Speaking From the Diaphragm
The Vaginal Davis Blog
. . .From the Counsel of Inter-Continental Balistic Principalities
Friday, April 17, 2009
GEWINNEN SIE EINE TRAUMREISE
Rising Stars, Falling Stars explosive 120th birthday celebration of Charlie Chaplin was SRO as the Blue Bros. Tim & kJohnny performed beautifully and gracefully composing a compeling score to the short subjects from 1914 Masquerade, Caught in a Cabaret, His Trysting Place and the hilarious His Pre-historic Past. The audience appreciated the famed tale of Chaplins queering exploits with AC Blumenthal and Harry d’Arrast and a bevy of young male prostitutes in the palatial suite of New York’s Ambassador Hotel where the little tramp covered his erection in iodine to keep from contracting a venereal disease.
Also celebrating their birthday, the daper composer and musicologist Volker Straebel with a large assortment of his BFF´s including lovesexy Mattias Osterwold, the Music director of Maerz Music, Gabriele Knapstein, curator of the Hamburger Bahnof, and Vincent Hediger, film scholar with Buchum University. Also seen the vivacious ballerina Beatrice “Trixie” Cordua, handsome Catherine Sullivan dancer Assof Hochman with beau Alexander the Great of Macedonia with his cute film school posse that includes the beautiful French/German boy Julian, LA fashion designer Cornel Collins,Daniel Hendrickson the Scandanavian Muslim, Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras who will be mixing his new album in Toronto so will be away from Berlin for six weeks during which time Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters will be subleting his spacious Neu Kölln compound, Boris Lauser the raw foods celebrity chef with his perky San Francisco pals, Christian “F” Weber, Claudia & Garret, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus who also just celebrated a milestone birthday, German pop star Cleuso, curly haired booty pie artist Bertrand Bodenave, Alannah Weston creative director of Selfridges, male ingenue Jake Myerson of The Lost Child with his mother Julie Myerson, British provacateuse Isabela Blow with writer Hamish Bowles, art star Elias Hassos, art director Julia-Restoin Roitfeld,Christian Siekmier of Exile Gallery with Japanese artist Kazuko Miyamoto whose String and Thread opening is Friday April 18th from 7-10pm at Exile which is located at Alexandrinenstr 4 www.Thisisexile.com.
EIN PATIENTENRATGEBER DER HEXAL AG
Got a personal invite from Rufus Wainwright to attend the production of Shakespeares Sonette at the famed Berliner Ensemble that he collaborated on with Robert Wilson. Rufus and i re-connected at the going away party for Judy LaBruce at Pork last Monday night. He really looks good, i haven´t seen him since he came to my performance art club G.I.M.P. Unltd back in 2000. Rufus had been a regular at my Sunday afternoon punk rock beer bust Club Sucker in Silverlake way before his first album came out.
I knew he had a German boyfriend,but what i didn´t know till recently that his Deutsch beau is Jörg Weisbrot who starred in my Berlin Stories series of short films I made back in 2001 with multi talented Susanne Sachsse. Jörg is a handsome, tall dark and strapping specimen of uber male verility and for years worked as Robert Wilson´s assistant in Germany. I hadn´t seen Jörg since 2001 and he looks even younger now then he did almost ten years ago, and sleeker. He and Rufus were wearing matching sequinned tuxedos. Also in attendance at this mega event was the baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Rufus also introduced me to British pop legend Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys who is very charming and i think is now living in Berlin. Don´t hold me to that because i could be wrong. I do work on high journalistic principles of verifying things by at least two sources.
Jake Shears is definately living in Berlin for at least the Spring and Summer.
Now what about the performance of Shakespeares Sonnet? Well it was lovely in that Robert Wilson way of gorgeous set design, sound and lighting. Lots of mega bucks went into this production and it shows. The Issey Miyake like costumes were suspermb! The actual costumes were designed by Jacques Reynaud. The performances were also top notch, and Rufus´music lilting. La Rufus even gifted the audience with not one, but two reprises of the shows hit songs. Of course with a Bob Wilson production things don´t change that much. The performers glide across the stage in that Klaus Nomi like way that you always see in a Wilson production and the tableaux vivant created are sumpteous. In all it was quite an enjoyable evening at the theatre seeing a blue chip piece of work.
.: posted by Vaginal Davis 5:03 AM
Sunday, April 12, 2009
SEX HATTE ICH FREHER GENUG
Two weeks and a jolly good time in tres expensive Zurich collaborating with Bruce La Bruce and Susanne Sachsse on Macho Family Romance at the Neumarkt Theatre. Also part of the extended Macho Family was Pierce and Massimo of the Anarcocks and Black Sun Productions who brilliantly created the music and sound for the piece.It was lovely working with the mighty Anarcocks and cute little art scion Lukas Beyeler whose production design encompassed the visuals and video projections of this mixed media collage attack. Macho as a piece featured inspiration from the neglected film versions of Jean Genet´s The Maids and The Balcony with heavy assist from John Cassavettes Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Clair Denis's Beau Trevail,Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket with Robert Aldrich's The Killing of Sister George and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane thrown in for good measure. Susanne and I portrayed two slightly incestous sisters Beyonce and Solange Le Mercier. Beyonce is the Madame of a boydello and i am the secretary/bookkeeper of the place resentful that my sexy baracuda older sister gets to train and dominate the humpy male concubines. The Beyonce/Solange thing mirrors Glenda Jackson and Susanne York's power struggle in The Maids as well as the Shelly Winters/Lee Grant lesbianic relationship in The Balcony. Because of my gout condition i was forced to perform in a wheelchair and thats where the Baby Jane/ SisterGeorge interplay comes in. Judy La Bruce turned this into a lip sync Ballet tableaux. La Judy is definately making a name for herself on the live stage front and should continue venturing into this arena, something that began when we came up with the idea of having her direct us in CHEAP Blacky last year.
Macho was in all quite ambitious a project for such a short period of time to put together, but never underestimate the drive and power of Ms. Sachsse who is boundless energy personified and is always coming up with great ideas and making things work. I wish i had half of her stamina. That is why Susanne is the fearless leader of kollective CHEAP.
Magnificent as the temple prostitutes was the Neumarkt's male ensemble. It was glorious working with handsome singing sensation Thiemo Strutzenberger, who tackled You Stepped Out Of A Dream better then Tony Martin in Ziegfeld Girl, also divine beauty boy Jorg Koslowsky, who re-interpreted Fred Astair in Royal Wedding in one of Macho's fabricant production numbers. Uber manlische Alpha male Sigi Terpooten was the unofficial leader of the ensemble and reminds me of 1940s era matinee idols. Delightful ingenue with the hottest tightest little bubble butt Thomas Müller looked so strident in his high heels and sock garters, and debonair Matthias Breitenbach has the best comic timing short of Buster Keaton in his heydey. Matthias was really working that street lamp during his red light district scenes. I also had a great time hanging out with him and his gorgeous actress/wife who is a pal of Berlin legendina ZaZie de Paris.
We had only 5 days to work with the actors, but they delved into the workshopping of the piece with passion, creativity and committment. Alchemy was adherent with the Macho Family and a new phenomena born.
Barbara Weber the Neumarkt's Theatre head honcha took us to a fancy din din at the famous Kronen Halle, Zurich's best restaurant, then afterward we went to the Kino Xenix where they were having a BLAB retrospective that began with the Zurich premiere of Otto. The luscious 35 mm print glowed.
The performances of Macho Family were all sold out with the youngest crowds the theatre has ever seen. For the opening,Judy LaBruce, Black Sun Productions and I DJ'd at the Macho Party. Seen in the audience for the performance and the party: Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, Daniel Perics, Garret Nelson, Iba and Michael Halves of Super 700, who earlier in the week performed an acoustic set of their new songs, Elvis Perkins the musician son of the late Anthony Perkins, Dimitrina of Bulgaria, that walking career Heiko Pfost, filmmaker Corlotta Steinmann and fashion designer Mona Lisa Madörnin. Special thanks to our Production Manager Anna Muelter, my assistant The Love Camel, our jock strap clad rollerboogie boys Richard Wagner, Jorg and muscular ginger Giuseppe, LaRissa and Elizabeth of the Neumarkt Administration and our wonderful assistant director, the handsome Robert Gerloff and his pretty girlfrind Gabriela Neubauer, also Ralf Fiedler, make-up mistress Denise Christen, behind-the-scenes talent: Twist Sopek, Ueli Duttweiler and Franz Fleischmann.
SCHNELLER, STARKER, SCHLANK
Back in Berlin and its finally Spring. The folks at Pork at Frankenstein 5000 gave Judy LaBruce a special Monday edition going away party with all the trimmings. Ms. Davis and Baby Diaper Joel Gibb worked the wheels of steel along with some tag teaming with La Judy. The old Frankenstein has probably never seen so many celebs with lovesexy Jake Spears of The Scissor Sisters, Rufus Wainwright in town performing for the Robert Wilson production at the Berliner Ensemble and art photog Wolfgang Tillmans. Also seen in the throng: Parisian “It” boy Christophe Chermin, DJ Snax who did an impromptu performance from his new album, writer Travis Jeppeson with his Slovakian beau Mario, intermedia actress Susanne Sachsse and film historian Marc Siegel who are off to the USA for holiday, Anna Muelter, plus Rupert Goldworthy who will be opening a new gallery here in Berlin.
.: posted by Vaginal Davis 6:34 AM
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