April 29, 2023

"She has made a living as a yoga teacher, though she doesn’t really like teaching and has a penchant for skewering the pieties of her profession..."

"... in Instagram parodies filmed by her husband. She has appeared in videos as a clueless self-care influencer, sometimes wrapped in a shearling rug, hawking tinctures with names like One Per Scent and Abundance, thanking Mercedes-Benz for ferrying her to ayahuasca ceremonies, and browbeating a pair of 'students' played by naked American Girl dolls marked up with Sharpies."

I'm reading "From "A Daughter of a Warhol Superstar Tells Her Story at Last/After an unruly childhood in the Chelsea Hotel and online fame as a yoga parodist, Alexandra Auder writes an ode to bohemian Manhattan and her singular mother, Viva" (NYT).

We're told Viva read a draft of her daughter's memoir and took to calling it "the 'Mommie Dearest' book."Viva — AKA Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann — is still alive. She's 88. She has another daughter, the actress Gaby Hoffman. And if you haven't seen her in any Andy Warhol movies, you probably still saw her in a small role in that early Woody Allen movie "Play It Again, Sam."

She's the character who says: "Allan, I won't deny it. I'm a nymphomaniac.... I slept with everybody.... I want to have sex all the time, play all the time otherwise you're just down, and why be down? The best way to get up is sex. I'm not like my sisters. They're so inhibited, they never want to do anything. I believe in having sex as often, as freely and as intensely as possible." The joke is that when the Woody Allen character responds by making a pass at her, she reacts with "What do you take me for?" (Video.)

18 comments:

Amexpat said...

Found the nymphomaniac scene from "Play it Again Sam, It's very dark, but I could see the mother daughter resemblance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcdcrwHbdGM

tim in vermont said...

After reading Less Than Zero and Tropic of Cancer almost back to back, I have decided that a sure way to make it as a writer is to write thinly disguised fiction about your famous friends.

Old and slow said...

I have to admit, I kind of like the description of this woman. She sounds like fun! I am not being sarcastic, in case that is not clear.

Quaestor said...

Let's not give another "Mommy Dearest" enough attention to create another movie about lunatics for lunatics. Besides, there's no cultural space for anything that tops a greased-up Faye Danaway doing a Kabuki squat. Instead, we should ask ourselves, Is yoga good for anything other than inflicting joint damage?

A buddy of mine once asked me to join a yoga class. He had a simple three-step plan -- join a yoga class, meet girls, get laid. But he was a bit shy and hoped I would participate to buck up his courage. I thought his plan had some large holes in it, so I declined, a decision I have never regretted.

BudBrown said...

Is this it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcdcrwHbdGM

n.n said...

The progressive path of diversity and cultural appropriation.

Readering said...

https://youtu.be/NcdcrwHbdGM⁵

How did I misread the signs?

gilbar said...

so, Lynne on twitter says..
Just bought him food, slept with him.. and then sent him home in an Uber.
Let's see how men like it!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“The joke is that when the Woody Allen character responds by making a pass at her, she's reacts with "What do you take me for?"

a recurring theme in the Manosphere.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Here’s the clip. Viva’s other daughter, Gaby, played Adam’s sister on Girls.

William said...

Apparently Viva's daughter in her adult life has achieved the minimum daily requirements of balance, money, and fame to make life endurable. That's quite an achievement given the chaos she endured as as child. So good for her, and also for Viva who, despite outward appearances, could provide some maternal nurturing. Warhol's Factory wasn't known for producing happy endings, but here's one--perhaps the only one.

Hari said...

"Warhol Superstar" Is that a thing?

madAsHell said...

That does it.

The NYT is nothing more than a journal for conflicted people. People that can't make priorities, and organize their thoughts.

Women like that kind-of freak show, and now that Jerry Springer has passed......

khematite said...

Too many dead now, unfortunately, but I'd have been interested in seeing the Warhol women ("Superstars") take on the John Waters women ("Dreamlanders") in a volleyball face-off. Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Patty Hearst, et al. vs. Viva, Baby Jane Holzer, Edie Sedgwick, Ultra Violet, et al.

Sadly, however, it might have proved impossible to resolve the vexing trans-eligibility issues raised by Divine, Edith Coffey, Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, and Jackie Curtis.

MayBee said...

Hmmm. Interesting that someone with 21K Instagram followers can get a book deal and a piece in the NYTs.

Bunkypotatohead said...

"A Daughter of a Warhol Superstar Tells Her Story at Last/After an unruly childhood in the Chelsea Hotel and online fame as a yoga parodist, Alexandra Auder writes an ode to bohemian Manhattan and her singular mother, Viva"

That sentence and the cultural references within would be meaningless to 99% of humanity.

DavidUW said...

Absolutely no one gives a shit about this.

n.n said...

People like to say salsa... yoga. Yogurt? Namaste.