Tuesday, September 16, 2014

SPLENDEURS ET MISERES DES COURTISANES



I’m constantly being asked what is on my Vagimulic nightstand, well during the Douglas Crimp congress I received a wonderful gift from Nanna Heidenreich of the new book by Chloe’ Griffin Edgewise-A Picture of Cookie Mueller that I can’t seem to put down. Miss Chloe who is Canadian and has been a Berlin fixture for many years did a fanfabtastical job editing the commentary of those who knew the gifted writer and John Waters muse Cookie Mueller the best. Special kudos should also go to ginger beauty boy Gwenael Rattke whose illustrations and book design are an integral part of what makes this sensational book click. Chloe Griffin posits herself as just a simple fan of Cookie Mueller’s prose not a professional writer who somehow was just driven to go out and research Mueller and compile the testimonials that make up this literary documentary. Yowza!

Was taken out for breakfast club by Anna Muelter formerly of the HAU who is now the dance curator with the Sophiensale in Berlin Mitte. Anna and I had a lovely girlish catch up on every little thing complete with a plethora of continental gossip. Anna will be going to Greece soon for another international version of X-Wohne project which had become a staple of the HAU under Mathias Lienthal. I also had a bruncheon date with Uli Ziemons of Forum Expanded. Uli is also known as one of the handsomest men in all Europa. We went to the cute CafĂ© Lind on KolonBrucke right next to the Julius Leber Brucke S-1 station. Uli told me all about his time spent on spooky Faroe Island in Sweden on the Baltic Sea at the late director Ingmar Bergman’s compound to set up a landscape and cinema summer school with Canadian artist and filmmaker Joshua Bonnetta. While on the isle they saw from a distance two large tornados hovering over the water. Dorothy Surrender!One more item related to the great Douglas Crimp. It seems that film director and Spiegel heiress Spike Jonze has gotten wind of the upcoming Crimp memoir and wants to turn it into a film starring Ryan Gosling as the young Crimp and Brad Pitt as artist Elsworth Kelly who Crimp had a short lived fling with. I’d love to see on the big silver screen Brad Pitt shrimping the bare feet of Ryan Gosling which is what Kelly did to Crimp who was ticklish in that area. Just hope Hollywood doesn’t muck it up.