Weekend Edition

Feel the heat.

30 Apr

The Dirt staff shares what we’re reading, eating, buying, and streaming.

TERRY NGUYEN

Body Heat (1981) on HBO Max

Among the many crises of our time, the most baffling of America’s champagne problems is the utter sexlessness of our social relations. No one is fucking anymore. We’re all busy being fucked by the economy and forces beyond our control. Movies, too, have lost their erotic edge in the midst of franchise frenzy. Why is everyone beautiful, but no one is horny? To briefly escape our present-day desire drought, consider watching Body Heat (1981), a neo-noir erotic thriller by Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the Star Wars franchise. Kathleen Turner plays Matty Walker, an irresistible (and married) femme fatale, who seduces Ned Racine (William Hurt), the dumbest shyster lawyer in all of Florida. “You’re not too smart are you?” Matty says when she first meets Ned. “I like that in a man.” There’s stiletto-sharp dialogue, premeditated murder, and of course, sweaty sex. True to its name, Body Heat is set during a heat wave, so the characters are pouring sweat in every scene. The film is unabashedly horny and ridiculous—down to Hurt’s pedo stache, which only heightens his sleazeball sex appeal. Body Heat’s plot can be summed up in a few words, namely: “what good p*ssy does to a MF.” Does Kasdan know that the best line of his career is not “Luke, I am your father,” but “Hey lady, you wanna fuck?”

JOCELYN SILVER

ECF Art Centers

My friend (and Dirt contributor!) Alana Johnson is the primary influencer in my life, and she taught me about this lovely organization in Los Angeles. ECF Art Centers, located across LA County, that provides studio space and instruction for artists with developmental disabilities. And you can buy their work, for affordable prices, online. There’s tons of playful, imaginative, and very beautiful art to snap up. I have my eye on these.

Enchanted Life Goods

Enchanted Life Goods, described as “Southern Gothic Pottery,” is really, well, enchanting. Handmade by artist couple Erin Jane Nelson and Jason Benson in Atlanta, the pieces, primarily mugs and planters, feature whimsical paintings of fairytale-like creatures—butterflies, foxes, and friendly-looking monsters abound—rendered in the sort of dark storybook Magic the Gathering-esque aesthetic that myself and other Café Forgot shoppers find to be like catnip. Follow them on Instagram for sales, and if you’re in New York City, Nelson’s wonderful show Sublunary (which got a rave in the New York Times) is up for another week at Chapter NY in TriBeCa.

THNK1994 Presents: MILFs by Molly Wurwand

THNK1994, a glorious traveling museum and meme account, initially began as the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan 1994 Museum, an exhibition dedicated to the knee-capping scandal held in the hallway of creators Matt Harkins and Viviana Rosales Olen’s Brooklyn apartment. In the years since their founding, Harkins and Olen have expanded beyond Harding and Kerrigan to many glorious exhibitions—they’ve shown paintings by Laura Collins dedicated to the Olsen twins and their many cigarettes, and an incredible show of Isaac Peifer’s renderings of embarrassing celebrities, titled Cringe: Portraits from the Pandemic. Now they’re back, with an immersive exhibition in Los Angeles (open Saturdays and Sundays from May 6th-June 11th) titled Milfs, by artist Molly Wurwand. It’s an immersive experience featuring paintings, film, and found artifacts. “With deranged reverence,” write Harkins and Olen, “Wurwand explores, celebrates, and queers the meaning of Milfs.” The first 24 milfs who visit the exhibit on Mother’s Day get a rose.

DAISY ALIOTO

Georgetown Pottery Berry Bowls

I will be spending most of the summer on the coast of Maine, and I wanted to take the opportunity to plug a local favorite which has furnished many shower, wedding and all-occasion gifts–especially when flying blind without a registry. Georgetown Pottery makes all sorts of porcelain goods, but their berry bowl is the perfect thing with which to surprise and delight a loved one or acquaintance (I am 30 or 40 years old and I DO need this). A berry bowl is just a bowl with holes in the bottom and a matching plate so you can rinse some strawberries or grapes and put them out to snack on while they drain onto the plate. I love the Maine-forward pattern options: sailboats, lupines, lighthouses, but they come with more abstract glazes as well.

Brunch Slippers

Terry and I got a pair of Brunch’s Coca-Cola slippers for free at an event, so I checked with her before including them here to make sure they really are that comfortable and I’m not just experiencing the halo effect of free things, which I love. She confirmed that they really are great, and so I am telling you about them now. If you would never spend $98 on slippers stop reading here because this is just going to piss you off. If you have been on a years-long quest for a “hotel slipper” with a supportive sole that is sturdy enough to wear to the mailbox, voila.