CollisionWorks

House cleaning of both literal and figurative kinds this morning - taking out the garbage, cleaning the litter box, doing the dishes, emailing potential actors for my Baby Jesus Festival play, "Marshmallow World," by Marc Spitz, and planning out a rehearsal schedule, calling the garage I go to to see about bringing the car in for a checkup and alignment, thinking about what in the hell I'm going to create as a "ten-minute original piece" for The Brick's 5th Anniversary party coming up, and spending bits of all the time vaguely thinking about next year's shows.

So, anyway, in between it all, a friday morning Random Ten:

1. "Cadillac" - Bo Diddley - The Chess Box
2. "Saga of Jenny" - Lotte Lenya - Kurt Weill: American Theater Songs
3. "Maria" - Brian Eno & James - Wah Wah
4. "Black Night" - Daniel Janin & J.C. Pierric - Melodie en Soul Sol
5. "Make Me Belong To You" - Sandy Coast - Nederbeat The B-Sides 4
6. "Baby I Need Your Loving" - The Four Tops - Hitsville U.S.A., The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971
7. "Full Speed" - Claude Bolling - Stereo Ultra
8. "Nothing Will Ever Be The Same" - Off Beats - Dumb Looks Still Free
9. "No Good" - B.B. King - King of the Blues
10. "You Missed It All" - July - July

And, courtesy (quite obviously) of The Smoking Gun, the world's most gorgeous man (at one of the heights of his beauty) naturally provides the world's most gorgeous mug shot:

Hullo, I'm David Bowie, and I'm under arrest. Oh, bother.

When caught in the various binds of "what am I to do next?", "what should I be doing?", and the occasional "why am I even doing this?", Fripp's writings have been a gentle guide towards finding a direction when one is needed (like getting a slight push in a rowboat on a calm lake or blowing softly on a piece of floating tissue paper). More general than Eno and Schmidt's Oblique Strategies, which come in handy when blocked in specific working situations, Fripp helps answer the "whys" rather than the "what nows" - and once you have a few of the former answered the latter begin to take care of themselves.

Fripp, dealing with music rather than theatre, often deals with the "why" of performance in public as desirable or not, necessary or not, his concerns with Music being primarily (entirely?) between the musician/interpreter and Music itself. Theatre, being all about public performance, does not have many of these same concerns . . . should it? . . . but much of the thinking still travels from medium to medium . . .


from Robert Fripp's Diary, October 30, 2007:

Performance / presentation in public is a superb way of getting to know ourselves & our mechanics, with a primary aim: to become aware of our illusions. This line of education is strong stuff, and holds dangers:

if we are unpopular with members of the public, the advice they offer (not always attenuated by compassion & forms of refined expression) may do us damage;

if we become popular, our illusions & self-deception become reinforced & strengthened, that fans (who have the right to do so) may live vicariously the thrills & wonder of idealised celebrity;

if we are very popular, representatives of commerce & those who profit from our work, act to encourage our illusions that they may strengthen their hold upon us, and we become more susceptible to business control & direction.

So, for the novice: better to go carefully, preferably with those of greater experience; better to be well-practised; better to be sure of one’s larger aim.

For the more experienced: best to go carefully; best to be well-practised; best to be sure of one’s life-aim; best to know the poverty of our nature (so there is less in the way to prevent music moving out, and inappropriate reactions / repercussions getting in); best to remember Music creates the musician, and who serves the Muse; best to trust the inexpressible benevolence of the Creative Impulse; and best of all - have a really good agent.

Recently, I have been of a distracted and restless nature. I had wanted to rest myself for some time before starting up on "next year's shows" but have wound up making myself fidgety and scattered. Luckily, I have a tech gig and short-term directing-on-commission gig before 2008 to keep me occupied.

But I want to be working on my own things soon, even though I don't really know what those things are as yet (except for the return of Harry in Love). I have bits and pieces of Spell, which appears to be about an American Terrorist in America (a lot like my interpretation of Foreman's Miss Universal Happiness from 1999), and images in mind for another show of grey men in grey suits in grey rooms doing bad things to innocent people they never see (which might or might not be the primarily dance/movement piece I want to do) - lots of clocks and papers. Desks. Metal and glass. Fluorescent tubes.

Spell was being written with a specific actress's voice in mind for the main character (Ann), but the actress is quitting theatre for the time being, so I'd have to recast (at least mentally, it's not like I had or could have had any definite way of knowing this actress would play the part). Any writing I'll do for a while will continue to be in her voice to keep the tone consistent, but I'll probably rewrite it all if I use the fragments I have with another actress (being most interested right now in creating new work for specific actors, their voices, their persons, their emotional tones and timbres). The character has been splitting, anyway, into a male character as well, Andy, who might be Ann's brother (possibly dead, possibly not, possibly imaginary, possibly the "real," dominant figure), or lover, or they just might be the male and female sides of one person externalized. I don't know yet, but I suspect the last. I'll know when it's happening on stage. Ann talks more, though. Still.

While fidgeting around, I've been returning to a lot of old favorite, "comfort food" movies. It started with the horror films around Halloween, but kept going into pulling out and throwing on a lot more movies than have been running here for some time. We've gone through Candyman (Bernard Rose, music by Philip Glass), The Brood (David Cronenberg, photographed by Mark Irwin), Scream (Wes Craven, photographed by Mark Irwin), The Tomb of Ligeia (Roger Corman, written by Robert Towne), The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, photographed by Nicolas Roeg), Black Christmas (Bob Clark), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick), Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, photographed by John Alcott), The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorcese), The Devils (Ken Russell, designed by Derek Jarman, photographed by David Watkin), How I Won the War (Richard Lester, photographed by David Watkin), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Richard Lester, photographed by Nicolas Roeg), THX-1138 (George Lucas), Videodrome (David Cronenberg, photographed by Mark Irwin), Crash (David Cronenberg), Halloween (John Carpenter, photographed by Dean Cundey, camera operated by Ray Stella), The Haunting (Robert Wise, photographed by Davis Boulton), and the 7-episode series On The Air, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Mostly horror, but slowly moving outward as connections were made or found.

I've got a page of my "favorite movies" on YMDb ("Your Movie Database") HERE. It changes. Fairly frequently. Lots of things drop off and on (especially Sherlock Jr., Sunrise, and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her).

I seem to be going through a lot of these old favorites trying to figure out what holds them all together in some way. Why these? What do I like? What am I interested in looking at right now? Is it the same damn things I've been looking at for 10 years now? How do I make this new for myself?

And I think I was wrong in what I said at the start here. Completely and utterly wrong. Fripp's words are an inspiration, but in the end nothing inspires as much as the tactile quality of the work . . . the Work is always what matters -- the guitar solo on "Baby's on Fire," or the lead line on "'Heroes'" have said and meant more to me for decades now than any words could, as has the quality of red captured by Nic Roeg in photographing the costumes of the Red Death and Zero Mostel, the firetrucks in Fahrenheit 451, and the splattered and sprayed paint in Performance. These are the inspirations I need more for myself right now . . .

Words are a trick. Words are a trap.

Didn't know I had a funky, sitar-led cover of this, but here it is . . .
2. "Concerning Your New Song" - Johnny Cash - Man In Black 1963-69

A monologue with music more than a song - just noticed I can hear the paper Cash is reading from rattling around as he turns the pages.
3. "Le Téléphon" - Nino Ferrer - Pop! Pop! Pigalle!

I dig the French Pop, but rarely do it have the funk. The backing track here, as usual, sounds ground out by some bored studio musicians, but damn if Nino don't sing the funk en français!
4. "Cosmic Jam" - Neil - Neil's Heavy Concept Album

Neil, from The Young Ones, discovers the perils of listening to extended hippie-jam music ("Oh no, here comes the big black skatey bit at the middle of the record . . !")
5. "Golden Hours" - Brian Eno - Vocal box set

Strangely lovely transition from the last track to this one, from comedy to sublimity.
6. "Rain Go Away" - Joe Tex - From the Roots Came the Rapper

Just noticed the album title, not sure if that really applies to this lovely bit of soul, but whatever . . .
7. "Temptation" - Martin Denny - Afro-Desia

My love affair with Exotica/Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music has cooled a bit, but only a bit. I've been cutting a lot of Denny from the iPod, but this track stays - a neat marimba-led take on the standard.
8. "Book of Love" - The Monotones - The Doo Wop Box I vol 3: Doo Wop's Golden Age (1957-1959)

A classic, familiar, we all know it, I just wanted to point out that they may have one of the worst band names in history, especially for a vocal harmony group. Why didn't anyone SAY anything?
9. "I Gotta Be Comin' Back" - John Lee Hooker - Alternative Boogie 1948-1952

"My baby got something, round like an apple, shaped like a pear . . ." Okay. Are you gonna argue fruit shape with John Lee? Didn't think so.
10. "Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher" - Eileen - Femmes de Paris, Vol. 1

Hmmn. Think this version of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" has come up in a Friday Random before. Now I'm using it as soundtrack to try and get Berit up, awake, and moving with a minimum of grumpiness.

Ah, with the help of some cute cuddling from Hooker the Wonder Cat, it seems to have worked.

Okay, off to insulate ducts. Not a bad day, really.

Ed Hardy Jr., over at Shoot the Projectionist, will, at some point today, in honor of the holiday, be posting a list of the top "31 Flicks That Give You the Willies," as voted on by readers of his blog (and other interested parties).

He started by asking for nominations, and made up a list of 183 nominees from 67 ballots that got more than just 1 vote. Then the floor was opened for votes for the top 31 - to be listed in order of preference (top film gets 31 points, down the list to the final one getting 1 point). It was a fun, if difficult, exercise (way too many good ones).

Here's my top 31 out of the 183 films on the nomination list:


1. Eraserhead (1977; David Lynch)
2. Peeping Tom (1960; Michael Powell)
3. The Devils (1971; Ken Russell)
4. Hour of the Wolf (1968; Ingmar Bergman)
5. Lost Highway (1997; David Lynch)
6. Night of the Living Dead (1968; George Romero)
7. The Brood (1979; David Cronenberg)
8. The Birds (1963; Alfred Hitchcock)
9. Dawn of the Dead (1978; George Romero)
10. Targets (1968; Peter Bogdanovich)
11. Videodrome (1983; David Cronenberg)
12. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974; Tobe Hooper)
13. Don’t Look Now (1973; Nicolas Roeg)
14. The Wicker Man (1973; Robin Hardy)
15. The Exorcist (1973; William Friedkin)
16. The Exorcist III (1990; William Peter Blatty)
17. Black Christmas (1974: Bob Clark)
18. Halloween (1978; John Carpenter)
19. The Thing (1982; John Carpenter)
20. I Walked with a Zombie (1943; Jacques Tourneur)
21. Candyman (1992; Bernard Rose)
22. Black Sabbath (1963; Mario Bava)
23. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992; David Lynch)
24. Creepshow (1982; George Romero)
25. The Haunting (1963; Robert Wise)
26. Carnival of Souls (1962; Herk Harvey)
27. Kill, Baby…Kill! (1966; Mario Bava)
28. Martin (1977; George Romero)
29. Shivers (1975; David Cronenberg)
30. Scream (1996; Wes Craven)
31. The Evil Dead (1981; Sam Raimi)

There's a bit of strange algebra going on in picking the 31 top ones that "give me the willies," as it winds up being a big balance between "favorites" and "ones that creep me out." Eraserhead doesn't really give me the willies so much anymore, but it's my favorite film, so it goes to the top of the list anyway. Looking at Cronenberg, Videodrome is one of my favorite films, but The Brood has more "willy-giving" going on, so it comes in above the former. So it's a balance between what I love and what scares the bejeezus out of me.

Ah, Ed's just posted the list since I wrote the above. Hmmmn. Yeah, as always, things pretty much even out and the more obscure titles drop between the cracks. But 14 ones I listed are on there - obvious ones, classics - as well as the six I had the hardest time eliminating from my list and would have been #32-37.

Well, I've got 15 of my own list above on DVD, and another 10 on tape, so I'll find a selection to spend a few hours with today before going off to The Crow: Final at The Brick tonight (right now, I'm suspecting I'll put on Candyman, Scream, Black Christmas, and maybe The Haunting and/or The Brood).

Stay sick and turn blue!

silverplate88

Did okay by the show on Saturday at the Waterfront Museum and Riverbarge. Went over pretty well, though I think we confused as much of the audience as we entertained. We did the job.

Afterward, Jason Drago had a picture taken of us (I believe it was original "Mr. Romaine" from my 1999 productions, Peter Brown, who took it), modified it, and sent it to us:



(l-r, standing) Aaron Baker (Willie Hammond), Jason Drago (Frank Slade), Danny Bowes (Sample Switchel), Robert Pinnock (Simon Slade), Fred Backus (Joe Morgan), Trav S.D. (producer, Harvey Green), Dina Rose Rivera (Mary Morgan), Ian W. Hill (director, Mr. Romaine), in front, Maggie Cino (Fanny Morgan). The Statue of Liberty is right behind us, blown out by the sun.

A fun afternoon, even with the injured foot and a massive steam whistle (and less massive but still loud steam calliope) being blown at regular intervals. Really REALLY loud. Right next to us.

The barge is in a lovely place on the water at Red Hook, with a nice little park next to it. Red Hook is a bit odd, as Brooklyn native Mr. Bowes - who grew up not far away - noted: projects next to multi-million-dollar townhouses next to a maritime waterfront community (right where we were felt like parts of Portland, Portsmouth, or New Bedford). All within two blocks of each other. It was a little spooky rehearsing down there the night before - dim light on cobblestone streets. I see why it appealed to H.P. Lovecraft for use in a story (he spent a brief, unhappy time in Brooklyn before returning to Providence, RI).

Yesterday, got to take the day off and stay on the couch or in bed, reading - Terry Pratchett's Thud!, the autobiography of Peggy Guggenheim, and the collected Mad comic books.

Today, I had a couple of meetings at The Brick with the light designers of upcoming shows to discuss what can and can't be done. As the meetings were at 11 am and 4 pm, I spent the time in between beginning to write light cues for Bryan Enk's upcoming The Crow: Final, which will be a lighting-heavy show, and which I need to get as early a start on as I can.

The Clown Festival heads to its end this weekend, with some more excellent shows going on. I particularly wanted to promote a couple that I really liked (and which I thought I did some good lighting work on), but I was surprised to discover that one of them - Savage Amusements aka Svetlana Flamingo - closed tonight (with so many short runs, it's hard to keep track). The other one, Solo, is still going on, it's really terrific, and highly recommended here if you're interested in seeing anything in the Fest. It plays this coming Friday and Saturday.

Tonight at home, while reading and writing, a double bill of DVDs of Ken Russell's Tommy and George Lucas's THX-1138. A strange double bill, but what I was in the mood for, suddenly made weirdly logical by their extremely similar final shots.

So we've now moved on to another film where the appearance of the sun has significance, though I'll be hitting the hay before much more of it plays.

I'm home from there tonight while Berit is running tech on this week's cabaret, as I have to study my lines some more for a new version of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room which I'm directing at the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge in Red Hook, which goes up this Saturday for one performance at 4.00 pm. This is part of their "Showboat - Comin' 'Round the Bend!" exhibition focusing on 19th-Century Showboat entertainments. Trav S.D. is producing some of the events, including this show, which he asked me to bring back, as I directed it twice in 1999.

Now . . . my 1999 productions, as those who saw them will remember, were not exactly straightforward productions of this 1858 temperance play -- I set it in a post-industrial future, being performed by a company of men, women, and cyborgs interrupted occasionally by attacks from flesh-eating zombies. A review from the original production is HERE.

So, it wouldn't exactly do to recreate that production for the purposes of this event. We've instead created an hour-long version of the melodrama that we are somewhat trying to play as "straight" as we can, but with this text, no matter what, it still comes off as campy and over-the-top as possible. Quite frankly, it's a laff riot, I tells ya.

The cast is Fred Backus, Aaron Baker, Danny Bowes, Maggie Cino, Jason Drago, Ian W. Hill, Robert Pinnock, Dina Rose Rivera, and Trav S.D. And, no, for fans of the old version, Beppo the monkey puppet will NOT be appearing. Sorry.

Hope to see some of you there. It's a bit of a schlep, but not difficult - directions are at the links above to the Waterfront Museum.

I should have something more to say shortly on The New York Clown Theatre Festival at The Brick, but right now between shows taking up all my time there, and a couple outside that, it's crazy. Maybe tomorrow . . . what does that look like? Okay, I tech a clown show at The Brick 10 am to noon, then rehearsal for Trav S.D.'s show at 7 pm. Yeah, I'll post then.

Just got back from a moving gig with the minivan later than I thought, and have to turn right back around and drive off to rehearsal in Park Slope, but I have just time to lie back and listen to a random ten as I check the email . . .

1. "The House of the Rising Sun" - Marianne Faithfull - My Songs of the Sixties
2. "Little Boy" - The Crystals - The Best of The Crystals
3. "Weather Radio" - Pylon - Gyrate
4. "Haunted House" - Roy Buchanan - Roy Buchanan
5. "Memorial" - The Michael Nyman Band - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
6. "Keep on the Sunny Side" - Johnny Cash and June Carter - Legend
7. "Diamonds" - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan - Rato's Nostalgia Collection 5
8. "It Must Be Love" - Labi Siffre - Those Classic Golden Years 05
9. "Batusi! A-Go! Go! - or - (I Shouldn't Wish To Attract Attention)" - Nelson Riddle - Batman - Exclusive Original Television Soundtrack Album
10. "Spellbound Concerto" - Marty Manning - Space-Age Exotica

Now I have to rush off this rehearsal -- a version of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room that I'm directing for Trav S.D. that goes up on a riverboat on the 20th. More on that, the clown shows (short comment: EXCELLENT so far), and other upcoming doings shortly.

His "diary" page at the Velvet Mafia site is a great overview of NYC life at a certain time of vibrancy and glow and danger that may not come again - I was lucky enough to come to the city in time to catch a glimpse of a piece of that time, and have been at the wake ever since, spilling whiskey on the corpse when I can to see if the damned hunk of rotting meat will get up again for one last dance.

When I was in the Rocky Horror floor show at 8th Street, a favorite piece of pre-show music for the cast to perform to before the movie was Dean and the Weenies' classic song "Fuck You" from the awful film Mondo New York. It became a regular number and there was something wonderful about hearing hundreds of people join in on the final chorus, full of anger and joy and release.

So here's that song, as performed in the film - join in and remember how good it is to yell "Fuck You!" in the company of your friends at the host of your enemies . . .

This meme demands that I . . .

List 5 things that certain people (who are not deserving of being your friend anyway) may consider to be "totally lame," but you are, despite the possible stigma, totally proud of. Own it. Tag 5 others.

What, only 5? No, actually, it was hard (due to the "totally proud of" part). So here's what I could think of:


1. I was in the 8th Street Playhouse floor show for The Rocky Horror Picture Show for several years (hard to tell when I ended, as it kinda tapered off - 1986 to . . . 1988 or 89), under the direction of the great Sal Piro. I mostly played Dr. Scott, sometimes Brad, and Eddie and Riff Raff once each. I had a great time with great people and regret nothing. Except having no pictures or video.

2. I own DVD copies of Glen or Glenda? and Road House, love them, watch them frequently, and actually believe that they are, honestly and truly, with no irony, great motion pictures. As is Tough Guys Don't Dance, but some other people will go along with me on that, so it's less "lame."

3. My favorite musical, and probably one of my favorite theatre texts of any kind, is 1776.

4. I love what my dear fiancee calls "discredited media." I have a trunk full of 300 Betamax tapes (and no player to play them on at this point) and still believe it was a better video format than VHS (and will argue the point). I also still own many laser disks, LPs, 45s, and 78s and will not get rid of them, though I also have no working turntable or laser player - though I have a self-contained 1960s console hi-fi stereo system that doesn't work. I own 15 Super-8 and Standard-8 movie projectors, most of which have blown bulbs (which are near-impossible to find) or motors. I still have my ColecoVision videogame system and many cartridges (as well as the adapter for Atari 2600 cartridges and many of those), but without the very specific and unfindable cable you need to connect it to a TV. I have a broken 1/4" reel-to-reel player and many tapes for it.

Berit swears that the day is coming when we'll wind up with piles of 8-track tapes and edison cylinders that we can't play. She may not be wrong . . .

5. I was a Cub Scout (made it to Webelos).

Okay, as for tagging someone else . . . I'm worried that I don't really know how many other bloggers really read this, at least ones who haven't already been tagged on this meme in the "theatrical blogosphere community." So, I'll hit a few of the LiveJournal mutual friends and pray they don't actually just skip my posts -- I tag justjohn, mcbrennan, queencallipygos, rezendi, and shaenon. Got it, folks?

And, now off the Dylan path, here's the last track from that album, the title track, as performed in 1974 by Mr. Ferry on a variety show (possibly Cilla Black's):

Oh, what the heck, I was going to post some old live Roxy Music, too, but why not end with another Ferry cover of a rock classic, here in a video featuring Ferry and Anna Nicole Smith: