NEUE UFER
I´ve been getting a bunch of emails from LA folks who are coming to Berlin for a visit.
Texas Terri of the power pop band Texas Terri and the Stiff Ones, actually lives here in Berlin now and she sent me a sweet emug that she heard about Cheap Blacky and wants to come and see it.
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After i perform for the closing night festivities for this festival in Zagreb in December i will get a chance to hang out with my old pal the Love Camel of Milan, who now lives in London. Love Camel is sooo quiet, and unobtrusive that sometimes you forget that he is even in the room with you. I love people with that kind of energy.
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Got word from poor Glen Meadmore that he was robbed at Uzipoint in Frogtown(Atwater Village)in Los Angeles. The poor queen could have been killed. I love her to death, and worry about her constantly. Thank god she is going on tour next year with her band, of a few european countries. Talk about someone who is not appreciated in the states. Ms. Meadmore is an underrated genius.
Heard that my drag daughter Michele Carr of the Velvet Hammer fame moved back to LA. I never ran into her once, since i moved here, and when i had my sublet, someone said she was staying just around the corner from me.
It seems like every time i go into Nollendorky Platz i run into someone from my past. The other evening i bumped into a queen i use to see from the saunas in LA, i don´t know his name, he was just a tired black sauna woman, who would wear a wool hat haunting the halls of the Midtown Spa. I guess she wore that hat because she was bald or something. The queen had a million questions for me about life in Berlin, but i wasn´t feeling her, so i escaped her grip poste haste. Before that i ran into Lawrence Elbert at the grizzly, salty dog gay bar Sheune. I didnt even recognize him until he came up to me to say, "Hi". Lawrence actually has some talent as a cinematographer, so he should go far in the mainstream film world he covets so. Since i meet so many people from working with the Sundance Film Festival, and the Berlinale, i should recommend Lawrence for a job, he won´t appreciate it, but so what?

SCHATZ DU HAST EIN GANZ SCHÖN KORPER
Premiera of Cheap Blacky, and as usual evertime i perform its like the first time. I always get super nervous. I guess thats what gives me my edge. Been fighting a sore throat and the re-occuring knee problems that come with being elderly. Fortunately Anna, our super sonic production coordinator ran and got me some über anti-inflammatories that got me through the performance-thank god. The show went well. Director Judy LaBruce did a great job pulling it off, and with help from an expert lighting tech Hans,plus Tito and Reiner in the sound depart and all the wonderful tech guys at HAU 2 who always go way beyond the call of duty for Cheap.
Our show was the hottest ticket in town, with a sold out SRO crowd, which helped our ensemble sparkle. The biggest new discovery being Tan Binh Nguyen, our make-up designer, who besides beating a fierce face is quite a stage force, quietly stealing the show. German audiences are notoriously hard to read, but they are polite and reserved so its difficult to gage their true feelings. This particular piece is such a tour de force with Christophe Chemins fantastiche videos and set, and the glorious original music of the Blue Bros, and Daniela Modesto and with the language barrier, since the majority of the textis in English, that i believe its a lot to process all at once. Plus they don't have a reference point for this kind of work.
I was very happy with my performance nonetheless, and proud of my fellow Cheapies who tore up from the floor up. Special thanks to Rick Owens and his assistant Asha Mines. Rick really came through for his old LA girlfriend designing the costumes and making me a brand new gown that included a fox stole---can we talk glamour here.
Our after party was downstairs at WAU Cafe with the great Peaches and her honey Conny, tag team DJing. The atmosphere was very festive indeed. Of course my anti-inflams wore off and my knee kept me confined to a corner holding court, until a boxum blondine lad of 19 or so gave me some opiate in the form of a tiny pill which immediately downing with mineral water and a champagne chaser i was ready for the Boston Marathon. It would have been a pity to sit during a rock set of tunes that Peaches compiled that included Danzig, the B-52s Siouxie and the Banshees, so i got my lady dance on.
Here is the preliminary account of the celebutants, i will be adding to the list as information is confirmed and re-confirmed: Ibadette and Mickey One of the rock band Super 700, Cyril Duval, creative director of Item Idem and former editor of Tokyion Magazine who also designed the Bernard Wilhelm flagship store in Tokyo. Carl Hegemann of the Volksbühne, Barbara Weber, the artistic director of Theater am Nemarkt in Zurich, Troy Lopey, caterer to the stars, big diqued blue movie star Tim Kruger, Stefanie and Nanna of Kino Arsenal and the Berlinale's Forum Expanded who brought a virtual plethora of VIP guests with them including artists and filmmakers: Ulrike Ottinger, Louis Schneider & Arne Hochne of Piff Media, the Double Visions crew of Pablo de Ocampo(Images Festivial Toronto) Doina Popesco of the Goethe Institute Toronto who is the main organizer of the famous Experimental Film Congress whose new edition will be in the year 2009. Ms. Popesco was very lovely and charming, and would like to see Cheap Blacky come to Toronto, which would be great, but i don't think Cheap Blacky will be seen any time soon in the Americas.
Lauren Howes director of CFMDC, Christina Battle, Phil Huffman, Steven Andrews, Natascha Sadr Haghigian, Isabell Spengler, Rainer Bellenbaum, Erica Claus, the minister of culture with the Canadian Embassy, cute and delightful Arsenal interns Weibke and Julius. Cheap pals Annette Fricke, Wilhelm Hein, Evie of the b books kollective, Travis Jeppeson from Zoo Magazine and his lover Mario, Yusuf of Basso,
and well stay tuned to this blog because i will get all the gossip and scandals of that night in the next few days.

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS
Press rehearsal went well, and we got to work on ironing out some nagging problems with Cheap Blacky. Love the set that Christophe Chemin designed. Its very ill. No one makes this woman laugh more then my little french kitty Christophe, who is quite the Paris "It" boy, and is very popular with the mensis, who all kill themselves to chug on his huge gallic peterkus. After rehearsal and din din Bruce, Anna, our amazing production coordinator and all around keep-it-2gether girl, and Christophe went to see Jörg Buttgereit´s piece Captain Berlin versus Hitler at the HAU Eins. It was delightfully trashy, and since i am such Hitlerphile i could understand most of it, though it was all spoken in German. It was an obvious homage to the shlock movie classic, "They saved Hitler´s Brain". I thought that they could have gone a little further and made it more raunchy, with some fleshyness, and the piece is ripe for the musical treatment, which seems like the natural way to go, and i am surprised they didnt do that. But when most German theatre is sooooo sombre and dry, this was a nice wacky and refreshing treat. At the after party Judy, Anna and I hung out with the director and his wife talking about mutual comrades in arms Abel Ferrera, Asia Argenta and Joe Coleman.