Rupert

We interrupt Rupert to announce...

I have two posts I'd like to post, but I just wanted to post that Carla Bozulich, one of Rupert's patron saints, is playing The Stone on the lower east side of New York on Tuesday, September 2. I had to miss a couple of local shows with Carla and her current band, Evangelista this year, but I've still seen three shows, all a little different, all transcendent. Carla has Tara Barnes as bassist all the time, and Dominic Cramp as keyboardist/sampler and then beyond that, she's like Chuck Berry using a different group of people at all times and it somehow stays this formed contextual thing and yet it's always different... sometimes more fun, sometimes a bit sadder... based on the collaboration of the particular night. I have no idea who will be at the Stone but Okkyung Lee played cello at the Bowery Ballroom with Evangelista last week and the great Lisa Gamble and Ches Smith shared a drum set. At that show, Carla mentioned that the show at the Stone may be the last show in NY in a while, so it's a good chance it will be memorable. Also the Stone doesn't consider itself a club as much as a gallery. It's a small space with folding chairs and no bar... you can find yourself shushed at the Stone, yet the whole Evangelista aesthetic is to bring the audience in so I really want to see what develops. Anyway, I thought I'd post since essentially the Stone shows don't get a lot of publicity and I thought I could catch some search engine user who was looking up Carla Bozulich but didn't know about the show. Did I? Also counter-intuitive to the usual Stone show... Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers plays the next night. Both shows are at 10pm on their respective nights. See The Stone's website for more details.

Yet another post about Zooey Deschanel

Yay! Yet another excuse to add a picture from Tin Man. Which at some point I will post something besides stupid babble about because in the commentary on the DVD one of the producers or perhaps directors points out that the Wizard of Oz was the first truly "American" myth. Which I think is both true and not true because in many ways it has a lot to do with the Homeric epic storytelling tradition but updated with a bit of "American" melting pot idealism. And the one thing that I think is interesting about this version is that many people have questioned the title "Tin Man" because the center of the story is Zooey Deschanel or DG not Neal McDonough or "Tin Man" character. But in the updated version the "Tin Man" has two meanings one is a name for police officers or law enforcement people the other is the "Tin Suit" that members of the resistance to the current oppressive government are forced into and then locked up in for years. In the case of Neal McDonough he's forced to watch a scene where he believes his family is killed because of his involvement with the resistance and there is an element to all the characters that join DG where they have all been forced to stand aside and watch as terrible scenes that damage their lives are acted out over and over and the "quest" is one of finding empowerment of finding a way to become involved in one's life after all being "tin-suited" in their own way.It is also about finding a way to resolved the damage as best as possible and overcome a bad situation.

And the other thing I wanted to mention is that I think in She&Him, Vol.1 on the song "I thought I saw your face today" Zooey pulls a Maria Wyeth in her lyrics! She writes "The cars and freeways implore me to stay away out of this place/My mother said, "Just keep your head, and play it as it lays." She not only references the title of the Joan Didion book that I worship but she brings up the iconic image of Maria Wyeth driving the freeways endlessly merging into traffic herself heartbroken and distraught. I am not sure if this is an actual scene in "Play it as it Lays" because I haven't read the book in such a long time it is just that she puts the touchstones in her lyrics. I still have to listen to the whole album but I love what I've heard so far.

I also read somewhere that Keira Knightely is doing vocal work on something and it kind of isn't fair that Zooey gets tainted by the Actress-slash-singer categorization and that somehow that makes her project less vaiid and automatically a vanity project when it really isn't. And I have to stop defending the fact that I like the albume and that I think Zooey should be taken seriously as a musician because then on some level I'm buying into the idea that an actress is less of a musician. It isn't fair to her project. Just because other actresses have projects coming out that don't have the credentials that Zooey does, doesn't mean she should be lumped in the same category. 

Zooey Deschanel: Patron Saint of Rupert and the TAMBOURINE

   I had a bummer of a day this morning I went to download She and Him, Volume 1 off of itunes and i got an error. Lately i-tunes has been really diva-ish in its behavior. First I rented Michael Clayton because the instructions said that one could watch rented movies on ipods and move them to other computers. So i downloaded the film and tried to get it show up on my ipod and it didn't then I tried to move it to my powerbook but it claimed that the file wasn't authorized to play on the current machine so I deauthorized my main computer and it still didn't work and ever since thing i-tunes has been wonky. Now that isn't the fun stuff--the fun stuff starts here:

I stole the image of Zooey (our current reigning diva of the moment) because I've watched the Tin Man a gazillion times and she gets better everytime I watch it and I love the She&Him songs I've heard but NOW Zooey is part of the Tambourine Players Hall of Fame. It is this website that I've done with Anthony and a number of friends. It hasn't been updated in forever and Anthony and I keep talking about how we have to do it...now that I ripped off someone's profile pic from the PRG "Must Be Pop" just to place Zooey in our shrine and give me an excuse to reproduce yet another picture of Zooey Deschanel we definitely have to do it. If anyone actually reads this blog besides Anthony and I here's the link for our tambourine players hall of fame 

Tambourine Players Hall of Fame

We are open to any suggestions that anyone might have because we know it is far from complete and since we now have motivation to work on 2.0.

Dorothy Parker swag

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/dorothy%20parker?CMP=CJ-CLICK-10462223&sid=CTTcpk34506-576-1

I found this website late last night and I haven't looked at it again--so it might suck cuz well you know it was late.

personally my favorite Dorothy Parker quote is: Lips that taste of tears are the best for kissing. All right that is not verbatim and it is sorta very the Cure but what can I say I never grew out of my wounded adolescent stage. And if you are by any chance wanting to surprise me with a gift--no I don't want the Martini thong...i think one should not wear one's favorite drink on one's sleeve nor on ones undergarments. However, if anyone is in a charitable mood I'd love a mousepad with the "I'm never going to be famous..." quote or a Long Sleeve Dark Shirt with DP's picture and "you can't teach an old dogma new tricks" quote.

If anyone does buy the thong please send us pictures so we can post them!

Lilo v. Zooey

In the Spring fashion issue of NY Magazine, Lindsay Lohan is the cover girl and she recreates Marilyn's last photo shoot-- photographer Bert Stern and all. The photographs of MM were taken in 1962 and subsequently turned into a book containing 2,571 photographs of Marilyn Monroe. It took Marilyn all of 15 minutes to take her clothes off and the photographs have a rather strange quality because unlike today when celebrities go everywhere with an entourage the photos of "The Last Sitting" were done with just Stern and Monroe and if ever there was a "male gaze" these photgraphs exemplify it--they are a total view of what Marilyn had become by that time--nothing but a sexpot. Gone was the irony, the ability to use her sexuality in the service of her other talents (singing, acting, etc). She was now in the twilight of her life--she'd earned a bad rep in the stuido days because she'd been chastised by William Wilder for being late to the Some Like it Hot Set so her starlet days amounted to a blackball and she'd been through marriages and the Kennedys and she was at the end of her road and nothing was left but for her to use her sexuality to make people want her. Not unlike Britney Spears sans underwear, the flight to sexual provocateur is taken as a last ditch effort for these women (Monroe, Lohan, Spears) to stay in frot of the camera.

In the interview with Lohan that accompanies the photogaphs (the one reproduced here is a modest photo) Lohan says of Monroe, "Here is a woman who is giving herself to the public...She's saying, 'Look you've taken a lot from me, so why don't I give it you myself.' She's taking control back." And Amanda Fortini the writer of the text that accompanies the photos writes, " Like any tabloid veteran, Lohan understands the potency of a photograph, and that the best way to respond to a society that views you only as an image might just be on its own terms."

I disagree with that...I think Britney Spears was caught up in that, she continually tried to find a way to gain control or find some kind of solid ground by pushing the boundaries by appearing more and more provocative--yet in the end the sad images of her being ever more provocative and then lashing out at the paparazzi when the photographs were not received as she planned illustrate how she'd lost control of the whole process and for her clearly the best way to respond "to a society that views [her] only as an image" was definitely not on its own terms. She was a victim of the image factory as in my mind Lohan is as well. Lohan and Britney (especially) are reduced to selling sexuality and thinking that it is power when in point of fact it is a debased position--Lohan's not an actress, Spears is not a singer, neither is anything but a powerless sex symbol (which isn't to say all sex symbols are powerless or debased--some knowing choose to objectify themselves from places of power--Madonna, Angelia Jolie, Jennifer Garner are just a few examples).

Zooey Deschanel last year was quoted stating the following:"I'm scared for young women, because we're not necessarily progressing. "People think that it's good to use sex as power. They think that's new. Flaunting your body, going around half-naked and being sexy to get your way - it's so missing the point. "We're not even talking about the fact that women still don't have enough role in running the country." And she sees Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears as regressive rather than progressive.

And it is a question to ask--at what point are women in control of their sexuality and at what point does it become a last ditch effort to remain in front of the camera at any price? And something that is thrown out there when every other label "actress," "singer," "performer" has been taken away and as Lohan noted everything has been taken and instead of being in control Monroe and Lohan and Spears and I would add Paris Hilton and Tara Reid become nothing but centerfolds pandering to the lowest interests? And a good contrast here is someone like Madonna who always seems to project power in her sexuality, she's never seemed like a victim, never seemed like she was out of control and that her sexual images came from a place where it was "you've taken everything from me, now you may as well have this too..." Something to ponder...

Giggling with the stars

I found out this morning that Monica Seles will be featured in the new season of Dancing With The Stars. Later today, I leaned that she'd retired this week. I thought she'd actually retired by now. Franny told me that she'd been training for a comeback. I wonder if she decided to retire the moment she got the TV offer. Besides being my all-time favorite tennis player, I've always thought she'd make a great pop culture presence and it might be fun watching the non-tennis watching world take to her if she makes a good showing. What's upsetting about all of this is that I feel compelled to watch Dancing With The Stars. Enjoyer of musicals and dancing that I am, I've tried to watch it and found I couldn't last a whole season.

This is sort of a boring post because I can't muster enough enthusiasm to say much more about that TV show. I'm sad that Monica is retiring but I felt for a while that her heart was no longer in it, even though she'd had some amazing moments in later years. I'm glad she'll be back in the spotlight in some way. I've posted this under, among other things, Patron Saints. Does she qualify, Franny?

you must know about my debutante

Well, I'm not the expert on Edie Sedgwick, but on Franny's behalf, I'll submit her as a patron saint. And in keeping with the posts about Heath and Michelle, I just saw the last movie that features the two of them even though they don't appear together. I'd never think of having Michelle Williams play Edie, and of course, she doesn't play Edie in I'm Not There, she plays "CoCo the debutante," but as I said, I'm not the expert but she gets the essence of Edie perfectly and the scenes in which she plays against Cate Blanchett's Jude... acting as his true conscience while being taken without any seriousness by anyone... are hilarious and poignant. What a good movie. I should post about it! (Actually now that I think of it, Me Without You was kind of a precursor but I couldn't get through that.)

And moving into our decade of celebrity debs: does anyone actually realize that a Paris Hilton romantic comedy was actually released theatrically this week? And that it's called The Hottie and the Nottie???!!!! And that there are some really crazy yes-men out there approving of these things? It's already been voted the number 3 worst movie of all time on IMDB. Which is fixed because noone's actually seen it: I just read that it made $76 per screen! That would mean roughly seven people total went to all the screenings at any one theater for the first two days. Why don't these things just go straight to video!???

More stuff from the pseudo-manager

Here's a patron saint post

AGNES VARDA although I still haven't gone through my 4 from Varda DVD set but that gets into being asleep and all sorts of other stuff.

I've never felt more irrelevant in my entire life.