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Probably no Friday Cat Blogging during Friday proper today -- we're borrowing a camera tonight, so I'll probably take some new photos later of the monsters (especially to show off Hooker's floppy new ear) and put them up tomorrow.

Still feel the need to continue with the Random Ten though:

1. "Misirlou" - Rabbi Nuftali Zvi Margolies Abulafia - downloaded

Best known now for the Dick Dale surf guitar version heard to great effect at the start of Pulp Fiction, this lovely melody has a storied history going back to 1927 which can be read HERE. The Wikipedia article barely touches on the Yiddish/Klezmer versions that popped up in the 1930s, though this version (apparently recorded by the great Harry Smith) is discussed in the notes. I also have Yiddish versions recorded by the late singer Seymour Rexite (who I was lucky enough to speak with on the phone briefly - we had a mutual friend - about his old friend, clarinetist Dave Tarras) and by a 1940s black vocal group.

I'd love to see/hear this version replace the Dick Dale in Pulp Fiction sometime . . . it would still work somehow -- Amanda Plummer: "Any a you motherfuckers move, I'll execute every last fucking one a ya!" [freeze frame] Ancient-sounding voice of Rabbi Abulafia: "Vayt in dem midbar, Fun heyser zin farbrent!"

2. "I Got To Find My Baby" - The Beatles - Live at the BBC

Spiffy little Chuck Berry number pulled out in 1963 for one of their BBC radio programs. Much harder than most of their work from that time; much closer to what you'd find on The Rolling Stones' first few singles/EPs. Probably a lot closer to their Hamburg time. Good stuff. Lucky for them they didn't keep playing quite like this.

3. "Allah Wakbarr" - Ofo The Black Company - World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing

Psychedelic fusion-funk-african. Makes you wanna move. Makes you wanna shout. Love it.

4. "Lovely Lady" - Phluph - Phluph

Quirky late-60s pop-psychedelia. I probably like this stuff more than I should, but nothing sounds like this any more. It has a joy and fun to it. Even at its most serious, there is a sense of "play," of exciting experimentation (often beyond the skills of the players, which is enjoyable in its own way). Swirls of organ and overdubbed harmonies, faux-"classical" bits with sub-Mothers of Invention breakdowns and dissonance. Just fun to hear.

5. "Harlem Nocturne" - New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Harlem Nocturne x 23 1/2

Ah, one of the other songs I have an insane number of versions of (besides "Misirlou), this one courtesy of a mix disk from my dad, thanks dad! Now all I need is versions of "Hey Joe" and "Louie Louie" to come up.

This is "Harlem Nocturne" done, as the group's name would suggest, in ska fashion, well, and a bit loping. That pretty much sums it up.

6. "Tuff" - Ace Cannon - Orgy of the Dead

From the soundtrack made up by Frank Cwiklik for his and Trav S.D.'s original stage version of the Ed Wood-penned nudie film (we did this at the late, lamented Surf Reality; I played The Werewolf). Frank made up a CD soundtrack (with massive crackles and surface noise) of the songs the girls danced to in the show -- great obscure 60s rock instrumentals.

Good, slow, quiet sax-led piece. Too quiet. I have to turn up the volume on this track sometime.

7. "Sister Sleep" - Rasputina - Thanks for the Ether

Berit got me into this group - three women singing and playing cellos, with drums. Alternately beautiful and lyrical or sharp and nasty. Really good versions of "Brand New Key" and "Why Don't You Do Right?" My favorite of theirs is their original song "Transylvanian Concubine," which was used (effectively) on an episode of Buffy.

This is one of the sweeter, prettier ones on the album. Berit and I need to get some other stuff from this group. But I always think that when I hear this album and then I forget.

8. "Bojkotta Coca-Cola" - Absurd - Absurd 7" EP

Scandinavian hardcore punk. Brings back high school years (except for the Scandinavian part). I do love some of the hardcore (this is great) but where the hell was I hearing it in my high school years? Punk friends? Probably. I didn't own almost any, so that must be it.

9. "Downtown (in French)" - Petula Clark - Foreign Language Fun, Vol. 1

I now have a lot of English-language hits sung in foreign languages by the original artists, but Petula may be the queen with this number, which I think I have her doing not only in French (which kinda works - her accent sounds pretty good to me), but in German, Italian, and Spanish ("Downtown" always remains "Downtown" however, no matter what language, just accented differently). I've grown to like this silly song through the multiple multilingual versions that keep coming up. Something's wrong with me.

10. "The Soul of My Suit" - T.Rex - Dandy in the Underworld

At a certain point, I just run out of things to say about T.Rex. It's Bolan, it sounds like Bolan, it's great. Any T.Rex song makes me smile when I hear it come up on random. It always feels like an old friend I haven't seen in a long time that's blown back into town.

Some promos up soon . . .

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: The Shadows - "Mustang" - Beat of the Pops 01

I have indeed found (or, usually, been reminded of) a handful of interesting films and videos through the recommendations that Netflix makes based on my past and future rentals.

But sometimes the wide range of my taste winds up with an odd or wrong selection. Currently, the front page is telling me:

Ian W., the following movies were chosen based on your interest in:
Super Inframan
Shakespeare Tragedies: Hamlet
Shakespeare's Tragedies: Hamlet

The Mighty Peking Man
Verna: USO Girl
The School For Scandal
The Scarlet Flower
The Seagull
The Best of the Tony Awards: The Plays

Not as WAY off as it has been, but no, I'm not interested in those, thanks (well, except for Mighty Peking Man, which I've seen; it's overrated).

List a play or two and you get every piece of "High-class the-A-ter" they got pushed on you.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Paul Pena - "Jet Airliner" - New Train

So, I've seen eight actors on Saturday, one on Sunday, nine last night, and I have one more to see this afternoon for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet.

I will have nine men to cast for seven roles (having already cast 5 of the 12 total already), and ten women for six roles.

On paper (or rather spreadsheet), I've set down the five men of those nine I'm sure I want in the show, so I'll have to cut two of the four remaining. Two very good actors.

I've boldfaced three of the ten women, because I know for sure I want them in the show, but I'm not yet sure for what parts. Of the remaining women, I'll be cutting four. Four very good actors.

Everyone I've seen -- since I only asked good actors I know and wanted to work with -- has been excellent and a distinct possibility for several parts. There have only been three people who came in and so nailed something that they just HAD to get a specific part.

Which means that for all the other parts, I've seen multiple takes, all good possibilities. Now, it's up to me (with a great deal of discussion with and input from Berit) to figure out the sound of the ensemble.

Two actors would be equally good in one role, in different ways, but one is a trumpet and the other is a cello, and I had the cello in mind . . . but what if the actor who is to play many scenes with him brings her own string section with her, and the trumpet would sound better against it?

This is my 50th show. For almost all of the others I went in with an idea in my head as to what my "ideal" cast would be from the actors I know and like, asked them to do my show, and if they didn't, I had another in mind to take the part. Occasionally I had to read people for a part or two if my ideal actors weren't available and I had no one of the right type around. As with Temptation, I didn't have very many preconceived ideas going in to this Hamlet - there were five actors I was sure of, including myself, and they all are in - and I have wound up with even more of an embarrassment of riches for the rest than I did on the Havel.

Even worse, after the auditions on the Havel, I had my mind changed in a lot of cases about what I was looking for, but to a pretty obvious solution. Here, I have read people for roles that I was pretty sure they were wrong for, and that someone else had in the bag, and they aced them. So now I just have more and more choices.

One of my Excel casting spreadsheets now has the 39 roles of the play down the left side column, with the nine actors I'm sure of in their assigned roles. Across the rest of the screen, all the other rows have several possibilities stretching to the right. Now it's mix and match time. Or rather, it will be later tonight, after the last audition. I'm keeping as open a mind as I can until then. Then Berit and I can go at it, and tomorrow I can send the first request emails out.

At a stressful time like this, I am somehow comforted by the nostalgic beauty of something like this Flickr photoset: pictures from the construction and first few years of operation of Disneyland. This is all before my time, of course, but my mother and I went there in the mid-70s, and all that wonderful 1950s design was mostly still there -- I'm told it's pretty much gone now.

I've also decided to go back to many of the books and films I've looked at for research in the years I've been thinking about this production -- which started with seeing Chris Sanderson's production at NYU in 1989 (actually, just seeing a full rehearsal of it in Tompkins Square Park) with Michael Laurence (now on Bway in Talk Radio) as Hamlet. Then, around '92 or so, I started my work on the script. Steven Berkoff's book I Am Hamlet has been very valuable at times, so I'll reread it. David Finkelstein loaned me a book about Papp's version with Martin Sheen that I'll reread, and Michael Gardner is going to loan me a book about John Geilgud/Richard Burton's 1964 production, which I once skimmed at a friend's parent's apartment.

Then, thanks to Netflix and The Brooklyn Public Library, I have ten filmed/taped versions of the play coming to me: Laurence Olivier, Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Richard Burton, Derek Jacobi, Mel Gibson, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke, Adrian Lester, and William Houston.

I will probably also rewatch, for fun, the MST3K version of the TV version with Maximilian Schell (with Claudius dubbed into English by Ricardo Montalban). Unfortunately, there seems to be no way through my sources of getting the Nicol Williamson or Campbell Scott videos. Oh, well.

I had considered, hell, just figured I would be, avoiding all these other Hamlets while I was at this point, but I think I need some other ones to argue with while building mine. I've been thinking so long about this production that it runs the risk of simply being a smart, well-crafted production with no real blood in it. I have to look at all the others, all of which, good as some of them are, have been unsatisfying to me for all these years and made this production a necessity for me. I need to get angry, combative, and determined about this production again.

The Olivier and Kline versions will be showing up here first. That should do it.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Minnie Riperton - "Inside My Love" - Jackie Brown

And finally, here in the midst of "posting day," a brief post in line with what this whole blog was supposed to be about in the first place.

So, Ian W. Hill's Hamlet proceeds apace. Tomorrow and Monday evening I have four hours set up (on each day) to meet with and read people for various roles. I have 15 actors scheduled, and am waiting to hear back from another 2 if they can make it, and I have to make separate arrangements with one person who definitely can't make it.

These are all people I've worked with before (except for one) and I could cast the play four or five different excellent ways with them. I'm lucky.

I need to work on myself and my performance some more now. I'm going to start experimenting with hair colors as soon as I can, but I have to borrow a digital camera from someone so I can share with you the various stages I go through there.

I have also started the "Hamlet Exercise Regimen" on top of the dieting I've been doing for a few months. Now, every day, an hour of Dance Dance Revolution, ten minutes of situps, and as many pushups and deep knee bends as I can do. Can I lose, oh say, 60 pounds by the time we open in June? Probably, and I'm sure as hell going to try (well, I'm trying for 80, but that's . . . unlikely).

Currently cast: Hamlet (me), Horatio (Rasheed Hinds), Polonius (Bryan Enk), Rosencrantz (Daniel McKleinfeld), Guildenstern (Edward Einhorn). 13 more needed. Looking good.

Now to add in the memorization regimen every day . . . I'd love to be off-book before the first rehearsal. I should be. I'll try.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Lew Stone & His Band - "The Glory of Love"

So another show I'm working on opens at The Brick tonight. I did the light design again, which is simple and deep in a way I don't get to do much - the show is basically a play composed of three sequential monologues done at center stage without much movement (believe me, it works and is quite theatrical). The new house plot I've put up at The Brick works very well, though I have to do some slight hang/focus tweaks once the current shows are down. I think anyone coming in to do a show at The Brick will be pleased with what they can do with what's up there on the grid.

It's the third in Bryan Enk's series of adaptations of James O'Barr's Crow stories for the stage. The other two were at Nada in 2000 and The Brick in 2005. He should be getting to the next one later this year (this piece is a kind of interlude featuring the main characters from the previous two and the next one).

THE MURDER OF CROWS
Inspired by the work of James O'Barr
Written and Directed by Bryan Enk

performed by
ADAM SWIDERSKI
BRITTON LAFIELD
and
JESSICA SAVAGE

10.30 pm
Friday, March 23/Saturday, March 24
Friday, March 30/Saturday, March 31

$5.00
70 minutes with no intermission

The Brick Theater
575 Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L to Lorimer/G to Metropolitan/Grand

MORE INFO

Also, there are only two performances left of Bouffon Glass Menajoree, which got a nice review from Garrett Eisler, The Playgoer, in this week's Time Out New York. I was a little taken aback to see myself mentioned on The Playgoer's blog in the context of possibly being some kind of "conflict of interest" for Garrett in reviewing the show, as I'm a fellow theatre blogger. Well, there are theatre bloggers and then there are THEATRE BLOGGERS, and Garrett is in the latter category, for sure. I wasn't even aware I was enough on his radar to count in any kind of "conflict of interest" (I'm not on his blogroll), but it's nice to be mentioned.

Bouffon Glass Menajoree plays at The Brick tonight and tomorrow at 8.00 pm. Check the link for more info.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: The Blenders - "Don't Fuck Around With Love" - bootleg

Well, I'll be borrowing a digital camera from someone soon, as I need to document something else for sure (post coming up on that), so maybe I'll have some new and better photos of the fuzzythings by next week.

In the meantime, I'm cleaning out the old folders and files . . .

Here they are, full of ennui, trying to figure out what to do next . . .

And more cute boredom . . .

Well, he may be fine with that, but she's gonna go DO something . . .

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Lou Reed - "Sweet Jane" - Take No Prisoners

Busy day ahead, to my surprise. Lots of tiny things just piled up until I had to deal with them today, and no later.

But first, a cup of coffee, check the email, and shuffle the iPod (now at 20,140 songs - just added the 10 songs of the most recent Sparks album, Hello Young Lovers - which is GREAT, this morning). Hope it's some exciting music this morning, I need to get pumped . . .

1. "Don't Start Me Talkin'" - New York Dolls - In Too Much Too Soon

For just a moment, I thought it was "Pills" from their first album. Okay, they pretty much have one sound. But it's a great sound and no one else has got it quite right since.

2. "Il Est 5h. Paris S'eveille" - Jacques Dutronc - L'Essentiel Dutronc

Love that Jacques. What odd stylistic range he goes through . . . hard rock to the lightest of pop fluff to folky ballads (like this) to strange electronica. I like that his lyrics are usually in simple enough French that I can follow over 50% of them, and struggle at the rest -- makes me work at trying to get my French better.

3. "My Body" - General Strike - Obey The New Wave (1980 and all that - UK DIY etc.)

Great little percussive/electronic/odd vocal track from a great little comp of similar Brit post-punk singles from mostly unknown groups (The Flying Lizards are about the most famous on there). Too short, maybe - just feels like it's going somewhere and just stops -- giving a great transition, though, into--

4. "Chris Cross" - Jimmy McGriff - Electric Funk

Slick with rough patches. Funk with dirty electric piano. Kind of obscurity that will show up in a Tarantino movie someday before I get to do anything with it. Gotta remember this for party dance mixes.

5. "Computer Alarm" - Neil - Neil's Heavy Concept Album

"And now, another in our series on people who've totally sold out to the media and gone all commercial and heavy -- this week, Neil!"

A little link track from the comedy album starring that dirty, filthy, stinking hippie from The Young Ones. Here, he smashes the evil computer alarm clock his brother gave him that he hates, but not before he hears the newscast that mocks him.

6. "The World's The Arrow" - BPeople - Petrified Conditions

No idea who these people are, when this is from, or where I got this (downloading drunk again?). It's good, cool, dark, slow, crawling rock. Vocalist a little . . . off and icky when he gets loud on the chorus though. Not so bad, just breaks the mood a bit.

7. "White Lightnin' (It's Frightnin')" - The RPM's - Pebbles Volume 10

Oh, this is some great snotty teenage garage punk. Got some kind of horn in there, too. Trombone? Odd.

8. "With Our Love" - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food

Oh, nostalgia. High school. Alt radio. Used to not like this track and this album that much. Very different now.

9. "I Witnessed a Crime" - Johnny Cash - American Outtakes

Low-fi, but stereo, bootleg of unused tracks from early Cash/Rick Rubin sessions. This, a great reading of a song I don't otherwise know, featuring one of the Z.Z. Top guys (Billy Gibbons, is that his name?) on good, solid rockabilly guitar, very Sun Records. Nice reading, but feels like a tentative run-through in a bunch of ways. I can see why it wasn't used.

10. "Inner City Blues" - Sarah Vaughan - The Trouble With Modern Girls

Sarah goes funky 70s in a great soul track. From a WFMU DJ premium.

Okay, still have emails and postings to deal with before getting out to errands . . . gotta hit it.

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Lalo Schifrin - "Source Cue #2" - THX-1138

Tyler Green, over at Modern Art Notes, has asked for his readers to assemble another list (previously, he asked for our favorite buildings - mine are HERE).

This time, in light of the fact that a Thomas Kinkade painting will be adapted for the silver screen (aw, jesus fuck a bagpipe!), we're asked for five paintings that we think actually SHOULD have a future in the motion picture medium.

Now, as a lover of both painting and film (the latter being my first love, the medium I think and feel in; the former being the perfect, pure medium I aspire to the qualities of), this is harder for me than it might seem, for my general rule for any medium is that the best work in any art form is usually that that is pure and true to that medium. Great films, novels, plays, etc. don't translate as great in media other than their own.

So, no Pollocks on my list.

My first thoughts were of Hopper and Vermeer. David Lynch once mentioned two of his favorite artists as being Bacon and Hopper, but the latter only "for film." I understand this - I don't necessarily like Hopper all that much, except he's very inspirational in a cinematic sense. There are a few painters like this, not so great on the wall, maybe, but great as static filmmakers (when I was at NYU Film School, Robert Longo was rather popular among my my fellow students - lots of 16mm black-and-white second-year films of men in suits fighting . . . most of them not bad, actually).

Hopper has also been pretty well done in film by now, too, perhaps best in Herbert Ross' film of Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven. So, no Nighthawks.

And Peter Greenaway has pretty much dealt definitely with Vermeer in a filmic context in A Zed & Two Noughts. So, after considering The Music Lesson, I decided to go elsewhere.

I also considered and discarded works by Goya, Duchamp, Rothko (one which, I discovered less than an hour after I dropped it from my list, is about to go under the gavel), and a different de Chirico from the one I settled on.

In the end, I had to leave behind some of my own feelings about the works as paintings, and just see them as worlds I'd love to fall into, or frozen stories that I want to see the "before" and "after" of.

( So here they are . . . )

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Brian Fahey - "Countdown" - The Sound Gallery Vol. 2

I saw 300 last Friday up at the IMAX theater near Lincoln Center.

I didn't expect to really like it much, if at all. It was more an excuse to see a friend and see my first film in IMAX, and on those points, it was more than worth it (any film I even vaguely want to see that's playing in IMAX, from now on, I'm there). I wound up mildly disturbed and extremely angered by the film.

The anger was because, despite my expectations, I thought the first half of the film was terrific, smart, and amazing -- and then the second half was like a different movie, stupid, predictable, full of Hollywood cliches, and a complete betrayal of the characters and world of the first half. I went in with low expectations, was stunned and pleased by its initial brilliance, then watched as the film fell apart and became worse than I had thought possible going in. But discussing why it destroyed itself as a cohesive work is another post . . . maybe tomorrow.

So I was angry about it falling apart as a film, but I was disturbed by the potential political readings that could be put into the film, even when I was enjoying the first part.

The other night I discussed this a little at a tech for a show at The Brick, and the next day one of the actors, who I've worked with often, sent me an email asking me to discuss some of what he had heard about the film that bothered him, its possible pro-war and homophobic aspects. He writes, and I respond (with some editing for clarity here):

I was curious as to your thoughts on that, particularly the latter of the two points [that the film is "pro-war" and homophobic]. I mean, considering the movie is supposedly very faithful to the source material, and the graphic novel was written before the Bush administration, I have to wonder how much of that is just contextual interpretation. On the other hand, although I haven't seen 300, I have to admit that all the "Death in battle is AWESOME!" stuff I see in ads and promos for the movie kind of rub me the wrong way, especially considering there's a war on, now.

Yeah, I read all that [the specific online criticisms he had mentioned] -- and a lot otherwise going on around the web now saying this.

The thing is . . . it really doesn't hold water. The metaphor doesn't hold true for very long any time you try to see "our heroes" as standins for the Current Administration. If anything, it falls more true the other way, with a small group of determined fighters fighting off a large, more technologically advanced invading superpower that makes empty promises about how independent they will be as a state, as long as they allow themselves to be ruled by the Empire.

But again, none of it holds in any way true metaphorically to our current situation for very long. For a large part because it is made clear that this is also a battle between rationality and mysticism (those are the terms used, but it does come off quite a bit as Atheism vs. Theocracy) - which, in our current battle between two theocratic points of view, doesn't work (and our heroes in the film are on the "Fuck Mysticism" side). You can find bits and pieces here and there that may suddenly seem to have "topical meaning," but they can be read so many different ways from so many points of view that it might as well be a Rorschach test. If you are a right-winger and you want to see it as confirming your point of view, you could; if you want to see it as an example of Hollywood liberalism, you could. From the left, you could see it as confirming your point of view as well, or you could see it as an example of the right-wing propaganda machine (an attitude I've seen far too often from fellow lefties - that any Hollywood movie must automatically be a right-wing statement if it's big, and expensive, and popular, when more often then not it's merely stupid and ignorant).

That said, even if the film doesn't work as any kind of metaphor (through non-intention or confusion or whatever), is it OKAY for it to come out in the current climate? That's a harder question. No matter what the intentions of the filmmakers (or Miller in the original comic book), context DOES matter. Even if not meant in any way as any kind of comment on current events, and even with the metaphor not really working properly for any kind of commentary, it comes off as one. As I said last night, I LOVED the first half of the film, before it suddenly, amazing, went entirely into Stupidland (I haven't seen a film go so much off the rails so suddenly since John Carpenter's They Live), but even as I was loving it, I couldn't help but be disturbed by it. My feeling has been for years that The Artist has no responsibilities to anything but his or her vision - if it's an irresponsible Vision, well, hell, that's just part of what Art IS.

But I kept looking at it and really feeling, "Is this responsible in this country right now?" And not feeling good about what I was feeling. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" is not a universal truth for all times and places (nor is it a universal falsehood), but that seemed to be as close to an idea as the film had in it's pretty little head, and it bugged me. I don't necessarily demand ideas in art (which teeter dangerously close to BIG MEANINGS), but I demand a point-of-view -- a consistent eye or attitude that wants to show me something it is interested in, and, hopefully, with more of a reason to show me something than "Isn't this COOL!"

I know Berit and I (and other people who wrote about it elsewhere) were somewhat similarly disturbed during the battle sequences in the last two Lord of the Rings films for many of the same reasons, and you certainly can't say that when Tolkien wrote any of this, or, as Jackson was really being as faithful to the books as he could, that it was intended as any kind of commentary on the world today -- but the spectacle of our mostly Nordic/Anglo Saxon-looking heroes fighting the evil darkie monsters was at times unpleasant. Wrong time, wrong place.

Of course, given the lead time on how long movies take to make, who the hell KNOWS what the world will be like when it's time for your project to come out.

But, even if you are not intending a STATEMENT, certain choices MAKE one, whether you like it or not. And if you are making one, it's best to be in control of what that statement is, rather than ignoring it. This actually carries over into, as I think I mentioned last night, my current production of Hamlet, where I cast Rasheed as Horatio (in my head) based solely on his qualities as an actor many years ago. Then, I did have to consider what having a black Horatio "meant" in the context of the play. What it really "meant" for me at the start was "uh, black people exist?" But whether I liked it or not, the choice was going to have MEANING, so I had to use that meaning and carry it through as a meaningful decision throughout the text. It became crucial to the play for me, and even if Rasheed had not been able to play the part (and I'm SO glad he's going to), I would have still felt the need to cast the part with a black actor.

As for the homophobia . . . well, to me it comes off about on the level of schoolkids using "gay" as a pejorative. I don't think it's MEANT, again, but it's there, and its bad, though Snyder et al would probably be stunned if you called him on it, as many kids would be about saying something is gay being homophobic. They'd just think you were a spoilsport and WAY-too PC. The fact that the pretty, effeminate Persian god-king also has a harem of half-naked women, talks like Geoffrey Holder in an echo chamber, and looks like he could crush a normal-sized man with his bare hands just confuses everything, too. It just feels more like Snyder and company fell into the "powerful yet effeminate villain is creepy" cliche that's been going around forever. It's not great, but it comes right at the time when the movie goes from being really good to being nothing but a pack of Hollywood cliches, so the casual homophobia just feels like one more stupid Hollywood bit that's just been thrown in. The potentially pro-war attitude, intended or not, is deeper, nastier, more insidious, and more dangerous.

So I was disturbed, and I was disturbed about feeling disturbed. I wouldn't want any kind of suppression of points of view, no matter what, but . . .

Maybe if the film actually HAD a clear point of view (not a MESSAGE, a hit-you-over-the head thing, just a point-of-view), even an awful one, it would not be such a problem.

IWH

Current Mood: disturbed
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: The Beach Boys - "The Baker Man" - single b-side

I love typos.

Today, over at Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things, they dropped the "n" from "mental" in the opening sentence of a story, causing it to read:

"Daniel Tammet is a savant and synesthete who has miraculous metal capabilities involving mathematics, language, and sequence memorization."

BERIT: Egad! He's Magneto!

(aha - just checked and it's already been corrected)

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: The Rockin' berries - "Itty Bitty Pieces"

Oh, right, and one more reading I'm performing in that is coming up, which I should promote, featuring a sizable group of "The Brick Theater Irregulars and All-Stars," most of whom I didn't even know were participating (I should pay more attention):

There is only one way to observe this coming APRIL FOOL’S DAY . . .

And that’s at CONEY ISLAND USA!

. . . where Trav S.D. and company will read a new adaptation of

THE CONFIDENCE MAN

Herman Melville’s epic tribute to the American tradition of swindles, hoaxes, practical jokes and blarney.

April 1, 2007 marks the 150th anniversary –- to the day -- of the publication of Melville’s experimental masterwork, his last novel published during his lifetime, which pits the eponymous “Con Man” (Trav S.D.) against a series of marks on a Mississippi riverboat, played by Fred Backus, Danny Bowes, Hope Cartelli, Maggie Cino, Bryan Enk, Michael Gardner, Richard Harrington, Ian W. Hill, Devon Hawks Ludlow, Michael O’Brien, Robert Pinnock, and Art Wallace. Directed by Jeff Lewonczyck. Who is this shape-shifting anti-hero? Satan? An angel? Or six different fast-talking flim-flam men? You decide.

All PROCEEDS OF THE EVENT WILL GO TO BENEFIT CONEY ISLAND USA, producer of the CONEY ISLAND CIRCUS SIDESHOW and the MERMAID PARADE. As you may know, Coney Island will be undergoing a major transformation over the next couple of years. Come find out the real skinny on what’s going on out there and help support the traditional art of American sideshow!

Special April Fool’s Day Party Favors and Refreshments On Hand for Your Enjoyment!

THE CONFIDENCE MAN — A BENEFIT FOR CONEY ISLAND USA

At Sideshows by the Seashore, 1208 Surf Avenue, Coney Island
April 1, 2007 at 5.00 pm
Tickets are $10.00

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Gravesend

I should probably mention this again in a couple weeks, as the date actually draws close, but while it's on my mind . . .

I'll be appearing in a staged reading at Ensemble Studio Theater on April 6. Here's the info:

Doctors Jane and Alexander

Using found, fabricated, and occasionally finagled text, Edward Einhorn explores the life of his grandfather -- Dr. Alexander Wiener, the co-discoverer of the Rh factor in blood -- through interviews with his mother, Jane Einhorn, a PhD psychologist who recently retired due to a debilitating stroke. In the course of these interviews, his grandfather's ambitions and achievements are contrasted with his mother's, and ultimately with his own.

Written and Directed by Edward Einhorn

performed by Peter Bean, Talaura Harms, Ian W. Hill, Tanya Khordoc, Josh Mertz, Alyssa Simon, Scott Simpson

Part of the First Light Festival (plays about science).

Friday, April 6, 2007 at 7.00 pm
Ensemble Studio Theater, 549 West 52 Street (near 11th Avenue)
Tickets are $10.00

The listing, with ticket info, is here at the Ensemble Studio Theater site.

I directed the original short version of this play as part of Untitled Theater Co. #61's NEUROFest. Edward has received a grant to rewrite it as a full-length play, and has been working on it for some time. We've done one previous reading at EST (with Lisa Kron as Jane), and a number of other informal ones as Edward has needed to hear his drafts aloud and get feedback. The play is getting better and better and has become something quite special, I think.

I'm especially pleased that (good as Ms. Kron was for a quickly rehearsed staged reading) Alyssa Simon is reprising her wonderful performance as Jane from the original short version we did. I'm playing the part of Edward's grandfather, Dr. Alexander Weiner.

It's going to be good; hope some of you are interested.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Gravesend

Questions, I get questions. So many questions, troubling the minds of the modern-day-a-go-go American Youth, what with their rock-n-rolls and their grand-theft-autos and their baggy pants and their interest in Elizabethan dramas.

I now have 22 actors who have expressed their interest to me regarding Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, 9 who have said they definitely can't do it, 3 (including myself) who are definitely in, 2 who are in pending final check on schedule conflicts, and 19 people who haven't responded. Not bad.

And I get questions. Here's one from the probable Guildenstern (pending, as always, schedule conflicts), on reading my draft of the script, from an email he titled "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Jews," and my answer:

Just a quick question, out of curiosity -- how's your conception of R & G affected by your choice to make them Jewish? Do you see them as very Jewish -- slight Yiddish lilt?

Yes, VERY slight - more noticeable on one than the other (haven't decided which yet, depends on which actor it sounds better on). They are definitely out for assimilation - I don't think they're "observant," but they may keep some trappings of "Jewishness" about them because it's expected of them.

And from another actor:

I've been so hung up on my obsession with playing Laertes that I forgot to ask the obvious question, that being what you're looking for in Laertes as a character. I noticed you wrote up a little something for someone who asked about Claudius (I'm a faithful reader of the blog), so I was hoping you might be able to do the same for me and Laertes.

Sure. Laertes is probably everything Hamlet would like to be. Talented, quick, decisive, non-neurotic, able to enjoy life, smart, handsome. They probably grew up around each other at Elsinore, Laertes getting all the advantages of living in a royal environment with a respected father in a high position without the disadvantage of actually being royal and having to live up to your responsibilities (not always a disadvantage, to be sure, but for someone as insecure as Hamlet, disastrous). Hamlet has always probably felt somewhere that Laertes would make a better king than he. If they played together as kids, Hamlet would conceive the fantasy game they would play, and Laertes would star in it as the hero. The negative side to Laertes is that the world of privilege has left him with a certain sense of entitlement, and he has a nasty temper when he feels he (or his family) is not being given the proper respect - a kind of nouveaux-riche insecurity (he's a bit of a self-righteous, priggish hypocrite, too - he's very serious about keeping his sister's honor pure, but he feels he has every right to whore around). His temper has probably gotten him into more than a few scraps (Hamlet's probably helped him out of some of them). While he has these problems, he's probably one of the most mentally healthy of all the main characters of the play -- almost everyone else in this version wants to be something other than what they are. He's perfectly happy being what he is, he just wants more respect for that.

I've had an extended dialogue with another actor, through email and a bit in person a couple of nights ago, mainly regarding Claudius, his guilt (or lack thereof), his competence (or lack thereof), and audience sympathy for Hamlet (or lack thereof). It's a bit long to excerpt here, perhaps, and unlike other people I've quoted here, I'm not sure of his feelings about it, so I won't include it -- but I will post a poem by Cavafy, from 1899, that I sent in my last email to him, which is not exactly in line with my take on the play, but it comes close in some ways, and has the feel of some of what I want:

KING CLAUDIUS

My mind moves to distant places.
I'm walking the streets of Elsinore,
through its squares, and I recall
the very sad story—
that unfortunate king
killed by his nephew
because of some fanciful suspicions.

In all the homes of the poor people
secretly (because they were afraid of Fortinbras)
he was mourned. A quiet, gentle man;
a man who loved peace
(his country had suffered much
from the wars of his predecessor).
He behaved graciously toward everyone,
the humble and the great alike.
Never high-handed, he always sought advice
in the kingdom's affairs
from serious and experienced persons.

Just why his nephew killed him
was never satisfactorily explained.
The prince suspected him of murder;
and the basis of his suspicion was this:

walking one night along an ancient battlement
he thought he saw a ghost
and with this ghost had a talk;
what he heard from the ghost supposedly
were certain accusations made against the king.

It must have been a fit of fancy
and an optical illusion
(the prince was nervous in the extreme:
while studying at Wittenberg
many of his fellow students thought him a maniac).

A few days later he went
to his mother's chambers to discuss
some family matters. And suddenly,
while he was talking, he lost his self-control
and started shouting, screaming,
that the ghost was there in front of him.
But his mother saw nothing at all.

And that same day, for no apparent reason,
he killed an old gentleman of the court.
Since the prince was due to sail for England
in a day or two,
the king hustled him off posthaste
in order to save him.
But the people were so outraged
by the monstrous murder
that rebels rose up
and tried to storm the palace gates,
led by the dead man's son
the noble lord Laertes
(a brave young man, and also ambitious;
in the confusion, some of his friends called out:
"Long live King Laertes").

Some time later, once the kingdom had calmed down
and the king lay resting in his grave,
killed by his nephew
(the prince never went to England;
he escaped from the ship on his way there),
a certain Horatio came forward
and tried to exonerate the prince
by telling some stories of his own.
He said that the voyage to England
had been a secret plot, and orders
has been given to kill the prince there
(but this was never clearly ascertained).
He also spoke of poisoned wine-
wine poisoned by the king.
It's true that Laertes spoke of this too,
But couldn't he have been lying?
Couldn't he have been mistaken?
And when did he speak of this?
While dying of his wounds, his mind reeling.
and seeming to talk deliriously.
As for the poisoned weapons,
it was shown later that the poisoning
had not been done by the king at all:
Laertes had done it himself.
But Horatio, whenever pressed,
would produce even the ghost as a witness:
the ghost said this and that,
the ghost did this and that!

Because of all this, though hearing him out,
most people in their hearts
pitied the poor king,
who, with all these ghosts and fairy tales,
was unjustly killed and disposed of.

Yet Fortinbras, who profited from it all
and so easily won the throne,
gave full attention and weight
to every word Horatio said.

Today I email the 22 actors who have expressed interest and start setting up meetings/readings, then I email the 19 who haven't answered yet and double-check that they got the email, then I email the ones who are probably in and update them on being in a holding pattern. These emails are no longer bulk, but individual (with some cut-n-paste to save time), so it'll take a little while.

And I have to go get cat food before the little monsters eat me alive -- we ran out last night and gave them a can of soft food to tide them over until we got more crunchy bits, and, as always, that just makes them food-simple, following me and yowling every time I go to the kitchen for more coffee. Which looks to be a good idea now too . . .

"C'n it B tym fer gushyfood, plz?"

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Ice 9- "Revolting Mess" - Out Out Out 7"

Haven't done this in a while.

Blogroll below, inside the LJ Cut. Too many, really - I've also added in a few of my LJ Friends (if I wasn't sure how they'd feel about it, I didn't include them, though they can be found over on my friends page). I've also thrown in a couple that I check when I remember to, which for some reason have defective feeds that don't update properly in Bloglines (or don't show up at all).

I keep cutting blogs and getting it down to a reasonable level, then finding lots of ones I HAVE TO KEEP. {sigh} Hope you find some things of interest.

( Blogroll Inside . . . )

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Frank Zappa - "Blessed relief" - The Grand Wazoo

Still no new photos, but a few older ones I hadn't really looked at before. Nice to find them.

Hooker enjoys lying on clothes. Always.

Hooker and Moni in something close to peace.

And also, maybe, peace. Or maybe not.

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: The Streets - "Turn The Page" - Original Pirate Material

In a rush to get out the door to see a (VERY) early show of 300 with Aaron Baker. I'm not sure I'd be going to see this film except that it's what's playing in IMAX up at Lincoln Center, and Aaron really is selling me on seeing something, ANYTHING, in IMAX, which I've never done (and with my obsession with different film formats/aspect ratios, I should see an IMAX film).

So, let me try to do the fastest annotations on today's Random Ten I can, just a few words:

1. "Try Not To Breathe" - R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Works. Underrated period, overrated album, songs work better on their own, boring all together.

2. "Highway 49" - Howlin' Wolf - Muddy & The Wolf
Slick but good. Can't make that voice slick.

3. "In My Room" - The Beach Boys - Greatest Hits
The greatest. Almost. Brian's beaten it a few times. But close.

4. "There Is A Happy Land" - David Bowie - David Bowie
Sappy, maybe, but Bowie always had a good feel for pop.

5. "Don't Ever Change" - The Kinks - Kinda Kinks
I MUST spend more time with The Kinks - it's all good, but I don't GET it yet. It gets better and better.

6. "Just a Little Bit" - The Undertakers - The Pye Story Volume 3
60s Britpop that works. Would love to hear this the right way, on a 45rpm single through a little portable player. Would sound better. Overdriven and cool.

7. "Louie Louie (live)" - The Persuasions - The Louie Louie Files
Stripped down to just the doo-wop part of the song. A valuable variant.

8. "Rebellious Jukebox" - The Fall - The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004
Nasty. Nice. Need to know more.

9. "Cold Hard Times" - Lee Hazlewood - Cowboy In Sweden
Ladies and gentlemen, Not-Leonard Cohen! Sweet, though muffled. Sad, too.

10. "Jungle Drums (Canto Karabali)" - Esquivel - History of Space-Age Pop Volume 2: Mallets in Wonderland
As the title suggests, more big booming percussion than usual from Esquivel. And trumpets. Works good.

Time to run.

Current Location: Gravesend, and out the door . . .
Current Music: Brian Wilson - "Heroes and Villains" - Smile

I just working on Ian W. Hill's Hamlet.

Yesterday I was finally able to send out the big email to 51 actors. This is the email I sent out (slightly edited):

Friends, Collaborators, Workers, Actors,

I'm directing Hamlet at The Brick for The Pretentious Festival this June, and I'm casting.

If you're getting this, I'd love to have you on board, if you're interested - even if I haven't seen you/worked with you in years, or if you have apparently given up acting (I have to TRY), or even if I have never worked with you (but have seen you in other shows and would like to).

I need at least eighteen actors total, 12-14 men, 4-6 women. Two parts are already definitely cast, Polonius (Bryan Enk) and Hamlet (myself), with two other "possibles" at this point, depending on if we can make schedule conflicts work out (Daniel McKleinfeld and Edward Einhorn as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). I'd prefer to cast the other 14 or so from the 45 people I know (and trust) getting this. Every performer will get at least one speaking role, and a lot of non-speaking (but often active) stage time as well.

I don't particularly care about "age-appropriate" casting myself, so if you feel okay with playing my mom or stepdad, great.

The show will have at least 6 performances in June, I think, and I hope to extend it for some more performances in July, if it's possible. I will work with you and The Brick as best as possible to schedule around your conflicts. Once cast we will rehearse as much as possible April/May, but as most of the parts will require only 2-5 rehearsals before the last two weeks, it will not be a huge time commitment.

Please let me know if you are interested and available, or not -- either way please, as every time I send out an email like this I find out later that many people never got it, and would have wanted to do the show, so this time I'll keep doing it until I get a definite response. If interested/available, I'll send you a copy of the script, which is cut severely and filled with my own stage directions, and will give an actual idea of where I'm going with this (it's very nasty). Then let me know what parts you'd be interested in taking on, and I'll meet with you and read you for them -- I want to hear as many voices as I can for as many parts as I can on this one, and I only have a very small number of people somewhat in mind for specific parts.

I either don't have, or am not sure I have, accurate emails for [three actors named]. If anyone has their info, please let me know. If you know that anyone else I've worked with in the last few years didn't get this, have them get ahold of me, too; I can't find everyone's emails.

Hamlet will be the 50th production I've designed/directed, and will be opening ten years to the month after the first one from me and Gemini CollisionWorks (Egyptology by Richard Foreman). As it's part of The Pretentious Festival, it has given me the nerve to finally direct/design/play the title role myself, and the show will be actually called Ian W. Hill's Hamlet (though the production itself will not really be at all "pretentious;" we're just surrounding it with pretension as a hook).

The Brick Theater is also mine for the entire month of August, and I'm hoping to bring back a handful of shows during that time -- I'm looking mainly at (in order of preference) That's What We're Here For, World Gone Wrong, The Hobo Got Too High (by Mark Spitz), Sad Clowns on Velvet (three Chekhov Shorts), and/or The Mind King (my Foreman solo show). So if you were in the original productions of any of those, let me know about your availability/interest in June/July rehearsals, August productions of them.

thanks for your attention, and keep in touch,

IWH

I got a surprisingly fast and positive response. Thus far, I have 5 "NO" answers (4 doing other shows, 1 has indeed retired from acting), 1 "YES" (Bryan, as well as myself, of course), and 20 people who are either definitely or potentially interested and available - 11 women/9 men; as usual the ratio weighted to the women, which means more pain for me later as I choose between a number of great possibilities and get rid of half of the good female actors I'd like to work with (going as gender-blind as I can in the world of this play, I can have 6 women tops, maybe 7, maybe - at a certain point it'll wind up looking like Elsinore is oddly peopled primarily by women - maybe all the men have been killed in the war or something . . .).

Still waiting on another 25 responses (15 men, 10 women). I'll send out another email to those non-responders on Sunday and start meeting with and reading people on Monday. Well, at least I feel like I won't be in big trouble trying to cast this - quite the opposite, in fact. I'm worried about the difficulty in particular in choosing between many different excellent possibilities for Claudius and Gertrude (I think the others will be clearer immediately). BUT STILL - if you're someone out there who's worked with me wondering why you didn't get the email, let me know. I may have forgotten or lost your email or it may be stuck in a spam filter somewhere. I could also have felt that you weren't right for the world of this production, in which case, if you really want to prove me wrong, I'll meet with you. Gladly. I've enjoyed having my mind changed radically by actors during the audition process these last few years.

I sent out copies of the script immediately to all who expressed interest. I got an email back from one actor asking a question, which I then answered:

I'm interested in reading for Claudius. What are you conceiving for the character?

Military man. From an upper-class (royal) background but not very comfortable with it. Was always the #2 (who tried harder) after his older brother. Spent most of his life in the service. Probably a REALLY good general, but has no idea at all how to be a statesman - he threw himself into his military career so fully that he barely bothered with the normal "training" in "being royal." Needs his "Kissinger," Polonius, desperately. May not have killed his brother in this production (I want to keep that ambiguous - you'll note the confession speech is gone from this text). Loves Gertrude very VERY much but isn't all that happy about filling his brother's shoes in every way. Doesn't think he lives up to his brother's legacy (except maybe as a general - he is completely secure when it comes to anything remotely related to "being an officer"). Not very "smart," but very canny (and always taken for less intelligent than he is anyway his whole life). Probably he (and Gertrude) were subtly maneuvered into their o'er hasty marriage by Polonius - it would have happened eventually, but she now regrets the speed and he's peeved that anyone gives a damn. He has flashes of anger that he probably would have controlled more as a general -- he gets pissed off that the court and the world does not run like a smooth military command and that there's all this frippery, pomp, and codes to being a king that (to him) just gets in the way of GETTING THINGS DONE. Probably more emotionally similar to his nephew than either one would believe (or admit), but neither has the language to speak to the other.

Off to The Brick shortly to fix a few things up before week two of Bouffon Glass Menajoree. Which, again, is really worth seeing. As is Tom X. Chao's The Peculiar Utterance of the Day - Live on Stage!, which Berit and I saw on Tuesday. You'll laugh, you'll cry . . . no, actually, you won't cry. You'll just laugh some more.

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Earle Hagen/Herb Spencer "Tailspin" Essence of Romance

Back to (somewhat) regular posting, and with one o' them silly Intarweb quiz-meme things, courtesy of

nico_shalom, yet:

The Part of You That No One Sees

You are unique, witty, and even a little snobby.
You're quite proud of who you are, and nothing is going to change that.
You've paved your own way in life, and you've ended up where you want to be.

Underneath it all, you feel very isolated from the rest of the world.
It's hard to find people to relate to you on every level.
The mundane interests of your friends and family often bore or depress you.

What's the Part of You That No One Sees?

This is, of course, for entertainment purposes only . . .

Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: Japan - "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" - Poptronica Romance

Okay, no post for over a week. Problems with internet access at home, as well as being busy at The Brick, have kept me away from the blog, my emails, and the internet in general. So I'm on a computer at the Gravesend library branch, with limited time to post an update.

We're back from Maine. Berit and I have been working all week on The Bouffon Glass Menajoree, which I've written about before. I'd link to where I wrote, but the library computer doesn't let me open multiple windows, so I'm stuck in this posting window, only linking to sites I know off the top of my head. Berit and I completely rehung and recabled The Brick to a new house plot we devised that should work quite well, though we're short a few feet of 4-pin DMX control cable, so we can't quite put the two color scroller units where we want them yet. Also, even though we chose very light amber gels for the plot, it's still too damn yellow in general. Have to fix that.

Bouffon Glass Menajoree is still funny, amazing, vicious, and more than worth seeing. Look it up online, and if it looks even a bit like something you'd want to see, it is, so come pay the $10 (cheap!) and enjoy it. I did the light design on it this time, and I think that came off well, too.

Also, I wanted to plug Tom X. Chao's new show, The Peculiar Utterance of the Day: Live on Stage! at The Red Room as part of The Frigid Festival. Can't link to it, so search if you like, you'll find it. I haven't seen it yet, but I will on Tuesday. Tom's work is always worth seeing and, as he noted on one of his recent podcasts, he has a cast that is three-quarters made up of regulars from my shows.

Nine minutes left before this computer shuts down on me.

No cat blogging again this week. Here's a Random Ten that came up yesterday morning that I wrote down, without comment:

1. "I Would Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" - Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
2. "A Little Bit of Soap" - The Jarmels - The Doo Wop Box III, vol. 1: The Hits
3. "Crime Doesn't Pay (from Jerry Cotton)" - The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Film Musik
4. "Idaho" - The John Buzon Trio - Inferno!
5. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" - Randy Newman - Lonely at the Top: The Best of Randy Newman
6. "Three and Nine" - Roxy Music - Country Life
7. "Crush (live at WFMU)" - Tall Dwarfs - They Came, They Played, They Blocked the Driveway
8. "Easy Skanking" - Bob Marley & The Wailers - Kaya
9. "Art, the White Elephant" - The Residents - WB:RMX
10. "Dr. Kildare" - Mono Puff - Unsupervised

Two minutes left on here. More as soon as I can.

UPDFATE: I was able to go back and add links, despite what was said above.

Current Location: Gravesend Public Library

The snow has come down hard on Portland, but it looks to be over and done. Well, it's just turned to freezing rain, so not really an improvement, I guess.

I've had all the final, not-really-necessary-but-nice-to-get-done work done on Petey Plymouth up here, and am glad to be coming back to NYC shortly with a minivan in great shape.

And the iPod is now up to containing 19,907 songs, 68.25 gigs, 43.7 days of music (and other occasional oddities). Let's see what comes up this afternoon . . .

1. "Melancholy Music Man" - The Righteous Brothers - Anthology 1962-1974)

The song is probably unbearably sappy, really, but I can enjoy almost anything if it's sung by Hatfield and Medley (almost - there is that rotten, nails-on-a-blackboard "Rock and Roll Heaven" song . . . yeesh!). Too short, this one, doesn't get that BUILD going that it should.

2. "Luci Baines" - The Jigsaw Seen - Delphonic Sounds

Cover of a 1960s single on the Del-Fi label from a compilation. Don't know the original song (which seems to refer to the then-President's daughter), don't know who did it, don't know this band doing it now, but it's beautiful. Real candy-coated pop, keeping the 60s feel with a 90s production.

3. "People Say" - The Dixie Cups - Best Of The Girl Groups

Huh. Thought I really knew and liked this song. Suddenly it seems rather poky and unenergetic. I went and looked to be sure this wasn't a cover or alternate take that I also have. Nope, this is the original. I thought there was more power to it. Good song, still, just could be pepped up a bit.

4. "Ohm Is Where The Heart Is" - The Residents - WB:RMX

Great, long track combining the best parts of early and recent Residents. This is originally a track from the first "album" that they ever created, around 1969 or 70, I think. They sent the tape to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. records, knowing of his support of "odd" artists such as Captain Beefheart. He sent it back to them with a polite refusal note - the envelope was addressed to "Residents," and so, while they didn't get an album deal, they were at least given a name. The tape sat around for around 30 years, unheard. Then they dragged it out and "remixed" it - which seems to have involved lots of loops, samples, added drum tracks, and extensive new work. The original was apparently more jarring and discordant than their first released album, Meet the Residents, and this is like real music. Best thing they've done in years, this album.

5. "Good Good Lovin'" - James Brown - Star Time

I miss James. This is a relatively early track that I've included on every "dance mix" tape I've ever made. Aaron Beall liked having the casts of his shows dance to one song together before every performance - I've done this, too, but not as a mandatory thing - and this was the favored one before every performance of Kirk Wood Bromley's Want's Unwished Work in '96. We needed a good jolt before that show, to give us the speed-freak pace the play requires. At one performance, several cast members insisted on a laid-back, reggae song instead, and we gave a lousy, unenergetic performance that day. It was back to JB after that disaster.

6. "Be a Zombie" - Los Reactors - Be a Zombie/Laboratory Baby 7"

Tight, lo-fi, punk-becoming-new-wave 45 single. Brings back memories of a time and place, though I didn't know this song until recently - I heard plenty like it back in school then. Simple and direct and powerful. No pretensions.

7. "Life's An Elevator" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection

Sweet, soft, acoustic ballad with a pretty obvious metaphoric chorus, but Bolan makes silly things sound profound, as usual.

8. "Stay Hungry" - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food

I'm a big Heads fan, grew up that way. Never liked this song until recently though. Too jumpy in the wrong way. Now I do. I think I've listened to all the Heads I really liked too much, so there's nothing much there for me anymore. Now all the songs I ignored sound full of depth and life. Familiarity breeds contempt, or if not contempt, boredom, even in the loved.

9. "TKO" - Off Beats - Dumb Looks Still Free

For some reason, when I got the most recent two Pere Ubu albums from Smog Veil records, my package contained two additional CDs, which I guess they had spares of and were giving away. One was a comp of Cleveland punk groups - about a third great, a third OK, and a third lousy - and this comp of "greatest hits" by this Cleveland punk group. Again, about the same ratio of great/OK/lousy. This is an OK one. Terribly recorded.

10. "Strawman" - Lou Reed - New York

The summer this album came out, it was MY ALBUM. I had been getting heavily into Reed for a few years, and suddenly he came out with this. Nothing had sounded so ballsy in years. I played it over and over.

By the end of the summer, I hated this damned thing. Yeah, it sounds great, but the songwriting is incredibly sloppy and shitty. When Reed began billing himself as a "poet," which he did around this time, his lyrics went to hell. They sound like bad first drafts, except for two or three songs, including this one ("Romeo Had Juliette" is still a great, GREAT song). The guitars are amazing, though. I think I like this one as much for being great curtain-call music for Tina Landau's production of Chuck Mee's Orestes, done on a rotting dock on the Hudson River (I saw the July 4 performance, and as this song played out, you could see fireworks all over New Jersey).

I was still writing lots of songs at the time this came out (and everyone was telling me my singing voice sounded like Reed, which I was also getting sick of hearing), and I started a kind of tribute song to Reed right after getting the album. By the time I finished the song two years later, it had gone from a tribute song to a parody of his . Still a favorite of mine to play any time I pick up a guitar (not very often these days, unfortunately).

Maybe some cat blogging later, if I can borrow my mom's camera and take some nice shots of our loaner cat up here, Bappers.

Current Location: Portland, ME
Current Music: David Bowie - "Telling Lies" - Earthling

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Page generated Jan. 29th, 2026 03:30 pm

CollisionWorks

an occasional view of internal craft and external insanity

Recent Entries

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