Friday Cat Blogging

Well, these are okay photos, but I gotta find some of the good ones, or make some new, better ones.


Somewhere there's a bunch of prints from before we had the digital camera (which is currently busted), and I should dig them out.


In the meantime, here's Hooker, in a mood.





Here's Moni, in a regular pose of hers:





And here they are as the Amazing Two-Headed Cat Graft:

Friday KICKASS Random Ten

Well, OKAY! This is more like it, goddammit!


So, here was a stack o' tracks, some platters that matter, to get some some dip in my hip, some cut in my strut, and get me up and out and working. Unlike last week's lame-o ten, which was like being sung a lullaby covered in warm oatmeal.


Here's what got me going today:


1. "I'm Not in Love" - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
2. "Like Jimmy Reed Again" - The Yardbirds - Having a Rave Up
3. "El Groover" - El Vez - G.I.Ay Ay! Blues
4. "I Can't Turn You Loose" - Was (Not Was) - What Up, Dog?
5. "Oceanside" - The Super Stocks - Toes on the Nose
6. "Immigrant Song" - Led Zeppelin - Golden Years 01
7. "Mythological Sunday" - Friend - Tektites - Vol. 1
8. "You Better Stop" - Maltese - Ear-Piercing Punk
9. "Life in Mono" - Mono - Pure Moods III
10. "Sam Hall" - Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around


Yeah.


Yesterday, Berit and I brought a load of set pieces over to The Brick - a desk and pink rolling chair (formerly from That's What We're Here For), two endtable/mirror pieces, and two flats I scavenged from a hauling job the other day, which I can use as the basis for the two bookcases I need on the set. We were going to hang at the space longer and work on the set pieces -- Berit was sanding down the endtables and we bought some (pink) paint down the block at Klenofsky's on Metropolitan to put on them, but I had been mistaken about what was in the theatre that night. I thought Michael Gardner was having a rehearsal, which we could work around, but Qui Nguyen was still having his staged readings with Vampire Cowboys, so we had dinner from the Mexican joint and went home.


James, the house light designer, was there when I showed, and we went over what I was hoping for from the house plot, and it looks like I'm getting it -- both Michael and Glory, as it turns out, are planning to light their shows, as I am, almost entirely with practicals, so that's definitely being set up (what is it about Havel plays that brings out the desire to light them with onstage lamps?). Glory's set designer was there, and I guess had put together the set to look at it and was breaking it down efficiently (thank goodness) to a small footprint in the backstage (the size and shape and place I was planning to take up, but no prob, I grabbed a spot right next to them).


So, I have to run out and get groceries for the weekend before Kosher Palace closes, and then we're back off to The Brick to work on set things. Last night I also made up a list of all set/prop items needed for the whole show -- what we have, what we need, what we need to build, buy, or (hopefully) find -- and sent it to the cast for their double-checking and possible help. I need to do the same thing tonight with costumes (I started last night but got too tired).


Onward.

"Deception, deception, deception!"

Oh, I have to recommend a show I saw last week and keep forgetting to . . .


Buffon Glass Menajoree at The Brick.


I've included all the pertinent info below from the show's email press release, but to add a personal note--


I have an overwhelming and (in light of the work itself) unreasonable HATRED for The Glass Menagerie. It may have started way back in 9th Grade when I lost a public speaking contest at Greenwich Country Day School to Alexa Boer that I SHOULD HAVE WON DAMMIT. She did a scene of Laura and Amanda from Menagerie, I did a couple bits from Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns. I should have won.


Now, yes, this is well over 20 years ago, and unreasonable . . . but the sting lingers.


I also worked on a production of it as a techie at Northfield Mount Hermon in 11th Grade, and had to sit through it quite a few times, and in my first term at NYU I had to direct a scene from in in my first term directing class.


I respect what the show was for its time, and why it holds its position in the history of The American Theatre.


I despise it.


I despise all the Wingfields, I despise Jim O'Connor, I despise every bit of once-innovative theatrecraft that has hardened into the cliched forms of theatre that I hate above all else. I hate Laura's syrupy pitifulness, I hate her glass menagerie, I want her to shut the fuck up about pleurosis or blue roses or whatever the fuck, just STOP YER DAMNED WHINING! I hate the lights of the dancehall, I hate the portrait of Father, I hate the shoe store, and I hate "blow out your candles, Laura!"


It has been a VERY VERY long time since I have laughed as loud, as full, as happily and as full of enjoyable negativity as I have as at this show. It gives the Williams play what for in every possible deserved way, and probably plenty of undeserved ones. It is NASTY. And as someone not always hugely into nasty or confrontational theatre, and worried it would not be for me, it completely won me over (after making me terribly scared and disturbed for a few minutes at the start).


The cast is terrific all around, but I have to say that Audrey Crabtree's portrayal of Laura as a drooling, potentially-violent mental defective gave me particular satisfaction. They also picked a perfect person from the audience to play Jim the night I saw it, an actor who entered into the spirit of the thing completely, and remembered just enough of the play to keep it moving.


Also, they toss you free cans of beer. Budweiser, granted, but still . . .


I hope that helps sell it somewhat. Here's the info:


**********


Bouffon Glass Menajoree


a parody of a beloved American Classic


”Yes, it is total theatrical sacrilege, and, I am forced to admit, delicious ... sublimely funny and unexpectedly witty. ”
-nytheatre.com


Gentlemen callers beware: The Wingfields plume their nest with broken glass, twisted morals, and perverted minds. Each night a new audience member will get to play the role of Jim, the gentlemen caller. Tom, Amanda and Laura claim no responsibility for your hurt feelings or offended sentiments. Tennessee Williams is spinning in his grave. Why would anyone do this to an American Masterpiece?


Featuring Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Aimee German.
Directed by Eric “Red Bastard” Davis.



What can I expect?

The Wingfield apartment is composed of a broken dream catcher, woven from the clotheslines of this American family’s dirty laundry, washed in the antiquated colors of a long forgotten photograph. These three bouffons invite you to be a fly on the wall as they attempt to lure a gentlemen caller for their precious Laura. Audiences take heed you just might be the one to get caught in their wickedly funny web.



What is bouffon?

Director Eric Davis says: “Grotesque in nature, often physically deformed, the bouffon is the outcast shunned by society and told to live outside of the village. On rare occasions, they are asked to perform for the pleasure of those who previously persecuted them. The bouffons willingly accept. (What choice do they have? Perform or be killed!) Thus, these hideous creatures enter the circle of society once more, light on their feet, eternally smiling with hateful eyes. Charming, entertaining and smart, they plan to take the piss out of you all!”



Who is this group?

Director Eric “The Red Bastard” Davis, Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree and Aimee German worked on the clown and bouffon inspired Deenie Nast, a multimedia comic-biography of a mega-celebrity, and in the form of Commedia Del’ arte they performed together as Arlecchino, Sister Betty, & Tartaglia at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the original play, Saint Arlecchino. The trio of performers has worked as a group, in pairs or solo in clown and bouffon at CBGB's, The Bowery Poetry Club, Galapagos, Parkside Lounge, The Improv, UCB, The Pit and at the monthly Kick-ass Clown Cabaret at CRS. All four of the collaborators have studied clown and bouffon with Master Teacher Sue Morrison, and have extensive training and performance history in improvisation and acting.



at

The Brick Theater
575 Metropolitan Ave.,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211
½ a block from the Lorimer stop of the L train
http://www.bricktheater.com/


Fridays October 20, 27 & November 3, 10th @ 10:30pm
Nov. 17th, 11:30pm


70 minutes




All tickets $10


Tickets available at the door or through theatermania.com (212-352-3101 or toll-free: 1-866-811-4111)