Baked Alaska

I have barely watched any television the past few years. I don’t think I have the patience to either discover new programmes or endure the commercials. I can’t stand the scandalmongers, the game shows with their quasi-celebrities or the horrendously dull reality shows. For me the worst is the latter, especially the ones that put a bunch of silly people together and confuse the audience with a  carefully staged "real life" situation (getting into the guts of a hospital, a school, a jail, the lost island crowd, the nanny deal, the “let me get your business straight”, the “let me make you a good-whatever”…). All fake and vacuous. Maybe there's some utterly anthropological depth that I'm missing when I only see a cynical maneuver on the part of the producers to achieve their audience targets by using vulgar, unrefined and mostly vulnerable people wanting their Warholian 15 minutes of fame. However, I love the more intelligent frivolity on offer and I know that there is good TV out there, I just never seem to catch it.  Creativity and intelligence are also necessary to make good junk...

Sorry, that was not a very constructive start, but to paraphrase the song: “this is my blog and I'll say what I want to”. Keep reading.

Anyway, due to a cosmic convergence last week I spent some time in front of the television and encountered a show that I had never seen before. The pop singer Alaska was in there. The alter ego of Olvido Gara, some sort of muse of la movida in the 80s, a mix between Lily Munster, a gothic Betty Page and an excessive character of David LaChapelle, only in greasy Spanish style. 

Lily Munster (Yvonne de Carlo)

Pin-up Betty Page

Photograph by David LaChapelle

Alaska

Her first appearance in Spanish showbiz was in Pedro Almodóvar’s film “Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón”, his crummy opera prima. Alaska was fourteen and recently-arrived from her native Mexico. Having picked her artistic name from a comic book- although she could have kept her fantastic real name - she founded and was the lead singer in such pop bands as Kaka de Luxe, Alaska y Los Pegamoides, Alaska y Dinarama and most recently Fangoria with Nacho Canut.

Alaska on "La bola de cristal"

Alaska á la Siouxsie Sioux

Alaska, the Pegamoides' years

Alaska posing for Spanish Interviú

She participated in a memorable children’s programme called “La bola de cristal” –the content of which I thought at the time not totally appropriate- but it certainly marked an era.  I always loved her carefully groomed punk-gothic style. Not a great singer, in fact more the opposite, but with a charismatic personality. She has made kitsch and excess her way of life, and watching her current reality programme-“Alaska & Mario”- is like witnessing an artistic performance. Her husband, Mario Vaquerizo, knows how to keep up with her too. Ignoring his phony -and at times very irritating -laugh, he as actors' manager, journalist and singer himself has created a persona that has won my admiration. Apparently this is their third season showing the audience how they live. Critics say that they are repetitive. I find them absolutely fascinating, colorful, upbeat, tender and respectful of each other and of everyone around them. And it all looks truly genuine despite the seemingly forced horror vacui set up: mounds of tasteless objects, Elvis bathroom wallpaper, black kitchen, golden ornaments, religious nicks-nacks, Alaska’s mother (América), with her Cuban accented, fortune-teller thing going on…

The famous couple

As I said, very LaChapelle

To me they represent the paradigm of conscious and intelligent frivolity. Pure. Tacky. Spanish style.