Stu Bykofsky | 'Red Hot' art evicted from the Square
I WRITE THIS not just as Your Favorite Columnist, but also as Your Fearless Defender of Freedom of Expression - such as pole-dancing, bondage and spanking.
I WRITE THIS not just as Your Favorite Columnist, but also as Your Fearless Defender of Freedom of Expression - such as pole-dancing, bondage and spanking.
You were maybe thinking ballet, the F-word and fascist political pamphlets?
Although Philadelphia has managed a Houdini-like escape from the straitjacket of being a boring, stodgy city (still fat and ugly, however), something has erupted to show we're not completely out of the clutches of the bluebloods.
On Thursday, the Old Establishment came down hard on art-gallery owner Perry Milou, 40, and handed him an eviction notice from his $3,500-a-month space. His Galleria 1903, at 1903 Walnut St., was given 90 days to hit the road, Jack.
How come? Galleria 1903 had installed an exhibit - including nudes and a racy bite of S&M here and there - by celebrated artists. Also on display are many sculptures, wall panels and oils of clothed people ranging from Marilyn Monroe to the Phillies.
Milou titled the exhibit "Red Hot," which probably drew the attention (and the righteous wrath) of the blue-haired residents of the Rittenhouse Plaza co-op, which owns the space.
It wasn't the art or the title that gave the co-op the vapors, apparently. It was the promised pole-dancing, bondage and spanking classes.
Not "classes" exactly, says Milou. More like lectures, seminars or workshops to promote the art, some of which is mildly erotic, I report sadly.
[Editor's note: Stu is sad because it's only "mildly" erotic.]
You want to feel sorrow? The Saturday-night "Spanking 101" seminar was canceled on Friday. "Not enough sign-up," meaning registration, Milou says.
That's a real smack, pun intended, on Philly's hipster community. (Where are you people?)
At no point was any kind of sex, or sex show, planned for the premises, says Milou, who's talking with lawyers.
Rittenhouse Plaza didn't return my calls, but spokesman Stanton Oswald told 6abc that Milou's plans were not "normal activity" for an art gallery. Milou says his racy, rumpus-room seminars wouldn't lift an eyebrow in an Old City gallery. I agree, but Old City galleries aren't right across Walnut from genteel, leafy Rittenhouse Square.
I had wanted to ask Oswald how many of the Rittenhouse Plaza aristocracy really had complained and if it might have been better to check out the show before tossing Milou out.
Since Oswald wasn't talking, I took a peek myself.
I showed up on Friday night with Baby Cakes (as I am responsible for her continuing education):
We arrive on time to find instructor Veronica Bound has started "Erotic Rope Bondage Basics" 45 minutes early.
Artists! Grrr.
We see about 20 people, male and female, many over 40, some with ropes already tied around their wrists.
"Keep the lines even and not crisscrossed" to avoid pinched flesh and plucked hairs, warns Bound.
One older guy in a fishing cap is tying up his own ankle. He needs a date.
[Editor's note: Maybe he has one tied up at home.]
The black-attired Bound demonstrates several positions, including spread-eagle, but cautions that one "doesn't give you accessibility to all the goodies." (To me, "goodies" usually means a Mallomar bar.)
We rush home to try out what we've learned.
"Honey," I ask my loving wife, "are you sure the rope is supposed to go around my neck?" *
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns: