Yearly Archives: 2026

Saturday Matinee: Red Hot + Blue

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Source: RedHot.org

OVERVIEW

Red Hot + Blue is the first in the series of compilation albums from the Red Hot Organization. It features contemporary pop performers reinterpreting the music of Cole Porter, one of the great American songwriters of the early 20th century. It was one of the first successful tribute albums and a landmark multimedia project, with contributions from filmmakers, artists and designers in addition to musicians.
The money raised went to several groundbreaking AIDS organizations, notably ACT UP and Treatment Action Group (TAG), which were responsible for forcing the government and pharmaceutical companies to release the drugs that now allow people to live with HIV.

FACTS /
ORAL HISTORY

  • Filmmakers who made videos for the project included: Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Jonathan Demme, Alex Cox, Jean Baptiste Mondino, Percy Adlon and Neil Jordan
  • Artists and designers who contributed included: Jean Paul Gaultier, Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz, Sue Coe, Barbara Kruger, Gran Fury and Jenny Holzer
  • The TV show was seen in over 30 countries around the world. ABC in the US demanded a different edit of the show with hosts who included Richard Gere, Whoopie Goldberg and several others. Gere’s introduction was one of the first mentions of the word ‘condom’ on network US television, outside of news programming
  • Pedro Almodovar wrote a treatment and was scheduled to make the video for “Don’t Fence Me In”, but couldn’t at the last minute and David Byrne directed a video himself
  • Most regrettable combination that didn’t, but almost happened: Lou Reed doing “I Get A Kick Out of You” directed by Martin Scorsese. The track was eventually done by The Jungle Brothers with a video by Mark Pellington
  • Neneh Cherry’s rap in “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” was one of the first times AIDS was described and talked about directly in popular culture

PRESS

Bella Online

The Red Hot + Blue movement was started in the early 90s’ by John Carlin. John had been working as an art critic and teacher and witnessed how AIDS was destroying his community. John got established music artists to come on board to record the songs of Cole Porter. Several Red, Hot & Blue compilation CD’s were released during the 90’s.

LONG ISLAND PRESS

One of the greatest CD compilations of all time, 1990’s RH + B was inspired, eclectic collection of songs by top artists of the time rendering Cole Porter songs– all to benefit AIDS research. As with the CD, the DVD collection of videos is sexy, provocative and most importantly, timeless. The music weathers the years well, and the videos add an extra intensity. 

arkansas gazette

This astounding collection of contemporary pop performers reinterpreting the songs of Cole Porter came out in 1990, first as an album and then as a television special consisting of music videos, many by famous directors and openly portraying the effects of AIDS on society. The album sold more than a million copies worldwide and was one of the music industry’s first major AIDS benefits. 

CREDITS

Produced and Directed By: Leigh Blake + John Carlin Created By: Leigh Blake, John Carlin + F. Richard Pappas Supervising Musical Producer: Steve Lillywhite

SCI as Gnostic Path

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Having spent nearly a year and nine months paralyzed, experiencing higher levels of muscle pain and relatively less social interaction, I’ve gained a visceral understanding of dukkha, the Buddhist conception of pain (which encompasses the spectrum of unpleasant mental and physical sensations from mild discomfort to agony), as well as the gnostic concept of the material world as prison. Like Russian nesting dolls, our physical bodies are a prison within a prison, but what’s inside the prison? Some might call it a soul but Gnostics view it as a divine spark, one’s true self and fragment of the Pleroma, the divine realm of the universe.

As infants we’re extremely confined in terms of physical and mental abilities. Over time the parameters of our confinement expand through natural growth, learning and exercise. We can also get a sense of transcendence through relationships, social structures, art, spirituality, technology, drugs, and various physical/mental disciplines. However, all of these can also be utilized to increase pain and confinement (which Gnostics might interpret as the work of a demiurge or archons). In any case, the relative freedom one might experience is always temporary.

Expanding one’s sense of freedom or transcending confinement is often slow and difficult but losing one’s freedom and increasing confinement can be shockingly quick and easy. Both can occur at any time by random chance or either conscious or unconscious intention. If one is fortunate enough to avoid an early debilitating injury or death, one inevitably experiences accumulating loss of functions as one ages closer towards death. When death occurs the divine spark is freed from the body to reintegrate with the divine source, the Pleroma. To facilitate this process, the divine spark can be “nourished” through various means.

One of the primary ways to nourish the divine spark is to achieve Gnosis, which can be accomplished intuitively or through direct experience to gain a sense of “knowing” regarding the true nature of the world and one’s place in it. Other methods include meditation and asceticism (both of which seem to come naturally for some experiencing paralysis). Whether or not one subscribes to Gnostic ontology, the world would likely be much improved if more people practiced the various methods involved in reaching Gnosis.