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.)

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.

She specifically requested a gossipy roommate on her freshman housing application form

     I have a piece of sobering news for pimple-faced adolescent boys inundated with movies (porn), magazines (porn), and television shows (porn) that titillate with images of collegiate girl-on-girl action. Turns out those college girls may actually be *studying* instead of getting it on with each other. Studying something decidedly unsexy like Entomology or 19th Century Victorian Literature. At least, this is according to the New York Times, which recently published the results of a study suggesting that women with bachelor's degrees were actually less likely to have had a same-sex experience than those who did not finish high school.

 Scientists from the University of South Florida today released a new study in the Journal of Cardiovascular Fitness with controversial findings. Among other things, it stated, "Despite the recent release of new shoes designed to help you get fit, it is actually possible to receive the benefits of exercise with ordinary shoes. In fact, our preliminary data suggests you might be able to get in shape barefoot."

We spoke with Doctor Mary Rosen who lead the team. "We were actually pretty surprised at these results. Everyone in the office has a pair of Fit-Flops, or [Reebok] easy tones and you can bounce a quarter off my ass. Seriously: a quarter. Just try it..." As Doctor Rosen started bouncing random objects in her office off her buttocks, we were interrupted by her Post Doc.

"Ah, this is Doctor Hao. She's got an even tighter ass than me, and she's 47. Seriously, 47 -- though you wouldn't know it from that ass of hers. Dr. Hao, show our guest your rear," As Dr. Hao excitedly turned around and removed her lab coat, Dr. Rosen continued. "We used to assume that derriere of hers was purely the result of her footwear, but our new data suggests her fancy shoes may have been only part of it."

Next, Dr Rosen showed me Natalia. "Natalia was in our control group. Can you believe it? These legs aren't from fancy shoes at all! We're looking to see if genetics played a part, of course, but that's for another study..."

When asked how this new data might impact daily health, exercise and gym routines, Dr Rosen laughed saying, "The gym? What for? According to this sketchers shape-ups ad, you don't need to go to the gym. And who cares about your health when you've got an ass like this?"

Click to Play.

Amy Sohn obviously understands Park Slope.

Click here if the link on the left doesn't work.

Or something Like that....

Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Mackenzie Phillips, an actress and daughter of Mamas and the Papas singer John Phillips. Mackenzie said that her father raped her and eventually their relationship became "consensual".

While it's hard to imagine anything other than Stockholm syndrome, a comparison she herself makes, it does raise some important issues like how power is used and abused, how rape and incest perpetrators get away with their crimes, and can psychologically manipulate their victims, etc. Many people might ask why she continued this relationship long into adulthood.

If we believe Mackenzie (her father died in 2001) this is a clear-cut case. This is not something that anyone could claim is a fuzzy area: her father had been giving her drugs since she was ten and started raping her at 19 when she was passed out because he was jealous that she was getting married. So the fact that she talked about these issue in her book and with Oprah should be a good opportunity for a dialog about these issues.

So the blogosphere must be talking a lot about psychology and real-world implications of all this, right? No.

It's tough knowing you made someone break his own rules, but some rules are just too stupid to be kept.

What every cougar wants to be: young-looking

  It's easy to criticize and make fun of the cougar mania that's grabbing the national attention right now, what with all the TV shows and the first national cougar's convention coming up and all (actually that's a bit surprising... there must have been others...). But let's face it, it is a bit fascinating. I mean, older women who men actually find physically attractive? Is that even biologically possible? Gosh, there's so much to talk about I'm not even sure where to start.

  Of course, to modern entertainment, a cougar couldn't be more exiting: it's a twist, but it's still sexy. Yes, men and women still play their traditional gender rolls (phew!) and nothing is really challenged so it's still safe for TV, and even, say, discussing at the water-cooler, but it seems like things are challenged, doesn't it? Perfect combo!

  So instead of criticizing, lets celebrate that we finally have something we can all agree on: cougars are awesome! They are just what every woman should want more than anything: to still be sexy at 50... er, maybe 40, we can't all be Demi Kutcher (yes, that's her name, now).

Thanks to KRO-media for the picture of the adorable little baby cougar. So little and cute and cuddly. Yes you are. Yes you are!

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.

Chicktellectual dot com: How did you get started?

All the cool kids got their launching licenses at 16.  The really precocious ones, the ones who smelled like private school cardigans and clove cigarettes, they were launching at 15.  She had privately dared on 15 but the mission was aborted when the dorm mistress caught her sneaking out of her room with a stolen spacesuit.  Somehow the time when the mere thought of heights made her dizzy had gone by in light years. Things had changed fast in launch school; by the time she was 14 she already knew that she would be a Maverick and not a Wingman.

The adventures of Chicktellectual Adrian Hotchkiss, as told by applicants to the position she has open in her relationship department. Follow her adventures in the first of our occasional series Opportunity Knocks.

In this episode, Manhattanite John D. Smith attempts to win our heroine's love with a date at a fine restaurant. Will he succeed?