Hello, and welcome to another issue of your favorite thing in the world, “Dirty Filthy Snuff”. I’m Lou Ford and I’ll start this issue with the usual “What Really Chaffs My Nuts”.

What really chaffs my nuts are things like this:

Exploiting someone’s death with the purpose of making art.That is what German photographer Thomas Demand did, he recreated as an artist piece of Whitney Houston's last meal as an artical in the New York Times arts section of the April 27, 2012 weekend edition reported. Now I know that someone like Whitney Houston is an icon, and let’s face it as with all icons, they are immortalized. Take for instance James Dean, or Elvis, or Marylyn Monroe. Thought I do have to say I have never heard of an artistic representation of the toilet Elvis died on. Not like this artistic piece of Whitney Houston’s last supper. I mean that is kinda in bad taste. I also know what you’re gonna say, "but artists depicted have Jesus’ last supper many times". And I would answer yes that is true, but also first off we weren’t there to personally witness it; the whole story of Jesus and his death wasn’t necessarily written from a personal account, it is a story that is open to interpretation, and it wasn’t a story that was written, and the paintings weren't created with the explicated purpose of exploiting that man’s death for money, and gossip. Well at least not in the beginning. Let’s be honest, the most corrupt and evil organization next to the DMV is the Catholic Church. I mean electing a former Hitler Youth as the next pope, a boy scout with fucking artillery, really a stellar choice.  And the other thing is that Jesus’ last supper was important, it contained an important part of the plot, and that being that Jesus told his 12 disciples, among other things, that one of them would betray him. It wasn’t the last meal ordered from room service before he drowned in a bath tub due to complications from an addiction to crack cocaine.

I do get that death, as much as we civilized people may not want to admit, is a subject that interests and fascinates us, still there are some things that are just done out of bad taste. Take for instance the car that James Dean had died in. “Little Bastard”; after his death it became a long sought after piece of celebrity memorabilia. Again I get that celebrities are icons, and that is an example of the price of fame, but let’s be real, how would it be taken if an artist did a piece on jonBenet Ramsey’s last supper.

Could you just image, the artist is presenting it, saying “This is the spagettios laced with roofies, and the organic apple slices she ate, before suffering a semen filled death in her basement. Now moving on, the next piece I created is the basement, and the interesting thing I did was I decided to use the icing for cinnamon buns for the semen, and I think with the way that it dried …” That would be controversial and completely disrespectful, but I guess that’s art huh?  

I mean a groquestic painting done by Salvador Dali is considered art, but porn,
 well that is just a cheap excuse to exploit women, not that I’m denying that in some cases but while it may seem that way we all have no problem calling up a stripper for a bachelor/bachelorette party cheering as they dance, but then calling them whores the next morning. See, that’s another thing, we as people desire, and treasure the exotic, the dirty, and kinky as well as the sincere and romantic. If it wasn’t the case then there would no fucking porn industry. If that was the case then there would be no 40 year with too much makeup trying to act like a tween and there’d be no frat boy or out of shake cubical dwelling I.T. guy waking to it. If the need wasn’t there there wouldn’t be legalized brothels in some U.S. states would there? But that’s not what this rant is about. YES! THIS IS A FUCKING RANT!

A RANT! JUST LIKE THIS!

A RANT! THAT’S THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ON! IT's MEANT TO BE FUNNY, NOT OVERTLY OFFENSIVE, HOWEVER IF I HAVE, OR WILL OFFEND ANYONE THEN I AM SORRY.  MOVING ON!

But seriously, what is it that makes something art. Why the hell are some things ok, and other things crossing the line? Why the fuck are slasher flicks where the young teen age girl who is always a blonde, and always in a bra and panties always being butchered by the masked killer an accepted genre, and other things aren’t. Blood and guts is okay even though we all know that the Chester down the block is staying up late jerking off to the carnage, and lets’ be honest we all know it, but we still just accept it. I’m not saying that censorship is the way, but I think we need to get our boundaries straight. Which is more important, the fact that van Gogh was a magnificent painter, or the fact that he was nuttier than a shit house rat and sliced off his ear to give to a woman he was in love with? I mean would Albert Einstein be famous if not for the damn Atomic Bomb? Honestly, we got plenty of death row inmates who have last meals, why don’t we have artistic interpretation of that? Why is it okay for us to be obsessed with serial killers, feel the need to  watch shows like Hoarders or Locked Up, make jokes about rape, the Holocaust, homosexuality, sexy, AIDS, but one thing is said about September 11^th, and you better pump the brakes cause that ain’t funny. Well, that is unless it’s our enemy. Such as this:

       

But before we go further here's a quick comerial break if you will:

This moment of good parenting is brought to you by Herpies simplex A. Because just like children, it's the gift that just keeps on giving, whether you want it or not.

So I guess the real point is what exactly is art, what exactly is too offensive, or inapropreiate to be made into a exhibition to be presented to other's.

Are crime scene photos of grizzly acts really art? 

They got books on it, all about it, crime scene photos. I mean who wants to see what that creepy high school janitor did to the body of his dead mother after he strangled her with the strings of her apron while she was watching reruns of the Donna Reed show. But why is that okay. How about this picture:

Is that picture art, humorous, or distastefully disgusting? I mean there’s a whole story here. These women could the former descendants of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the residents who live up by the Indian Point power plant in NY. One day the ladies were working in the cafeteria of the power plants, there’s a melt down and before you know it their clitoris have mutitated into gigantic penis that shame even the largest horse cock. Maybe the mutated clitoris have a mind of their own, and they sing songs like “Baby Got Back” or “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”, or “I Am Woman”. Maybe these are the transgender/transsexual patients in Brazil or Thailand that are trying out their new equipment. Who knows, and that’s part of the beauty in some cases. See, it is true that a picture speaks a thousand worlds, the only problem is dose everybody need to hear those words? Think about it like this, the fucking Nazi proganda poster were in many instances amazingly effective pieces, but do we need a coffee table book about them? How about this, the serial murder John Wayne Gacy

 had done many sketches, paintings, and drawings while he was awaiting execution, after his death his paintings, and other art works were sold at auction.

 The first man to do this was an autograph dealer Steve Koschal. Apparently Steve had commissioned many of those “art pieces” from Gacy himself. The Paintings went for anywhere from $195 to $9500.
 One painting in particular depicted Disney style dwarfs playing baseball against the Chicago Cubs. Steve had gotten many hall of famers to sign the painting under the pretense that they had no idea who the artist was. There are exhibitions that apparently are still going on. While 25 paintings may have burned in 94 by 300 people including the families of Gacy’s victims in Naperville, Illinois. Still, some could say that it is extremely offensive to idolize the art from a murder. Here is a perfect example of that, in 2011 the Art Factory Gallery in Los Vegas had auctioned off one of Gacy’s paintings for 4,500 as well as other paintings, sketches, and audio recordings of Gacy’s to raise funds for several charities. In response to that the National Center for Victims of Crime asked that the gallery not include them in the sales.

So, I’ll ask you again, is that art? Is it okay to praise a sexual murderer for his artist abilities, as well as trying to make a profit? How about being so ballsy as to fucking sell a serial murders art work to raise money for the National Center for Victims of Crime? John Wayne Gacy, the man who enjoyed dressing up as a damn clown and then raping and murdering teen age boys, and yet despite the outrage,
 we still have no problem forgiving a little bit due to his artist ability, but we all have some form of fucking problem with homosexuality, or porn, or vulgar language. I really don’t know what else to say. I know that art takes many forms, from painting to sculptures, to live events, but still I think we got to figure out our boundaries, and fucking decide is it really artwork if it is a recreation of a trouble person’s last meal, or is it really right to decide to have an exhibition of a murders art work for the public to see. If I decide to start slaughtering dogs, to paint beautiful images with their blood; once it gets out that I knocked off Fido for the sake of the art work, would I be fucking forgiven? You tell me?  Oh yeah, by the way, I am not immune to this either.

Until Next Time

Lou Ford

FIN