We can only hope our TR readership is not in the office right now. No, they're probably huddled over their XBoxs, or sipping on cocktails at the Beatrice Inn. As Molly once said in TR's infancy, "You really need to stop posting pics of hotties." She may not have used the word hotties. But the point was to have something we can all enjoy, whether we're super nerdy (Danish) or the most prolific bloggeur of a generation. We return to the age when the human nipple was a constant rather than a distant memory...
Not Safe for Work
by BARCLAY MEMPHIS
It is more important to be beautiful than to be smart, or to be nice, or to be good.
If you are somebody, make sure photographs are taken of yourself.
Something holds on, or makes out of holding on. A person stays hidden, but a photograph is for real. You meet and fuck Todd Rundgren.
I see you! Reaching over and picking up a piece on paper, on which is written your name.
Buell left home in 1972 to launch a modeling career in New York. "Girls who wanted to be stars went to New York," Buell writes, capturing some of the dazzling brashness of her youth. "I wanted to be a superstar! The problem was that everything was too easy - modeling, traveling, partying - and I forgot my original desires and beliefs."
Only the beautiful may relax. She may kick and back and say, "This is beautiful." The rest are walking around asking, "When will we be beautiful?" To be a one as this is shocking, sinking. A lot of people get involved.
"She's beautiful!" "She could be more beautiful!" "We will make her more beautiful!" and so on until the night.
Men are casual but purposeful, steadying themselves, like a dog digging in against the wind. I was one of the other ones. Men could be talking to themselves. Who cares? They were men, the tiny pawns of the photo. The ones taking it.
There was only one way to strike back. In alleyways, in cramped closets. Naked in stockings or high socks.
One second it is so sure that a one like this is insecure, but she is found inside of the photo.
A man is saying something so well, but a woman is standing next to a guitar. Beyond that something more is felt, but could never be described.
She is braver this way.
And apart from that, there is a saying. Apart from that, there is a talking to. We can't hear, but the sound is there.
The child is born. Out of us, the child stands tall and walks around like it is another person. Watching it.
Go on, dear. Take a photo with the child.
The child asks, "Who is in this photograph?" This is the only question she asks for which you have an answer.
Still there are times to be alone. These:
Later in life there is a talking back. Time had advanced, and with it the complicity of its passing. Man and werewolves were granted certain privileges. In the future there is nothing but this.
or standing:
Why complicate life? One is standing, or sitting, or sitting down. People are upright or seated. A man is accosted or he is the pursuer. A woman may stand next to a man, or seated. Bebe Buell is in this photograph. She is lying down.
Barclay Memphis was the inaugural This Recording intern. He now works in P.R. for a large investment firm, and has no time for the rest of the world. He lives in Williamsburg.
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
