We pulled Junko away from the maddening crowds at her recent show at Graphite Gallery in Williamsburg to ask a few questions:

Hola Junko!  A lot of your art is focused around young girls playing and exploring their surroundings.  Are these girls little Junkos?

Hahaha yes they are little junkos.  They are all based on my experiences I had in the elementary school in Japan.

You’ve lived in Japan, Honduras, and New York – which one do you like best?

I like them all.  They are all different and beautiful.

For all the young painters and drawers out there – how do you get your own gallery show?  Is it all who you know?

Well, I’d like to think that my works get my own gallery shows… you know what I mean?

Sure.  What’s in the future for Junko?

Hmm…  Live in Mexico to discover the best tacos in the world… yup.

Where is your favorite place to get a taco?

I like a small Mexican place in Brooklyn, on Broadway  around Marcy Ave.  I don’t know the name of the place.  I recommend tostadas.  It is fried tortilla with salad and your favorite toppings on top.    Also Mexican restaurants in Sunset Park are awesome.

We’ll check it out Junko.

For the past few years Gillian Telling has been telling it like it is as sex columnist for Maxim and a ton of other magazines and websites.  She exposes the mysteries of women, and teaches guys how not to f it all up.  (Dudes – her “20 Things Men Don’t Know About Women” on thefrisky.com drops the knowledge like a library card.)

Gillian dropped by the NYCTACO party van with a pitcher of sangria and we talked about her new book “Dirty Girls: The Naked Truth About Our Dirty Secrets”.

Hola Gillian!  In “Dirty Girls” you lay it all out there, and that filthy honesty has shined like a smelly beacon for girls throughout the country.  While writing it, did you ever cross something out and go, “No that is TOO gross”?

Not really.  If you look at the chapter “Everybody Poops, Even Gisele Bundchen” I talked about a friend of mine having the runs so badly she’d gotten some on the walls and painted what we called a “Jackson Poolock”.  (Or a Poocasso.)  If I didn’t keep that one a secret, then… But I didn’t talk about women cheating.  Some do, some don’t, it’s just not a hilarious topic.  Guys can keep that one.

Readers can also look at the no holds barred accounts of your friends’ lives and say, “Yes, I too have gotten strep throat from going down on a dirty dick.”  Have these friends come up to you after reading the book and been like, “Yo Gill, WTF?”

Actually most of them were seriously proud to get a mention!  These are the same friends who once tried to convince me I had throat AIDS when I had tonsillitis, and sent me all sorts of links saying a prominent doctor had warned them about sexually transmitted herpes of the throat and actually had me concerned for a while.  That is just the nature of the beasts I know.

NYCTACO remembers your days as a Rolling Stone correspondent.  Do you still rock out or are you strictly DVD and Thai take out nowadays?  Who is your favorite artist today?

I’m actually so unhip these days that I have just embraced my formerly bad taste in music and listen to a lot of Chicago – both the 70s band and the musical soundtrack.  That said, I really dislike both Animal Collective and that weedy Taylor Swift.  When in doubt, I usually listen to Pulp.  I am old.

NYCTACO has a ladyfriend that wants to be a writer too, but she’s afraid she doesn’t have anything exciting in her life to talk about.  What piece of advice could you bestow on this timid miss?

I would never tell someone to do something wacky just to get a good story out of it – good stories have to happen organically.  Basically, don’t travel to India alone thinking you’ll be inspired to write Eat, Pray, Love 2.  You’ll probably just be really lonely and get traveler’s diarrhea.  She should get her crazier friends drunk and see what they’ll admit to.  That’s what I did!

Where’s your favorite place to get a taco in NYC?

Mercadito’s shrimp tacos are the best!  And now I am craving them and I’m all the way out in Brooklyn.  Brooklyn needs better tacos.  I’m open to suggestions, NYCTaco.

Suggest we will, Gillian,  Suggest we will.

It’s a room. A big room. Filled with dirt. Three feet high. Totally silent. A great place to meditate.

www.earthroom.org

Check it – DFA Records (home of LCD Soundsystem, Hercules & Love Affair and our boy Tim Sweeney) hosted a party last Friday at the Museum of Modern Art – the acoustics were wack but the crowd was ready to dance.

Some exhibit about Color was open to the non-dancers, but NYCTACO didn’t give an f.  We were drunk and staring at the “hipsters”.

Fuerza Bruta officially trumps the Aerosmith laser light show down at the Planetarium as the official Trippiest Show to Watch When You’re Shrooming With Eight Friends.

The Buenos Aires gang that created De La Guarda is back again at the Daryl Roth Theatre at Union Square, and NYCTACO was blown away. Guests walk into an empty room with nothing to see and nowhere to turn. For the next 70 minutes, you are attacked by treadmills, rotating machines, and a massive transparent pool that descends on the audience, low enough to touch, filled with writhing bathing beauties. (you can touch them too.)

NYCTACO got a chance to ask Michael Hollick, one of the show’s performers, just what the h is going on…

Hey, Michael, what’s up. Your show blew my mind. How did you audition for such a unique show? No Tom Stoppard monologues, I take it.

The audition was intense. We ran a lot on the treadmill, which is a major element of the show. We also did a lot of dancing. Obviously, performers in the show need to have stamina and athleticism, and the audition reflected this. No Stoppard monologues were required, but strong actors are required. Performers must have an enormous capacity for emotional expression. Real, raw emotion is what makes the show compelling. Without that it would be just a bunch of tricks.

I don’t care how many times night after night you get up there – that would scare anyone sh*tless. What do you do pre-show to relax and get into the right mental mindframe?

Focus and concentration are paramount. We arrive 2 hours before show time. We have a “track meeting” in which we learn what roles we will each be performing that night (roles are rotated on a nightly basis). After the track meeting we have a 45 minute group warmup. This is an opportunity for us to get ready physically and mentally, but more importantly it is a chance for us to come together as a group. The show is potentially dangerous if the cast and crew do not function as a team.

The cast seems real tight, in a tribal, scuzzy, magic bus type of way. Do you guys take peyote in Central Park or any sh*t like that?

We are a very close-knit group. Most of us have been working together for years. You have to trust that your fellow performer has your back during the show. We have our share of drum circles, but no magic bus….. I think someone in the cast has a magic Camry.

Sources say you’re working on some multi-chapter sci-fi fantasy opus. What’s that all about?

Wow. I’m not sure if I’m capable of an “opus”. Basically, I’m experimenting with telling one story in many different ways. Using different character perspectives, genres and styles, even different mediums. I’m fascinated by how a story becomes an enduring story or myth. I think it might have something to do with varying and diverse interpretations that allow the story to speak to a wider audience.

Wow. You’re talking like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma right there. What is in your future after Fuerza Bruta?

I’m looking forward to taking what I’ve learned from this amazing experience and applying it toward my own personal creative exploits, including my “opus”. I would love to do more film work. I make a lot of music with my scuzzy tribe and will always keep up with that. But what I really want is a garden with tomatoes, strawberries, vegetables and, yes, flowers.

Where is your favorite place to get a taco?

La Paloma in Hell’s Kitchen – 45th street and 9th ave. Cheap, fresh and delicious!

www.fuerzabruta.net

Live painting Took place in brooklyn . . . . . .

these 3 together make one SICK collab!!!!!!