Foggy Week in Brooklyn Town

Having finished my work on Craven Monkey and Rudolf II, I spent the week organizing boring personal matters, mostly -- getting the car serviced, getting the cats their regular checkup, and so forth. And preparing for the first reading of Devils in a little over a week.

For that, we'll have 18 of the actors that I'd like to be doing the show reading 26 of the parts, and another 2 friends (Moira Stone & Robert Honeywell) have stepped in for two of the main roles where the actors can't be there (though, hopefully, they can do the eventual production). And I keep reading and rereading the script and having no idea if it will work or not. Need this reading. Desperately.

Some reviews coming in on Rudolf II already. I get nicely mentioned HERE and HERE. I won't link to the not-so-good review of the show, which doesn't mention me anyway.

Craven Monkey continues to get press love, which is great. I am a hair peeved (which is silly) that my lighting for this show, which I'm rather happy with and I think is more complex than Rudolf's (appropriately, as Rudolf all takes place in one room over many years, and in Monkey I'm having to create many, many locations with light only), gets no press love except for the word "evocative" in one review. Jules, the costume designer, who gets PLENTY of press attention on this (deservedly, the work is beautiful), apparently said I lit her costumes better than she'd ever seen before, so maybe I can (and should) just be pleased that I showcased the beautiful bodies, movement, and costumes quite well. Some nice shots of the show are HERE.

Also, work continues on the upcoming wedding, which becomes more and more like a really difficult production of mine with each week.

Well, here's the weekly Random Ten tracks out of the 25,443 on the iPod (with YouTube links to the songs where available or something related if not):

1. "Chocolate Sue" - The Moan - Nederbeat Dutch Nuggets 2
2. "Down In Mexico" - The Coasters - Atlantic Rhythm & Blues vol 3 1955-1957
3. "Down In The Alley" - The Jeff Healey Band - The Last Temptation Of Elvis
4. "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" - Wang Chung - Mosaic
5. "Sjungalaten" - Askadarna - Single
6. "Black Diamond Bay" - Bob Dylan - Desire
7. "Puzzles" - The Yardbirds - Little Games
8. "I'm Going to Memphis" - Johnny Cash - Unearthed
9. "Camarillo Brillo" - Frank Zappa - Overnite Sensation
10. "Got Love If You Want It (live 1964)" - The Yardbirds - Five Live

The iPod seems to be going through a Yardbirds phase recently (not just here, but all around). Fine by me.

As for recent photos, here's a "Holy Grail" prop that Berit constructed for Rudolf II from a Bed, Bath, and Beyond cotton ball-holder and cup from a bathroom sink-set, and painted:

And here's Hooker, who somehow got himself all tucked in under the blanket next to Berit's leg (she complained later, "He stole the covers off me!"):

One of my favorite videos of the week -- Creed live in concert, "shredding":

And for a sad finale, here is Jean-Luc Godard's short eulogy-film for his friend Eric Rohmer (that is, if it's embedding like it should; it's not showing up in the preview -- if it isn't, it can be seen HERE). It is in French, of course, titles and JLG's narration. There are a number of attempts at a combined English translation HERE, which get most of it, but as Godard's narration is deliberately mumbled, even the native French speakers have trouble making some of it out (also, he refers to people and locations only he and Rohmer would probably recall, which doesn't help).

In any case, the titles flashed onscreen are almost all titles of reviews Rohmer wrote for Cahiers du Cinema in his (and JLG's) youth (sometimes under the name "Maurice Scherer," his real name), except the opening title, which seems to be the name of Godard's film here: IT WAS WHEN / NO / THERE WAS WHAT / YES.

He uses the interspersed "Yes/No" in his narration, as well, which seems to start as JLG trying to remember where he and Rohmer first met, and becomes a series of fragmentary memories of his friend -- the two of them as young men in love with movies, writing, listening to records, talking in cafes, etc.

In the final moments, as we see the 79-year-old Godard, he is paraphrasing the end of Flaubert's Sentimental Education: "Ah, those were the best times we had, says Frederic. Yes, those were the best times we had, says Deslauriers."


EDIT: Nope, not embedding. Follow link above . . .

Craig Keller at Cinemasparagus translates a passage by writer Jean-Marc Lalanne on this film:

Rarely have we heard Godard speak of such personal things, very simple and very exposed. The film closes with a furtive shot of the filmmaker, face slightly haggard in his webcam. With that, he's gone. You want to hold onto him. You want to hold onto both of them.

Argh. Rainy in Brooklyn today, and too much I want to do out of the house. And Hooker-kitty is hating me because of the eardrops I have to give him twice a day. {sigh}