We often have a code among ourselves and those we identify with. Nadya recently mentioned certain people’s common love of tentacles, and for me between the ages of 15 and 18 this code was Gift. It was an art film made by Perry Farrell, likely at the height of his creativity, with his then-wife Casey Niccolli and released after Jane’s Addiction initially broke up in 1992. The plot is loosely woven around a fictional overdose and death of Casey, and grief-stricken Perry’s reaction. Stream of consciousness storytelling combined with concert footage, spoken word, and iconic imagery made an enormous impression on me. Soon I demanded every person I met watch this film. I’d observe their reactions and attempt to decipher whether they were My People.
Posted by Zoetica Ebb on November 30th, 2007
Filed under Art, Film | Comments (15)
It happened well over a decade ago, but the memory is crystal: my best bud Gooby Herms, fellow purveyor of All That Is Wackadoo, leaped up from the threadbare couch bellowing “holy crap, you’ve never seen the Billy Nayer Show?!” With a table top drum roll, he popped his scuzzy bootleg of The Ketchup and Mustard Man into the VCR and pressed play. My jaw hit the floor… repeatedly. I’ve been an idolator at the shrine of BNS ever since.
When bandleader Cory McAbee and company released The American Astronaut in 2001, I knew the world was in for it:
Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis… this sci-fi, musical-western uses flinty black and white photography, rugged Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier. We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by an enigmatic killer, Professor Hess. The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock n’ roll scenes ever committed to film.
The Engine Theater is a wondrous thing conceived by underground director Burke Roberts and a team of artists. A mechanical screen and projection system, designed to be portable inside a small trailer, described on the official website as a film screening unit with a complex, kinetic sculpture as the centerpiece to hold the screen.
I found out about The Engine Theater only recently, through a series of seemingly unrelated events, people, and emails. This was, apparently, going to be the next Thing but the the lure was in the title itself; “The Engine Theater Global Underground Cinema Series Part 1: Berlin Subculture films from 1977 – 2007” , too curious to pass up, even on very short notice! The night’s schedule read like this:
Fetish performer Dita von Teese has been cast to play the role of WWI-era exotic dancer/spy Mata Hari in a new film directed by Martha Fiennes. The full story is here.
Before we get to whether or not Dita can pull this off, a bit of history: the original femme fatale, Mata Hari was born Margaretha Zelle to a humble family that ran a hat shop in Holland. She moved to Java as a newlywed at age 18, but family life was not in the stars for Mata Hari; after a divorce, she resurfaced in Paris, poised to reinvent herself as a sultry dancer princess.
She first performed as a circus horse rider under the name Lady McLeod, but reached true fame when she introduced herself as an exotic dancer under the name Mata Hari (“Eye of the Day” in Indonesian, “Mother of God” in Hindi). An overnight success, she was famous for her seductive performances, elaborate costumes and Oriental origins; she posed as a princess from Java, initiate in the mystical art of erotic ritual dance. After her rise to stardom as a dancer, Mata Hari became a courtesan, then a spy, and ultimately, by some accounts, a double agent.
Breaking news! I realize this is very last minute and only applies to our brethren in Northern California, but tonight Jesse Hawthorne Ficks is hosting a “Disco Extravaganza” at the gorgeous Castro Theater in SF. They’ll be showing prints of The Wiz, Staying Alive, and best of all, everyone’s favorite futuristic spiritual disco rock opera cult classic,The Apple.
Wait, what’s that you say? You’ve never seen The Apple before?
Mister Boogalow disapproves.
The Apple is a steaming Midas turd of a film baked in massive amounts of tin foil. It’s a glitter-encrusted, mylar-ensconced acid trip. It’s Jem and the Holograms’ flea market jamboree. It’s… it’s…. oh I have no idea what on earth these people were thinking, but the result is utter crackpot genius.
The great art of films does not consist in descriptive movement of face and body, but in the movements of thought and soul transmitted in a kind of intense isolation. ~ Louise Brooks
On this day 101 years ago, Louise Brooks, patron saint of unrepentant flappers, was born. By all accounts, she was a fiercely intelligent and complicated woman who would not suffer fools in an industry that consists of nearly nothing but. She made only 25 films before being blacklisted walking away from Hollywood at the height of her career, and remains one of the most iconic, (in)famous starlets of all time.
Although she is perhaps better known for the trademark black bob that launched a thousand Red Hot Mamas, Brooks also happens to be one of the most remarkable actresses, um, well… EVER. Onscreen, the one-time Ziegfeld dancer carries herself with effortless grace. Brooks understood that great acting was more about reacting than anything else. In stark contrast to many of her mawkish, mugging co-stars, she seems more comfortable, more real, somehow.
Dame Shirely Bassey of James Bond music theme fame recently put out an ubergoth video to promote her cover of Pink’s “Get the Party Started.” I showed this to an extremely talented musician friend who shall remain nameless, prompting a hilarious knee-jerk reaction that I did not expect. There were some choice words for this, let me tell you. My friend was like, “it’s the cheese knob being cranked to 11! Combined with out-of-her-prime show tune hag in bad frame composites and uber tacky goth trappings! It’s phantom of the opera meets a Calvin Klein perfume ad! Meets Liza Minelli’s fat ass! Terrible, sterile video and the insincere bellowing of a woman who forgot to take her menopause meds.”
Oh man, harsh! I don’t have my friend’s fine-tuned ear for music, so the horror of the singing did not penetrate me quite the same way. Also, I have bad taste. I’ll be the first to admit this. I kinda like the pretty goth dresses! However, even I’ll concede that the masks are kind of questionable. However, I can watch this video again and again. I now share this bad taste with all of you. Video and stills, behind the jump. Enjoy!
You may have noticed that COILHOUSE is down one writer this week. Where’s Mer? Did she run away? Did she join the circus? Actually, kind of. Resident musician Meredith Yayanos is in The Old Country right now, touring with a band called Faun Fables as opening guest performers for Sleeytime Gorilla Museum. Faun Fables’ sound is difficult to nail in the written form, especially for someone like me, a person whose daily music vocabulary is limited to phrases like “uber” and “truly epic.” I love music passionately, but I don’t want to torment you with my caveman language when it comes to describing this band’s unique sound. This is where my eloquent friends CTRL+C and CTRL+V come in:
“FAUN FABLES is DAWN McCARTHY’s vivid imagination come to life in song and theater. Dawn is a composer, singer and theater artist whose work is a sea of gorgeous elemental nitty gritty; haunting melodies, breath, stomping, and natural theatricality led by the voice, rooted in the physical body. It is a crossroads where ancient ballad, art song, physical theater and rock music meet. Her lyrics speak to people of all ages about things like rugged housekeeping, street kids, growing old, sleepwalking and exiled travelers returning home.”
Aired on UK’s Channel 4 at the height of the NWOBHM movement, Bad News follows the misadventures of the identically named fictional band of rock star n00bs (played by the cast of the UK cult TV show The Young Ones) as they’re documented by an irritable film crew.
Released the year before This Is Spinal Tap caused an international sensation, this gem has been forgotten in most quarters having been dwarfed by the success of Spinal Tap.
Admittedly, Bad News is totally amateur next to This Is Spinal Tap but if you abstain from drawing comparisons you’ll find high entertainment value in this humble TV effort.
The cross makes me think of death, but the ivy is life. Sort of the tragic and hopeful, you know.
Ah, Poison Ivy. It had it all – big hair, teen lesbian lust, daddy complexes, public sex, irreparable emotional trauma and even death.
The players
Sylvie Cooper: A pre-Goth introverted high school student [Sarah Gilbert ]
Ivy: miniskirt-wearing, tattooed, broken doll-faced Lolita of a girl [Drew Barrymore]
Darryl Cooper: Sylvie ‘s father, a wealthy lonely man [Tom Skerritt] with a wilted rose as his dying wife [Cheryl Ladd]
The plot
Sylvie meets & swoons over wild Ivy and invites her into her home along with disaster. She can only look on in horror and confusion as Ivy slowly takes over her life.
What reads like a recipe for generic Hollywood fodder, instead focuses on acute loneliness, obsession and despair as much as on Barrymore’s physique and is actually a strangely moving and beautiful film. The acting is just ok, but Barrymore’s portrayal of a love starved teenage desperado is involving and bouncy, and the cinematography is great, with most of the particularly dramatic moments are shot in twilight rain. This movie probably did some goth-o-fying to herds of restless teenage girls in the 90s. Shakespearean high drama, Freudian tension and Fellinian perversion – I can’t help but love it all!
