“It’s like I survived a train wreck and everybody else died and my name is associated with that disaster,” says James Bidgood of his first and last film, “Pink Narcissus,” a 1971 erotic fantasia that contrasts a hustler’s satin reveries with sordid reality. On March 21, it will be shown at the IFC Center in New York as part of “Queer/Art/Film.” Bidgood, 77, is debating whether or not to go. “I can’t look at it.” “Pink Narcissus” may be a benchmark of underground gay cinema, but for decades its director was forgotten. Rumors circulated that the film was by Andy Warhol or Kenneth Anger. Bidgood didn’t get any credit and didn’t want any. It was the making and unmaking of his artistic career. Queer Classic 6 Photos View Slide Show › Peter Yang for The New York Times Bidgood moved to New York in 1951, working as a female impersonator and taking photographs for men’s physique magazines like Muscleboy and Adonis. “There was no art,” Bidgood laments. “They … [Read more...] about A Gay Cult Classic Re-Emerges
Magazine
A Parisian Designer Builds His Dream House in a Former Brothel
THE POLYMATHIC PARIS-based designer and entrepreneur Ramdane Touhami considers thinking overrated. “For me, it’s mostly a waste of time; instead I just do,” he says midway through a breakneck monologue — in which he describes his recent logo work for Moynat and Christofle, a hotel he’s just acquired in Switzerland, the challenges of reviving the nearly 400-year-old candle maker Cire Trudon and his collection of works by the German industrial designer Dieter Rams — as we drink takeout espresso in the late winter drizzle outside a coffee bar near his 10th Arrondissement studio. Most of the city has ceased masking, but not Touhami, and he stays outside when he can, no matter the weather, terrified of missing even a day of work because of illness. “I have so many things going on that there’s no room for that in my life,” he says. In theory, at least, the 48-year-old has earned some downtime. In 2021, he and his wife of 23 years, Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, 48, sold their … [Read more...] about A Parisian Designer Builds His Dream House in a Former Brothel
The Reigning Queen of Pandemic Yoga
To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android . T he last stranger Adriene Mishler hugged before the pandemic was a woman who may or may not have sideswiped her car. It was Friday, the 13th of March, and Mishler, a YouTube yoga celebrity with more than eight million subscribers, was driving back to her house in Austin, Texas. It was exactly a week after the city canceled the annual South by Southwest festival. A female driver in a tan or gold sedan scraped the side of Mishler’s vehicle and, instead of pulling over like a decent person, raced off. The yoga guru gave chase. “I was not going to chew them out,” Mishler said a few weeks later, reflecting on the incident. “I didn’t give a [expletive] about exchanging insurance or anything — well, obviously I did.” But that wasn’t the point of catching the driver. The point was to have a conversation with that person about the importance of goodness and accountability … [Read more...] about The Reigning Queen of Pandemic Yoga
My Backpacks, My Boyfriends
Photo: The Strategist; Photo: Laura Fitzelle Instead of paying rent, I use a backpack . I mean, I pay rent too, but it’s $1,000 a month to live with three roommates. In 2019 I tweeted, “Please G*d, Please don’t let me be a 30-year-old with roommates.” I am 30 and a half years old, and I hear sex noises that aren’t my own when I go to sleep at night, and I think about this tweet all of the time. I don’t have my own bathroom. I tell some of the boys I’m seeing that I do, but I do not. I am never honest with the people I am seeing about my living situation. Recently, after I finished seeing a guy who had 3 other girlfriends, I started seeing another guy. This one just had one girlfriend. I thought: must be love. The thing about being a mistress, especially a mistress who lives with three roommates, is that it helps to have all of your belongings with you at all times. This period — my mistressing hour — is when I started my resurgence back into backpack territory. The first … [Read more...] about My Backpacks, My Boyfriends
REPORT: Stalker Arrested At Kelly Clarkson’s Home After Violating Restraining Order
San Fernando police reportedly arrested Huguette Nicole Young on Wednesday night after she violated a restraining order for the twelfth time by lurking outside Kelly Clarkson’s home. Clarkson previously obtained a temporary restraining order , as well as a permanent restraining order against Young, who seems to habitually trespass on her property at 8:59 p.m., according to TMZ . There has been no official explanation as to the significance of that timing. Clarkson’s security team noticed Young on the property of her San Fernando Valley residence and phoned 911 for assistance, according to TMZ. A stalker who just won’t quit has gotten arrested again https://t.co/o33hV2oTQC — TMZ (@TMZ) January 26, 2023 Police responded to the call and immediately arrested Young on scene. Sources close to Clarkson revealed that the famous country singer is so concerned about Young’s refusal to abide by the court-ordered rules to stay off her property that she no longer permits her … [Read more...] about REPORT: Stalker Arrested At Kelly Clarkson’s Home After Violating Restraining Order
How Do People Released From Prison Find Housing?
Kevin Brooks hopes he won’t have to go to a homeless shelter. In 1999, Mr. Brooks and four others were convicted of murder, and he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Now 52, more mature and remorseful, he has a clean disciplinary record and a bachelor’s degree. He believes he has a good shot at getting out after he appears before the parole board in January 2024. He’s less confident about where he’ll live. Before Mr. Brooks went away, he was living with his newborn daughter and girlfriend in a three-bedroom apartment in a brownstone in Crown Heights that rented for about $800 a month. Today the space would go for more than $3,000 a month. The average rent in Manhattan is $4,200, in Brooklyn it’s about $3,700. So next year around this time, Mr. Brooks figures he is likely to join thousands of other formerly incarcerated people who will leave prison and have nowhere to live. Among all releases to community supervision in New York state during 2021 (not just those … [Read more...] about How Do People Released From Prison Find Housing?
