AENDERE DIE VERGANGENHEIT
One of my wonderfully talented Bricktops at the Parlour girls, Christiane Cegavske who produced the first Bricktops baby is filming a new animated feature. Besides being a filmmaker, and top notch artist she is also a clothing designer and is the best model for her work as she, her child and ex-husband would always be at Bricktops wearing some of the most unique and spectacular outfits. See the info below and feel fortunate to contribute to her next project and support a rad young talent and working single mom reach her full potential.
Hi Everyone,
I am nearly ready to begin filming my newest animated feature, Seed in the Sand!
I've just launched my Kickstarter project to raise the funds to purchase the equipment that will make it possible to start. Now you've got a chance to help out and to get some great rewards! Check it out! Pledge if you can and help spread the word.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/978812285/seed-in-the-sand
***
Had a gloriously delicious dinner at Felix Knoke’s flat in Neu Koelln where he made this gourmet vegemated lasagna dish and spring awakening salad. Felix is a journalist with Der Spiegel Online and is one of my bandmates in my new art/music project Tenderloin. Cute Felix is also in Glen Meadmore’s European touring band along with Jan Klesse and the members of the Munich alt rock band The Lazy. Enjoying Felix’s wonderful and nutritious meal was Jan Klesse and Joel Gibb the baby diaper of the Canadian band The Hidden Cameras. After feasting we started writing a few new songs for Tenderloin which I might add came out quite good. One song is called “The Man Who Loved Too Much” and is loosely based on the old Bette Davis/Lesley Howard film Of Human Bondage.
The other day had a Skype call from Hector Martinez who is a successful executive with Affleck Insurance Company in Los Angeles.I’ve known Hector since he was about 15 years old and use to come into Hollywood from the Latino suburb of South Gate to see me perform with The Afro Sisters in the early and middle 80s. Hector just gave up his lease on an office space at the famous Library Tower in Downtown LA which is the tallest building in the city. It seems like this highrise is losing tenants at a rapid rate. Over the years of being in the building Hector developed a nice relationship with the Latina cleaning lady crew who of course knew all the hottest gossip not fit for print about the tenants occupying the building. At present the library tower is only half filled.Things started going downhill for the building when a big law firm left the skyscraper for cheaper offices digs nearbye. The cleaning ladies get treated badly by most of the tenants in the building who don’t see them as humans but only as janitorial machines. When Hector’s lease was up he decided not to renew, and the management company of the building even offered to lower his rent if he stayed. It seems like there is a lot of after hours hanky panky going on at the library tower as some tenants use their offices to have wild sex whorgies. Talk about your towering enferno.
The other day someone emailed me a picture of Tippi Hendren (Melanie Griffith’s mother/mother-in-law to Antonio Bandares)from Alfred Hitchcocks classic shocker The Birds, and it reminded me of the LA drag queen Trixie, who did a great impersonation of Ms. Hendren at the old 4 Star Saloon on Santa Monica Blvd back in the 1980s. I wonder what happened to Miss Trixie who was good friends with another LA queen named Gender. Miss Trixie’s best girlfriend was a pretty black queen named Coco who looked like a younger RuPaul. Poor CoCo was shot and and killed in Vaseline Alley one night by the drug cartel she was stiffing as a dealer to the WeHo drug circuit. Does anyone out their in cyberland also remember Miss Erica Townsend who was the host of the long running Tuesday Nite Drag Search Competition at the Four Star Saloon in the 80s? RuPaul when she briefly lived in LA competed at DragSearch and won as his former persona of StarBooty. I entered the contest once singing a Cholita song and Miss Erica said I was pretty but needed her to do my makeup. Being a traditional drag queen, Miss Erica wasn’t accepting my off kilter punky avant garde style of drag, but in all fairness she wasn’t as harsh about it as a lot of other queens of the era. The last thing I heard about Miss Erica was that she had to skipp town for Vegas, and of course drugs were somehow involved . I will never forget one time going by the Four Star Saloon on Thursdays which was The Limbo Lounge nite, and was the rare evening in which East and West Hollywood met. Erica was locked in her little wooden shed in the tiny dressing room madly sewing beads on a gown.
The late Billy Limbo was the creator of the Limbo Lounge which was a weekly party that featured hostess Nova China a queen who worked a giant boa constrictor into her act. The star of the Limbo Lounge was Glen Meadmore who every week did an outrageous performance that kept audiences having to go to the hospital for jaw replacement surgery. Billy was a nice but odd fag with a huge penis and muscular body. He was the resident DJ at the Four Star and had been a normal gay stud on the prowl who got tired of having sex with homo normative types and decided to turn punk and screw all the alterna faggots.
Received two cute letters from my former students. One from Marie Norman a sweet talented girl who was in my class at the Malmo Art Academy in Malmo Sweden. She sent me the latest of her short experimental films, this one dealing with prostitution. Can’t wait to watch it, and also my adoreable USC student Connor Flanagan who collaborated with me on dejecta/protecta in January sent me a loving letter that included an essay he wrote about me for class which was very well written and insightful. Connor will be studying abroad in the fall so hopefully we will hang out either in Berlin or London where I will perform “Memory Island” on October 29th at the Tate Modern, and will be conducting Live Art Workshops with the students at Goldsmith College as part of an art conference curated by the lovesexy Gavin Butt called Trashing Performance.
Jonathan Berger my dreamy young child of high art in New York just sent me this link concerning an article on Justin Bond
http://justinbond.com/?page_id=572 .
The great and glorious Ms. Bond was just profiled in New York Magazine. A Facebook controversy cropped up when Justin wrote about not being happy with certain elements in the write up. In the her wonderful blogina she articulately explains herself.
I can’t tell you how many interviews I have done in mainstream straight and gay publications where they had a preconceived notion about me and my work and had pretty much written the article before the interview.
Gay periodicals are sometimes the worse offenders. I also hate when journalists are lazy and don’t do their homework. I don’t do much journalism writing these days as the pay is horrendous but when I worked for The LA Weekly, Zoo and Dutch Magazine I was always fully prepared for my interviews with celebs and other personalities.
In reading the New York magazine profile I agree with Justin that the tone was odd. It almost seemed like to me that the writer can’t believe that someone from the underground has been able to somewhat crossover into a more high profile arena, and that he feels that Justin’s talent doesn’t completely merit her being recognized along with more mainstream stars like Rufus Wainwright or Jake Shears of the Sissor Sisters.
Last night was my first counseling session as part of Hannah Hurtzig’s Die UnToten Mobile Academy Kongress at Kampnagel in Hamburg. I had a fun time, but was completely excrement for brains as I suffered from insomnia the night before traveling to Hamburg. One of the Kampnagel’s cute personable assistants Edna from Bremen picked me up at the central train station and checked me into the nice comfy boutique Heikotel am Stadtpark near the Kampnagel. Later a young blondine boy named Bjorn who is a musician and artist friend of lovesexxy Melissa of Chicks on Speed fetched me and whisked the doll to the Congress.Before I started my first counseling session I hung out with Melissa, Nadine and the Chicks on Speed crew at their exciting VooDoo hut installation where i got to drink some hallucinagen root drink and snort natural cocaine with menthol in it. Ran into Evie Europa Ruesseler who has been taking care of her mother’s chicken farm outside of Hamburg. After my counseling sesh Evie hung out with me back at the hotel and showed me a copy of Teddy’s Bestiary-Letters to the Parents, a fantastic new film about Teddy Adorno, his mother, aunt and their love of Hippos at the Berlin Zoo. This film has been Evie’s labour of love for the past 4 years. I star in the movie and really was excited to finally see it edited. Evie plans on having a private screening at bbooks soon and I will give you details in this very blog.
The first day of the Congress one of my counselees was the famous choreographer Johan Roller who lives in Berlin and Australia. We had a lovely little chat. Because of my insomnia the night before coming to Hamburg I didn’t feel like I was very effective, but people overhearing the conversations said that it was fine. I am of course my worse critic. Judy La Bruce’s collaboration with Susanne Sachsse Ulriche’s Brain was the akshunist event of the Congress. The set looked amazing and the gaggle of young people involved with the project included Jonathan Johnson, Stefan Sandrock, Saskia Timm, Heiko Alberti on camera, Bernd Schoch sound & music, Marc Teuscher costume, Katja-Inga Baldowski; make-up Maria Trifu and special effects make-up by Kim May. Hamburg has a great scene of creative youth who are eager beaver to explore and get down in the proverbial dirt.
Had wonderful moments with the marvelous Kampnagel staff and crew like sexy John Wayne is big leggy Simon who was my escort from the hotel to the venue. On Friday we missed each other and I got into the SUV of a total stranger thinking that he was from the theatre, and Hamburgarians are so friendly that he took me to my destination. The man could have been a sexual maniac. It became the talk of the Congress, and poor Simon saw me get into the wrong car and followed to make sure I was safe and sound. Also had great conversations with Kampnagel Intendanz Amelie Deufhard, Ekkehard Ehlers the gifted composer and music theorist who also suffers from gout and was very comforting to me about having this old fashion illness, the famous Thomas Meinecke and his beautiful and vivacious wife, plus Mark Ravenhill, Sandy Stone and so many others too numerous to mention here.
Also participating in my section of charismatic counseling or Beratungen was juicy Nicolas Siepen from bbooks, Christiane Voss and legendary theatre director Barbara Bilabel who came in elaborate Day of the Dead make-up and costume.
Saturday in the late morning I got to spend quality time with fearless leader of CHEAP Susanne Sachsse and Anna Muelter when they treated me to a glorious breakfast at this cute café and then we took a walk around this breathtaking lake.
I missed the big Kampnagel dance party because I went back to my hotel to take a disco nap and didn’t wake up till 6:30 in the morning.

THE SLURP RANCH
Last night was Glen Meadmore’s final Berlin appearance lording Shade Inc at NBI. What a phenomenal evening and Ms. Meadmore and her band were just perfect in every way. The trenddoid young crowd didn’t know exactly what to make of Lady Meadmore and her cowlick thrash as Berliners are so enamored of the electro/tecno sound. There were definitely some members of the audience who had a clue, and got what Ms. Meadmore was delivering.
Brazilian hunk Ricardo who is the host of Shade Inc.(formerly known as Berlin Hilton) the long running Wednesday nite party, was gracious and accommodating. I took a long disco nap as I knew I’d be staying up until the wee hours, which isn’t something that I normally do.
The crowd was a who’s who of notables including the Winnipeg born Miss Meadmore’s fellow Canuck’s Dicky Doo from Vancouver who now is based in Berlin, and the queen of all Berlina Royale - Peaches looking love sexy and trim in a designy parachute dress.
It was fun flirting with handsome Weiland Speck of the Berlinale’s Panorama Section who was with visiting French underground queer filmmaker Lionel Soukaz who did a presentation earlier in the evening at Basso, translator to the academic shtars Daniel Hendrickson is a big Meadmore fan and had to see him perform even though Daniel was exhausted from work deadlines and leaves Berlin this morning to attend star scholar Douglas Crimp's Retrospektacle at the Pompodour Ctr in Paris.
Ran into big peniled Scandanavian Nicolas Tange Lane of the artband Nuclear Family,baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras with his perky bullet nipples driving all the boys crazy, fagademic and Dolores Hart look-a-like Sean Nye, Miss Joana and her beau Felix Knoke of Der Spiegel Online, Larry T the famed NYC DJ and songwriter who created electro clash, looking healthy and wholesome celebrating being sober for 13 years. Both Glen and I go way back with Mr. Larry T. who is still a raging good time Sally.
Peaches Does Herself star Danny the Tranny mingling through the crowd topless, Cherie Lily the celebrity personal trainer and creator of House Aerobics, DJ ingenue Marius Funk and gorgeous actor Max Irons the striking son of British star Jeremy Irons.
Tuesday evening Ms.Meadmore & Co. performed in Hamburg at the Golden Poodle to a jam packed and enthusiastic throng that included Judy LaBruce and Susanne Sachsse.
After performing at Shade Inc. Glen, his juicy keyboard player Jan Klesse and I had an early morning breakfast at the Shwartzer Café on Kant Str in Wilmorsdorf where we laughed and gossiped in a girlish like fashion till 5 in the morning. Wish I could have had more time with Glen Meadmore one of the most underrated talents in this world. She is a true legend, and international treasure who i love.
***
Just found out that former child star Jackie Cooper died age 88. I loved Jackie Cooper in the Our Gang Comedies and his dramatic work at MGM in the early 1930s.

ICH TRAELLERE NIE ZUM VERGNUEGEN
Met with Hanna Hurtzig of Black Market and Mobile Academy fame and her lovely young assistant Carena who looks like Chiara Mastrianni the daughter of Catherine Denueve. We gals had a great time gabbing about what I will be doing for Hannah’s next congress at Kampnagel in Hamburg from May 12-14 called The Undead.Bruce La Bruce and Susanne Sachsse will also be on hand presenting Ulricka’s Brain.
I like Hannah. She’s sexy, stylish and sophisticated wearing her heart on her sleave.
***
Sunday morning was a fabu bruncheon with Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus of Arsenal Institute for Film und Video Kunst at Kaiserstein on the Mehringdamn Corridor. Riding our bikes to the bistro we both dodged lots of pre May Day broken bottles in the streets. The weather has chilled and is more like early winter then the first month of Spring, but that didn’t cloud our girlish enthusiasm or delight. Spending quality time with Frau Schulte Strathaus is always a joy beyond compare.
Later in the day the Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson came by the Cheese Endique Trifecta to help the doll get her Skype back on tap. The JM is so much better at technical matters then the poor helpless Vagimule doll. After dealing with MIS issues we hankered down for some Indian food at this little boite on Akazian Str where the 5 foot nothing moody waiter wasn’t exactly featuring either one of us, but especially my queer as folk asstrovar. In fact the tiny morsel of a man is somewhat of a glumpy Gus. If the food wasn't so good at this joint, I wouldn't patronize them.
Monday the Muslim went with me to visit that touch of Minx, Dr. Steffan Minx whose medical practice in Kreuzberg mixes both eastandwest philosophy kingdoms. 2 years ago Dr. Minx diagnosed the doll with gout which is an inflammation of acids in the joints. After the initial bout it went away, and I got busy with a steady stream of performance work, but I was determined to change my diet habits. Well the gout has returned and my right foot swelled up like a baby elephant plus my left elbow is also stiff and pumped up. Gout is a weird disease, you can’t walk from the pain for a few days and then it kind of goes away only to rear its ghidra like head. So the next few months I am going to be making lots of guest appearances at various doctors and specialists. Thank god I have private health insurance. I didn’t when I lived in the states.
Last Sunday it was a brilliantly warm and balmy Easter and La Susanne Sachsse cooked a glorious feast that was delicious and healthy framed in love. There is no finer table in all of Europe then that of the divine, famous hostess Ms. Susi, the fearless leader of kollective CHEAP. Those gathered included Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Piero Bellomo of La Collezione with Daniel Hendrickson, Marc Siegel the film historian’s historian who is now teaching at the famous Frankfurt School three days a week and the young generation of CHEAP that includes twins Salome & Richard Gersh and Richie’s girlfriend Miss Vicki.
***
Monday was Glen Meadmore day as the 6’9’’ Canadian crooner performed a raucus set of kuntry cowpunk at Monster Ronson’s Rock Fag Bar in Friedrichshain. I had never been to Monster Ronson’s, as I am not a fan of karaoke, but had a delightful time at the club whose owner, bartenders, soundman and staff are quite sweet and accommodating. Even suffering with gout I managed to dance myself silly with Felix Knoke of Der Spiegel Online and his beautiful girlfriend Joana. Felix is also in my new band Tenderloin along with Jan Klesser. Later Felix & Jan joined Glen on stage as backup singer and percussionist wearing a sexy matching hustler white outfit with Jan who played keyboard. The rest of the hot, horny and born again gang is Jan‘s cousin Simon on bass, Tilly on guitar and Thomas the lean and mean muscular drummer. Glen‘s amazing band are also in the award winning Munich combo The Lazy.
Berlin was really in for a hoe down treat. Enjoying the spectacle: writer Travis Jeppeson, baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras, Tennessee Claffin of ClubPork at Ficken 3000, American fagademic Sean Nye, artist Lydia Hamann & Co., and my visiting rapper second cousin Lady Nicki Minaj.
I joined Ms. Meadmore on stage to sing the song “No Money, No Honey” from Meadmore’s second LP Squawbread 1988. On the recorded version of the Amoeba Records classic features vocals from the Vagimule, RuPaul,Iris Parker of Madam X, and Melanie Gold the daughter of Ernest Gold and Marnie Nixon and sister to Andrew Gold(Lonely Boy). I can’t believe 24 years has passed since I first sang on that record.
Meadmore & Company have a show in Hamburg, but return to Berlin to play at Shade Inc.(formerly Berlin Hilton) at NBI on Wednesday May 4th at midnight. Its your last time to see some extraordinary musical majick in Berlin before the giant diva returns to Los Angeles.
Today baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras and the Berlinale's Panorama chief Weilland Speck came by my Cheese Endique Studio to bring me healthy gout free food and info on staying healthy with the disease. Mr. Gibb just returned from Djing at the Queer Zagreb Festival, and Mr. Speck who has been diagnosed with gout for five years is on his way to the Cannes Film Festival. It was quite a treat for this little lady having such handsome famous men in my humble studio.
***
Just found out that architect Eldon Davis died age 94. Mr. Davis is one of the famed googie mid-century space age architects. A perfect example of his work is the Pann‘s Coffee Shop in Inglewood that was built in 1958. One thing I miss living in Europe is LA style counter culture.

CINELIBRE BEZIEHT STELLUNG ZUR KULTURBOTSCHAFT
Last night was glorious at Rising Stars, Falling Stars screening of the 1920 Maurice Stiller Swedish film Erotikon.Eunice Martin radiantly took control of the klavier playing with tumultuous passion injecting a bit of humour into her repertoire as well.I was loving how when the film’s heroine was playing a certain song on piano,Eunice had the sheet music for that exact tune, and its always delightful to see Ms. Martin chuckling as she watches the film and accompanies it.The audience was held spellbound. Eunice is also featured in the latest issue of the Kinema Kommunal Journal.
After the screening in the Rote Foyer we celebrated the 27th birthday of Manuel Schubert of internet radio multicult FM’s Film Highlights Magazine.The personable radio presenter was in a sparkling mood with his latest paramour Scandanavian DJ, and musician Nicolas Tange Lange of the art band Nuclear Family.Those of you here in Berlin visiting for the spring can catch Mr. Tange Lange at Chantal’s House of Shame in Bassy Cowboy Club Schoenhauser Allee 176 on May 12th or at The Rock n Roll Fag Bar at Monster Ronson’s Warschauer Str 34 on May 16th and at Built For Speed in King Kong Klub Brunnen Str 173 on May 19th.I saw Nuclear Family at Ducky in London and I can attest that they are ill.
Also cavorting and looking fresh and lovely Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, whose family owns all the canals in Berlin, the divine Susanne Sachsse with her gorgeous teenage daughter Salome Gersh just back from filming in Poland for the new Yael Bertrana film installation that will be part of the Venice Biennale. Hobnobbing with La Sachsse, Ewa of Poland who is a regular in Betrana’s films, musician and filmmaker Tim Blue, Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim for Christ, Uli Ziemons the handsomest man in all Europe wearing some vintage tennis shoes that looked amazing on his rather large masculine feet.Uli is a shrimp poster boy for beautiful male footery, the adorable Tobias Rauscher and his peni Dagmar, stylish art photographer Paula Winkler of Hugs and Kisses Magazine with Canadian cutup and cineaste Marc Andre Pennock and his vivacious galpal Melena, Marc Siegel doppelganger Todd Sekuler, the young American junior curator with C/O Gallery the photo & exhibition space that recently featured a Mapplethorpe retrospektacle.
Not to toot my own horn, but I can’t wait to start work on The Communist Bigamist, my collaboration with Susanne Sachsse who will also direct. The piece based on the 1953 Joan Fontaine/Ida Lupino film The Bigamist will premiere in the late fall at HAU 3.
Susanne and I star in the piece with assist from gorgeous Nazli Kilerci - Assitant and Videoproducer,Nebojsa Tabacki production and stage designer Marc Siegel, Dramaturgy,Jackie Shemesh the light designer who works with Yael Bertrana, John Blue, sound, Tan Binh Nguyen makeup, and Anna Muelter the production manager.

***
My beautiful sweet phd student from NYU Joshua Lubin Levy who collaborated with me on my Ethyl Eichelberger award winning piece Speaking From the Diaphragm,(which of all things i found out is nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Best Off/Off Broadway piece) Lovesexy Joshua is working on a new project and sent me this request:

Dear Friends,
I’m writing to ask you to be part of a new artists collaboration and book project that I am working on.
THE REQUEST: Submit a drawing of a space in New York City where you had a public sexual encounter. Do this sketch from memory, however you remember the space.
THE DETAILS: Your sketch should be done on an 8.5 x 11 piece of white paper. You can draw, collage, design on the computer…however you feel like translating your memory. Write a short line or two that sheds light on what this space means to you.
THE SUBMISSION: Send this 8.5 x 11 memory along with the text to:
For Mail: Carlos Motta. P.O. BOX 11. Cooper Square Station. NY, NY 10276.
For Email: email a hi-res scan (300dpi) to petitemortproject@gmail.com.
In Person: we can come pick it up if you’re in New York City.
WHAT THEN? These drawings will be collected into a book titled Petite Mort. The goal of our project is to use the book as an architecture in which the memories of gay male strangers can mix and mingle, crossing paths and form new connections. Furthermore, these drawings highlight the fundamental connection between public space and queer life.
The deadline for submitting is May 15th, 2011. Please let us know if you will be contributing or have any questions! petitemortproject@gmail.com
WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO CONTRIBUTE? You can always help us by passing this request on to others who might be interested.
Thank you so much!
Joshua & Carlos
For more information visit: www.joshualubinlevy.com/petite_mort/
To make a financial contribution visit: www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/petite_mort_recollections_of_a_queer_public.

SCHNUPPERLOKAL UND MUSTERSTIMMHEFT
Its never too late for internet radio, and below is a link to my FilmHighlights interview with birthday boy Manuel Schubert of Multikult FM. Enjoy.

Rising Stars-Falling Stars - with Vaginal Davis - April 2011 by filmanzeiger

LOCKER VOM ROCKER
Marc Siegel always writes hysterical CHEAP newsletter emails.Below i have included his latest dispatch. So mark all the dates on your calendaria for the upcoming spring and summer eventas. Remember tomorrow night at Arsenal Kino 2 is Rising Stars Falling Stars 9pm where we will also be celebrating the birthday of internet radio guru Manuel Schubert of FilmHighlights Magazine.

Dear CHEAP Friends,

There are a number of spring events we would like to recommend


1. Vaginal Davis's Rising Stars, Falling Stars, this Wed., April 27, Arsenal
(It's usually Sunday night, but this time it's not)
2. Trash/People like Us: Book presentation and clip show for Jon Davies's
Trash (directed by Paul Morissey) + Colin Campbell videos, Monday, May 2 +
May 3 &4, Arsenal
3. Winnipeg and Los Angeles music legend Glen Meadmore with rare European
perfs, April 30 - May 4
4. Festival/Conference/Live Film shooting at Hannah Hurtzig's Die Untoten,
with Susanne Sachsse/Bruce LaBruce, Vaginal Davis, Christiane Voss and more,
12-14, May in Hamburg
5. Rare CHEAP soundtracks by Tim Blue, available free online


So, allow me to go through the events one by one.

1. Vaginal Davis's Rising Stars, Falling Stars, this Wed., April 27, Arsenal

The event that gathers more steam and dignity each month. Come out this
Wednesday and tease Miss Davis for being such a mainstream, sell-out queen
that she's nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for best Off-Off Braodway play.
(It's true!). This week Berlin's own treasure, Miss VD presents Jerry
Stiller's father's and Anne Meara's father-in-law's silent treasure EROTIKON
(Mauritz Stiller, Sweden, 1920). The evening promises lots of sexy
Scandinavian incest, adultery, and perversity both on and off-screen.
Musical accompaniment by Eunice Martins. Event starts promptly with Miss D's
inimitable introduction at 9pm. Arsenal, Potsdamerstr. 2

2. Trash/People like Us: the Canadian writer and curator Jon Davies will be
in Berlin for a few days of presentations at the Arsenal. Davies recently
wrote a great little book on Paul Morissey's film TRASH starring Holly
Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro.

*On Monday, May 2, yours truly will moderate a discussion with Jon Davies
about the book and we will look at some clips from the flick. Arsenal,
Potsdmaerstr. 2, 8pm.

*On May 3 & 4, Davies will be joined by fellow Canadians Lisa Steele and Kim
Tomczak for a rare treat: four programs of videos by pioneering queer
Canadian video artist Colin Campbell. Arsenal, Potsdamerstr. 2, both nights,
19:15/21:15 Uhr

3. Rare Berlin and Euro apperances by LA Legend and Vaginal Davis
collaborator, Glen Meadmore. Don't miss the hilarious wacky music of this
artist's artist! Inspirer of the likes of fellow Winnipegger Guy Maddin and
fellow Canadian Bruce LaBruce (great scenes in Hustler White) and frequent
performer in Vaginal Davis's conceptual bands, like PME! In fact, Meadmore
is the only underground artist who can from his 6 feet and something inches
actually look down on Miss Davis! Don't miss one of these perfs:

april 30 bertholdsaal weyer, oberer markt, 3335 weyer, osterreich
may 2 monster ronsons, warschauerstr. 34, 10243 berlin
may 3 golden pudel, st. pauli fischmarkt 27 ,20359 hamburg
may 4 shade inc. ,neue berliner initiative, schonhauser allee 36, berlin

4. Hannah Hurtzig always puts together stylish and intellectually
challenging events. The UNDEAD: Life Sciences and Pulp Fiction promises
exactly that. From 12-14 May in Hamburga at Kampnagel, you will get to
consider such pessoptimistic topics as: when does life end? When does it
begin? Who gets to decide? Go to Hamburg to see Susanne Sachsse appear in
the live shooting of Bruce LaBruce's new film called ULRIKE'S BRAIN! Go to
Hamburg to get some counseling from Vaginal Davis or Nico Siepen! Go to
Hamburg to hear a lecture by Dorothee Wenner or Christiane Voss! more info:
www.untot.info/

5. Finally, I come to number 5. CHEAPs own Tim Blue has decided to make
available rare CHEAP soundtracks and outtakes, as well as his whole backlist
of The Pixie Kitchen productions. Download them all for free, and wax
nostalgic about the performance days of yore at:

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Pixie+Kitchen/+albums


Warm spring greetings,
Marc


*****
CHEAP Summer Plans

*Spend a few days of your summer with Mario Montez and me (and many others)
in Wroclaw, Poland at the fabulous Era New Horizons Festival! Many Germans
seem unaware of the fact that there is a country with a rich cultural past
and present right next door to them. Join Mario and me in Wroclaw from July
23-28 for a Jack Smith retrospective featuring the likes of Jim Hoberman,
Jerry Tartaglia, Ela Troyano, Uzi Parnes, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and
others! a great city, delicious food, tons of great films, and some
wonderful people! for info:
http://www.enh.pl/index.do?lang=en

***

Sad to report that Poly Styrene of one of my alltime early punk bands XRaySpecs died age 53. Not only has Ms. Styrene passed but another famous black woman from the
1970s singer Phoebe Snow died age 58. I always loved that recognizeable voice of Ms. Snow and her hit song "Poetry Man" Also French actress Marie-France Pisier died age 66. I will never forget her in the 1975 film Cousin,Cousine.

SCHMUTZIGER DIENSTWEG
My computer crashed awhile ago and I have been in crisis mode ever since. I hate being so overly dependent on stupid technology, but thats the way it is in our modern world.
Thank god for wonderful friends like Djane Olga Damnitz aka: Angie Anderson who rescuing me from my woes.
Olga and Mischa of bbooks kollective whose day job is MIS chief at a local Berlin University, kindly fixed the computer problema for me gratis. Also Olga repaired my bicycleta which has been out of commission since November of last year, so now I have transportation and can enjoy the marvelous spring weather that is making Berlin so lovely and glorious at the moment. Also thanks, love and kisses to Nanna Heidenreich who helped me sort out my insurance papers so that I can get my teeth taken care of at the Dentist and Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson and his lover Piero Bellomo who are always there to help this poor retarded doll who just can’t do anything for herself.
***
One of my former young Weisensee grad students Katja Maya came by the Cheese Endique Trifecta studio the other evening and we had a grand time, drinking white wine spritzers, snacking and catching up on our busy artistic lives. Katja is originally from Belgium and speaks four languages fluently. She also does the most delicately expressive drawings. We talked about my participation in a project that will be sweeping the city of Berlin in the Summer between the Berlin Biennale and the Venice Biennale. Its kind of a city promotional grift that the gay Major Wolverweit has cooked up and its already caused quite an uproar with the artistic community as the money has been eaten up in promotional costs, but the fees for artists are miniscule. Katja is planning an intervention with an all girl one night only punk outfit that I will play electric guitar in for a performance at the Kunst Werker. Will let you in on more details later as things develop.
Katja heads another incredible music and art project called LeiseyLento, and she gifted me a copy of their homemade CD. The art band is going on a DIY tour and if they make it to your town do yourself a favor and see them. Below are the details:

HallOOOooooOoOo wowooOOWowoWOoowooowoowoOOOooOoOo **+ ++++ **+ +++
°°***++ °*
es gibt in diese sprossige und knospige zeit einige erblühten neuigkeiten bei leiseylento:
viele möglichkeiten zeit mit euch zu verbringen!

***NEW SONGS LIVE*** (like a song about why i'm called Otok

After our successful and very funny first tour this january with our favorite big sista My Sister Grenadine, we decided to repeat the experiment and now
we go on a loooong journey together: 3 AND A HALF weeks through some parts of europe (germany, austria, switzerland and italy.) see the tour dtes below and tell all your friends and families in other cities to come
when we crossed the river
there was rain
when we crossed the mountains
there was snow
when we crossed the sky
there were clouds
and i could feel the ocean
and then i saw the ocean...
(says grenadine)
we are taking the big pissing goddess with us, of course, to protect us on the roads cause we'll be touring with an orange bus*

tour dates:
28.04.11 DE - Cottbus, Fango
29.04.11 DE - Chemnitz, Aaltra
30.04.11 DE - München, Rationaltheater
01.05.11 AT - Wien, Mikes Werkstatt
02.05.11 AT - Graz, Scherbe
03.05.11 AT - Linz, Café Dokapi
04.05.11 AT - Innsbruck, Bäckerei
05.05.11 IT - Udine, Circolo Arci Cas*Aupa
06.05.11 IT - Padova, La Mela di Newton
07.05.11 IT - Venezia / Milano tba
08.05.11 AT - Dornbirn, TIK
10.05.11 CH - Zürich, Café Henrici
11.05.11 CH - Zürich, Schönegg
12.05.11 CH - St. Gallen, La Buena Onda
13.05.11 CH - Baden, Frau Meise
14.05.11 DE - Tübingen, Café Haag
15.05.11 DE - Darmstadt, Centralstation
17.05.11 DE - Aachen, Hotel Europa
18.05. 11 DE - Bielefeld, Verve
19.05.11 DE - Marburg, Havanna 8
20.05.11 DE - Kassel, TBA Show
21.05.11 DE - Jena, Haus auf der Mauer
22.05.11 DE - Dresden, Sprungschanze
www.mysistergrandine.com
www.myspace.com/mysistergrenadine
facebook: my sister grenadine
--
Leiseylento **bazaar musical***
www.myspace.com/leiseylento
face book: leiseylento

***
O and I just got word from one of my old LA girlfriends, the country punk goddess Ms. Glen Meadmore that she is coming to Europe for one of her sassy mini tours. Backing her up are members of Tenderloin and The Lazy. So if she is coming to your neck of the woods you owe it to yourself to see this whirlwind of talent. She will do two shows in Berlin and I will sing with her on our old 1980s hits song “No Money, No Honey”.

Glen Meadmore tour info:
april 30 bertholdsaal weyer, oberer markt, 3335 weyer, osterreich
may 2 monster ronsons, warschauerstr. 34, 10243 berlin
may 3 golden pudel, st. pauli fischmarkt 27 ,20359 hamburg
may 4 shade inc. ,neue berliner initiative, schonhauser allee 36, berlin

This cute little item sent to me from Puta Breath, my Cali low desert Speaking From the Diaphragmn Correspondent:

The festival grounds are overwhelmed by shirt less male specimens! It is very
distracting to see packs of young straight men together cajoling and teasing me!
One dude who's packing major dick swinging in his low rise almost see-thru shorts. Fuck, what a dick head, ridge and all!!!

The bands have been great. My high light for today will be Big Audio Dynamite.
I'm sure all the Veterano's will be in full force to see Mick Jones.

The temp is over 100! The doll would be complaining....

DREH DICH UM
Was filming a movie out of town that I can’t really talk about as I had to sign a confidentiality agreement because the project involves a major international celebrity.Boring!
Was also filmed for a documentary on the Canadian all girl band Fifth Column, which was led by the great GB Jones, Caroline Azar and Beverly Breckinridge with guests like Anita Smith, Donna Dresch of Team Dresch and Don Pyle from ShadowyMen,Shadowy Planet, Greek Buck and Phono Comb.
Fifth Column was the influential band that is responsible for the Riot Grrl Movement and Homocore/Queercore scenes. There has never been a band quite like Fifth Column whose ferocious musical output was completely unique in the punk and post punk era. Their music was thrashy with a vox pop edge to it that melded experimental vim into its hitchcock sound.
The director of the documentary is a young Canuck named Kevin Hegge who is a small boned gay man with a lively personality. I had a good time with him, and his perky Canadian/Bulgarian assistant Karen and their crew that consisted of former Arsenal projectionist Guillaume Cailleau taking the place of Mark Andre Pennock as director of photography and a tall sweet German sound tech.
***
Congragulations to Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson and his sexy ItalioGerman lover Piero Bellomo who are celebrating their 10 year anniversary as a couple which in straight years is like they have been together for 40 moons. The other day I had a nice time hanging with them and a visiting Greek lady pal enjoying the Spring weather at a café al fresco style.
Went to see Little Alex aka: Tielemachos Alexiou of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective at Arsenal Inst for Film und Video Kunst. Nice crowd of luminaries that included Judy LaBruce producer Jurgen Brunning, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Tim Blue, Uli Ziemons, fagademic Damong Young with his Vidal Sassoon executive hairhopper husband Michael, HAU's Anna Muelter and a gaggle of pretty young things. It was wonderful seeing Alex's films projected on the big screen of Kino 1.
Little Alex’s mega hot cinematographer Tasty Tim Schenkl is quite a sensational talent and I predict he will be going places in the film world as he knows how to create images of sumpteous beautiful and refinement. Tim isn't exactly hard on the eyes either. I really have a huge crush on him as he is the kind of man that really gets my juices flowing. If I had a last paycheck, he would get it.
Marc Siegel in the short subject mocumentary Interview With an Artist was
simply brilliant and looked every bit the shtar in Panavision. Marc could certainly be a full-time actor if he so desired--- he has that much of a screen presence almost like a combination Keenan Wynn and Ernie Kovacs.
In Little Alex’s first feature film Logic of the Cat the humpy Greek star is mesmerizing with a body that just can’t be believed. This flick has a nice meditative quality to it utilizing the explosive backdrop of the Greek student protests of 2009 in a natural manner that isn’t exploitative.
Venus in the Garden, with its lovely young cast and perfect photography would be better as a short subject, and not a five reeler though this version was much better then the one Alex showed me a few months earlier. The Dream of Norma which screened last year as part of Forum Expanded has me dancing a duet with Little Alex as my dimunitive shadow should be trimmed down quite a bit in length,and I think would work better as a three channel video installation instead of being projected into three parts on one big screen.
Little Alex is still a neophyte film director but shows great promise, and I’m anxious to see him develop with future projects.

ORGASMUSECHO
Hey darling blogina readers. Here is my Elizabeth Taylor tribute interview with the divine Manuel Schubert of Filmhighlights Internet Radio. Enjoy.

Filmhighlights - 2011-03-31 - Elizabeth Taylor Tribute - with Vaginal Davis by filmanzeiger

TAPPEN SIE NICHT IN IHRE FRAGE-FALLE
Found a picture from 1983 of Alfredo Botello that was published along with an article I wrote for the old Los Angeles Reader.Seeing this pic brings back floods of memories. Alfie was only 15 and a student at the famed Loyola High School, a Jesuit prep school for rich Catholic boys from good LA families.Alfie was going to this fancy school on scholarship, and lived with his Austrian born single mother in a flat off of Beverly Blvd and Western Avenue adjacent to the wealthy enclave of Hancock Park. Alfie’s mother was long divorced from his Spanish father. Later after getting mugged outside of the Ralph's Supermarket on Third Street & LaBrea she moved to what she felt was the safer suburb of Glendale. Where she met and married Glendale's Chief of Police. When he retired they moved to Orange County.
I initially met Alfie when I was the features editor of the mod magazine Twist.He was 14, sweet as humble pie and a bit pear shaped, and I was a dorky, super skinny 18 year already ensconcsed in the post punk Hollywood scene and Alfie & I had a bit of what now people refer to as a bro-mance. It was all very innocent. I mentored him in the underground music and art scene.
By the time he was in college at UC Berkeley studying architecture he had lost his babyfat and turned into quite a hunk growing to 6'5 inches of sturdy, robust young manhood. As a teenager he was just cute, but as a young adult he was sizzling!
On one Christmas holiday when he was back in the Southland we made a short experimental film together called Dot where I played Dorothy Parker and he was Robert Benchley. I got drunk on camera channeling Mrs. Parker and my unrequited feelings for Alfie came blustering out in the way that alcohol sometimes fuels, and I think seeing my frustrated longing and desire frightened the poor lad. We never saw each other again.
After graduation he remained in the bay area, married a girl who I’ve been told looks like a white version of me, had children and just started leading a heteronormative life I gather. Over the years I would hear from some of his friends who would give me updates on him. I found out that he gave up architecture to become a screenwriter and even won some big award with a money prize attached to it through the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and he also wrote the screenplay to one of the Fast and the Furious franchises. Since moving to Berlin five years ago I haven’t heard anything else about Alfie but after finding his photo and digging out some of his handwritten letters to me over the years it just dawned on me that he is now around 40 years old. Has he aged well? Is he still married? Does he ever think about me? I guess i still have deep feelings for him. One of the last things I remember him saying to me was that he didn’t know Vaginal Davis,but only remembers me as Kayle Hilliard, which was just another one of my many personas. I think he felt that the Kayle Hilliard male persona was more the real me then the diva Vaginal Davis, but there actually is no real me. I have been and always will be a construct.
***
One of my young Berlin Greek passive children--Little Alex of the Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective is having a screening of his films at Arsenal on Monday starting at 7pm its a long program below is the info

Zu Gast: Telémachos Alexiou

11. April 2011, 19h im Kino Arsenal

(please scroll down for english version)

VENUS IN THE GARDEN, 2011

Telémachos Alexiou versucht in seinen Filmen durch choreographierte Kamera- und Körperbewegungen Erlebnisse wiederherzustellen und Fragen zu privater, sexueller, sozialer, politischer und professioneller Identität aufzuwerfen. Das Arsenal präsentiert am 11.4. zwei Langfilme des jungen griechischen Regisseurs als Weltpremieren.

Wir freuen uns, Telémachos Alexiou am 11.4. als Gast im Arsenal begrüßen zu dürfen.

Programm

Mo 11.4., 19h, in Anwesenheit von Telémachos Alexiou
THE LOGIC OF THE CAT Telémachos Alexiou G/D 2009 griech. OmE 62’
Vorfilm: AN INTERVIEW WITH AN ARTIST Telémachos Alexiou D 2010 engl. OF 22’
Telémachos Alexious Debüt ist ein Film über Themos, seinen Liebeskummer, seinen dahintreibenden Alltag, seine Freunde, ihren politischen Aktivismus. Es ist auch ein Film über Athen und die sich anbahnenden Unruhen im Sommer 2008. Als Vorfilm zeigen wir die melancholische Fake-Doku AN INTERVIEW WITH AN ARTIST.

Mo 11.4., 21h, in Anwesenheit von Telémachos Alexiou
VENUS IN THE GARDEN Telémachos Alexiou G/D 2011 griech. OmE 63’
Vorfilm: THE DREAM OF NORMA Telémachos Alexiou D 2010 9’
In VENUS IN THE GARDEN verlieren sich die beiden Stricher Nikos und Alain und ihre Zuhälterin Monica in einer verwickelten Beziehung. Ist es ein Rollenspiel, das aus der Langeweile eines Sommers hervorging, oder haben die drei Jean Genet gelesen? Im Vorprogramm läuft THE DREAM OF NORMA, der 2009 beim Forum Expanded der Berlinale zu sehen war, ein tänzerisches Duell zwischen der von Drag-Superstar Vaginal Davis verkörperten Norma und ihrem Schatten.

Telémachos Alexiou

April 11, in the presence of Telémachos Alexiou

As a world premiere, we present two full-length films by the young Greek director, Telémachos Alexiou. His debut, THE LOGIC OF THE CAT (G/GER 2009), is a film about Themos, his lovesickness, his everyday life that drags along, his friends, and their political activism. It is also a film about Athens and the imminent unrests in the summer of 2008. In VENUS IN THE GARDEN (G/GER 2011), the two hustlers, Nikos and Alain, and their procuress, Monica, are entangled in a complicated relationship. Is it a role play emerging from the boredom of a summer, or have the three read Jean Genet? Beforehand, two short films will be screened: THE DREAM OF NORMA (GER 2010), which was shown at the Berlinale's Forum Expanded, a dancing duel between Norma, played by drag superstar Vaginal Davis, and her shadow, and the melancholy fake documentation AN INTERVIEW WITH AN ARTIST (GER 2010).

MEHR ZUM THEMA SEX
Yes its true Vagimule Davis doll wasn't exactly hatched.
O I am so glad I don’t have the responsibilities of children and family the way my heteronormative relatives do. My poor niece isn’t even 30 years ago, but her oldest daughter is 15 and has already had an STD which means she is sexually active. The girl doesn’t get along with her stepfather so she is living now with a friend of the family. My niece will be a grandmother before she is 30, thats for sure.
My nephews son just turned 13 and has gone through quite a growth spurt where he magically shot to over 6 feet tall with huge muscles, a full beard, manly pectorals and washboard abs that he is obsessed with, and likes to show off. My sister told me that the boy can’t stop looking at himself in the mirror and the last time he was over at her apartment she kept saying to herself, "who is this male prostitute?" She can’t believe it’s the same child whose diapers she changed.
My poor sister is trying to be a good great auntie to the boy, but its hard for her a church lady who is 60 years old and still a virgin to relate to him and his hyperspaced young sexuality that is emerging at full tilt.
Now this kid wants to quit school and become a model or male stripper in Las Vegas. He has been suspended twice from school for inappropriate sexually tinged behavior and for modifying his school uniform. My sister tells me that no matter what the weather he parades around shirtless or in Daisy Duke jean cut offs commando style. The only shoes he wears are flipflops to show off his size 17 feet and he considers a tricep T or johnny string tank top the ideal dresswear shirt. At 12 he came out as openly bisexual, and has had affairs with both a male and female teacher at his middle school. He brags about sugar daddies and sugar mamas who buy him gifts like ipods, iphones and fancy trainers.
The last time I saw my great nephew he was just a pretty little mulatto baby with green eyes. His mother is a white trash girl from Washington State. When i met her i kind of liked her, she reminded me of the late white soul singer Teena Marie in that she was more fluent in black urban slang then any ghetto mamasan, but I also thought she was a bit of a know-it-all, and had my nephew completely whipped. She was my nephews second wife. His first wife use to beat HIM.
This white wife's hillbilly relatives immediately disowned her when she married my nephew. In fact this girl is such a hootchie that she has left my nephew and their kids numerous times hooking up with greasy black thugs she meets on the internet. I guess when you go black you really never go back.
She is addicted to internet chat lines and the men she constantly runs off with always tire of her and then she winds up coming back to my nephew with head caught between her tail, begging his forgiveness and promising she won't do it again. But she always does. She's left him almost a dozen times.
To take her side for a moment. My nephew isn't exactly a prize. He works hard,but isn't really able to provide consistently for his family because he also has children from a previous marriage. Those kids are almost grown with one son in college who is 19. My newphew is also very moody and straight laced like his grandfather, my sister's father not my father. So i can see why his white wife would want to run away from him. That and he has gained so much weight that he makes Luther Vandross at the height of his gains seem skinny.
The latest report I got is that their youngest child is always left at home to fend for himself and he is only six years old. My nephew works two jobs trying to support his family in the hardknock American economy,his wife, who doesn't work is always out and about. He puts up with the situation because, and I am quoting him, “I love her.” When will people learn that love is not enough.

LASS UNS FREUNDE SEIN
Saturday got to hang out with film historian Marc Siegel on the first warm day of Spring giving him a bit of a tour of my Rote Insel neighborhood. We went by Marlene Deitrich’s modest flat at 65 Lebener Str which is just around the corner from my Cheese Endique Trifecta. My neighborhood is becoming a hot new destination for Berliners because of its central location and easygoing unpretensious vibe.
It’s a very mixed part of town with Germans and Auslanders.I appreciate the yummy Turkish and Arab youth who run around in the tightest white pants showing off well formed rear ends and dark swarthy masculinity.
Rote Insel has quite the history as a working class enclave, and the Insel was the socialist section of West Berlin. David Bowie, Lou Reed, Blixa Bargeld, Nick Cave and Iggy Pop lived here in the late 70s and early 80s. And in the distant past the Insel was home to actress/singer Hildegarde Kneff and Albert Einstein.
When I first moved here in 2006 I didn’t care for it that much as none of my friends lived close by, but not I have formulated my own identity with the neighborhood and I adore it.
We don’t have so many crusties living here. For those of you not privy to Berlin lingo crusties are the fashion challenged and every days a bad hair day alcoholics that you see around the city congregating in the public sphere drinking from early morn to late evening with their equally ragged pet pooches in tow. Some crusties mind their own business and just drink themselves into a mindless stupor bothering no one while others insist on a bit more aggressive tactic and yell at complete strangers on the street and are generally quite unpleasant and a bit of an eyesore. In my neighborhood on the Haupt Strasse or Main Street there is a woman I call la discreet drunk. She is perhaps decades younger then I am, but looks almost 60 years old. She is usually always in the same spot, every day of the week and hides her bottles of beer in her huge coat pockets and takes swigs only sporadically looking around delicately to see if anyone is watching. I guess she thinks she is fooling people, and that they can’t tell she lives in a perpetual state of inebriation. When I first moved into the neighborhood I saw her and was frightened as she looked like she was possessed by a demon and needed an exorcist.
Later on Saturday Marc Siegel and I were joined by Daniel Hendrickson, the Jewish Muslim and his lovesexy Italian beau Piero Belhomo where we had some snacks at a gay café owned by a salty dog Dutchman and his fugly short lover. Our waiter was a cute, friendly short queer. Something rare in Berlin gay establishments. Our server loved saying okdokey quite a bit. He was one of those type of gay men who in perhaps three years time will be a casualty of the gay world ravished from too much drugs, smoking and allnight sex partying.
Marc Siegel’s girlfriend the intermedia actress, director and independent curator Susanne Sachsse is in Poland filming a special project for the Israeli artist Yael Bertrana who will create the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year. Susanne’s lovely 16 year old daughter Salome Gersh will also star in this very unique film.
Went to Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus’ birthday party off the canal at Brachvogel Restaurant on Sunday which has a lovely biergarden and a super miniature golfcourse.
American miniature golf courses are far from tiny usually incorporating some kind of grandiose theme. The weather Sunday was perfect for a birthday celebration and I had a grand time sitting al fresco style with pretty academic Nicole Wolf, lovesexy Nanna Heidenreich, handsome Uli Ziemons, Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson,film historian Marc Siegel, and musician & filmmaker Tim Blue. The other party revelers were: Dorothee Wenner (film curator, journalist and filmmaker) with her friend Hella, Anne Quirynen (video artist)Bettina Allamoda (artist and SSS neighbor who has lived in Kreuzberg since 1982)Roman Lach (SSS’s oldest childhood friend)Florian Wüst (curator, filmmaker, artist)his personable girlfriend Loreto Solis from Chile,Philip Scheffner,Hannah Hurtzig,(Black Market)Madhusree Dutta (Arsenal curator in residency from Bombay)
Miss Stefanie looked so sweet and fresh like she was celebrating her 15th birthday. Spring really becomes her, and I hope she gets to take some time off from her busy schedule as the hardest working woman in Germany if not Europe.

NICHTS ALS GESPENSTER
Hey all my New Yorikan fans I am in a group show called “Notes on Notes on Camp” that opens tomorrow April 2 to May 8th at the Invisible Exports Gallery, 14a Orchard Street b/w Hester and Canal Streets in the lower eastside of Manhattan. I won’t be at the opening as I am here in Berlin, but go check it out and tell me what you think. Below is the list of other artist participating in the exhibition. Yowza!

Duke & Battersby
Mike Bouchet
Nicole Cherubini
Vaginal Davis
Jeremy Kost
Jessica Labatte
Cary Leibowitz
Robert Melee
Bob Mizer
Brent Owens
John Waters
Karlheinz Weinberger
***
Legendary downtown nightclub impresario Don Hill died age 66. Yes its true. Don Hill owned the SoHo nightspot Don Hill’s which housed the rock n roll fag bar Squeezebox that I performed at almost everytime I was in New York back in the 1990s. Not only did I do solo shows with the Squeezebox houseband backing me up,but I also performed at the club with by queercore band PME(Pedro, Muriel & Esther) with Glen Meadmore and Cholita the Female Menudo with LA punk legend Alice Bag. The New York punk elite went crazy for Alice, who has always been a figure of interest to east coast punk purists.
I didn’t know Don Hill that well, but he was always gracious and accommodating to me and my entourage, as well as encouraging saying to me that he has seen a lot of acts in his day but none quite like mine. I think I really got his goad with my Vagimulic brand of lunacy whether I was performing Filipino psychic surgery as Saint Salicia Tate, doing total black body as supermodel Alek Wek or shrimping the robust and large bare feet of young nubile lower Manhattan “It” boys.
I know I will never forget Don Hill and my time spent under the umbrella of his establishment.
Got a note from DJ and Berlin fixture Snax that he will be the in-house pianist during dinner hours of the restaurant 3 Schwestern. Below is a link for more info

http://3schwestern-berlin.de/

One of my extremely talented Malmo Art Academy students from Sweden Stine Sterk is going to be in Berlin with her new band, EASTER. They will play this event http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=159842564069987 on the 4th of April

If you want to hear what their music sounds like:

http://www.myspace.com/easterjesus

ICH HABE MEIN BESTER GEGEBEN
Sweet asexual Fagademic Sean Nye came by the Cheese Endique Trifecta the other evening. We had a nice evening drinking white wine spritzer’s, snacking and shooting the breeze.
Actor Farley Granger became the third Hollywood star to die in a week’s time following Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Russell. Mr. Granger was quite a handsome Ganymede in his heyday of the late 1940s to mid 1950s. He co-starred with Alida Valli in the beautiful 1953 Visconti film Senso, as well as two Hitchcock films Rope and Strangers on Train with homosexual overtones.
Tonight I went with Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim to Arsenal’s KinoPolska to see the film Everything For Sale 1968 by Andrzej Wajda that is an experimental take on the death of the famous Polish James Dean—Zbigniew Cybulski. Polish women are so sexy and stylish and the ones in this film sizzle with their mod looks and false eyelashes. The only good looking Polish dude in this flick is humpy ginger Daniel Olbrychski who slugs an icky blondine queen who comes on to him in the toilet.

SEIN ODER NICHTSEIN
O poor Mrs. Angela Merkel and her fugly CDU party have suffered a major defeat, and the Green Party have won a sweet victory. For the first time in six decades icky conservatives are not on top in German politics. Yahoo!
Last night at Rising Stars Falling Stars the Blue Brothers performed their special brand of alchemy with sweeping style and bravado. Not only were they super focused and concentrated but their playing nicely highlighted the emotional pull of the 1928 German silent Rasputin’s Love Mis-Adventure directed by Martin Berger featuring the extroidinary cinematography of Laszlo Schaeffer. The Hungarian lensmen Mr. Schaeffer worked in Berlin in the 1920s and moved to Hollywood in 1939. I briefly knew Mr. Schaeffer when he was my neighbor at the Karnak Apt Building in Hollywood in 1978/79.
But getting back to the Blue Brothers. I really love when they play cello and violin. The musical movements that they create with these two instruments are always their best work, and its magical watching them.
After the screening the reception in the rote foyer was packed with lots of beauties including legendary prima ballerina Trixi Cordua, feminist filmmaker Evie Europa Ruesseler, young artists: Diana Arce, Philip Shafer,Mad Kate, Nazli Kilerci and Aykan Safoglu who is curating a film series for C/O Berlin, running from March 29th through April 29th, at Oranienburgerstr 35/36 in Berlin.
Also seen schmoozing Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus with Uli Ziemons of Forum Expanded, junior curator Nadja Talmi, Sexy Sasha of HAU with his girlfriend and Romy Schneider doppelganger Christina, Manuel Schubert of Film Highlights Internet Radio with Scandanavian DJ Nicolas Tange Lange, lovesexy bon vivant Tobias Raucher and his large peterfication Dagmar, gorgeous student Clemons Stoltzenberg with posse, fagademic Sean Nye with Felix Knocke of Der Spiegel Online,Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson, humpy dark haired actor Stipe Erceg, newlyweds Julian Radlmieir of Chocolate Grinder Kollective and Tatiana Kononenko, and international artist Candice Breitz just back from the Singapore Biennale with British essayist Geoff Dyer(Otherwise Known as the Human Condition)

WER HAT ANGST VOR VIRGINIA WOOLF
One of the biggest Hollywood stars to ever grace the silver screen died yesterday age 79, the beyond legendary Elizabeth Taylor. I had dinner with Miss Taylor, John Waters, Jose Montano, the production designer for her White Diamonds commercials and several others years ago and it was pure magic. Her eyes really were violet and extremely sparkly and mischieveous. At first I didn’t think she was featuring me or John Waters, as we both were gushing to her about how amazing she was in Joseph Losey’s Boom, and how we thought the movie was so completely underrated. I think at she thought we were making fun of her or were only into Boom as a guilty pleasure or cult thing. Slowly she warmed up and by the end of the evening it was like we were busom buddies. She even remembered my older sister Gracie Taylor from Rock Hudson’s Boy Beauty parties of the late 60s and 1970s. Elizabeth Taylor hated that people called her “Liz”. I referred to her as Miss Taylor and she actually said, “Call me Elizabeth”. I just about fainted. She could be a little randy too, and loved hearing dirty jokes, and would throw her head back and do a big Ron Athey style laugh. Its always the truelly great stars who are the most down to earth. Her place in history was so secure that she had nothing to feel antsy or neurotic about like todays dull celebs. Just from that one dinner I got the sense that she was a fun loving good time Sally.
My favorite Elizabeth Taylor films besides Boom are Suddenly Last Summer, 1958. I starred in the remake of Suddenly Last Summer directed by John AesNihil, who is one of the Baltimore Five that includes Barry Levinson, Kenneth Anger, John Waters and Kenny Camp. I played Katherine Hepburn’s role and Jade Gordon of My Barbarian was in the Elizabeth Taylor part. The film also features Bibbe Hansen, Goddess Bunny and Lance Loud as Dr. Sugar the role played by Monty Cliff in the original film.
My other ET marathon viewing titles: Secret Ceremony, The Drivers Seat, Rhapsody, Cynthia, A Date With Judy, The Blue Bird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Last Time I Saw Paris, A Place in the Sun and X, Y& Z.
My internet radio interview for FilmHighlights Magazine is now online. Its pretty damn funny with some great vintage Berlin music. Please check out the link below and thanks again to Mr. Manuel Schubert.

---[html]---

Rising Stars Falling Stars - March 2011 - with Vaginal Davis by filmanzeiger

---[link]---

http://soundcloud.com/filmanzeiger/rising-stars-falling-stars-mar2011

***
Danny Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim is back in Berlin from his Arab language immersion holiday in Damascus, Syria. I was worried about him as the Middle East is on the verge of exploding, and its not the best place to be right now. Is anyplace?
We met for a scrumpdeli breakfast at La Femme Cafe on Kot Busser Damn in Kreuz Koelln. La Femme is one of my fav Berlin eateries.

ICH BIN NUMMER VIER
I love the Turkish grocery store Oz Gida located on the Hauptstrasse in my neighborhood in Schoneberg. It’s the best supermarket in all of Berlin, and that is not just a consensus that I made up but it’s a well known fact. The meat, produce and vegetables are cheapest in price with excellent quality attached, and there is the added eye candy special of handsome young Turkish men working in the place. There are two very juicy young men behind the meat counter. Both of them always give me the best cuts of lamb and flirt outrageously with me.One of these young men is the younger brother of the stores general manager. I gather they are brothers in that they look very much alike. I believe the store is a family run business. The older of the two brothers seems always a little sad, yhough he is quite beautiful so he has nothing to be marose about. He is a little on the dimunitive side with tiny bone structure but has the most delicious pale skin and dark eyes and hair collick. Daniel Hendrickson and I have speculated that he is having sexuality issues. Though lately he seems to have perked up a bit. Today I dropped by the store just to have a capuccino and sit and people watch, and I noticed a new boy working in the store that the manager was giving a lot of his attention to. They were joking and being very playful together. Could this be a budding romance? Well it is spring my darlings.
At Oz Gida there are several older Turkish men working in the produce section and a woman behind the checkout counter that I don’t really care for in that they are grumpy.
I do love these stunning Turkish secular twin girls who work the checkout counter. Their make-up is a little thick for daytime and they overdo the tanning salon, but I am still fascinated by them.
One of the things that makes Berlin so interesting is the Turkish and Arab people that are a large percentage of the population. Without them and other minorities Berlin would very much be a dullard whitebread place to live.
If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend the extroidinarily fresh musical combo Leiseylento will be performing this Friday March 25th 7pm as part of a photo fab lab at Muskauer Str 49 in Kreuzberg. Check it out!
Got a sweet spring missive from Michele “Meesh” Mills of Silverlake today which really helped to bring me good cheer. Leave it to Miss Meesh to always provide an upbeat outlook on life. She is one of my dearest friends and I really love her.
Last night Little Alex of The Chocolate Grinder collective cooked me a scrumptious belated birthday dinner. Also on hand was his humpy Israeli lover Assof Hochman who will be performing in Armenia, Turkey and Belgium in a new dance piece for the next six months or so. After dinner we watched a short documentary on Joan Crawford’s Warner Bros. years and another little docu on the legendary Columbia Pictures goddess Rita Hayworth. I love Ms. Hayworth in the films The Lady From Shangai co-starring her ex-husband Orson Welles and The Loves of Carmen co-starring Glenn Ford who she also made the films Gilda and Affair in Trinidad with. My favorite Rita Hayworth film has to be They Came to Cordura which she co-stars with Gary Cooper and Van Heflin.

NACKT AUF MEINEN BOCK
Hugh Martin who wrote the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” along with “The Boy Next Door” and “The Trolley Song” from the 1944 Judy Garland MGM film Meet Me In St. Louis died age 96. His lifepartner was Ralph Blane and they also wrote the songs in Best Foot Forward which was on Broadway in 1941 with an MGM film that was released in 1943 starring Lucille Ball, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven,Artie Shaw, Tommy Dix, Gil Stratton and Nancy Walker. Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane had a hot buttery fourgy with Van Johnson and Tom Drake back in the 1940s when they were all under contract to Metro. I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.
Forgot to post this little missive that came to me awhile back from the great Mark Simon in Los Angeles:

In 2008 Joan Fontaine put her copy of the Rebecca script up for auction. It was the presentation copy David O Selznick gave her when the film was completed. Bound in maroon calf skin and gold. Embossed on the cover O Selznick's inscription read:

"For Joan, This souvenir of a struggle and a dream. May neither be forgotten too soon. Your's with affection until the adventure's sequel, David.”

Miss Joan was asking 35-40 thousand as an opening bid............ No takers.....

And this from The Love Camel in London:

Oh Doll,

you should do some spring cleaning to your pussy by using the
fresh juices of all the boys in flip-flops that will start to appear
in the the streets of Berlin soon when the weather warms up. You just need to go around dressed as the core of a nuclear facility and tell young boys you fancy that you need their sperma to avoid a major nuclear meltdown with catastrophic consequences for the planet

***
Went to Arsenal to see the restored version of George Cukor’s A Star is Born starring Judy Garland, James Mason, a bloated Jack Carson and male fag hag Tommy Noonan. Was joined by film historian Marc Siegel and his intermedia actress/ girlfriend the divine Susanne Sachsse, who had never seen the famed film, and was not a big Garland fan. Now she has officially joined the Garland cult and sees why so many people adore La Judy.
The next day was an unofficial all-day testing of the waters for The Living Archive Project which culminated in a scrumpteous din din at WAU cafe. Perhaps when the event becomes more official some young artists in their twenties will be invited to participate just to give the proceedings some youthful energy, momentum and eye candy.
Later after supper was joined by Tim Blue, Susanne Sachsse and Marc Siegel at the Martin Groupius Bau for the opening of Margarita Broiche’s glam photo exhibition. A lot of the star’s she has photographed of the stage and screen were in attendance including her main man Martin Wuttke and his sexy young sons, Fassbinder legend Volker Spengler and Kate Winslet who co-starred with Margarita in The Reader. My photo that Frau Broich took after my performing at Rising Stars, Falling Stars last year dressed ala Dorothy Arzner looked fab all gigantic in the upstairs grand hall. Margarita certainly has a keen eye for capturing spirited moments and lovely details, and each pic is also somewhat meloncholic. Joining our group later was fagademic Sean and baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras, looking freshly fucked with erect nipples and bubblebutt bouncing in fox trot. Was shocked to run into Paul Plamper who I met in 1999 in Los Angeles when he was Martin Wuttke’s assistant at the Berliner Ensemble. Paul is now in his late thirties but looks even better then when i first met him in his mid twenties. Of course I fell madly in love with Paul as dorky German boys with thick glasses is so my type. I can still remember him telling me not to fall for him as he was just “a boring heterosexual”. That didn’t stop me of course, and now seeing him looking so good has intensifying my feelings of love and lust for him. He is still a big dork, but is so boyishly charming that I can’t stop thinking about him and as long as i have a face, he will always have a place to sit. Back in Los Angeles he had a French girlfriend who had run over someone with her car killing them. Now Paul has become quite a successful radio play writer and director. In Germany radio plays are very much in vogue, and never went out of fashion with the advent of television.

REISE DER VERLORENEN UNSCHULD
Just got word that my tranny gal pal Ms. Chloe Dzubilo died Feb 18th in New York City. She was disoriented by her medication and slipped onto the subway train tracks. What a horrible tragedy. Ms. Chloe came to LA in the mid 90s to visit me at my large Cheese Endique Trifecta studio in Koreatown. We had a girlhappy time.
Chloe was a downtown New York starina and part of the Black Lips Kollective out of the Pyramid Club. The song “Carolina Vagina” with her band Transistor was a crowd pleasing staple in my DJane sets. When Chloe came to visit me in LA she wowed the crowd at Club Sucker at the Garage, my Silverlake punk rock beer bust and English T-Dance.
As an activistite she worked tirelessly for the LGBT Community Center's groundbreaking Gender Identity Project, she served on its transgender HIV prevention team conducting prevention outreach in bars, nightclubs and on ho strolls. She spoke at national and international conferences, in video Public Service Announcements and training workshops for health care and mental health providers.
Chloe was involved with the political action group the Transsexual Menace and went on to direct one of the first federally funded HIV prevention programs for transgender sex workers in 1997.
In 2001, Chloe founded the Equi-Aid Project, a Manhattan-based riding program that specifically targets children who are infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS as well as other at-risk youth.
In September 2002, Chloe Dzubilo became the first transgendered person on the cover of POZ, a magazine for the HIV/AIDS community. She graced the magazine's cover two more times.
In 2003, Chloe was appointed to the HIV and Human Service Planning Council of New York, an advisory body composed of people living with HIV/AIDS, service providers, and government representatives, charged with ensuring that "people living with HIV have access to appropriate, quality services across the continuum of care, resulting in the best possible health and quality of life."
At the time of her death, she was working on a project with her spouse -- musician, visual artist and trans-man T De Long -- which will be shown in June by the arts and advocacy organization Visual AIDS.
To offer donations in support of her celebration and her favorite causes -- Visual AIDS and Return To Freedom -- go to:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Chloe-Dzubilo
***
In other New York news, two of my talented and lovesexy NYU students Jo-ey Tang and Carlos Reyes are having a thesis show at the end of the month.See the info below
and check out these hot young art shtars.

NYU Steinhardt MFA Thesis 2011 - Part I:
80WSE Gallery
80 Washington Square East, NY

Exhibition Dates: March 29 – April 9, 2011
Opening Reception: Tues, March 29, 2011 6:00-8:00pm
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30am-6:00pm

Artists:
David J. Merritt
Carlos Reyes
Ben Schumacher
Jo-ey Tang

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/steinhardt/mfa2011/
***
Had a glorious breaky at Toughstein Cafe with Manuel Schubert of Filmhighlights Internet Radio Program MultiCult FM and he interviewed me at the Cheese Endique Trifecta about the next Rising Stars, Falling Stars presentation of Rasputin’s Love MisAdventure 1928 directed by Martin Berger. This German silent will be accompanied by the Blue Bros Tim &kJohnny and will be our first Rising Stars post Berlinale Film Festival that will also celebrate the coming of Spring and everyone getting freaky and frisky. So come to Rising Stars on March 27th and bring a 25 centimeters long shlong if you have one.
***
The other evening was invited to a gorgeous din din at the famed table of la Susanne Sachsse the star of Pierrot Lunaire. You haven’t lived or really eaten until you have tasted one of her scrumptdelish meals. It was an intimate dinner feast with her handsome film historian lover Marc Siegel and beautiful teenage twins Richard & Salome Gersh. Lots of laughs, vino and gossip exchanged until the wee hours of the night.

LES MAINS LIBRES
Went to breakfast with Ulrich Ziemons the handsomest man in all of Europa the other morning at the little Toughstein Café around the corner from my Cheese Endique Trifecta in Rote Insel. The menu of this restaurant has gone through some major changes incorporating a Spanish flavor which is making it very popular at the moment. Toughstein has always been pretty good but now its most excellent in every which way but loose. Mr. Ziemons who is a junior curator with Forum Expanded at the Berlinale also works for Arsenal Institute fuer film und video kunst, and is one of the most delightful of young Germans in the city. He ain’t bad eye candy either, so getting to spend quality time with him is always a true pleasure.
I missed seeing Zaldy and Desi Monster (nee Santiago) when they were in town doing costume fittings for the Bruce La Bruce stage production of Shoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. Zaldy and I go way back to when he was a young fashion student at Otis Parsons in Los Angeles back in the 1980s. He was one of a couterie of androgynous kids from that school who were huge Afro Sisters fanatics and went to see my shows on a religious basis, getting very dressed up and showering the stage with Vaginal Cream ointments and suppositories. Upon graduation a gaggle of them moved to New York and became part of the Susanne Bartsche world of New York Club denizens. Zaldy along with Mathu’ created the look for Rupaul when he went mainstream with Supermodel of the World. Besides working on costumes for Michael Jackson’s illfated last extravaganza. These days Ms. Zaldy is the designer for Circus de Soleil where he oversees 100 assistants and has a 5 million dollar budget.
One of the beautiful boys from Otis that hung with Zaldy was this tall fashiony child named Alan who i had a major crush on. Alan went out with this guy named Robbie who wasn't the nicest person in the world. Robbie had briefly dated the singer and former fashion model Christian Farrow, who had the club hit "Should I Love You Forever". One time Robbie told me that i had a habit of intruding on peoples personal space. I think both Robbie and Alan died of Mrs. AIDS.
Wednesday I went to see Pierrot Lunaire again. Hanging backstage with make-up designer Tan Binh Nguyen, who is a superstar artist in her own right who now is beating face for the Paris collections. Tan Binh has the figure of a supermodel and is major Ms. Gorgeous. Hair Stylist Michael Forrey who is one wonderful good time Sally popped a bottle of bubbly and we were drinking, stinking and living it up in the dressing room. Mr. Forrey who is the lover of fagademic Damon Young has created some luscious hair looks for the cast of Pierrot. Michael & Tan Binh will work with Susanne Sachsse and I on our next piece The Communist Bigamist which goes into production this summer.
Sitting in the audience in the first row I got to see a different perspective of the show and the superlative performance of Frau Sachsse which is so riveting and explosive. Pole dancer Luizo Vega face fucked me with such passion and strength during the performance that he almost broke my eyeglasses, but it was well worth it.
I have to give Judy LaBruce credit for his casting of the beautiful Maria Ivanenko as Columbine,the charismatic Boris Lisowski as the capitalist pig father and handsome Krishna Kumar Krishnan who does a fine job in the stereotypical Indian cab driver role who gets his pecker whacked. Mr.Krishna is the hot lover of the genius Serbian conductor Premil Petrovic who has certainly made the haunting music of Arnold Schoenberg more accessable to a younger audience.
After the performance we were all off to Silver Future in Neu Koelln for the birthday of HAU production coordinator Anna Muelter. Ms. Muelter was in a happy go lovely mood, and it was great seeing this hard working young lady letting her hair down in the confines of the comfy bar setting. I am not much of a bar fly, but I have to admit I always have a wonderful time whenever I stop by Silver Future. Joining in on the birthday celebration the entire cast and crew of Pierrot Lunaire along with HAU big bossman Mattias Lienthal with HAU’s number one beauty woman Katrin Dodd, artist Liz Rosenfeld, the Lewis Clan art dynasty of New York, Olga Damnitz and a sorong of KreuzKoelln movers & shakers.
Last night I celebrated the belated birthday of Little Alex of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective with his humpy Israeli lover Assaf Hochman at the Mitte Asian fusion restaurant Transit. Then I scurried back to HAU 1 to see the closing night of Pierrot. This being my third time and it’s the kind of piece you need to see more then once. Actually there were a lot of people who came multiple times including Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, film historian Marc Siegel, Tim Blue, Senol Senturk, German filmmaker Harun Farocki and his gorgeous wife and Wolfgang Wesener’s 21 year old lovesexy son Anton.

WER WENN NICHT WIR
British performance artist Oreet who teaches at Queen Mary College in London along with Dr.Dominic Johnson who hosted my birthday soiree a few weeks ago came by the Cheese Endique Trifecta this afternoon with her lovely English posse. The other evening Oreet,was one of the many international luminaries at the premiera of the BLAB production of Pierrot Lunaire at HAU I.
After having luncheon in Mitte they came by my studio and we drank some ginger tea with honey and ate dainties while constantly giggling and having a girlish hoot of a time.
One of Oreet’s sweet galpals Irene, is in an all-girl noise band called Woolf-as in Virginia Woolfe and she gave me a autographed copy of her latest EP which I can’t wait to add to my playlist when I am behind the Spinderella Wheels of Steel as a DJane. Ms.Oreet’s other bff Stephen Wilson is living in Berlin for a a month on an art residency.
Now that Spring is approaching I expect that we will be visited by a horde of guests wanting to partake in that special madness that only Berlin provides.
***
For those of you visiting Berlin and wanting to experience something cultural. Check out the info below from ArsenalExperimental. Scroll to the bottom for the info in English.

Retrospektive Pere Portabella
11. bis 28. März 2011

zu Gast: Pere Portabella

Der katalanische Filmemacher Pere Portabella (geboren 1929) gehört seit fünf Jahrzehnten zu den wichtigsten Protagonisten des spanischen Films. Zunächst Produzent für Carlos Saura (Los Golfos, 1959) und Luis Buñuel (Viridiana, 1961), drehte er ab Ende der 60er Jahre selbst Filme, die in einem künstlerisch wie politisch radikalen Umfeld entstanden. Künstlerische Avantgarde und Opposition gegen die Franco-Diktatur sind denn auch die Spannungsfelder, zwischen denen er sich bewegt. Die Erweiterung der Möglichkeiten des Mediums Film steht im Mittelpunkt seiner Arbeit: Die Dekonstruktion und das subversive Unterlaufen von ästhetischen und narrativen Konventionen, die Beziehung zwischen Bild und Abgebildetem und die Kritik von Repräsentationen. Ausgangspunkt sind oft Genres (Werbefilme, Horrorfilme), deren Strukturen einer gründlichen Prüfung und Neuinterpreta-tion unterworfen werden. Dazu gehören auch die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen Bild und Ton. Er verwendet dokumentarische wie fiktive Formen gleichberechtigt nebeneinander, wobei die Genregrenzen oft aufgehoben sind oder ineinander übergehen. Seine atmosphärisch dichten Filme zerlegen Bilder und setzen sie wieder neu zusammen und konterkarieren damit beständig Zuschauererwartungen. Portabellas erste Filme beschäftigten sich hauptsächlich mit filmischen Formen und damit verbunden Fragen der politischen Repräsentation. In konkreter Weise mit Politik befasste er sich in dem unter klandestinen Bedingungen entstandenen EL SOPAR (1974), der am Vorabend der Hinrichtung des katalanischen Anarchisten Salvador Puig Antich eine Gruppe von ehemaligen politischen Häftlingen beim Gespräch über ihre Gefängniserfahrungen beobachtet. Der 1976 entstandene INFORME GENERAL war eine filmische Bestandsaufnahme der politischen Situation in der Umbruchphase Spaniens.
Nach dem Tod Francos und der Phase des Übergangs zur Demokratie ging Portabella in die Politik und war über zehn Jahre Abgeordneter im katalanischen Parlament, bevor er sich wieder dem Film zuwandte. Seither findet er seine Themen auch außerhalb Spaniens.
Wir freuen uns, Pere Portabella am 11. und 12. März zu einer Retrospektive all seiner langen Filme im Arsenal begrüßen zu dürfen.

Programm

Fr 11.3., 20h: in Anwesenheit von Pere Portabella & Fr 25.3., 19h
UMBRACLE Pere Portabella Spanien 1972 OmE 85’
Ein Film über Frustration, Repression und Paranoia unter Bezugnahme auf Bild- und Tonstrategien des Horrorfilms. Ein Mann (Christopher Lee) spaziert durch ein unwirklich scheinendes Barcelona, besucht ohne Ziel Geschäfte und Museen, während sich eine verstörende und alptraumhafte Stimmung über die Filmbilder legt. Andere Bilder unterbrechen die fragmentarisch bleibende Handlung: Szenen aus der Filmgeschichte, Christopher Lee, der ein Gedicht rezitiert, drei Filmkritiker, die über die Bedingungen des Filmemachens in Spanien diskutieren. Was bleibt, ist ein Gefühl von Fremdheit und gestörter Wahrnehmung.

Sa 12.3.,19h: in Anwesenheit von Pere Portabella & Di 22.3., 19h
EL SOPAR (1974)
In der Nacht vor der Hinrichtung des militanten Anarchisten Salvador Puig Antich treffen sich fünf ehemalige politische Gefangene zu einem Essen, um über die Bedingungen von Gefangenschaft zu reden. Portabella konzentriert sich ganz auf das Gespräch, das sich darum dreht, ob und wie es möglich ist, im Gefängnis den Kampf weiterzuführen, Widerstand zu leisten, eine Haltung zu finden, den Bezug zu einer wie auch immer gearteten Realität zu behalten.

Sa 12.3., 21h: in Anwesenheit von Pere Portabella & Sa 26.3., 21.15h
VAMPIR – CUADECUC Pere Portabella Spanien 1970 OmE 75’
Der Film enstand während der Dreharbeiten zu Jess Francos El conde Drácula/The Count Dracula und ist eine delirierende Reflexion über die Konventionen des Horror-Films. Zweifach zerlegt Portabella Francos Film: Zum einen eliminiert er die Farbe zugunsten von flackernden Schwarz-Weiß-Bildern, zum anderen ersetzt er die Tonspur mit einer das Bild angreifenden Tonlandschaft von Carles Santos. Eine Analyse der Mechanismen des dominanten narrativen Kinos im Spanien Francos und eine radikale Infragestellung desselben.

So 13.3., 20h & Mo 28.3., 20h
DIE STILLE VOR BACH Pere Portabella Spanien 2007 OmE 102’
Portabellas bislang letzter langer Film, den er 2007 beim Filmfestival in Venedig präsentierte. Eine Reflexion über Bach-Inszenierungen und Bachs Einfluss auf die Welt der Musik. Gewohnt fragmentarisch, oszilliert DIE STILLE VOR BACH zwischen historischen Szenen aus Bachs Leben, seiner Rezeption im 19. Jahrhundert durch die Augen Felix Mendelssohns und der Wirkung, die er heute auf die verschiedensten Menschen hat. Ein Experiment über die Vermittlung von Musik im Film.

So 13.3., 20h & Mo 28.3., 20h
MUDANZA Pere Portabella Spanien 2008 20’
Der Film beobachtet, wie das frühere Wohnhaus des spanischen Dichters Federico García Lorca, 70 Jahre nach seinem Tod, von allen Gegenständen geräumt wird. Während Bilder und Möbel sorgfältig eingepackt und abtransportiert werden, durchmisst die Kamera in fließenden Bewegungen die Räume. Zum Schluss bleibt eine mit Vergangenheit und Erinnerung aufgeladene Stille und Leere.

Di 15.3., 20h & Mo 21.3., 20h
INFORME GENERAL SOBRE ALGUNAS CUESTIONES DE INTERÉS PARA UNA PROYECCIÓN PÚBLICA General Report on Some Questions of Interest for a Public Projection Spanien 1976 OmE 173’
Eine groß angelegte, dreistündige Erkundung der politischen Lage Spaniens zum Ende des Franquismo. Nach dem Tod Francos 1975 begann eine Übergangszeit zur Demokratie, die 1977 in den ersten freien Wahlen mündete. Der Film verwebt die Stimmung auf der Straße und Interviews mit Politikern, Gewerkschaftern und Aktivisten, die alle um eine Frage kreisen: Wie lassen sich in einem Land, das 30 Jahre lang eine Diktatur war, demokratische Strukturen aufbauen?

Do 16.3., 20h & So 27.3., 19h
PONT DE VARSÒVIA Warsaw Bridge Spanien 1989 OmE 85’
Portabella untersucht in diesem Film die neuen gesellschaftlichen Strukturen Europas. Dabei erzählt er von drei Personen, deren Wege sich kreuzen: ein Schriftsteller, der einen Preis für einen Pont de Varsòvia betitelten Roman gewinnt, seine Frau und ein namenlos bleibender Mann, der Barcelona mit einer nostalgischen Sehnsucht nach einer revolutionären Vergangenheit durchstreift. Der Mann kommt schließlich bei einem Tauchunfall ums Leben und seine Leiche wird von einem Löschhubschrauber über einem brennenden Wald abgeworfen. In einer äußerst präzisen Ästhetik, die dem zeitgenössischen kommerziellen Kino nachempfunden ist, wirft Portabella einen Blick auf ein fragmentiertes Europa, das durch die Rückkehr der Geschichte erschüttert wird.

Do 17.3., 19h & Di 22.3., 19h
NO COMPTEU AMB EL DITS Don’t Count With Your Fingers Spanien 1967 OmE 26’
Portabellas erster, knapp halbstündiger Film entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Schriftsteller Joan Brossa, dessen wütende Wortspiele den Tonfall des Films vorgeben. In 27 autonomen Sequenzen versucht er die Strukturen und Diskurse von Werbefilmen zu demontieren.

Do 17.3., 19h & Do 24.3., 19h
NOCTURNO 29 Pere Portabella Spaniel 1968 OmE 83’
Portabellas erster langer Film. Der Titel bezieht sich auf die seit 29 Jahren bestehende Herrschaft Francos in Spanien. Eine Abfolge von Szenen, in den Worten Pere Portabellas „super-realistische Fragmente, die die Irrelevanz des alltäglichen Lebens bloßlegen.“ Mosaikartig, weder narrativ noch psychologisch motiviert, folgt der Film dem Leben einer verheirateten Frau (Lucia Bosé) in ihrem großbürgerlichen Umfeld und porträtiert durch sie eine Klasse in einer speziellen politischen Situation.

Mit Unterstützung durch die Spanische Botschaft in Berlin. Dank an Pere Portabella und Films 59.

Pere Portabella Retrospective

For five decades, the Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella (born 1929) has ranked among the most important protagonists of Spanish cinema. After first producing films by Carlos Saura (Los Golfos, 1959) and Luis Buñuel (Viridiana, 1961), at the end of the 1960s he began making his own films that originated in a both artistically and politically radical context. Artistic avant-garde movements and resistance against the Franco dictatorship are the poles between which he operates. His work focuses on expanding the possibilities of film as a medium: The deconstruction and subversion of aesthetic and narrative conventions, the relation between image and that which is shown, and the critique of representation. He often starts off with existing genres (advertising films, horror movies), the structures of which are then thoroughly examined and newly interpreted. This also includes the complex relationships between image and sound. He makes use of documentary and fictional forms in an equal way, often crossing or blurring genre borders. His atmospherically dense movies take images apart and assembling them anew, constantly evading the audience's expectations. Portabella's first films predominantly dealt with cinematic forms and the related questions of political representation. He then examined politics in a concrete fashion in the clandestinely produced EL SOPAR (1974), a film observing a discussion between a group of former political prisoners about their experiences in jail, on the evening before the execution of the Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich. INFORME GENERAL from 1976 is a filmic stocktaking of the political situation during the phase of radical change in Spain.

After Franco's death and the transition phase to democracy, Portabella went into politics and was a member of the Catalan parliament for more than ten years, before returning to filmmaking. Since then, he has come upon his themes outside of Spain as well.

We are delighted to be able to greet Pere Portabella at Arsenal on the occasion of the retrospective of all his full-length films.

UMBRACLE (1972, March 11, in the presence of Pere Portabella & March 25) is a film about frustration, repression and paranoia, drawing from image and sound strategies of horror movies. A man (Christopher Lee) walks through an unreal Barcelona, aimlessly visiting shops and museums, while a disturbing and nightmarish mood descends upon the filmic images. Other pictures interrupt the fragmentary plot: scenes from the history of film, Christopher Lee reciting a poem, three film critics discussing the conditions of filmmaking in Spain. What remains is a feeling of foreignness and disturbed perception.

VAMPIR – CUADECUC (1970, March 12, in the presence of Pere Portabella & March 26) was made during the shooting of Jess Franco's El conde Drácula / The Count Dracula and is a delirious reflection on the conventions of horror movies. Portabella dismantles Franco's film in two ways: One the one hand, he eliminates the color in favor of flickering black-and-white images, on the other, he replaces the audio track with a soundscape by Carles Santos that attacks the images. An analysis of the mechanisms of dominating narrative cinema in Franco's Spain and a radical questioning of it.

EL SOPAR (1974, March 12, in the presence of Pere Portabella & March 22) In the night before the execution of the militant anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, five former political prisoners meet for dinner to talk about the conditions of captivity. Portabella is entirely concentrated on the discussion revolving around whether and how it is possible to continue the struggle in prison, to offer resistance, to take on a position and maintain a relation to reality, no matter what it is like.

Portabella's first, almost half-hour film, NO COMPTEU AMB EL DITS (Don't Count With Your Fingers, 1967, March 17 & 22), was created in collaboration with the writer Joan Brossa, whose angry word games determine the tone of the film. In 27 autonomous sequences, he attempts to dismantle the structures and discourses of advertising films.

The title of NOCTURNO 29 (1968, March 17 & 24), Portabella's first full-length movie, refers to Franco's rule of Spain that spanned 20 years. A sequence of scenes, in the words of Pere Portabella, "super-realistic fragments that expose the irrelevance of daily life." Like pieces of a mosaic, motivated neither in a narrative nor psychological way, the film follows the life of a married woman (Lucia Bosé) in her upper middle-class environment and portraits a social class in a specific political situation through her eyes.

INFORME GENERAL SOBRE ALGUNAS CUESTIONES DE INTERÉS PARA UNA PROYECCIÓN PÚBLICA (General Report on Some Questions of Interest for a Public Projection, 1976, March 15 & 21) is a large-scale, three-hour investigation of Spain's political situation after the end of Franquismo. Following Franco's death in 1975, a phase of transition to democracy commenced, leading to the first free elections in 1977.
The film interweaves the atmosphere in the streets with interviews with politicians, labor unionists and activists, all revolving around the question: How can democratic structures be established in a country that was under a dictatorship for 30 years?

In PONT DE VARSÒVIA (Warsaw Bridge, March 16 & 27) from 1989, Portabella examines the new social structures in Europe. He tells the story of three persons whose paths cross: a writer who wins a prize for a novel titled Pont de Varsòvia, his wife and a nameless man roaming Barcelona and nostalgically longing for a revolutionary past. The man dies in a diving accident and his corpse is thrown into a burning forest by a firefighting helicopter. With an extremely precise aesthetic, modeled on contemporary commercial cinema, Portabella casts a view to a fragmented Europe that is shaken by the return of history.

Portabella's latest full-length film, which was presented at the film festival in Venice in 2007, is DIE STILLE VOR BACH (The Silence Before Bach, March 13 & 28), a reflection on Bach stagings and Bach's influence on the world of music. Fragmented, as usual, DIE STILLE VOR BACH vacillates between historical scenes from Bach's life, his reception in the 19th century through the eyes of Felix Mendelssohn and the effect Bach has on the most various people today. An experiment in conveying music in film.

MUDANZA (2008) observes how the former house of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca is emptied of everything inside 70 years after his death. While paintings and furniture are carefully packed up and transported away, the camera gauges the rooms in flowing motions. What remains in the end is a silence and emptiness charged with the past and with memories.

With the support of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin. Thanks to Pere Portabella and Films 59.

Für weitere Informationen:

Nanna Heidenreich & Angelika Ramlow I arsenal distribution

030 269 55 -110 / -250 oder ars-exp@arsenal-berlin.de

Kino Arsenal 1 & 2 | Potsdamer Straße 2 | 10785 Berlin | www.arsenal-berlin.de

Das Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst wird gefördert dur

UEBER UNS DAS ALL
The skies above Berlin have been lovely,clear and blue.Its just very cold at night with temperatures dipping into the early 20s. I am not going to complain as it could be steal grey, dank and depressing.
Last night was a granada evening for the premiera of the most talked about new piece of the season Pierrot Lunaire starring the sensational Frau Susanne Sachsse in the role she was created for. The intoxicating music of Arnold Schoenberg was conducted to perfection by the great Premil Petrovic who looked so wonderful on stage wearing a trackybottom tuxedo outfit designed by Zaldy of Mathu & Zaldy fame. Zaldy's clever costumes evoke the Cabaret Voltaire and early silent cinema with utter panache.
The chamber ensemble of gifted musicians included Chloe L’Abbe on Flute and Piccolo, Miguel Perez Inesta on Clarinette, Emmanuelle Barnard on Geige-auch Bratsche,Andreas Voss on Violin/Cello, Adrian Pavlov on Klavier.
Judy LaBruce has directed her most sustained and elegiac stage production so far with all the elements coming together very nicely. See what can happen when you lay off of the booze and the pills. Opera won’t put up with drugs and alcohol.
The piece opens with a genius and very long makeout session with La Sachsse as the butch dandylion and her femme paramour played by the intriguing Maria Ivanenko.I’ve always known that Frau Sachsse has the perfect voice--deep resonant and beguiling, and in Pierrot Lunaire that voice gets to shine and soar acoustically which was clearly the right choice for this exciting work. As I was watching I kept harking back to how thrilling it must have been to be at the premiere of The Three Penny Opera here in Berlin in the 1920s.
Judy LaBruce found the perfect contrast to Susanne Sachsse in the knotted muscular form of Luizo Vega who plays her shadow and ideal masculine self. Many times I thought the entire scaffolding set was going to collapse from the vigor of his manly ardour.
The gymnast Mr. Vega who LaBruce found via Facebook had suffered an injury during rehearsals and arrangements had been made to replace him with dancer/choreographer Jeremy Wade and a female Balyrus pole dancer named Natallia Baturova, but I am so happy that didn’t happen.
I’ve never seen a Jeremy Wade dance piece, but I am told he has a certain interestingly spastic speed freak quality in his movement work. Just on body type alone Wade’s dimunitive childlike pigeon chested frame would seem wrong for this role.
Senor Vega’s musculature has its own persona, and in the roid rage scene he and La Sachsse’s male bonding and roughhousing was not only humorous but erotically charged. Susanne is not only a great beauty but she also possesses a boyish masculinity that this piece exploits quite nicely and to charming affect.
Cyril Duval of item idem’s set was Caligarianly off kilter especially with the fractured tile video screen. Also complementing the overall effectiveness of the production the crack cocaine lighting of the brilliant Hans Leser, Tan Binh Nguyen’s Sleeze Sister makeup design, the ill hair styling of Michael Forrey, video animation by Marius Roth and the fertive soundscapes by Felix Knoke.
At the after party at the WAU café all of Berlin art society was present: The Blue Bros Tim & kJohnny, Mad Kate, Salome Gersh, Anne Kohl,Nanna Heidenreich, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus,Joel Gibb, Enrico Dallman, Richard Gersh and Miss Vicki, Constantine Berger, Hannah Hurtzig, Nadja Talmi, Ulrich Ziemons, DJane Olga Damnitz, Evie Europa, Travis Jeppeson, Juliane Rebentisch, Assaf Hochman, Little Alex of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective, Alessio, Theodora of bbooks, Trixi Cordua, Vassily Bourakas,Diedrich Diederichsen,Daniel Hendrickson, Hans Scheirl, Jakob Lena Knebl, Felix&Johanna, Oreet,Javier Peres of Peres Projects,Fagademic Sean,Anna Muelter&Stefanie Wenner.