DINO DINCO'S SEXY SIX PICKS

A typically wry, stylish Dino Dinco photo. Here is a cute photo of him.

Dino and I met online, after I read a piece he wrote about being Bruce Benderson's literary escort, still one of the funniest things I've ever read about the literary scene, and I probably sent him a fanletter right then, and we've shared a mutual fondness and esteem that has spanned years and the opposite coasts that we live on. I think we've seen each other in person exactly twice –– once in Los Angeles when I had a party in my hotel room a few years ago, and he brought orchids that we ooh'ed over for days, and once in New York, when he had a bash at the Tribeca Grand.

Still, our every correspondence necessarily includes an entreaty, such as when I was last in LA and couldn't be there without wishing I could see him (he was in Mexico prepping for a show), and the charming note he sent me tonight: Tell me you're coming West soon.  I was just reading an interview with Allen Ginsberg yesterday and you came into my mind. I find his artistic viewpoint to be utterly unique and essential, especially his photography of pick-up spots –– surreal, abandoned landscapes without the sex, and the conceit that it is omnipresent –– and of course, he's cool and clever as hell. I can never, ever wait to see him again.

I asked Dino to tell us what's new and his answers are perfect because I thought about putting together a Lux Lotus holiday gift guide and basically, this is even better, so buy/do/see/experience/support all of these things and become a more beautiful person:

"1) I have been invited to speak about my work in fashion, film and founding the now-defunct fashion film festival, YOU WEAR IT WELL, at PREMSELA, the Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion in Rotterdam at the end of January. 

2) On a related note, the Rotterdam experimental theater company, WUNDERBAUM, recently completed a three-week residency at REDCAT, where they presented the work, “Looking for Paul.”  Their production was so keen, so intelligent and achingly funny.  It was exciting to witness out-of-town artists make a work in part about Los Angeles and who didn’t rely on hackneyed clichés about the city. They were tremendous. 

3) In 2011, I will be embarking on a year-long post as Performance Curator in Residence at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).  In addition to working with performance artists to present new work both inside and outside LACE’s walls throughout the year, I’ll be curating GUTTED 2011, the next iteration of their annual winter fundraiser, Saturday, 19 February 2011.  LACE is now in its 33rd year and is one of the few venues in the city that has consistently nurtured and presented challenging, transgressive work.  As a teenager, LACE is where I first experienced the work of Raymond Pettibon, Tom of Finland, and Nina Hagen who performed on the patio of their former downtown location.  A membership to LACE is truly a gift to yourself. 

4) “Homeboy,” the documentary film I’ve been working on for about 9 years should be finished by January 2011.  The film is about gay Latino men who were in gangs and their experience with existing within the matrix of a multiplicity of often radically disparate cultures.  I’m also adapting the script for “Puto,” an incredible play written by Ricardo A. Bracho, into a screenplay for a feature film I’ll direct.  The story is focused around “Puto,” a queer art photographer who loses his laptop and his lover during a trip to the kitchen, and involves guerilla movements, honey bees and race and sex boundaries in near-future Los Angeles.

5) TODOS SOMOS PUTOS.  I made a T-shirt as one of the works in an exhibition that I had with Julio Torres at Mexicali Rose, a gallery in Mexicali, Mexico, where we exhibited photographs, installation and objects. (Chris Kraus’ review of the show is to appear in December’s Art Forum.) On a black T-shirt is printed in white, TODOS SOMOS PUTOS – which translates more or less to “WE’RE ALL FAGGOTS.”  The T-shirt is available through me directly and is also part of New Stand, a temporary newsstand in New York City of independently published artist and photography books, zines and other printed media.

6) My gallery in Paris recently closed so I’m looking for gallery representation, both in Europe and in the US."

––For more, visit DinoDinco.com.

Comments

[Miss Sally]

Ooh, he sounds kinda fabulous..I love that, we are all faggots..who do I have to euphemize to get a t shirt?

[D/NO]

Hi, Miss Sally:

The TSP T-shirts are $ 25 for one; $ 41 for 2.

Why 41?

41 is a powerful number in Mexico and is significant to what is known as the birth of "homosexuality" there. The number 41, to this day, makes many heterosexual men weak in the knees (and spine), such that men who are 41 years old will often lie and say that they're 40 or 42.

http://www.unc.edu/courses/2009spring/span/344/002/Lecturas/irwin.pdf

I can be reached directly at dinodinco [at] mac [dot] com