As a kid I loved the muppet show. I watched them as re-runs with my family. The Liberace episode first aired the year I was born, and for some reason it really resonated with me as a toddler. I think it might be my first memory of abjection. I remember being transfixed by the elegant Rococo bird dancers, but also horrified by their too-close-to-humanness—like muppets, but also like people. They are perfectly grotesque.
As if that wasn’t enough, the whole affair was conducted by a gay icon who effortlessly moved between high and low culture, but without the sort of sneering condescension of so much camp. I find it ironic that this phenomenally talented lover of all music has become a camp icon for people who have a very crude notion of what camp is. Regardless, Liberace is a hero of mine.
Critical Notes
Being a segment where I provide means by which you [the reader] are encouraged to remark, annotate, provoke, correct, rejoin, laud, or admonish the preceeding sentiment or incident. Communications impertinent to the aforementioned, including general threats of violence or love letters should be forwarded to me personally.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 1:57 pm
From the computer of Jon
Telling… very telling…
Although, I never liked Sam the Eagle, not one bit.
Jon