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at 16
Even before he found global fame as a human Ken doll, Celso Santebañes’ physical appearance had made him a star in his native Brazil. As a child, Celso Borges Pereira (the name he was born with) was feted for his beauty, his perfect features refusing to fade with each year that passed. At 15, he started entering — and winning — modeling competitions, eventually catching the eye of a Sao Paulo talk show talent scout.
at 17
The show gave him entry into the world of celebrity, and within a year, he’d taken up acting and changed his surname to Santebañes after his favorite Mexican sitcom character.
It was around this time that people started telling him he looked like a Ken doll. It happened so often that Santabañes became fixated on the toy, lining his bedroom shelves with dozens of the plastic figurines. He later explained that his family’s endorsement of the bizarre comparison inspired him to recreate himself as a “human puppet.”
at 18
“Obsessed with the perfection of physical beauty, Santebañes started to identify features of his face that didn’t look like the Mattel brand doll,” the Latin Times said. “(He believed) his nose was too wide and his philtrum — the crease of the upper lip — simply too natural.” Multiple plastic surgeries and an estimated $60,000 later, Santebañes had fixed his “imperfections” and joined a growing number of adult men aspiring to look like Ken.
at 19
In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper after he was discovered, the former miner said: “This is so magical. My life has changed. I feel like the whole of Brazil is supporting me. People are sometimes frightened by the way I look, and stop me to say how much I look like a doll. I do suffer a lot of prejudice. But the world is full of judgmental people, I don’t care.”
Before long he was charging up to $20,000 for public appearances at party houses, clubs, weddings and children’s plays, even launching a line of Celso dolls in Los Angeles, much to the envy of rivals Justin Jedlica (aka Ken 1) and Rodrigo Alves (aka Ken 3).
“He daydreamed about making a film with Valeria Lukyanova, the Ukrainian ‘Human Barbie,’” the Latin Times said. He was negotiating an “advertising campaign for a huge fashion house”. But despite his success, he said he wasn’t entirely happy. “I think I’m 90% of what I want to be,” he said last year. “I intend to do more surgeries, but do not know what. For now my investment is being in the gym, for Ken is strong and I am skinny.”
Human Barbie Valeria Lukyanova
But late last year, Santebañes received a reality check in the form of an unexpected cancer diagnosis. A rare and aggressive form of leukemia had been detected during blood tests in preparation for surgery to repair a leaky filler in one of Santebañes’ legs. He was only 20 and suddenly he was dying. The impact was immediate.
“Today, I start a new cycle in my life,” he told reporters in January. “I am starting chemotherapy and I admit I’m a little concerned about some side effects, like hair loss, nausea, my body’s rejection (of chemotherapy), among other things, but I am no longer concerned with the issue of aesthetics. For me that doesn’t matter. What matters is my health now, and I will fight for it.”
Santebañes was told he had a high chance of beating the cancer, and though finding out he had leukemia was surprising, the doctor’s words made him feel reassured. “When I’m cured, I plan to release a book,” he said in March of this year. “Before, I struggled and did everything to be perfect. Today, God is showing me that there are other values. I think each day of treatment will be a great learning experience. I’ll be a new person. Not that I was a bad person, but I will certainly be a far better person than I was.”
The Times observed: “In his five-month battle with cancer, Santebañes immediately had to confront his own physical deterioration, the undoing of what had become his personal identity and national image. It started with dark spots on his skin and bleeding gums, symptoms of the blood cancer. Once in treatment, his hair fell out. He’d later be confined to a wheelchair, a scrawny pale shadow.”
On May 18, Santebañes, wearing a hat and heavy makeup and close to death, reflected on his tragic quest for physical perfection. “Everyone who wants to be pretty, who wants to be perfect, to call attention to themselves, to supplant this lack of … of love, perhaps,” he told Hoje Em Dia. If he survived, he said, he wouldn’t do any more surgeries: “I wouldn’t do any more, what’s done is done.”
the last photo
“I want the simple pleasures of life and, if I am told I’m better, I will run to a waterfall,” he said.
interview in happier days
Santebañes died last Thursday after contracting pneumonia. He was buried in his native Sao Paulo over the weekend. His father, Celia Borges, told reporters: “When he was starting to fulfill his dreams, he discovered his illness and his dreams were interrupted. He had plans but God had others.”
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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks for the review. Everything you say is pretty much what I expected. I already pretty much decided to avoid that film, and now my aversion is completely cemented. I thought I recognized love’s yesterday karaoke choice, and I was right. Nice buzz. Cry for the light, For the love that won’t come, You said that you’d never, Leave me alone, I gave you my heart, You cried for my soul, An Angel won’t come, This Devil won’t go, Something is wrong, G. ** James, Lustrous feedback, dude. I’m going to let myself get all old fashioned and take your disinterest in being invaded by discordant sounds as a sign of your mental and psychological good health. All hail us. Who better to hail. Yeah, dead is dead, so who cares, but I just don’t want to be burned up. Call it intuition. Very nice about the praise, in writing even. Gild that thing or something. Me, I’m off to make our film’s teaser trailer and submit the film to a film festival and do emails like you. Bon appetit. ** Misanthrope, You guys getting a place together is a nice idea. Although stranding your mom with David is … tricky? I’m so sorry about losing your friend from work. Hugs to you, buddy. That’s rough. ** Steeqhen, ‘Haunted’, right, okay, good, I’ll make a beeline. Liking that cave you discovered in your mind and also just the mental image of finding a cave in a mind. Although I guess in the real world that might mean one had a tumor something. Find the time? Somehow? The visa: I’m gathering the last required docs, and I now have an appointment at the French Consulate in LA for March 18. So, getting there, ‘god’ willing. Share any exciting movies you come across. Have an unhaunted day. ** _Black_Acrylic, Word is that the new Wiseman about restaurants is very good albeit it very long. When I was last in LA, my roommate was addicted to … is it called The Great British Bakeoff or something like that? The show that has the one kind of strange co-host guy who recently mysteriously vanished or something? Anyway, yeah, it was addictive. ** Bill, Cool. Okay, interesting, or not, about Chicago not having had a wild performance art moment. There was Joan Jett Black, right? And, uh … okay, see, now I’m coming up empty. ** Tyler Ookami, Hi, T. I’ve never been wildly into Almodovar, although I’ve liked some of his films. The late 80s-90s films mostly. There was a point where it started to seem like he was just making Almodovar-with-a-capital-A films, like he settled down and decided that he knew what people expected of him and kept on doing variations on that. I lost interest then. Worth investigating further probably, but I would head to the period of his work that I just mentioned, if you ask me. My favorite Lopatin phase is ‘Betrayed in the Octagon’ -> ‘Replica’. He was crazy great live back then. You’ve really sold me on Jane Remover. That sounds so good. I’ll get right on that. Thanks a bunch. I love Codeine. ‘Jr’ is one of my all-time favorite songs. Right, I do know Bruce Bickford a little through his Zappa-related stuff. Thanks for the link. I’ll watch that ASAP. Great! Hoping stuff is great with you. Is it, and how so? ** SP, Hi, SP! Happy this point in the New Year to you! So pleased you liked the Hapi Phace video. I loved Hapi Phace so much. A non-stop joy. I wish she’d rise out of the ether and make a comeback. I’m good, how are you? ** Steve, Good re: your dad. I’ll look for Venturing too when I hit Jane Remover up. 3121534312: okay, certainly sounds worth having at least a basic experience with. Thanks, pal. ** HaRpEr, Hi. The Jobriath doc isn’t that great as a doc, but it’s key if you want to what there is to know about him. I’m sure you know the problem was that Jobriath was massively overhyped. His publicity machine made it seem like seeing him live would be like experiencing an alien invasion from outer space, but his show was very handmade and rinky-dink. Glam was super hip and cool in the States, especially in LA, but it was always pretty niche, and the Glam bands/artists who originated in States were mostly pretty oddball: Zolar X, Smokey, Silverhead, etc. — all mostly forgotten now. I was just trying to think of a wacky thing/place in LA that could qualify as quaint, and, you’re right, nah. LA doesn’t do quaint. Interesting. I don’t know ‘The Invention of Morel’. Sounds like I should. Cool. The degree to which our film will get out there and how will depend on whether we can land an ambitious sales agent or not. My guess is we’ll end up doing a lot of targeted screenings and some festivals and maybe a mini-release in a few big cities and then it’ll go to streaming. But we’ll see. Even though the response to the film has been extremely positive, it’s always accompanied by how strange and challenging the film is, so I don’t think we can get our expectations too high. We’re making the teaser trailer today! Happy day, pal. ** Uday, Haha, it’s true, even when French people try extra hard to pronounce my name in its American form, they have a lot of trouble making the ‘i’ not sound like ‘ee’. Escort sites? Well, the big EU one is Romeo. It categorises the escorts under the title Hunqz. In the UK, SleepyBoys. In the US, I guess RentMen. And there are lots of littler ones and message boards where you have to kind of hunt to find the sex seeking guys who charge for it. But there are some starting places at least. Warning: you’ll need to hunt pretty hard and carefully to find escorts like the ones I feature and who don’t just say they’re sexy and available. Interesting project, obviously. I’ll double knot my laces today, thank you for caring. ** Joe, Hi, Joe! Things are mostly okay, just super busy with a bunch of unfun duties re: my visa quest and the film. I saw Guyotat read at the Pompidou maybe, oh, 7 years ago or thereabouts? No, I never met him. I had the chance once because a friend of mine was kind of his handler, but I was too intimidated, stupidly. I like ‘Coma’ and ‘In the Deep’, of course, but they don’t excite me like his visionary books. The problem is that a lot of his greatest works are almost impossible to translate or would be a massive job to try to translate. For instance, ‘Prostitution’: Bruce Benderson was translating that, but it was so difficult that he gave up after one chapter, so there’s only that one chapter in English. And people here tell me there are seven or eight novels that are on the level with and even more complicated and dazzling than ‘Eden Eden Eden’, but I doubt they will ever get into English. Yes, I’m so sorry about emailing. I’m so far, far behind. I promise I will write to you today. I’m so sorry. I’ve just been really swamped. xoxo, me. ** nat, Hey! You made it! It does seem like the barrier around the commenting arena is thawing at least somewhat. I’d love to hear more if Cloudflare allows and you feel like it. Take care in the meantime. ** Okay. I found myself in some sort of mood that told me I should restore this old, strange post. There you go. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Bake Off is a major TV success here in the UK. It inspired my 2020 story that was picked up by X-Ray. Think it must have somehow borrowed its way into my subconsciounce with productive results.
Dennis, Thanks, Big D. Yeah, that coworker was a really nice lady. :'(
That’s the thing, stranding my mom with David. Really, she’d probably end up killing him and not the other way around. Since I cut off his money, she’s been giving him what she can (and what she can’t, really). I told she’s got to stop. She just can’t say no and he just hounds her until she’s at her wits’ end. It’s sad, but I’m staying firm. Now she needs to.
Hi
As I walk around I say some phrases as mantra like What kind of clouds surround you? or Carry the day’s troubles / desires into the night or His apartment as shelter from the storm Your apartment as shelter from the storm so I am adding denniscooperblog as shelter from the storm
It’s done if I feel it it’s done
So about Guyotat, is there info about these elusive novels of his? And they are so many too. You say that you doubt that they will see the light of day but maybe there is chance if someone pushes to this direction? I have vivid memory of one Guyotat post you did, maybe it’s good idea to do spotlight in another of his books or revive
I remember today’s post too. I used to be on Planet Romeo for years and years. My nickname was “horrorhead” like the famous Curve song that says “There’s horror in my head when the blanket is gone”
Was not ot on the Hunqz section but the regular one. I used to find poetry there completely lacking in Grindr. I don’t know why. All this blue background. I used to see strange profiles and getting into these guys’ bodies while rotting in my bed under the cruel Greek sun (which was outside my apartment). If I felt feelings unrelated to me it must have been those profiles doing and all this blue background
Love from Chania
Hi!!
This obsession with looking like dolls, specifically Barbie or Ken, is deeply fascinating. How sad that Celso was told he’d get better and then he didn’t.
Yeah, I suggest avoiding “Queer” at all costs.
A surprisingly soft choice from love this time! Definitely not like Black Sabbath’s usual stuff. My love for you, always forever, Just you and me, all else is nothing, Not going back, not going back there, They don’t understand, they don’t understand us, Od.
Interesting post today, do you think that the amount of surgeries and invasive procedures could have contributed to the illness? I’m not a doctor, but I have to assume that there would be a correlation between foreign objects in the body and carcinogenic growth. It’s sad though that he spent his life obsessed over his looks, only to spend his last months of his short life in a sickly state and realized he wasted his time.
I was going to use a well metaphor, considering it just kept getting deeper and finding more and more inspiration, but the ideas were so encompassing that I spent a few hours half in the real world and half in my imagined story world as I explored. Sometimes I feel like my brain is just a shell with a hollow interior, as I forget so much and feel like there’s ideas bouncing around all the time. Fingers crossed that my brain is not in fact hollow though, as if it was I would be too intrigued NOT to cut it open and see it for myself. Hopefully I have time over the weekend to really make a mind map and plot outline. I’m a bit up to date with everything college, magazine, and living related, though I’m going to spend the next week focused on the dissertation whenever I have free time. I do need to touch up some story for Friday so I can submit it to a zine. I’ve been submitting a lot recently!
I remade the mushroom pasta but fried them this time, it was much better! Had my late breakfast as Thursdays are the day I don’t have to get early. I was considering going to the gym today, but it’s way too cold and I’m way too busy to care about that, instead I lounged in bed listening to some drone, and then did some work. So far I’ve watched 3 things on Mubi, 2 short films (one a softcore porn with the ‘creator’ narrating the background of the scene and his lost lover who is the star, the other a Chilean short film called The Bones framed as a found footage silent film from the 20s about Chilean political history, though I didn’t know anything about that so I was just focused on creepy and beautiful it was), and that Czech adaptation of Alice in Wonderland that was visually marvelous with stop motion and taxidermy and weirdness galore, but had a pretty frustrating pacing.
Have my only lecture in half an hour, then going to a screening of Wicked as it’s free and I haven’t seen it yet. I may enjoy it, perhaps. I enjoy a lot of the songs anyway.
hey man,
Weirdly I can only access the updated blog through facebook. I just wanted to say I’ve finally had a chance to read some of Flunker and it’s incredible. From ‘But I sort of adore you’ to ‘I’ll try to look at you too’ was almost unbearably moving and face eraser has this incredible tragicomic energy. I’ve been thinking again about Ash Gray Proclamation. Has anyone ever written anything on it that you know of? I feel like it deserves to be republished as a stand alone novella.
I’m still in a bit of a rut…finding time to write with a full time job and two kids is proving pretty hard but and I’m so excited about the novel i’m working on but I just don’t have any energy left. I need to figure something out soon.
Anyway, hope you’re well
tomk
I’ve had a very stressful day – my dad told me he got a notice that his utilities would be shut off next week due to unpaid bills. He paid them today, contacted the electrical company and got the order rescinded, so it worked out alright, but learning this scared the shit out of me.
Have you begun sending ROOM TEMPERATURE to potential distributors?
Holy fuck, American politics are overwhelming and sanity-crushing in this moment.
Do you remember the white guy who had extensive plastic surgery done to make him look Korean?
My, isn’t this unfortunate and disturbing for a number of reasons. Those early photos resemble Elvis, somewhat. Plastic surgery scares the fuck out of me. If it’s reconstructive and after a terrible disaster, okay, but the idea of paying money to have whatever put in one’s body to alter one’s appearance disturbs me. It can go so wrong in so many ways. But at least worldview-wise he somewhat sobered up, but it’s hard, basically impossible to not be more than anything just bummed out by cancer. It seems to keep cropping up in these posts. An unfortunate life.
I’m still not sure if you meant lustrous feedback on my coursework or on your blogpost, shrug. I am so exhausted.
A bit of discord here and there doesn’t go amiss, but I find it needs to be nested in some nicer conventional noise. If discord is just discord then it’s not as discordant. Simple discord works well. The blues note, for instance. Just something a little off can add the needed colour to an overall thing. But my psyche is holding up, it seems.
Maaan am I drained. Yeesh. There are probably some hail-worthy people out there we’ve yet to meet, who are unaware of the blog, but this site seems like a magnet to interesting and cool people. So, give it time, fingers crossed.
What would be the ideal dead body treatment then, for you? I’m not too bothered myself. As long as I am spread or buried somewhere pretty and NOT in this shithole town. I feel sorry for those buried in the cemetery, they’re right by train tracks. Can’t be easy to rest there.
Now for some reason my brain is telling me there’s a song I know in which the lyrics contain the word ‘intuition’ but I can’t think of what the song is. Argh.
Oh, so now the feedback comment makes a bit more sense, doh. I got some more praise today, some ‘well done’s from peers. I’ve even been called ‘beautiful’ today. Probably not genuine, but fun to receive, anyway.
Best with the teaser and your emails. Bon chance.
I remember this curious day, Dennis.
Recently a friend sent a New Yorker article on the more gruesome aspects of mandalas. Embedded after the article was a video on butt lifts. Whew.
I usually think of Joan Jett Black as an activist, and spaced on the performance art angle. Other than her and Lawrence Steger, I can’t think of seeing other performance artists based in Chicago.
Just saw Piety:
https://letterboxd.com/film/piety-2022/
It often had that arch late ’80s/early 90s feel, with some very nice visual design. I really enjoyed it, though I understand reviews were mixed.
Bill
Hey Dennis! Wow, this is amazing, I think it’s incredibly admirable how this guy opened himself up to the idea that his life could’ve been a total waste of time. So many people like this (including that white->asian guy someone else mentioned) just don’t allow themselves to grow beyond this really short-term beauty-based way of thinking. You see it a lot in twinks too, or people growing out of the twink label – some of them are willing to do some really crazy things to maintain their self-image. It’s always very devastating when a person moves beyond the thing that’s destroyed them, but too late to do anything to stop it from happening. Really sobering, thank you!
The midweek joyfullness you sent over payed off – I’ve managed to wrap filming on the Bataille-ish thing today, which has been great to be a part of, and I got some great work done for my study. So, I’m just lounging in my friend’s bath (which is rare for me, I’m mostly a showerer), feeling extremely self satisfied. I’m going to start re-reading Moby Dick too, which is one of my all time favourite novels. Honestly, just really really great, I hope your day’s been just as good!
I went to the library today and had fun! Well first I stared at the watercolor + architectural graphs of the eventual new library. THe downtown library is pretty old and when they rebuild it( as they are currently doing) they will be adding the cape fear museum into it. Which means if I decide to have a library excursion in the future I will be met with a giant skeletal dinosaur! How fun.
I miss going to the library. Today I got a book about gypsies, selected poems by Lorca and then Selectecd poems from Rimbaud becauce ive never got around to reading him.
It gets so hopeless near the end of my days because sometimes I feel like its inescapable to flee from these self-harming thoughts. Not just general self-harm but the word im looking for is destructive and diminishing thoughts. I dont know its irritiating because im like, “maybe youve been listening to too much black metal” and then I think ok, i’ll listen to more classical and jazz music and im still thinking those awful thoughts. Its the same way with mindsets, its impossible even when I try to have good days. But I dont know why im telling you this, I dont except/ want answers it just might feel cathartic putting it somewhere.
How has your week been? Woo Friday!
Here is a poem I wrote some years back about Dead from Mayhem
https://xyzdarbz.com/2025/01/29/prose-for-the-dead-2/
Whats your fav Rimbaud poem/whatever, and maybe i’ll keep an eye out when reading.
I wrote this in about 1-2 minutes, if your curious.
Do u think Tim Buckley named his album after Lorca?