LADY IN VERMIN
The Vagimule doll left Berlin with Love Camel Friday morning for London. The Camel was treating her doll to a whirlwind English birthday. We had to wake up pretty early to catch our flight from Schonefeld Airport. Not my fav aeroport to be sure. Was freaking out that the aeroport was going on strike, but that was happening in Frankfurt not Berlin as of yet. Also heard that the bus and subways would go on strike on Saturday.
The night before we were at the famed Forum Party at the Volksbuhne which was fun and laugh filled. Drank too much and made a fool out of myself because i had stupidly skipped dinner to make a screening of the Taiwanese film Love that was shown at Kino International and featured an attractive young Chinese cast. The men in the film had me all achy breaky for sticky rice. Yowza. In fact the best looking men this year at the festival were in the films, not much eye candy circulating about at screenings.
Got to flirt and kissy kiss with handsome Uli Ziemons, lovely Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Nanna Heidenreich & Olga Damnitz, CHEAP fearless leader Susanne Sachsse & Marc Siegel, Daniel Hendrickson, Nazli Kilerci & Greek Yorgos, kJohnny Blue, Superstar Mario Montez and lover Dave, Wilhelm Hein & Annette Frick, Aijoja & Marianne of bbooks, Little Alex and Tim of Chocolate Grinder, socially promiscuous BFF Darryl "Horacio" Els, Shannon Kelly of UCLA Film Archive with pals from Mix Brazil, stylish and sophisticated Dorthea Wenner, Weiland Speck, Koen Claerhout and a bunch of others that i will report on when i get the official guest list.
Love Camel lives in Kentish Town near Camden area of London in a cute split level flat that is spacious with a balcony and a fab view. Big Daddy Ron Athey cooked me a delicious pre birthday dinner at his lovely sublet on Caledonia Road. Visiting him from Barcelona the first lady of harsh that gorgeous, talented creature known to the world as Lydia Lunch. The no wave starina shared with us some of her new hit songs from her upcoming album that will be released in May and believe me this new material is explosive! Just like the fiery lady Lydia herself. She also let us sneak peak her new videos that will feature in upcoming live performances at film & music festivals. Ms. Lunch will be doing a spoken word performance at the Kunst Werker in Berlin in March. I will post a full update on her and Franko B when i get back to Berlin. Also at the intimate soiree besides Franko was Love Camel and sweet Lee Adams who gave me a birthday present of Derek Jarman's Super 8 book.
Before going to Ron's Love Camel took me for a luncheon at this little American style place called The Diner on Camden High Street and then we had a drink at this gay pub called The Black Cap that turns into a disco after the pub closes where they have low rent drag shows. In the morning Camel treated the Doll to a Polish greasy spoon breakfast at this tiny boite called Mama Mia that had some hunky pale skinned skally lads inside who were turning me on like you wouldn't believe.
Been having a wonderous time with crazy Camel. He showed me the film The Score directed by Radley Metzger from 1974 starring Casey Donavan. I had seen the other Metzger film The Lickerish Quarter which is completely insane. I think i should have Jonathan Berger use the film Lickerish Quartet as inspiration for our Speaking From the Diaphragm set when i recreate the talkshow installation in Berlin. Camel also showed me a little known Italian movie called Cosotto from 1977 starring a very young Jodie Foster and a cute young Italian actor named Michele Placido. The film features a cameo by Catherine Deneuve and also stars Passolini lover Ninetto Davoli. I'll never forget when i first met Jodie Foster in 1975 at the opening of Famous Amos Cookie store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. She was with her mother, and was so butch she came on to me right in front of her mom who was more like her girlfriend then parent. Jodie thought i was a girl. Also at this opening was Andy Warhol, Faye Dunaway and her then husband Peter Wolf of the J. Geills Band. I wound up at this event by accident when the Preview House that i think is now Harmony Gold up the street was too full to let me in.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
HEIMSPIEL IN GOLD
Last night at Cinemaxxx´s tiny screening room 4 saw the odd Japanese film End of Puberty/Koi ni itaru yamai by the wonderfully insane young Japanese directrix Kimura Shoko. The flicker features a nubile cast of two very personable and sexxy girls and one beautiful boy with the most luscious lips, pale skin and shrimpable feet. He looks like a homo anime come to life or Japanese boyband member. The movie features the exchange of genitals in a very Petrolio like manner that would make Passolini proud. Ms. Shoko is a new voice in film to herald.
This morning i woke up pretty early to catch Egyptian Brit Sally El Hosaini´s My Brother The Devil which boasts two delicious eyecandy leads in the strapping forms of thrombone James Floyd and pillowlipped Fady Elsayed. I wanted to kidnap both stars during the q&a. This gritty urban tale is electric glide & blue with dazzling cinematography and nuanced performances. The British street patois alone is enough for realness/healness. Like Ms. Shoko of End of Puberty Ms. El Hosaini is a formidable directing & writing talenta that i am proud to tell it from the mountain about.
Love Camel went to see Salma Hayek starring in La Chispa de la Vida a film by Alexander Iglesia. The film started one hour late at the Friedrich Stad Palast which garnished the ire of the crowd who showered the facilitator, star and director with a volly of boos.
Last night at Cinemaxxx´s tiny screening room 4 saw the odd Japanese film End of Puberty/Koi ni itaru yamai by the wonderfully insane young Japanese directrix Kimura Shoko. The flicker features a nubile cast of two very personable and sexxy girls and one beautiful boy with the most luscious lips, pale skin and shrimpable feet. He looks like a homo anime come to life or Japanese boyband member. The movie features the exchange of genitals in a very Petrolio like manner that would make Passolini proud. Ms. Shoko is a new voice in film to herald.
This morning i woke up pretty early to catch Egyptian Brit Sally El Hosaini´s My Brother The Devil which boasts two delicious eyecandy leads in the strapping forms of thrombone James Floyd and pillowlipped Fady Elsayed. I wanted to kidnap both stars during the q&a. This gritty urban tale is electric glide & blue with dazzling cinematography and nuanced performances. The British street patois alone is enough for realness/healness. Like Ms. Shoko of End of Puberty Ms. El Hosaini is a formidable directing & writing talenta that i am proud to tell it from the mountain about.
Love Camel went to see Salma Hayek starring in La Chispa de la Vida a film by Alexander Iglesia. The film started one hour late at the Friedrich Stad Palast which garnished the ire of the crowd who showered the facilitator, star and director with a volly of boos.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
DADDY WAR MAL COOL
Last night with Love Camel in tow or is that camel toe we went to Arsenal I to see the Cambodian kinky fractured fairytale Puos Keng Kang which in English i think is The Snake Man which is part of their Cambodian cinema golden era retrospectacle. The film from 1970 directed by Tea Lim Koun was everything that you expect in world cinemá--exotic, lush & lyrical with interspecies sex, madcap mugging by effeminate supporting players and barefoot big tittied Jeffrey Hunteresque matinee idols. Joining Camel and I was gorgeous Susanne Sachsse. The director of the film not only brought to the screening the surviving stars but half of Southeast Asia with him. Nearly three hours long it was all a whirling delight of the senses. Afterward we joined film historian Marc Siegel for some hot buttery gossip at the low rent Andy´s diner across the street that stays open all night. Marc Siegel and 84 year old director Wynn Chamberlin are now official BFF´s forever.
Earlier i went to HAU2 for the Harum Farocki presentation of La Verifica Incerta that is part of the wonderful Forum Expanded experimental section of the Berlinale. Received tender hugz and kisses from a radiant Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and her co-curators the lovesexy scholar extrodinaire Nanna Heidenreich and the handsomest man in all of Europa Uli Ziemons who is now 30 years old and very manlische. The packed house also featured Ana Muelter, Katrin Dod the legendary beauty of HAU and the glamorous Dorothea Wenner who was chatting with actor Jake Gyllenhaul who few recognized and icelandic male ingenue Hilmar Gudjonsson.
My day started with Love Camel eating delish Mexican grub at Maria Bonita before catching a screening of the film Comes a Bright Day that was in the Generation 14 plus section. There were too many children at the Cinemaxxx theatre for my liking. Camel is brilliant but sometimes his taste in films are odd. He was telling me that in London he went to a screening of the Squarebob Squarepants film and was the only adult not accompanied by a child. Leaving Cinemaxx i ran into Women in Film legends Heidi Schluptmann & Corolla Grauman of Cinematek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt, the famed duo was looking quite stylish and elegant in their winter gear who had
just left a screening of Sydney Pollack´s Out of Africa that was part of the tribute to Meryl Streep.
Had an interview with a clueless reporter from Variety Magazine who had been to my Getty performance in Los Angeles. He took me to breakfast at the Hyatt and grilled me about everything Berlin. I told him about CHEAP kollective and Forum Expanded and the Arsenal and he was hanging on every word. He also asked what i was reading lately and i told him i was given an advanced copy of the memoir by former JF Kennedy intern Mimi Alford Once Upon a Secret about her affair with the president. I plan on digging deep into the book when i fly to London for my birthday.
Last night with Love Camel in tow or is that camel toe we went to Arsenal I to see the Cambodian kinky fractured fairytale Puos Keng Kang which in English i think is The Snake Man which is part of their Cambodian cinema golden era retrospectacle. The film from 1970 directed by Tea Lim Koun was everything that you expect in world cinemá--exotic, lush & lyrical with interspecies sex, madcap mugging by effeminate supporting players and barefoot big tittied Jeffrey Hunteresque matinee idols. Joining Camel and I was gorgeous Susanne Sachsse. The director of the film not only brought to the screening the surviving stars but half of Southeast Asia with him. Nearly three hours long it was all a whirling delight of the senses. Afterward we joined film historian Marc Siegel for some hot buttery gossip at the low rent Andy´s diner across the street that stays open all night. Marc Siegel and 84 year old director Wynn Chamberlin are now official BFF´s forever.
Earlier i went to HAU2 for the Harum Farocki presentation of La Verifica Incerta that is part of the wonderful Forum Expanded experimental section of the Berlinale. Received tender hugz and kisses from a radiant Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and her co-curators the lovesexy scholar extrodinaire Nanna Heidenreich and the handsomest man in all of Europa Uli Ziemons who is now 30 years old and very manlische. The packed house also featured Ana Muelter, Katrin Dod the legendary beauty of HAU and the glamorous Dorothea Wenner who was chatting with actor Jake Gyllenhaul who few recognized and icelandic male ingenue Hilmar Gudjonsson.
My day started with Love Camel eating delish Mexican grub at Maria Bonita before catching a screening of the film Comes a Bright Day that was in the Generation 14 plus section. There were too many children at the Cinemaxxx theatre for my liking. Camel is brilliant but sometimes his taste in films are odd. He was telling me that in London he went to a screening of the Squarebob Squarepants film and was the only adult not accompanied by a child. Leaving Cinemaxx i ran into Women in Film legends Heidi Schluptmann & Corolla Grauman of Cinematek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt, the famed duo was looking quite stylish and elegant in their winter gear who had
just left a screening of Sydney Pollack´s Out of Africa that was part of the tribute to Meryl Streep.
Had an interview with a clueless reporter from Variety Magazine who had been to my Getty performance in Los Angeles. He took me to breakfast at the Hyatt and grilled me about everything Berlin. I told him about CHEAP kollective and Forum Expanded and the Arsenal and he was hanging on every word. He also asked what i was reading lately and i told him i was given an advanced copy of the memoir by former JF Kennedy intern Mimi Alford Once Upon a Secret about her affair with the president. I plan on digging deep into the book when i fly to London for my birthday.
Monday, February 13, 2012
HEUTE NACHT ODER NIE
The Love Camel aka: Andrea Novarin has arrived in Berlin and is staying with his doll. Camel worked for many years at the BFI but decided to quit all of a sudden. Every year he comes to the Berlinale International Film Festival to soak in its cinema Palmolive. Last night he met me at the CineStar Theatre where the Forum was screening Wynn Chamberlain´s lost cult film Brand X that stars the phenomenal Taylor Mead, along with incredible comic performances by Sally Kirkland, Sam Shepard, Tally Brown (who almost steals the film from Taylor)Ultra Violet, Candy Darling and Jimmy Hendrix in a cameo. My Fertile La Toyah Jackson Video Magazine from the early 90s is the only thing i can compare this film to. Its almost as if i had seen Brand X and channeled it when i made Fertile, but of course I wasn´t aware of its existence. The director is a complete freak and at 84 years of age he doesn´t seem to be slowing down in his freakazoid outlook which i just love. In fact his voice sounds like a man in his early twenties. So glad this film is getting the revival it deserves. One of my favorite scenes is of a couple fornicating on top of a moving convertible and the delirious monologues of Taylor Mead that are pure genius and very au courrant. Also in the audience experiencing the joyous high from the film: Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons of Forum Expanded, Susanne Sachsse, Daniel Hendrickson, Anna Muelter, Annette Frick and Wilhelm Hein. It was so wonderful seeing Wilhelm who had been seriously ill. Its really not the Berlinale without a Wilhelm Hein sighting. Wilhelm Hein is Mr. Underground Cinema.
Wilhelm&Annette will host a special event at their art salon Casabaubou at See Strasse 107 in Wedding (U6& get off at See Str) Monday Feb 20th 17-21 urh. Its called Entities and its the first European presentation of new paintings by New York City legend Nick Zedd.
After the screening of Brand X Marc Siegel hosted a nice conversation with the director and fielded questions from the audience. Earlier in the evening Marc was also in fine form at HAU I talking with artists Catherine Sullivan and Farhad Sharmini after the screening of their film The Last Days of British Honduras an adaptation of Ronald Tavel´s little known play of the same name. It was nice meeting Catherine for the first time and seeing one of the film´s stars who use to live in Berlin. Catherine has collaborated with Sean Griffin who did the evocative score and Julianna Snapper as well as Asaf Hochman and Ron Athey. Some of the performers in the film had nice theatrical voices and one in particular looked like a young Tavel. I was crushing out on one young Latino man with sculpted eyebrows and a humpy black man with luscious lips.
The abrupt shifting from naturalness to anti-naturalism was a bit jarring and fell flat, but perhaps that was an aesthetic choices for some reason that didn´t resonate with me. I loved that they went with a work of Tavel´s that has no association with Warhol, and being that Miss Catherine is an artworld darling that in and of itself was daring.
In terms of the Forum Expanded program the panel CAIRO-The City, Images, The Archives on Saturday Feb 11th at the Deutsche Kinematek Event Room on the 4th floor of the Sony Filmhaus was an invigorating pure delight, and so timely. Kudos to head programmer and Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her crack curatorial team of Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Anselm Franke, & Bettina Steinbruegge. Normally I hate panel discussions but this one kicked royal ass with Khalid Abadalla , a cute British/Egyptian actor and founder of Yero Productions and the alternative media kollective Mosireen, Hala Galal (via Skype) the filmmaker, producer, director of SEMAT production and distribution company, Maha Maamoun, artist, curator and co-founder of Contemporary Image Collective and Sarah Rifky the curator of Townhouse Gallery and founder of Cairo International Resource Center for Art/Documenta 13.
My new computer that West of Rome bought me in October has crashed. What is it with me and technology? I seem to have the worse possible luck. So of course this is the reason why its taking me so long to update the blogina. Please be patient with me. Hopefully after the film festival and after i return from London i can get Olga Damnitz to use her technical wizardy on my computer to rescue at least some of my blog posts that i had written as drafts about what i saw the first few days of the Berlinale.
The last thing i will mention is that I have been having a blast with Daniel Hendrickson my Japanese/Muslim BFF and partner in scrime at the Forum´s yearly classic Japanese cinema retrospectacle at Arsenal 1 and the Delphi. The films of Kawashima Yuzo are enchanting. Between Yesterday and Today, Suzaki Paradise: Red Light and The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate featuring comic star Frankie Sakai as a homosexual grifter running amok in a bordello were highlights of my screening antics this year. That and see cute Julius Bauer and spending quality time at the Forum Office at the Haus Huth with young South African film programmer Darryl Els who is the personification of Prince Charming.
The Love Camel aka: Andrea Novarin has arrived in Berlin and is staying with his doll. Camel worked for many years at the BFI but decided to quit all of a sudden. Every year he comes to the Berlinale International Film Festival to soak in its cinema Palmolive. Last night he met me at the CineStar Theatre where the Forum was screening Wynn Chamberlain´s lost cult film Brand X that stars the phenomenal Taylor Mead, along with incredible comic performances by Sally Kirkland, Sam Shepard, Tally Brown (who almost steals the film from Taylor)Ultra Violet, Candy Darling and Jimmy Hendrix in a cameo. My Fertile La Toyah Jackson Video Magazine from the early 90s is the only thing i can compare this film to. Its almost as if i had seen Brand X and channeled it when i made Fertile, but of course I wasn´t aware of its existence. The director is a complete freak and at 84 years of age he doesn´t seem to be slowing down in his freakazoid outlook which i just love. In fact his voice sounds like a man in his early twenties. So glad this film is getting the revival it deserves. One of my favorite scenes is of a couple fornicating on top of a moving convertible and the delirious monologues of Taylor Mead that are pure genius and very au courrant. Also in the audience experiencing the joyous high from the film: Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons of Forum Expanded, Susanne Sachsse, Daniel Hendrickson, Anna Muelter, Annette Frick and Wilhelm Hein. It was so wonderful seeing Wilhelm who had been seriously ill. Its really not the Berlinale without a Wilhelm Hein sighting. Wilhelm Hein is Mr. Underground Cinema.
Wilhelm&Annette will host a special event at their art salon Casabaubou at See Strasse 107 in Wedding (U6& get off at See Str) Monday Feb 20th 17-21 urh. Its called Entities and its the first European presentation of new paintings by New York City legend Nick Zedd.
After the screening of Brand X Marc Siegel hosted a nice conversation with the director and fielded questions from the audience. Earlier in the evening Marc was also in fine form at HAU I talking with artists Catherine Sullivan and Farhad Sharmini after the screening of their film The Last Days of British Honduras an adaptation of Ronald Tavel´s little known play of the same name. It was nice meeting Catherine for the first time and seeing one of the film´s stars who use to live in Berlin. Catherine has collaborated with Sean Griffin who did the evocative score and Julianna Snapper as well as Asaf Hochman and Ron Athey. Some of the performers in the film had nice theatrical voices and one in particular looked like a young Tavel. I was crushing out on one young Latino man with sculpted eyebrows and a humpy black man with luscious lips.
The abrupt shifting from naturalness to anti-naturalism was a bit jarring and fell flat, but perhaps that was an aesthetic choices for some reason that didn´t resonate with me. I loved that they went with a work of Tavel´s that has no association with Warhol, and being that Miss Catherine is an artworld darling that in and of itself was daring.
In terms of the Forum Expanded program the panel CAIRO-The City, Images, The Archives on Saturday Feb 11th at the Deutsche Kinematek Event Room on the 4th floor of the Sony Filmhaus was an invigorating pure delight, and so timely. Kudos to head programmer and Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her crack curatorial team of Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Anselm Franke, & Bettina Steinbruegge. Normally I hate panel discussions but this one kicked royal ass with Khalid Abadalla , a cute British/Egyptian actor and founder of Yero Productions and the alternative media kollective Mosireen, Hala Galal (via Skype) the filmmaker, producer, director of SEMAT production and distribution company, Maha Maamoun, artist, curator and co-founder of Contemporary Image Collective and Sarah Rifky the curator of Townhouse Gallery and founder of Cairo International Resource Center for Art/Documenta 13.
My new computer that West of Rome bought me in October has crashed. What is it with me and technology? I seem to have the worse possible luck. So of course this is the reason why its taking me so long to update the blogina. Please be patient with me. Hopefully after the film festival and after i return from London i can get Olga Damnitz to use her technical wizardy on my computer to rescue at least some of my blog posts that i had written as drafts about what i saw the first few days of the Berlinale.
The last thing i will mention is that I have been having a blast with Daniel Hendrickson my Japanese/Muslim BFF and partner in scrime at the Forum´s yearly classic Japanese cinema retrospectacle at Arsenal 1 and the Delphi. The films of Kawashima Yuzo are enchanting. Between Yesterday and Today, Suzaki Paradise: Red Light and The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate featuring comic star Frankie Sakai as a homosexual grifter running amok in a bordello were highlights of my screening antics this year. That and see cute Julius Bauer and spending quality time at the Forum Office at the Haus Huth with young South African film programmer Darryl Els who is the personification of Prince Charming.
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