Young Architects Program. The project is an interactive environment of sand and pebbles along with, among other things, poles that hold up a netting which is used for holding yoga balls. While it was hard for me to see how this work addressed the program's current goal of "focus[ing] on designs which address sustainability, recycling, and reuse", it was kinda neat. I can't say I really appreciated the sound design, which was a bit shrill and distorted and therefore rather unpleasant despite not being terribly loud. Had it not felt like an afterthought I might have given it a break, but considering it was nothing more than a sensor on each pole triggering independent sounds, those sounds should have at least been pleasant and playful, like the rest of the exhibit.

What really took the day, though, was having the chance to see Kyra Johannesen and some of her other pole dancing super stars actually perform a dance routine on the poles. Sadly that was not part of the regular exhibit, and just a one-time thing, but I managed to snap a few photos.

Click images to enlarge

 I finally saw Avatar. I am pleased to say I learned a lot of lessons that I'm glad are being passed on to children all over the world:

Amanda Ray in a Spooky Cave!

   Amanda Ray's Debut Album Mirrored Images recalls some of my old favorites like Massive Attack and Morcheeba, but also brings in the energy of electro-grunge bands like Garbage. Sade fans will also feel right at home in Ray's rich, deep vocals. While you, like me, may feel unable to not think of these other great musicians while you have Mirrored Images on your iTunes playlist (on repeat, maybe?) Ray adds her own voice and a smack of sci-fi to the unique mix. She draws from an era of music that is often considered stale by many music journalists (the 90's), but was actually rich with underground sounds and new forms of expression, which she has a keen ear for. Ray's soulful, powerful, yet subdued vocals bring the chill European-style hip-hop back beats to life. All together, I could see this album making an appearance wherever there is dancing, parties, lounging or just listening.

  One listen to Ray's striking vocals and it's clear that she's not new to music. She is new to making it her full-time career, though. Her first album was made in Atlanta while working a full-time job. Now she's in NYC with an intern, a new album and a tour in the works. This "black electronic sci-fi chick", as Trace magazine called her, has become a very busy woman! However, she made time to talk to us a little about songwriting and making a go as a career musician.

Arielle with her Electric Guitar
Photo by Rebecca Weiss Photography

        If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing Arielle perform in one of her numerous gigs throughout the Village club circuit, I can tell you first-hand you are missing out. Arielle is one of those rare breed of musicians who can draw you in without fancy synth beats, overwhelming noise, exotic instrumental backup, or gimmickry of any kind. When you listen to her play, regardless of venue, it feels as though you are being treated to an intimate performance in your living room. It is precisely this raw, vulnerable "just a girl and her guitar" quality that distinguishes Arielle from many of her acoustic folk/pop peers and keeps her fans coming back for more. Her voice, breathy and ethereal, is a stand-out, and her lyrics about inner conflict, love, and loss, are universally relateable.

       I recently contacted Arielle to discuss her music and her upcoming gig at Recoup Lounge in the Lower East Side on October 24th. I was given the scoop on everything from her musical inspirations to her thoughts on Kanye *cough*douche*cough* West.

 Well, it's fall and that means that once again the television networks are trying to get us interested. We asked our readers what's going to be flickering on their screens this fall:

  An excellent production and top notch cast helped draw attention to Wildflower, and its young, up and coming playwright Lila Rose Kaplan. Although a few reviews, including the New York Times, challenged or were uncomfortable with Kaplan's choice of ending, most, including variety and curtain up were charmed, as I was, by her characters and the tale of a mother and her unusual son who escaped from New York City to a small town known for its annual flower festival.

The cast of characters includes an ex-drag queen who becomes the family's emotional and literal source of nourishment, as both mentor and innkeeper who cooks; a hard-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside forest ranger; a misfit, bubbly teenage girl; a recently divorced, struggling mother; and her son who, while intelligent, clearly has more difficulty deciphering human relationships than your average teen. While this list certainly passes any east-village political correctness checklist, it's clear that they were not created with this purpose in mind: Kaplan weaves them together in a natural way that give the audience an opportunity to see what they all have in common, and the different paths they took to reach the same end. The beauty of these characters is their realness, even when most of them are completely out of place.

We recently spoke with Lila Rose to ask her a few questions about Wildflower and her upcoming projects...

Helle Mardahl looking relaxed just a few days before her first NYC show opens up

 It's not often that you meet someone who says she gave up her successful career to become an artist because she was sick of working so hard for so little money. But that's how Helle Mardahl came to be an artist. In fact, she told me, "I believe in destiny and destiny told me to calm down a bit."

 I met Mardahl recently at LaViolaBank Gallery, where she was preparing for her upcoming show, The Largest Possible Audience. She was white-washing a canvas in preparation for a projection, which seemed more like a Zen exercise than work. We discussed her art and her previous career in fashion and I noticed that she certainly had the energy, passion and vigor of someone in fashion, but at the same time I also noticed an air of relaxation and even contentment about her. The satisfaction she seems to have found in developing the complex and intricate works she was putting up might have surprised her a few years ago, but her drive and determination didn't mean she had the manic furvor I've seen in so many fashion designers.

 Despite the complexity of her works, she explained her ideas and inspiration in very simple terms. People's obsession with the royal family, which inspired her last show, and people's desire for attention which inspired this show, are so simple that you don't have to be a 'tellectual to understand what she's talking about.

Dames Aflame costume designer Stephanie Ludwig (Left) and director Shannon Newton (Right)
photo by Jimiflix

Interview with Dames Director Shannon Newton Plus Photos and Video

My friend, who agreed to speak with me about burlesque on terms of anonymity, recently came back from Atlanta with stars in his eyes and a newfound passion for the South.  None of us really got it until he told us about the Dames Aflame burlesque show that he had caught during his travels:

"You know I think New York women are hot.  And New York burlesque dancers are really hot, just not, well... beauty queen hot.  The Dames Aflame dancers are beauty queen hot.  All of them.  They appeal to men in the way that strippers do.  Which is why, in New York, you go to see naked women at a strip club if you're a man.  In Atlanta, you can go to a strip club — or you can go see a Dames Aflame show."

I  was curious and so I contacted Shannon Newton, who runs the Dames Aflame Dancers in Atlanta.  In a phone interview that felt more like a backstage pass, I got her to give me the inside scoop on why even mega-corporations think that her show is a stand-out.

Interview with Burlesque Superstar Angie Pontani

Before the show I had the chance to meet with glamour vixen Angie Pontani, the show’s star and reigning queen of burlesque, Miss Exotic World 2008.  We had tea and chatted about jungle girl stripteases, mishaps with bathtubs and why women love burlesque so much.

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