Thursday, February 18, 2010

EINMAL IST KEINMAL
Had a delightful time with Daniel Hendrickson of CHEAP hosting the Green Intermission Forum Expanded shorts program. Daniel looked very masculine and handsome in his early 1960s tux, and he designed for me an op art green caftan that had the audience ooohing and ahhhhing. Was introduced to and took a picture with some cute young German actor named Jacob Matschenz who isn’t my type but I wouldn’t kick him out of bed if he climbed in with me. So lovely seeing Ela Troyano and Uzi Parnes from New York, whose program The Silence of Marcel Duchamp will be screening 2nite at 9:30 and I cant wait to see it.
Saw the intriguing Paraguayan documentary Cuchillode by Renate Costa with downtown legend John Heys who is a riot to see a movie with. I adore the wonderful Mr. Heys. Caught the Japanese film Parade directed by Isao Yukisada that featured an adorable cast of hot twentysomethings, then rushed off across town to catch Cheryl Dunye’s kollective film The Owls featuring Guin Turner and a great cameo from one of my LA children Michael Lucid of Pretty Things. I love this new project of Cheryl and her producer Alex Juhasz and company. The screenplay was co-written by the great Lesbian writer Sarah Schulman and the proceedings reminded me of the situations surrounding the all girl band The GoGo’s which was founded by out lesbian Margo Olivera and the Canadian dyke band Fifth Column. That hot Cheryl Dunye is my girl. Her movie will have its world premiere 2night at Cinemaxx with an after party at Chantal’s House of Shame.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

DINGLISH SPOKEN HIER
Continuing my Berlinale Report Card: Saw Plein Sud(Going South)the new film by super dimunitive French director Sebastien Lifshitz who made the movie Wild Side(2004) that i liked about a hot buttery tranny who has two lovers- a Russian and an Arab. That film also featured a product placement cameo by Antony of Antony & the Johnsons. Plein Sud has some remarkable eye treats in the masculine form of square jawed buckshot Yannick Renier, Gallic surfer studkin Pierre Perrier and upturned nose twank Theo Frilet. Unfortunately the morose and soppy storyline feels flat and contrived. Lea Seydoux as a low rent LoLita came across as the most intriguing character even though its clear she isn´t supposed to. I enjoy a movie with lots of beef jerky in it, but Ms. Seydoux brought out my latent lesbian tendencies-she´s just that entrancing. Nice try Mr. Lifshitz, but teenage roadflick crossed with mournful character study as a new genre just doesn´t jive. The proceedings here are all skillfully painted thanx to a talented female cinematographer whose name escapes me. During the Q&A with Kiki Petersen i couldn´t help but smirk as the directors face fell when he realized how grande a dilletante error he made with this folly.
Monsieur Lifshitz should take lessons from the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Cinema School. The screening of 1973´s Welt Am Draht was delirious, and I am all crushed out on the films star, the humpy pud Klaus Löwitsch. I hate seeing movies at Urania which reminds me of a new age high school auditorium---yuck! Welt Am Draht is so timely today as many people are leading computer simulated lives. The two part drama was first shown on German television. I missed the second part sadly as i went to a screening at Zoo Palast(See Below)
My favorite scene is in a nightclub where the entertaintainment is provided by a bevy of muscular black bodybuilders wearing the scantiest of scanties, flexing to the muzak beat. Can you imagine the dexedrine casting couch that Fassbinder used for that scene? In the F-binder future we will all be treated to a dinge utopia.
Speaking of dinge the Brazilian feature Besouro looked pretty with its nubile cast of sexy Capoiera movers and shakers. Yes i understand that Brazil didn´t outlaw slavery until the late 1890s, but the heavy handed paint-by-tumblers approach to filmmaking that tiny director Joao Dante Tikhominoff uses left me very Hoagy Carmichael. Swarthy Portoguese colonialists are bad & racists, while the tight tittied Negrettes are good and mystical. Hilarious hijinks ensue!
***
Nina Blanchard died this week. Ms. Blanchard owned the famed Nina Blanchard Modeling Agency whose roster included Cheryl Tiegs and Rene Russo. One of my old girlfriends Lauren Pine who nows works in Manhattan as a nurse pain use to be employed at the Blanchard Agency on the Sunset Strip,and regaled me with tales of how everytime Nina would appear on Entertainment Tonight some wingnut would write the office requesting some of her soiled big white panties. She looked like she would wear big white cotton panties. RIP.

Monday, February 15, 2010

MOIST FARMING
Went to see one of my talented students from Weissensee Art Akademy-- Katja von Hellsdorf, aka Katja Maya sing in her new musical art project Leisyelento at a nutty space called HBC which was very difficult to find. Katja is also a visual artist and filmmaker and i loved the song she sung in her short film and hearing that same song live was a nice treat. The band is usually a duo with Katja singing and playing the kazoo and saw, and Christian a lanky Argentine who reminds me of a South American version of Momus on guitar. At this performance they supplemented the music with a visiting Argentine on keyboards providing subtle soundscapes. Their sound is very music hall, filtered through Kurt Weill and Serge Gainsburg with a little Magnetic Fields thrown in like a fairies eyeball. The atmospheric music was sung in Spanish, German, French and English and I am curious to see them develop. Also watching the group was one of Katja´s musician friends, a very cute, vivacious German boy named Vincente who has a band called My Sister Grenadine. Conversing with the vivacious young Vincente makes me want to see him perform, and hear his musical output as well.
Received a lovely, unusual Valentine from The Aztec Warrior in Los Angeles:

My Dearest Black Mombasa,

Happy Valentines Day. I am home in Lago de Plata, I gave my Valentine a Mac Book Pro and it is now being set up to work. I was thinking of my 5th grade Valentines Day.

Your Azteca Warrior had already started to break out with acne in the 5th grade. Only God knows how many deals with the Devil I made to get rid of my Acne, none of the deals worked! So it was Valentines Day in 5th grade and we had to make Valentine paper bags out of standard brown lunch bags to hold the cards we'd be receiving from our classmates. I had my Mom go with me to 3 different stores before I picked out the box I wanted, Glittery cards for the special boys in my class and regular cards for everyone else, including the teacher.

So it was finally time for all of us to start passing out our cards, the teacher had all of us going around the tables placing our cards on the desks of our classmates. So the frenzy started and the class got a little out of control with the kids running to the different tables to place a VD card. I was delivering my cards with my baby poker face on and keeping an eye on my desk to see who was leaving cards at my table. I kept looking and there were no cards on my table, but I kept delivering mine. The First card I delivered was to Petie Rodriguez, he was beautiful with long hair and bright blue eyes! Then Gibby Gomez, already a hot lil Cholo with perfect skin and green eyes, then Angel, Rudy and so on… I glanced back at my desk when I was half way through my cards and I had one card on my desk, it was from Gibby, I saw him place it on my desk. So the class settled down and the teasing of what boy gave a card to what girl also settled. I made my way back to my desk and I had two cards for me. One from Gibby and the other from Mabel, who in Kindergarten I thought I would marry because I thought nobody else would marry her with her short arms.

I put my two cards in my bag, but not quick enough for the teacher to see that I only had two cards. So Ms. Tracy asked me if I got all my cards, I said yes. She said let me see your bag, I remember giving her a look that upset her, and she said, I asked you a question. She took the bag and pulled out the two cards, and then she yelled to the class for everyone to shut up! She asked the class, there are 26 of you and lil Aztec Warrior only has two cards… everyone was super quiet and she went on to ruin the fun and start some sort of lecture, finally Iguana, her name was Luanna, but we called her Iguana said, I ran out of cards. Everyone else was just quiet. Ms Tracy made everyone pull out some paper and make me a card. I remember breathing because I thought I was going to cry but at the same time I didn’t feel like I needed to cry since I knew that Gibby gave me a card and that was all I needed. So the rumbling started and a few of the kids started making cards. So one by one the students starting passing their class made cards to my desk. Gary Peck drew a Pizza with pepperonis on it depicting my acne marked face, there were a few other cards with similar jabs from some of the other boys. It wasn’t until everyone gave me a card that we were able to eat our cupcake treats.

Class was over and we were all making our way out the door. I wore something special that day, but I don’t remember what the outfit was. As we were all filing out the door I grabbed all my home made cards from my paper bag and tossed them in the trash can on my exit! Ms Tracy saw what I did and went Ape Shit! She grabbed me by the neck and called me an ungrateful.

I ended up having to stay after class and write some non-sense on the chalk board for about 30 minutes. Once I finally made it home I opened my cards, I started with Mabel’s card. Mabel wrote a lil paragraph about how we had been best friends since Kindergarten and that we’ve been through a lot together! I then opened up Gibby’s card; I was hoping for a long note as well. All he wrote was Gibby, in 5th grade style cholo script. I held on to that card for a long time. When I finally moved this last time I found the card, I threw it out and then dug it back out, so it’s in storage somewhere with a bunch of other junk.

So there you have it my Crenshaw Rose. A Valentine’s Day to remember.

Azteca Warrior
p.s. my Valentine didn’t have time to get me anything, so I will buy myself a hot piece of ass!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

SIE SIND HERZLICH EINGELADEN
Ms. Berlinale International Film Fest is back in Berlin, and yes it is exciting. Too bad “I´ve got flu” as they say in England. Before venturing to my first screening I had a sweet little get together with some of my NYU art students who are taking part in the NYU/Humboldt Berlin exchange program. Sweet little 22 year Alex and his 20 year old roommate Sam came by The Cheese Endique Trifecta Studio and we had a lovely time. Alex had helped me in New York with my big installation at Participant Inc. Gallery.
Now to my first screening-Making The Boys a documentary about Mart Crowley and his stage play and film The Boys in the Band. The film The Boys in the Band directed by William Friedkin(The Exorcist) is one of my all time favs. The documentary was a pretty standard talking heads vehicle, there was some excellent footage of young Mart Crowley in the 1960s at a Malibu Beach Party hosted by Roddy McDowell featuring the crème de la . . .A stunning Sal Mineo and a juicy Ms. Judy Garland among other luminaries. And a peak from a TV pilot that Bette Davis did produced by Dominik Dunne. I didn’t know about Crowley´s relationship with Natalie Wood and her faggot husband Robert Wagner.
I thought I had an irritating gay accent, but the films director Crawton Robey really takes the pie´s cake, plus he comes off as a total industry queen---yikes. His name is certainly appropriate because the lady is a Craw.
Was sitting in the theatre snuggled between two hotties, German film ingenue David Cross who has huge hands and feet, and American film star James Franko who seems to be obsessed with all things queer. Franko has two short films in the Panorama section of the Berlinale and stars as Alan Ginsburg in Howl.
Was so happy I got a chance to see The Lights of Asakusa by Japanese director Shimazu Yasujiro from 1937. The Forum will be showing quite a few of his 30s output and I want to see them all.
Usually Berlinale parties are quite dull, but the one held for experimental film great Wilhelm Hein who won the 2010 Manfred Salzgeber Preis was fantastic! A wonderful buffet, flowing drinks and a cute and cuddly crowd that included The CHEAP gang with fearless leader Susanne Sachsse, film historian Marc Siegel, Tim& kJohnny Blue. Great seeing Beatrice “Trixie” Cordua, Vassily Bourikas and Cheryl Dunye and her Parliament Film Collective which also includes lovesexy Candi Guterres, my production designer for Platinum Oasis back in 2002. Candi is major talent and has taken care of the design for Cheryl´s new film The Owls which features everyones favourite party girl Guinevere Turner. The Berlinale world premiere of The Owls is Thur Feb 18th 8pm at the Cinemaxx 7. Can´t wait to see it!