THIS VA-JAY-JAY ALARM CLOCK GETS YOU UP TO AN ORGASM

Have a hard time waking up in the morning. Want to get up with a BANG!? (To say the least!) The Little Rooster, is a smart new sex toy. It isn’t just a vibrator, it’s an alarm clock for your pussy. The device has 27 ultra-quiet levels of intensity (plus three more monster-loud ones for those deep sleepers).

You actually wear it inside your undies where a, 

“vibrating leg stimulates your clitoris and labia.”

The Little Rooster starts the sexy vibrations five minutes before you actually need to get your lazy c*nt out of bed. And it’s fairly affordable at under $100. But does it really work? 

And ladies, wouldn’t “The Big Cock“ I mean CLOCK, had been a better name for marketing? Go ahead and say it…

“I’ll have what she’s having.“

(T/Y Tad; via Your Tango)

TOP 10 "WEINER" COVERS OF THE NY POST

Anthony Weiner has taken abuse for that last name his whole life, I’m sure. But when you sext pics of your privates, you are DARING the New York Post to do their worst. Now in the fifth year of Weiner weenie scandals, their current cover is surely not the end of the puns. Now that his long-suffering wife, Huma Abedin, has filed for divorce, this isn’t so funny anymore. (We’re sorry. As the Post says, “you can’t spell humiliation without Huma…”) 

What no “Sausage Party”? Insert your own Weiner (joke) here.

(via New York Post)

KANYE EXHBITS HIS "FAMOUS" SCULPTURE & NEGLECTS TO MENTION HIS "INSPIRATION"

Before Kanye West took the stage at the VMAs on Sunday night, he (remotely) premiered his sculpture, Famous, at the L.A. gallery, Blum & Poe. Not your typical gallery opening it was an exclusive, two-night private viewing of 13 wax celebrities sleeping in a gigantic bed.

Wife Kim Kardashian West, sister Kendall Jenner were live and in person but West himself appeared remotely via video. (Why? A way to seem more important, is to be too busy to show up to your own opening…?)

According to W Magazine, gallery owner Timothy Blum referred to West’s installation as, 

“a serious piece of art. 

If you didn’t know that this was a work by Kanye West, and instead was the work of a known artist in the art world, the perception of the piece would be completely different—it would be celebrated and universally supported at the highest level.”

Which is the gallery’s back-handed way of saying, ‘people are going to think this is a joke and it’s not’?

But, as far as I know, he neglected to mention the backstory on where the idea came from. The sculpture was directly inspired by Vincent Desiderio’s painting Sleep, a fact the artist did not learn until the morning of the video’s premiere. According to the New York Times, the evening before, Mr. Desiderio, 60, was told cryptically that he was wanted in Los Angeles immediately. He met with Kanye and his “team” and shown the video. He was flattered and happy and is a fan. He received no money, and obviously, no credit either. Desiderio has said, 

“Kanye turned a mirror onto the wretchedness of self-obsession and solipsistic fame. He’s trying to work at the highest level artistically, and I admire that….“

But if you ask me, Blum & Poe and Kanye could have exhibited Desiderio’s original painting along with West’s “homage.” Maybe the omission of the original “inspiration” is the ultimate comment on fame and being “famous.” Kanye said of the video at the VMAs on Sunday, 

“It was an expression of our now, our fame right now, us on the inside of the TV. This is fame, bro… We all came over in the same boat and now we all ended up in the same bed.“

True. And if you don’t have any ideas of your own as an artist, borrow others. As I often like to say,

“My work is totally original. I take other people’s ideas and make them my own.“

Yes, I stole that quote.

UPDATE: Following the opening, the gallery has announced the price for Famous is $4 million.

Artist Vincent Desiderio’s 2008 painting “Sleep”

(Photos, Ron Ben; via W)

#HAPPY95TH!: WORDS OF WISDOM FROM STYLE ICON, IRIS APFEL

Iris Apfel turns 95 today and according to her wisdom, great personal style is about knowing yourself, staying curious, and maintaining a sense of humor. Her long career as an interior designer and textile maker has taken her to Tunisian bazaars in pursuit of rare antique fabrics to The White House to head up restoration project for the Kennedys. The Costume Institute at the Met showcased her explosive, exuberant personal collection of accessories, fabrics and garments in 2005 and the documentary about her life, Iris, is available on Netflix, FYI. 

Happy birthday, gorgeous!

(via Harper’s Bazaar)

13 ARTIST'S STUDIOS IN VOGUE

Condé Nast's longtime editorial director Alexander Liberman was a photographer and an artist himself and shot many of the greatest artists of the 20th century like Matisse, Picasso, Frankenthaler and Brancusi. He compiled them into the classic –and somewhat sexist titled– The Artist In His Studio. Many of those shots ended up in the pages of Vogue.

Annie Leibovitz has continued the tradition for the magazine, shooting some prominent artists of the 21st century, like Koons, Clemente and Matisse –this time great-grand daughter, Sophie. Here are a baker’s dozen. I’m tempted to preview a shot of my new painting studio in a converted gas station in upstate New York, but you’ll just have to wait until it’s ready.

Robert Rauschenberg by Alexander Liberman

Braque by Liberman

Brancusi by Liberman

Helen Frankenthaler by Liberman

Picasso by Liberman

Kandinsky by Liberman

Sophie Matisse, great granddaughter of Henri, by Leibovitz

Julie Mehretu by Leibovitz

Julien d'Ys by Leibovitz

Ian Hundley by Leibovitz

Francesco Clemente by Leibovitz

Jeff Koons by Leibovitz

(via Vogue)

WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE HOME IS ON THE MARKET FOR $1.1 BILLION!

Le Cedres, or The Cedars, in the billionaire’s playground of Cap Ferrat is on sale for €1billion or a little over $1 billion US. The 10-bedroom property comes with an Olympic size swimming pool and five acres of manicured lawns. The last owner was Suzanne Marnier–Lapotolle part of the Grand Marnier liquor dynasty. Campari bought Grand Marnier and acquired the villa in March but has decided to sell it. 

King Leopold II

The opulent address is the former home of Belgian King Leopold II. It has 35 acres of the most beautiful gardens in Europe, including a winter garden with some 20 greenhouses. Some 15 professional gardeners are currently employed by her full time. It also has a ballroom, its own chapel and stables for up to 30 horses. Regulars at the villa included Charlie Chaplin, David Niven, writer William Somerset-Maugham, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Today composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and tech tycoon Paul Allen are close neighbors. 

King of Belgium from 1865-1909, Leopold II is remembered largely for his private ownership of the Congo Free State in Africa. A huge fan of the area, Leopold II once owned the entire West side of the Cap Ferrat. In 1904 he purchased Villa Pollonnais and its 15 acres of land and after extensive renovation renamed it Le Cedres. The man who designed the gardens of the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysees was responsible for the impressive design of Le Cedres’ grounds and pool area. The property was principally used as his holiday home.

Cap Ferrat was named in 2012 as the second most expensive place to buy a home in the world after Monaco, with residents enjoying a pleasant climate year around. Have a look at what a billion yes you in 2016.

(T/Y Tad; via Daily Mail)

BILL CUNNINGHAM'S $4 MILLION ESTATE IS TIED UP IN 2 WILLS

In June we lost a NYC legend and national treasure, when photographer Bill Cunningham died at age 87. He lived a modest life, as you can see from his documentary, Bill Cunningham New Yorkbut managed to save some serious coin. He died with a $4 million estate and settling it might be a complicated process, as he had not one but TWO wills.

The rights to Cunningham’s photographs are worth $1 million, based on a filing at New York Surrogate’s Court, as reported by the New York Post. The other $3 million is in bank accounts and insurance policies. It was the Post that discovered Cunningham had dual wills, drawn up in 1993 and 2010.

The first will would have divided Cunningham’s fortune among his now-deceased siblings and his good friend Toni “Suzette” Cimino, a friend who often appeared in his work.

For reasons unknown, the new will excludes the 90-year-old Cimino, leaving the rights to all of Cunningham’s photos and negatives to his niece, Patricia Simonson and it also splits $500,000 evenly between Simonson and the photographer’s four nephews.

Also among the beneficiaries is Louise Doktor, wife of Terry Doktor, whom Cunningham photographed regularly. She stands to inherit $50,000, as well as all of his personal possessions and insurance policies.

As Bill would say,

“Sounds like a mess, kid.“

Terry & Louise Doktor

(via Page 6)

THE INSPIRATION FOR DEAF, NON-VERBAL ARTIST, HELEN RAE? VOGUE

For almost three decades the pages of Vogue (and others) have been the starting point Helen Rae, a 77-year-old self-taught artist. A model wearing a floral headdress, a tapestry-covered background or Karlie Kloss posing in a steel mill —she takes out her colored pencils and goes to work. 

Helen Rae

Rae was born deaf and is completely nonverbal. In 1990, when she was 50, her mother enrolled her in a local program for adults with disabilities, where she developed her drawing skills. Almost no one outside her program saw Rae’s work until 2014, when Paige Wery, the owner of L.A.’s Good Luck Gallery, came in search of new talent. Wery told Vogue,

“I was going to do a group show, but I just kept looking at Helen’s work. I realized how special of an artist she is and how under-recognized she is. When they said that she was 76 years old and no one had given her a solo show, that was that.”

Last spring the gallery hosted her first solo show. Rae’s two live-in nurses escorted her to her opening. She had flowers in her hair and wore a string of pearls. Her 15 drawings sold out on opening night. 

“She smiled the whole time. It was a feeding frenzy. Nobody had ever heard of her; nobody had ever seen this kind of work before.”

The next day, Wery called, 

“I asked ‘Did she realize that we had this sold-out show?’ And they said that she didn’t; she just went straight back to drawing.”

Wery, who hosted Rae’s second solo show which opened last May, is committed to giving her a level of exposure that outsider artists seldom receive. 

“I really feel like this is Helen’s voice, this is her way to communicate.”

It was through her continuous presence in the art fair circuit that Rae got her next big break: In January, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley came across the artist’s work at the Outsider Art Fair in New York and was immediately transfixed. Rowley said. 

“I really didn’t know anything about her but it was just the sheer beauty of what she was making. It hit me over the head like a frying pan. I’m not usually a fan of any sort of fashion reference in art, but this was different...”

With her husband, Bill Powers, Rowley founded Exhibition A, an e-commerce website that sells limited-edition works by emerging and established artists. She purchased one of Rae’s drawings on the spot, then got permission to create the print for the site. 

A print of Rae’s drawing is available on Exhibition A (for just $200) and her work will be at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris this October. Wery hopes that Rae’s unlikely success will pave the way for more artists like her. 

“It’s about exposure and getting them out of their nonprofit. Nobody ever took Helen’s work, framed it, and treated it like she’s a contemporary artist, which is what she is.”

Helen Rae's Exhibition A print

#RIP: PIONEERING DESIGNER, SONIA RYKIEL

Sonia Rykiel, the French designer dubbed the “queen of knitwear” whose relaxed collections helped liberate women from stuffy suits, has died.

President Francois Hollande‘s office announced her death in a statement, praising her as 

“a pioneer who offered women freedom of movement.“

For the generation of women who came of age in the 60s and 70s, Rykiel — with her hallmark bright orange hair — came to symbolize the new era of freedom.

Rykiel got her start by designing knit maternity dresses for herself and became a fixture of Paris’ fashion scene in 1968 when she opened her shop when student riots were challenging France’s establishment. The designer’s empire grew to include menswear and children’s lines as well as accessories, perfumes and home goods, sold in the label’s stores on four continents.

Her daughter, Nathalie Rykiel — who as a young woman used to model her mother’s garments on the catwalk — has long helped manage the fashion house. The business was among France’s last major family-owned labels until it was sold in 2012.

Rykiel’s star pieces include the “poor boy” sweater — often in black with jewel tone stripes or emblazoned with messages or graphic motifs like oversized red lips — knit tops with embroidered roses and funky, rhinestone-studded berets. 

She was born in Paris on May 25, 1930 and married Sam Rykiel, the owner of a Paris boutique, and had Nathalie at 25. Early on in her career, Rykiel was wracked by doubts. She told the Le Nouvel Observateur in 2005,

“When I started in fashion, for the first 10 years, I said to myself every day, ‘I’m going to quit tomorrow. People are going to figure out that I don’t know anything,’ I always thought I’d be discredited in the end.“

Rykiel is survived by Nathalie and son Jean-Philippe. She was 86.

Rykiel for H&M, 2010

(via NBC)

THE REAL MEANING OF 13 COMMON WORDS

You speak English, right? You went to school and you have Google at your fingertips. It’s funny then how you never knew the TRUE meaning of these commonly used words. You learn something new everyday.