I saw The Bacchae tonight at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. It was beautiful outside. Autumn will arrive. You can feel it.
No shortage of raccoons running around.
The play: Dionysus wants to establish his identity in Thebes so he arrives as a mortal and a whole mountain of women (the Chorus) fall in ecstasy. The powerful royal leader, Pantheus (his cousin), will have none of it. He jails Dinonysus and is quickly repaid by Dinonysus’ escape, followed by succumbing to cross dressing to infiltrate the women’s camp and sort of falling in love with Dionysus, followed by being torn apart into pieces by his own mother who was rendered mad.
Look, I don’t like Greek plays. Though the plays of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus were the precursors to all modern drama, I actually feel like those plays were merely the first precursors to organized drama. Little human primates were running around making believe, telling stories, forever. These Greek plays feel very formalized to me as if, “It’s time we formalize all this fooling around. We’re a serious society now.” Agitprop for the Gods? Cautionary tales to keep people in line, in fear, down? Maybe the only way a democracy can work?
Things do arise. Societies mature, somehow.
I am amazed how Dionysus, unlike Jesus, was so intent on being recognized as the son of God that he made no qualms about inciting mayhem and bloody death. Makes me believe that there were a lot of crazy people running around in days of Greek yore claiming they were Gods. Adds to my theory that Jesus was most likely schizophrenic.
Now, to the production. As my hilarious opera singer step-niece has called certain undesirable performing opportunities---but referring to opera singing, naturally—this was a whole lot of park and bark. So many monologues. So much action not seen or heard.
Jonathan Groff was sweet, but in no way came off as an angry Greek-God-come-to-earth to me. He was more Disney rock star. But I hear, through others, that he is the nicest guy on earth and that everyone loves him. Nice.
Joanne Akalaitis, former artistic director of the Public Theater, founder of Mabou Mines, ex-wife of Philip Glass, directed this thing in some sort of compact of reconciliation with her past from her being fired from The Public Theater. She is abstract and performancy. Things arise from a visual, “Wouldn’t this look cool?” temperament. This is one of my least favorite styles of direction. She turned everything, including laughter and anger, into staged gestures so that, really, nothing was experienced in any way that could be called human. The audience was being kind (or Emperor’s New Clothes-ish sheep-like) not to guffaw at the grotesque responses of the actors on the big, gorgeous set (with silver choral risers in an upward swing).
The music by Philip Glass was very 1956 Hollywood creepy. It was fine, but it felt and sounded like a commission.
Are you turned off yet?
Don’t be, if you like Greek plays, singing choristers, orange outfits, the cute-nice Jonathan Groff, a crack in the stage that goes a bit on fire, raccoons, the feeling that you should take your plays like medicine.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Who Am I to Review the Oceans?
Friends, the Atlantic Ocean, down here at the Southern Tip of New Jersey (Cape May) is warm, clearish and pushes up some very serious waves. Not quite tubes.
The Pacific scenery is more dramatic, sure. But The Alaska Current keeps it cold.
The Atlantic, she’s a flat warm drink.
The Pacific scenery is more dramatic, sure. But The Alaska Current keeps it cold.
The Atlantic, she’s a flat warm drink.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Let's Talk Right Wing
I have a best friend from childhood that I respect and love—and sometimes, she votes Republican. GASP! It’s true.
Look…I am a Democrat in full force. But I am middle aged and I am moderate. So I can listen to the other side. I understand.
My point? I love personal responsibility. I am SO INTO personal responsibility. And I can even forgive the Republicans for their black and white thinking because I agree with self discipline and hard work. Shit, I even think in black and white terms sometimes: “She’s bad, She’s good. Clams, yes. Scallops, no.”
So, I get the whole specific TAKING A LOOK at the individual and putting it all on the individual’s shoulder thing and being really sharp and clear.
But friends---I think a little collective caring is so COOL AND JOYFUL. Just do it. It rises above all that. It takes the edge off. It makes life better.
It simply does.
Peace and Love and prosperity,
Don
Look…I am a Democrat in full force. But I am middle aged and I am moderate. So I can listen to the other side. I understand.
My point? I love personal responsibility. I am SO INTO personal responsibility. And I can even forgive the Republicans for their black and white thinking because I agree with self discipline and hard work. Shit, I even think in black and white terms sometimes: “She’s bad, She’s good. Clams, yes. Scallops, no.”
So, I get the whole specific TAKING A LOOK at the individual and putting it all on the individual’s shoulder thing and being really sharp and clear.
But friends---I think a little collective caring is so COOL AND JOYFUL. Just do it. It rises above all that. It takes the edge off. It makes life better.
It simply does.
Peace and Love and prosperity,
Don
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Say Goodbye to Hollywood
From the roof of our house. Then, a Red Eye to Queens.
Click the Pic to get the Larger View.
Click the Pic to get the Larger View.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Taking Stock
Okay---Now hear this. My stock is back to its original investment. First of all, I don’t even want to say I have stock. But I do. Because I was born in this country, I do this thing that other Americans do---I have an IRA and I buy stocks. Blech. But what else can you do? Boats? Real Estate? Ponies?
So---I have stock. And it has returned. And---jobs will return, too.
Then, we’ll take a trip to Paris. Sometimes, when you need a shift, it is good to take a trip to Paris. You can have a cigarette, drink some chocolat or plain ol’ tea. You can go to the Pompidou. You can take a long walk through the Sixth and remember when it was mostly booksellers. You can remember books. You can have an omelet.
Money frees you up so you can get in touch with your pleasure again. Balancing it, always.
The stocks are back.
So---I have stock. And it has returned. And---jobs will return, too.
Then, we’ll take a trip to Paris. Sometimes, when you need a shift, it is good to take a trip to Paris. You can have a cigarette, drink some chocolat or plain ol’ tea. You can go to the Pompidou. You can take a long walk through the Sixth and remember when it was mostly booksellers. You can remember books. You can have an omelet.
Money frees you up so you can get in touch with your pleasure again. Balancing it, always.
The stocks are back.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
The Gold, The Pineapple, The Golden Pineapple
Friends, thank you so much for your support. Truth is, we won the Golden Pineapple! The excitement was huge. How often do you get a piece of spray painted plastic fruit?
About 30 plays. We got the most votes. You know--competitions are disgusting, until you win one.
It was a bit of a surprise because it was all about getting audience there. And so many other plays had such big audiences. But we won anyway.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT!
My cast was fabulous. The Cringe Festival was completely enjoyable. The community aspect was light, fun and subversive.
ADDED BONUS: David Youse won the first runner up Jack Lemon award for playing the role of John, the nasty.
The Pineapple--I now have something new to toss on top of the memorabilia pile. And it won't break.
Carla Barnett, David Youse, Me and Flip Laffoon.
Long live Piss Play!
About 30 plays. We got the most votes. You know--competitions are disgusting, until you win one.
It was a bit of a surprise because it was all about getting audience there. And so many other plays had such big audiences. But we won anyway.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT!
My cast was fabulous. The Cringe Festival was completely enjoyable. The community aspect was light, fun and subversive.
ADDED BONUS: David Youse won the first runner up Jack Lemon award for playing the role of John, the nasty.
The Pineapple--I now have something new to toss on top of the memorabilia pile. And it won't break.
Carla Barnett, David Youse, Me and Flip Laffoon.
Long live Piss Play!
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Piss Play: Closing Night
COME SEE
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
CLOSING NIGHT.
Friends---We are up for the Golden Pineapple. Come see Piss Play. If you can. One Last Performance.
At the International Cringefest ‘09
August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
CLOSING NIGHT.
Friends---We are up for the Golden Pineapple. Come see Piss Play. If you can. One Last Performance.
At the International Cringefest ‘09
August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Taking a Chance
With no blog idea in mind, I simply opened up blogger and started typing.
This naturally lends itself to random listing:
1) We are moving to New York for a good chunk. Rented out the LA house for a year. Going to spend more time on the east coast. But then, you know, who knows. I do like the city.
2) The humidity of New York City is ridiculous. This is the biggest adjustment.
3) Physical therapists are fabulous creatures.
4) I like artichokes.
5) And cheese. Even cheap cheese.
6) I am glad I learned how to type.
7) Facebook is questionable. I'd rather sit in the town square in Weimar and talk to an old lady. But I am grateful for the huge hooking up.
8) I fear garlic.
9) I need a dog.
10) This filthy earth. I don't believe in sterilization, but I do. But then, you can't figure out how to administer it, so you can't do it. So, I don't know. I have to release control. I'll be dead before the poles are rain forests.
This naturally lends itself to random listing:
1) We are moving to New York for a good chunk. Rented out the LA house for a year. Going to spend more time on the east coast. But then, you know, who knows. I do like the city.
2) The humidity of New York City is ridiculous. This is the biggest adjustment.
3) Physical therapists are fabulous creatures.
4) I like artichokes.
5) And cheese. Even cheap cheese.
6) I am glad I learned how to type.
7) Facebook is questionable. I'd rather sit in the town square in Weimar and talk to an old lady. But I am grateful for the huge hooking up.
8) I fear garlic.
9) I need a dog.
10) This filthy earth. I don't believe in sterilization, but I do. But then, you can't figure out how to administer it, so you can't do it. So, I don't know. I have to release control. I'll be dead before the poles are rain forests.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
We Will Not Be Undersold! Insider's Price Now Available
From the PRODUCER of CRINGE FESTIVAL:
If you have any potential audience that is having trouble with the ticket price, you can now offer them an Insider price of $20. Just tell them to call the office and use code INSIDER or they can state that at the box office if they don't already have tickets.
CRINGE FEST
JUST TWO PERFORMANCES LEFT!
TONIGHT! AUGUST 3 @ 8PM
SATURDAY AUGUST 8 @ 8PM
Come share the Piss.
If you have any potential audience that is having trouble with the ticket price, you can now offer them an Insider price of $20. Just tell them to call the office and use code INSIDER or they can state that at the box office if they don't already have tickets.
CRINGE FEST
JUST TWO PERFORMANCES LEFT!
TONIGHT! AUGUST 3 @ 8PM
SATURDAY AUGUST 8 @ 8PM
Come share the Piss.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Swamp Hos, Piss, and Nuns in Drag Dominate
PRESS RELEASE
CRINGE FEST
Swamp Ho's, Piss, and Nuns in Drag Dominate
International CringeFest '09
Neck and neck (or other appropriate appendages) in the race for the International CringeFest's coveted Golden Pineapple at the Grand Theatre, Producers' Club, are:
SWAMP HO (by David C. Hayes, dir. Tom Amici) in the theme evening of Sex Encounters of the Absurd Kind, playing two more performances, August 2 & 7 at 8 p.m.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT written & directed by Don Cummings -- theme evening: Your Money or Your Art; three performances: July 29, August 3 & 8 at 8 p.m.
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked! -- by Michael Wanzie, dir. Kenny Howard), theme evening: Go Genital into That Good Night; two more performances: August 1 & 8 on the late-night Saturday shows at 10:30. TIP: If you attend the 8 p.m. Saturday show at full price ($25), you can get into the late-night for $15!
This year, the festival includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the closing party and bestowing of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, Bronze Banana, and Jack Lemons, August 9 at 6 p.m. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with... Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singer Tina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with... legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with... Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with... Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! Some wild special events beyond the regular insanity include: Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs, e.g., Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Fruit Cup Awards. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by... by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO! by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDY by Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXES by Joseph Sorrentino (film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMY by Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). For those attending the 8 p.m. Saturday show at full price, there is a discounted ticket of $15 for the late-night 10:30 show. Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
This email was sent by NY ARTISTS UNLIMITED, 212 West 14 Street, Suite 2A, New York, NY 10011, using Express Email Marketing. You were added to this list as djcummings@sbcglobal.net on 6/16/2009.
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CRINGE FEST
Swamp Ho's, Piss, and Nuns in Drag Dominate
International CringeFest '09
Neck and neck (or other appropriate appendages) in the race for the International CringeFest's coveted Golden Pineapple at the Grand Theatre, Producers' Club, are:
SWAMP HO (by David C. Hayes, dir. Tom Amici) in the theme evening of Sex Encounters of the Absurd Kind, playing two more performances, August 2 & 7 at 8 p.m.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT written & directed by Don Cummings -- theme evening: Your Money or Your Art; three performances: July 29, August 3 & 8 at 8 p.m.
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked! -- by Michael Wanzie, dir. Kenny Howard), theme evening: Go Genital into That Good Night; two more performances: August 1 & 8 on the late-night Saturday shows at 10:30. TIP: If you attend the 8 p.m. Saturday show at full price ($25), you can get into the late-night for $15!
This year, the festival includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the closing party and bestowing of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, Bronze Banana, and Jack Lemons, August 9 at 6 p.m. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with... Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singer Tina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with... legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with... Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with... Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! Some wild special events beyond the regular insanity include: Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs, e.g., Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Fruit Cup Awards. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by... by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO! by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDY by Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXES by Joseph Sorrentino (film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMY by Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). For those attending the 8 p.m. Saturday show at full price, there is a discounted ticket of $15 for the late-night 10:30 show. Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
This email was sent by NY ARTISTS UNLIMITED, 212 West 14 Street, Suite 2A, New York, NY 10011, using Express Email Marketing. You were added to this list as djcummings@sbcglobal.net on 6/16/2009.
Express Email Marketing supports permission-based email marketing. You can change your preferences or unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
500 Days of Summer
This movie was greatly oversold to me. So I arrived thinking I was in for a treat.
Precious beast of a thing.
First of all, I do love movies. But movie-makers who love movies who try to make me love movies the way they love movies, well, this is a rough experience.
Many gimmicks in this movie. Kitchen sink practically thrown in. I liked the post-sex dance sequence, did not like the send-up fantasy movie clip asides, found the bouncing around in time to be of little use, thought the little sister’s uncanny canny advice was twee but I liked the music.
I felt it was one of those movies where there was so much filming going on, that someone forgot how people really are. So the poor actors, who were great and beautiful—Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a favorite of mine)—were simply being yanked around, in different LA locales, but repeating the same moment again and again.
You know, all this talk about Indie being dead…I see why there is the talking. It has become repetitive, this style of young people sort of, kind of connecting but not really, with a good soundtrack. It would be so great to see something more revealing, braver. But maybe this is what you get for $12.50 per ticket at the Cineplex and I just have to endure it with a smile.
I was happy to be at a movie and I did not wish I was somewhere else. So I am grateful for the experience of being in the moment. It was a little summer vacation.
Rain rain rain.
Precious beast of a thing.
First of all, I do love movies. But movie-makers who love movies who try to make me love movies the way they love movies, well, this is a rough experience.
Many gimmicks in this movie. Kitchen sink practically thrown in. I liked the post-sex dance sequence, did not like the send-up fantasy movie clip asides, found the bouncing around in time to be of little use, thought the little sister’s uncanny canny advice was twee but I liked the music.
I felt it was one of those movies where there was so much filming going on, that someone forgot how people really are. So the poor actors, who were great and beautiful—Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a favorite of mine)—were simply being yanked around, in different LA locales, but repeating the same moment again and again.
You know, all this talk about Indie being dead…I see why there is the talking. It has become repetitive, this style of young people sort of, kind of connecting but not really, with a good soundtrack. It would be so great to see something more revealing, braver. But maybe this is what you get for $12.50 per ticket at the Cineplex and I just have to endure it with a smile.
I was happy to be at a movie and I did not wish I was somewhere else. So I am grateful for the experience of being in the moment. It was a little summer vacation.
Rain rain rain.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Northern Boulevard Blog
Things are swampy in the big city. It gets very humid and then there are big thunderstorms. I don’t mind, except that I keep forgetting to bring an umbrella. It’s leftover Los Angeles behavior. So I’ll stand under an awning and watch it.
Last night, the rain poured down so hard that all the subways had to slow down and/or reroute. This happened while I was in the subway so I never saw the rain, but did experience the slow train. We changed routes a couple of times.
Had snacks and tea with my writer friend, Joanna T., at Cannelle Patisserie, this weekend. I highly recommend it. Brilliant place. Joanna knows a thing or two about food. The chef is from the Waldorf-Astoria. It’s in a strip mall parking lot in Queens about a ten minute walk from my apartment. The anchor is Waldbaum’s. The whole complex looks like something out of Burbank. There is a huge Valley Sky over the parking lot. Wide open space. And 1972 prices. Queens is, afterall, still on the rise when it comes to fancy food. If you are ever in the neighborhood, you must go. I love it. And, oh yes, I will mention again—fantastic prices. Frenchy stuff.
Speaking of which. I am not a cook. I mean, I will do it if forced. But I am never forced. I eat on the fly. Tonight, I had the good intention of making myself a big green salad with a grilled chicken breast plopped on top. Oil, vinegar, some grated cheese. Easy. I can do that. It got late. The local grocery store was closed and I just said, “Fuck it, I’m going to White Castle.”
I have never been, and my good friend, Michael S., he once stayed here in this apartment and told me how I had to go to White Castle for “A sack of ten.” Many of you might already know how this works at White Castle. You can buy a whole bag of mini-burgers (are they really burgers?) for very little cash. So, I walked up Northern Boulevard, past the Columbian neighborhood shops, to the border of the Peruvian neighborhood shops, past at least five Hamburguesa places, a car wash, a few 99cent stores, the fire house, the Rite Aid, and across from the brand new CVS stood White Castle. I couldn’t buy a sack. I went a la carte. Because when you’re a somewhat upscale dude trawling for meat on downscale Northern Boulevard, you simply must insist on the a la carte experience. I ordered one burger slider, one chicken slider and some onion rings. Four bucks.
I texted Michael S. to let him know what I was up to. He called me, immediately, excited and supportive! It’s always good to have a little conversation with someone when you are eating. Helps the digestion. Monkey ritual thing. After I ate my White Castle on that swampy, ugly Northern Boulevard, I went up to the counter—I was the only customer in the place—and I asked the question that so many before me must have asked after slathering down their sliders, “Is there an open liquor store around here?”
A happy woman near some sort of food machine told me it was a half a block away. I asked, “On the same side of the street?” “YES!” She was so happy for me that I didn’t have to cross the street. She was not the woman who took my order, but more of a back-in-the-office type who had come up to check on things. I think she was impressed that I was white and had on a button down shirt.
I walked the half block to the liquor store. It was one of those places that sell big jugs of wine for 8.99 and bottles of other stuff that should be called, “Nothing but pain in the morning.” I bought a red wine on special. In order to pay, I had to tunnel the bottle through a large mouse hole that opened sideways through the bullet proof glass. Paid cash and lugged it home. It’s for tomorrow. I still have a little left in another bottle.
This move to New York (we are moving to New York now) is full-on full.
I really was ready to leave Los Angeles. But I do miss my friends, my house and the weather.
I am at the peak of my career. I’m eating White Castle on Northern Boulevard.
I have never felt more creative. I mostly fill out internet fields for banks and vendors informing them of my email and mailing address change.
We have great assets. We have no cash.
We live apart. I have never felt closer.
I hate writing that does this best of times, worst of times shit. I do it anyway.
Lucky me.
Northern Boulevard is really ugly. But it is so honest.
Last night, the rain poured down so hard that all the subways had to slow down and/or reroute. This happened while I was in the subway so I never saw the rain, but did experience the slow train. We changed routes a couple of times.
Had snacks and tea with my writer friend, Joanna T., at Cannelle Patisserie, this weekend. I highly recommend it. Brilliant place. Joanna knows a thing or two about food. The chef is from the Waldorf-Astoria. It’s in a strip mall parking lot in Queens about a ten minute walk from my apartment. The anchor is Waldbaum’s. The whole complex looks like something out of Burbank. There is a huge Valley Sky over the parking lot. Wide open space. And 1972 prices. Queens is, afterall, still on the rise when it comes to fancy food. If you are ever in the neighborhood, you must go. I love it. And, oh yes, I will mention again—fantastic prices. Frenchy stuff.
Speaking of which. I am not a cook. I mean, I will do it if forced. But I am never forced. I eat on the fly. Tonight, I had the good intention of making myself a big green salad with a grilled chicken breast plopped on top. Oil, vinegar, some grated cheese. Easy. I can do that. It got late. The local grocery store was closed and I just said, “Fuck it, I’m going to White Castle.”
I have never been, and my good friend, Michael S., he once stayed here in this apartment and told me how I had to go to White Castle for “A sack of ten.” Many of you might already know how this works at White Castle. You can buy a whole bag of mini-burgers (are they really burgers?) for very little cash. So, I walked up Northern Boulevard, past the Columbian neighborhood shops, to the border of the Peruvian neighborhood shops, past at least five Hamburguesa places, a car wash, a few 99cent stores, the fire house, the Rite Aid, and across from the brand new CVS stood White Castle. I couldn’t buy a sack. I went a la carte. Because when you’re a somewhat upscale dude trawling for meat on downscale Northern Boulevard, you simply must insist on the a la carte experience. I ordered one burger slider, one chicken slider and some onion rings. Four bucks.
I texted Michael S. to let him know what I was up to. He called me, immediately, excited and supportive! It’s always good to have a little conversation with someone when you are eating. Helps the digestion. Monkey ritual thing. After I ate my White Castle on that swampy, ugly Northern Boulevard, I went up to the counter—I was the only customer in the place—and I asked the question that so many before me must have asked after slathering down their sliders, “Is there an open liquor store around here?”
A happy woman near some sort of food machine told me it was a half a block away. I asked, “On the same side of the street?” “YES!” She was so happy for me that I didn’t have to cross the street. She was not the woman who took my order, but more of a back-in-the-office type who had come up to check on things. I think she was impressed that I was white and had on a button down shirt.
I walked the half block to the liquor store. It was one of those places that sell big jugs of wine for 8.99 and bottles of other stuff that should be called, “Nothing but pain in the morning.” I bought a red wine on special. In order to pay, I had to tunnel the bottle through a large mouse hole that opened sideways through the bullet proof glass. Paid cash and lugged it home. It’s for tomorrow. I still have a little left in another bottle.
This move to New York (we are moving to New York now) is full-on full.
I really was ready to leave Los Angeles. But I do miss my friends, my house and the weather.
I am at the peak of my career. I’m eating White Castle on Northern Boulevard.
I have never felt more creative. I mostly fill out internet fields for banks and vendors informing them of my email and mailing address change.
We have great assets. We have no cash.
We live apart. I have never felt closer.
I hate writing that does this best of times, worst of times shit. I do it anyway.
Lucky me.
Northern Boulevard is really ugly. But it is so honest.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
PISS PLAY opens TONIGHT!
COME SEE
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
At the International Cringefest ‘09
July 24 (Fri) & July 29 (Wed)
August 3 (Mon) & August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
At the International Cringefest ‘09
July 24 (Fri) & July 29 (Wed)
August 3 (Mon) & August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
What I Skip Whenever I Read the Paper
Iraqi Dead.
Iranian Dead.
No more than one business article, too grim.
Sports.
Music Reviews.
Local Murders.
Letters to the editor.
Obituaries.
The dying journalism trade.
When I look at this list, it tends toward the dead. I don’t want to read too much about the dead and the dying.
I miss the Los Angeles Times of 1999. It was so funny and snarky back then. Now, I only read the New York Times and whatever little feeds end up on Google Mail that interest me.
Also, let’s face it, the Righties are right…newspapers, in general, skew to the left in this country. There is not so much to attack when your hero is in office.
Feels like I can get through the New York Times online in fifteen minutes. Except for Sunday, of course.
So now we have time for other things.
If I were to run into this blog post (which is about journalism), I wouldn’t read it!
Iranian Dead.
No more than one business article, too grim.
Sports.
Music Reviews.
Local Murders.
Letters to the editor.
Obituaries.
The dying journalism trade.
When I look at this list, it tends toward the dead. I don’t want to read too much about the dead and the dying.
I miss the Los Angeles Times of 1999. It was so funny and snarky back then. Now, I only read the New York Times and whatever little feeds end up on Google Mail that interest me.
Also, let’s face it, the Righties are right…newspapers, in general, skew to the left in this country. There is not so much to attack when your hero is in office.
Feels like I can get through the New York Times online in fifteen minutes. Except for Sunday, of course.
So now we have time for other things.
If I were to run into this blog post (which is about journalism), I wouldn’t read it!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Money Talk
Things are going to get almost bullish.
There is talk of recovery.
Obama is getting strong and tough.
People are sick of the unemployment and the endless hot dog dinners. And the cycle is about to turn to rosier times.
As monkeys, we really are creatures of the moment. Sure, we plan. But our emotional reactions are quite mammalian, no different than that of a cow or a badger. We respond to current clues. So it is hard to imagine a “cycle”. We aren’t really wired to emotionally understand them.
But at some point, and that point is soon, the wheel turns to the new numbers and colors.
Brace yourself for the recovery. It’s coming. Put down that jug of 4.99 wine and get on your work boots. There is stuff to do. And the new stuff, we think, will be cleaner and more efficient.
There is talk of recovery.
Obama is getting strong and tough.
People are sick of the unemployment and the endless hot dog dinners. And the cycle is about to turn to rosier times.
As monkeys, we really are creatures of the moment. Sure, we plan. But our emotional reactions are quite mammalian, no different than that of a cow or a badger. We respond to current clues. So it is hard to imagine a “cycle”. We aren’t really wired to emotionally understand them.
But at some point, and that point is soon, the wheel turns to the new numbers and colors.
Brace yourself for the recovery. It’s coming. Put down that jug of 4.99 wine and get on your work boots. There is stuff to do. And the new stuff, we think, will be cleaner and more efficient.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Hazy Hot Humid & Goldman Sachs
Friends,
It’s New York in the summer and it’s not just hot out there, it’s kind of greasy.
I like the humidity for my contact lenses and my sinuses. But for everything else, it’s sort of vile.
In the hot meantime, the rich are finding ways to get richer again, which is fine with me. But what is not so fine is how all this cash is concentrating within a couple of companies. One hopes we become innovative again and create sparkling yet smooth demand that splinters the money around instead of putting it in the hands of a few.
But it just feels like we are in a bust, then one day we will boom, only to bust again.
Nothing new under the sun. You just have to keep washing your face.
It’s New York in the summer and it’s not just hot out there, it’s kind of greasy.
I like the humidity for my contact lenses and my sinuses. But for everything else, it’s sort of vile.
In the hot meantime, the rich are finding ways to get richer again, which is fine with me. But what is not so fine is how all this cash is concentrating within a couple of companies. One hopes we become innovative again and create sparkling yet smooth demand that splinters the money around instead of putting it in the hands of a few.
But it just feels like we are in a bust, then one day we will boom, only to bust again.
Nothing new under the sun. You just have to keep washing your face.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
PISS PLAY July 24, 29, August 3, 8
COME SEE
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
At the International Cringefest ‘09
July 24 (Fri) & July 29 (Wed)
August 3 (Mon) & August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Written and Directed by Don Cummings
With David Youse, Carla Barnett & Flip Laffoon
At the International Cringefest ‘09
July 24 (Fri) & July 29 (Wed)
August 3 (Mon) & August 8 (Sat)
8PM
The Producers’ Club
358 W. 44 St.
New York City 10036
25 bucks general admission
$15 for students
$50 for Gala night with the “Stars” (Mink Stole & More) July 24
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
The Arts Council must pick one lucky recipient to win the big funding prize! Who will it be? This farce of urinary proportions sends up the ridiculous nature of arts funding and who actually gets the cash. Run by two self-involved nuts that put three applicants through the paces for the booty, only one hopeful has the courage to steel his nerve and give what is greatly desired: The streaming shame of what it means to be "less than" in society. This nasty farce, with its heart in its kidneys, is sure to tickle even the most politically correct.
FOR TICKETS ONLINE:
www.theatermania.com
www.nyartists.org
WHAT DO A MINK STOLE & A GOLDEN PINEAPPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
John Waters superstar MINK STOLE is the latest celeb summoned to be crowned with an Honorary Golden Pineapple on Friday, July 24, at International CringeFest '09. Often cast as the foil for Divine in such cult classics as Hairspray, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, she also appeared with Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. She joins an illustrious quartet of awardees at CringeFest: Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York, legendary talk show host Joe Franklin, Village Voice celebrity columnist Michael Musto, and Warhol star Taylor Mead. The ceremony is part of the Rags 'n Riches benefit for the dedicated outreach work of NY Artists Unlimited, the company that created the five-year-old festival. In '07, the honoree was legendary director Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar) and in '08, stage-screen-small screen star Marilyn Sokol, cabaret superstar Sidney Myer, and Warhol muse/ visual artist Ultra Violet. Benefit tickets are $50, including 4 plays, awards ceremony, and party in the Grand Theatre at the Producers' Club--
358 West 44 Street.
The benefit theme evokes the struggle of the artist, especially in an economic downturn, and all the plays that evening are razor-sharp theatre-oriented comedies: A Dark & Stormy Night (producer tortures writer 'for his own good'), The Poorly-Written Play Festival (lambasts whilst demonstrating bad playwriting), Worst. Play. Ever. (live radio drama with a maniacal twist),and Piss Play Is about Minorities, So It's Really Important (just how far will one go for funding?). The last is written & directed by Don Cummings, who enjoyed an industry reading in June of another of his plays "A Good Smoke" at the Public Theater with Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer & Grace Gummer (Meryl's children), and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Rags 'n Riches also includes a silent auction, currently on the Internet and continuing through the party in the Producers' Club Lounge after the Pineapple awards. Some of the more intriguing offerings are: "Coffee with… Ginger!" (luminous actress-nightclub singerTina Louise, best known as Ginger the movie star on "Gilligan's Island"), "Coffee with… legendary actor-writer-director Austin Pendleton," "Coffee with… Richard Pryor Jr." (actor-singer and, yes, son of Richard/ brother of Rain), "Coffee with… Broadway producer Pat Addiss," and more. Further bidding will be for an Ipod touch donated & inscribed by Yoko Ono, 3 movie posters donated & signed by John Waters, signed NYC Ballet soloist toeshoes, designer clothes by Teri Jon, Shin Choi, Twisted Heart, Velvet; dance packages, restaurant certificates, family outings, hotel stays, Broadway/ Off-Broadway tickets, original artwork, autographed photos & books, and more. To get on the auction mailing list: Info@nyartists.org.
The International CringeFest, playing July 20-August 9, is subtitled bad plays, bad musicals, bad films, but these are REALLY GOOD & HILARIOUS works that are irreverent, politically incorrect, naughty, and utterly zany. Don't we all need that these days?! This year introduces some wild special events beyond the regular insanity: late-night Saturday shows, including a naked holy ghost and a mysterious little contraption called the Li'l Red Ridin' Hood… AND Unholy Sunday Film Matinees at $15 with popcorn and talk-backs: Taylor Mead & legendary filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26, and Miss Sammy, a Floridian female impersonator, on August 9. Festival entre actes include regulars: musician-comedian Huck DeMilo, sound effects comedian Zero Boy, plus surprise guests. Audiences vote every night for winners of the Golden Pineapple, Silver Tomato, & Bronze Banana, plus Jack Lemons for the actors. For one ticket, you see 4-5 works arranged in theme evenings:
IS THAT A SPEAR IN YOUR POCKET? (Dir. Tony Spinosa) July 20, July 25, July 30, August 4
RANK ROID RITE, Samurai Proctologist by Zurbon Gish
BHIBHATSYA: Disgusting Beyond Words by Norman Bert
THE HISTORY OF HATE (entre acte by Jean Hart)
THE FLAMING OF THE SHREW by David Schrag
THE MISSION (MUSICAL) by Kevin Bleau
THE SCOTTISH PLAY sponsored by… by Kurt Kleinmann
CHILDREN & (OTHER) SHARP OBJECTS (Dir. Kenny Wade Marshall) July 21, July 26, July 31, August 5
PLAYTHINGS by Rob Taylor
SANTA TELLS A STORY by Tami Canaday
THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford
JUST A BREATH MORE VANILLA by Barbara H. Macchia
BITTERELLA (MUSICAL) by Mark LaPierre
DAMES AT SEA July 22, July 27, August 1, August 6
TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH (short film by Albert Pergande)
A NEW BEGINNING by Josh McIlvain, dir. Robyne Parrish
THE ADVENTURES OF RAY NOIR, BEACH DETECTIVE by Dick Budin, dir. Tony Spinosa
WHEN BIMBOS ATTACK by Jean Hart, dir. Kenny Howard
THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical by Jonathan Padget, dir. Kenny Howard
SEX ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND (Dir. Tom Amici) July 23, July 28, August 2, August 7
FAME CONFUSIONS by John Hendel
NO TALKING ON THE FIRST DATE by Steven Schutzman
BOOTY BANDITS by Kesa Maya Soul
SWAMP HO by David C. Hayes
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR ART July 24, July 29, August 3, August 8
A DARK & STORMY NIGHT by Michael Wilmot (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL by Carolyn Gage (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
WORST. PLAY. EVER. by Sam Wallin (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES, SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT (Writer-Dir. Don Cummings)
GO GENITAL INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Late-night Saturdays, July 25, August 1, August 8, at 10:30 pm
GRAMPA HITLER & THE LI'L RED RIDIN' HOOD (MUSICAL) by Leroi B. Di Milo (Dir. Robyne Parrish)
DRAGNESS OF GOD & THE NAKED HOLY GHOST (yes, naked!) by Michael Wanzie (Dir. Kenny Howard)
UNHOLY SUNDAY FILM MATINEE July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, at 2 pm ($15 w/ bag of popcorn & talk-backs with filmmakers & stars)
SHUT UP, APOLLO!by Apollo Braun aka Doron Braunshtein
CANDY & DADDYby Anton Perich (with Warhol filmstars Candy Darling & Taylor Mead) (talk-back with Taylor Mead & filmmaker Anton Perich on July 26)
DEATH & TAXESby Joseph Sorrentino(film noir)
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS SAMMYby Michael Wanzie & Jason Piecarski (talk-back with Miss Sammy & the filmmakers Aug. 9)
NY Artists Unlimited is a 26 year old nonprofit organization that provides theatre and art to under-served audiences. The company is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nancy Quinn Fund, Puffin Foundation, Dramatists Guild Fund, corporate and individual contributors. These festivals, in their own wacky way, support the mission to serve the community and to reopen the company's homebase, Downeast Arts Center in the East Village. The movers 'n shakers behind this insanity are: Melba LaRose, Artistic Director; Court Sweeting, Technical Director, and playwright Jean Hart of the Honorary Golden Pineapple Committee; plus myriad interns and volunteers that make the whole thing happen.
Tickets $25 full admission; $15 students with ID; $15 film matinees (w/ popcorn & talk-backs). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or reservations by mail, call 212-242-6036 or visit www.nyartists.org. For online ticketing: www.theatermania.com. Grand Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44 St., betw. Eighth/Ninth Aves., July 20-August 9, M-Sat. @ 8, Sun. @ 2 (films) & 7, late show Saturday @ 10:30. Each theme runs 1¾ to 2 hours in toto, including intermission.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Bruno
Saw Bruno today.
Watch the trailer, you get the idea.
Look—I don’t know how he did it after Borat, since one would imagine everyone is onto him. This movie did seem more set up and controlled than the last one.
At first, I thought the super-duper, over-the-top gay thing in Bruno was so 1981. But the big point of the movie is: You people can’t take a big effeminate, gay man…but you are totally cool with violence.
Which is a great comment and quite profound, but also banal and sad.
Actually, a sadness runs deep in this movie. Like Vietnam sad. Underneath the humor.
Sasha B. Cohen looked eerily like my nephew, which was odd to endure.
Bruno, a big, funny, sad movie.
Watch the trailer, you get the idea.
Look—I don’t know how he did it after Borat, since one would imagine everyone is onto him. This movie did seem more set up and controlled than the last one.
At first, I thought the super-duper, over-the-top gay thing in Bruno was so 1981. But the big point of the movie is: You people can’t take a big effeminate, gay man…but you are totally cool with violence.
Which is a great comment and quite profound, but also banal and sad.
Actually, a sadness runs deep in this movie. Like Vietnam sad. Underneath the humor.
Sasha B. Cohen looked eerily like my nephew, which was odd to endure.
Bruno, a big, funny, sad movie.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Overheard in Queens, Today
“Get off my face, Eileen!”
--an old woman yelled at her other old woman friend, Eileen. Eileen had already signed the petition and wanted to get a move on.
The yeller continued, “Just ‘cause you’re done doesn’t mean I am.”
It was a beautiful day in Queens, today. Lots of Sunday dogs out on their walks.
But Eileen was in a rush.
--an old woman yelled at her other old woman friend, Eileen. Eileen had already signed the petition and wanted to get a move on.
The yeller continued, “Just ‘cause you’re done doesn’t mean I am.”
It was a beautiful day in Queens, today. Lots of Sunday dogs out on their walks.
But Eileen was in a rush.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Immediate Concern
Going to New York for a while to work on some things. And after tonight, being enshrouded by eighty-seven cobwebs as I crossed the street to look at the gigantic podicarpus tree that is baobbabing my house, I thought, “I will be very happy to spend much less time with these sticky velvet fibers clinging to my face.”
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
She Rolled Off the Lot Today
Noah Massey stopped by today and bought my lovely old car. I drove that 1992 Geo Prizm to Los Angeles in 1993. Noah is a graphic designer and a D.J. He is going to use the car to take his daughter to school and to haul equipment to DJ gigs. I love this transition.
When I arrived in Los Angeles, besides some clothes, I basically had four things: the Geo Prizm, a brand new Martin guitar, a Brother Word Processor and two-thousand dollars.
The only remaining item is the Martin guitar. That Geo, that Chevrolet version of a Toyota Corolla, was a tank. Once, about six years ago, she conked out coming up the grapevine (I-5, north of Los Angeles about seventy miles) and it turned out to be the transmission. It died. The garage just across the alley from my house sent up a tow truck and hauled me home. They replaced the tranny for thirteen-hundred bucks.
About three alternators, five batteries, thirteen or fourteen tires and countless brake pads later, she keeps purring, okay, not purring, but GOING. Go have some great gigs, car. You're loaded with life.
When I arrived in Los Angeles, besides some clothes, I basically had four things: the Geo Prizm, a brand new Martin guitar, a Brother Word Processor and two-thousand dollars.
The only remaining item is the Martin guitar. That Geo, that Chevrolet version of a Toyota Corolla, was a tank. Once, about six years ago, she conked out coming up the grapevine (I-5, north of Los Angeles about seventy miles) and it turned out to be the transmission. It died. The garage just across the alley from my house sent up a tow truck and hauled me home. They replaced the tranny for thirteen-hundred bucks.
About three alternators, five batteries, thirteen or fourteen tires and countless brake pads later, she keeps purring, okay, not purring, but GOING. Go have some great gigs, car. You're loaded with life.
Monday, July 06, 2009
GAS SIPPING CAR for SALE: 1992 Geo Prizm SOLD
GREAT 1992 GEO PRIZM SIPS GAS SLOWLY
1992 Geo Prizm for Sale 151 Thousand Miles.
Blu Book value: 1300
Selling it for 1150
AMAZING on GAS----Goes forevever (About 340 miles, city) on 10 gallons.
All electrical is faboo.
Automatic Transmission
Bucket Seats
Rear Window Defogger
Solid engine with never any trouble
Transmission was replaced five years ago.
A/C works great.
Heat comes and goes.
AM-FM radio with Cassette Pioneer KE-3838
Couple of inner door handles have a piece missing…but all doors open, no problem. Piece is replaceable and inexpensive.
Roll down windows
Power steering and Power brakes
Some dings and one dent on the outside but NO RUST.
White exterior
Cloth powder blue seats interior.
Windshield washer fluid reservoir no longer exists, but wipers work fine,
Floor carpets and upholstery are in great shape.
She’s a solid tank of a car---with some cosmetic wear and tear. I've treated her like a princess.
SOLD
GREAT 1992 GEO PRIZM SIPS GAS SLOWLY
1992 Geo Prizm for Sale 151 Thousand Miles.
Blu Book value: 1300
Selling it for 1150
AMAZING on GAS----Goes forevever (About 340 miles, city) on 10 gallons.
All electrical is faboo.
Automatic Transmission
Bucket Seats
Rear Window Defogger
Solid engine with never any trouble
Transmission was replaced five years ago.
A/C works great.
Heat comes and goes.
AM-FM radio with Cassette Pioneer KE-3838
Couple of inner door handles have a piece missing…but all doors open, no problem. Piece is replaceable and inexpensive.
Roll down windows
Power steering and Power brakes
Some dings and one dent on the outside but NO RUST.
White exterior
Cloth powder blue seats interior.
Windshield washer fluid reservoir no longer exists, but wipers work fine,
Floor carpets and upholstery are in great shape.
She’s a solid tank of a car---with some cosmetic wear and tear. I've treated her like a princess.
SOLD
GREAT 1992 GEO PRIZM SIPS GAS SLOWLY
Full Moon and Werewolves
The full moon tonight is so enlivening, I can only think of my childhood wish to be a werewolf.
I wanted it so bad. To turn all furry, spur claws, fangs and run around wild.
My father called me Irving when I was a kid. I wore glasses and spent most of my time alone with books.
I imagined being a werewolf was my way out. I hope I succeed.
I wanted it so bad. To turn all furry, spur claws, fangs and run around wild.
My father called me Irving when I was a kid. I wore glasses and spent most of my time alone with books.
I imagined being a werewolf was my way out. I hope I succeed.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Like War, Crime is Boring: Public Enemies
While eating with my good cousins at The Grove—an outdoor fake-town mall in Los Angeles, we looked up at the marquis of the movie theatre across the way and a scowling Johnny Depp beckoned, so we decided to go see—Public Enemies.
Let’s keep this simple:
Mortgage funds for all involved.
Beautifully shot.
Bad sound.
Almost every single man in the movie has pale skin and chestnut hair, so, you figure that out.
Lots of on-the-lam stuff, a few bank robberies, no suspense.
Fine acting, surely.
Cameos by lots of actors you like. You get the sense that they didn’t know they were cameos and were shot a whole lot more and then chopped out of the movie.
The thing slogs on for hours on end.
Have fun.
Let’s keep this simple:
Mortgage funds for all involved.
Beautifully shot.
Bad sound.
Almost every single man in the movie has pale skin and chestnut hair, so, you figure that out.
Lots of on-the-lam stuff, a few bank robberies, no suspense.
Fine acting, surely.
Cameos by lots of actors you like. You get the sense that they didn’t know they were cameos and were shot a whole lot more and then chopped out of the movie.
The thing slogs on for hours on end.
Have fun.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Welcome, A.F.
Let’s all welcome Al Franken to the senate for that 60th vote spot which will certainly assure our new health care plan.
Al, I once saw you at the Fairway restaurant, on Broadway on the Upper West Side, eating an egg salad sandwich and it looked like you were having quite a robust experience. You were huger than life.
Life just gets bigger.
To Washington! Godspeed! (What on earth does Godspeed mean?)
Al, I once saw you at the Fairway restaurant, on Broadway on the Upper West Side, eating an egg salad sandwich and it looked like you were having quite a robust experience. You were huger than life.
Life just gets bigger.
To Washington! Godspeed! (What on earth does Godspeed mean?)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
CRINGE FUNDRAISER! Reduced to 20 Bucks! Just say SNAPPER! at the Door
Due to Recessional Demands, we are offering ten dollars off for this FUN event. Just say SNAPPER at the door and get in for twenty bucks! All the vodka you can drink and a great show. Come on! It’s Wednesday!
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT's REALLY IMPORTANT
is being produced this summer in New York City at
THE INTERNATIONAL CRINGEFEST '09.
The cast from Los Angeles is going to New York for a month to work on the show. Festivals are freebies, so we're having a fundraiser to raise some cash for flights, food and more!
AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO DO IT THAN WITH:
Karen Kilgariff's hilarious musical stand-up comedy
I'M REALLY DIFFERENT (NOW)!
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT's REALLY IMPORTANT
is being produced this summer in New York City at
THE INTERNATIONAL CRINGEFEST '09.
The cast from Los Angeles is going to New York for a month to work on the show. Festivals are freebies, so we're having a fundraiser to raise some cash for flights, food and more!
AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO DO IT THAN WITH:
Karen Kilgariff's hilarious musical stand-up comedy
I'M REALLY DIFFERENT (NOW)!
PISS PLAY, the actual play, by Don Cummings
w/ Carla Barnett, Flip Laffoon & David Youse
&
The Burlesque of the divine RED SNAPPER
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 @ 7PM
El Centro Theatre
804 or 800 N. El Centro Hollywood CA 90038
(2 Blocks North of Melrose, 1 Block East of Vine)
$30 includes Fabulous TRU organic Vodka "Tasting" @ 7PM
(Or all you can drink?)
and
The Show. Curtain up at 8.
Reservations: http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=198746
or 323-936-3890
Any Questions? email
StandPissCringe@yahoo.com
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ben, the two of us need live no more...
Let’s look at it this way—It was amazing he lived until 50.
What must it have been like? Exhausting? It was a lot.
What must it have been like? Exhausting? It was a lot.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Look--It Rains in June
People are getting pretty upset about all this rain in the Northeast. But I remember June being one of those rainy months in New York. Pretty much always. Boston, too, naturally.
One June, back in the day, I stayed on in Boston to take some extra courses to maybe finish college early. My good friend, Ed, and I sublet a room from a fraternity and we buckled down to submit to two courses of Organic Chemistry. We were serious pre-med. It rained every day. It was freezing cold. We lasted five days and we quit. Drove that yellow AMC Hornet Station Wagon back home.
We graduated with everyone else. We didn’t shave off any time from the normal four years.
Rain slows you down. Good. Why not? It’s good to slow down. And who wants to cram down two levels of Organic Chemistry, anyway? –In any kind of weather…
One June, back in the day, I stayed on in Boston to take some extra courses to maybe finish college early. My good friend, Ed, and I sublet a room from a fraternity and we buckled down to submit to two courses of Organic Chemistry. We were serious pre-med. It rained every day. It was freezing cold. We lasted five days and we quit. Drove that yellow AMC Hornet Station Wagon back home.
We graduated with everyone else. We didn’t shave off any time from the normal four years.
Rain slows you down. Good. Why not? It’s good to slow down. And who wants to cram down two levels of Organic Chemistry, anyway? –In any kind of weather…
Monday, June 22, 2009
Rise Up Healthy Folks and A Pigeon
Back in the late eighties when all my friends were figuring out how to fit into the work-a-day world, so many of them took jobs for the medical insurance.
I remember thinking, at that arty time in my life, “You mean, you’ll go imprison yourselves forty or more hours per week at some lackey job just so you’ll have health insurance?”
I went along without any.
Of course, now, I could not…what with all sorts of little silly things behind me: emergency appendectomy, sinus surgery, a little hernia tear fixed up, a lower back MRI, countless allergy shots, etc. etc…nothing that unusual.
I have been covered by some sort of health insurance for the past thirteen years. The joke is…right now, we pay for it (COBRA) but there were two years where I had TRIPLE coverage. That’s right. Two insurance plans through Adam, my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partner, because he switched from a non-union to a WGA union gig and the two plans overlapped, plus, I had SAG insurance.
A little ridiculous, don’t you think, to be triple covered? What a waste.
Then…there are times, like now, when the only coverage we can have is with this hideously expensive COBRA, which kind of makes me sick to my stomach.
In a world where job security does not exist, having medical insurance tied to employment is absurd. It leads to no or multiple coverage.
So now this: the pigeon (my almost roommate) who lives on the window sill below my air conditioner just won’t leave. Apparently, these beasts have bird mites which are something you don’t want to be around.
Thrown pots of water have moved her away for ten minutes at a time.
Someone I know uses a water gun with bleach in it. Seems cruel and awful.
How does one get rid of a filthy pigeon without hurting it?
I remember thinking, at that arty time in my life, “You mean, you’ll go imprison yourselves forty or more hours per week at some lackey job just so you’ll have health insurance?”
I went along without any.
Of course, now, I could not…what with all sorts of little silly things behind me: emergency appendectomy, sinus surgery, a little hernia tear fixed up, a lower back MRI, countless allergy shots, etc. etc…nothing that unusual.
I have been covered by some sort of health insurance for the past thirteen years. The joke is…right now, we pay for it (COBRA) but there were two years where I had TRIPLE coverage. That’s right. Two insurance plans through Adam, my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partner, because he switched from a non-union to a WGA union gig and the two plans overlapped, plus, I had SAG insurance.
A little ridiculous, don’t you think, to be triple covered? What a waste.
Then…there are times, like now, when the only coverage we can have is with this hideously expensive COBRA, which kind of makes me sick to my stomach.
In a world where job security does not exist, having medical insurance tied to employment is absurd. It leads to no or multiple coverage.
So now this: the pigeon (my almost roommate) who lives on the window sill below my air conditioner just won’t leave. Apparently, these beasts have bird mites which are something you don’t want to be around.
Thrown pots of water have moved her away for ten minutes at a time.
Someone I know uses a water gun with bleach in it. Seems cruel and awful.
How does one get rid of a filthy pigeon without hurting it?
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Dear Deer
Fire Island is not very far from New York and it is loaded with deer, fox, birds, turtles, plovers, you name it. All it took for it to be that way was for huge chunks of land to be set aside and for humans to live, not too densely, on the adjacent land in the thicket along with everything else.
Brilliant. Come on people! Cities are fabulous and we need our cities, fine. But couldn't everything else be like this? Or would that bring the price of prepackaged Kool-Aid in horrendous soft plasic bottles too low?
Brilliant. Come on people! Cities are fabulous and we need our cities, fine. But couldn't everything else be like this? Or would that bring the price of prepackaged Kool-Aid in horrendous soft plasic bottles too low?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Get Your Facebook URL
They’re going like hotcakes…so if your name is Susan Smith and your don’t want your URL for facebook to be www.facebook.com/SusanSmith2017 or something equally horrible, Get on it!
How to Pick your Facebook URL
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the CHOOSE YOUR OWN button. (The default choices they give you often contain a period between your first and last name.)
I was fortunate enough to get /doncummings. I have often missed the chance.
Jump.
How to Pick your Facebook URL
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the CHOOSE YOUR OWN button. (The default choices they give you often contain a period between your first and last name.)
I was fortunate enough to get /doncummings. I have often missed the chance.
Jump.
I Always Suspected the World Would End in
A HUGE FUNGUS!
I just finished reading a New Yorker article today from the May 25 issue. The mystery is solved. The frogs are all dying because of a fungus.
Yes, friends. Some British doctor in the 1930’s found a great pregnancy test could be had with some African frogs and a syringe.
Those frogs were then released into the world as a business, carrying fungus all over the place. The fungus did not affect the African frogs (clawed frogs, I think they called them). But the fungus sure didn’t agree with many other amphibian species.
Fungus also got into the bat population, killing them, too.
What is interesting is people say, “Global Warming!” for almost everything. But really, the problem is man. Whatever continent we show up on, the large mammals die--except for Africa, but only because it was not overrun with industry.
Friends, there are too many of us. It gets to a point when there are simply too many of us.
The only answer to quell this growth is rampant homosexuality and birth control for everyone else. Right?
Less strollers = less fungus among us.
I don’t want to go down in a sponge of fungus.
I never trusted the stuff. You need bleach to kill it. Who wants to spend their days bathing in and drinking bleach?
The three epic killers: Flood, Fire and Fungus.
I just finished reading a New Yorker article today from the May 25 issue. The mystery is solved. The frogs are all dying because of a fungus.
Yes, friends. Some British doctor in the 1930’s found a great pregnancy test could be had with some African frogs and a syringe.
Those frogs were then released into the world as a business, carrying fungus all over the place. The fungus did not affect the African frogs (clawed frogs, I think they called them). But the fungus sure didn’t agree with many other amphibian species.
Fungus also got into the bat population, killing them, too.
What is interesting is people say, “Global Warming!” for almost everything. But really, the problem is man. Whatever continent we show up on, the large mammals die--except for Africa, but only because it was not overrun with industry.
Friends, there are too many of us. It gets to a point when there are simply too many of us.
The only answer to quell this growth is rampant homosexuality and birth control for everyone else. Right?
Less strollers = less fungus among us.
I don’t want to go down in a sponge of fungus.
I never trusted the stuff. You need bleach to kill it. Who wants to spend their days bathing in and drinking bleach?
The three epic killers: Flood, Fire and Fungus.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
This is the Problem
I was with some Los Angeles friends who were visiting from Los Angeles. They were staying in the Chelsea Hotel. We went up, talked and lounged on the beds.
Ninth Floor.
A great view of the north side of 23rd Street.
The Chelsea Hotel.
Back in the day (and I guess I was never young), but back in the day, I was kind of afraid of the place. It was a peeling heroin den. But it was cheap. Wacked creative people could live there.
Now, as we all know (and it has been known for years), it’s all cleaned up with overhead lighting from Lamps Plus, curtain rods from Restoration Hardware and some leftover Sixties furniture, sort of grooving it out, sort of sadly abandoned.
Look, I will admit, if I were to stay in the Chelsea Hotel, I would rather stay in it today than twenty years ago.
But this is the thing. WHY can’t things be mall-updated AND cheap?
Or even more fundamentally, WHY can’t poor people, I don’t care if they are addicted to heroin, make their places decent and clean and refuse to move out?
Or even more simply, WHY did everything get so bland and expensive?
Of course, I’d rather not have the mall-updates in the Chelsea Hotel. But I think it is a bit better than a carpet of used needles. However, it could have been redone with greater care.
I would like New York to calm down and get poorer. It will be interesting if we can do this, together, and not let everything peel and fall apart and end up dangerous, again.
Ninth Floor.
A great view of the north side of 23rd Street.
The Chelsea Hotel.
Back in the day (and I guess I was never young), but back in the day, I was kind of afraid of the place. It was a peeling heroin den. But it was cheap. Wacked creative people could live there.
Now, as we all know (and it has been known for years), it’s all cleaned up with overhead lighting from Lamps Plus, curtain rods from Restoration Hardware and some leftover Sixties furniture, sort of grooving it out, sort of sadly abandoned.
Look, I will admit, if I were to stay in the Chelsea Hotel, I would rather stay in it today than twenty years ago.
But this is the thing. WHY can’t things be mall-updated AND cheap?
Or even more fundamentally, WHY can’t poor people, I don’t care if they are addicted to heroin, make their places decent and clean and refuse to move out?
Or even more simply, WHY did everything get so bland and expensive?
Of course, I’d rather not have the mall-updates in the Chelsea Hotel. But I think it is a bit better than a carpet of used needles. However, it could have been redone with greater care.
I would like New York to calm down and get poorer. It will be interesting if we can do this, together, and not let everything peel and fall apart and end up dangerous, again.
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Good Smoke---After
My agent said something about A Good Smoke.
“It’s not a comedy. It’s painfully funny.”
Well said.
I want to thank my tens of blog readers at www.opentrench.blogspot.com and friends, (Facebook and otherwise) who remained curious about “The event”—there has been the desire to know, “How did the reading go?”
The answer is---it was quite something. To have Henry and Grace and Meryl and Debra and John and Paul up there…doing this thing, after just three hours of rehearsal, and to really get the bone of it, was really something else.
Debra Monk was a riot, at performance level. This is a truly supporting role, and she was hilarious, fully in there.
John and Paul, Dad and brother, had the least showy roles and came in, with full understanding. Pure pleasure to watch them.
The main event was Henry Wolfe Gummer and Grace Gummer as brother and sister with their mom played by their real mom, Meryl Streep. Henry and Grace are both naturals. Fantastic to watch. Truthful. Vulnerable. Connected. Real. And funny. Meryl tackled this big, hard part, never pushing once, always finding the comedy, poking around to discover a take, a tactic, a strange corner of her psyche. Born comedienne. Funny, sad and more--
It sounds like I’m giving a review of my own play, which is kind of weird. So…I’ll leave it alone at this point.
I was very grateful. I felt calm and happy. The response was strong. More ahead.
I did not want to blog about the reading, thinking it might be tacky to do so. But to not blog about it would have been a mock-hip omission.
Solid Response.
So, let's get back to our lives.
Work. Good work. Always work.
“It’s not a comedy. It’s painfully funny.”
Well said.
I want to thank my tens of blog readers at www.opentrench.blogspot.com and friends, (Facebook and otherwise) who remained curious about “The event”—there has been the desire to know, “How did the reading go?”
The answer is---it was quite something. To have Henry and Grace and Meryl and Debra and John and Paul up there…doing this thing, after just three hours of rehearsal, and to really get the bone of it, was really something else.
Debra Monk was a riot, at performance level. This is a truly supporting role, and she was hilarious, fully in there.
John and Paul, Dad and brother, had the least showy roles and came in, with full understanding. Pure pleasure to watch them.
The main event was Henry Wolfe Gummer and Grace Gummer as brother and sister with their mom played by their real mom, Meryl Streep. Henry and Grace are both naturals. Fantastic to watch. Truthful. Vulnerable. Connected. Real. And funny. Meryl tackled this big, hard part, never pushing once, always finding the comedy, poking around to discover a take, a tactic, a strange corner of her psyche. Born comedienne. Funny, sad and more--
It sounds like I’m giving a review of my own play, which is kind of weird. So…I’ll leave it alone at this point.
I was very grateful. I felt calm and happy. The response was strong. More ahead.
I did not want to blog about the reading, thinking it might be tacky to do so. But to not blog about it would have been a mock-hip omission.
Solid Response.
So, let's get back to our lives.
Work. Good work. Always work.
Friday, June 12, 2009
When Visiting NYC
Go sit on a sweaty plastic lawn chair in Times Square...sure. Why not? I have to say, it is something else to see a huge patch of road turned into a place for humans to plop.
Much going on in the state of NY. The legislature has moved a wee bit to the right, through some secret cabal-coup. Looks like gay marriage could be passed over, again. How dull.
There's this:
A Good Smoke Reading at the Public, which is at capacity, or actually just a wee bit beyond. We need to lose six people, or have six people stand. Fine.
It is raining very hard. We have all the windows open. It's like a cool rain forest here in Queens. I highly recommend it! Makes me understand the exact kind of monkey I am.
Trees, trees, trees, please!
I think the blank look in the eyes of so many Southern California natives is because they never got in touch with their primal monkey selves. Or maybe they're just happy and calm looking because it's so nice outside all the time?
THE HIGH LINE IS OPEN! Can't wait to see it. You know--that old freight trestle that runs from The Meatpacking District to the 30's. They left it kind of rough and tracky with wild native plantings. Brilliant.
Clear air. Rain. Clear air. Rain. Clear air. Rain.
Have a great weekend.
Much going on in the state of NY. The legislature has moved a wee bit to the right, through some secret cabal-coup. Looks like gay marriage could be passed over, again. How dull.
There's this:
A Good Smoke Reading at the Public, which is at capacity, or actually just a wee bit beyond. We need to lose six people, or have six people stand. Fine.
It is raining very hard. We have all the windows open. It's like a cool rain forest here in Queens. I highly recommend it! Makes me understand the exact kind of monkey I am.
Trees, trees, trees, please!
I think the blank look in the eyes of so many Southern California natives is because they never got in touch with their primal monkey selves. Or maybe they're just happy and calm looking because it's so nice outside all the time?
THE HIGH LINE IS OPEN! Can't wait to see it. You know--that old freight trestle that runs from The Meatpacking District to the 30's. They left it kind of rough and tracky with wild native plantings. Brilliant.
Clear air. Rain. Clear air. Rain. Clear air. Rain.
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Stand Piss Dance! July 1 @ 7PM
PISS PLAY IS ABOUT MINORITIES SO IT's REALLY IMPORTANT
is being produced this summer in New York City at
THE INTERNATIONAL CRINGEFEST '09.
The cast from Los Angeles is going to New York for a month to work on the show. Festivals are freebies, so we're having a fundraiser to raise some cash for flights, food and more!
AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO DO IT THAN WITH:
Karen Kilgariff's hilarious musical stand-up comedy
I'M REALLY DIFFERENT (NOW)!
PISS PLAY, the actual play, by Don Cummings
w/ Carla Barnett, Flip Laffoon & David Youse
&
The Burlesque of the divine RED SNAPPER
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 @ 7PM
El Centro Theatre
804 or 800 N. El Centro Hollywood CA 90038
(2 Blocks North of Melrose, 1 Block East of Vine)
$30 includes Fabulous TRU organic Vodka "Tasting" @ 7PM
(Or all you can drink?)
and
The Show. Curtain up at 8.
Reservations: http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=198746
or 323-936-3890
Any Questions? email
StandPissCringe@yahoo.com
Monday, June 08, 2009
L’Heure d’été
Will Juliette Binoche ever age?
Will the French ever stop making high quality movies for smart adults?
Will huge, crumbling houses in the country, just a train ride from Paris, ever lose their romance and appeal?
Will etudes on loss, old age, families moving on, stuff moving on, everything moving on ever cease to be interesting?
And why does the IFC theatre in Greenwich Village smell like a mixture of mops and body odor?
(Plus—Charles Berling, will you always be this handsome?)
Look, L’Heure d’été (Summer Hours) was sad, beautiful, you name it. A simple story. Mom dies and the grown kids split the stuff up. It’s complicated, though, to handle the emotions of the experience. The oldest, as always, gets stuck with all the hard work. The other two siblings don’t even live in France any longer. They just come back to do what they have to do. Busy lives. Truly Western people living in the great big world, dealing with transition.
Loved it. But then, I am patient and love a movie about relationships, especially if the movie is shot well and takes place in an ideal setting.
Sure, these people do not have any REAL problems. But that means we can look at tiny realities and come away with great clarity. And of course, it is so about the former housekeeper. She reminded me of my grandmother.
Catch it. Renting it would be fine, too.
Will the French ever stop making high quality movies for smart adults?
Will huge, crumbling houses in the country, just a train ride from Paris, ever lose their romance and appeal?
Will etudes on loss, old age, families moving on, stuff moving on, everything moving on ever cease to be interesting?
And why does the IFC theatre in Greenwich Village smell like a mixture of mops and body odor?
(Plus—Charles Berling, will you always be this handsome?)
Look, L’Heure d’été (Summer Hours) was sad, beautiful, you name it. A simple story. Mom dies and the grown kids split the stuff up. It’s complicated, though, to handle the emotions of the experience. The oldest, as always, gets stuck with all the hard work. The other two siblings don’t even live in France any longer. They just come back to do what they have to do. Busy lives. Truly Western people living in the great big world, dealing with transition.
Loved it. But then, I am patient and love a movie about relationships, especially if the movie is shot well and takes place in an ideal setting.
Sure, these people do not have any REAL problems. But that means we can look at tiny realities and come away with great clarity. And of course, it is so about the former housekeeper. She reminded me of my grandmother.
Catch it. Renting it would be fine, too.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Art by the Ferry Sunday, June 7 @ 1:40PM
The lovely Marian Fontana is curating the readings at the Art by the Ferry Festival taking place this weekend and next throughout St. George. Numerous artists, writers, musicians and more from all over the city will be displaying their art, playing music, leading workshops and doing readings.
I will be reading tomorrow at at the Fishes Eddy building at 1:40PM, 139 Bay Street along with my talented writer friends from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Beyond. It’s just a five minute walk from the ferry terminal.
So please support the arts by attending this FREE EVENT!! For more information log onto Art by the Ferry.
I will be reading tomorrow at at the Fishes Eddy building at 1:40PM, 139 Bay Street along with my talented writer friends from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Beyond. It’s just a five minute walk from the ferry terminal.
So please support the arts by attending this FREE EVENT!! For more information log onto Art by the Ferry.
Friday, June 05, 2009
LIVE WORK SPACE--JUNE 30 @ 7:30 PM
You Are Cordially Invited to
A Staged Reading of a New Play
LIVE WORK SPACE
By Don Cummings
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 @ 7:30 PM
WEST COAST ENSEMBLE
800 North El Centro Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90038
(2 Blocks North of Melrose, 1 Block East of Vine, Easy Parking)
Directed by Ben Campbell
With
Dan Alemshah Blake Anthony Kimberly Bailey*
Carla Barnett David Kaufman* David Youse*
R.S.V.P. LiveWorkSpace@yahoo.com
In every intimate relationship, one tries to find the better truth, to see a reflection of the greatness of being alive. We hope this truth will lead us to closeness with the one we love. But sometimes, the truth rends us asunder. Live Work Space humorously chides the truth out of two loft living couples in downtown Los Angeles while Disney Hall taunts them in the distance. Open sexual policies, a failed marijuana business plan and a dashed party to honor the homeless aggressively collude to destroy modern marriage in these lofty urban times. With corn and beaver.
www.doncummings.net
(*AEA)
West Coast Ensemble is
Under the artistic direction of Les Hanson and Richard Israel.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
What's New in the Hampshire?
With the exception of little Rhode Island, one can go anywhere, as a gay person, in all of New England (and Iowa) and get married. How nice for us!
New Hampshire: Live Free or Die.
New Hampshire is an interesting state. It is loaded with real old timey Republicans. State’s rights, don’t tread on me, libertarian-almost-sort of, Republicans. Republicans that I can even understand!
Ah, the Gay Rights Movement is on the march.
New York State is next.
Then New Jersey.
Then, let me guess:
Maryland will be after that.
Then Washington State.
Oregon.
California.
Nevada.
New Mexico.
BIG PAUSE
Delaware
Rhode Island
2012
Obama’s Reelection.
Minnesota
Wisconsin
2014
Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act.
2015
Civil War.
2016
Hillary Clinton is elected President, first woman and first widow. War continues.
2017
Fuck it, we let the South go... and let them take the lower Midwest and Rocky Mountain States with them.
2018
Refugee Camps. Ideological Relocation.
2020
Balance and Sanity after much murder and mayhem.
And all because some people just can’t stand the idea of two penises or two vaginas rubbing together…
New Hampshire: Live Free or Die.
New Hampshire is an interesting state. It is loaded with real old timey Republicans. State’s rights, don’t tread on me, libertarian-almost-sort of, Republicans. Republicans that I can even understand!
Ah, the Gay Rights Movement is on the march.
New York State is next.
Then New Jersey.
Then, let me guess:
Maryland will be after that.
Then Washington State.
Oregon.
California.
Nevada.
New Mexico.
BIG PAUSE
Delaware
Rhode Island
2012
Obama’s Reelection.
Minnesota
Wisconsin
2014
Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act.
2015
Civil War.
2016
Hillary Clinton is elected President, first woman and first widow. War continues.
2017
Fuck it, we let the South go... and let them take the lower Midwest and Rocky Mountain States with them.
2018
Refugee Camps. Ideological Relocation.
2020
Balance and Sanity after much murder and mayhem.
And all because some people just can’t stand the idea of two penises or two vaginas rubbing together…
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
One Small Manipulation for Man, One Giant Help for Mankind
Obama is going on about telling the truth. Great. Good. Tell it. Especially in the Middle East. But I believe he is being a little dishonest with this Health Care Plan. Let’s face it. If there is a national health plan competing with private insurance companies, don’t you think it will put those companies out of business?
With the economies of scale, is it not possible that the government can simply wipe out Anthem Blue Cross, Healthnet, you name it?
Look, I hope it does. I am not going to pretend I like Anthem. In fact, I have NEVER been able to get private insurance coverage because of my silly allergies. If it wasn’t for my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partner having insurance through work, I would have had huge troubles.
So, a pox on Anthem and all the other companies that denied me insurance because I have the most common allergies known to man (cat, dust, mold, pollen). I will be happy to see them go down.
But to pretend that a system backed by the government will not put these beasts out of business and that it will only bring about healthy competition? I think Obama and the Democrats are telling half-truths. Spinning things, if you will.
I do see a day when all health care will be under the purview and care of the Feds. So be it. The fear that it will be inferior and all this talk (by Mitt Romney, etc.) comparing UPS to USPS and pretending UPS is superior because it is not owned by the government is such hogwash. In fact, I think the USPS works better, even if their workers do not get to wear those jaunty little brown outfits.
So bring on full federally backed health care. Sure, you sneaks. Do it.
With the economies of scale, is it not possible that the government can simply wipe out Anthem Blue Cross, Healthnet, you name it?
Look, I hope it does. I am not going to pretend I like Anthem. In fact, I have NEVER been able to get private insurance coverage because of my silly allergies. If it wasn’t for my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partner having insurance through work, I would have had huge troubles.
So, a pox on Anthem and all the other companies that denied me insurance because I have the most common allergies known to man (cat, dust, mold, pollen). I will be happy to see them go down.
But to pretend that a system backed by the government will not put these beasts out of business and that it will only bring about healthy competition? I think Obama and the Democrats are telling half-truths. Spinning things, if you will.
I do see a day when all health care will be under the purview and care of the Feds. So be it. The fear that it will be inferior and all this talk (by Mitt Romney, etc.) comparing UPS to USPS and pretending UPS is superior because it is not owned by the government is such hogwash. In fact, I think the USPS works better, even if their workers do not get to wear those jaunty little brown outfits.
So bring on full federally backed health care. Sure, you sneaks. Do it.
Monday, June 01, 2009
What's Good for GM IS Good for the Country
I grew up on General Motors. My father worked for a Chevrolet dealership as a comptroller. We were middle class people, absolutely not fancy, but certainly well fed, well schooled, well traveled and loaded up with color televisions.
There was a sure solidity to our finances. Nothing Vanderbilty, but certainly not leaky-shack-in-the-woods.
My mother used to quote it this way, “You can always tell how the country is doing by how General Motors is doing.”
Why are moms always right?
She felt it because wives of husbands who worked for GM always felt it. And as we well know, women are financially intuitive, especially Italian ones!
So, Mom, yes…we can tell how the country is doing by General Motors.
These are beastly times.
But let’s get back to the 1950’s quote, “What’s Good for General Motors is good for the country.”
I agree. Retool it, Washington. Enough is enough. Though I love my 1992 Geo Prizm with its 151,000 miles, which still runs on gas, though not too much gas, I would say we have reached the end of the internal combustion engine.
People want to work. They want to build things they can be proud of. Plus, every century, psychologically, needs to ramp up toward the progressive amelioration of man’s balance with nature. There are so many workers who would take a job in a factory that builds the green engineered products of not tomorrow, but today. So let’s get to it!
In addition, those boss cats at GM were gray and dumb. Why people get gray and dumb is beyond me. So they can sit around? New world. New world. New world, please.
I’m being kind. Let’s hear a few words now from Michael Moore, who is also being kind, in his way.
Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore
June 1, 2009
I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.
As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?
It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.
So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.
But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?
Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:
1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.
We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.
The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.
President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.
2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.
3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.
4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.
5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.
6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).
7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.
8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.
9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.
Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.
100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.
Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.
So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.
Yours,
Michael Moore
There was a sure solidity to our finances. Nothing Vanderbilty, but certainly not leaky-shack-in-the-woods.
My mother used to quote it this way, “You can always tell how the country is doing by how General Motors is doing.”
Why are moms always right?
She felt it because wives of husbands who worked for GM always felt it. And as we well know, women are financially intuitive, especially Italian ones!
So, Mom, yes…we can tell how the country is doing by General Motors.
These are beastly times.
But let’s get back to the 1950’s quote, “What’s Good for General Motors is good for the country.”
I agree. Retool it, Washington. Enough is enough. Though I love my 1992 Geo Prizm with its 151,000 miles, which still runs on gas, though not too much gas, I would say we have reached the end of the internal combustion engine.
People want to work. They want to build things they can be proud of. Plus, every century, psychologically, needs to ramp up toward the progressive amelioration of man’s balance with nature. There are so many workers who would take a job in a factory that builds the green engineered products of not tomorrow, but today. So let’s get to it!
In addition, those boss cats at GM were gray and dumb. Why people get gray and dumb is beyond me. So they can sit around? New world. New world. New world, please.
I’m being kind. Let’s hear a few words now from Michael Moore, who is also being kind, in his way.
Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore
June 1, 2009
I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.
As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?
It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.
So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.
But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?
Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:
1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.
We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.
The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.
President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.
2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.
3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.
4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.
5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.
6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).
7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.
8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.
9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.
Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.
100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.
Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.
So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.
Yours,
Michael Moore
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