Jeremy Blake extravaganza

Feel like you don't really know Jeremy Blake (a.k.a. "Mr. Wit)? Get acquainted by following these links.

The Corcoran's blurb on the upcoming Jeremy Blake exhibit.

Remembering Jeremy Blake.

Jeremy's gorgeous work done for Punch Drunk Love. (And the only redeeming part of this maudlin movie.)

Mr. Wit's C.V.

Some of Jeremy's conventional paintings. (Btw, the painting of the brunette reminds me of an old vaudeville joke whose punchline is "Nice tits, where do you want the blinds?")

More Theresa Duncan mysteries

Fall is in the air (yes, dear New York readers, we do have seasons in Los Angeles), but that beachy summer mystery known as Theresa Duncan continues to haunt our imagination.

1. Is she alive and well and working as a prostitute?
2. Why has Duncanologist seaword (who, following our lead, exposed Wit's literary peccadillos) vanished into the ether, shuttering the blog and neglecting to answer email from fans? (Btw, if you really want to read that page, you can here.)
3. Has famed Duncanologist Kate Coe of FBLA, who hasn't posted her keen insights here or elsewhere lately, also lost interest and vanished?
4. Will this blogger soon follow suit?
5. Was Jeremy Blake really the rear-ending type? And if, so can we tell from this conversation?

I'll let Dream's End work on 1-4 and leave 5 for you to solve.

And now a beak from Theresa Duncan for a different kind of guilty pleasure

Unselfconscious and refreshing, this blog from another ex-L.A. resident is the antithesis of The Wit of the Staircase.

New York magazine mentions this blog—and gets the name wrong.

We're glad the kids over at New York magazine read this blog, but would it kill them to hire a fact checker? From the "Comments" page in the September 3-10 issue:

David Amsden’s “Conspiracy of Two” (August 27), about the suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, fed the army of bloggers who are obsessed with the subject. Most merely wanted it understood that they know more about the case than Amsden does, but he was also chided for depicting New York as a “hostile but ultimately rewarding environment for an artist,” while L.A. is “often the opposite: easy and glittering until you begin to suspect it is all maybe a cruel illusion.” The blog Theresa Duncan Control responded: “This is the kind of shit that makes me wish we could deport every single New Yorker. Let’s start by rounding them up in Santa Monica, where they clog up our sidewalk cafés and steal our rent-controlled apartments.”

1. Yes, we did say that.
2. But our name is Theresa Duncan CENTRAL. You know, like that little patch of grass you guys call CENTRAL Park?
3. We don't know who the hell you hyperlinked to, but it's sure not our site.
4. This really makes us question Amsden's collective vision/exploding grill story. For all we know some weasel top editor inserted that at the last minute to add color.
5. Yes, we do know more about Theresa Duncan than you do.
   
6. In the absence of a copy/research department listed on the New York masthead, we blame assistant managing editor Denise Penny. (Tell us who's really at fault Penny, and we'll take you off our shit list.)
7. Seriously though, we love you guys. Just stay the hell off our beaches, okay? Rockaway, yes. Zuma, no.

Theresa Duncan Central is NOT a rumor site

An essay in dire need of an editor and some hyperlinks. (Our condolences to Seaword, who was not mentioned and to Kate Coe, who is referred to as "Cole" on second reference.)

Summer never ends in Los Angeles

Some bloggers have grown bored with Theresa Duncan. In a post titled "Summer is Over and So Is the Fling," the Seaword admits to having lost interest in the Wit and wonders if this little blog has "given up the ghost" also.

Not here, baby! Summer is eternal in Los Angeles and we've got more stamina than you'll find in a fistful of Viagra. So hang in there, there's more good stuff coming.

Punk diva: Was Theresa Duncan plagiarizing or posing?

A recent story about Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake in the Independent relies heavily on an interview with Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols, who knew the couple. Theresa liked to tout her rock bona fides on her blog, but check out this Wit post (hat tip to Poussin) on the Chelsea Hotel:

If you doubt the Chelsea's status as the Haunted Indian Burial Ground of Baby Boomer hipster culture, consider that no significant counterculture has been produced by Western white middle class youth since Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend on this very spot and died of a heroin overdose in Rikers prison in the middle of the East River shortly afterward.

Did you catch the error? Sid Vicious did not die in prison at all. He died in a Greenwich Village apartment after being sprung from Rikers. Did Duncan not know this? Was she just posing a a punk fan or did she carelessly copy this blurb from another source?

Theresa Duncan's boyfriend was gay

So says the U.K. Independent in this story. (Hat tip to Lou.) The piece rehashes what everyone else has written (golden couple, tragic end, blah, blah, blah) and relies mostly on an interview with punk impresario Malcolm McLaren, who knew the couple. However, there's this bombshell:

"I liked him [Jeremy] a lot," McLaren says, "but he always struck me as a troubled person. Everything that's been written about them since it happened has suggested that Theresa was the crazy one. But actually I don't think she was all that crazy. I think it was the other way around."

So Jeremy was the crazy one. And there's this:

The golden-couple image was flawed in other ways, too.' "If we're being honest," says McLaren, "Jeremy was gay. I don't think his relationship with Theresa was all that sexual. She was a mother to him. When I saw them in Hollywood, he was always terribly concerned that people would think he was a fag – he walked around with this hip flask of whisky in his pocket and he was constantly swigging from it, like some kind of cowboy."

Jeremy was gay and Theresa wasn't getting laid. Have to admit I hadn't thought of that. So far it seems Kate Coe is the only person who's written about them who actually knew them. Yet she seems to have missed this. Perhaps her gaydar is in need of tune-up.

Theresa Duncan didn't have readers, she had fans

I had never heard of The Wit of the Staircase until this post on L.A. Observed. Right after reading of her disappearance on L.A. Observed, I headed over to Duncan's site, hoping to find some new and fresh writing. What I found was disappointing.

I've wondered since how could Duncan's readers not see right through her literary b.s.? I noticed it immediately. How could supposedly smart readers (who also happen to be writers) like Ron Rosenbaum and Kevin Rodderick (who apparently couldn't tell if Duncan's L.A. Lunar society was real and called the Wit "a personal favorite of mine") be so easily bamboozled? Reader Poussin has some thoughts:

Duncan didn't have readers. She had fans. She had girl crushes, lesbian crushes, young male crushes, crusty old git crushes, etc. Read her comments, where she permitted them. Often you will see remarks about her looks. This is why there are so many defenders. It isn't about plagiarism to them. Beauty will always ease misdeed. There are as many excuses as the day is long. How many excuses have we seen already?

See, Duncan was perfect for people. She filled a need in their desperations, however she did that. There was a sexual subtext to much of her fandom. She was what these fans wanted to be, and they felt golden for having found her. She wrote into that myth, using her charmed Venice lifestyle in funky hippie cottage, darling boyfriend, expensive habits and tastes.

It's true, Duncan often posted photos of herself but did she really seduce her readers? Is this why it's so hard for them to admit they were duped? Why do so many tie their identity to this woman? Why do they personally feel insulted when her fake front is exposed? Why do they take their anger out on those who expose the truth?

Tuesday is for Tuesday Weld plagiarism

From an enterprising reader comes yet another example of Duncan stringing together sentences lifted from Wikipedia to form a post for The Wit of the Staircase. This time the topic is Tuesday Weld. Any high school English teacher in American will recognize this type of "writing." Lazy students engage in it every day. What makes Duncan special is that her writing has been singled out as praiseworthy by people who should know better. People like Rosenbaum. Perhaps it's wikipedia's pages that should be praised.

Duncan on Tuesday Weld:

In 1961, after starring opposite Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country, he and Tuesday Weld began an off-screen romance. In Hollywood, her reputation for a reckless lifestyle was fodder for the gossip columnists and Louella Parsons reportedly said, as politely as possible, that "Miss Weld is not a very good representative for the motion picture industry." The romance with Elvis did not last long after Colonel Tom Parker cautioned Presley against the relationship, fearful it would harm his image.

Tuesday Weld appeared with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in the 1963 comedy/drama, Soldier in the Rain, and although her performance was well received, the film was only a minor success. Although frequently typecast as the "blonde in the tight sweater," both the critics and working members of the film industry acknowledged her talent.

Weld never achieved the level of stardom many thought her looks and talent could bring. In part, her lack of great success was a result of her turning down roles in films that became great successes and that made mega-stars out of others, such as Lolita, Bonnie and Clyde,True Grit, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Although Weld had the final say in such matters, many question the quality of advice her agent was providing. Actor Roddy McDowall, who co-starred with her in a 1966 film, said: "no actress was ever so good in so many bad films."

Wikipedia on Weld:

In 1961, after starring opposite Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country, the two had an off-screen romance. However, in Hollywood, her reputation for recklessness was fodder for pulp magazines and the more malignant gossip columnists of the day. Louella Parsons reportedly said, "Miss Weld is not a very good representative for the motion picture industry".[citation needed]
Weld appeared with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in the 1963 comedy/drama Soldier in the Rain, and although her performance was well received, the film was only a minor success. Although frequently typecast as the "blonde in the tight sweater," critics and others in the film industry have acknowledged her talent. However, Weld never achieved the level of stardom many thought her looks and abilities would bring, partly as a result of her turning down roles in films that became great successes and that made stars of others, such as Lolita, Bonnie and Clyde, Rosemary's Baby, True Grit, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Roddy McDowall, who co-starred with her in a 1966 film, said: "no actress was ever so good in so many bad films".[citation needed]

Ron Rosenbaum: wake up and smell the plagiarism

Inspired by Ron "If She Plagiarized" Rosenbaum, a reader has sent more proof of Duncan's cribbing.

From Duncan's perfumey post Dzing! Perfume And My Carnival Night:

Mikhail Bakhtin is a favorite critic who elucidated a favorite author, Francois Rabelais. Bakhtin's writings on the comic violence, bad language, exaggeration, satire, and shape-shifting of Rabelais are a prime example of one genius of elucidation reaching back across an expanse of time to find his component genius of expression.

For the Russian Bakhtin, the Frenchman Rabelais is the greatest example of what he terms "carnivalesque" literature. Ever concerned with the liberation of the human spirit, Bakhtin claims that carnivalesque literature — like the carnivals themselves — broke apart oppressive and mouldy forms of thought and cleared the path for the imagination and component genius of expression

From Wikipedia on 9/2/07:

Bakhtin recognises that the tradition of carnival dwindled in Europe following the Renaissance and the eventual replacement of feudalism with capitalism. As a result, he says, the public spirit of the carnival metamorphosed into the 'carnivalesque': that is, the spirit of carnival rendered into literary form. The person who, existing on the cusp of this social upheaval, most fully represented this spirit was François Rabelais, and the book which holds the greatest purchase on Bakhtin's imagination is Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. The comic violence, bad language, exaggeration, satire, and shape-shifting which fill this book are, for Bakhtin, the greatest example of carnivalesque literature. Ever concerned with the liberation of the human spirit, Bakhtin claimed that carnivalesque literature — like the carnivals themselves — broke apart oppressive and mouldy forms of thought and cleared the path for the imagination and the never-ending project of emancipation.

Bakhtin suggests that carnivalesque literature also became less common as the increasingly privatised world of modern, individualistic capitalism took hold. However, he points to some notable exceptions: most importantly Fyodor Dostoevsky, but also (in a brief note)Ernest Hemingway.