Tue 25 Apr 2006
One of the fun features of Sam Crane’s blog are his thoughts on the Modern Love column from the New York Times. I can hardly wait for his write-up on this one.
I’m a stripper by profession, a Williams College graduate of an especially liberal bent, and he’s a tattooed mortgage broker for the alternative crowd. At heart though, he and I are rock ‘n’ rollers: we each front our own band and have toured extensively. I know we are perfect candidates for the show. After all, couples therapy could use some rock ‘n’ roll, and we could use some couples therapy.
An Eph stripper? Could this be Viva Las Vegas, an EphBlog mystery of many months standing? Yes! [Album links below contain nudity.]
Not only am I a stripper, but I’m a relatively well-known stripper, who makes all of her bread and butter off the bump and grind and writing about the bump and grind. Under the name Viva Las Vegas, I’ve written about the sex industry for Exotic Magazine and The Village Voice. My band has an album called “The ‘I Need Sex’ Sessions.” Our second, “Coco Cobra and the Killers: Want You!” features a picture of me wearing a hat and boots — and only a hat and boots — on the cover. Sex is my stock in trade. Was I ready to admit on television (cable, but so what) that I rarely want to have sex?
Read the whole thing. (Hat tip to Jeff Zeeman for his earlier mention.)
Question: If Liv Osthus’s ‘96 book does well, will Williams award her a Bicentennial Medal? Should it?
Google does not know much about Osthus, but the Women’s and Gender Studies Department will appreciate (?) her participation in this debate almost a decade ago.
April 25th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Perhaps you should note that the Coco Cobra link includes full female nudity, lest someone should unknowingly click on it in a public location.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Is this genuine Williamsiana? Is it art? Humor? Burlesque? Satire? At any rate is it good? Does her mama know what she is doing? Why am I investing time in this matter? Don’t answer any of these questions - I’m already sufficiently dismayed.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Revelations of two different Eph strippers/porn stars in the same year? Why was I cursed to attend Williams in that prudish decade between 1996 and 2006?
April 25th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Thanks for the heads up, Diana. Same warning applies to Crane’s blog.
Perhaps it’s time to start the “Eph Stripper Mafia.” It would compliment the art history mafia nicely, especially as the lines between pornography and the contemporary art canon grow ever fuzzier … although, perhaps Williams is best to keep this quiet, given the, umm, less than flattering association between strippers and elite college campuses in recent high-profile stories. But at least, were an Eph team foolishly inclined to hire an exotic dancer, they could look in-house rather than seeking out hard-up single moms from across town …
(Just joking on the Crane comment, by the way … as far as I know, at least)
April 25th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
perhaps Williams is best to keep this quiet, given the, umm, less than flattering association between strippers and elite college campuses in recent high-profile stories. But at least, were an Eph team foolishly inclined to hire an exotic dancer, they could look in-house rather than seeking out hard-up single moms from across town …
I seem to recall some incident in the last year which came somewhat close to this. There was, I believe, an allegation of rape/assault at some team party. A pool cue was involved. It later turned out to have been consensual, not assault.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
IIRC there was a class of 89 student who spent the summer after freshman year dancing in a club in her hometown. This was pretty noteworthy at the time, but may be less scandalous given the enormous expansion of the sex industry (or at least the visibility thereof) since then.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Liv “Viva Las Vegas” Osthus ‘96 was an anthropology major and one of my students when she attended Williams. She always struck me as a really decent kid. She wrote to me sortly after she’d graduated and moved to Portland, Oregon, telling me, among other things, about her decision to become a stripper. She seemed quite happy with her choice and reported that she was enjoying her new career, explaining “I love to dance and I like to get naked.”
We all seem to giggle and smirk a bit at the idea of an Eph ecdysiast, but it seems to me that Liv is comfortable in her own skin (and nothing else) and probably contributes as much to human happiness as Ephs who go on to be stockbrokers, corporate PR flacks, or Secretaries of Education. I wonder if Liv ever runs into William “Book of Virtues” Bennett ‘65 at the craps table in Vegas during one of his gambling binges. I’m saving my smirks for hypocrites.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
ahh… my darling mr. just. you should know those indonesian lessons come in handy at the titty bars. give my regards to spring street.