SEAGULL SALON NYC Beauty & Culture Blog

The Kitchen Spring Gala and After-Party (Hosted in Part by Shaun SureThing and Johanna Fateman)

The Kitchen Spring Gala After-Party is my favorite event of the year by far!

This year I'm happy to get to co-host with my bestie and business partner at Seagull Salon Johanna Fateman alongside BCALLA, Lady Bunny, Eckhaus Latta, Pati Hertling, Ryan McNamara, No Bra, Ellie Rines, Jacolby Satterwhite, Thor Shannon, SSION, Emily Sunblad, and Stewart Uoo.  

Here is the link to where you can purchase tickets to the after-party.

This year The Kitchen is honoring pioneer video artists Dara Birnbaum and Charles Atlas. 

Dara Birnbaum is best known for her iconic video Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, which she made using pirated footage of the wildly popular 1970’s television show of the same name starring Linda Carter.

Aside from showing Wonder Woman at art venues and clubs all over, we at Seagull Salon are obsessed with the 1980 pop-up installation of Wonder Woman at the storefront windows of an old SoHo hair salon called H-Hair Salon de Coiffure, Inc. Birnbaum’s Wonder Woman replaced the only VHS tape the salon owned at the time, an Italian version of Woodstock that had been on loop until Birnbaum approached the statuesque Linda Carter look-alike salon owner and asked if she could play Wonder Woman instead---to which the salon owner happily obliged.

Dara Birnbaum: Please, can you show my tape in your window, especially on the weekends?

H-Hair: What is your tape about?

DB: Wonder Woman

HH: Oh, I love Wonder Woman. I’ve been told I look like her.

DB: (She did)

 

Charles Atlas has been a favorite of mine for a long time, but I was re-introduced to a lot of his work by Johanna, who worked on his eponymously titled retrospective artist book. My favorite work of Atlas' is the 1984 film Hail The New Puritan, a collaboration with choreographer Michael Clark and Leigh Bowery with music by The Fall. 

 

 

 

And, of course, one of the most beautiful things that ever happened at all in the world: the Time Square Arts' Midnight Moment event,  Charles Atlas & Antony "You Are My Sister (TURNING)" (December 2014)

 

 

 

The Kitchen Gala after-party is super fun! I've gone for the last nine years and am happy to be included on a list of luminaries. Good DJ's, open bars, cute snacks and gorgeous people. It's always a great time. PLUS they always have the awesome photo booth by Bosco, which is where I'll be all night snapping up the universe's best selfies. 

Tix Here

Hope to see you there! 

xoxoxo
Shaun SureThing

 

 

 

"Monica" Takes Seagull

I love watching shows that take place in NYC, especially ones that take place in Seagull's home of the West Village, which is the setting of Doron Max Hagay's web series "Monica". It's a familiar setting that gives a familiar feel to a familiar story. Or so you think...

Everyone knows the story of Monica Lewinksy, but what about after the dust cleared? How does one go on with their life after all that? Where does one go? 

NYC, of course. 

Monica - Chapter One from Doron Max Hagay on Vimeo.

Inspired by the New York Magazine article "Monica Takes Manhattan" and the HBO special "Monica in Black and White", "Monica" tells the story of post-scandal Monica (Lily Morotta) arriving in the West Village to pick up the pieces and put herself back out there. In six episodes, we see Monica meet new people, go to downtown comedy clubs, pick swatches for her new bag line, and pitch a documentary idea to HBO. She even has some not-so-nice encounters as she strolls the city. 

"Monica" is sweetly funny and cringe-inducing at times, though it's never mean-spirited, which is part of why it's so refreshing and successful. It also doesn't hurt that the series features amazing performances from some of downtown NYC's best actor-performers, including Seagull VIP Cole Escola---and other personal favorites Jacqueline Novak, Erin Markey, Kate Berlant, and John Early. 

Take a break from this crazy primary season and revisit some simpler times with "Monica". You'll be glad you did. 

xo
craig-hunter

 

“River’s Edge”: The darkest teen film of all time

Mark Spitzer wrote THIS AMAZING PIECE about the film The River's Edge for Salon Magazine. It's all the way back from January and I can't believe I just now found it. The film played a large, if pretty unnoticed part, in shaping the decades turn and subsequently paved the way for 90's fashion. Tapping into the kind of disparity and angst of what was gelling as the grunge scene in the Pacific North West at the time, the characters in the film were bored, angry and kinda aimless. Living from moment to moment and waiting for the next empty high. 

I use this movie as a reference frequently in my styling chair for hair, fashion and general feel when trying to capture or reproduce a look that is both quintessentially 1990's... But also a 1990's that is borrowing heavily from fashion of the late 1960's and early 1970's 

The style/fashion moments I find most fascinating are the turning point of decades rather than the decades themselves. What we often think of as the definitive moments in fashion are actually from a 2-3 years earlier in the decade before. The River's Edge is a perfect example of this. As is it's kind of older sibling, 1979's Over The Edge with Matt Dillon and Pamela Ludwig, who's character Connie is the unsung fashion icon for a  swiftly approaching 1980's

Anyway. Mark's piece on the film is awesome and totally on point and accurately describes the movie and examines it's content which fleshes out what would become the zeitgeist of Generation X well before Douglass Copeland's 1991 Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture or Elizabeth Wurtzel's 1994 Prozac Nation (Both great reads anyway). 

If you haven't seen these movies I highly recommend a double feature if the whole 1990's, 90's regarding 70's fashion is yer bag. It totally is mine. 

xoShaun for Seagull Hair Salon NYC

Fall Moods: Catherine Ribeiro + the Alpes & Jan Švankmajer's "Alice"

NYC got really cold this week, which was bad because who wants to cover up their fabulous new haircut/color with a winter cap. But it is also good in a way because I don't feel as bad staying indoors painting all day. And a couple things are keeping me going right now, too: the first being the Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer's 1988 masterpiece "Alice", a sort of retelling of "Alice in Wonderland" using dolls, taxidermy and stop motion animation among other things. 

It's the kind of film I return to from time to time mainly because its imagery is probably some of the most original I've ever seen. The story of Alice in Wonderland is so old and probably not very fresh anymore because of countless retellings. But Švankmajer's film has a strong, unique vision that lingers in your brain. It's dark, though not bleak or grotesque. Švankmajer's "Alice" isn't a long film either. It always ends sooner than I expect, like waking up suddenly from a weird dream that borders on nightmare territory. 

 

 

Also, I'm feeling very inspired by Catherine Ribeiro + the Alpes, a fantastic French avant-garde rock band from the 70's. 

My Spotify-dependent listening habits have been wearing me down a bit lately, and I've just been so eager for some fresh music that you can't stream online or on an app. Then I got my hands on the albums "Paix" (1972) and "Le Rat Debile Et L'Jomme Des Champs" (1974) from Ribeiro + the Alpes, and was immediately blown away. I became wrapped up in this world that sounded like a mixture of Nico, Sonic Youth and Goblin. 

It's good music to work to. Totally psychedelic. Long tracks that seem more like experiences than actual songs. (At some points I'm reminded of early-Magik Markers and can better see the road paved for them by acts like Ribeiro + the Alpes.) Ribeiro's voice is so powerful. She uses it like an instrument, and it's the true centerpiece of the music. 

 

So, check out "Alice" and Catherine Ribeiro + the Alpes. Get in the fall/winter spirit. 

xo
craig

DAISIES (1966)

Vera Chytilova's Czech New Wave "Daisies" is the kind of film you watch if you're in the mood for a political/feminist satire of an acid trip. Luckily I'm normally in that mood, so I was extremely happy to stumble on this film. (It's also interesting to watch because "Daisies" was quickly banned by the Communist government; Chytilova herself was banned from filmmaking for some years after.)

Filmed in 1966, "Daisies" opens with a montage of war footage. It then tells the story of two girls (both named Marie) who one day reflect on all the terrible things that happen in the world and so decide to be bad themselves.

The Maries then go on a surreal whirlwind of a journey---keyword: surreal---that involves a lot of excess. They wander in and out of scenes, creating havoc in one way or another. Sometimes to pass the time, they use men for meals and money. (They use and tease men a lot, pointing out all the foolish things men say to women to make them love them.)

Now embodying the sin of gluttony, they drink and eat a lot when they feel like it.

And when the Maries aren't running around being bad, they spend time in their apartment, surrounded by their art, cutting photos of flowers out of magazines, discussing life and talking nonsense. 

One thing I can say for sure about "Daisies": the Maries have a great style, one I'd describe as mod anarchy. 

And as for the story, there's not a lot to it. "Daisies" doesn't run very long. It's mainly just a trip to watch. The scenes don't follow any sort of linear path. They jump from there to here and back again. The point of the movie is pretty ambiguous, which is what I really love about it. "Daisies" just wants to present you with a crazy and bright mixture of scenes and ideas---and leave you to pick up the pieces.

xo
craig hunter

 

Notions of Femininity and Female Bodybuilding

Recently it was revealed that bodybuilder Jelena Abbou is the new face of MAC Cosmetics, and I couldn't be happier about it! It's great to see different representations of femininity celebrated, especially when that representation questions what femininity is. 

There was a piece in the NY Times about female weight lifters in the United Arab Emirates back in October, but overall there's not much talk about women competing in this interesting sport. I mean, my younger sister has been into weightlifting for awhile, so it's been on my radar for a couple years. I never understood why she wanted to change her body like that. Why would anybody want that? I was ignorant and didn't get it.

But my interest in female bodybuilding has been going strong for about six months now. It wasn't until I saw this amazing documentary called Pumping Iron II: The Women (the sequel to Pumping Iron, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's first films) that my viewpoint on the sport was really made. 

In it, you see several different women preparing for a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. It's interesting to watch them prepare and lift weights that most people cannot lift. Their focus and determination really does elevate bodybuilding from sport to an art form. Their body has become a canvas. It's so impressive. I can only watch in awe. 

Even the way the documentary is made is interesting in that it's a predecessor to how reality television shows are nowadays: real/improvised dialogue but planned scenes. And there's a lot to talk about in this film because there's a much larger issue at hand: What defines femininity? 

You'll find that unlike the judging process in male bodybuilding competitions, the women aren't only judged by how much weight they can lift but also by how feminine they are.  "Feminine", rather, as what femininity means to the judges refers to how desirable the bodybuilding contestants are. Basically the judges want to see if a competitor can lift a lot of weights and at the same time be someone they'd want to have sex with. 

Bev Francis is one of the main competitors focused on in Pumping Iron II. She is the most impressive, too. 

Her image evokes a lot of feelings when you see her. Fear and admiration are the feelings that come to me when I see her. That's just me being honest. We aren't used to seeing women look so powerful. I like that it makes people uncomfortable and fearful. That's why above all I find Bev Francis to be a beautiful specimen and a work of art.

She's clearly the strongest woman in Pumping Iron II, but does she appeal to the judges in a sexual way? Is she still somebody they'd want to take care of and protect? Well, no. Bev looks like she'd do the protecting. She's not conventionally beautiful. She's not what most men would consider sexy. (In fact, I read that Bev later got cosmetic surgery in order to appeal more to judges.)

And that's why Pumping Iron II has some interesting contest results...

The film itself is out of print. Good luck finding a copy. I got a not-so-great quality version of it back in August, and even though there was an audio delay, I found myself glued to the monitor because it was just so interesting. I loved it. I loved what I was hearing and seeing and thinking. 

Find it and watch it. I highly recommend it.

xo
craig hunter 

Seagull VIP Laura Parnes at MoMA!

We've written about Laura Parnes before, as she's one of our faves, and her new video piece County Down involves BOTH of Seagull's owners. Shaun is featured as a surly—and extremely fashionable—grocery store associate; and I worked on the soundtrack. It will screen at MoMA (or, as my grandma would say, "the Modern") on December 17th at 7PM. We are thrilled. Here's the link! xo Johanna

Gore Vidal

Yesterday one of our greatest twentieth century culture purveyors passed on.

Gore Vidal was 86 years old when he died.

Along with contemporaries such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, James Baldwin, Merce Cunningham, Tennesse Williams, John Cage and countless others, he helped shaped not only the modern American landscape, but also the way we perceived various media. In challenging sexual and gender theories and beliefs of the time, he helped to forge free reign of imagining new ways of what it could be (or in some cases not be) homosexual. A cultural critic, journalist, playwright, activist and sometimes actor, Vidal pushed the limits of societal constructs and challenged some of the best minds of the time.

The New York Times refused to review five of Vidal's novels after his forthright depiction of homosexual love in his 1948 novel "The City and the Pillar". He vehemently denied that there was such a thing as gay culture or even a homosexual identity, especially and even urgently, how they relate to the feminist situation in a time where a person could be institutionalized for even uttering those words... much less introducing a dialog around such subject matter:

" Although there is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person, there are, of course, homo- and heterosexual acts. Unhappily, it has suited the designers of the moral life of the American republic to pretend that there are indeed two teams, one evil and sick and dangerous, and one good and normal and--that word!--straight. This is further complicated by our society's enduring hatred of women, a legacy from the Old Testament, enriched, in due course, by St. Paul. As a result, it is an article of faith among simple folk that any man who performs a sexual act with another man is behaving just like a woman--the fallen Eve--and so he is doubly evil. "

Well said.

My personal favorite work was his adaptation for the silver screen Tenessee William's "Suddenly Last Summer" starring the indelible Elizabeth Taylor, where he added in spicy dialog as well as mind blowing snippets of arduous soliloquies shedding light on the cultural perception of homosexuals (and self-empowered women) as monsters, articulately and ingeniously inspired my Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein".

Gore Vidal leaves a prolific legacy in his work as a cultural critic and observer of the modern, American human condition. He is the last of the last of the greatest gatekeepers of knowledge in this regard and we mourn his passing with the weighty awareness that there is no one as clever, controversial, inflammatory and profoundly correct that will be stepping up to sit at his throne.

Mr. Vidal's partner Howard Austen, whom he became involved with cira 1950, resided with him in the virtually inaccessible Villa La Rondinaia Ravello, Italy in practical seclusion during later years. Until 2003, when, from his deathbed, Mr. Austen posed the famed rhetorical question:

“Didn’t it go by awfully fast?”

xoxoxo
With all the greatest of love and respect,
Shaun SureThing

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

You don't fool me for a minute. I know all about you. 

You came here tonight thinking you’d see some cute and wonderful rockstar. And you thought he’d take one look at you from up on that stage and he’d fall in love with you just like that. Then your savior could take you out of this dump of a town you live in. You could be different from all the other girls. Suckers!

Be yourselves.

These guys laugh at you. They've got such big plans for the world, but they don't include us. So what does that make you?

Just another girl lining up to die.

That's when Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains grabbed hold of me and got my full attention. It was so lucid.

It's what Corinne shouts at the audience after her band The Fabulous Stains is heckled off stage. It's their first show, and they've revealed themselves to be a sort of cross between The Shaggs and The Misfits (from "Jem and the Holograms"). This crowd came to hear the all-male headlining bands, one of which likes to write songs about that point in a relationship, you know, where it's necessary for the man to hit his "old lady" because words just don't cut it.

But the Stains (Corinne, her sister Tracy, and their cousin Jessica, a very young Laura Dern) are desperate to succeed. They're in their teens. Corinne and Tracy's parents are dead; Jessica's mother is uninterested and absent. There's no future in their hometown. They have to get out of there. 

And so they do. And they quickly make a name for themselves. Their style is different. They don't dress like the other girls around. 

When their manager instructs the Stains to dress in sexy, tight leather outfits, Corinne refuses and opts for an olive trench and a red beret instead. (My personal favorite look from the movie.)

Corinne is also (in)famous for her outbursts and speaking her mind. (At one point she tells a news reporter: "Every girl should be given an electric guitar on her sixteen birthday." Amen.) She's also good at plugging her band whenever she is interviewed by the press, further spreading the word of the Stains and creating an impressive fanbase. 

But what happens when you aren't sure if your fans are really listening or if they just want to look like you? What does an influential band to do when it gets boiled down to a marketable look? What do you do when the youth subculture is something to be capitalized from? Are you a sellout, or what? These are questions that are brought up in The Fabulous Stains.

It's a short movie, but there is enough material in it that had me deep in thought the next day. I was also really inspired by the film. There's something about it. It's not perfect, but that's okay. I felt empowered.

What is most important (besides their awesome songs) are the ideas and situations brought up. It's the kind of movie that says the things I've always felt but never saw in a movie.

It made me want to start a band. It made me want to be myself. 

It has that effect. 

xo
craig hunter 

Seagull in Le Tigre's reasons to love NYC

Read the TimeOut article here!

xo,

Molly,

SEAGULL