VE ALGO DIGA ALGO
My juicy Mexican hump master Cesar Vega who works as a commercial producer, and produced the short film Beyond Lovely I starred in several years ago with Gwen Turner took me for a scrumpteous meal last night at Phillipe's French Dip restaurant near Union Station. I had been craving Philippe's for years, as its one of my favorite LA eateries. The place has existed since 1908, and every year for their anniversary they roll back prices to that time period. After dinner we had drinks at the old French restaurant in Echo Park Taix, where my Afro Sister "Pop That Cherry" Jefferson's lesbian lover Ghislain de la Felaise use to work. Taix makes the best vodka gimlets imaginable, and Cesar and I shot the breeze with each other for what seemed like hours. Ran into one of my collegues Juan from the LA Weekly, who works part-time at Taix. Some country band was playing in the bar as part of an open mike,but we sat in the lounge area so we could talk and it was very cozy.
This morning Dr. Jennifer Doyle took me to Cedar Sinai Hospital to visit my ailing older sister Gracie Lee Taylor, who is dying of cancer. Her spirits were high, and she still lives in a deluded state which is probably the best place for her in this condition. My sister is 71, so her breast cancer has settled in her bones, but not in her major organs. She is in a lot of pain, but it seems like she is adjusting to it. All of her children are in horrible straights,and hearing her talk was a bit depressing, but we actually had a good time together. I hadn't seen her in ten years.
Dr. Doyle took me for luncheon after the hospital to this place on Beverly and Vista called BLD that use to be Red in another incarnation. The food and atmosphere simply delightful, and we spotted writer Jay MacInery(Bright Lights,Big City) across the room and a few tables from us the Inception lipsexy actor Tom Hardy.
Tuesday Hector and i escaped the heat by going to The Grove to catch a guilty pleasure Hollywood film. I don't remember the name of the picture but it was a teen comedy version of The Scarlett Letter that feaured a really hot young actor with quite a rack appeal. We also went to the Chinese Theatre cineplex and saw The Virginity Hit which features a young Jewish actor who reminded me of Jason Biggs and a little bit of Steve Guttenberg when he starred in The Chicken Chronicles back in the late 1970s.
That evening i had dinner at the Echo Park compound of Jose Montano. I've known Jose for over 20 years. His father is a famous Bolivian architect and his mother a Swedish actress, so he is very good looking, swarthy and exotic. He is a production designer who has worked in high end commercials like The Liz Taylor White Diamonds campaign and rock videos like REM's Losing My Religion. Lately he has been production designing films like the new movie The Obama Effect that was written and directed by actor Charles Dutton and produced by Barry Hankerson. Jose is a marvelous cook and made Bolivian Chilled Parseley Chicken, with Caribbean Negrette black beans, dingy rice, pumpkin wedgies and mulatto indian summer salad. Jose and I havent hung out in what seemed like centuries so we had a lot to catch up on like mutual friends Lady Diana Judd who is now married to the main solicitor for Rupert Murdoch named Alistair and has two young children. Jose also has a hot new lover who is Costa Rican and Afro Brazilian named Lucien. Jose gave up his car and lives a more modest lifestyle returning to his art school roots of painting, and print making. I spent the night at his house, and in the morning we continued chatting over a La Paz style continental breakfast.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
NOISE AND THE REINVENTION OF THE EVERYDAY
Brutal heatwave sweeping the southland with fires in Thousand Oaks and temperatures turning the city into an easy bake oven. Dr. Doyle took me to the “Bu” as in Malibu to escape the 115 degree Fahrenheit heat, but it was 93 at the beach and sweltering with little to no breezes other then hot ones. Joining us for fun and frolic was handsome Jan Klesse my German sweatheart from Berlin who is in my new musical/art project Tenderloin, and a beautiful multidisciplinary artist friend of Dr. Doyle’s named Adria’ Julia who is Catalon and works in the exciting new conceptual installic practice of creating utopias from scratch. The swarthy Senor Julia is also a surfer and spent a lot time in the water filling out a wet suit like you wouldn’t believe. There were a lot of humpy surfers floating about, so the eye candy was at a premium. I chittle chatted with one named Jamie Padgett who had a smoking hot studly body, and saw this other one paddle surfing. Is that the new surf trend? I don’t even know how to swim so I stayed pretty far from the water huddled in a cave of my own design under some shack like beach houses. One of the paddle surfer boys a girl next to me told me was Brody Jenner, who is the well built son of 70s sports star Bruce Jenner who I have seen in photos lately and looks like he’s going through a sex change to become a lesbian.
My sweet Jan Klesse started a beach pickup game of soccer with this incredibly sexy Japanese man named Hidetoshi Nakata who happens to be an ex-soccer star and model-super yummy.
We left the beach around 7pm because I had a dinner date with reality TV production kingpin(The Amazing Race) and former academe David Gardner and his scholar pal Scott Thomas who visited me in Berlin last year and took me out to Gino’s Kreuzberg. Mr. Gardner who lives most of the year in Paris took the doll to The Pacific Dining Car, one of her most favorite old fashion LA eateries. PDC has been open 24/7 since 1921. I drank one of the best Vodka Gimlet’s ever and stuffed a filet mignon down my throaty throat plus a pecan pie for desert. Yumsville! The three of us had a blast gabbing away until way after midnight on a variety of subjects ranging from legendary openly lesbian Hollywood golden era film director Dorothy Arzner to the Wm Wenders film The State of Things.
Sunday Marlou de Luna and Hal Marinas took me to breakfast at Pacific Dining Car where we were joined by the charming Britisher Joe Bristow a professor with UCLA’s English department and his lover attorney Blain Noblett. Mr. Noblette works with MarLou for the State of California’s Dept of Corporations. Mr. Bristow is one of the academics responsible for bringing me out to Los Angeles on this visit where I will perform a performative lecture on Oct 9th at UCLA’s Royce Hall room 314 at 6pm as part of this yearly queer arts conference. If you are planning to attend email the address below and make a reservation with your name and number of guests. The event is free of charge but seating is limited in the small lecture hall.
lgbts@humnet.ucla.edu
I would suggest carpooling or skip driving altogether and just taking the bus to the UCLA campus in Westwood, and spend time cruising all the young humpy students. Here is a link with some more additional info:
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/index.html
I went to the post office the other day and what a change at this venerable institution. The employees were so nice it was scary, and there was no line whatsoever. I guess it’s a response to all the competition which was making the US Postal Service obsolete.
The other day at the beginning of the LA heat wave I saw LA institution Angeline getting out of her pink Corvette with some faggot sycophant going into the Mickey D’s on Sunset at Fountain in Silverlake. LA isn’t LA unless you have an Angeliine sighting.
Emi Fontana of West of Rome came by and visited with Dr. Doyle and I Sunday during the late afternoon of the first day of the awful heat wave. I adore Ms. Fontana. She was looking very glam and sexy wearing a see-through Jean Paul Gaultier dress. Ms. Fontana will be bringing me back to LA in the 2011/12 season for a big public art project through the Getty. She and Dr. Doyle got along famously as both have a soccer background. She popped by on her way from the opening of LACMA’s Resnick Pavillion. We were all a bunch of giggling Gertie’s munching on La Dr. Doyle’s yummy ceviche on tostada’s from a local tortillaria. Ms. Fontana is inviting us to dinner at her South Pasadena compound on Thursday. Can’t wait.
Brutal heatwave sweeping the southland with fires in Thousand Oaks and temperatures turning the city into an easy bake oven. Dr. Doyle took me to the “Bu” as in Malibu to escape the 115 degree Fahrenheit heat, but it was 93 at the beach and sweltering with little to no breezes other then hot ones. Joining us for fun and frolic was handsome Jan Klesse my German sweatheart from Berlin who is in my new musical/art project Tenderloin, and a beautiful multidisciplinary artist friend of Dr. Doyle’s named Adria’ Julia who is Catalon and works in the exciting new conceptual installic practice of creating utopias from scratch. The swarthy Senor Julia is also a surfer and spent a lot time in the water filling out a wet suit like you wouldn’t believe. There were a lot of humpy surfers floating about, so the eye candy was at a premium. I chittle chatted with one named Jamie Padgett who had a smoking hot studly body, and saw this other one paddle surfing. Is that the new surf trend? I don’t even know how to swim so I stayed pretty far from the water huddled in a cave of my own design under some shack like beach houses. One of the paddle surfer boys a girl next to me told me was Brody Jenner, who is the well built son of 70s sports star Bruce Jenner who I have seen in photos lately and looks like he’s going through a sex change to become a lesbian.
My sweet Jan Klesse started a beach pickup game of soccer with this incredibly sexy Japanese man named Hidetoshi Nakata who happens to be an ex-soccer star and model-super yummy.
We left the beach around 7pm because I had a dinner date with reality TV production kingpin(The Amazing Race) and former academe David Gardner and his scholar pal Scott Thomas who visited me in Berlin last year and took me out to Gino’s Kreuzberg. Mr. Gardner who lives most of the year in Paris took the doll to The Pacific Dining Car, one of her most favorite old fashion LA eateries. PDC has been open 24/7 since 1921. I drank one of the best Vodka Gimlet’s ever and stuffed a filet mignon down my throaty throat plus a pecan pie for desert. Yumsville! The three of us had a blast gabbing away until way after midnight on a variety of subjects ranging from legendary openly lesbian Hollywood golden era film director Dorothy Arzner to the Wm Wenders film The State of Things.
Sunday Marlou de Luna and Hal Marinas took me to breakfast at Pacific Dining Car where we were joined by the charming Britisher Joe Bristow a professor with UCLA’s English department and his lover attorney Blain Noblett. Mr. Noblette works with MarLou for the State of California’s Dept of Corporations. Mr. Bristow is one of the academics responsible for bringing me out to Los Angeles on this visit where I will perform a performative lecture on Oct 9th at UCLA’s Royce Hall room 314 at 6pm as part of this yearly queer arts conference. If you are planning to attend email the address below and make a reservation with your name and number of guests. The event is free of charge but seating is limited in the small lecture hall.
lgbts@humnet.ucla.edu
I would suggest carpooling or skip driving altogether and just taking the bus to the UCLA campus in Westwood, and spend time cruising all the young humpy students. Here is a link with some more additional info:
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/index.html
I went to the post office the other day and what a change at this venerable institution. The employees were so nice it was scary, and there was no line whatsoever. I guess it’s a response to all the competition which was making the US Postal Service obsolete.
The other day at the beginning of the LA heat wave I saw LA institution Angeline getting out of her pink Corvette with some faggot sycophant going into the Mickey D’s on Sunset at Fountain in Silverlake. LA isn’t LA unless you have an Angeliine sighting.
Emi Fontana of West of Rome came by and visited with Dr. Doyle and I Sunday during the late afternoon of the first day of the awful heat wave. I adore Ms. Fontana. She was looking very glam and sexy wearing a see-through Jean Paul Gaultier dress. Ms. Fontana will be bringing me back to LA in the 2011/12 season for a big public art project through the Getty. She and Dr. Doyle got along famously as both have a soccer background. She popped by on her way from the opening of LACMA’s Resnick Pavillion. We were all a bunch of giggling Gertie’s munching on La Dr. Doyle’s yummy ceviche on tostada’s from a local tortillaria. Ms. Fontana is inviting us to dinner at her South Pasadena compound on Thursday. Can’t wait.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
LA CHAMBRE DU GARCON
Up early Saturday morn, went down to the Sunset Junction Farmer’s Market. Ate a delicious scone and drank the best cappacino ever from this new coffee house situated on Hoover near the old One Way leather bar called Cafecito Organico. Cute kids working their stand in the market. The weather has heated up. Los Ang summer was unseasonably cool. Now that its Autumn the city is scorching with fierce summer like temps that are going to hover around 95 degrees farenheit for the next week. Yuk! I guess I should be thankful for the sun and warmth as its freezing back home in Berlin. So weird saying that Berlin is now home. I am having a mondo wondo time in LA, but I know now that I could never live here or in the US ever again.
Dr. Jennifer Doyle aka: Pirate Jenny of Montepelier is both a knockout UC Riverside scholar and crack DJane with my Club Brickstops at the Parlour Club. She just came back to Silverlake from her summer writing retreat in the south of France, and we’ve been having a lovely girlish slumber party existence. Her Day of the Locust court style apartment is extremely charming, and I’ve really enjoyed hearing all her wonderous tales of her fab and exciting life. In fact Dr. Doyle’s Soccer blog, From A Left Wing: The Cultural Politics of Soccer is enjoying enormous popularity. The right on Maud Dr. Doyle makes righteous commentary on topics ignored by the mainstream sports media concerning feminism, arts & culture filtered through international women’s football. She has been asked to be on NPR and talk about the three S’s namely: Soccer, S’art-re History and Sex, the divine combo that seems to fuel her electric eclectic prose that sizzles and pops in ways unlike no one else in the Academy or all of Christendom. Not only has Dr. Doyle been writing for Frieze Magazine but also The New York Times and the UK’s The Guardian newspaper. I was so envious hearing about her travels to Southern Goa, in India to attend the Indian National Soccer Team training as part of her research for an upcoming book and curatorial art project. Not only that but she has become very close friends on and off the pitch with some of the most muscular, major Ms. Gorgeous young Indian soccer stars like the dashing Subhasish Roychowdhury, lovesexy Steven Benedic Diaz and hungthrobster Subrata Paul. If that isn’t enough Dr. Doyle is making me cream in my big white Nina Blanchard panties over the fact she will be traveling to South Afrika and Brazil with this new incredible project of hers. All the world seems to be suddenly wrapped up in the house of Dr. Jennifer Doyle. And my dear’s that is the way it should be.
Rudy Bleu one of my LA children and his hot ginger haired Texas lover Andrew Watley took me to breaky at Dusty’s Café in Silverlake on Sunset & Larissa. The blondine hostess who sat us wasn’t featuring the Doll, and neither was the lanky waiter. I had forgotten that I had swore never to darken that café’s doorstep because Dr. Doyle had taken me their when they first opened and they were really rude to us. Sitting a few seats over from us was Scientology actress Kirstie Alley, looking very young and cute. Rudy Bleu works for the gay production company World of Wonder, but I first met him at my weekly punk rock beer bust Club Sucker when he was a queer punk teen in the 1990s. Now he is 32 years old and is looking quite handsome with his manly beard and hot sensitive top mannerisms. Rudy is one of my young protégé’s who started doing his own zine called Scutter and created a punk music festival that became a huge Echo Park sensation and curating experimental music for the Cooper’s Donut concern. All hail juicy Rudy Bleu!!!
Last night I had a late night din din with Cory Marie Podielski , one of my top Bricktops at the Parlour Girls. Cory is one busy lady working as a top graphic designer,illustrator, textile designer and muralist. She designed my beautiful business cards and stationary. She also is a tribal fusion bellydancer and fire eater and square dance caller leading the square dance revolution that is sweeping the universe. Cory Marie took me to The Kitchen Café on the corner where Fountain turns into Hyperion right next door to Akbar. The Kitchen has great food, and I missed their southern Fried Chicken, garlic mash potatoes and cornbread. When we were entering the restaurant around midnight sizzling Australian actor Ryan Kwanten of the Vampire cable TV series True Blood was exiting. I never recognize shtars but this kid has an ass to build a dream on.
After eating Cory Marie drove me to Lincoln Heights to show me some new happening hotspots in this area that is becoming quite popular as the new LA “It” neighborhood, and she also gave me a tour of her lovely Mt. Washington hillside home. I love me my homegirl Cory Marie!!!!
*
Friday I went to Hollywood proper and visited the great Diz McNally at her Cahuenga newstand day job at World Book & News which is California’s largest 24 hour newsstand. Miss Diz is an LA treasure who I have known since the 1980s when she worked at the Radion Café in West LA, and later when it moved to Franklin Avenue. Diz is known as one of the most fired waitresses in Los Angeles. Like me Miss Diz is a true individual and iconoclast. There is nobody like her, and she looks just as young and tight bodied as when we first met. She is completely an ageless beauty woman, with the very best and most positive outlook on life. Diz is someone who is such and LA fixture that makes the city so unique and special, and I have really missed her warmth and generosity. I also stopped at the Cuban Juice Bar that use to be on Vine Street that had to move to Hollywood Blvd and Ivar when they started constructing the ghastly new W Hotel.
The elderly owner remembered me and we chittle chatted for a bit. I ordered their intoxicating banana/orange/strawberry/honey/bee pollen smoothie and a Turkey Avocado sandwich. Walked past legendary lesbian film director Dorothy Arzner’s star on the Walk of Fame. Ms. Arzner was one of my film teacher’s at UCLA in the 1970s when I went to school there as part of the MGM(Mentally Gifted Minor’s) Program in the early 1970s.
I met with a young admire who shall remain nameless as he is a young strapping Hollywood male ingénue in talking pictures of the moment. Our relationship is purely platonic as he is just curious about performance artists and drag in particular. He took me to a flick at the tired Arc Light Cinema House in back of the Cinerama Dome. He wanted to see the Wall Street sequel with Michael Douglas but I convinced him to take me to the new Woody Allen comedy, You Will Meet a Tall and Handsome Stranger starring Gemma Jones who was the star of my favorite Masterpiece Theatre series The Duchess of Duke Street. She was the best thing in the flicker which also stars Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Josh Brolin who is so ugly now. His father James Brolin, who is married to Barbara Streisand and use to star on TV in Marcus Welby MD looks better then his son. I remember when Josh Brolin was young and hot in the late 80s and was the star of an indie film that was written by and starring punk rock princess Pleasant Gehman and her rockabilly band The Screamin’ Sirens called The Running Kind.
My date pointed out a hot gay couple sitting a few aisles from us during this matinee screening and told me that the two men were also actors. The cuter of the pair is named Liam Hemsworth and his partner is Ben Hollingsworth. Being that I live in Germany and I’m not up on current pop culture personalities, other then being attractive they registered as complete zeros in my personality book.
My poor date had to shell out $13.00 each for our tickets. What a rip off the Arc Light is.
Saw a poster for the upcoming Cher/Christina Aguilera movie Burlesque. Steve Antin is directing this picture. Steve use to be an actor in teen flicks in the 1980s and has a hustler white quality to him. When I knew him he also had some killer speed freak abs. He went out with this boy beauty of the era named Jon Harp who was beyond gorgeous but not so nice in that catty way that attractive gay boys can be.
My date also drove me to Robertson Blvd which is now a super celebrity enclave. He went into this trendy clothing store and I left him there to walked up the street, and saw that Ed’s Coffee Shop is still there. This has to be the tiniest café in the world. It keeps odd hours and is usually only open from 7am-3pm and 7-1 on Saturdays. I didn’t recognize Robertson from Beverly Blvd to Melrose. I noticed that Yamashiros, the upscale hair salon for Japanese American celebrities and trendies went out of business. In the 70s and 80s these streets off of Robertson were major cruising areas and a sexual paradise for gay men having public sex behind every buildings nook & cranny and in the backyards of homes along Ashcroft Avenue. The famed bathhouse 8709 located within the Cedar Sinai Medical Complex and owned by UC Regent Sheldon Anderson was also near by. Ah those were the days.
*
Thursday Art Historian Robert Summer’s took me to UCLA’s New Wight Gallery Biennial where one of my most talented NYU students Jo-ey Tang had an installation. The group show featured an international array of young artists under the name Another Romance, expertly curated by Laeh Glenn, Alexander Kantarovsky and Rebecca Kolsrud. Jo-ey’s precariously placed art objects were definitely the exhibits highlight. Mr. Summers and I were taking pictures of Jo-ey’s art when a young handsome man approached us and asked what we were doing. Robert brilliantly explained the appeal of the artists very feminine and sensitive work, and the humpy man was transfixed. Someone later told me that the hunky fella was Benjamin Millepied a ballet dancer and actor in the new Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan starring Natalie Portman. Mr. Millepied was with Dave Franco the younger brother of showboating actor James Franco.
Before Robert Summers and I went to UCLA we stopped by Book Soup on the Sunset Strip. I was happy to see that the store hasn’t changed a bit. I heard a rumour that the owner of the store recently died so their future is up in the air. There were some lovely bookish girls working behind the counter and a cute gangly punk boy who I would love to have sit on my face. I was even recognized by some kid named Hunter Parrish who asked for my autograph making me feel like a celebrity.
Later in the evening Robert and I scarfed down some In&Out Burgers---yum.
*
Thursday morning Dr. Doyle took me for a lovely breakfast at Casbah Café in the Junction. It was very tranquil eating there and we had a nice time catching up on every little lady thing.
*
My wonderful webmaster Larry Bob Roberts who has a new book on Manic D. Press coming out soon called The International Homosexual Conspiracy
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781933149424
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/97882786
Forwarded this lovely comment from a fan who reads this very blog. I have copied it for your enjoyment.
My name is Rosenda Elizabeth Moore, I am a bookkeeper working at MOCA for the past 19 years, and I grew up here in Los Angeles, over near La Brea/Adams and later in Culver City.
I just recently discovered your blog, Ms Davis, and I wanted to say I really truly enjoy reading it lately.
You mention your fascinating adventures and experiences, but even more importantly than that, I really like reading about the people you are close to and have worked with.
It's a blast From the past for me, because many of these people and places you mention I dearly and fondly remember either seeing perform or have spent really great times enjoying myself. Such as Glenn Meadmore, I enjoyed seeing him almost 20 years ago at a New Year’s Eve show that was downtown at the old Myron’s Ballroom. The event was hosted by The Apartment, which was a house music club I enjoyed dancing at for years with friends, it was usually at the Stardust Ballroom on Saturdays and then there was a Thursday night evening at Palette also. Anyway, the New Year’s Eve event entertainment was Mr Meadmore, before that was Thelma Houston and the great Dead Marilyn (I can’t remember that performer’s real name, I think his last name was James).
Years after I began working at MOCA, I was delighted to see one of Glenn’s artworks, a wall full of Polaroids that he took of himself and friends, as part of one of our art exhibitions.
And I really loved to read about your adventures with Ron Athey. He’s such a great performer, I also saw him and his group at the time perform years ago at LACE when it was still in Downtown LA in that factory area just past Alameda. It was a phenomenal show, my friend Hector and I got there late from Silverlake (where I lived for about 6 years), so the only spot to sit was up front on the floor, right next to the wooden stick pyramid thing that Pigpen was sitting inside looking serene with her lips sewn shut. I also remember Divinity Fudge was part of the show, and before he went on, there was this fascinating and scary scene I just loved where the couple were dressed up as nurse and patient. Very sexy and bloody (well by implication cause I never saw any.) A couple of days later at the office at MOCA I ran into a couple of coworkers, the box office mgr and the retail mgr at the time, and they both asked me “weren’t you scared sitting up front so close to the performers onstage? I would have been! You’re brave!” Which I thought was ridiculous a couple of kinda bitter queen friends telling me this. Me and my friend Hector just looooved that Ron Athey group performance, it was wonderful.
We also remember you very very fondly. There was a club you organized on the corner of Santa Monica and Virgil, I forgot the name, but the night I was there, the featured bands were Goth Brooks (I don’t think they showed up and I was bummed about that), Mongoloid (Devo cover band, great!) and Nudist Priest: they were SO good. And it didn’t hurt that they all wore only codpieces and boots. Funny enough, that night I also ran into several MOCA coworkers too, most were from our exhibition production department. That was so much fun, but I think they were all shocked to see me and my friend Janelle there: I guess they didn’t think the finance dept employees should be having so much fun in Silverlake.
I’m sure I could go on and on singing your praises, but I admire so much your great career and I especially was fascinated and interested in your work on Bricktops and the various bands you were in. I actually looked up the story about the original Bricktop and boy, did she have a great life with the clubs. I really enjoyed reading about how she got started and all that. If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have known about her too.
I’d love to meet you someday, and here’s to that dream coming true. Right ON for you having such a good time out here in Los Angeles meeting up with your old friends and colleagues, going down Memory Lane. I do hope someday I make it to Europe to see you perform. I have many things yet to accomplish and explore in my life and I plan to do so.
If you’re ever at MOCA, ask for me and I’ll come down and say hi, Ms. Davis.
Rosenda E. Moore
Breathe In The Love, Breathe Out The Jive.
Up early Saturday morn, went down to the Sunset Junction Farmer’s Market. Ate a delicious scone and drank the best cappacino ever from this new coffee house situated on Hoover near the old One Way leather bar called Cafecito Organico. Cute kids working their stand in the market. The weather has heated up. Los Ang summer was unseasonably cool. Now that its Autumn the city is scorching with fierce summer like temps that are going to hover around 95 degrees farenheit for the next week. Yuk! I guess I should be thankful for the sun and warmth as its freezing back home in Berlin. So weird saying that Berlin is now home. I am having a mondo wondo time in LA, but I know now that I could never live here or in the US ever again.
Dr. Jennifer Doyle aka: Pirate Jenny of Montepelier is both a knockout UC Riverside scholar and crack DJane with my Club Brickstops at the Parlour Club. She just came back to Silverlake from her summer writing retreat in the south of France, and we’ve been having a lovely girlish slumber party existence. Her Day of the Locust court style apartment is extremely charming, and I’ve really enjoyed hearing all her wonderous tales of her fab and exciting life. In fact Dr. Doyle’s Soccer blog, From A Left Wing: The Cultural Politics of Soccer is enjoying enormous popularity. The right on Maud Dr. Doyle makes righteous commentary on topics ignored by the mainstream sports media concerning feminism, arts & culture filtered through international women’s football. She has been asked to be on NPR and talk about the three S’s namely: Soccer, S’art-re History and Sex, the divine combo that seems to fuel her electric eclectic prose that sizzles and pops in ways unlike no one else in the Academy or all of Christendom. Not only has Dr. Doyle been writing for Frieze Magazine but also The New York Times and the UK’s The Guardian newspaper. I was so envious hearing about her travels to Southern Goa, in India to attend the Indian National Soccer Team training as part of her research for an upcoming book and curatorial art project. Not only that but she has become very close friends on and off the pitch with some of the most muscular, major Ms. Gorgeous young Indian soccer stars like the dashing Subhasish Roychowdhury, lovesexy Steven Benedic Diaz and hungthrobster Subrata Paul. If that isn’t enough Dr. Doyle is making me cream in my big white Nina Blanchard panties over the fact she will be traveling to South Afrika and Brazil with this new incredible project of hers. All the world seems to be suddenly wrapped up in the house of Dr. Jennifer Doyle. And my dear’s that is the way it should be.
Rudy Bleu one of my LA children and his hot ginger haired Texas lover Andrew Watley took me to breaky at Dusty’s Café in Silverlake on Sunset & Larissa. The blondine hostess who sat us wasn’t featuring the Doll, and neither was the lanky waiter. I had forgotten that I had swore never to darken that café’s doorstep because Dr. Doyle had taken me their when they first opened and they were really rude to us. Sitting a few seats over from us was Scientology actress Kirstie Alley, looking very young and cute. Rudy Bleu works for the gay production company World of Wonder, but I first met him at my weekly punk rock beer bust Club Sucker when he was a queer punk teen in the 1990s. Now he is 32 years old and is looking quite handsome with his manly beard and hot sensitive top mannerisms. Rudy is one of my young protégé’s who started doing his own zine called Scutter and created a punk music festival that became a huge Echo Park sensation and curating experimental music for the Cooper’s Donut concern. All hail juicy Rudy Bleu!!!
Last night I had a late night din din with Cory Marie Podielski , one of my top Bricktops at the Parlour Girls. Cory is one busy lady working as a top graphic designer,illustrator, textile designer and muralist. She designed my beautiful business cards and stationary. She also is a tribal fusion bellydancer and fire eater and square dance caller leading the square dance revolution that is sweeping the universe. Cory Marie took me to The Kitchen Café on the corner where Fountain turns into Hyperion right next door to Akbar. The Kitchen has great food, and I missed their southern Fried Chicken, garlic mash potatoes and cornbread. When we were entering the restaurant around midnight sizzling Australian actor Ryan Kwanten of the Vampire cable TV series True Blood was exiting. I never recognize shtars but this kid has an ass to build a dream on.
After eating Cory Marie drove me to Lincoln Heights to show me some new happening hotspots in this area that is becoming quite popular as the new LA “It” neighborhood, and she also gave me a tour of her lovely Mt. Washington hillside home. I love me my homegirl Cory Marie!!!!
*
Friday I went to Hollywood proper and visited the great Diz McNally at her Cahuenga newstand day job at World Book & News which is California’s largest 24 hour newsstand. Miss Diz is an LA treasure who I have known since the 1980s when she worked at the Radion Café in West LA, and later when it moved to Franklin Avenue. Diz is known as one of the most fired waitresses in Los Angeles. Like me Miss Diz is a true individual and iconoclast. There is nobody like her, and she looks just as young and tight bodied as when we first met. She is completely an ageless beauty woman, with the very best and most positive outlook on life. Diz is someone who is such and LA fixture that makes the city so unique and special, and I have really missed her warmth and generosity. I also stopped at the Cuban Juice Bar that use to be on Vine Street that had to move to Hollywood Blvd and Ivar when they started constructing the ghastly new W Hotel.
The elderly owner remembered me and we chittle chatted for a bit. I ordered their intoxicating banana/orange/strawberry/honey/bee pollen smoothie and a Turkey Avocado sandwich. Walked past legendary lesbian film director Dorothy Arzner’s star on the Walk of Fame. Ms. Arzner was one of my film teacher’s at UCLA in the 1970s when I went to school there as part of the MGM(Mentally Gifted Minor’s) Program in the early 1970s.
I met with a young admire who shall remain nameless as he is a young strapping Hollywood male ingénue in talking pictures of the moment. Our relationship is purely platonic as he is just curious about performance artists and drag in particular. He took me to a flick at the tired Arc Light Cinema House in back of the Cinerama Dome. He wanted to see the Wall Street sequel with Michael Douglas but I convinced him to take me to the new Woody Allen comedy, You Will Meet a Tall and Handsome Stranger starring Gemma Jones who was the star of my favorite Masterpiece Theatre series The Duchess of Duke Street. She was the best thing in the flicker which also stars Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Josh Brolin who is so ugly now. His father James Brolin, who is married to Barbara Streisand and use to star on TV in Marcus Welby MD looks better then his son. I remember when Josh Brolin was young and hot in the late 80s and was the star of an indie film that was written by and starring punk rock princess Pleasant Gehman and her rockabilly band The Screamin’ Sirens called The Running Kind.
My date pointed out a hot gay couple sitting a few aisles from us during this matinee screening and told me that the two men were also actors. The cuter of the pair is named Liam Hemsworth and his partner is Ben Hollingsworth. Being that I live in Germany and I’m not up on current pop culture personalities, other then being attractive they registered as complete zeros in my personality book.
My poor date had to shell out $13.00 each for our tickets. What a rip off the Arc Light is.
Saw a poster for the upcoming Cher/Christina Aguilera movie Burlesque. Steve Antin is directing this picture. Steve use to be an actor in teen flicks in the 1980s and has a hustler white quality to him. When I knew him he also had some killer speed freak abs. He went out with this boy beauty of the era named Jon Harp who was beyond gorgeous but not so nice in that catty way that attractive gay boys can be.
My date also drove me to Robertson Blvd which is now a super celebrity enclave. He went into this trendy clothing store and I left him there to walked up the street, and saw that Ed’s Coffee Shop is still there. This has to be the tiniest café in the world. It keeps odd hours and is usually only open from 7am-3pm and 7-1 on Saturdays. I didn’t recognize Robertson from Beverly Blvd to Melrose. I noticed that Yamashiros, the upscale hair salon for Japanese American celebrities and trendies went out of business. In the 70s and 80s these streets off of Robertson were major cruising areas and a sexual paradise for gay men having public sex behind every buildings nook & cranny and in the backyards of homes along Ashcroft Avenue. The famed bathhouse 8709 located within the Cedar Sinai Medical Complex and owned by UC Regent Sheldon Anderson was also near by. Ah those were the days.
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Thursday Art Historian Robert Summer’s took me to UCLA’s New Wight Gallery Biennial where one of my most talented NYU students Jo-ey Tang had an installation. The group show featured an international array of young artists under the name Another Romance, expertly curated by Laeh Glenn, Alexander Kantarovsky and Rebecca Kolsrud. Jo-ey’s precariously placed art objects were definitely the exhibits highlight. Mr. Summers and I were taking pictures of Jo-ey’s art when a young handsome man approached us and asked what we were doing. Robert brilliantly explained the appeal of the artists very feminine and sensitive work, and the humpy man was transfixed. Someone later told me that the hunky fella was Benjamin Millepied a ballet dancer and actor in the new Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan starring Natalie Portman. Mr. Millepied was with Dave Franco the younger brother of showboating actor James Franco.
Before Robert Summers and I went to UCLA we stopped by Book Soup on the Sunset Strip. I was happy to see that the store hasn’t changed a bit. I heard a rumour that the owner of the store recently died so their future is up in the air. There were some lovely bookish girls working behind the counter and a cute gangly punk boy who I would love to have sit on my face. I was even recognized by some kid named Hunter Parrish who asked for my autograph making me feel like a celebrity.
Later in the evening Robert and I scarfed down some In&Out Burgers---yum.
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Thursday morning Dr. Doyle took me for a lovely breakfast at Casbah Café in the Junction. It was very tranquil eating there and we had a nice time catching up on every little lady thing.
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My wonderful webmaster Larry Bob Roberts who has a new book on Manic D. Press coming out soon called The International Homosexual Conspiracy
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781933149424
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/97882786
Forwarded this lovely comment from a fan who reads this very blog. I have copied it for your enjoyment.
My name is Rosenda Elizabeth Moore, I am a bookkeeper working at MOCA for the past 19 years, and I grew up here in Los Angeles, over near La Brea/Adams and later in Culver City.
I just recently discovered your blog, Ms Davis, and I wanted to say I really truly enjoy reading it lately.
You mention your fascinating adventures and experiences, but even more importantly than that, I really like reading about the people you are close to and have worked with.
It's a blast From the past for me, because many of these people and places you mention I dearly and fondly remember either seeing perform or have spent really great times enjoying myself. Such as Glenn Meadmore, I enjoyed seeing him almost 20 years ago at a New Year’s Eve show that was downtown at the old Myron’s Ballroom. The event was hosted by The Apartment, which was a house music club I enjoyed dancing at for years with friends, it was usually at the Stardust Ballroom on Saturdays and then there was a Thursday night evening at Palette also. Anyway, the New Year’s Eve event entertainment was Mr Meadmore, before that was Thelma Houston and the great Dead Marilyn (I can’t remember that performer’s real name, I think his last name was James).
Years after I began working at MOCA, I was delighted to see one of Glenn’s artworks, a wall full of Polaroids that he took of himself and friends, as part of one of our art exhibitions.
And I really loved to read about your adventures with Ron Athey. He’s such a great performer, I also saw him and his group at the time perform years ago at LACE when it was still in Downtown LA in that factory area just past Alameda. It was a phenomenal show, my friend Hector and I got there late from Silverlake (where I lived for about 6 years), so the only spot to sit was up front on the floor, right next to the wooden stick pyramid thing that Pigpen was sitting inside looking serene with her lips sewn shut. I also remember Divinity Fudge was part of the show, and before he went on, there was this fascinating and scary scene I just loved where the couple were dressed up as nurse and patient. Very sexy and bloody (well by implication cause I never saw any.) A couple of days later at the office at MOCA I ran into a couple of coworkers, the box office mgr and the retail mgr at the time, and they both asked me “weren’t you scared sitting up front so close to the performers onstage? I would have been! You’re brave!” Which I thought was ridiculous a couple of kinda bitter queen friends telling me this. Me and my friend Hector just looooved that Ron Athey group performance, it was wonderful.
We also remember you very very fondly. There was a club you organized on the corner of Santa Monica and Virgil, I forgot the name, but the night I was there, the featured bands were Goth Brooks (I don’t think they showed up and I was bummed about that), Mongoloid (Devo cover band, great!) and Nudist Priest: they were SO good. And it didn’t hurt that they all wore only codpieces and boots. Funny enough, that night I also ran into several MOCA coworkers too, most were from our exhibition production department. That was so much fun, but I think they were all shocked to see me and my friend Janelle there: I guess they didn’t think the finance dept employees should be having so much fun in Silverlake.
I’m sure I could go on and on singing your praises, but I admire so much your great career and I especially was fascinated and interested in your work on Bricktops and the various bands you were in. I actually looked up the story about the original Bricktop and boy, did she have a great life with the clubs. I really enjoyed reading about how she got started and all that. If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have known about her too.
I’d love to meet you someday, and here’s to that dream coming true. Right ON for you having such a good time out here in Los Angeles meeting up with your old friends and colleagues, going down Memory Lane. I do hope someday I make it to Europe to see you perform. I have many things yet to accomplish and explore in my life and I plan to do so.
If you’re ever at MOCA, ask for me and I’ll come down and say hi, Ms. Davis.
Rosenda E. Moore
Breathe In The Love, Breathe Out The Jive.
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