The L Word

I love to watch an episode or more of The L Word. It's the best thing in lesbian entertainment since ... ever. The TV series has a perfect balance between soap opera and reality. It's highly addicting and you don't have to be in the life to enjoy it. You just need an interest in drama, sex, relationships, pretty women or art. (Not really art, but Jennifer Beals' character does work in an L.A. museum.) By the way, I don't have Showtime. Will someone please tape the new season for me and drop it through the mail slot at my gallery? Thanks.

Peter Case

This man is a national treasure. He was a member of the Nerves and the Plimsouls, two legendary bands. But I am drawn to Peter's solo work from his 1986 self-titled debut up to his most recent, 2002's Beeline. Peter's songs are an antidote to the snakebitten, navel-gazing crap that passes for artistry these days: Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, etc. Look, I'm not out on some limb here. No less than 46 artists—including authorities such as Joe Ely, Dave Alvin, and John Prine—have covered Peter's tunes for an upcoming tribute/benefit album called A Case for Case which is being put out by Hungry For Music, which provides musical instruments to children in low-income households. There will be a CD release party (featuring Peter himself) at the Tin Angel on Feb. 12.

S.R.O.

The Blood Meridian of "pimp lit," Robert Deane Pharr's 1971 novel is the semi-autobiographical adventures of alcoholic waiter Sid Bailey, his nymphomaniac whore-girlfriend Gloria, cross-dressing lesbian crime partners J&J, skank-muse Sharlee, grifter junky Leah, the dope-pushing Sinman and his crazy violent roommate Blind Charlie. In his elephantine, virtually plotless epic, Pharr collects nuances from years of living in squalor with incisive, provocative commentary on black/white relations and a romantic catalogue on the many metaphors of why people fuck amid abjection. Grotesque, nightmarish, absurd, poetic, profane, violent, transcendent and ultimately unresolved, S.R.O. is site-specific theater I can't wait to make happen.

Dengue Fever

I can't stop listening to the album Escape from Dragon House by Dengue Fever. They are an indie-type pop band (pictured lower right), with great keyboards and occasional trumpets, backing up a Cambodian pop singer. The vocals are truly amazing; they have a distinct Asian pop sound, with unusual (to our Western ears at least) melodies sung by a female singer with a wonderfully wistful voice. I'm not sure if this motivates my artwork, but it does make me acknowledge the potential of pure beauty to excite the senses. Not all the songs are phenomenal, but the cuts "Tap Water" and "Hummingbird" are absolutely stunning.