Sad news. The great B-movie cult figure, Japanese-American actress-dancer Tura Satana, has died. Satana, who inspired the Kill Bill! films, was best-known for her tight-costumed pneumatic psychopath in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, perhaps the ne plus ultra of camp schlock movie making (sexploitation). She also dated celebrities like Elvis and Sinatra, before her career took off. Later, she abandoned her bizarre and novel mix of martial arts and burlesque, and settled down to a series of Joe jobs, but was always a fan favourite. She will not be forgotten.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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