CollisionWorks

And a while since I wrote here -- Xmas away, blizzard slowdown and hunker-down, and general lack of things to report kept me away. Xmas was great, the blizzard was lousy, the staying in from the blizzard was actually nice, and the lack of things makes me antsy.

The antsy-ness is leading to writing, a bit at least. I have a shortlist of plays I'd like to do in August, more than I could do, but I'm starting work on all to some extent, expecting some to fall away quickly so I wind up with just the shows I should be doing.

On the list now are Mac Wellman's play Terminal Hip, which I've begun memorizing (it's usually done as a monologue, as I'd do, and it will be the only thing I act in of my shows this year, if I can actually get the complicated 45-minute piece stuck in my head); my own play Gone, which I posted in two parts HERE and HERE, but I'm not sure I can get two actresses able to memorize that complicated one (David Finkelstein thinks it would be no problem, so I guess I'll give it a try); another original I've been working on for a few years called Antrobus, which isn't done (and what I have seems to be stuck on he hard drive of a currently un-boot-up-able computer), but would be on a bill with the also-short Gone; the next in the ongoing NECROPOLIS series, number 4, Green River, which is basically a long-form music video for the stage, following a couple of young fugitives in love across the country; the next Invisible Republic dance-theatre piece, which will be about Product Research and Branding (the previous two being about Propaganda and Advertising, so we're still in the same range); and a new original piece, provisionally titled Objects, which is what I'm mainly working on now.

Again, only four of these, tops, will make it to the stage this year, and, luckily, all of them are fairly small and uncomplicated, cast-wise, as well as being short -- unlike last year, where we found that producing 2 giant shows can kick our asses far more than four small-to-large shows. Each still presents its own problems for me to overcome, mostly as a director, so right now I'm concentrating on the writing of Objects, which, like Spell in 2008, I'll probably finalize writing in rehearsal around the actors. And while I have some dialogue right now, I'm waiting for characters and situations to make themselves known. All I know at this point is that somehow it feels to me like a cross between the plays of Shaw and side one of The Firesign Theatre's How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, and I'm not even sure what THAT means. But it's a start.

So that's the work for the moment. More on them soon.

And from the 2,525 songs in the special "not-heard-yet" playlist in the iPod, here's a Random Ten for the Week . . .

1. "Travelling Lady" - Manfred Mann - Chapter Three
2. "Trouser Press" - The Bonzo Dog Band - The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
3. "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" - Sparks - The Best Of Sparks
4. "All or Nothing" - Small Faces - Iron Leg Blog
5. "I Lie Awake" - The New Colony Six - Breakthrough
6. "Down The Dolce Vita" - Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 1
7. "Cornfed Dames" - The Cramps - A Date With Elvis
8. "Ever Present Past" - Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full
9. "Po' Boy" - Bob Dylan - "Love and Theft"
10. "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted?" - Baby Washington - Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Sisters

Aw, man! Almost reached my goal of a Random ten where I could find all of the songs on YouTube -- that last, obscure Baby Washington cover blew it. Oh, well, here's the full playlist, plus bonus track . . .

Enjoying my new digital SLR recently -- it's a bit better than the point-and-shoot we have, but the main advantage is the ease with which I can manually set f-stop/shutter speed/"film speed," as well as have it automatically bracket every shot I take. Of course, since the snow shots I took, the main focus has been, as always, the cats. Here's Moni enjoying their Christmas Box:

A typical evening at home of Berit, Hooker, Moni and me, computing and watching Big Cat Diary . . .

Hooker enjoying the warmth from below and cool from the side on the windowsill . . .

And Moni walking on me and demanding attention . . .

Okay, I've been writing this off and on for about 14 hours . . . time to finally call it a day and hit the sack . . .

I don't mind; it's an enjoyable show to be around, I like my main scene a lot, and it's something to do, though I feel a bit more distant than I'd like from being TD at The Brick right now -- the Target Margin people have needed my help a few times now, and I've had to handle everything by cel, text, and/or proxy, as problems always seem to come up at The Brick during times when I am stuck on Androids, and not in the downtime around it. Luckily, the Brick problems have been handled fine right now, but not without stress.

On shows like Androids where I will have to spend a lot of time offstage (especially as right now when we are in a long LONG stop/start difficult tech period), I try to find a quiet, dim, solitary location somewhere where I can huddle between working moments and concentrate or relax (or both). As with my own Summer shows this year, the set for Androids is so huge and takes over so much of the space that there is not much in the way of "backstage" - there's space, but if you stay in almost any one place, you're going to be in the way of a projector, a camera, or someone's quick change/quick cross.

I could go to the dressing room for the actors between my scenes, but those scenes are a bit clustered together, and I'd rather not leave the space if I can help it while my performance is in progress (also, the dressing room is bright, white, and not very relaxing). So I've staked out an odd location, lying down on the wooden entrance ramp behind the set by the door to the theatre where the audience will enter. It's a little odd, but I'm used to it and don't care -- I've gotten used to cramming myself in whatever space I can backstage to maintain calm and distance during shows (I've spent the downtime during a few shows in coffinlike spaces below the stage platforms). Though, as often, my desired relaxation/meditative state is mistaken for exhaustion/sleepiness by others in the cast & crew -- it's not, usually, I just prefer quiet around the work as much as I can get it. Which isn't often.

While relaxing backstage, I've been studying Mac Wellman's beautiful monologue Terminal Hip, a "spiritual history of America through the medium of Bad Language," which I am hoping to have memorized and be able to perform for this coming August. If I get a page down every two weeks, I should have it memorized by May, which would be essential if I'm going to try and do the 40-minute-or-so thing as my only acting work onstage this coming year, as I'd like.

This might seem not a major memorizing problem, but Mac's monologue is an abstracted form of English (not at all "gibberish" as one annoying reviewer I found online called it), so it's almost 20 pages of lines like these (the opening lines, which I'm copying from memory, I think correctly):

Strange the Y all bent up and dented.
Blew the who to tragic eightball.
Eightball trumpet earwax and so forth.
Pure chew, loud thump, and release pin.
Grabity gotta nail him too sure.

And so on for 20 pages. So it's a difficult learn. I know what most of it means, at least to me (not literally, but emotionally and through-line-ly), so if I keep that in mind and get the rhythms into my muscle memory it seems to stay in there. I have most of the first page down already. Once we start actually running the show with the proper light cues however I probably won't be able to see to read through most of the show, so I'll just lie down and concentrate on what I already know during those times. So this is a nice quiet meditative thing to do as I lie on my itchy wooden ramp.

And, while I'm not regular enough here to continue to make this a "Friday Random Ten," here's the next in a random-day Random Ten, from the "unheard" playlist on the iPod:

1. "Crimson And Clover" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock N' Roll
2. "I Get Wild/Wild Gravity" - Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
3. "Key To My Heart" - The Coasters (as The Robins) - I Must Be Dreamin'
4. "Girl God" - Redd Kross - Show World
5. "Why Do Girls Love Horses" - Adam Ant - B-Side Babies
6. "Un'avventura" - Wilson Pickett - download
7. "Direct Action Briefing" - 999 - 999
8. "Treat Her Right" - Otis Redding - The Soul Album
9. "Friends" - Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army
10. "North Winds Blowing" - Stranglers - Aural Sculpture

Here's a the full video playlist of the above (minus the Robins track, which you can see if you watch this on YouTube rather than here):

Now, after a long lazy day of getting myself together here, I am late to clean up and get to the theatre. Grrr. On my way . . .

Of course, Ms. Ponder's fine fine superfine readership responded with a total of 732 movies, which she's been listing off and discussing in brief as Halloween approaches.

I sent in my own Top 20. I was actually a bit surprised by what wound up on mine, or more exactly, what didn't wind up there (no Universal classics, for example). Oddly, to look at a list of my favorite films, there seems to be a few "horror" films on there that didn't wind up on my Top 20 Horror Film list . . . there's just some kind of difference when thinking about them as actual horror movies as opposed to as all-around movies.

I wish I had the full list I made up at first, as there were only about 27 movies I would count as "Favorite Horror Films" (I know Bride of Frankenstein and The Tenant were on the list) and I could list them all here, and seeing many of the names that have shown up on Stacie's master list have shown me how many I didn't even think of that could be here, but I'll stick to the list I sent her -- which is indeed pretty much a list of unsurprising classics, but so it goes.

Here's my 20 Favorites, with YouTube videos of their trailers (or in the case of #s 1, 5, and 9, the entire movie) - which you won't see if you're reading this on Facebook, so if you're interested in them - and there's some great trailers here - read it over on LiveJournal:

1. Nosferatu (1922)

Pretty scary, huh kids? How about that Bergman, huh? Real classic horror director there . . . as Count Floyd would agree . . .

I don't want to get too specific even in my own mind about what they are as yet, as I want to start creating them beginning at the start of next year, with, in most cases, the casts as close collaborators. Getting them too firm in my head will spoil some of the possibilities there.

That said, I'm looking to work on four or five shows over the course of next year. Which ones will happen and when should stay up in the air. I just want to start work in January with several different casts and build gradually and hopefully have some or all ready for the August season.

I'm looking at making a new NECROPOLIS show, probably #4, Green River (a road-picture long-form-music-video for the stage), which has been bubbling around in my head for 7 or 8 years now. A new Invisible Republic piece -- more dance-theatre about 20th-Century stuff. Previously I've done "propaganda" and "advertising" in this series; Berit has suggested marketing/branding for this one, and I'm going with it (this seems close to advertising, but some study shows it isn't, it's its own whole scary discipline). I'd like to finish my long in-process post-civilization play Antrobus and do it, and maybe one more play like Spell, written around the cast and what they suggest to me. And then maybe Fat Guy Fall Down for the FightFest. Maybe.

But ALL of this is still a big optional question mark in my head and the air. Just places to start. Don't know if I'll act in ANY of the shows this year. Maybe just voiceovers. I'd like to stay out of these. Just write/direct/design. That's enough.

And back in the iPod, a Random Ten from the as-yet-unplayed tracks in there as of today:

1. "Cheaters Don't Win" - Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Last Train To Hicksville
2. "Contort Yourself" - James Chance & The Contortions - Buy
3. "Just Let Go" - The Seeds - A Web Of Sound
4. "Bad" - Cozy Cole - Las Vegas Grind! - Volume 3
5. "Stairway To Heaven" - Led Zeppelin - Remasters
6. "My Old Kentucky Home" - Randy Newman - Lonely At The Top: The Best Of Randy Newman
7. "Money Won't Change You" - Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
8. "When The Whip Comes Down" - The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
9. "Swing The Big Eyed Rabbit" - The Cramps - Flamejob
10. "Are You Ready?" - Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

And here's the full video playlist . . .

Not many new cat photos recently, but here's one of Moni. She's in one of her "forts" - this one is the box our printer came in, which I though I had stowed out of reach of cats prior to throwing it away. Moni was able to climb up, and finds the styrofoam a comfy bed, so now I'd feel guilty about removing the thing. It is, however, precariously held in place, so it may eventually fall down anyway (hopefully, not with her in it) and be no longer a safe retreat for the kitty:

Today has mostly been a day off -- a brief trip into the city to pick up some things and back -- and a much appreciated one. Back to all that rest now . . .

And all is well. For all I wrote last time about "mistakes" and so forth, as a friend said to me in an email full of praise for Devils, you wouldn't know it from the front of house, and it's a hell of a show. Well, yes. Just have to remember that. It was such an incredible, stress-filled hassle getting up that I tend to forget that we DID get it up, and rather well (after a shaky opening night).

Everyone seems to be having a good time doing the show now, too, for the most part (it's still incredibly crowded and hot backstage, of course, so that's a real cause for and of complaint). Last night, though, was one of those "we haven't done the show for 5 days" shows, with some real rough edges - slow cues, paraphrased or dropped lines, etc. Nothing that would be hugely noticed from the house, but apparent to us on stage. I had gone in early to set up and work on my performance, and felt pretty good, but got thrown myself by strange lines being thrown at me. At least my fake facial hair stayed on for the most part (the beard began going at one point, but I got offstage and fixed it in time). I think the rest of the weekend will be back up to speed (though I will continue to worry about my fake hair).

Certainly Christian Toth, who jumped into a not-insubstantial role with two days prep last night (and excellently, too), enjoyed himself and the show, not that he got to be a part of it, so probably it's terrific if you didn't go through the worst parts of making it. This happens sometimes.

Oh, Berit and I SO want to leave town for a while when this is all over, but we are stuck here helping run The NY Clown Theater Festival opening later this week and running through the end of the month. Well, we should be here anyway, as there are family matters connected with the last entry that really require our help in NYC for another month at least. But then we won't have much time between the end of Clown and the start of our work on UTC#61's production of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at 3 Legged Dog, which, it turns out, will also keep us from going away during Thanksgiving as we had hoped. {sigh}

Guess it's nice to be getting the work done, but sometimes I wish it was s p a c e d o u t a bit more . . .

And here's this week's Random Ten, from the playlist of 2,816 tracks on the iPod that have never been played on the device (a larger number than last week, as I realized I haven't added anything to the playlist since February, and there were plenty of songs in the category):

1. "I Don't Know Why" - Yoko Ono - Onobox 5: No, No, No
2. "This Girl's In Love With You" - Marva Whitney - It's My Thing
3. "Free Four" - Pink Floyd - The Pop Side of The Floyd 1967-1972
4. "That's All Right" - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - Roots of Rock n Roll
5. "Slightly Drunk" - Squeeze - Cool For Cats
6. "Lil' Red Riding Hood" - Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs - Monster Rock 'N Roll Show
7. "Bongo" - Slim Gaillard - Laughing In Rhythm, #2 - Groove Juice Special
8. "Race Against Time" - Public Enemy - download
9. "Secrets" - Mission Of Burma - Vs.
10. "Not Fade Away (live 1966)" - The Rolling Stones - So Much Younger Than Today (Honolulu 07.28.66)

Huh, two weeks in a row where the iPod's thrown up some Marva Whitney in the #2 slot (James Brown producing a Bacharach/David song here no less). Here's the video playlist of the above (or as close as I could get -- couldn't get the Slim Gaillard or the exact original Yoko, but the Rolling Stones bootleg track was there, go figure):

Hey, haven't had a cat photo here for a bit, so here's one I just took now -- grainy but sweet picture of Hooker having a nap . . .

And now, off to a rest period before tonight's show . . .

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.

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 . . .

Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury reopened at The Brick last week, but I had to relight the first two performances to work with a different plot, so I went back and spent two days reconstituting the normal Brick setup and re-relighting the show to bring it back to the original look I had for it in December (which I was quite happy with) along with some of the slight improvements I had made in version 2. I saw it again last night and it worked quite well.

Tonight, Rudolf II opened at Bohemian National Hall, and went quite well. It was a bit of a pain to light, given the layout of the show and what I had to work with, but it wound up being fine. It's by no means the first time I've had to light a show that plays on a thin long strip with the audience on both sides, but I still struggle to accomplish anything that makes me happy in that setup. There's still some rough edges -- most I can correct, but some not so much. Oh, well, it happens.

Tomorrow I get a day off, but the four or five things I want to fix in Craven Monkey are still nagging at me, so I may take a ride over to The Brick tomorrow to do that if I'm up for it. But I could use the rest.

It's been an odd week -- the work was long and tiring, yes, but more often obstacles would arise from someone or some organization doing something silly that made my job harder, but as I would be getting a good anger on, the problem would either vanish or a solution would appear that would be much better than any original plan, which was great, but would leave me with a big ball of unresolved anger and no place to put it. And having all that anger riding on you gets exhausting.

But all that's pretty much done, and it's on to the other work.

Meanwhile, back in the iPod, a Random Ten from out of 25,443 (with links to hear and/or see most of them on YouTube):

1. "The Art Of Everyday Communication Part 1" - The Light Footwork - One State Two State
2. "Man With A Gun" - Jerry Harrison - Casual Gods
3. "No One Knows My Plan" - They Might Be Giants - John Henry
4. "Lucky Day" - Tom Waits - The Black Rider
5. "Story Of Isaac" - Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room
6. "Monster Man" - Soul Coughing - Mix Disk - Dad
7. "Skippy Is A Sissy" - Roy Gaines - Sin Alley, Vol. 1: Red Hot Rockabilly 1955 - 1962
8. "Got Love If You Want It (live 1964)" - The Yardbirds - Five Live
9. "Return Of The Rat" - Wipers - Wipers Box Set: Is This Real?
10. "Delia's Gone (original)" - Johnny Cash - Legend

And I have nothing new in the way of photos, but as for videos -- in honor of the recent announcement that Shout! Factory will be releasing the wonderful 1987 Max Headroom TV series on DVD, here's Max with Art of Noise, back when he seemed to be popping up everywhere:

A bizarre little spot from IHOP in 1969:

A local commercial that Berit and I fell for while up in Maine (we love local TV ads):

And the classic Apocalypse Pooh:

Back to rest . . .

I have transcribed the entirety of John Whiting's play version of The Devils, as I do with almost every play I direct, even if I'm not going to be messing with the text as much as I'm planning to on this occasion -- I like to feel the text go through my fingers; I get closer to it and get a basic physical feeling for he movement of the prose, and I can create a "director's draft" that specifically fits the play into the theatre space I'm doing it in. I've also broken the play down scene-by-scene (or beat-by-beat) on index cards, and then done the same with Ken Russell's film of the play, from which I also intend to draw in my production -- Russell, smartly, made his film both from the play and the play's source material, Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudon, which I'm also grabbing bits from.

The play is good, but at times a bit dated and heavy-handed, and the film improves it in a number of ways that I can't let go of. At the same time, some of Russell's improvements won't work at all on stage. So a new combination of the two (with Huxley helping out) is what I'm trying to assemble. As the two have some very different ways of advancing the plot -- which often can't be combined -- I have to shuffle and lay out the index cards until I get an order of events that makes sense and is dramatically interesting.

I hope I can make it work in a two-act structure. I don't mind long plays as much as everyone else does these days it seems, and this will be a . . . sizable . . . work. Still, I'd rather keep it to one intermission -- Whiting's play has two, and, unfortunately, at least in his version, that three-act structure makes sense. Well, if it the play winds up wanting it, it wants it, and I can't argue with what the play wants. I'm here to serve it.

Of course, if I don't get the rights, all this work will be wasted. They're easy enough to get, it seems, I just need to do a donation-request email to my list to try and get the money to pay for those rights ASAP. Yeah, there's a reason that out of the 75 shows I've directed only 4 have been from later 20th-Century playwrights where I had to pay the standard amount for the rights (for the Ionesco, Havel, and Fassbinder shows -- and thank you Richard Foreman and Clive Barker for requiring a tiny or non-existent payment for the rights to your plays). Considering that, I probably shouldn't be concentrating on this show as much as I am right now, but it's the one that's burning right now, and I've learned to go as much as possible with the show that's demanding the work. Even if that show's in August and another show, and probably the MOST IMPORTANT SHOW I will ever write/direct, is coming up in June . . .

So I've spent a little time -- not as much as I should, but all I could give right now -- to writing Berit's and my marriage. Still VERY rough. Just ideas and some language here and there. This one seems to need me to walk around for a bit, thinking, and then quickly write down ideas in longhand in my notebook. Somehow, from these fragments of speech and image that come to me, I'll wind up with the production. Work on this might actually be better at home. I keep getting the feeling that I just need to stumble onto that ONE THING, that structural element or music cue or whatever, and the whole thing will crack open wide for me. Some shows are like that.

As for Spacemen from Space, B & I rewatched 6 full 12-episode serials from the '30s and '40s, and even while I worked on The Devils, I kept taking notes on plot and character and dialogue styles and elements to get the feel of those stories down. I have an outline for what needs to happen in each of the six "episodes" that make up this two-act play, I just need to get into the right mindspace to write it, or what I write will wind up just being a good imitation of those serials rather than what I want, which is a satiric, comic pastiche of them (with an underlying "statement" for those who wish to look for one that dovetails nicely with The Devils).

And as for today's normal thing, here's a neat little Random Ten from the 25,435 tracks in the iPod -- I really REALLY thought I was going to find video links for all of the actual tracks this week, but the obscure Sun Records side at #8 blew that, and the really obscure Illinois 1960s garage band at #9 only had a different song available. Ah, well, you get a pretty good mix here, if you follow the videos . . .

1. "Seven Years In Tibet" - David Bowie - Earthling
2. "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)" - Grizzly Bear - unknown download
3. "I Can Only Give You Everything" - Little Boy Blues - Pebbles Volume 2 - Various Hooligans
4. "Blood Makes Noise" - Suzanne Vega - 99.9 F
5. "Money Changes Everything" - The Brains - The Brains
6. "All The Young Dudes" - Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes
7. "I'm A Greedy Man" - James Brown - Star Time
8. "Hey Now (take 1)" - Billy Love - Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1958 vol. 7
9. "Now She's Crying" - The M.H. Royals - Total Raunch - 100% Boss Garage From The Sixties
10. "Done Me Wrong All Right" - Sweet - Funny Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be

And though I've been enjoying taking pictures up here, I did indeed forget to bring the cable to connect it to the computer, so I'll share those when I'm back home.

Here's a little video I found because lord_whimsy posted another video from this same series. He went with the best (and longest), so I advise following the link to that one. Here's another "MANDOM" ad from Japan, 1970, featuring Mr. Charles Bronson (and in this one, his 18-year-old son, Tony):

And I've posted this before, but I had to find it to show someone this morning, and it made me laugh all over again, so here's a replay of what Joe Cocker was REALLY singing at Woodstock:

Birthday Greetings from Joe Cocker

(and yes . . . if you're reading this on Facebook you won't see the videos and will have to go to my LiveJournal to do so . . .)

Okay, back to shuffling index cards while C.S.I. plays incessantly in the background . . .

Here's the good ol' Friday Random Ten, out of 25,551 tracks in the iPod, with more links to actual versions of the songs by the actual artists than usual . . .

1. "We Got the Neutron Bomb" - The Weirdos - Dangerhouse Volume Two
2. "Tiny Montgomery" - Bob Dylan & The Band - A Tree With Roots
3. "To Love Somebody" - Janis Joplin - Those Classic Golden Years 12
4. "Can't Steal My Way Around" - Barney Burcham - Tennessee Rock 'n Billy 1955
5. "The Thrill of Your Love" - Elvis Presley - Elvis Is Back!
6. "Holy Flypaper!" - Nelson Riddle - Batman - Exclusive Original Television Soundtrack Album
7. "When You Walk In The Room" - Jackie De Shannon - The Definitive Collection
8. "Teclo" - PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
9. "The Reverend Goes To Hell (from "Edgar Wallace")" - The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Film Musik
10. "Have Love Will Travel" - The Sonics - !!!Here Are The Sonics!!!

And, yes, this date brings back a lot of memories, but I'll simply share (in videos) three songs that were circling my head for much of the year following (and if you're on Facebook, you'll have to check back at the original post to see them).

First, Bob Dylan's "High Water (for Charley Patton)," in a live version at Niagara Falls:

The classic video for Laurie Anderson's "O Superman (for Massenet)":

And David Bowie's "Heathen (The Rays)":

Which makes three songs with bit of their titles in parenthesis that I love and which make me full of sadness and dread.