Bob Flanagan 314245 221553732 2008-06-25T00:55:25Z Thijs!bot 1392310 robot Adding: [[fr:Bob Flanagan]] ''For other persons with similar names see [[Bob Flanagan (disambiguation)]].'' '''Bob Flanagan''' ([[December 27]] [[1952]] &ndash; [[January 4]] [[1996]])<ref name=Terminals>''Terminals''</ref> was an [[United States|American]] writer, [[poet]], [[musician]], [[performance art]]ist, and [[Comedian|comic]]. He was born in [[New York City]] and grew up in [[Glendale, California]]. At a young age he was diagnosed with [[Cystic Fibrosis]], a condition which would influence his art and ultimately claim his life. He studied literature at [[California State University, Long Beach]] and the [[University of California, Irvine]]. He moved to [[Los Angeles]] in 1976. In 1978, he published his first book, ''The Kid Is A Man.'' He also worked with the improv comedy group [[The Groundlings]].<ref>[http://hnv.nin.net/hnv6/flanagan.html bob flanagan, 1952-1996<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He was the subject of the documentary ''[[SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist]]'' (1997) a film by [[Kirby Dick]],<ref name=Terminals/> which films the final years of Bob's life. [[Image:Happiness in Slavery video.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Bob Flanagan]] being tortured in the almost universally banned [[Nine Inch Nails]] music video for "[[Happiness in Slavery]]"]] Flanagan is featured in the widely [[Censorship|banned]] [[music video]] for the song "[[Happiness in Slavery]]" by [[Nine Inch Nails]].<ref name=Terminals/> In the video, he plays a character who worships a machine. He offers a candle to an altar, before ceremonially undressing and washing. The slave (Bob) then lies down on an intelligent [[torture]] machine that molests and ultimately kills him, all with a mixture of pain and pleasure on his face. In 1993 he also appeared in the video for the [[Danzig (band)|Danzig]] song "It's Coming Down". In the uncensored version of the video, Flanagan hammers a nail through the head of his penis before urinating on the lens of the camera recording him. He also had a bit part in Godflesh's ''Crush my Soul'' video, as a suitably blasphemous, upside-down suspended Christ, hoisted on to the ceiling of a traditional-looking church by his wife [[Sheree Rose]]. While some of his performances were notable for acts of extreme [[masochism]] (on at least one occasion he hammered a nail through his penis, while cracking jokes), he also wrote rather clever, humorous songs, many of them intended as much for children as adults. His latest posthumous piece by Sheree Rose entitled ''Bobaloon,'' was shown in Japan, featuring a 20 foot tall inflatable Flanagan complete with pierced penis, [[ball gag]] and [[straitjacket]]. On [[January 4]] [[1996]], he died of [[cystic fibrosis]], aged 43. ==Partial bibliography== * ''The Kid is the Man'' (1978) * ''The Wedding of Everything'' (1983) * ''Slave Sonnets'' (1986) * ''Fuck Journal'' (Hanuman Press, c. 1990) * ''A Taste of Honey'' with [[David Trinidad]] (1990) * ''Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist'' (1993) (interviews) * ''Pain Journal''(1996) ==Notes and references== {{reflist}} ---- * [http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/terminals/bio_bob.html Bob Flanagan]: brief biography on ''Terminals'', [[University of California at Los Angeles|UCLA]]. Accessed 14 October 2006. == External links == * [http://hnv.nin.net/hnv6/flanagan.html Obituary] * [http://www.poetryproject.com/newsletter/nl_flana.html From the Poetry Journal] * [http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/terminals/flanagan/flanagan.html Excerpts from Flanagan's ''Pain Journal''] * [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_n4_v56/ai_20544724 ''Why'' (poem answering the question of Flanagan's lifestyle)] *[http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?FLANAGANB Bob Flanagan] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank] <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] --> {{Persondata |NAME= Flanagan, Bob |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION=[[United States|American]] writer, [[poet]], [[musician]], [[performance art]]ist, and [[Comedian|comic]] |DATE OF BIRTH=[[December 27]] [[1952]] |PLACE OF BIRTH=[[New York City]] |DATE OF DEATH=[[January 4]] [[1996]] |PLACE OF DEATH= }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Bob}} [[Category:1952 births]] [[Category:1996 deaths]] [[Category:American comedians]] [[Category:American folk musicians]] [[Category:American poets]] [[Category:American songwriters]] [[Category:American writers]] [[Category:BDSM submissives]] [[Category:BDSM writers]] [[Category:Deaths from cystic fibrosis]] [[Category:Irish-Americans]] [[Category:People from Glendale, California]] [[Category:People from New York City]] [[Category:American erotica writers]] [[de:Bob Flanagan]] [[es:Bob Flanagan]] [[fr:Bob Flanagan]] [[pt:Bob Flanagan]] [[ru:Фланаган, Боб]]