This week (December 3rd) marked the 50th birthday of actor Darryl Hannah, who among many other roles played the replicant Pris in Ridley Scott's 1982 future noir movie, Blade Runner. Pris is a "basic pleasure model", designed as, essentially, a robot prostitute for the Off-World colonies. Cursed with a four year lifespan, and born on Valentine's Day, just a few years before the movie takes place. Memorably, she disguises herself as a doll - spraying raccoon make-up markings across her eyes, veiling her face and sitting very, very still - before launching herself at Harrison Ford's replicant-hunter and clamping her thighs around his neck. This photo is from a series of portraits by Dr Will Brooker, as a tribute to Pris' 2019 style. The model is Laura-Jade. Happy birthday, Ms Hannah.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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