The Fat Sluts Are Curing Bulimia In a Single Bound
By Thom Fowler
Nomy Lamm is in your face in the sweetest, nicest, most soul-stirring way possible. A self-described "queer anarchist punk, religious Jew, New Age-y conspiracy theorist, tree-hugging hippie, fat pervert mutant freak, small-town white girl," Nomy has used everything at her disposal to create herself and her art and send shockwaves of relief to the disaffected and depressed. The world may have told her that she doesn't fit the mold, but she's not going to let that stop her.
I recently saw them on the L.A. stop of their Fat Sluts tour. I had never heard of them, they were just tacked onto the program of Lydia Lunch's Unhappy Hour that I used to go to before its summer hiatus. But they became the highlight of the night. I was blown away not only by the way they handled their subject matter -- sex, politics, feminism, sex -- but by their pitch-perfect delivery system and the unexpected heart massage. "I have to get this CD," said my friend Josh after experiencing them for the first time. The next day, another friend Rachel said, "Oh, I always wanted to meet Nomy. I wish I could have gone." And where have I been all this time?
Lamm "threw together" the Fat Sluts tour with her creative partner, Spider Cola in Olympia, Washington. Lamm and Spider are not just showbiz girls, they are also actively involved in social and political causes. Spider is well known for her presentation, "Heart Marks: A Daughter's Perspective of her Mother's Death from AIDS" and routinely travels to schools and hospitals giving lectures and safer sex demonstrations. Spider has also performed with Ladyfest and The Sex Worker's Art Show. And Nomy works the lecture circuit talking about Gender, Feminism and Identity. They are serious about their art activism but they also think putting on a show is just a cool, fun thing to do. "I'm always working to incorporate art into everything I do," says Spider.
By far, the biggest focus of the Fat Sluts tour is body image and what we are taught to believe about bodies from the media. One skit has Lamm playing music while Spider works out to a montage of exercise video clips. Spider's flabby belly bounces around while she chases after that elusive perfect body that is still several jumping jacks away.
"Body image is a personal issue, and ideally, it would be based on how your body is feeling and wouldn't include concepts like losing weight, looking like a model, and crash diets. Happiness is derived from the integrity of a moment. Unfortunately, we're taught to find the answer to happiness on TV, in magazines -- in other people, and not ourselves," said Spider.
Lamm wholeheartedly agreed. "The experience of life is more interesting
than anything on any network and that's a fact."
"The media is mostly a money-driven distraction from the real deal that can manipulate us better than our parents," added Spider.
Lamm and Spider work without the support of a record label and people find out about them through word of mouth, small festivals and the Internet. With their razor-thin budgets and a lot of ingenuity, they've managed to produce a rock opera, press a CD, make a movie and attract the attention of the underground feminist press.
"We have to create our own media," says Lamm.
Being gay, or rather "queer," as they prefer, is another important dimension of their show. While they aren't waving any rainbow flags or shouting man-hating vitriol from the rooftops, they do allow their "queerness" to be part of their creative process. "[Queer] is a looser label with more political connotations. Non-assimilationist, inclusive," said Lamm.
Spider elaborated. "I'm queer because, with all due respect to my predecessors, the gay and lesbian movement does not include me and my community enough for me to 'identify' as such. I feel the same way about 2nd-wave feminism. I don't denounce the words gay or lesbian -- it's all so relative. When I use the word 'queer' to identify, it's really for political purposes. I'd rather not identify as anything at all."
Their ragged, do-it-yourself presence carefully hides two talented and lovely, emotionally evocative voices. Lamm's voice is sweet, with a presence that drifts into the room. She sang, accompanied by her accordion, and the room fell silent in awe of her siren-like, heartfelt pleadings. They rapidly shift modes from sincerity to broad humor, that has, like everything they do, a between-the-lines irony to it. Their rendition of "Gotta Have a Gimmick" from the musical GYPSY was hilarious since the two girls are anything but what the song says they should be to make it in showbiz.
Lamm is missing the lower half of one leg and to call her zaftig would be a generous compliment. And yet -- they DO sparkle when they sing it and you realize that their gimmick is no gimmick at all. They really are exactly what you see before you. Two intelligent, charming, passionate, creative women who are conveying spirit to their audience without having to be sex objects.
"My agenda is really just to get as clear as I can with what MY vision is, and have faith in the audience's willingness to go there with me," said Spider. Lamm has a much broader agenda. It's not so much that she's got this feminist, body-positive agenda, she's basically a cheerleader for life and wants everyone to "feel like the things they want to do in life are possible."
Awwww ...
It ain't easy being a Diva, though. In order to keep the finer parts of herself polished, Nomy lives alone, has a close relationship with her cat, keeps her special trinkets on an altar and "I jerk
off a lot."
You'd think sex, pleasure and the body would be antithetical to the spiritual life of a "religious Jew." Lamm and Cola don't see any incongruities at all. "I think about spirit and soul all the time, but I don't have words for it. I think about what is "me" and what drives me. How do I channel my energies in the material world, what is the larger picture and how do I fit into it."
"The definitions are hard to grasp. I don't know what all of the bang zoom pops are that make shit happen. [That] make me cry, feel alive, feel included, or biologically connected to a tree, a flower, a star, a Republican, the rain, something goddish," said Spider.
Spider had her own mini-segment of the program where she played an off-key United States national anthem while videos of George Bush played in the background, so I think it's safe to say that feeling connected to a Republican is an odd sensation, at best, for her. It is hard for artists and thinkers and everyone in between to be critical of the U.S. after the deadening wave of blind patriotism hit the U.S. after 9/11 without being branded as the "Them" part of "Us vs. Them." So I applaud her courage to dare to ask questions. Even among an audience of "contrarians," as Lunch likes to call them, there was a noticeable tension in the air. As if the really naughty part of the show had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with politics.
Lamm is currently starring in GROUP, a film directed by Marilyn
Freeman about group therapy that is touring the Gay and Lesbian festival
circuit. She plays Pipi, "a young vulnerable punk girl." Her current CD EFFIGY is available from
Nomylamm.com, which she'll be promoting during a nationwide tour during the fall. Information about the tour can also be found on the Web site.
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