6/11/11

6/10/11

DIRTY SHOW IN THE LA TIMES!

CHECK OUT OUR WRITE UP IN THE LA TIMES!

The curtains are pulled back on the world of underground erotica as
"THE DIRTY SHOW" comes to town.
Merging highbrow erotic art and popular peep show, the exhibition features rooms of erotic art, as well as a pop-up version of
Rick Castro's Antebellum Gallery.

City Center Motel. 1135 W. 7th St. 8 p.m.-11 p.m. Fri. and Sat.
(213) 627-2581. citycenterhotellosangeles.com

HAPPY BDAY- TONY WARD

IN HONOR OF TONY WARD'S 48TH BDAY-
I PRESENT AN ANTEBELLUM BLOGSPOT EXCLUSIVE-

TONY WARD AND HIS NEW SON-
ANTHONY BORDEN WARD & AURELIUS BALTHAZAR WARD

photo exclusively shot for antebellum blog by tony ward- london/antebellum corespondent

ETHAN MCCORD



tonight i went to a riveting presentation by a former U.S. solider-
ETHAN MCCORD,
who spoke very candidly about the july 2007 attack that took place on iraqi civilians. it is this event and release of film footage that eventually made julian assange, (wikileaks) and bradley manning- "enemies of the state."

after mccord's presentation,(very hard to watch) there was a very spirited debate about the military, the "war on terror," and the draft. i promised i would do what i could to get the word out, so here is the info.. please repost, share and blog.

An Evening with ETHAN McCORD:
Truth Teller & War Resister

Thursday, June 9th, 7 PM at
Revolution Books / Libros Revolucion

Featured in Tribeca Film Festival's Best Documentary, Incident in New Baghdad,
ETHAN McCORD enlisted in the US Navy in response to 9/11. Wanting to be closer to the action, he moved to the Army, and in 2007, found himself in the middle of the ground war in Baghdad.



Ethan literally walked onto the scene filmed from an Apache helicopter just after 12 Iraqi civilians had been shot to death 1.5 miles away. He can be seen in the Wikileaks film Collateral Murder, released one year ago, rescuing two children who survived the attack.*


Ethan's story of coming to grips with the Army's rules and the loss of civilian life brought him to say, "the thing I couldn't live without in Iraq was my own humanity." Ethan will share his story. Students especially invited.

*Collateral Murder, a 15-minute film, will be screened at the beginning of this program.

Co-hosted by World Can't Wait and Revolution Books



6/9/11

I'M MELTLING


classic scene from THE WIZARD OF OZ- 1939

IF YOU'RE FEELING DIRTY...

CHECK OUT THE DIRTY SHOW LA THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY ONLY!


please join RICK CASTRO @ HIS ANTEBELLUM MOTEL ROOM @
THE 2ND~DIRTY SHOW LA 2011

here's the info-

DIRTY SHOW LA-2011
City Center Hotel
1135 West 7th Street, (approx 6 blks east of alvarado)
Los Angeles, CA 90015

This exhibit will be legendary.


Not just a return to the same motel, but a genuine Bienalle.
It will be room after room of fine-art as we transform the entire east wing of the hotel into one of the largest exhibitions of erotic art in LA history.

Featuring all new art, loads of steaming hot erotica from new artists, and brand spanking new submissions from our LA favorites, we are blown away by who is in this show. There will also be exhibitions-within-the-exhibitions including-
GROUP SEX, some interior insanity by BUGHOUSE, world-renowned artists from across the seas brought to you by the
MUSEUM OF PORN IN ART, and we are engorged with anticipation of the ANTEBELLUM MOTEL ROOM orchestrated by February's Dirty Show® guest artist and fetish guru, RICK CASTRO.

We are kind of keeping this on the down low, so let your friends know about it
(please help spread the word, as it is not being advertised).

Friday & Saturday June 10-11, 2011
The show opens at 7pm ends at 11
$15 at the door.
Bring loads of cash- all art is for sale - except performance art.
You must be 21 with valid picture ID.

NO CAMERAS ALLOWED!
(There will be plenty of cameras and video; if you do not wish to be documented,
please wear a mask)
Come fashionably early - there is no better way to start your evening.

Do not park in the Hotel parking lot.
Enter through the back alley.

BABBLE


BABBLE was a weekly fagzine in chicago, IL, from 1992 thru 2000
the free zine listed all the trendy wendy events and chatted about local topics relating to homo's in the windy city.

the pubisher & editor was MALONE SIZELOVE.
i had the pleasure of photographing many covers for babble.
it was a fun time. i hope to go back to chicago soon.. do you think they'll remember me?

HERE'S A COLLECTION-











I'VE SUGGESTED TO MALONE TO HAVE AN EXHBITION OF MY BABBLE COVERS...
WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED? FEEDBACK PLEASE..

PIN UP


model & photo courtesy- Mateus Verdelho

STORYVILLE



Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 through 1917.
Locals usually simply referred to the area as The District. The nickname Storyville was in reference to city alderman Sidney Story, who wrote the legislation setting up the district. It was bounded by Iberville, Basin, St. Louis, and N. Robertson streets.
Most of this former district is now occupied by the Iberville Housing Projects, two blocks inland from the French Quarter.


Almost all the buildings in the former District were demolished in the 1930s to clear the land for the building of the Iberville Projects. While much of the area contained old and decayed buildings, the old mansions along Basin Street, some of the finest structures in the city, were also leveled. The city government wished to do all it could to blot the notorious district from memory. Basin Street was even renamed "North Saratoga" (although the historic name was restored some 20 years later).
A collection of photographs by E. J. Bellocq depicting Storyville prostitutes was published in 1971 under the title Storyville Portraits.
Films with fictional portrayals of Storyville have included New Orleans (1947), Pretty Baby (1978), and Storyville (1992).

RABBIT WITHOUT EARS




Japan's Earless Rabbit Sparks Worries About Radiation, Mutation

It's no Godzilla, but an earless rabbit allegedly born near Japan's severely-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has become the latest poster child for the side-effects of radiation exposure.

The bunny -- purportedly captured on video just outside the crippled plant exclusion area and posted on YouTube on May 21 -- has become big news in Japan and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere, stoking fears that contamination from the damaged facility could cause genetic mutation.
READ MORE-

6/8/11

HOLLYWOODLAND


LET'S BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL!- CIRCA 1926

BOOT FETISH








photos courtesy- Celso Junior- Luzern, Switzerland/antebellum corespondent

THE DIRTY SHOW LA- FRIDAY & SATURDAY


CHECK OUT ANTEBELLUM'S MOTEL ROOM @ THE DIRTY SHOW LA- JUNE 10TH & 11TH



DIRTY SHOW LA-2011
CITY CENTER MOTEL
1135 West 7th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Friday & Saturday June 10-11, 2011
7PM TIL 11PM
$15
all art is for sale
21 with valid picture ID.

NO CAMERAS ALLOWED!

Do not park in the Hotel parking lot.
Enter through the back alley.

6/7/11

PIN UP



model & photos courtesy- Dare Williams

SAL MINEO IS GOD



this story was originally intended for LITTLE JOE FILM ZINE, but they canceled it at the very last minute.

so i decided to post here on antebellum blogspot.

inspired by the recent celebration of SAL MINEO

and my longtime friend- MICHAEL GREGG MICHAUD'S new book-
SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY...
I present-....................................

SAL MINEO IS GOD

by rick castro


Before there was Brad, Jake, Justin, and Robert, before there was Shannon, Adam and Robbie, way before there was Evan, James, Cheyenne and Zac, there was SAL MINEO.



A trailblazer and groundbreaker from day one of his unorthodox career. He was also unquestionably the first gay male celebrity icon and perhaps the first out actor.


Born January 10th, 1939 in the Bronx, New York and died February 12th, 1976 in West Hollywood, Ca, Sal was tap dancing at the age of 8. His overbearing mother Josephine enrolled him in art school, while his quiet, Sicilian father Salvatore Sr. made coffins for a living.



Sal’s debut stage appearance was in THE ROSE TATOO, (1951) the classic play by another gay legend- Tennessee Williams.



He was then chosen to play opposite Yul Brynner in THE KING AND I.


Then in 1955, Sal, James, Natalie, Dennis, Adam and a host of other newcomers changed the face of acting and Hollywood by starring in director Nicolas Ray's groundbreaking- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Nick Ray was perhaps the only person that knew this film would change the world and virtually give birth to the concept of the American teenager.

In Rebel, the opening scene at fictitious Dawson high school, 15-year-old Sal mineo opens his locker. He has a photo of Alan Ladd, (Alan Ladd??) pinned underneath a mirror; he combs his DA and adores his refection, then spots James dean in the reflection and adores him.


Sal looked into the eyes of James Dean, and every "subversive," knew what he wanted. James and Sal became best buddies, at least in the film. The untimely death of James Dean left anything else unrequited.

Sal Mineo was what they used to call, "an overnight sensation." he had legions of fan clubs and groupies lined the streets at any premiere to catch a glimpse of him.


I would like to present an overview of the films of Sal Mineo, and chronicle his life changes as his career choices diminishes.


REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE- 1955, (director Nicholas Ray)


This film only gets better with age, as does the power of sal's performance. What is noticeable to the contemporary audience is the overt-homosexual interaction between Sal & James, and Sal's superior acting. Sal is the heart of the film. He is the catalyst, the true rebel with a cause; latent homosexuality. Remember this was the 1950's, "the love that dare not speak it's name," was still too shy to do so. It wasn't until another 15 years before gays were dancing in droves out of the closet.

Since Sal basically confesses undying love for James Dean, (and asks him to come home with him) he is doomed to be killed, which becomes the climatic final scene. Not for Sal, but for James Dean! Sal just lies there dead wearing mismatched socks,

but what a beautiful corpse.
Sal receives his 1st academy award nomination.

GIANT- 1956, (director george stevens)


Teamed once again with James Dean and Dennis Hooper from Rebel, and hollywood legends like Liz Taylor, Mercedes Mccambridge, (the voice of Regan in The Exorcist) and closeted Rock Hudson. Sal plays a Mexican laborer who enlists in the army, while all the anglos strike oil. James Dean comes back to Reatta, Texas in a Rolls Royce, Sal in a coffin. Although all three of the lead actors were gay, none had affairs with each other.... Rock was way too uptight and old school for James, and Sal was only 17 years old.

DINO- 1957, (director Thomas Carr)


Sal Mineo as Dino, a JD, (juvenile delinquent) sent to reform school for being involved in a gang-related killing. Upon release, Dino returns back to his neighborhood and is pulled back into gang life. A rarely seen JD film! This film gave Sal the nickname of “the switchblade kid.”


TONKA- 1958, (director Lewis R. Foster)


Set in Dakota territory in the 1870s, a young Sioux named White Bull, proves his manhood by catching and training a wild colt he names Tonka. The film leads up to the final conflict of the Little and Big Horn rivers. In the book, Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (2006), writer Douglas Brode states that the casting of Sal Mineo as White Bull, "ensured a homosexual subtext".

THE GENE KRUPA STORY- 1959, (director Don Weis)



Always the trailblazer, Sal brings drumming and marijuana to the mainstream. The best quote- "Reefers huh? So that's what they look like", spoken by Sal as Gene Krupa.


EXODUS, 1960, (director- Otto Preminger)


An epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, (blacklisted by mccarthy) from the 1958 novel, Exodus, by Leon Uris.

The all star cast includes- (bisexual) Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Peter Lawford, (closeted) Lee J. Cobb, Jill Hayworth, George Maharis, (fellow homo) and Sal Mineo, as Dov Landau.


During an intense interrogation scene, (earning him his 2nd oscar nomination) Sal as Dov Landau confesses, “at Auschwitz I was used by the Nazis, the way they used a woman.”


WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?- 1965, (director Joseph Cates)


Sal plays a busboy at a disco who has sexual problems related to events in his childhood. He becomes obsessed with a disc jockey at the club, leading to obscene phone calls, voyeurism, trips to the porn shop and adult movie palace, and more! Also stars Juliet prowse and Elaine stritch as a lesbian!


Sal’s career was in decline at this point. The film was a critical and box office bomb, but a definite must see for contemporary kinky filmphiles.


After the release of the film, Sal joked, “I found myself on the weirdo list.”


ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES,

1971 (director- Don Taylor)

Sal plays an ape called Milo. He is murdered within the first 15 minutes of the film. No one knew who the actor was, no one cared. Sal had become an, “invisible homosexual.”

You've heard about them, there are rumors about them. They are always killed off.


Always the fickle bitch, Hollywood spent the early fifties throwing praise and accolades at Sal, now pegs him as over. An outdated symbol of the 1950s teenager. The mods and hippies were moving in. Sal represented old school neuroses from the baby boomer generation. By 1963 Sal was a washed up has-been, declared, “box office,” poison by Variety magazine.

These phrases were now written about Sal on a regular basis. This was really code for- SAL MINEO WAS A HOMOSEXUAL.


Sal presented himself as someone who didn't hide their sexuality. Despite the liberal appearance, Hollywood has always been a conservative industry, featuring rich, narrow people with limited world views. Sal was Sicilian, but looked more Mexican or Indian. The image of the era was white as snow, blonde and very arian.




Sal once said, “anything and everything has some kind of sensuous overtone to it… I don’t see in any given situation where there isn’t a spark of erotica.”

According to writer Michael Gregg Michaud, “one day Sal decided he wanted to visit Natalie Wood and her husband, Robert Wagner. He called them and they invited them over for the afternoon. Sal told Natalie he wanted to bring his boyfriend, Courtney. After a brief conversation Sal hung up and said, “fuck them.” They didn’t want sal to bring his boyfriend to their home.”



Sal was a category all unto himself. He also was “out,” something that was definitely not discussed back-in-the-day. It was assumed he had an affair with James Dean, but Sal was only 15 years of age during Rebel, so his virginity remained intact. However the late sixties was another period, Sal was well into his mature thirties. According to author Michael Gregg Michaud in his book- SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY, (2010 crown archetype ) Sal de-flowered Bobby Sherman, who later became a teen-idol with the one season TV hit- “Here Come the Brides.”



Walking the shores of Malibu beach, Sal spotted Bobby, a then 19 year old native of Santa Monica. Sal invited him to his beach house, they became fast friends, and Sal developed an immediate obsession. A year later, Sal’s “girlfriend,”Jill Hayworth, ( his love interest in Exodus) came home early and found Sal fucking Bobby.. his legs in the air like a RCA antenna.


Sal was the top, Bobby the bottom.





Sal was also best friends with another teen idol- DAVID CASSITY.

Cassity credits Sal with helping him in the very beginning and believing in him when no one else did.

Despite being nominated twice and appearing in some of the most important American films, by 1970 Sal's career was washed up, finished. He was considered over-the-hill.
Sal was now acting in controversial, cutting edge plays-

FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES, (by John Herbert)



In 1969 the play was produced and directed by Sal Mineo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. About a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery.

Don Johnson played the lead role of Smitty, a young man sentenced to six months in prison for marijuana possession, who eventually becomes the sexual subordinate of another inmate, Rocky. Michael Greer played the role of Queenie, Smitty's cellmate.


During 1976, Sal was in rehearsals for the Los Angeles stage production of

PS, YOUR CAT IS DEAD,” (by James Kirkwood)


The play is about a down on his luck actor named Jimmy who's been dumped by his girlfriend on New Year's Eve, and his beloved cat Tennessee (named after the playwright Tennessee Williams) has died in an animal clinic. He happens across a cat burglar, Vito, in his apartment. Furious, he beats the stranger unconscious and ties him to his kitchen sink. Jimmy begins to torment his terrified captive, Jimmy questions his own orientation as his relationship to Vito takes on a homosexual dimension, and decides to use his prisoner to exact revenge on his former lover.


The reviews from the NYC production were outstanding and Sal had a hit on his hands… his career was coming back.



On February 12th, returning home from rehearsals, Sal parked his blue Chevelle in the carport of his rented apartment at 8569 Holloway drive in West Hollywood, (owned by famous lawyer- Marvin Mitchelson). At about 11:30pm Sal’s neighbor, Raymond Evans recognized his voice, “ no! oh my god, help, please somebody help me!” The neighbors came out and found Sal lying in a pool of his own blood.


Sal bled to death in less than 5 minutes. When the detectives came to check out the crime scene, they entered his apartment and found gay porn magazines, props from Fortune in Men’s Eyes and some leathers in his closet. The theory that was leaked to the press was that Sal was murdered by a trick in an S&M encounter. Sal was reduced to the invisibility of a pervert,

who somehow deserved what happened to him because he was gay….
“and you know everything goes bad when you’re part of that lifestyle.”

Sal Mineo was dead at 37. He was stabbed once in the heart.




John Lennon once put up a reward to find Mineo's killer.

The case went unsolved for a year and a half, until a Michigan prison inmate,
Lionel Ray Williams did a bit of bragging to fellow prisoners that he had, “killed a star.”

The fellow prisoners ratted on him, and in 1979 Williams was convicted. His sentence was 51 years to life for a random, botched robbery. He didn’t even know the person he killed was Sal Mineo.




Lionel Williams is now released after serving about 25 years of the sentence.



Sal Mineo was buried beside his father at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. At the time of his death, Sal was deeply in debt. David Cassity paid for his casket. His family and a few friends attended his funeral including, Rebel director Nicolas Ray, Desi Arnaz Jr, his ex girlfriend- Jill Hayworth and Michael Greer, his co-star from Fortune in Men’s Eyes. None of the superstars he worked with including Natalie Wood, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson or Dennis Hopper bothered to attend.

In an excerpt from Michael Gregg Michaud’s

SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY-

On January 3rd, 1972, Sal said, “I spent the last five days of my father’s life with him in New York, and what I learned from him was how important the moments are every day and how quickly time goes. I realized that one day I would be in the same position as my father, facing death. Before it happens, I want to do the things I want to do. I don’t want to end saying,

“ I WISH I HAD.’”

self-portrait drawing by sal mineo- 1962

SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY will be a new film directed by

JAMES FRANCO,
starring newcomer- VAL LAUREN.


james franco to direct the sal mineo story


writer- michael gregg michaud- photo i shot @ WARD OF THE STATE art opening on march 21st.

and here is a pic i took of val lauren @

WARD OF THE STATE art opening on march 21st.

val lauren will portray the upcoming film about sal mineo, directed by james franco, screenplay by michael gregg michaud