The combined attempt to continue to write, rehearse, schedule, plan, and publicize the two August shows has resulted in being behind in all departments. However, we're beginning to pull out of it and leap ahead. Next Monday, we take over the theatre, and will be working out of there most of the time. Still loads and loads to do. So, just a Random Ten this week . . .

And this week's is again from the iTunes playlist of recently acquired tracks (which could mean going back almost a year now) that haven't been listened to as yet. There's about 23 days worth of such track in there, and here's a few of them . . .

1. "The Last Time" - The Who - Benefit Single
2. "'nonymous" - The Hermits - Bo Did It vol. 17
3. "Chimacum Rain" - Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms
4. "Our Friend George" - Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Glorified Magnified
5. "Mississippi Train" - Fred Neil - Bleecker & MacDougal
6. "No Friend Around" - John Lee Hooker - The Complete John Lee Hooker vol. 3 - Detroit 1949-1950
7. "Our Love Will Still Be There" - The Troggs - From Nowhere/Trogglodynamite
8. "Mindrocker" - Fenwyck - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
9. "Goodnight Irene" - Bobby Charles - Walking To New Orleans: The Jewel and Paula Recordings 1964-65
10. "What Can I Do?" - Bobby Marchan - Curiosities: Ace 70's Singles & Sessions 2

And as usual, a playlist of the songs above (or, ESPECIALLY in this case, simliar ones by the same artiste)

Back to work, or maybe some breakfast . . .

As usual, we started work on the shows with a dream cast of people we knew in our heads. Usually, we only wind up getting 2/3rds to 3/4th of our dream cast, but that's fine, we cast others and move on. We're often in touch with our ideal group early on, but no one can ever commit until the couple of months before the shows. That's when we suddenly discover who we DON'T have for the shows.

Well, this year was one of those times (like with World Gone Wrong in 2007) where we discover, after getting the June show out of the way and moving on, that we are, in fact, short of the vast majority of the actors we need - which with two shows that have casts of 21 (Spacemen from Space) and 26 or 27 (Devils, depending on how I double the actors) means a LOT of seriously fast casting.

So word went out, and a general casting notice went up, and we've been doing auditions to an extent we normally don't, and which I'm not that fond of. Luckily, it's working out okay - mostly good people we'd love to use (with the usual frustrations of also seeing really good actors who are completely wrong for anything in the shows). We still haven't seen anyone for a few of the parts, but by the end of tomorrow, I think we'll be fine.

But I'm tired and need to get some sleep before the 8 solid hours of auditioning tomorrow, so I'll leave it at that.

Except of course for the Random Ten. But since I don't want to disturb the iPod playlist I've been using in the car on the way to and from the theatre, I'll do a Random Ten today from the "Recently Acquired" playlist in the iTunes on the computer. This is the playlist made up of all the music I've been gathering, much of which I've never listened to, that I'm trying to catch up on, bit by bit. Currently, this playlist consists of 9,936 tracks and lasts almost 22 days. I sometimes get to listen to up to 6 hours of it while working of an evening, but I've never seen it descend past 15 days long. Well, at least I'm trying to catch up with it. Here's what I get tonight . . .

1. "Put It Where You Want It" - The Crusaders - All Day Thumbsucker Revisited: The History Of Blue Thumb Records
2. "Town by the River" - The Units - History of The Units
3. "Holiday Ring Mold" - Katie's Kitchen - Holiday Freakout
4. "Floyd The Barber [KAOS 87]" - Nirvana - The Chosen Rejects: Broadcasts
5. "random pop" - Various Artists - The Conet Numbers Project
6. "Been Teen" - Dolly Mixture - A Reference Of Female Fronted Punk Rock 1977-89
7. "Step Lightly" - Ringo Starr - Ringo
8. "The Female Smuggler" - Rasputina - Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs
9. "I Think I'll Just Go And Find Me A Flower" - Moorpark Intersection - Soft Sounds For Gentle People: Vol. 1
10. "Telephoning Home" - Wreckless Eric - Wreckless Eric

And here's a playlist of nine of the tracks above (or something as close as I could find):

Now to go off to bed, after looking over the scripts of Spacemen from Space and Devils to remind myself of how much I love them and why I go through the hassle of making this stuff.

It looks to be a good show. A fun wedding as such, and an okay piece of theatre. It'll "work" as both -- I was worried it wouldn't do for either, in it's attempt to serve two masters, but it'll serve them okay. I wanted to have it feel like one of my regular shows, which means that I can't avoid having a little "creepy" stuff that isn't really normal for a wedding, but whatever, it's one of my shows, so it has to be what it should be (though I'm a HAIR worried by having to win the audience back after some oddness at the start, but as Berit says . . . well, maybe I'll leave out what Berit says).

There's one section that might offend some family members, but it's necessary for it to be in there to be honest to ourselves. There's another section that will be DEFINITELY offensive to some family members, and we . . . won't be doing that bit at the wedding our families will be attending. We don't mind going a certain distance if we have to be true to ourselves, but the latter section is crossing a line just because we find it funny. The families get a couple of extra special bits in the show they'll see, so it all evens out.

Berit asked me yesterday what "this show" was "about." Since it IS a show, and therefore should have something going on underneath it. I guess if it's about anything other than getting us wed and sharing it with family, friends, and audiences, it's an "alternate look at romance, from among the non-romantic," or to generalize more, "there ARE other ways of doing these things." My productions more and more seem to be dealing with "the person who says no" as central, often-heroic figure -- the person or people who looks the status quo in the face and says, "I won't do that" (sometimes the shows are actually about the people who DO just go with the flow and are swept away in the tide to destruction, or at least stasis). I don't think this show is about it as some kind of heroic act, as it was with Ned Daley in World Gone Wrong or Grandier in the upcoming Devils, just one more restatement of the theme, "there ARE other ways."

Meanwhile, more and more of the cast I wanted to do Devils and Spacemen from Space can't do it, and I'm going to have to hold major auditions to fill those shows. {sigh} NOT what I wanted for these productions -- they will be MUCH harder to do with people I haven't worked with before, and will take me more time to get the actors in the tone I need. Oh, well, so it goes.

And here's this week's Random Ten from the 2,981 in the "Brandnew Bag" playlist of unheard songs in the iPod (with associated video links):

1. "Laser Love" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection
2. "Smokestack Lightning (live 1964)" - The Yardbirds - Five Live
3. "Up In Her Room" - The Seeds - A Web Of Sound
4. "Rio Grande" - Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson
5. "The King & Queen Of America" - Eurythmics - Greatest Hits
6. "The End" - The Doors - The Doors
7. "Introduction" - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Cannibals-A-Go-Go!
8. "Can't Say Anything Nice" - The Ramones - Unreleased Tracks
9. "Did You See Me Coming?" - Pet Shop Boys - Yes
10. "Goldfinger" - Magazine - Maybe It's Right To Be Nervous Now: Real Life/Secondhand Daylight Era

And here's the full video playlist for the above songs (with only a substitution for the Brian Wilson track):

Don't have much in the way of good pix of the cats today, just this one of them on the couch . . .

But here's a favorite video from yesterday, of a tiny orange kitten scaring itself . . .

Yesterday, we took care of some of the bureaucracy we had to before next week's activities . . .

And we spent a few hours in downtown Brooklyn. it would have gone a lot faster, but apparently someone else named "Ian Hill" once applied for a marriage license, so they had to send a fax to another department and get one back be sure it wasn't me (does this happen to people with MUCH more common names?).

I was rather tired by the time we got back to the subway station, but it felt like a damned big step -- we have the document, now we just need to sign it with our officiant and witnesses and . . . that's it . . . we will be married.

A few things need to be finalized, mostly with the performance itself. It's proving pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to get the cast together for rehearsals and costume fittings. Argh. It's a wedding-play, and simpler than a usual play on the cast, but there's still work and staging that has to happen. Don't know when right now, but somehow we'll work this out.

Nice little promo stuff for The Too Soon Festival that includes bits about the Wedding at nytheatre.com and PAPERMAG.com. More to come, I'm sure.

I've had a good four days of mostly having my own time to get my own work done this week, but suddenly I'm back to engagements keeping me from the work for the next three or so days -- starting tonight with seeing Dénouement at The Brick tonight, working with David Finkelstein then at The Brick tomorrow, then seeing family on Sunday, then seeing the entire Cremaster Cycle at IFC Center on Monday (not the greatest timing, but it's there and I'd like to see it while I can, so . . .). Then I can get back to working on the shows and cleaning up the apartment (another immense job that must get done shortly).

In the midst of this, I'm getting back to planning out the August shows -- finishing the writing of Spacemen from Space and the cutting of Devils. And, hopefully, many of the cast members I'd like to do the shows will be on board. if not, I can look forward to a frenzied audition period coming up. {sigh}

And here's this week's Random Ten out of 3,108 songs in the "A Brandnew Bag" playlist in my iPod (of songs that have been sitting there for years without getting played). Another 10 down, maybe including ones I can drop to make room for the Janelle Monae EP and CD that just showed up in the mail (hooray!). Ten songs, with associated videos, for yer dining and dancing pleasure:

1. "Old Man" - Neil Young - Greatest Hits
2. "Merry-Go-Round" - Wild Man Fischer - An Evening with Wild Man Fischer
3. "I Must Go" - Squeeze - Cool For Cats
4. "A Big Hunk Of Love" - Elvis Presley - A Big Hunk Of Love
5. "Billy's Birthday" - Romeo Void - Instincts
6. "Bring Back Reality" - Snakefinger - Manual Of Errors
7. "Elizabeth Dreams" - Status Quo - Messages from the Status Quo
8. "Rebel Never Gets Old (single edit)" - David Bowie (remixed by Go Home Productions) - GHP Complete - CD12 Official Remixes Vol. 1
9. "Hang Fire" - The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
10. "Wasteland" - Pere Ubu - Wayne Kramer Presents Beyond Cyberpunk

And here's the video playlist for most of the above -- it looks like I'll NEVER be able to find a full Random Ten list of mine on YouTube, but there are some good substitutions in there (and a bonus track) . . .

And kitty photos from this week -- Hooker enjoying the breeze coming through the window in our hot apartment:

Moni curled up into a ball on undifferentiated fur on the couch:

And Moni leaning in to clean Hooker's head:

Time to go -- I have to see a woman about a cake . . .

Here it is, our card for The Wedding of Berit Johnson & Ian W. Hill: A Theatre Study by Ian W. Hill & Berit Johnson:

We're rather pleased with this. We had the design concept together, and both worked on finding the inspirational research materials. I did much of the writing, with input from Berit, and she did the entire layout, with input from me.

Now onto finishing up the script/planning for the performances . . .

Time is getting tighter, however, until I HAVE to have these things done, and they just aren't all coming so quick, and I can't force them. Ah, well. They'll be there soon enough, and I'll just have to work faster on other things later.

I sat yesterday for hours staring at a screen, blocked (and, as usual, wasting time online hoping something would jog something). I'd finished the first 2 episodes of Spacemen from Space (of 6) and while I knew the way the plot in general had to move, I couldn't picture the exact scenes I needed to get it there. Of course, at around 3 in the morning, as I was falling asleep and about to go to bed, something happened, and in 10 minutes I was able to quickly outline the next episode and a half. Maybe I just needed to be drowsy.

And all else also percolates and arrives bit by bit . . .

I was thinking that the next week would interfere with getting work done, as I have to be The Brick's "executive producer" on the Tiny Theater festival next weekend, but as I'll be sitting around The Brick, supervising the rehearsals/techs, I can probably stay in the dressing room and typing most of the time.

And as for the Random Ten this week, it's once again from the "Brandnew Bag" playlist on the iPod - 3,292 tracks - of songs from favorite artists that haven't gotten a play yet on the device (here with links to the songs or something similar):

1. "Baby Won't Ya" - MC5 - The Big Bang! Best Of The MC5
2. "So Hard (extended dance mix)" - Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
3. "Gomen Nasai (Forgive Me)" - Slim Gaillard - Laughing In Rhythm, #4 - Opera in Vout
4. "Stroll On" - The Yardbirds - Having A Rave Up
5. "Mojo Man from Mars" - The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island
6. "Thursday Morning (stereo single version)" - Giles, Giles And Fripp - The Cheerful Insanity Of...
7. "Maybe You're Right" -Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon
8. "Southern Hospitality" - Richard Pryor - Here and Now
9. "No Quarter" - Led Zeppelin - Remasters
10. "I Have Had All I Can Take" - The Siegel-Schwall Band - ...Where We Walked

And here's a video playlist of those songs (or, in three cases, something similar) with bonus 11th track:

And a couple of pictures of our little monsters -- here, on Berit's foot again:

And once again in conflict over their favorite pillow on their favorite chair:

And finally, here's what it's like trying to write a script at home with a VERY VERY needy kitty who doesn't care if his attentions are distracting:

The primary focus has been the continued writing of Spacemen from Space, which keeps coming in fits and starts -- suddenly I'll have 5 pages come out of me in one fast burst, and then nothing for a day. The characters inspire me differently -- there's 21 of them that I'm juggling, trying to keep the various plot threads in play -- it's inspired by and a parody of 1930s movie serials (in six episodes to run one after the other, but it's still a play, not meant to be split up into separate pieces), but because I'm trying to get in elements of several different kinds of serials, I have more plot and characters than you'd actually see in any one serial -- I have a "Commando Cody" - type figure ("Rocket Brannon"), a Gene Autry-type ("Cowboy Adam"), who both have assorted sidekicks, comic relief figures, and love interests, as well as some G-Men, some scientists, and two villainous figures, a masked supervillain ("The Lavender Spectre") and some aliens from the planet Ataraxia. A nice group. One character, though, has become a clear favorite -- "Chickie West," a tough-talking dame newspaper reporter. Whenever she shows up, she tends to take over the script for a little while. She talks in a constant rhythmic patois of 30s slang with melodic, machine-gunned cadences that are so delicious to write I have to force her offstage to control her (which is what the other characters are generally trying to do anyway).

I joking suggested in a status update on Facebook that I should maybe toss out the rest of the play and just write a series, The Chickie West Mysteries. A couple of people suggested this might be a more fruitful path than struggling with Spacemen, and certainly it's a spinoff I'd love to produce at some point, but apart from the character and her mode of speech, there's no there there -- I at least know where Spacemen is supposed to go - though my original outline has been considerably tossed out as I've turned out to be creating a far better structure on the fly - and have not one idea for another Chickie West series. So, that sometime later. Now, I keep plugging at Spacemen so it'll be ready for August to run in rep with Devils.

As for that show, it's still sitting there, waiting to be cut by about a half-hour. I think the two shows will work nicely in rep, as they are designed to -- they are both about anti-intellectualism and the use of fuzzy religious or spiritual thinking in stomping down clear, rational modes of thought and discourse, Devils in a nasty, unpleasant hit-you-in-the-face manner and Spacemen from Space in a completely hidden, comic, spoonful-of-sugar way.

I was also somewhat thinking of the way Ken Russell made two films in 1971 with much of the same cast and crew: his film version of the same play, The Devils, and the sweet and beautiful and meaningless film of Sandy Wilson's retro musical The Boy Friend, as if making one of those pieces meant he HAD to make the other one. I feel much that way, as if in order to allow myself to give in to the viciousness of Devils and the silliness of Spacemen, I have to do both.

And before the August shows, we of course have our June wedding, currently going by the title The Wedding of Berit Johnson & Ian W. Hill: A Theatre Study by Ian W. Hill & Berit Johnson (though actually, it's really solely "by" me, as usual, with input from Berit -- I just wanted the balance in the title, and maybe wanted to encourage B to give some extra input on this piece). I have lots of pieces for this, with no clear structure yet, except for the general structure you'd find at any wedding.

We've more been focused this week on the reception and so forth going on around the wedding-performance -- we will be doing four performances of this wedding-play in The Brick's Too Soon Festival: a "rehearsal dinner"/"critic's preview" performance on June 19; the actual "wedding," invitation-only, for friends and family with proper reception after on the 20th; and two encore/revival performances of the wedding later that week. Today we met with a woman at the restaurant where the reception will be to discuss seating arrangements, menu, and the like. It was a wonderful and calming meeting, which we needed. After that, we felt so good, and it was such a lovely day, we decided to amble down further in our neighborhood to Coney Island for lunch at Nathan's and a trip to the NY Aquarium, which was packed, primarily with Orthodox Jews, interestingly -- certainly a large demographic in this area, but unexpected on a Friday (though sundown is late these days). A full day, and now -- when this post is done -- back to real work.

As for this week's Random Ten, I'm picking it from a smaller section of the iPod. I've noted every week the total number of tracks in the iPod -- this week, it's 25,431 -- that the ten are randomly coming from. However, while trying to see what could be cut from the iPod to make space, I discovered that almost half of the tracks in this little device -- 12,021 -- have been sitting there and never been played. Which would seem to suggest that I wouldn't miss them if I cut them all, but a look over the list indicates a lot of good stuff in there (I don't load anything into the iPod unless I REALLY think I'd like to hear it on a random play while driving sometime), and I made another list of songs in the iPod that haven't got a spin that I know deserve to be in there (currently at 3,333 tracks).

So I've mainly been playing this list recently, while driving or walking -- and today was one of those days where the iPod just seems to KNOW what music should be the underscore, as our pleasant, ambling drive from Williamsburg to Coney Island was scored by the loud, Summery sounds of T-Rex, The Dictators, Black Sabbath, The Dickies, Cheap Trick, The Ventures, Tom Jones, and early Dylan and Stones. Perfect cruising tones.

And here's a Random Ten from that playlist, with links to YouTube videos of the specific song, or something similar from the band or artist:

1. "World Destruction (single version)" - Time Zone featuring Africa Bambaataa & John Lydon - World Destruction 12"
2. "No Head No Backstage Pass" - Funkadelic - Let's Take It To The Stage
3. "Caveman Raveman" - The Revillos - Attack of the Giant Revillos
4. "He Doesn't Go About It Right" - We The People - Mindrocker 60's USA Punk Anthology Vol 6
5. "What Do You Do When Love Dies?" - Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis (Deluxe Edition)
6. "Papa Satan Sang Louie" - The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island
7. "Miss Gradenko" - The Police - Synchronicity
8. "The Intergalactic Laxative" - Donovan - Cosmic Wheels
9. "Trouser Freak" - The Bonzo Dog Band - Cornology Vol. 3 - Dog Ends
10. "Tryouts For The Human Race" - Sparks - The Best Of Sparks

Hey, why not put together an entire video playlist of all the YouTube links above? Here you go, 11 videos (I've included a spare based on the song that came up next, and those of you on Facebook will have to follow the link to my original post to see this):

Only one (not-so-great) picture of our two monsters this week, here with Berit's foot on the couch . . .

But I have some shots from when I was in Maine of me with the aged cat, Bappers . . .

And the adorable young dog, Sasha . . .

This week, I discovered that some good background input to have on while I write are visually stimulating movies that I know very well and don't have to pay much attention to. So I've gone through much of the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger (and Powell alone) canon, and have moved on to the films of Mario Bava. And so, with Kill, Baby . . . Kill! playing, back to work . . .

However, I'm up in Maine trying to seclude myself so I can finish the scripts for Spacemen from Space and the Wedding -- without a great deal of success, as yet, though the writing spark or whatever you call it has FINALLY kicked in today after days of sitting blocked and looking at the screen and getting only 1/2 to 1.5 pages done per day. So apart from the food/internet breaks, I'm going to try and keep riding the wave while it lasts and will be back with cats, random tens, and the like as soon as I can.

Now I have to go back to the office and into the cheap serial world of Spacemen from Space . . .

Actually, we haven't HAD any recent viewing in our home, as our lovely big 35" old Sony Trinitron monitor just suddenly went {BLIP} one day about ten days ago or so, shut down, and refuses to turn on again. I have another big Sony TV over at The Brick I could bring home and plug in (as well as the 13" 1973 Sony Trinitron I still have that STILL has a great picture!), but I haven't felt a great need to watch anything recently. I have a LOT of music I've acquired and not listened to -- about 16 days worth -- so I've been spending time as I write getting to know the things in my iTunes that I don't know as yet. A good thing.

The next big actual event -- other than the benefit party for Untitled Theater Co. #61 tonight at Bohemian National Hall after the performance of Rudolf II -- is the first reading of Devils on Sunday with a cast of 20 taking the parts of the ultimate cast of 28. Well, maybe I'll finally find out if the script works or not as it stands.

I am still hoping to play the central role of Grandier in the final production, which may be crazy -- it's a big part in a show that will be more than enough for me to handle as director/designer/producer, but if it's not me, I'll have to audition for someone new, as I'm just not happy with the idea of anyone I know in the part. The reading on Sunday is also for me to see if I am as fully comfortable in the role as I think. At the same time, I am frankly not in good enough physical shape to play the part right now. I've been dieting and working out, and have, thankfully, begun to see results, but it may not be enough. I'll have to decide in late April for sure if I think I can do it or not.

At first, the diet was effective, but lacking some of what I obviously needed, nutritionally, so I became a bit woozy, lethargic, and lightheaded, but with some adjustments I'm in fine shape now -- although I still would rather be hunkered down at home writing than going out, but I'm forcing myself to do that more and more so I don't become some kind of stir-crazy hermit.

And, as always, from the iPod, a Random Ten out of 25,452 in there, with associated YouTube links:

1. "Ghosts" - Strawbs - The Very Best of Strawbs: Halcyon Days (The A&M Years)
2. "Que Sera Sera" - Pink Martini - Rare On Air Vol 5, KCRW Morning Becomes Electric 1998-99
3. "Camarillo Brillo" - Frank Zappa - Overnite Sensation
4. "Rock, Sound & Vision" - Go Home Productions - GHP Complete - CD15 Trashed-The Ultimate Bootleg Rejection
5. "Faithless" - Scritti Politti - Early
6. "Dr. Fucker M.D. (Musical Deviant)" - The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island
7. "Every Day I Feel Depressed" - Christopher Guest - The Best Of The National Lampoon Radio Hour
8. "Our Prayer/Gee" - Brian Wilson - Smile
9. "The Leaping Nuns' Chorus" - Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - Orphaned Film Songs
10. "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" - The John Buzon Trio - Inferno!

No good cat photos this week, but here's a couple of videos I found and liked.

Ann-Margret may never have actually done an ad for Patio diet soda, but she sure did a weird-ass one for Canada Dry:

I've watched the classic clip of Roy Head doing "Treat Her Right" on Shindig QUITE a few times, and shared it before here, I'm sure. It's a HELL of a performance.

Here's another video of Roy doing the same song (lipsyncing the studio version this time) on another show, Action, from around the same time. It starts out a lot more contained, as he's on a much smaller stage, but with his hands free, he's able to do a lot more with them, so it starts as an interesting, smaller version. Then you realize there's a LOT more space in front of the stage as he decides to fill it. Nice.

Roy's still touring and still singing this song, but he doesn't dance all that much anymore -- the man is nearly 70, and I get the impression that if he can't do it the way he used to, he's not going to do some half-assed approximation. He can still belt it, though.

Oh, man, daylight savings is screwing me up -- didn't realize how late it had gotten. I have to move. The benefit tonight is meant to seem like a 17th-Century costume ball given by Rudolf II, and I literally have nothing to wear that works for this. Berit has suggested that I show up in my most raggedy, moth-eaten clothes and be a plague-ridden peasant that has crashed the party, so I may try that out . . .

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}