Edited by Moe Meyer - Get a Free Blog

Recommendations

Info

THE CAMP TRACE IN CORPORATE AMERICA 131 The spectacle of vampire value: Radio City’s Easter Show In a world of hyperreal sign-values and value-signs, potentialities without end, the medium of value tends to become the frame of a flickering half-life, anemic, parasitic, and thirsty for real bodily fluids. Insubstantial, dematerialized, dead value joins up with insubstantial, disseminated, dead power in a panic passion of resurrection through the fresh blood of desire which, upon commutative transfusion, ever recedes into a bloodless and dis-oriented desire of desire. It is not inappropriate to speak here, at least in tendency, of a culture of vampire value. John Fekete (72) For audience members, the Easter Show experience began at the souvenir concessions—two of them set in opposition across from each another in the Grand Foyer. There was also a smaller stand where the five-dollar program was sold. It turned out that most of the information in the program was presented in monologues by Liberace himself onstage. On the west wall of the Grand Foyer, under glass, were Liberace souvenirs, while just opposite were Music Hall mementos lying out in the open on counter tops. Liberace souvenirs, which were also pictured in the program to encourage mail orders, included two key chains— one a piano, the other a copy of an entrance ticket to the show, a white silk neck scarf with his signature and a piano stamped on it, a “special Liberace music box” that plays one of his “favorite tunes,” and his record albums (“enjoy a Liberace command performance”). The latest album, entitled The Legend Lives On, had a picture printed right on the disk. It was the same image that served as the program cover for last year’s Easter Show (Plate 13). All the key symbols were there. Liberace was in the foreground with his flashy suit, fur cape, and fingers loaded with rings. He was balanced by a big candelabrum on the opposite side. A long flowing keyboard ran under his hand and streamed into the background uniting the other symbols into one whole. There were: the famous Prometheus statue from the sunken plaza at Rockefeller Center that represents the bringer of fire to man, the Rockettes in a precision line, one of Liberace’s “classic” cars, the dancing waters, the New York skyline, and the proscenium stage of the Music Hall at the center, showing the rainbow effect surrounding it. The group of symbols as a whole represented the ideas the audience should take away with them—advanced technology and progress, the value of hard work and cooperation, material wealth, and anticipation of better things to come. In contrast to Liberace’s mementos, the Music Hall’s included a large assortment of cheaper key chains, bronze-colored coasters with the Rockettes kicking in low relief in the center, postcards, and piles of tee shirts. The two distinct concessions of tourist souvenirs were constructed as what might be termed “high-culture” kitsch and regular kitsch. One woman inquired, “Do you
132 THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP have a Liberace tee shirt?” and the salesman answered, “No, Mr. Liberace doesn’t want tee shirts.” Like “high” art, the social function of this “high” kitsch is to distinguish those who distinguish it (Baudrillard 48). But most of the objects were miniature reproductions of some aspect of the stage show and thus served as further markers of what the audience could expect to see. Susan Stewart has suggested the miniature (souvenir) and the monumental (spectacle) present us with analogical modes of thought. The miniature is associated with interiority, the experience of self, the personal narrative, that which can be contained and subjugated. On the other hand, the monumentality of spectacle refers to authority, the authority of the marketplace and the state, the official collective narrative, that which contains and subjugates. In bringing these two modes together in one production, it is possible for the consumer to transfer her containment within the structure of capitalist authority to a possessor and controller of an “authentic” representative of that structure. The show began as the sun rays turned green, then purple, and the Rockettes appeared in long pink gowns, each holding up one of Liberace’s most well-known trademarks, a candelabrum, and dancing to a segment of Swan Lake. The routine was done in strict unison—the main focus being the stage formations. Suddenly the candles lit up as the stage lights dimmed, as the Rockettes flanked a long staircase placed upstage center. At the top a large pink Fabergé egg opened, and Liberace descended in an enormous pink fur cape with a sixteen-foot train and a high standing collar, followed by two Easter bunnies. At the foot of the stairs, Liberace joked about his costumes being tax deductible as his chauffeur drove onstage in a “classic” pink and gray car. He introduced his driver, who was also there to remove his capes. He whirled around, spread his cape, and the driver lifted it off his shoulders, put it into the back seat of the car, and drove away. As with the rest of the show, there was an exaggerated style that superseded any content. Or, put another way, the style was the content, a style that might be termed conspicuously consumptive. Meanwhile, Liberace told the audience that it was his fortieth anniversary in show business, that he recently won the Citizen of the Year Award in Las Vegas, that in his home town of Milwaukee there was now a Liberace Playhouse in his honor, and that he had been invited to play with the London Philharmonic. This is what MacCannell might call the naming phase in a kind of self-sacralizing process (44), authenticating himself by enumerating his honors and awards. He then told the audience he wanted to play for them what he would be playing with the Philharmonic. He proceeded to play “Rhapsody in Blue” but then turned to a medley of early popular songs that included, among others, “Embraceable You,” “Swanee,” “The Man I Love,” and “I’ve Got Rhythm.” As he played, a full orchestra rose from beneath the stage to become part of the mis-en-scène, steam flowed out around his feet, and he too rose up on a platform. Finally, the rising and sinking platforms settled back down just as the last note of the medley was struck.
Page 2 and 3:
THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP
Page 4 and 5:
First published 1994 by Routledge 1
Page 6 and 7:
CONTENTS List of plates vi List of
Page 8 and 9:
11 Richard Halverson as Lady Enid a
Page 10 and 11:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to tha
Page 12 and 13:
2 THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
1 PERFORMING “AKIMBO” Queer pri
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Plate 1 Joan Jett Blakk, “The May
Page 56 and 57:
Plate 3 Prince Rupert, from a broad
Page 58 and 59:
Plate 5 Actor Robert Wilks, from Co
Page 60 and 61:
Plate 7 Antinous and Dancing Master
Page 62 and 63:
2 NARCISSUS IN THE WILDE Textual ca
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107: 88 THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP
Page 112 and 113: 4 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY Que
Page 114 and 115: 96 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY re
Page 116 and 117: 98 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY cr
Page 118 and 119: 100 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY m
Page 120 and 121: 102 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY t
Page 122 and 123: 104 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY p
Page 124 and 125: 106 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY c
Page 126 and 127: 108 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY o
Page 128 and 129: 110 REVAMPING THE GAY SENSIBILITY J
Page 130 and 131: 112 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION pieces th
Page 132 and 133: 114 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION practitio
Page 134 and 135: 116 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION This meta
Page 136 and 137: 118 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION specifica
Page 138 and 139: 120 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION great tra
Page 140 and 141: 122 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION In her pr
Page 142 and 143: 124 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION Dynes emp
Page 144 and 145: 126 FE/MALE IMPERSONATION Case, Sue
Page 146 and 147: Plate 9 Claire Moed as Sir Oliver S
Page 148 and 149: Plate 11 Richard Halverson as Lady
Page 150 and 151: Plate 14 Liberace in long cape with
Page 152 and 153: Plate 16 Liberace was Count Dracula
Page 154 and 155: THE CAMP TRACE IN CORPORATE AMERICA
Page 172 and 173: The key value, however, among these
Page 174 and 175: eternal youthfulness; and the way h
Page 182 and 183: 7 TAKING OUT THE TRASH Camp and the
Page 184 and 185: THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF CAMP 15
Page 200: homosocialism 35-6, 43-4 Hutcheon,
show all

Edited by Moe Meyer - Get a Free Blog

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?