Thursday, March 24, 2011

WER HAT ANGST VOR VIRGINIA WOOLF
One of the biggest Hollywood stars to ever grace the silver screen died yesterday age 79, the beyond legendary Elizabeth Taylor. I had dinner with Miss Taylor, John Waters, Jose Montano, the production designer for her White Diamonds commercials and several others years ago and it was pure magic. Her eyes really were violet and extremely sparkly and mischieveous. At first I didn’t think she was featuring me or John Waters, as we both were gushing to her about how amazing she was in Joseph Losey’s Boom, and how we thought the movie was so completely underrated. I think at she thought we were making fun of her or were only into Boom as a guilty pleasure or cult thing. Slowly she warmed up and by the end of the evening it was like we were busom buddies. She even remembered my older sister Gracie Taylor from Rock Hudson’s Boy Beauty parties of the late 60s and 1970s. Elizabeth Taylor hated that people called her “Liz”. I referred to her as Miss Taylor and she actually said, “Call me Elizabeth”. I just about fainted. She could be a little randy too, and loved hearing dirty jokes, and would throw her head back and do a big Ron Athey style laugh. Its always the truelly great stars who are the most down to earth. Her place in history was so secure that she had nothing to feel antsy or neurotic about like todays dull celebs. Just from that one dinner I got the sense that she was a fun loving good time Sally.
My favorite Elizabeth Taylor films besides Boom are Suddenly Last Summer, 1958. I starred in the remake of Suddenly Last Summer directed by John AesNihil, who is one of the Baltimore Five that includes Barry Levinson, Kenneth Anger, John Waters and Kenny Camp. I played Katherine Hepburn’s role and Jade Gordon of My Barbarian was in the Elizabeth Taylor part. The film also features Bibbe Hansen, Goddess Bunny and Lance Loud as Dr. Sugar the role played by Monty Cliff in the original film.
My other ET marathon viewing titles: Secret Ceremony, The Drivers Seat, Rhapsody, Cynthia, A Date With Judy, The Blue Bird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Last Time I Saw Paris, A Place in the Sun and X, Y& Z.
My internet radio interview for FilmHighlights Magazine is now online. Its pretty damn funny with some great vintage Berlin music. Please check out the link below and thanks again to Mr. Manuel Schubert.

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Rising Stars Falling Stars - March 2011 - with Vaginal Davis by filmanzeiger

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http://soundcloud.com/filmanzeiger/rising-stars-falling-stars-mar2011

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Danny Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim is back in Berlin from his Arab language immersion holiday in Damascus, Syria. I was worried about him as the Middle East is on the verge of exploding, and its not the best place to be right now. Is anyplace?
We met for a scrumpdeli breakfast at La Femme Cafe on Kot Busser Damn in Kreuz Koelln. La Femme is one of my fav Berlin eateries.

Monday, March 21, 2011

ICH BIN NUMMER VIER
I love the Turkish grocery store Oz Gida located on the Hauptstrasse in my neighborhood in Schoneberg. It’s the best supermarket in all of Berlin, and that is not just a consensus that I made up but it’s a well known fact. The meat, produce and vegetables are cheapest in price with excellent quality attached, and there is the added eye candy special of handsome young Turkish men working in the place. There are two very juicy young men behind the meat counter. Both of them always give me the best cuts of lamb and flirt outrageously with me.One of these young men is the younger brother of the stores general manager. I gather they are brothers in that they look very much alike. I believe the store is a family run business. The older of the two brothers seems always a little sad, yhough he is quite beautiful so he has nothing to be marose about. He is a little on the dimunitive side with tiny bone structure but has the most delicious pale skin and dark eyes and hair collick. Daniel Hendrickson and I have speculated that he is having sexuality issues. Though lately he seems to have perked up a bit. Today I dropped by the store just to have a capuccino and sit and people watch, and I noticed a new boy working in the store that the manager was giving a lot of his attention to. They were joking and being very playful together. Could this be a budding romance? Well it is spring my darlings.
At Oz Gida there are several older Turkish men working in the produce section and a woman behind the checkout counter that I don’t really care for in that they are grumpy.
I do love these stunning Turkish secular twin girls who work the checkout counter. Their make-up is a little thick for daytime and they overdo the tanning salon, but I am still fascinated by them.
One of the things that makes Berlin so interesting is the Turkish and Arab people that are a large percentage of the population. Without them and other minorities Berlin would very much be a dullard whitebread place to live.
If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend the extroidinarily fresh musical combo Leiseylento will be performing this Friday March 25th 7pm as part of a photo fab lab at Muskauer Str 49 in Kreuzberg. Check it out!
Got a sweet spring missive from Michele “Meesh” Mills of Silverlake today which really helped to bring me good cheer. Leave it to Miss Meesh to always provide an upbeat outlook on life. She is one of my dearest friends and I really love her.
Last night Little Alex of The Chocolate Grinder collective cooked me a scrumptious belated birthday dinner. Also on hand was his humpy Israeli lover Assof Hochman who will be performing in Armenia, Turkey and Belgium in a new dance piece for the next six months or so. After dinner we watched a short documentary on Joan Crawford’s Warner Bros. years and another little docu on the legendary Columbia Pictures goddess Rita Hayworth. I love Ms. Hayworth in the films The Lady From Shangai co-starring her ex-husband Orson Welles and The Loves of Carmen co-starring Glenn Ford who she also made the films Gilda and Affair in Trinidad with. My favorite Rita Hayworth film has to be They Came to Cordura which she co-stars with Gary Cooper and Van Heflin.