Shannon St. James, Amor Hilton, Dr. Susan Block, Sara Lurie, Gypsy Bonobo, Howard Teman. Photo B Natural

Length 01:51:10 Date: March 4, 2017

by Dr. Susan Block

Art can instigate or pacify, “comfort the afflicted,” in the immortal words of Finley Peter Dunne, “or afflict the comfortable.” Two of the most compelling and controversial subjects that art can address are sex and death. Tackling these touchy topics in their respective artworks are my first two guests, mixed media artist Sara Lurie and tattoo and poster artist Howard Teman. Both depict very sexy—as well as a few rather unsexy—naked bodies and body parts, political and religious symbols, themes of erotic bondage, blow jobs, guns, blood, spiders, scorpions, a braid of hair that turns into a hang man’s noose, and a few notable celebrities in compromising positions, including JFK between Marilyn’s legs. My third guest, sexpot socialite Amor Hilton, is grappling with the loss of her friend, Christina Dolce, aka “Forbidden,” dubbed the “Queen of Myspace” by Vanity Fair in 2006; now dead of liver failure at 35.

Hair braided into a noose. Detail from “Young Velvet” by Sara Lurie.

Usually, we talk about sex, love and the Bonobo Way on DrSuzy.Tv, but the opposite side of the coin of eros (the life instinct) is thanatos (the death instinct). Sex is what brings us into the world, and sex is what drives us to do nearly everything that we do, but death is always underfoot or around the corner. Mortality is not an alternative fact. Preachers and presidents who act like they know the great mystery of what happens after we die are essentially dishing out fake news, often for their own living benefit. To handle the inescapable fact of death and its mysteries, some people take Prozac; the rest of us just wrestle every day like Jacob with the angel of God.

Herr Trump’s First War Crime

Our society is almost as repressed about the facts of death as we are about sex. Most death is very personal and, like sex, a private affair. However, some deaths are shared experiences, complete with communal grieving and a national or even worldwide reckoning. One such death that is currently looming over the collective heads of many Americans, is that of Navy Seal and Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan Owens, killed at the age of 37 in an American attack on a house in Yemen during the first week of Trump’s “unpresidented” Presidency.  

Starting the show with my Buck Angel glass sword and faux Nany Seal Trump gagged with a dildo. Photo B Natural

Owens’ death itself was bad enough. Herr Trump gave the order for the raid over dinner, probably while munching the very dead—ahem—“well-done” meat that is his preference. The raid, which Obama considered ill-advised, but the generals thought might work, was so botched that it killed another 30 civilians, including eight children. It also cost taxpayers about $70 million, due to a lost plane, all the while failing to yield any significant intelligence or terrorist leaders. Trumplethinskin knew the mission was a failure, which is why the big baby blamed his generals for it, saying on Fox-TV that “they lost Owens.” Wait, who’s the Commander-in-Chief here?

Bush-Cheny-Rumsfeld “Theater of Cruelty,” 2004. Photo: B Natural

Less than 24 hours later, flanked by fawning Republicans and confused Democrats, in his first speech to Congress, the Con Artist-in-Chief turned it all around, taking credit for a “successful” mission, exploiting Owens’ death and using the weeping widow in the gallery as a prop, forcing the great hall of fawning and confused congressional representatives to clap and clap and clap until their palms ached. Then, he topped off the murderously pompous hypocrisy of it all with a vulgar little “joke” that, incidentally, underlined his self-glee in being “man enough” to arouse such extended orgasmic applause: “And Ryan is looking down right now and he’s very happy because I think he just broke a record.”  

Where are the vomitoriums when we need them?

The really awful part is that so many in the media, including professed liberals, fell for this torrent of overheated bull feces like a drunk girl falling for a lying Lothario, or a battered wife forgiving her abuser because he brought her a bunch of flowers he picked from the neighbor’s yard. In the aftermath, CNN’s Van Jones gushed, “In that moment, he became Presidential.” This because the Insane Clown President showed the world he can read a teleprompter and cynically exploit the death of a Navy Seal during an ill-advised mission that he ordered over burned butter-basted rib-eye steak and french-fried  mac and cheese bites?

Blondes Against Trump! Photo: L’erotique

John Quaintance‏  on Twitter has the best meme response to Jones calling Trump “Presidential” in the following allegorical dialogue:

CHARLES MANSON’S GIRLFRIEND: Mom, Dad, this is Charlie.
MANSON: Nice to meet you.    
VAN JONES: In that moment he became marriage material.

Trump and Owens

Kudos to Owens’ father, Bill Owens, who isn’t jumping on the Trump Train-Wreck and wouldn’t even meet with Trump, and instead told the President, through the Miami Herald, “Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation … The government owes my son an investigation.”

Go Dad Go! Trump’s First War Crime must be exposed. Presidential or expediential, it’s downright… deplorable.

Mixed Media & Mixed Feelings

Back in Bonoboville, my guests are not war criminals, though I do have a voodoo Trump doll who has been beaten in effigy so often, he’s losing his stuffing.

PHOTO 1: CLEMMY COCKATOO.  PHOTOS 2 – 4:: B NATURAL

My first two human guests are artists exploring themes of death, along with sex.  In “Young Velvet,” mixed-media artist, Sara Lurie, mixes a big gun with ballet feet, that lady with the braided hair becoming a hangman’s noose and an old-fashioned phone. I’m not big on guns, but better on a canvas than in some idiot’s hands, and I just love the phone.

“Young Velvet” and “Cognitive Dissonance” by Sara Lurie. Photo: B Natural

My favorite piece of Sara’s (that she brought with her) portrays an elderly pious-looking nun wearing a habit made of xxx images, the hands clasped together in prayer, her white bib etched with the words “Skank Trap” and a cartoon dialogue bubble next to her with the words “My pussy is raw for you.” The piece is called “Forgive Me,” and we most certainly do.

“Forgive Me” and “Cognitive Dissonance” by Sara Lurie. Photo: B Natural

“Cognitive Dissonance,” Sara’s painting of a headless naked woman in bondage, reflects her ambivalence about her own BDSM experiences. Generously, she gives the Bonoboville Gallery of Erotic Art a print of “Cognitive Dissonance.” Mixed feelings or mixed media, it’s a beautiful piece, and we appreciate the gift!

Not so much into BDSM at this stage of her life, Sara is now turned on by “love,” which she says she is “in” with a lucky lover off-premises. In keeping with her passionate approach to life, she wears a vial containing her girlfriend’s blood mixed with her own on a chain around her neck.

She also describes masturbating while meditating (I call this “medibation”) before painting some of her visions, as well as making love while painting and smearing the colors all over her and her lover’s bodies. At one point, she lifts her top to show us a large tattoo of birds emblazoned across her beautiful ribcage. #GoBonobos for the artist as living canvas!

Sara shares her bird tattoos. Photo: B Natural

Don’t miss “Blow Me,” Sara Lurie’s aptly entitled art show—which, she says, refers to what you do with a dandelion, as well as a person—at Art on Scene on 8521 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood opening on April 8^th.

Politics of Passion

My second guest, tattoo and poster artist, Howard Teman, just pierced the ears of Teri Hatcher and her daughter Emerson Tenney, among other celebs. He also turns out to be one of my many “children” that grew up watching The Dr. Susan Block Show on public access and HBO. No wonder he‘s such a perv!

Howard Teman points out details of “The Final Supper.” Photo: B Natural

Seriously, Howard is an accomplished artist on human skin and poster board.  So what if he likes to tattoo vulvas with bright pink flowers and paint pretty girls covered in black widow spiders or having their nipples bitten by scorpions? Eros and Thanatos are close cousins in the Teman oeuvre.

PHOTO  1: B NATURAL. PHOTOS 2, 3, 5: L’EROTIQUE.  PHOTOS 4 &  6:  CLEMMY COCKADOO

His “Politics of Passion” depicts JFK between Marilyn’s legs, lovers who both met tragic, mysterious deaths. His U.S. presidential orgy, “Commander-in-Chief,” features Presidents and their lovers. “The Final Supper” is a take-off on the Last Supper—with Hitler as Jesus and a bunch of serial killers and mass murderers as the apostles.

Howard generously gives the Bonoboville Gallery a print of the Spider Girl. Speaking of arachnids, Howard is a fan of pioneer tattoo artist Spider Web, whose work is featured in the late great Charles Gatewood’s “Forbidden Photographs” (including a tattooed fetus!), published by Capt’n Max.

Amor Returns

Just as we’re about to end the show, who comes romping into the Womb Room but Amor “Baby Block” Hilton, winner of the “Most Adorable” 2016 SUZY Award, in pink short-shorts and black boots, accompanied by her sexy new girlfriend, Shannon St. James.

With Amor Hilton & Shannon St. James. Selfie

With these two hot party blondes, plus me, goldilocks Sara and our own platinum princess, Gypsy Bonobo (totally rocking a black bikini to better show off her own array of gorgeous tattoos), we spontaneously decide to form a group, “Blondes Against Trump,” as we continue to spank our Drumpf Doll’s   plush balls with The Bonobo Way, and put him under gag order with a dildo. Yes, it’s silly, but it’s also therapeutic.

PHOTOS: ABE BONOBO

And yes, we partake in an exciting double-topless Bonoboville Communion and Waterboarding, Bonobo-Style, as we careen, getting bubblier with bubbly (they bring their own peach champagne), into overtime. Or, as Amor has been known to say, she’s “having mixed drinks about feelings.”

PHOTOS 1, 2, 3, 6: B NATURAL.  PHOTO 4: L’EROTIQUE

We also pay tribute to Amor’s gal pal Christine Dolce aka “Forbidden,” one of my first “friends” on Myspace in 2004, and one of the first to be famous for being famous,” Andy-Warhol-style, before the Kardashians made it vulgar.

RIP Christine Dolce, aka Forbidden.

Like Jim Morrison, Marilyn Monroe and JFK, Christine lived fast and died young. Though we don’t want to be like her, nor would we want our friends or children to follow in her spike-heeled footsteps, we still respect her choices and honor her Party Blonde milestones for what they are.

Remembering “Forbidden.” Photo: B Natural

Yes, she appeared to get a little too bubbly with the bubbly and died of liver failure at age 35. That may be a weakness, but it is not a sin. It is not a crime, let alone a war crime. 

R.I.P. Christine Dolce and Ryan Owens, as well as thirty other fellow humans, including eight children, who met their untimely deaths in Humpty Trumpty’s truly deplorable raid.

What do you think? Love to read your comments. Love to see your art! 

Thanks to this week’s volunteers and staff: Camera Operator – Sean Riedy, Conwell Stewart; Photographers – B Natural, L’Erotique; Bartender – Jamie Liu; On-Campus Bonobos – Abe Perez, Del Rey, Gypsy Bonobo, Harry Sapien, Jacquie Blu, MarsFX, Johnny Jungle, Clemmy Cockatoo, Ana & Miguel. This show is associate-produced by Johnny and Clemmy.

© March 5, 2017. Susan Block, Ph.D., a.k.a. “Dr. Suzy,” is a world renowned LA sex therapist, author of The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure and horny housewife, occasionally seen on HBO and other channels. For speaking engagements, call 310-568-0066.