Twenty Third & Seventh

Cohen on PBS

Leonard Cohen was on PBS Newshour today Australian time.  Yes, we see it slightly delayed here and I'll watch it if it's on.  The timelag means that I watched the US episode screened 'yesterday' with a few hours delay, late 'today'.  [If you're confused you just sampled what it's like to live in my head]

Aside from keeping me conversant in American politics,  it often rewards with the cultural pieces and occasional Gore Vidal essay.

The interview can be found in MP3 format at the Newshour Leonard Cohen Page.

The following URL might be helpful? 

http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2006/06/28/20060628_cohen28.mp3 for downloading the interview.

No mention is made of unmade beds or waiting limos.

from the PBS site:

Thousands
by Leonard Cohen

Out of the thousands
who are known or want to be known as poets,
maybe one or two are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts,
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say,
I am one of the fakes
and this is my story.

the Legendary Storme

Our compadres at Living with Legends are featuring a profile of proto-drag king and Stonewall veteran Storme Delarverié.  Storme, an imposing figure with a heart of gold, lives at Hotel Chelsea where she is frequently to be found adding to the lobby ambience.

Click on over to Legends for the Storme profile.

Eddie Izzard as Sally Bowles?

What a stroke of casting genius?  If only Broadway producers were so broad in their casting considerations.  We wait now to see whether Mr Izzard wins the role.

Izzard set to star in Cabaret

Eddie Izzard is in talks to play Sally Bowles in a West End production of hit musical Cabaret.

Producers think the cross-dressing comic will be perfect to play the bowler-hatted heroine made famous by Liza Minnelli.

Eddie is well known to theatrical audiences - he recently scooped a Tony nomination for his performance in a Broadway version of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.

Its reported others in the frame for the role when the show opens include Billie Piper and former EastEnder Martine McCutcheon.

Patti Smith LIVE

Download PattiSmithJimMorrison.mp3

A little freebie from the wonderful world of open source media.  For your enjoyment, Patti Smith performs Poem for Jim Morrison and Bumblebee.  Anybody who can decode the identity of 'Bumblebee' is most welcome to be in touch.

Hotel Chelsea in the movies: Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man

Well, gosh.  It's confirmed.   The Hotel appears in the Leonard Cohen doco.  We await with antici...

Click here to visit the film homepage.

CINEMASOURCE SYNOPSIS
This documentary on the legendary singer-songwriter features performances by those musicians he has influenced. Woven through a riveting tribute is a career-spanning interview with the man himself. Sprinkled with his own artwork and personal photos, Cohen speaks of his stately writing process; "savage criticisms" exchanged with fellow Montreal poets; the scene at the Chelsea Hotel; tea and oranges with the real Suzanne; his retreat to Mt. Baldy and more.

Shocking Plastic Surgery

The remains of Carol Channing as captured perhaps, twelve months ago.  Apart from the askew wig, she has little control ovr her dentures.  One false eyelash appears to have come lose in the breeze.  Poor Miss Channing the elder looks and sounds just a bit past one more round of Hello Dolly.

An audio sample of Miss Channing is included for your amusement.  She seems to have gotten lucky with her medication at least.

Download channing.mp3

click to reveal horror of living dead woman!

Jack Mitchell: My Life is Black and White Premiere NY Screening

News in our box says that Craig Highberger, auteur of our beloved Jackie Curtis: Superstar in a Housedress, has a new film launching in Gotham soon.  Craig will be in attendance at the world premiere screening of Jack Mitchell: My Life Is Black and White, as will a selection from the boldface names interviewed in the film.

We can't vouch for who will be there but some of our favourite boldface names in this film include Patti LuPone, Ed Albee and Ned Rorem.  Mitchell, subject of the film, has photogrpahed a jaw-dropping array of performers and artists as diverse as Gloria Swanson and Keith Haring.  Reproduced here is Angela Landsbury in high glamour mode.

Jack Mitchell: My Life Is Black and White, will screen as an official selection in NewFest 2006: The 18th New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival.

When and Where?  Tuesday, June 6th, 5:30PM ONLY at the AMC Loews 34th St Theater (at 8th Ave) New York City

Find Out More
Jack Mitchell: My Life is Black and White homepage including trailer.
NewFest Website

And because too much information is never enough, the full Press Release.

If anyone wishes to sponsor my attendance I promise to buy you a NY hotdog!

News at Eight.

NewFest 2006: The 18th New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival will present the world premiere of Craig B. Highberger's new feature-length documentary:

Jack Mitchell: My Life is Black and White

The film examines the life and work of a celebrated photographer of major creative and performing artists, whose career spanned more than six decades. It is part of NewFest's special focus on the arts and documentaries that explore the creative process and the intersection of sexual identity.

The documentary includes hundreds of Mitchell's photographs, plus interviews with friends and subjects including playwright Edward Albee, critic Clive Barnes, dance greats Merce Cunningham, Judith Jamison, and Kevin McKenzie, Broadway star Patti LuPone, NYPL curator Madeleine Nichols, Mitchell's partner of nearly 50 years Robert Pavlik, author/composer Ned Rorem, Broadway producer Cyma Rubin, NY Times Photo Editor Lonnie Schlein, and Warhol Museum Assistant Director John W. Smith.

Please join us if you can – filmmaker Craig Highberger, Jack Mitchell and many of the interviewees will be there!

World Premiere Screening: 
Tuesday, June 6th, 5:30PM ONLY at the AMC Loews 34th St Theater (at 8th Ave) New York City. View the festival guide here:
http://filmguide.newfest.org/tixSYS/2006/filmguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=1186

Online ticketing will be available at all times for NewFest members beginning Friday, May 19 and for the General Public beginning Wednesday, May 24.

Visit the film website and view the 2 minute trailer of the film, and explore a gallery of Mitchell's famous photographs:  http://www.jackmitchellmovie.com/

Tonys Season Paranoia kicks in.

Alan Bennett's 'History Boys' scoops New York critics' awards

Well, gosh darnit, I'm glad I was in NY for the 2005 Tonys- 2006 looks pretty grim.

Interesting to observe that it seems I'll soon have three years worth of best play seen. Doubt was done to death in NY before the awards.  The 2004 winner, I Am my Own Wife is coming up on my subscription season soon- the Broadway staging with the original actor.  And nowm it seems, the History Boys, which I saw as the tour passed through earlier this year seems destined to take this year's award. I didn't like it much, sentimental and obvious are two words that come to mind.

They are renowned as the harshest of judges; the critics who can close down a play with a sentence of finely-honed invective.

But New York's scribes had almost nothing but praise for the transfer to Broadway of the London National Theatre's surprise hit, The History Boys by Alan Bennett. Nineteen drama critics from the New York Post to The Wall Street Journal, who together make up the New York Drama Critics' Circle, have honoured Bennett's distinctively English work on the theme of education as the best play of the 2005-06 season. The production has already scooped almost every prize going in Britain

Superstar in a Housedress- the Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis. Extract #5

Craig Highberger

Jackie's play "Glamour, Glory and Gold: the Life and Legend of Nola Noonan, Goddess and star!" (which has to be the longest title ever) was written and originally produced in 1967 and also 1968 featuring Candy Darling and Robert DeNiro in their first major roles on the stage. The 1974 revival at the Fortune Theater opened the night of Candy Darling's wake – she had died of cancer the night before.  The play is very derivative of old movies, but is at times both a satire and a tribute.  The lead character Nola Noonan tastes of fame and is immediately hopelessly addicted (which is really Jackie's story). In the 1974 revival, Jackie played Nola and Douglas Fisher (billed as Estelle R. Dallas) played her sidekick, Toulouse de la Beaupres. Ron Link, who directed Jackie in "Glamour, Glory and Gold" and in "Cabaret in the Sky" was from Columbus, Ohio and was an extra in a scene shot at the gay bar Julius for the film version of "Boys in the Band". Ron, who was also known for directing Divine in "Neon Woman", left New York for Hollywood in the 1980s where he directed plays. He died tragically in 1999 after routine gall bladder surgery.

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to videotape the entire play over several nights in May 1974. Jackie's stage presence was phenomenal.  With his hair grown out and died red, some pancake makeup, false eyelashes and lipstick and a 1930s thrift shop dress Jackie became a completely believable feminine presence. The revival opened to glowing reviews. Critics praised Jackie's perrformance as perfectly nuanced and the script as worshipful, understanding and devastating honest about its source material. One reviewer called the show a penetrating analysis of what it's really like to live a dream 24 hours a day, never quite reaching the ring on the merry-go-round.That was Jackie's life and it is very sad that the play hasn't been performed in more than two decades.

I went out with Jackie and Douglas many times for late night partying after performances of "Glamour, Glory and Gold".  Jackie was a powerhouse of energy holding court at Max's Kansas City's backroom – maybe he was high on amphetamine or something other than booze, maybe he was over-the-top loud and boisterous sometimes, but who cared?  Jackie was the best live entertainment in the world and swept you up in his magic. Both men and women were attracted to Jackie, but when he was not in drag many straight men were put off by his feminine qualities.  However, when Jackie was in drag they wouldn't hesitate to interact with him.

Superstar in a Housedress, the award winning film [DVD] and book documentary set is available through amazon.com or look in the sidebar links for lots of fabulous Jackie Curtis material including posters signed by Highberger and Holly Woodlawn

Photograph: Jackie Curtis, 1983(c) Craig B. Highberger.
Excerpt from "Superstar in a Housedress" by Craig B. Highberger (c) 2005, used by permission.

New Collectables- Tamsin Carroll as Dusty pic

Wow!  I received a production photo from Dusty, signed by Tamsin Carroll.  After a few days of not much at all to smile about I'm wandering about being unreasonably joyous. 

My signed pictures are very important to me.  I live in my own crazed gallery where everything is meaningful.  I don't feel so alone in here with the faces of all my 'picture people' around.  I did say to Tamsin that I'd like to have something for framing, the programme is full-cast and the cover signature from Tamsin partially washed off from standing at stage door in the rain.  I'm really so touched that she remembered me, performing Dusty 8 times a week must be exhausting. To receive so beautiful a presentation speaks to a special person underneath those Dusty wigs. 

I took this straight to my framer, I need to save some money to frame this one properly.  It looks superb sitting next to the folder it came in, set on a pale musky pink background and held in a simple black frame.

The presentation folder

Inside

The signed pic.
Inscribed:

Dear Robert,

With much love and best wishes.

Tamsin Carrol
xx
Dusty
2006