Budget Fabulous

Ultra's Violet's Opening

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We crammed ourselves Thursday night into the Stephan Stux gallery in West Chelsea for the opening of Ultra Violet. The gallery was packed, which made shooting nearly impossible, so I actually had to mingle and be social without using the camera as a barrier to intimacy. I hate that.

The show looked beautiful, and so did Ultra. Beyond her obvious physical beauty, Ultra is lovely in a sensitive, soft-spoken, slightly French-accented way. Her work, especially the colorfully ethereal neons, seemed to vibrate while casting their warm spectral glow. Here's Brother Fabulous basking in it. One section of the gallery was entirely devoted to a small representation of Ultra's vast photographic colection. The images were of a youthful Ultra in the 60’s and 70’s, at Studio 54, at the Factory, with Dali. Ultra served as muse to Mr. Warhol and Mr. Dali for many years, and it is absolutely fabulous to see her in these pictures with these two most infuential artists of the 20th century. I could have stared at those photos for hours. Ultra told me she owns over two thousand pictures like these and that she’d love to do a book of them. Hello, anyone in publishing out there? I smell a coffee table book.

Ran into the usual party-ubiquitous suspects. Architects Fabulous were there. And Oliver and Shand. Readers of B-Fab will remember Oliver and Shand, the grooviest gays in the universe. You’ll recall I visited them the day before they were due to fly to Las Vegas to attend Paris Hilton’s New Year’s Eve party at Tao. Their friend Judi, who is Mary-Kate's publicist and who is always referred to (in reverant, hushed tones) as "Judi with an 'I'", got them invited to the big bash. Naturally I asked Oliver how the party was.

“Um, we can’t tell you. In fact, we can’t tell you anything anymore. Turns out Mary-Kate read your blog and fired Judi, Judi with an “I”, for going to Paris’ party. See, Mary-Kate is still pissed about the whole Stavros Niarchos thing. I don't know why, Stavros isn't THAT cute. Anyway, Judi may never work in this town again. She’s SO hating you right now. Mary-Kate won't return her calls. None of the firms will touch her. She's SO desperate. She thinks you’ve ruined her career. She said she’s going to make a Mr. Budget Fabulous Voodoo Doll and stick a million pins in it."

Well, that's fine with me, just make sure, Judi, my doll-head is doing the Paris Tilton and please, PLEASE use Botox needles instead of pins, I could use a little help along the forehead. After all, I did recently turn 35.

Speaking of the Paris Tilton, everyone was practicing their best Prepare-Jut-Tilt at the opening. Clearly, our new best friend from Temple, Ellen, has been doing the most practice. Her P.T. is FLAWLESS. And her new friend is Jules is really cute too.

And Mary-Kate, please rehire Judi (Judi with an “I”). While her Botox Voodoo is making my skin look fabulous (I mean, I've never looked this young), I’m beginning to lose the ability to move my facial muscles. My face seems frozen in this permanent, weird sort of kabuki mask expression. Which, don't get me wrong, I think looks fabulous. It's just that it makes it very to difficult to consume the free cocktails and complimentary hors d'oeuvres that make my life so very Budget Fabulous.

Ultra Violet
Now through February 18
Stephan Stux Gallery
530 West 25th Street
http://www.stuxgallery.com

CLICK HERE TO SEE PIX FROM ULTRA VIOLET’S OPENING.

This is Amanda Lepore

Does everyone know who Amanda Lepore is? Well you should, because she's FABULOUS. Besides being David LaChapelle's muse, Amanda (according to her website) is the Number One Transexual in the World. With all that fierceness, who's going to disagree? On our way home from dinner at the Chelsea Hotel, after Ultra Violet's opening (more on that later), we spotted the lovely transgendress on 7th Avenue looking for a cab downtown. She graciously agreed to pose for a couple of pix. Now, did you notice? Amanda Lepore does the Paris Tilton too.

Feel the fabulosity of me.

Who says all you get is fifteen minutes?

Recently I had the opportunity to visit artist, former Dali muse and Warhol superstar, Ultra Violet, in her sun-drenched West Chelsea studio. Brother Fabulous and I spent about an hour and a half chatting with the artist about everything from modern art to 9/11, as she walked us through some of her important painted and computer-imaged work, as well as some exciting new expressions in costume design, neon sculpture and robotics. Our raison d'etre that afternoon was to photograph the work for use in promotional materials for her upcoming show at the Stephan Stux Gallery in West Chelsea. The significant side benefit, of course, was spending time with an icon of art history who lived and worked smack in the middle of the exploding counterculture of the 1960's. Imagine the things she's seen. Fast-forward forty years and Ultra Violet is still making art and shaking things up. Her current work addresses themes of spirituality, pop culture, art history and terrorism while her execution reflects a playful sense of humor as well a keen understanding of color theory and spectral light. Overall, the work resonates an ethereal, almost heavenly quality, while offering up serious, and at times disturbing issues for consideration.

Ultra Violet's show at Stux Gallery opens this Thursday night, January 26th, and all B-Fab readers are hereby cordially invited to attend the opening reception. If you can't make it, by all means please stop by the gallery and take a look at this body of work that, while informed by the 60's, is emphatically relevant in the 00's. The show will run until February 18th.

Ultra Violet
Opening reception: Thursday, January 26th
6-8PM
Stephan Stux Gallery
530 West 25th Street
http://www.stuxgallery.com

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR VISIT TO ULTRA VIOLET'S STUDIO

 

The Paris Tilton

At one of my recent Learning Annex lectures, entitled Yes, You Can Be Budget Fabulous Too!, I asked the class if they knew what the “Paris Tilton” was. A 50-ish woman in a vintage Pucci-print dress, two sizes too small, was sure it was a type of veined cheese from France. An older gentleman, wearing a rumpled blue suit with a lime-green pocket square, looking like he might smell vaguely of piss and witch hazel, called out, “She’s the sexy little gal who used to play Lucy on Dallas.” A totally hot…I mean, a very presentable young man in the front row, wearing one of those "Von Biatch" t-shirts, who made a big point of running his tongue across his teeth every time I glanced in his direction (obviously a reaction to my incredible physical attractiveness) volunteered that Paris Tilton was a drag queen who flawlessly channeled the blond hotel heiress nightly at Lips, a trannie restaurant in the West Village. All good guesses, all were wrong.

The Paris Tilton is a 99.9% foolproof way of posing for photographers to guarantee the most flattering pictures possible. When you are a famous D-List celebrity such as myself, famous from coast to coast for making an ass of himself on the Tyra Banks Show, you need to develop a strategy for looking your best in the thousands of nightly photographs taken of you by the paparazzi. The Paris Tilton is The Answer. Derived from studying thousands of photographs of our favorite Poor Little Rich Girl, here is your guide to perfecting the proprietary Budget Fabulous Paris Tilton Pose. It’s quite easy actually. All you need to remember is three simple steps. Prepare. Jut. Tilt. It’s that easy. Take a look.

STEP ONE. Prepare. This is your relaxed face; you’re in “neutral” (or if you’re a dancer, first position). At this point do a quick breathing exercise to prepare for the shot. Collect your thoughts, inhaling the good ones and exhaling the bad, so that the final photograph reflects inner calm, self-esteem and (if you’re lucky like me) extreme physical beauty.

STEP TWO. Jut. Shift your skull out and down, in the space directly in front of your face. This jutting action completely obscures any excess tissue below the jaw line (the “champagne chin”) from the camera’s unforgiving eye.

STEP THREE. Tilt. Turn your head and body slightly in the opposite direction of your “good side”. This presents the photographer with a more flattering three-quarter view of your face. And since you’ve rotated against your good side, 75% of your best features are showcased, minimizing your flaws, which lie on the 25% of your face that now lives in shadow.

I’m telling you, it’s brilliant, and it works every time. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Try it yourself. Stand in front of your bathroom mirror and practice. It’s hours of fun that costs nothing. And it’s good exercise, think of it as B-Fabilates. Just remember: Prepare, jut, tilt. Even better, if you have a digital camera, take a picture each time you hit step three. When you master the basic steps, I’ll then take you through some more challenging moves, designed for advanced students who need to extend the look to cover specific situations. You’ll learn the Fashion Fish Pout and the ever-popular One Eyebrow Inquisitive. You’ll even find out how to achieve the perfect Patsy Stone 60s Model Look. Follow me, kids, and you’ll be paparazzi-ready in no time.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INSPIRATION.

Peepshow

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It was Thursday night and I was meeting my peeps at Peep, a trendy restaurant in Soho known for tasty Thai food and technicolor martinis, at Budget Fabulous prices. And in case you were wondering, the restaurant’s curious name is inspired by peek-a-boo restrooms, equipped with one-way mirrors that allow you to spy on oblivious fellow diners as you conduct nature’s business. At Peep, everyone is a Pee-ing Tom.

Making their triumphant return to Budget Fabulous, were my architect friends from Gay Wedding Part Deux, Paul and Michel. Also back on the scene, after a short-lived and ill-advised stint in a convent was the table-dancing, continent-hopping fashionista known to readers of Vogue and W and B-Fab as simply Patty with a “Y”.

Peep was not the final destination for the evening, but a rendezvous and refueling site. We were invited to nearby Deitch Projects for the opening of Bec Stupak’s Radical Earth Magic Flower, an exhibition of video, sculpture and performance, the focal point of which being Ms. Stupak’s blind remake of Jack Smith’s classic 1962 underground film, Flaming Creatures. Having never seen the film, Ms. Stupak recreates the experience through the collected impressions of others who have. This intentional degree of separation allows Stupak’s version to herald the experiential diversity of perception surrounding the original film, thereby showcasing its artistic significance. Starring in Stupak’s version are the performance drag artists collectively known as the Radical Faeries, as well as a host of other fabulous freaks of downtown art and performance fame; one of whom being a dear personal friend of mine: the amazing dancer, groovehooper, Pilates teacher and spiritual earth mother, Jesse MamaSutra. Jesse was involved not only as an actor in the film, but also as makeup artist, costumer and for the exhibit itself, designer of the harem bed centerpiece that dominated the gallery floor. The harem bed that, soon after our arrival, came to life with a slithering, writhing, gender-bending collective of beautifully-costumed gods and goddesses who brought the eroticism of the film to life in an undulating spectacle of flesh, glitter and delightfully unapologetic hedonism. It was like a glam peepshow, and it was totally fuh-reakin fabulous.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF THE UNFOLDING TABLEAU

And be sure not to miss:

Bec Stupak and HoneyGun Labs
Radical Earth Magic Flower
Now through February 25
Deitch Projects
76 Grand Street
212.343.7300
info@deitch.com