God Bless You, Katie Johnson

"Hi all,

This is Kathy. I'm writing to inform you all that Katie has beaten her
battle with Cancer. Katie passed away at 5:20pm Today. Myself Al and
Allie are trying to hold it together as best we can. We would appericate
no phone calls for a few days.

Katie's Funeral will be at 4:00pm on Friday at Riverland Hills Baptist
Church here in Columbia.

On behalf of myself and the entire family thank you for all you support
and prayers. Please keep Al and Allie in your prayers as well as Katie's
mother and step father. Al will be intouch soon.

Thank you
Kathy Johnson"

****

Thank you everyone who has given support via words, prayers and funding to the Johnson Family through this whole ordeal. Please keep their family in your thoughts during this tough time. I can't even imagine what they must be going through, losing their 6 year old daughter.

Fscking Cancer.

Pretty Things

I found out about the Burlesque documentary yesterday from Nep and Julia http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/prettythings/ and found it on HBO Video on Demand last night. I liked it, though disliked the filmmaker (for pretty much the same reasons others mentioned). She seems to be a dancer (lots of Fosse style stuff in her final routine) more than a striptease artist. She just doesn't have - it - whatever it is.

Its interesting comparing the sentiments of burlesque of the old classic performers to performers of today. Today's performers don't do it because its just a way to make money. They also seem to read sex more into the art form than women in this documentary for the most part did.

Burlesque (not just striptease, but the other entertainment forms with it) went the way that other artistic forms did. The masses seem to prefer artificial altered entertainment nowadays (versus the do it yourself, realness of past art forms). There's no sense of mystery to the modern day stripper either. I think having some unknown there is infinitely more sexy then just letting it all hang out (I can't remember the quote, but I loved what the super tall ex-performer said about walking out naked, and then what?).

The availability of excess (not just flesh, but other things too) has served to make us numb I think. Perhaps this connects to the Iron Maiden article I posted yesterday? Back in the earlier days of metal, kids traded tapes and made pen-pals through the back of magazines to share new music. One had to really be something to get noticed. Now you can walk out your front door and trip over a whole host of artistic stimuli. Its good that stuff is more easily accessible, but are we taking it for granted? And has the standard lowered?

Socio-culturally, the old forms of entertainment like Burlesque or Broadway musicals were accessible to everyone interested. This is a sentiment expressed in Pretty Things that was echoed in http://www.broadwaythemovie.com/home.htm . Oftentimes one must have some connections and a fat wallet to find these kinds of entertainment today (with some exceptions of local groups). Gone are the days when we could drive to some divey strip bar in Worcester to see Dita perform. I'm happy for her success, but unhappy about her increasing inaccessibility.

Give me Vaudeville or a good Burlesque performer any day!

Donations in honor of Katie

If you'd like to do something for Katie and her family, you can find information here: http://www.heartofanempire.com/Katie/