For our newest BUTT blog feature, we’re going to be asking some of our favorite people from a broad range of artistic backgrounds to compile a list – a SUPERLIST of their current obsessions, the things they’re excited about right now – from art, to boys, to music, to video, memories, unknown heroes, and more. We’re calling it SUPERLIST because super is one of our favorite BUTT adjectives. We say it all the time, both in print and in our office.

Our first guest Superlist-er is John Orth, artist and lead singer of the excellent band Holopaw, who recently released their third album Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness to high praise from Pitchfork and their ilk. John splits his time between New York and Florida, where he regularly hangs out with manatees who swim up to a lake near his house. Who better to begin the SUPERLIST?

1. South Park as Slash

The artist known as Babyhip re-imagines the boys of South Park as young fags. In her version, the boys are drawn as gangly, fey teens who resemble the watery-eyed subjects of Elizabeth Peyton paintings and have a Larry Clark-penchant for sex, drugs and guns. Their rebellion seems to be fueled by the reoccurring death of their friend and lover, Kenny McCormick (a plot point borrowed from the original series). All of their interactions with Kenny, romantic or otherwise, are cut by the knowledge that he will soon meet a violent end. Again and again he is lovingly memorialized by Babyhip in glorious, gothic splendor. Babyhip’s work falls within the curious, Japanese phenomenon of slash comics, or yaoi, in which fans (most often women writing for women) queer popular, fictional male characters. (Also check out the accomplished work of South Korean artist Eunyoung91)

2. Karen Dalton ‘Blues Jumped the Rabbit’

To see the remarkable Karen Dalton sing in this rare footage is a marvel.

3. Underwear

One Christmas my cherished aunt gave my brother and me a set of bikini cut Jockey underwear (suggestively packaged in an 8″ plastic tube) and unknowingly indoctrinated her twelve year old nephew into the world of fetish. I became obsessed with underwear. My old briefs seemed stodgy and sexless. My new pairs were daring in color and cut. I set out to modify my old line by standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a pair of shears and turning traditional briefs into g-strings, loin cloths and tattered garments that suggested the latter days of a shipwrecked scenario. I replenished my briefs by stealing pairs from my friends and once from the shower room at the public pool. Though my overstuffed underwear drawer would evidence otherwise, my obsession has subsided over the years and my tastes reverted back to the classics. I did however, recently come across a ridiculously priced and exquisitely made pair of Schiesser boxer briefs that registered a familiar thrill.

4. Vic Chesnutt (1964-2009)

No other artist that has influenced my songwriting so directly as Vic Chesnutt. I have borrowed shamelessly from him throughout the years. He was an unflinching lyrical Walt Whitman. When he sang ‘hallelujah for all the ghosties and all the scary monsters underneath the boiling seas’ he was aligning himself with those dark forces and recognizing the beauty in their slippery grins. Other wordsmiths will carry the flag (Dan Bejar of Destroyer and David Berman of Silver Jews come to mind), but none compare to the masterful Vic Chesnutt. (Pitchfork has compiled a sampler of his work here.)

5. Forbes and the Naked-Eyed Medusae

My boyfriend and I came across the work of the 19th century naturalist Edward Forbes at a collectible bookstore in Micanopy Florida. His illustrations of The British Naked-Eyed Medusae (anatomical depictions of a species of jellyfish) transcend their scientific purpose and become whimsical, otherworldly compositions. I have completed two sets of drawings directly inspired by his work.

6. Bad Booty/Good Disco/Old Soul

DJs: The patrons standing at your feet are wanting to dance; moreover, they are wanting to fuck. It is your job to facilitate both. Please be willing to get stupid to achieve this end. And please do not confuse ’stupid’ with irony. Irony rarely has a beat and you can’t fuck to it.

7. Succulents

I love my succulents. See above picture of me for reference.

8. BONUS: Muscle Motion

My friends and I have been working out to thrifted VHS exercise tapes. The gem in our collection is Muscle Motion, The Men from Chippendales. One of the instructors, Roger, is Tom of Finland-perfection in high-waisted, lumberjack jeans or sweeter still in a vertical striped unitard.