Pop stars and idolatry: an investigation of the worship of popular music icons, and the music and cult of Prince.

Prince is an artist who integrates elements from the sacred into his work. He uses popular iconography to present himself as an icon of consumer culture, as a deified ‘rock god’ worshipped by his fans, and as a preacher leading his audience like a congregation. His personality cult mixes spirituality and sexuality, and deals with issues of ecstasy and liberation, a transgressional approach that draws both controversy and public interest. This paper investigates Prince’s work and the role of the pop star as an icon within contemporary culture, an icon that contains a physicality and sexuality not present in contemporary western religious traditions. It discusses to what extent popular musical culture operates as a form of religious practice within contemporary western culture, and the implications that this has. The paper investigates the construction of Prince’s public character, his manipulation of the star system, and how he uses popular iconography to blur the distinctions between spirituality and sexuality, the idealised performer and the real world, the sacred and the profane, and the human and the divine. It explores how he possesses and is possessed by the audience, who enter into the hollow vessel he offers up to his fans

Concert recording 2014-03-12a

[Track 01]. This nearly was mine from South Pacific / Rodgers and Hammerstein -- [Track 02]. Old man river from Showboat / Kern ; Hammerstein -- [Track 03]. Visione veneziana / Renato Brogi -- [Track 04]. Widmung / Robert Schumann -- [Track 05]. This is my beloved from Kismet / Wright ; Forrest -- [Track 06]. Vision fugitive from Herodiade / Jules Massenet -- [Track 07]. I will be loved tonight from I love you, you\u27re perfect, now change / DiPietro ; Roberts -- [Track 08]. Doin\u27 what comes natur\u27lly from Annie get your gun / Irving Berlin -- [Track 09]. I carry your heart / John Duke -- [Track 10]. Standchen / Franz Schubert -- [Track 11]. Ho capito...signor, si! from Don Giovanni / W.A. Mozart -- [Track 12]. When Fredric was a little lad from The pirates of Penzance / Gilbert and Sullivan -- [Track 13]. In trutina from Carmina burana / Carl Orff -- [Track 14]. Ombra mai fu from Serse / Handel -- [Track 15]. Younger than springtime from South Pacific / Rodgers and Hammerstein -- [Track 16]. Der Atlas / Franz Schubert

The missing wit(h)ness: Monroe, fascinance and the unguarded intimacy of being dead

In 1985 journalist Anthony Summers published a post-mortem photograph of Marilyn Monroe, titling it ‘Marilyn in death’, in his book, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (1985), which investigated the theory that her death was not suicide. The photograph thus acquired forensic significance. My questions are these: Is there an inevitable transgression and even violence in the exposure of an image of a dead woman such as we find in Summers’ and other publications? Under the rubric of this collection, unguarded intimacy, I address a set of paintings made from the morgue photograph of a derelict Marilyn Monroe in the era of feminist ethics by two painters, Margaret Harrison (b.1940) and Marlene Dumas (b. 1953). What are the material and theoretical possibilities of creating feminist e(a)ffects in re-workings of this stolen image if we can distinguish between the forensic notion of the silent witness (the pathologist performing an autopsy whose aftermath this photograph in the morgue indexes) and a concept derived from the Matrixial aesthetics of artist-theorist Bracha Ettinger – aesthetic wit(h)nessing? Can such aesthetic wit(h)nessing deflect the unguarded intimacy of seeing an unattended body in its absolute helplessness by inciting compassion

The effect of different pH levels on conventional vs. super-force chain elastics

The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the influence of pH levels on force decay and cytotoxicity of elastic chains submersed in artificial saliva. The samples were divided into two groups: Group SF (Polyurethane elastic, super force) and Group C (Polyurethane elastic, conventional), which were stretched to 100% of their initial length. They were kept in artificial saliva solutions at pH levels of 5.0, 6.0 and 7.5 for time intervals of 10 seconds, 1, 14 and 28 days. Cytotoxicity assay was performed in cells (L929-fibroblast), subjected to "dye-uptake" test. ANOVA, Sidak method and Tukey’s test were used. The pH did not interfere directly in force decay results of tested elastics. Cytotoxicity test showed that Group SF presented similar cell viability when compared with Group C. There was gradual reduction in cell viability from beginning to 28th day. The pH had no significant influence on force decay and cytotoxicity. Time had more influence and contributed to variability in results