DIE SCHADEN FREUNDINNEN

Had a wonderful little get-to-gether with one of my former students the gorgeous blondine Christophe DeRohan Chabot. The patrician Mr. Chabot just turned 26 years old, but I remember him as a mere baby from when I taught a performance studies class in 2007 at the Weissensee Art Akademy here in Berlin. Christophe was one of my most eager beaverette students in the class I called Life as Art- Art or Life where I taught the principles of Availabism as created by Kembra Phahler of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Can’t believe it was so long ago. Christophe and another student of mine Acme Singt are both quite active in Berlin working on very engaging all encompassing projects that straddle the intersection of painting,action, sculpture, surveillance and performance. Christophe is gearing up for a new exhibition and wanted to show me some of the things he was working on and get my feedback. This hot young boy never fails to surprise and invigorate me with his art work and I predict that the name Christophe DeRohan Chabot will cause major havoc in the art cosmos soon.

My wonderful Los Angeles pal the A-List Hollywood Costume Designer Michael Kaplan came through Berlin looking for inspiration and took me out for a fabulous South American dinner at the sizzling newish boite Sudaka in Schoneberg at Goltzstrasse 36. I ate Michael out of house and hearth scarfing down the pumpkin garnellan soup, glorious lamb cutlets plus some sweet potato fries and a spinach banana meld. The desert was a glorious chocolate cake with French Vanilla icecream that literally floated to the table. Joining us was Little Alex of Macedonia who I recommended to Michael to hire as his Berlin assistant and Christophe DeRohan Chabot who was just plain eye candy for us all. Mr. Kaplan will be based in London for the next few years where he is working on the latest installments of the Star Wars film saga, which means he will be working with elderly Star Wars alum Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill who will make guest appearances of some kind. At dinner Michael Kaplan regaled us with hilarious tales of his storied Hollywood past and relationships with the rich and infamous. Some of the secrets he spilled are way too scandalous to repeat, but the names of people like Sandy Gallin, Bryan Singer, Victor Salvo and Roland Emmerich did come up, so you’ll just have to guess what exactly we discussed. Michael is one of those Hollywood celebutants who is just a complete angel and sweetheart and is very loving and genuine something you don’t find too often in LaLaLandia. I didn’t know that Michael’s first involvement in the costume industry was working on the Sonny &Cher show with Ray Agayan and Bob Mackie, and that his first film job was on the Village People starrer Can’t Stop the Music directed by Nancy Walker which featured a young well hung Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner, Barbara Rush, Marilyn Sokol, Valerie Perrine and Altovise Davis the wife of Sammy Davis Jr. The producer of the film was the notorious caftan wearing Allan Carr who of course was madly enamored of the young Micheal Kaplan who still is a muscular gorgeous hunk of Philadelphia Freedom shine the light!!!! Michael went on to design the costumes for Blade Runner, Flashdance, Fight Club, and the recent Star Trek Reboot. What few people know is that Michael also worked with legends like Joan Blondell in a TV movie, Virginia Mayo on a stage variety show, Linda Manz from Days of Heaven fame and Marlon Brando in a Michael Jackson video. I also found out the little known fact that director Michael Bey is the illegitimate son of Manchurian Candidate helmer John Frankenheimer-----yowza!!!!

The next evening was Rising Stars, Falling Stars-We Must Have Music at Arsenal Institute fur film und videokunst where we celebrated a Dorothy Arzner Manifesto nite by screening her 1940 classic DANCE GIRL DANCE that stars Maureen O’Hara,Lucille Ball, Maria Ouspenskaya, Viriginia Field and Miss Louis Hayward from a story by the German writer Vicki Baum. Dorothy Arzner was the only woman in the directors guild during the Golden era of Hollywood from the 1920s to 1950’s. The other two women being Ida Lupino and Vicente Minnelli. Also Dorothy Arzner was openly lesbian. On the personal side Ms. Arzner was my screenwriting teacher at UCLA in the early 1970s when I was still in elementary school taking Upward Bound film coursework. Of course at that time I didn’t know that she had once been a major Hollywood film director. Ms. Arzner along with screenwriter Oscar Saul who adapted Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire to the screen in 1951 also taught at UCLA and both of them volunteered their time teaching at the Watts Towers Community Center in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Its sad that still in Hollywood there are so few female directors. When movies first began in the late 1890s one of the first action film directors was a woman named Alice Guy Blache who also directed a film called The Cabbage Fairy 1896.

DANCE GIRL DANCE really brought out the Easter Sunday crowds. Kino 2 at the Arsenal was jam packed with lesbian feminists of all ages, plus some cute baby dykes and dag hags with a sprinkling of male lesbians. The crowd was all having a hoot of a time as the film played, and after the screening during the wine reception there was lots of flirting, kissing and sexing going on. Enjoying all the rhubarb stately Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Little Alex of Macedonia who styled and did the hair and make-up for the Vagimule doll making her look very Lola Falana, Marcuse Siegel, Susanne Sachsse, Markus Ruff, Dr. Tonya and galpal, Assaf Hochman,Piero Bellomo with husband Daniel Hendrickson the Scandanavian Muzlim whose piano playing warmed many hearts including Hollywood costume designer Michael Kaplan who was turning quite a few heads himself like the young Mexican ballet star Javier Cachiero, artists Julie Pierart,Matthew Corbin Bishop with Latvian art shtar Mara Traumane, Living Archive experimental film educator Stefanie Schlueter with her sexy crop of young grad students, actress Maribel Verdu, male ingénue Logan Lerman from the Darin Aronofsky epic Noah and trendy Berlin hair hopper Charlie Le Mindu. Next month Sunday May 25th at 8pm we will screen the rarely shown Jacque Demy musical UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE from 1982.

Was invited to a spectacular brunch at the super chic Victoria Louise Platz flat of Gunther Gerdes aka: Papi Choulo the lovesexy husband of Ali Janka of the Vienna Austria art kollectiv Geliten. Handsome Ali has a studio in Berlin, but was mostly here to hang out with his longtime companion and get away from the hustle and bustle of being an international art shtar. The bruncheon was lovely, and it was nice to catch-up on every little thing with Ali and Papi. Was surprised to hear that Ali has suffered through some major trial and tribulation with health problems in the form of a brain tumor. Ali has bounced back stronger then ever, but it certainly puts things in perspective that one must be thankful for every moment they have as nothing is guaranteed in this life or the next.