This Week in Local Art / Pop-Culture Corner (Cougar Edition!)

While the boys often prefer the "fringe" art scene in Larryville (Percolator and Wonder Fair), the mainstream offers interesting work as well. The current exhibition at the Spencer, called XY, seeks "to explore the many and complex meanings of manhood" (Spencer website). The works therein "bring the male body into dialogue with an internalized realm of emotion, feeling, and self consciousness." (Chip: "In other words, it may help me to better understand my boners.").

An interesting feature on the Spencer's website allows art fans to offer their own "labels" describing various works in the collection, some of which may be chosen and displayed alongside the works in the exhibit: "We encourage you to discard any preconceptions about what an art label should say—be creative and share something that you feel will help other people understand these works from your point of view."

Naturally, the boys are participating. Here's a photo by Earl Iverson called "Lawrence High School Homecoming, Lawrence, KS" which features two football players seemingly holding hands after a game. It's followed by the boys' "labels."















Chip: "Tender, yet gay."

Richard: "With this powerful look at male-bonding, Iverson cleverly challenges our heteronormative expectations of a sports culture which insists that all signs of male affection, from the midgame chest-bumps to the post-game ass-slaps, be considered 'macho.' It has more to say than any four of Apatow's 'bromances.'"


And if this exhibition doesn't do it for you (or if, like Chip, you're scared to be seen there), Saturday brings a new Andy Warhol exhibit called "Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture, and the 1980s."

Chip: "Is that the dude who tricked Americans into believing a picture of soup cans was 'important?'"

Richard: "Why couldn't they offer this stuff during my 'consumer culture' course?"

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The boys' are big fans of Ashton Kutcher because he's an avid Twitter enthusiast and a legendary real-life cougar-hunter (he bagged Demi Moore). Therefore, his new film, Spread, in which he plays an LA hustler seducing a series of wealthy cougars, seems like a must-see. Kutcher's character is supposedly inspired by Warren Beatty in Shampoo and Richard Gere in American Gigolo, though we're willing to wager a few PBR's that it's inferior to both in every way.

Chip: "I'll see it just in case it offers some good tips, but I'd rather see The Time Traveler's Wife, which looks as magical as it is romantic. Also, I'd bone Rachel McAdams."

Richard: "Same here. I keep telling and telling people to watch her in Slings and Arrows on DVD, but nobody pays much attention."