Behoerde, Eiskalt

I am so glad winter waited till after the new year to rear its fugly Gydra three heads.In Berlina its beyond freezing temps with snow on the ground. But in London and Paris where I am making pit stops for a big project with the Tate, Pompidou, and Palais de Tokyo its still a bit unseasonably warmish. Before leaving had a deli reunion with Gottheit aka Akira Knightley the make-up artiste suprema who has become a Gallic delight. Akira designed my wig when I was recently in New Yorika and she will have an upcoming 16 page fashion editorial spread in a men’s mag that features her ultra nate modern make-up and hair do dos. La Frau Sachsse hosted the tete’ at her eastside compound and cooked a scrumptious meal and powerhouse gin martinis by her mixologist lover Marcuse Siegelstein. The Fearless Leader of CHEAP kollektiv also hosted a formal post Xmas dindin that was very chic and scrumptious with a guest list that included scholar Heather Love and her lady love Mara, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, the personable Miss Kalani of Goethe Universitaet, Muzlim jihadist Daniel Hendrickson and the super famous and handsome Deidrich Diedrichson.

Just learned of another celebrity death in the form of Oscar winning Hungarian born cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond(Close Encounters of the Third Kind,The Deerhunter). He was 82 and no I never met him or had any personal contact with him.

Puderluder

Rising Stars, Falling Stars new series Briefe aus der Garderobe went off without a hitch Sunday Dec 27th at Arsenal Institut fur film und video kunst with a screening of Jean Jacques Beinex’s Diva. This short series will take place two more times at Arsenal with a screening on January 31st with the Pina Bausch film Die Klagender Kaiserin and March 27th Easter Sunday with Frank Ripploho’s Taxi zum Klo then Rising Stars will switch to a quarterly series at the Crematorium in Wedding where the Arsenal archive is housed. For the showing of Diva from 1981 there were so many people wanting to see the film that the kasse had to turn away over 30 plus people including Toby Ashraf of the Berlin Art Film Festival, artist Maggie Schneider and Norweigan theater and sex god Vegard Venge. The fortunate few that got seats included Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Gwenael Ratzky and Garret Woltemath of the Berlinale’s Panorama section, visiting filmmakers from Cairo Mohammed Shawky and Louly who is in the DFFB program on color grading, Daniel Hendrickson, Piero Bellomo with famed medical specialist Miriam Preuss, Susanne Sachsse & Marcuse Siegelstein, 19 year olde Alex Crossan who performs under the moniker Mura Masa, Clarisse Mehring of the popular feminist sex toy shop in Kreuzberg the name of which I can’t remember at the moment, Heather Love, Mara and their delightful college age children, theatre and costume designer Ida Muhler, scholar Nanna Heidenreich and her very cute friend Josefina. Remember just two more RSFS at Arsenal before we relocate to the Crematorium in Wedding next year in the Spring.

Sad to relate the end of the year deaths of famed artist and shrimp enthusiast Elsworth Kelly 92, Lemmy of Motorhead 70, Natalie Cole 65 and cinematographer Haskell Wexler age 93. Mr. Wexler also directed the very famous film Medium Cool from 1969 and shot the famous helicopter shot from the 1950s film Picnic. Mr. Wexler was one of my film teachers at UCLA back in the 1970s when I was a weenager in the Upward Bound program for mentally gifted minors.