so so much much on my mind mind

I've had so much on my mind in the last couple of days- I have wanted to somehow squeeze it all onto this recreational blog- but when you have a herd of elephants that you would like to squeeze into a small van- you just have NO IDEA how to begin.
So perhaps I will start with the lightest and most amusing (yet serious) topic. Originality. yeah thats a big topic. recently i saw a foto of lady M online and realized it looked like a certain pop star from Oz- armed with my memory and aided by G-images i started to hunt for ictures that could make my point. I am not certain which pR campaign and packaging came first-the ballroom album or KM's PR foto-it doesnt really matter-what matters is the uncanny alikeness/similarity and shameless interest to replicate, to clone and ultimately capitalize from the "sense" of familiarity mass consumers would feel when seeing these images.

There is a long history of image replication in this way- and it does not stop merely with fotos. Just think of Marylyn M and Jane Mansfield- just think of Jackson5 and the Osmonds within the worlds of popular culture. But we also have this phenomena in literature and in theater and in architecture.



Sometimes the cloning or imitation is in fact of interesting value in its recontextualizing. some images have deeply entered the memory of our western societies. take for example leornado DiVinci's Last Supper which has been imitated for centuries and now with the sue of foto is explored. I think it is valuable to say that the wheel doesnt have to be reinvented each time- But I will need to come back to this point. Here to the right we have 3 examples of the Last supper 1.shows a group of young handsome latino men 2. the second depicts a leather S&M brotherhood and the 3rd depicts a world of glamour and fashion- each essentially hijacks the image in some way rather than merely cloning itself as wxwmplified by the popMusic example above.



I may not be interested or agree with the content "shifts" of these "Last-suppers" but htye fundementally begin to alter the "cloning effect". As queers there is the tendency like veryone else to also engage in this copy-cat activity, but we need to take on the challenge to reinvent the wheel in some regards. One good friend presented it to me this way some years ago " Coco, we have the privilge as queers to create our own paths and not be entrapped by the expectations of the hegemonic forms around us- we have value in th society precicesly for being different and this way impart a very emportant role within the world and univeres we live in"-



hummm, he had an iteresting point and it made me think if I had already been on this "alternative" mindset as a teenager when I saw myself living and loving in a " triad-family" of queer men.