Klatsch & Tratsch
For those of you visiting
Berlina Royale as summer comes to an end, there are a few must see eventas
taking place that I highly recommend.
The first happens Saturday
September 1st 7-10pm which is the opening and book launch of
Elektro-Drucker at Kotti-Shop. On hand
will be Elektrik-Kaffee: cake, tea &
Plattenauflegen by the artists & DJ MFX of ReBoot FM. Kotti-Shop is at Adalberstr 4 Berlin 10999
www.kotti-shop.net
One of my brilliant
Weissensee Art Akademy ex students Annette Knol, a feminist leader if ever
there was one, has been part of the Kotti Shop Familia since 2008 despite
forays to New York City and other parts known and unknown.
Annette along with Ursula Doebereiner, Katharina Schmidt have created a
fab new artist book AUTO BODIES #1 AT Extrapool with Knust Press.
Elektro-Drucker is a
publication and exhibition of work made with the help of machines, guidelines,
rules and tools with various levels of precision and definition applied by the
five contributing artists: Doebereiner, Knol, Schmidt, Dirk Krecker, and Thomas
Rehnert.
That ultimate teene idol to
the world Christeene is performing in concert at the world famous Berghain Club
in East Berlin. If you are not familiar
with Christeene just let me tell you that she is based in Texas and in a few
short years has turned into a global phenom! She is literally one of the kind of girls you read about in those damn high
fallutin New Wave magazines.
Do yourself a big favour and check her show out
at Berghain September 5th starting early at 8pm. It’s a music concert evening not a techno
throbathon so those of you who don’t like going out on school nights can take delight
in that.
I first became aware of
Christeene through my good friend the Paris based fashion designing kingpin Rick
Owens, who called me up almost a decade a go and told me that his pal needed
someplace to perform in Berlin. He sent
me some videos and I immediately agreed that the place for her was Pork run by
the late Tennessee Brian Claflin and writer Travis Jeppesson at Ficken
3000. Well of course the Berliners loved
her, and now she is being embraced by galaxinas near and far.
Her opening act is none other
then the legendary muse, life &work partner of Rick Owens and divinity
known throughout the world as Michele Lamy or HUN Atila.
I have known Michele since
1980, and she is a walking tenundra, and a to-tal original dreamcake. She has always performed, but has been getting
a lot of attention of late with her varied art and music collaborations. Lamy is also a prizewinning boxer and
oversees a multitude of projects under the banner Lamyland, which is the only
theme park I would ever want to venture in.
Under Owenscorp, Rick handles
the tailored mens and womenswear while Michele purveys the luxe furniture and
homewear. What she will do at Berghain
is anyone’s guess, but its guaranteed to be memorable. The Vagimule doll will join in on the antics
DJaning in her humble erratic style playing music no one wants to hear of course.
The next evening Thursday
Sept 6th at the site specific location of the
Prinzessinnengarten-Berlin Kreuzberg am Moritzplatz my performative film event
Contemporary Vinegar Syndrome will take place with the theme Borscht Belt
Modalities with a screening of the 16mm film A Jumpin Night in the Garden of
Eden 1988 directed by Michal Goldman which is a zany and insightful
musical docu on all things Klezmer.
Also screening is a short video film Granpa Sam 2001 I directed with Marc Siegel about the famed celebrity
photographer Sam Siegel who is the grandfather of CHEAP Kollektiv’s Marc Siegel
aka: Marcuse Siegelstein. The short
subject features fotos from Sam Siegel’s ouvre as an award winning press agent
and photographer of Hollywood, Broadway and the Catskills Circuit.
Be prepared to have a Nebish-off so come
ready to Kavetch and Schlepp through the nite with some spirited fun, and humorous surprises.
That handsome hunk of a
British sex god Andrew Gould came through Berlin awhile back and everywhere he
went men were trying to kidnap him, and get him inside their boudoiric
clutches. An English accent coupled with
a humoungous penis isn’t anything to sneeze at.
Was invited to a delicious midnight supper at the famous table of Susanne Sachsse that included Canadian film
director Bruce “Judy” LaBruce, John David Washington the handsome bubble butt actor
son of Denzel Washington and star of Spike Lee’s engaging new film Black
Klansman, and his bromantic partner Henry Golding the hunky hunk British TV
presenter and breakout matinee idol of the new movie Crazy Rich Asians. Word has it on the streets of SoHo that the very photogenic
Euroasian Mr. Golding will be featured in LaBruce’s next film Twincest. I am not one to gossip so you know you didn't hear it from me.
The guest of honor at the din
din was the gorgeous and stylish New York diva Viva Ruiz of Thank God For
Abortion project who along with La Sachsse stars in Judy’s hit film The
Missandrists. A glorious time was had by
all up into the wee morning hours.
With the recent death of
superstar Aretha Franklin I started musing that she should have had a major film career after her appearance
in 1980s Blues Brothers movie. I
remember at the time there was talk that she was going to star in a Bessie
Smith biopic. Lame ass Hollywood.
Barbara Harris who also died
was one of my favorite character actresses.
I adored her in Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot, the original Freaky
Friday with Jodie Foster, Stanley Donen’s MovieMovie and singing “It Don’t
Worry Me in Robert Altman’s Nashville.
I am in a very sad state of affairs as my
nephew Brian Keith Taylor also died age 49 last week. Brian had a massive heart attack. He and his older brother Mark Denning Taylor
inherited a heart abnormality from their deadbeat dad. Both of my nephews died the same age, ten
years apart. Brian was strange as a
baby, and toddler. He always had a
worried expression on his face looking sad
and forelorn. Maybe that’s why he wound
up joining the military. That and there
are few options for work in the USA for working class black men.
My happiest memories with him
was taking him on long excursions through the city discovering new parks and
playgrounds in different areas of town.
I would also take him to the observation decks of the tallest
skyscrapers in Downtown Los Angeles and I would spend hours reading to him Frank L. Baum's Oz books in
the childrens section of the beautiful Downtown Library. I pretty much raised him from the time I was
in Primary School to High School. I will
never forget running into some of my classmates in middle school,and they asked
me why my nephew called me Mommy. I
explained that whoever was taking care
of him at the moment became Mommy as my oldest sister Gracie Lee Taylor was always
working three or four low wage jobs and was never around much as he was growing up. During summer and holiday breaks I was
Mommy #1.
My nephew married young to a
woman who was a good time Sally named Dion and had a son named Jonathan and a
daughter named Jazmin. All of his
children took after me and were quite studius doing well in school. Jonathan followed me to University and is now working as a Chemical Engineer.
Jazmin graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and teaches Music
Theory at a prestigious music academy.
Brian Keith’s two youngest children
from his second wife Jamie are 16 and 13 and are A students on the Dean’s List
of their prep school in Lancaster. The childrens mother Jamie grew up in
Washington State to a racist family who disowned her after she married my
nephew.
Jamie was hoping my nephew
would be more fun and spontaneous like the Black rappers she idolized. My nephew was very rigid, controlling and
conservative. He loved housework and did
the majority of the cooking, cleaning and childcare. Brian was also a bit of a fussbudget and
neatnick. Even as an adolescent his room
was spotless, and he made his bed with military procision. In the Army he was a beloved cook.
Both my nephew and niece had
to move out of LA County as they couldn´t afford it anymore. The cost of living in Southern California is astronomical! My niece who I can’t believe is 40 years old
now, lives in the high desert with her husband and five children.
Luckily my nephew didn’t have
any more children with his last wife Annabella.
Poor Annabella he married just a few years ago in Manilla is the younger
sister of his Filipina Step Grandmother. Now that my nephew is dead she is left without a social security number, greencard, official papers or documents to stay in the country.
My immediate family is
drastically shrinking, and pangs of mortality is making me very depressed. Thank goddess for therapy.