DESIRE at the Standard hotel

With so much darkness and thuggery engulfing the world it is more important than ever for artists, writers and free thinkers to be heard. To shout loudly or to whisper softly. In the DESIRE issue of The Laboratory (Arts Collective) Magazine an incredible group of voices have gathered to ignite conversation via provocative images and delightful words. Today begins an alphabetical tour of the DESIRE contributors, starting with the dandy Alan Selka. His daily employment is as a butler or as he eloquently puts it "a life enhancement executive" but his soul remains quintessentially surreal. He is the ultimate encyclopedia of all things Dalinian.

Above: Alan Selka reads his work at a launch party for DESIRE - The Standard Hotel, West Hollywood.

Here is a taste of Alan's beautifully written appreciate of the great Salavador Dali and how he gained an audience with the Maestro by bringing him the thing the artist desired most in the world, besides money... a gift.

"My first knock on the low, salt-bleached door was answered by a stout Spanish maid who abruptly demanded my name, then slammed the door in my face. Within a couple of minutes she was back with the news that Dali didn’t know me, but before the door could close I played my trump card. Legend had it that Dali was quite unable to resist gifts. I was therefore carrying a full-length cape, covered in pheasant feathers, which I had recently made and which I thought would be an appropriate token of my esteem.

As if by magic the door opened wide and I stepped into the tiny matted hallway within the sanctuary at Port Lligat - where I took a seat on Mae West's lips as the maid scurried away to inform someone of the intruder."

Page 37 & Page 38

In honor of all things Dalinian and surreal and to wonder at the strange times in which we live, take a peek at RICH MEN by the filmmaker Jessica Mitrani and everything will make sense.