CollisionWorks

Okay, so it's a new year, and there's work to do for Gemini CollisionWorks.

So, an email went out last night to about 60 actors I know (edited slightly here):

Dear Many-of-GCW's-Actorial-Friends,

First, Happy New Year from Berit and myself!

This is going out to many of the actors that I've either directed in shows, or acted with, or seen in shows, or auditioned but had nothing for, or always wanted to work with but it didn't happen. Or whatever. Just a list of people I think would work for one or more of the shows we're doing this year, even if a few of you don't act all that much anymore (nothing ventured . . .). Sorry about the length, as always.

I have 6 or 7 productions (some big, some small) happening this year, and, as opposed to recent years, where I have wound up doing far too much at the last minute and been horribly rushed at the end, I am attempting to make this year's shows a much longer and deep process, with leisurely time to explore the work without cramming it all together. So I'm trying to cast and start the work this month for productions in June and August (as well as smaller ones going up sooner). I hope you are interested in one or more of the shows. The idea is to work on them from January to May, with a bit more focus on the June show (which might have a small July extension), and to have them pretty much together and ready (including sets, props, costumes, tech) by the end of May, with July as final brush-up time for the August shows.

I know this is a hard, full commitment to make, and I fully expect to lose and have to replace some people between casting and opening to paying gigs or other sudden commitments, but I'd rather start with full casts and have to deal with a few replacements in parts that are already formed than wait to know if everyone will make it the whole way. So, if you're interested in at least starting the process, please come along. I'll try and make this as brief as I can (too late).

First, I need a chorus of actors for

Merry Mount, an adaptation by Trav S.D. of Hawthorne's "The May-Pole of Merry-Mount" which will go up in Metropolitan Playhouse's Hawthornicopia for four performances later this month (schedule at their website). This takes place in Puritan Boston, 1628, and I need several non-speaking performers for this short work (12 minutes or so, maybe) with very little rehearsal requirements - 3 male PURITANS, and 6 PAGAN REVELLERS, 2 male, 4 female, preferably - one woman has a line as the LADY OF THE MAY. Interested? Let me know ASAP.

I will be directing an episode of Brian Enk/Matt Gray's serial melodrama

Penny Dreadful in March at The Brick - no idea yet what the casting requirements will be for that.

In June, I'm doing

The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles: A Reconstruction for The Film Festival: A Theater Festival at The Brick. This will require a cast of 16 (8 principals, 8 others in many multiple roles) in a stage adaptation of the original version of Welles' mangled-by-the-studio second film, which version exists only now as a transcript and photos. This has very specific casting requirements, and while I have some of you in mind for some parts (and will be in touch), will need auditioning for the rest, preferably from this group. It will have 4 performances in June, and maybe another 6-10 in July. Maybe. Big big maybe.

August shows at The Brick, which will get 10-12 performances each:

Harry in Love: A Manic Vaudeville by Richard Foreman - a restaging of my 1999 production - is mostly cast, and I'll be with contact some of you specifically about the roles that aren't.

Spell - is an original play, some of it written, some of it to be created in collaboration with the company - about perception, sanity, identity, language, and terror - quiet, meditative, semi-abstract, inside the head of a woman (who may really be a man) who has done something terrible. Probably 110-115 minutes long. This has no set cast breakdown apart from needing 4 women and 2 men, at least, and will be created specifically around the actors who want to be in it. I have one or two people in mind specifically for this, but apart from that it's open to anyone on this list who's interested.

Invisible Republic (working title) - is another original, to be created entirely with and around the company from scratch, that needs primarily people with strong dance/movement skills. It's about business, specifically selling things that probably aren't needed, the worth or lack of it of anything in the USA today, violence as a capitalist tool, and the military-industrial-entertainment-religious complex. It will be loud, violent, musical, and cartoony (Looney Tunes/Tex Avery). Probably 75-90 minutes long. Lots of people in suits screaming at each other, hitting each other with clown hammers, then breaking into time steps and spouting incomprehensible business jargon. This is open to anyone on this list who's interested in doing it - again, though, I REALLY want dancers for this one.

Also, a number of members of the cast of

That's What We're Here For have expressed a desire to get back together and redo that, which I would also very much like to do, with some serious cuts, restructures, and fixes, but only if I get at least 2/3rds of the original cast. So, since the whole original cast is on this list, let me know if you want to work on it (and if it won't work by August, I'd like to start now on it for 2009).

So, if you're interested in any or all of

Merry Mount, Ambersons, Spell, Invisible Republic, or That's What We're Here For, please let me know ASAP and I can start pulling together the casts and rehearsal schedules. If you want more info, let me know.

hope to hear from you soon, and best to you and all in your world,

IWH

[NOTE: If you're an actor friend who didn't get this and probably should have, let me know - either I missed your email or have a wrong one or your spam filter ate it. Well . . . or I thought you wouldn't be interested in the first place. Or I don't think you're right for any of these shows. But probably I just screwed up. So let me know!]

So far I've had responses from 16 actors - 4 to say "I'm in for anything you want me for that I can do," 9 to say "I'd really be up for this show (or shows)," 2 to say "I'd like to be in, but can I have some more information about these shows," and 2 to say "let me know when you have something more specific you want me to read for." A good start.

So, with the responses of interest thus far, the potentials I have right now are 1 more person for Merry Mount (with four already cast, five more needed), 2 for Penny Dreadful, 11, maybe 12, for Ambersons, 12 for Spell, 7 for Invisible Republic, and 3, maybe 4, people returning for That's What We're Here For (an american pageant revisited).

Yes indeed, a good start.

In honor of the holidays, a sober reminder of the true spirit of the season, with great respect, love, and best wishes to all, from both of us here at Gemini CollisionWorks, myself and Berit:

Merry Crimble and a Gear New Year!

Just quick notes on what's playing as we get ready to go to a memorial service in Staten Island.

Always a fun situation. Just have a little time as Berit showers before I can jump in. 21,481 songs in the iPod now . . .

1. "Little Fishes" - Brian Eno - Another Green World
2. "In the Middle" - Marva Whitney - It's My Thing
3. "Nothing Can Ever Change This Love" - Tee-Set - Nederbeat The B-Sides 4
4. "The Prophet" - The Patriots - Mindrocker 60's USA Punk Anthology Vol 13
5. "Loser" - Beck - Mellow Gold
6. "Old Sweat" - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Ubiquity Studio Sessions Vol.3—Strings & Things
7. "Ha Ha I'm Drowning" - The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
8. "Delia" - Bob Dylan - World Gone Wrong
9. "Side Effects" - Seems Twice - Non-Plussed 7" EP
10. "Hand Springs" - The White Stripes - Multiball Magazine split 7"

Just realized that the stubble I so carefully monitor each week to have right for my two characters in the Baby Jesus plays I'm in - it's appropriate for both of them to be unshaven and scruffy - will have to go for tonight's show (and will barely be back for tomorrow) so I don't look like a bum at the service today. Oh, well. I'll just act scruffier.

More death.

Another friend of the family, this time a college friend of my late stepfather's, Lyle Guttu, who has been close to everyone on that side (mother/stepfather) for years - I believe he's performed all the marriages of my step-siblings, or if not all, then most, as well as Mom and Woody's marriage in '87. He's been with us for many holidays, and I spent hours and hours talking to him on a variety of subjects over the past 20 years. He was a fine mind, a kind heart, and a great conversationalist, and I am very upset about his leaving us due to a sudden accident.

My sympathies to his family.

I think Lyle would have been pleased that a Google search on his name turns up as many (if not more) references to his time as a star forward for the Harvard Crimsons ice hockey team as to his Lutheran Reverendship . . .

*****{sigh}*****

Death death death. On my mind a lot. Not that it's ever been far away. I never have really talked to my father and uncle about growing up in a funeral home as they did (my grandparents' trade and craft - and they were damned good at it), so I'm not sure what their point of view is on this (I'm sure Dad and I will talk about it sometime), but just spending the weekend/holiday time that I did at the Hill Funeral Home, 17 Purdy Avenue, Rye, NY (which has now been chopped up into several businesses that for some reason all amuse me), as I grew up, well aware of what the family business was, and occasionally seeing a body in the embalming room or on display, affected me in certain ways (my grandfather would show off particularly good embalming jobs of his on occasion - I particularly remember the young man who had cut across a church parking lot in Rye on his motorcycle not knowing a chain was drawn across the other exit - it caught him in the chest - I could just see into the casket - I remember the large ring on his hand, with a blue glinting stone - a high school ring? - he had a big moustache - he looked very peaceful; I could see even then why Grandpa was proud of his work, the man looked so so peaceful). I've noticed a certain acceptance and fatalism and matter-of-factness about the whole death business in myself that I've never seen in most of my friends and contemporaries.

I've twice now dealt with being the person there in the house, with what was formerly a loved one in the other room, calling the people you have to call, answering the questions, supervising the removal. I handle it well. On both occasions, when those who came for the removal remarked on my coolness and suggested that maybe I wanted to break down or something, I just mentioned that my family had been in the business, there was a look of recognition, and suddenly we were able to deal with the whole matter efficiently, like professionals. I've handled it well. When I am at open-casket funerals, even of loved ones, my main thoughts are generally about the quality of the embalming work - usually, "That's not a Fred Hill job."

But mid-way now through my 40th year, almost certainly over half-way through the years I'll probably wind up having, my matter-of-factness is changing. I'm not sad about death, I'm not angry about death. I feel cheated, just plain cheated by death. About a year ago, I lost the first two contemporaries I knew somewhat and liked quite a bit (Stephanie Mnookin) or knew and liked quite well once upon a time (Jason Bauer, whose death I only learned about in May), and each time I thought, with a deep breath, "Okay . . . here we go . . . it's starting . . ."

I read Joan Didion's terrific The Year of Magical Thinking recently, and, while enjoying it, was a bit stunned at her complete and total lack-of-preparedness in losing her husband. No, not something you want to consider for very long at any time at all, ever, but it seemed as if Didion had just never even thought about how to deal with an existence without John Gregory Dunne for even a moment of her life until then. I can't quite understand that mode of thought. Everything truly human is transient and ephemeral - we create and leave behind fragments that attempt to say something about what it is to be human, but they are necessarily limited. This is as comforting as it is disturbing, for at least it also means that the evil mankind does is also a blip in the grand scheme of things (though as my friend Sean Rockoff pointed out when I mentioned some similarities in US history between our own horrible Administration and that of William McKinley, to try and show how things can swing back for the good, or at least better, eventually, "this too shall pass" rings terribly hollow when you are in the middle of a horrible time). I would have thought that most couples in lifetime relationships would have faced the unpleasant idea of how the partnership is going to stop someday no matter what they want, but talk with friends and associates gives me the impression this isn't the case.

I've sometimes wondered why I've moved from once wanting with all my heart to spend my life making films - documents that would last and (in my ego-view) be revered forever - to devoting myself quite happily to a life of making ephemeral theatre in small boxes designed to flare briefly and vanish, leaving a trace behind in peoples' heads like a ghost you see on your retinas from a flash bulb. I have more and more become concerned with the purely human, those qualities that make us us, and theatre seems closer to me now to these qualities than film, which is about dreams and visions, not life (though whenever I put my eye behind a viewfinder, as I sometimes still do for people as a DP, "that old aesthetic kick" - as Rabbi Richard puts it - comes back, and all those old dreams and visions that want to come out begin yelling in my skull again . . . maybe someday . . .).

When I started making theatre, I was so devoted to the idea of ephemerality that I pointedly refused to document my shows - the show was the show and that was it; you missed it, too bad, it doesn't exist anymore except in memory. I kinda regret that now, though I haven't been able to videotape most of my recent shows anyway due to AEA Showcase Code rules. I'm more fond of still photos than videos in any case, for recalling stage work - videos always look lousy, and they're only useful for help in restaging revivals (and that's enough to make it essential, as I've found out in the long run). Still, photos are better.

So I've been happy to be impermanent - I feel like I have contributed a few original ideas to American Theatre that have actually had some influence, primarily through David LM Mcintyre's and my Even the Jungle and (to my chagrin) my original production of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room - I've seen other artists see these and take ideas from them and go forward with them, and then others keep going with them from there. Some of my (and David's) creative DNA is out there, in people who have no idea who we are or ever will. That's enough.

In the first full production I directed (Egyptology by Richard Foreman, 1997), I cast myself as a combination of God and my grandfather - a funeral director in a waiting room between this life and another, where souls had to let go of what still held them to mortality in order to pass on. My beliefs have altered quite a bit since then, but I still see myself in part of that position, in regards to my work - a funeral director. I'm still stuck dealing with the brilliant life of the 20th Century, which still hasn't, as far as I'm concerned, gotten a proper funeral yet. So I keep bringing out the body and trying to embalm it well, give it a proper and respectful viewing, a clean burial, so we can move on and get on with the next thing. I'm never going to be part of that next thing - I'm too stuck in the past - but I can damned well clear the ground properly for it.

I know some things about death by now, then, and humanity, humans as brief guests here. I had been fine with that, and with my own ultimate cessation for years - even when I believed in an afterlife, I didn't believe in the survival of personality there, just energy. And I was fine with that.

But now I have a life partner, and a home, and pets. And the idea that some of the living things under this roof are going to go before others seems like such a damned cheat now. I've been worried at times that maybe Berit isn't ready for that (hell, am I?). We've been very straight and reasonable with each other about the disposition of our bodies post-mortem, and wanting to be sure that each of us has control of that for the other (pretty much one of the few reasons for our eventual marriage - legal guarantees for one to enforce the other's desires in such a case). Berit, one of the most rational, realistic, level-headed people I know (apart from the irrational hatred of spiders and wind) has been perfectly reasonable and calm about all that.

But there are lines. B doesn't like me to mention that eventually we'll no longer have these amazing cats we have, let alone that, given the odds, the ages, health, I'll be leaving her alone someday. I've made it clear to her that I want nothing but raucous, earsplitting rock 'n' roll music at any memorial service for me - music of life . . . LIFE! - and I was horrified recently to discover that, as a result, she is now terribly saddened by the sound of "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen.

I, still, am not saddened by the idea of the end, angered by it. I feel instead like a small child having a tantrum, stamping my foot, screaming, "IT'S NOT FAIR!" Like I did playing tag with someone who wouldn't follow the rules and wouldn't stop when tagged. Cheats. Damned cheats. No fair, to be robbed of years we SHOULD be able to spend with each other.

And then . . . and then . . .

And then I think some more and it all evens out: We are not cheated of that time. Our whole existence here is such a random, improbable accident - life itself, let alone meeting, being in the right place the right time with the right feelings - that each moment we are allowed is winning the lottery. You can't be cheated out of something that wasn't really yours anyway, just something you came into lucky, temporary possession of.

And I am at peace.

For now.

**********

It is a cold day in New York City. The wind is whipping and whistling around our home in Gravesend, Brooklyn. It comes in through the cracks around the poorly-insulated windows and chills me. Berit snores. It is time to wake her up so she can get to a stage management meeting for an upcoming show. I hug a cat. It is very warm.

Oh, god, four hours sleep, up since 5.00, will need a nap later.

The Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee continues to run just fine, and I've realized I never did any kind of real promo for it, despite being quite happy with my show in it, Marshmallow World, by Marc Spitz. Sweet, odd little play, and I think that I, Alyssa, Aaron, and Jason are doing a damned fine job with it. Follow the link above to The Brick's page for the Jubilee for more info. Good shows, good bang for your buck.

And tomorrow is the second part of Bryan Enk and Matt Gray's Penny Dreadful series (this month directed by Danny Bowes), which started with a great intro piece last month -- if you're going to see Part Two and didn't see the first one, it's available to watch online or download for iPod HERE, just click through and follow the links to the first episode - WARNING: If you plan to watch the video, do not read the synopsis underneath, as it tells the entire story, and it's much more fun to watch Fred Backus do it as a 40 minute-long monologue. If you're planning on seeing Part Two and can't watch the video, then read the synopsis (or you'll be kinda lost). It was damned fun to light this simple, pretty piece last month, and I'm looking forward to doing this next one (footlights! I get to use footlights! we got them working!). Follow the links above for more info (NB: Tomorrow's show is scheduled to go up at 10.30 pm, but the Baby Jesus shows are running long, so Penny Dreadful will probably wind up starting more around 11.00 pm).

Meanwhile, I've been pimping the iPod, changing file types so I can get more music on there in less space with no appreciable loss of quality - now I have 21,260 songs on there and several GBs open that I didn't have before. Here's what's been coming up on random as I type:

1. "Body" - The Presidents Of The United States Of America - The Presidents Of The United States Of America
2. "Greg's Theme" - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Ubiquity Studio Sessions Vol.3—Strings & Things
3. "Overtime" - Urban Turban - Overtime
4. "Dreamin' of You" - Noreen Corcoran - The Shoop Shoop Song And Other Great Girl Group Hits
5. "President Gas" - The Psychedelic Furs - All of This and Nothing
6. "Reelin' & Rockin'" - Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight
7. "I Wanna Kill James Taylor" - Ivan & The Executioners - download
8. "Brainless" - The Deadbeats - Kill The Hippies 7" EP
9. "Woman's Gone" - Brainbox - Nederbeat The B-Sides 4
10. "Mirror Man" - Pere Ubu - Worlds In Collision

I've been trying to have a moderately restful few days off between BJ shows, and mostly succeeded, except for a small car accident on Tuesday night - my first ever (apart from tobogganing a Jeep off an icy, deserted road in Maine and into a snowbank, with no ill effects to anything but the snowbank), and thank goodness the damage seems to have been only cosmetic this time. And I have no idea where other aspects of this will wind up, so I probably shouldn't mention it any more. At least I'm perfectly fine (just a little jittery), and Petey Plymouth is fine.

Next year's shows become clearer. Here's how it's looking right now, assuming this all goes OK with The Brick:

1. Merry Mount, Trav S.D.'s adaptation of Hawthorne, at Metropolitan Playhouse (January).
2. The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles (a reconstruction) in The Film Festival: A Theater Festival - though there may be rights issues to deal with . . . (June).
3. Spell, an original play on terror, obsession, perception, and mental illness (August).
4. another original play - movement/dance-based - about business in America, primarily the business of selling things (August).
5. Harry in Love: A Manic Vaudeville, 1966 "straight" comic farce by Richard Foreman, restaging of my 1999 production (August).

More than enough to think about and work on, and as I'm planning to start work on #2-5 next month (once Merry Mount is settled), I should have enough time to devote to all of them properly. My hope is to have the June-August shows all pretty well together in their entirety by mid-May, and then just keep being able to run them and keep them in shape. We'll see how well this actually works out in practice . . .

Luther Vandross died over two years ago (doesn't seem that long . . .)

Here he is doing The Carpenters' song "Superstar" - which I've always had a soft spot for, in either the original or the Sonic Youth version, and now this one:

Only now are Luther's worldly possessions being offered to the rest of the world in an estate sale. And what a sale it seems to be.

20% of the property is going up as yet, but the descriptions of what there is have led Idolator to dub Luther (with only slight exaggeration) the "Charles Foster Kane of '80s R&B." Besides his recording career, Luther had a much more lucrative life as a jingle writer - Kentucky Fried Chicken's "We Do Chicken Right;" NBC's "Proud as a Peacock;" the US Army's "Be All That You Can Be," among others - so he was able to fill his three homes with whatever he wanted, it appears.

(he was also the creator of the "Lutherburger," a bacon cheeseburger with donuts in place of a bun, which probably didn't help his health - he suffered from diabetes and hypertension and had a stroke at age 51 that seems somehow to have led to his death three years later)

Last time I talked to my dad, he mentioned reading with amazement about the upcoming estate sale, but there's now a report in the Washington Post - well worth reading - that goes into detail about the "fabulosity" to be found in the belongings of a man with a taste for Picasso charcoals, Cartier watches, and Gucci mink-and-alligator-trimmed belted three-quarter-length coats. Wow.

My favorite bit of the article:

Some of the things for sale would put Liberace to shame, some of it is classy beyond compare, some of it just makes you scratch your head. Here: Lalique sconces, a Flora Danica polychrome and parcel-gilt dinnerware set, Puiforcat display dishes. There: Purple Gucci snakeskin pants, Versace cheetah-print wool pants, a Tony Chase dyed fox rhinestone-decorated wrap.

[Max] Szadek, Vandross's assistant, is showing us around these and other highlights, and we ask politely if the red fur pony-skin cargo pants were stage apparel.

"Oh no, he would wear those anywhere. He was not for saving the fine china for a special occasion."

Oh, and here's Luther in one of his first major gigs, backing up David Bowie on "Footstompin'" on the Dick Cavett Show, 1974 - a song Luther co-wrote with Bowie (and which DB nicked just a bit for "Fame") - after the glam "Diamond Dogs" tour had morphed into the R&B "Philly Dogs" tour:

Well, the Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee: Second Coming has opened last night and started out OK. One big hitch: due to an emergency on the L Train, two actors and a tech person got stuck, unable to make it to the theatre. Fortunately (in a way) they were all in the company of one of the six shows, so the other five were able to go on as planned, and we just had to drop that one (The Bender Family Christmas, in which Berit and I also appear) from the 7.00 pm "Marys" program. There was some concern that the same thing was going to happen to the last show on the 9.00 pm "Josephs" bill, but the missing actresses for that one showed up just in time.

Pretty smooth for the first "real" run. It'll just get smoother. It's always a pain dealing with the fast changeovers on a program like this, trying to keep the momentum going, trying to keep the show going, and we have some clunky changeovers to do (eg; a couch and two doors have to move backstage at the same time as the movie screen goes up and a stageful of clothes gets thrown into a bag, all of which gets in the way of the others). But, it wasn't too bad and it'll only get better, so good. People are really enjoying my holiday iPod mix that goes on around the pieces, too, so that helps fill the space (I'll post a list of those songs later)

Marshmallow World went over well. I'm still a bit worried about my performance in it. I think it's a good performance, but I'm not sure I'm getting the right tone to start the piece off - since I basically open the play with a monologue. The character is . . . a rather disturbed man trying to hold it all in. Standard character I do well, but with the humor in this piece it's a fine line to walk -- he has to be just disturbed enough to make him funny, but not so much to not be scary-dangerous. And I think I may be just going a hair over that line, but it's hard to tell. If I don't go far enough, I think that's worse, and he won't come off as real at all. Well, I got 8 shows left to try and hit the mark. I'm good enough, just want to be better. Jason and Alyssa and Aaron are all on the mark emotionally - from run to run there are little things that get better or worse, but that's theatre. Always new, always different.

Okay, how much is in the iPod today? 20,865 songs. Let's see what comes up . . .

1. "Honey Are You Straight or Are You Blind?" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Blood & Chocolate
2. "Cold Bear" - The Gaturs - What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves
3. "Swallow My Pride" - The Ramones - Leave Home
4. "Blinkle Blinkle" - James Kochalka - Superstar
5. "Fat Fat Fellow" - Daniel Janin & J.C. Pierric - Melodie en Soul Sol
6. "Take a Little Sad Song" - The Equals - First Among Equals - The Greatest Hits
7. "To Jean" - Berto Pisano & Jaques Chaumont - Kill Them All!
8. "Summertime" - Big Brother & The Holding Company - Cheap Thrills
9. "Prá Ficar Feliz" - Brazilian Bitles - Antologia
10. "She's Lost Control" - Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Ah, that was nice. The iPod's pretty close to full without much I want to cut from it, but I discovered that many of the tracks on it are still in MP3 format rather than the iTunes AAC format which is perfectly fine for my purposes (the car, the theatre, the subway) and compresses to much smaller files than MP3 or other formats. So, I've been going through and transferring everything over to AAC that isn't in it already. The iTunes has dropped by almost 30 GB already, and I'm not done yet. Then I fix the iPod up properly and shove even more onto it. Whee!

The Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee: Second Coming opens tomorrow at The Brick.

Berit and I have teched all the shows the last two days, and, amazingly, everything's run smoothly and the 12 shows look good - even with rushing each piece in and out of tech in 45 minutes. I'm pleased with my direction of Marc Spitz's Marshmallow World in the "Marys" program (and Aaron Baker, Alyssa Simon, Jason Liebman, and myself are all having a hard time not cracking up at each other's work - it's a funny piece).

Follow the link above for info on showtimes/dates - we basically run the next three Thursdays through Saturdays - and come on by if interested.

(you will also get to see Berit and I together on stage in non-speaking roles in The Bender Family Christmas)

Today I run around for the last props and costumes I need, and just keep running my lines for the Spitz piece, which I actually have down, but don't want to lose. Back on Friday.

Berit and I decided we really, really HAD to do something for The Brick's Quinquennial Party tonight, so we stayed up until 4.30 am making the video for our performance piece tonight - which, by the way, is called What Are You Looking At? OR: Where Do We Stand Now? OR: Where Do YOU Stand (motherfucker)?

Now we have to be at The Brick at noon to finish the light focus and then dress all the cables and get the place presentable for the party tonight. And also work out the live performance component of our piece. Other groups performing tonight start coming in to tech at 5.00 pm, so we should have enough time to do what we need to. Maybe. Possibly.

So, with some microwaved day-old coffee, an averagely tepid shower (that is, either scalding or freezing), and a hot kiss at the end of a wet fist, here's the Random Ten to wake me up this morning:

1. "One Hit to the Body" - The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
2. "Does Your Mama Know About Me?" - Bobby Taylor - Hitsville U.S.A., The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971
3. "Crying Is for Writers" - July - July
4. "The Lonely King of Rock 'n' Roll" - Don Reed & His Orchestra - 7" single
5. "Flying Jelly Attack" - Shonen Knife - Let's Knife!
6. "Tweedlee Dee" - Wanda Jackson - All the Hits and More
7. "Out of Left Field" - Percy Sledge - Essential Collection
8. "Powerhouse Pop" - Keith Mansfield - The Sound Gallery Volume Two
9. "Mesopotamia" - The B-52s - Mesopotamia
10. "US Plus: Pork" - The Firesign Theatre - Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death

Ah, well, this last reminds me of the nice thing waiting for me here at home yesterday -- For years I've been looking for copies of the (apparently) rare couple of books that The Firesign Theatre put out in 1972 and 1974, The Firesign Theatre's Big Book of Plays and The Firesign Theatre's Big Mystery Joke Book, but whenever I saw them it was at prices too dear for even a devoted Firehead like me to go for ($75.00 and up). Found them online for less than $20.00 each last week and (though ordered from two different sellers) both were sitting at my door when we got back from the space. No time to look at them yet, but they're waiting for me. 20 years I've been trying to get these. Finally.

Okay, time to wake Berit up and go where the Bozos go - big day today. And I still have to finish casting the damned Spitz short. Which we have to start rehearsing tomorrow. {sigh}

Shoes for Industry, compadres . . .

Portland, ME. Berit and I are with my family - mom, brother/cousin David, his girlfriend Rachel, their dog Sasha, grandpa John, stepgrandmother Jennie, Jennie's daughter-in-law Laurie, her son Riley. And Bappers the cat. Tomorrow we go to Massachusetts and Berit's parents, Gary and Luana. We have much to be thankful for. We've played lots of Rock Band and stacked a cord-and-a-half of wood for the winter. Yesterday's dinner was "the classic," and was terrific. No photos to share, unfortunately.

We're thankful for our three or four families (we'll see another grouping at Christmas), our friends, our collaborators, and the fact that we don't have to do very much in this world that we don't want to, and we can spend most of our time doing what we love. And we have each other. We're incredibly lucky. (and we're thankful for the friends who catsit for us so we can see our relations at these times!)

So, a Random Ten for a lazy post-holiday Friday morn:

1. "Driving Me Backwards" - Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
2. "Riders on the Storm" - The Doors - Those Classic Golden Years 04
3. "Nues Dans L'Eau" - Georges Garvarentz - Stereo Ultra
4. "J'ai Peur des Americans" - Jeronimo - website download
5. "Complainte de la Seine" - Marianne Faithfull - 20th Century Blues
6. "What Do You Want?" - WFMU - station promo downloaded from website
7. "Rubber Room" - Rev. Fred Lane & His Hittite Hot-Shots - From the One That Cut You
8. "Jezebel Spirit" - Brian Eno & David Byrne - Vocal box set
9. "Without Love" - Thelma Harper & Group - A Million Dollars Worth of Girl Groups
10. "Mater Dolores" - El Vez - Boxing With God

I haven't catblogged in a while, as I've run out of new photos, but here are my favorite classic photos of Berit and I with the kitties we're also so thankful for.

Me and Hooker:

Berit and Simone:

And have a happy yourself . . . and why not?