ALTWEIBERSOMMER

Was invited to a delicious waffle bruncheon Sunday afternoon at the spacious home of Jan Lindmeyer the sexy psychologist friend of hunky film scholar Christian F. Weber. Jan lives in my famed Berlin kiez of Rote Insel in a charming 19th century apartment building with fabulous views and perfect light. The food and drink was overflowing and later we were joined by a young hot lesbian couple who are colleagues of Jan who live in Kreuzberg and were the pure definition of warmth and saaphic charm.

I am the ultimate dinner party girl, attending at least three a week, and Wednesday was invited to a South Asian feast by the delightful Ruth Schonegger the famed film editor and collaborator of Laurie Anderson.  I’ve known Ruth since the CHEAP Jewelry days of 2001 in Berlin and she is the personification of personable and a dynamo of a gourmand. For ages Ruth lived in  East Berlin but two years ago she moved near me and this was the first time I got a chance to see her giant pre-war flat that is like a small palatzo. The apartment has been in the family of one of her best friends since World War I and  is located on Barbarossa Strasse with unbelievable views, a genormous terrace, monstar kitchen and one of the nicest bathrooms I have ever seen in Berlina with ceramic fresco tile straight from Felini's Satyricon.  Ruth and I had a girlish catch-up on our very busy womanly lives giggling and laughing like teenagers until the wee hours. Sometimes life in Berlin can be just so wonderful with its simple glamour and continental poovah!

Saw Gone Girl the style over nonsence David Flincher flicker where brittle blondine Rosamund Pike turns horrorcidal nalga maniaca because of the flagrante de-dickto mad cunnilingus skills of maudlin doll haired blacktor Ben Affleck. It’s the romcom movie of the yeastie yeart!

MAXENS VEREHRERINNEN

One of my sexiest, smartest, longtime LA pals is the great and glorious Jeffreyland Hilbert who is originally from the white supremacist state of Idaho. Jeffrey was the mastermind behind the infamous Hollywood queer nitespots Sit&Spin, Trade, the original CHEAP club, Eyes of Laura Mars and Hai Karate who is also the owner of the alternative advertising agency Kustom Kreative. Jeff emugged me that one of his good friends Michael Engel a master mixologist from Seattle Washington would be coming to Berlin, Germany for the first time, so of course I had to put on my Julie the activities coordinator from the Loveboat hat and welcome the vivacious Mr. Engel and his powerhouse juicy PacificNorthwest posse to my adopted hometown by providing them with some suggestions of places to go and see. Mr. Engle and his cliqa were renting a beautiful designer penthouse apartment on Erkelenzdamm in Kreuzberg that they were paying a small fortune for. I had just received an invite to the Fantastic Man/Gentlewoman launch at a Kreuzberg boutique called Voo on Oranienstrasse, so I figured that my visitors would enjoy going to a media oriented Berlin shindig that was just around the corner from where they were staying. We arrived at around 8:30pm and the place was jam packed with a morass of attractive young people who looked like they were happy to be anywhere. The store Voo was decorated in that bunker chic style that is becoming quite popular in Berlina proper. There were very few people that I recognized, but since I am pretty much a recluse who hardly ever goes out and especially to these kind of social events ---really what did I expect? I did run into Boris Lauser the raw foods chef and that golden boy beauty of all beauties Karl who use to be the assistant and sometime muse to Wolfgang Tillman. Karl and his young friends were the only ones exuding charm. I particularly was enamored of a tall Swarthy looking pal of Karl’s----maybe of Middle Eastern extraction or what Shari Frilot of the Sundance Film Festival calls a “stranger baby”. This kid had the most expressive eyes and lovesexy lean musculature. Another of Karl’s boyfriends that he introduced me to was a tiny yet compactly built pud of a youth who surprisingly was able to spin me around in an unexpected dance twirl. There were of course a lot of men with awful beards and unflattering facial hair, but not too many of those irritating John Belushi Saturday Night Live Samurai hair buns, ---I really detest the hair buns where its shaved at the sides like a modified mullet. I believe this style is called a top knot, but should be a bonafide hair don’t. I have never been a fan of long hair on men unless their hair is ravishingly gorgeous the ways some hesher rocker boys hair can be. But this man bun trend is just beyond ill, ill, ill. I’ve even seen some Negroes doing a variation of this hairstyle and if it looks horrid with white straight hair it looks worse with black kinky folicles.

Getting back to the Voo/Fantastic Man/Gentlewoman party. I felt that it was a little tacky for them to be selling copies of the magazine. Usually at a launch soiree you comp the magazine in question providing an ambiance of generosity and good will. But I guess these days of corporate branding and danger capitalism the spirit of giving doesn't exist. At the very least there were free drinks in the form of an open bar, but a true party should have more then just free flowing alcohol, there should be a buffet and gift bags with some products and perhaps a t-shirt. Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom the duo behind Fantastic Man/Gentlewoman who also created Butt Magazine, though I don’t believe they have much to do with that magazine anymore which is mainly an online venture that is produced in New York by the affable hunks Michael Bullock and Adam Baran. Jonkers and van Bennekom are Dutch and building their luxury fashion empire seems to be their main concern these days. As the late Dorian Corey of the Jenny Livingston film Paris is Burning would say, "Shoot an arrow in the air, if it goes real far, hooray for you . . ."

***

On the way to Kreuzberg on my bicycle I passed the container where another Dutchman named Dries Verhoevan has been camped out for several days as part of an insipid art project that is part of the Trefpunkt Festival at HAU. When I first heard about this dubious endeavor it sounded half baked to me, but little did I realize it would cause a public furor which has apparently brought Hebbel am Ufer to its knees and its Belgium Artistic and Managing Director Annemie Vanackere may have to step down if she is to save the reputation of HAU from this debacle. One of my students sent me this open letter which really encapsulates the drama perfectly, and its something that the HAU administrators cannot ignore as its from someone at another revered Berlin art institution providing the harsh criticism and not just shrill fagdom:

I would like to draw critical attention to your project "Wanna Play?", as I believe it is important that you, Hebbel am Ufer, your (unwilling) participants, and the general public understand that your project's proposed position is untenable, due to its moral imperative (considering the phenomenon of Grindr as "tragic" for homosexuals, for example) and its biased rhetoric (in its conflation of the concept "closeted", for example). You have already decided to "prove" what you want to prove in the set-up of your performance principles. This is not only unsound research, bur sloppy artistic practice, showing a deep disrespect and an offensive exploitation for the individuals you manage to entrap in this action. Furthermore, what your narrow-minded focus on Grindr and the homosexual population dangerously ignores is the problematic posed in general by contemporary technologies and practices of social media communications and self-presentation, problematics that belong to a critique of the "society of surveillance" and not of a single application for which you are cultivating a fetishistic fascination. These are problematics that emerge from the instruments of neoliberalism and embodied practices of managing individual expression, desire, and consumption, and can be traced across a variety of platforms - from Facebook to Tindr to Instagram to LinkedIn, and your simplified representational logic that reduces this problem to "tragic" homosexuals advances nothing more than stereotypes and public confusion. Your complete lack of ethics in your ignorance of basic protocols of privacy, consent, and participation is unjustified, and to use the excuse of "art" as a space where "anything is possible" and you are just doing "your work" is hand-in-hand with what Hannah Arendt sensitively described as the "banality of evil". What is "evil" according to Arendt's reading of Eichmann is simply the refusal to think, or even, that no thinking was ever a thought to begin with. Your project lacks thinking: you do not think about the implications this has for individuals' personal feelings, you do not think about the the implications this has for the public imagination in relation to what they know or do not know about homosexuals, you do not think about the deeper and much more complex mechanisms of neoliberalism and identity-performance politics that go beyond simple representational logic, and you do not think of what responsibility an artist - as an agent of imagination - has towards society as a whole. Your work here offers no discursive possibility in its public mockery of live human subjects, so to use the word "discourse", which refers to thought, when you yourself do not think, is a devaluing of the genuine intellectual work being done by the likes of other scholars, artists, and activists who are tackling the same "subject" as you. You offer nothing more than polemics, making your project into a poster-perfect PR campaign for neoliberal selfishness, rather than what could have been, if you had engaged in thought, a genuine conversation about what it means for the soul to live under the sign of technosexually mediated capitalism today.

Sincerely,
Ashkan Sepahvand
Curator, Department of Literature and Humanities
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

 

TAG DES AUDIOVISUELLEN ERBES

The wonderous Goodtime Charlie international British artist known as (re)Phil Collins was his usual happy go lovely self at the opening at HAU 2 foyer for the festival Im Rahmen von “Treffpunkte”. Phil was presenting my heart’s in my hand, and my hand is pierced, and my hand’s in the bag, and the bag is shut, and my heart is caught, an audio installation that will run until the 26th of October. The vivacious Mr. Collins will give an artist talk on the 26th at 8pm. I love the concept of phonograph record booths beautifully designed and this installation looked gorgeous in the HAU2 foyer which has been renovated along with the new management of HAU.
Phil Collins installation features the collaborative efforts of GULLIVER survivalstation for the homeless located in the centre of Cologne where Phil is a professor at the art academy.  In Cologne  anyone could use the set up phone booths for unlimited local and international calls on the agreement that the calls would be recorded and anonymised. The selected material was posted to a group of international musicians like Scritti Politti, David Sylvian and Planningtorock and made into 7 inch vinyl records where you can luxuriate in the record booths and hear the results. Seen canvasing about: film historian and curator Marc Siegel with his ladylove intermedia actress/director Susanne Sachsse who is Phil Collins vinyl sleeve cover girl and Bruce “Judy” LaBruce the Canadian auteur in town for the German opening of his latest film Gerontophilia.  It was nice sitting outside the WAU Cafe during dindin chittle chatting with Judy who of course was filled with a plethora of the most scandalous international gossip that as you all know I am not one to gossip so you won't be hearing about it from me.

SCHMUTZIGES GELD

My insane sister of the clothe the divoon fantabulist Lady Bunny of New York City’s Greenwich Village formerly of Chattanooga, Tennessee just sent me a copy of her latest dance single “Pussy This Good Waits For No Man” featuring Groove Addixs which is a deliriously saucy retro disco flavoured ditty with a positron mantra to chant. Even Jehovah of Armies is wrapped up in the House of the Lady Wabbit and her unique singing style with its devotional peckerwood intonation and school marm Bobbi Gentry drawl. Miss Bunionopolous is one of the hardest working queens I know and has been writing songs for more mainstream recording stars like Britney Spears and collaborates often with some modern producer types. Of course I am not familiar with the world of the current recording and music business, but I love supporting my best girlfriends so run out to the record store or download her material. Those of you who are young and up on technological gadgetry will know what to do.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD ALL MIXES HERE:

https://soundcloud.com/enrichedrecords/sets/groove-addix-ft-lady-bunny-lately-all-mixes-enriched-records/s-FxbqLYOUTUBETEASER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DELqIMZMNV0

PACKEND ODER PEINLICH?

My first time in Cologne for the Gefuehls Echt 20 Hoerspielforum presented by the wonderful folks of The Film und Medien Stiftung NRW.  Was thrilling to say the very least. Whenever someone pays for my travel by train first class I get excited, plus my extra large and comfy suite at the boutique Hotel Santos on Daober Strasse 22-26 with its perfect breakfast and accommodating staff was just beyond pleasure. My hotel was just minutes away from the famous Koeln Dom(the giant medieval Cathedral)

I was the opening speaker at the congress and my artist talk took place at the WDR Radio and TV station in their opulent Nato-Saal on the 6th Floor. I felt like I was giving a speech at the League of Nations after the first world war. Upon arrival in Koeln my gracious hostess the lovely and vivacious Anke Morawe, her sexy and well organized assistants Bruni& Claudia took me for a glorious artist dinner at the Restaurant Ludwig im Museum on Heinrich-Boell-Platz where we scarfed down a ten course meal. Then we hung around the Hotel Santos bar for a nitecap of the local lemonade flavoured brewski which was a delicious treat. On the first evening of the Congress there was a special concert by the Austrian musician Soap&Skin in the kleiner Sendesaal of the WDR. I only got to see half of the show because I had to use the lavatory and once you left the auditorium the strict guards wouldn’t let you re-enter. The other participants in the Congress were Michael Lentz, Jan Plamper, Rebecca Link, Tim Staffel, Paul Plamper(who recommended me for the gig), Cristin Konig, Zeitblom, Gaby Hartel and German filmdirector Oskar Roehler. On the train back to Berlin someone committed suicide by jumping on the track, which delayed my return by several hours. Once I reached the Hauptbanoff I was given a cash refund of 40 euros and some change for the inconvenience. Not bad considering I didn’t pay for the train ticket.

Sunday Rising Stars, Falling Stars was packed with anxious music lovers eager to see Sissy Spacek in her Oscar winning role as country music legend Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter 1980 directed by British film director Michael Apted. Ms. Spacek and Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline do their own singing in the film and were sensational. The Arsenal Institute for Film and VideoArt was transformed for the evening into the Grand Ole Opry and my partner in grime Daniel Hendrickson the Scandinavian Muzlim jihadist looked incredible in his country&western attire complete with bolo tie while he plucked at the piano through my introduction. During the chitlins&hogmaws wine reception the celebutants gathered around Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus--- famous curator and film historian Marcuse Siegelstein(Marc Siegel) bombshell actress and filmdirector Susanne Sachsse, studkin Axel Lambretta, diva extroidinaire Zazi de Paris who is one of the stars of the most famous TV show in Germany Tat Ort(Scene of the Crime)Laurie Anderson’s trusted confidant and film editor suprema Ruth Schoeneger with her hot girlfriend, modern dancer Assaf Hochman, scholar Shaka McGlotten currently living and working in Berlin as a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The muscular Mr. McGlotten is also an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Purchase College-SUNY, the home of Pepsi Cola. He will be giving a talk in English on Octobert 15th 7:30pm at ICI Berlin. Also scene and heard at my monthly event: a gaggle of gorgeous young UDK boys flitting and flirting about with the Tunisian/German acting hungthrob Elyas M’Barek and his hunky pal Lino Rettinger, Richard Hilfiger the 22 year old skater son of clothes designer Tommy Hilfiger, American film ingénue Sam Claflin related to the late Baby Brian Tennessee Claflin of Club Pork @ Ficken 3000, Trevor Burgess the chief executive of C1 Financial and Jason Grenfell-Gardner of IGI Labs, both wealthy CEO’s and art patrons who love giving money to struggling cute male artist types who have large genitalia. Oh and it was also nice seeing at RSFS a woman from Los Angeles now living in Berlin who is an old pal from the Mormen Utah days of the late performance artist Curtis York who died of Mrs. AIDS back in the 1990s. Curtis York use to be part of the Highways Performance Space scene in Santa Monica and he was also one of the featured performers at the infamous Naked City - Act Up LA Benefit that I hosted back in 1991 in the last century.

Received a lot of emails asking about the new book by Chloe’ Griffin on John Waters star Cookie Muehler. Well Chloe is going on tour with the book so mark it in your calendar when she comes to a town or city near you.

TORONTO OCT. 2nd Book Launch for Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloé Griffin featuring a reading, multimedia presentation, and conversation between the author and poet Damian Rogers. Clint Roenisch Gallery 190 Saint Helen’s Avenue 7pm

MONTREAL OCT. 9th Book Launch for Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloé Griffin
Featuring a reading, multimedia presentation, and conversation between the author and Joshua Pavan. Librarie Drawn & Quarterly 211 Bernard Ouest 7pm

NEW YORK OCT. 15th Book Launch / Opening Night: Pictures in the Smoke
A book launch party celebrating the opening of a four day exhibit of archival material used in Edgewise. Participant Inc 253 East Houston Street 7pm
OCT. 16th No Credit, Cash Only: Cookie in Film and Video A visual lecture on Cookie’s acting career, featuring images and clips from the films of John Waters, New York No Wave classics, and 1980s art videos. Hosted by Dirty Looks NYC’s Bradford Nordeen. Participant Inc
253 East Houston Street 8pm OCT. 19th Another Boring Day: A night of readings from Cookie Mueller’s writing Featuring Richard Hell, Chi Chi Valenti, Sharon Niesp, Max Mueller, Susan Lowe, Max Blagg, Eileen Myles and others reading from their favorite stories by Cookie Mueller. Participant Inc 253 East Houston Street 7pm

BALTIMORE OCT. 25th Book Launch for Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloé Griffin Featuring readings by the author and surprise guests. Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd. 7pm

CHICAGO OCT. 28th Book Launch for Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloé Griffin Featuring a reading and multimedia presentation by the author. Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W North Ave 7pm

BERLIN, Germany NOV. 6th Book Launch for Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloé Griffin Featuring a reading and multimedia presentation by the author. Hosted by Wolfgang Tillmans. Between Bridges Gallery
Keithstrasse, 15 7pm NOV. 7th A Woman in Flames A day and night of screenings, showcasing Cookie’s three memorable film appearances. Arsenale: Institut Für Film und Videokunst TBA NOV. 9th A Pool Painted Black: A night of readings from Cookie Mueller’s writing Featuring Sharon Niesp, Max Mueller, John Heys, Françoise Cactus, and others reading from stories by Cookie Mueller. b_books verlag TBA
ABOUT THE BOOK Cookie Mueller (1949–1989) was a writer, an actress, a mother, and an icon. Edgewise tells the story of Cookie's life through an oral history composed of more than 80 interviews with the people who knew her, including John Waters, Mink Stole, Gary Indiana, Sharon Niesp, Max Mueller, Linda Yablonsky, Richard Hell, Amos Poe, and Raymond Foye. The contributors take us from the late-1960s artist communes of Baltimore to 1970s Provincetown and New York, through 1980s Berlin and Positano. Along with the text, Edgewise includes artwork, unpublished photographs, and archival material and photography by Philip-Lorca diCorcia, David Armstrong, Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Hujar, and others. For more information: www.cookiemuellerbook.com contact: edgewise.cookiemueller@gmail.com
***
My former Malmo Art Akademy student Stine Omar of the popular electro band Easter along with her juicy partner Max Boss have been in my former birthtown of Los Angeles staying with my good pal Hector Martinez at his fancy compound in Silverlake overlooking the reservoir. They will be performing at Dr. Jennifer Doyle’s art space Human Resources and will also have a screening of their quirky art video serial. All my peeps in LA be sure to check them out:

Dear Ms. Davis

We are back at Hectors house. We eat well, drink fancy liquor and talk about you constantly with love and admiration. Your picture is hanging so pretty on his wall and i wish you were here to join our adventures.Finally we have a working videocamera and so this week we will get on to shooting the american scenes of the evil gas, maybe we will even get out to joshua tree. People are talking to us on the street and taking us to their galleries. We never say no and have learned that in the streets of america if you smile at someone they smile back most of the timeOn thursday we will screen the evil gas at a place called night gallery. it will be outdoors at 8. maybe you want to share this on your blog so we can fill the seats with some good taste ass? Here is the link to the event http://www.fb.com/events/310528865815118/Then we play the concert on human resources on saturday. http://www.fb.com/events/383766245119184/ I will find jennifer doyle and say hi!
***
Was reminded by a pushy publicist in an email that I never wrote anything about the new David Cronenberg film Maps to the Stars. I was invited to a private screening ages ago which also included drinks,dinner and a gift bag of expensive facial products and electronic goodies that I don’t know how to use and will just wind up giving to my young interns. This is what happens when your blog is read by millions of devoted fans and corporate entities see you as someone having influence over the buying and purchasing habits of the masses.

Anyways here is what I think of Maps to the Stars:

I adore the ginger haired actress Julianne Moore who is muse to my old pal the film director Todd Haynes. Well in all honesty I met Todd Haynes and Ms. Moore through film director Richard Glatzer who use to do the 1990s performance club Sit&Spin and Trade with Jeffrey Hilbert that I was a regular performer at. Richard Glatzer and his paramour Wash Westmoreland and I had a falling out many years ago so I got excommunicated from their Hollywood scene and friends, so to be 100% transparent I am not really close anymore with Todd Haynes or Julianne Moore. But I still like them and respect their talent. I loved Todd Haynes film’s Safe and Far From Heaven with Julianna and his amazing glam musical Velvet Goldmine and adaptation of James Cain's Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet. Ms. Moore just won the acting prize at the Canne Film Festival for her role in Maps. I felt that the films co-star Mia Wasikowska actually deserved the acting prize as her performance was much better. But Julianne was certainly no slouch and exposed herself in ways that weren’t the most flattering to a vain actress. The same thing goes with John Cusack and Olivia Williams (Ms. Williams is always fab in everything she is in) I use to have a crush on Cusack back in the late 1980s. Cusack is tall for a Hollywood actor, but now in middle age he looks very Death in Venice with his jowels and died black hair. The teen star character played by Evan Bird in Maps should have gone in a more realistic creepy direction that is more in line with what Hollywood is all about when it comes to sexually exploiting young boys, but Bruce Wagner who wrote the script must have gotten cold clammy feet on that score. The best part of the flick is that the French surrealist Paul E’luard’s poem “Liberte” is intoned throughout the film.

Maps doesn’t always work because it still isn’t as over the top as the real Hollywood. And believe you me I know what I am talking about here. But it still is a pretty good depiction of the town though its not as clever or insightfull as David Lynch’s Muhholland Drive or Inland Empire. One of the best movies about Hollywood is the Tuesday Weld 1970s film Play It As it Lays which Bruce LaBruce remade in 1994 as Super 8 ½.

LAGERFEUER

Rising Stars Falling Stars - Vaginal Davis & Sissy Spaceck & Loretta Lynn - September 2014 by Filmanzeiger on Mixcloud