GESCHICHTE-MYTHOS-IDENTITAET

I adore doing research at the American Bibliotech at Hallesches Tor.  Now that the renovations are complete at the library the place is pretty comfy with a brand new café on the premises featuring a cute pud of a proletariat boy behind the counter and plenty of fresh eye candied Turkish and Arab men on parade serving swarthy hairyeyeballness.  The only thing I don’t like are the fugly security guards who take their job way too seriously.  One rent-a-cop in particular looks like a miserable inbred flounder with his bloated fish face, pear shaped haus frau body and hardboiled middleaged looking mug.  I guess I should be more forgiving towards the poor chap.  If I were young but looked elderly I would have a chip on my shoulder as well.

I’ve been grateful to my ex students and interns for helping me catalogue hundreds of photos, archival documents and ephemera for my upcoming Rizzolli coffee table hard bound art book.  Its going to take forever to edit through so many things that I had forgotten existed.  When I left the USA in 2006 for Berlin I gave a lot of stuff to friends for safekeeping in Los Angeles but I forgot to write down exactly what items and who I left things with.  I do remember giving some photos and some letters from Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain to my friend Douglas Gordon who now lives in Bankok so this project is going to be quite a doosie to complete.  I thank Jehovah of Armies that I have such a dedicated crew of young people willing to pitch in and support the doll with all her endeavors.  And I still have to work on my semi-autobiographical novel Mary Magdelene.  My old LA Weekly editor Sue Horton who now is at the LA Times had given some of my early rough draft chapters to some publishing friends of hers from New York and they loved it and ever so often they check in with me.   I feel guilty as they have also floated me some moula over the years. 

Went to a fab book release party for hunky super smart&sexy scholar Christian Weber’s  new exciting tome Gus Van Sant-Looking For A Place Like Home at the Sputnik Kino on Hasenheide.  It was so thrilling to discover a new penthouse indie cinema that features a terrace with a diarama view of the city perched way atop an XBerg tower.  Van Sant’s 1985 film Mala Noche was also screened as part of the event and it looked beautiful. I hadn’t seen the flick since it was first released at an early version of what later became the Outfest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The LA premier of Mala Noche took place at the Four Star Theatre on Wilshire Blvds Miracle Mile.  That theatre is now a multi-racial mega church.  Back in the 1980s my old pal Stuart Timmons who wrote an incredible book called The Trouble With Harry Hay first dreamed up the Gay&Lesbian film festival while he was still a student at UCLA.  The Festival was taken away from Stuart by a prissy gay power monger named Larry Horne who ruled it for many years until he was finally dethroned in the early 1990s.  I even hosted a party for Mala Noche at the dive bar The Firefly at Hollywood and Vine.  This bar had the strange feature of its counter going up in flames every hour on the hour, and was filled nightly with an odd assortment of alcoholics, movie industry misfits, happy hookers and humpy hustlers.  Needless to say Mr. Horne was not amused by this party location but Gus Van San loved it as it reminded him of Portland’s seedy dive bars and pubs.

The celebutants seen and heard at Christian Weber’s soiree included:  gay independent film director Jan Krueger, producer Silvan Zuercher(one part of the gay-Swiss-twin team behind the festival hit “Das merkwuerdige Kaetzchen”) Florian Weghorn the head of Berlinale Talents, editor Sabine Herbich, film scholar Dr. Florian Krauss,the charming queer activist Rufus Sona,  my Rote Insel neighbour the handsome psychoanalyst Jan Lindmeyer, hot NeuKoelln lesbian couple Caro Vierneisel & Chelsea, and Christian’s delightfully personable identical twin brother Dr. Johannes Weber.

For those of you who are Gus Van Sant fans the Arsenal will be screening twice in January 2015 the 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, skaterboard stud  Max Perlich and my old next door neighbour Matt Le Gros.

DREI WEGE ZUM SEE

Had a nice late afternoon twee & dainties with visiting scholar and divine poetess extrordinaire Dr. Tracie Morris who teaches at the Pratt Art Institute in Brooklyn New York who has been performing and doing research throughout Europe.  When a coupla sexy black chicks get together expect lots of laughter, the classic lifting of the eyebrow with plenty of swayback inbetween.

Been digging through my womanly archives sorting through photos and ephemera with some former students like Christophe DeRohan Chabot, Acme Singt and Chrome Chastain editing through things that I may want to feature in my upcoming coffee table art book Magnificent Product that Rizzolli wants to publish.  I want the book to be a cross between Madonna’s Sex and the Helmet Newton tome that turned into a tiny table.  Ran across a photo of sweet Doug Kratz a tall hunky young Club Sucker at the Garage regular who was killed in the plane crash that brought down the R&B singer Aaliyah and her posse.  Doug had gotten the job at Virgin Records through my Club Sucker partner Dale Johnson.  Doug was such a sweet, kind, kid and of course was quite popular with all the queer boys that hung out at my Sunday afternoon punk rock beer/bust and olde fashion T-dance performance art venue.  I remember Doug having a short lived affair with John Roecker, who was co-owner of the Silverlake Junction boutique You’ve Got Bad Taste along with Exene Cervenka of the punk band X.  John had doll hair implants because he was sensitive about going bald, but I don’t think he had to worry so much about that since he had a gigantic penis and his lover Willy who worshipped him was a top executive at Femina Lingerie so bald or not he would always have a roof over his head and live in high comfort. 

Went to The Arsenal for the opening of their new  winter series(Dec 14-Jan 22) All Singing, All Dancing Hollywood-Musicals 1933-1957 that featured a rare screening of the 1948 film The Pirate from MGM’s Arthur Freed Unit directed by gay prissy director Vincente Minnelli starring his husband Judy Garland and robust bubble butt Gene Kelly at his his manlische prime. The last time I saw this film was in the early 1970s on regular television when I was a child.  I’ve never known it to be screened at any revival houses so it was a treat to be able to see it on the big silver screen.  The movie was a flop when it came out.  It was just too sophisticated for its time, and it looks amazing with Gene Kelly doing a very broad homage to Douglas Fairbanks and John Barrymore.  That same year he was quite thrilling in the athletic remake of The Three Musketeers with Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury and June Allyson.  The Pirate also features top notch performances from the sensational dancing Nicolas Brothers, a hilarious Gladys Cooper and a brilliant Walter Slezak the father of Erica Slezak the soap opera diva from One Life To Live.  Of course Judy looks ravishing in Carribean style outfits that certainly inspired a young Yves Saint Laurent  back in the 1970s. The musical score is by Cole Porter and Judy sings beautifully “Love of My Life” and “You Can Do No Wrong” with the music conducted by the great Lennie Hayton the husband of singer Lena Horne.

Congrats to Annette and her crew who once again have programmed another splendid series just like their Neo Noir, Cyd Charisse and Pre Code Hollywood salutes.  Musicals are my favourite of classic Hollywood genre cinema so I will me hibernating at the Arsenal for most of December and January to be sure so I hope to see you there.

The famous Turkish German Journalist Murat Ham took me to din din at the best Mexican restaurant in Berlin by far Taqueria Tacabron in XBerg where we had a delightful time laughing, eating and drinking and ran into the beautiful Liad the Israeli widow of Tim Stutkin whose book on Sun Ra is finally out.  Of course it was back to The Arsenal for 42^nd Street with Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Una Merkel, Ginger Rogers and George Brent and Top Hat starring Ginger Rodgers, Fred Astaire, Edward Everette Horton and a bunch of other famous sissies.

Had to see the film version of the Broadway musical Guys&Dolls directed by the most unmusical of film directors Joseph L. Manciewitz(All About Eve,Suddenly Last Summer).  I have never seen this film before and couldn’t wait to hear the singing of Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons both I felt acquitted themselves quite nicely and the young Miss Simmons looking so much like her daughter my old punk rock pal Tracey Granger.  Frank Sinatra seemed very stiff, and Vivian Blaine recreating her role on Broadway was funny but looked a little blowsy in a Delores Gray like manner.  The supporting players Stubby Kaye, Sheldon Leonard fared much better in my opinion though the stylized Times Square set kind of got on my nerves.