Tuesday, December 28, 2010

CHE GIOLA STARE INSIEME DOPO IL LUNGO DISTACCO
The handsomest man in all of Europa Mr. Uli Ziemons and DJane Olga Damnitz came to the Cheese Endique Trifecta to film the walls of shame of my studio that will be part of my new piece in Los Angeles at MoCa called dejecta/protecta. The wonderful Frau Damnitz besides being a celebrated turn tablelist is also quite an accomplished camera person, production coordinator and designer on films, theatre & art projects. We all had a grande time together and after shooting went to a local boite on the Hauptstrasse for some much deserved grub. Don’t recall the name of the restaurant as it was the only one in my neighborhood open, but they sure make a mean Wiener Shnitzle.
This evening I was feeling like having a guilty pleasure so I went to Potsdamer Platz to Cine Star where they show original language films and saw the tired American Sci-Fi film Skyline,by the Bros. Strause which is quite a stinker, let me tell you. I should have skipped this one. Poor Donald Faison of TV’s Scrubs fame and the Amy Heckerling teen comedy Clueless looked bloated with his bouncy manboobs and all-around confused demeanor. Luckily his character was killed early on. Before going to the flickers I ran into sexy Uli in the Arcaden and he was looking mighty tasty.
Was checking out Lady Bunny’s blog at www.Ladybunny.net and she posted a clip from You Tube of The Beverly Hillbillies TV sitcom from 1964 that featured an 8 year old Teena Marie tap dancing like a totkin Eleanor Powell. Had no idea that Ms. Marie had done any acting let alone tap dancing. Thank you Lady Bun Bun for that.
Also got a sweet message from Ms.Rosenda Moore in LA. Rosenda is a longtime MoCa employee and is an LA native who has lots of memories of a lot of the places and events that I have experienced and write about frequently in this very blog. Here’s what she had to say in a vivacious emug:

Memories again reading your blog. You are so in my memory banks, when you mentioned places I have not seen in over 20 years. Circus Disco, Peanuts and The Bitten Apple (I remember cha-cha'ing there with some brotha who had the nerve to critique my limited dancing skills on a crowded dancefloor one hot summer night when he should've been thankful I even stayed with his skinny ass all night long) and Madame Wong's (West AND East) and Catch One. Damn, Catch One always had killer DJs playing the best house music. My friends and I worked in retail at Bullock's dept store in Century City, and went out after work many, nights, dancing and laughing and have such a great time. And Hiroshima did a show at LMU when I attended school there.

Funny how remembering the beautiful soulful songs by Teena Marie opened up more memories.
In reading news articles about her, she was far more talented than just her sweet voice. Amazing.
Breathe In The Love, Breathe Out The Jive.

Rosenda.
***
Actor and bon vivant James Franco contacted me asking if I would be his date to this year's Academy Awards presentation. Of course I am flattered, but the Oscars is the last place on earth i would ever want to go. Even if I was nominated for an award. The ceremony is so dull I haven't watched it on TV in over 30 years, so I couldn't imagine sitting through it in person. If Mr. Franco wants to get together with me for some hearty fornicating I am game.

Monday, December 27, 2010

NON TI DIMENTICARE CHE HAI UNA FIGLIA
So sad to hear that Lady T. The Ivory Dutchess of Funk, Ms. Teena Marie died age 54 in Pasadena.I loved her songs Lover Girl, Square Biz, Portugese Love, I’m a Sucker For Your Love, and Fire & Desire duet with Rick James her mentor.Teena Marie was a definite part of the soundtrack of my high school.Some of the kids who went to my school and were a few grades ahead of me were good friends with Teena Marie and her black posse. She was also was close with the Japanese kids that were in the orbit of that band Hiroshima from the late 70s, and I saw her many times before she was famous hanging out at The Mirror Go Round in Santa Monica, The Bit n Apple on Wilshire & San Vicente, and during her lesbiana period at Ginos II,Marilyn's Backstreet Disco in Pasadena, Peanuts, Circus, Catch One & Horizon. I don’t think it was a big secret that she was mostly a dyke,she also use to hang at that little black gay thug club in Inglewood near the racetrack -- the name of which escapes me now. I probably first met Ms. Teena Marie in the mid 70s when I was about 15 years old through this insane woman I use to work with named Chaz Boilini in Aunt Monica(nee Santa Monica) at Equifax Insurance Investigating firm which was in a small office building on Wilshire near Bundy next door to what was Humperdink’s Restaurant & bar (owned by Ingelbert Humperdink) that later became Madame Wong’s West. Equifax is still in business but now is a huge credit reporting agency. That crazed Chaz Boilini was a Venice Beach nutter originally from Chicago. She had even attended the Chicago Art Institute and knew Cynthia Plastercaster. Chaz and Teena Marie had worked with each other at the Great American Food & Beverage Company as singing waitresses in Westwood. If anybody out there remembers TGAF&BC you are OLDER then time immemorial. I hate it when I get flooded with all these memories. Mammaries like the colors of your mind . . .
***
Received a cute little note from Tavia Nyongo the performance studies professor from NYU who is part American and the other half Kenyan just like our president and is even related to Obama.

Dear Ms. Davis,

Greetings from the Bay Area, where I've been spending the first part
of my holidays with family before heading down to Hell Lay for the
Modern Language Association meetings. Pasty English professors
blinking in the California sunlight will be quite a sight I expect.

Before I left New York I had a delicious brunch in SoHo with Anna
Mülter who was in town on holiday. We caught up on Berlin doings and I
was excited to learn from her that you managed to resolve your housing
situation. Anna and I went to see Peaches and Dynasty Handbag and she
went to several others, including Young Jean Lee, the enfant terrible
of downtown theater at the moment who had a lot of older feminists up
in arms over what they saw as her lackluster tribute to their
pathbreaking greatness in her latest show. I missed it, unfortunately,
because I was taking my new date, a tall, honey-voiced Texan, to see
The Black Swan, which was sheer glorious trash, especially the scene
in which Natalie Portman goes down on herself! The Texan is a talented
violist who manages some of the most famous classical musicians in the
world by day, and by evening gigs around with a rotating collection of
NY-area rock and experimental bands.

I have news and a small request: I am delivering a lecture soon on the
work of African American emigres from LA to Berlin in which I plan to
discuss your work alongside that of rocker Stew and the novelist Paul
Beatty. Just what is it driving artists into the arms of Old Europe? I
am planning to focus on your work as a film curator and the Rising
Stars, Falling Stars series of screenings, performances, and soirees
in which you curate and performatively improvise upon the canon of
European high culture with your punk and diva sensibilities. I also
wanted to mention the classes/lectures on "Josephine Baker/Jean
Harlow: Screen Goddesses Caught between Black and White."

To the latter end I was wondering if I could trouble you for a couple
pieces of info: do you have copies of the "texts" you read for
screenings of 'Othello' and 'What 80 Million Women Want"? I'd like to
quote from them if I may. Also, I think you have a description of your
Screen Goddesses class on your blog: but if you have a longer version
of that text I would love to see that too.

Okay, hope the Berlin chill doesn't take the bite out of your
Sylvester. Through my poor planning I won't be in LA when you are here
later in January. Some jet setter! But I will be in Berlin May 15th
for the summer and hopefully through December 2011, so I look forward
to seeing you then if not before.

Much love,

Tavia

***
Monday Frau Susanne Sachsse the fearless leader of Kollective CHEAP hosted a divine early dinner party at her eastside Hufelandstr compound.There is no table like the table of La Sachsse whose cooking is Granada, and presentation impeccable.It was a CHEAP reunion of sorts with the entire gang present including film historian Marc Siegel, Daniel Hendrickson the Scandanavian Muslim translator to the shtars with hot beau Piero Bellomo, the Bros Blue Tim & kJohnny, the lovely Salome Gershe and Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathous of The Arsenal. The menu consisted of a winter Thurington warm salad that is a specialty of the part of the East Germany town of Jena that Susanne hails from. This was followed by a riche honey toasted chestnut soup that coated the throat and stomach like the spermatazoa that David Bowie ingested from Iggy Pop back in the 1970s. The main course was rack of ganymede lamb with a hearty Tremaine bouillabase wine sauce that was all terragoned and thymed out with baby love carrots, teutonic greens, truffles and Witch of Endora endive. Yummy! For desert were Prussian jeweled Noel dainties, cookies and scones.PERFECTION!!!! The thoughtful Ms. Sachsse even gave me a lovely gold dipped make-up brush which i will treasure.
Unfortunately I had to eat and run because I had a date with Leslie Caron starring in GiGi at the Arsenal as part of the Vicente Minnelli festival. Not only was I engaged to the gamine Ms. Caron but Maurice Chavalier, Hermoinne Gingold, Louis Jourdain, Eva Gabor and a very young and hungthrobby Jacques Bergerac who I wanted to lick off the screen.