He is the world's tallest cast iron statue. He has a long and sometimes troubled history. His enormous bare
buttocks have offended local prudes and religious leaders for decades. He was
disassembled in 1999 for refurbishing, but now once again, from atop his lofty
mountain perch, this pagan
colossus reigns over Birmingham, Alabama, the virtual buckle of the Bible Belt.
Behold,
Vulcan!
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Sep 2, 2006 -
26 comments
"Sloppiness is my palette." Neal Medlyn is the self-proclaimed
"Paris Hilton of Performance Art" who looked for "bits and pieces of coolness in normal things or in anything" when he was growing up in small-town Texas.
Now performing regularly in New York City, Medlyn played a nude Dubya shacking up with
Karen Finley's nude Martha Stewart in
George and Martha (here's
a review and
another review; photos NSFW). According to the 2000
Austin Chronicle profile (written by his
future wife) Medlyn came off as a lunatic in his early performances, many of which were sparsely attended, and involved "music, little routines, and group activities, like having everyone sit in the dark and listen very closely to a song he likes." Medlyn has performed, with
Kenny Mellmann, a
show of R. Kelly songs (
watch him performing one; Google Video); he
loves (NSFW) Lionel Richie (whose songs he finds strange and beautiful;
watch mpg here); and he wrote a book inspired by
his own buttocks (NSFW). Medlyn is currently doing, with
Carmine Covelli, a somewhat Peewee Herman-ish video series for
Nerve called
Neal Medlyn's Land of Make-Believe (NSFW; videos depict group sex, performed by various animal puppets). Here is
a 2004 interview with Medlyn. And Medlyn has a
Myspace profile.
posted by jayder
on Jun 17, 2006 -
9 comments
