Slideshow: Untitled 2009 Theater Production, Creation Session #1: Belfort, France (June 20 - 25, 2009)

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Belfort, our lodgings, the CCN

Constructing the sketch set *

* for the real set, the 'forest' will be fleshed out such that the entire stage will hold a dense realistic thicket of trees, earth, rocks, fallen branches, leaves, etc., intersected by a small manmade trail, and the front of the stage will be covered with a transparent screen to give the feeling that one is watching a theater piece occurring inside a large diorama.

The supervisors: Gisele Vienne (director), Stephen O'Malley (score), Shiro Takatani (holograms & special effects), and, not pictured, DC (texts and dramaturgy)

The performers: Margret Sara Gudjonsdottir, Jonathan Capdevielle, Jonathan Schatz
Margret plays an aspiring Olympics gymnast who realizes over the course of the piece that she's not talented enough and has wasted her life. Jonathan Capdevielle plays Margret's trainer. He's obsessed with her and has just raped her in the forest before the piece begins. Jonathan Schatz plays the member of a famous rock band who just murdered his girlfriend and has ventured into the forest hoping to disappear.

Warm ups, conference, make up test

Early, primitive holography tests

Creation & rehearsals

Farewell dinner

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p.s. Hey. Wow, Michael Jackson, that's big. I was asleep when all that happened and woke up into a world swallowed by the news. I'm know I'm weird, but my reservoir of sadness goes to Sky Saxon, whose death earlier yesterday is now buried in the giant shadow. On a hugely more trivial note, my back is still fucked up, but I have a tentative plan to cease mentioning that fact as of this minute. Above are pix from the Belfort experience. I'm not sure how interesting they'll prove or how legible the work we did will be in the images, as we're at an early stage of the piece's development, but I share them simply in order to share them. Any questions or anything, just ask. Alerts: (1) For those of you who are in NYC and its environs, know that tomorrow the 27th from 5 to 7 pm at Printed Matter, 195 Tenth Avenue (btwn 21st St. and 22nd St.), there'll be a party to celebrate the publication of 'The Voidoid', Richard Hell's great, long o.o.p. 1973 book which is being reissued with illustrations by the amazing artist and distinguished local Kier. Hell will read from the book, and both he and Kier will sign copies, and it's all completely free. It's kind of a serious must of an event, if you ask me. (2) Equally of high note, if you are in San Francisco or its environs, know that on Sunday the 28th from 4 to 6 pm at 2nd Floor Projects, 3740 25th Street, no. 205, the amazing writer and d.l. Stephen Boyer will be reading a new piece called 'andmoreagain' that was created for the very art show wherein he will be standing and reciting. Your attendance is very recommended by yours truly. Now I'll head onwards and try to cover the comments from Wednesday and yesterday. ** Steven Trull, Steven! Where've you been, man. I've missed you. Fill me in if you have a minute or two, okay? ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, Hey, Nick. I caught your comment just before my internet blackout the day before yesterday, and I tried that crossing the feet trick, and it did help, and it's still helping me. I even did it on the rocking train yesterday, which required a bit of stealth. So thank you, man. You're now officially my favorite pain killer. Ha ha, but it's true. When do you take off for Spain? Early next week? ** Pascal, Hey. Thanks, man. Yeah, into every life a little .... something occasionally falls. What are you up to that brings you into an internet cafe in Dublin? ** David c., Hey. To materialize my inner geek for a moment, any seeable pix of your balloon animal making session? I'm actually trying to work a bit of balloon animal into my novel, which I suppose explains something or other. ** Roger Clarke, Oh, yes, I think I recall you telling me about your own back related hell. The doctor says I need to walk a lot and not sit in a chair for long stretches. The former advice is easy to take and fulfill, but the latter is the wrench in the works considering my, err, lifestyle. Hope the Isle is lovely, and I'll try to hook up with you by email this weekend in hopes we can start cementing a real meet up. ** Chris, Hey. Yeah, the traveling yesterday wasn't a big help, and I suppose the fact that I was traveling with Stephen and helping him get his battalion of guitars and amps and stuff on and off the train wasn't the smartest ever move, but that's what friends are for. You're the one who sent the Iggy 'Sixteen' clip, right? Nice. I like that particular Iggy album/period. Do you know that song ... is it called 'I'm Only 5'1"'? I love that. Great about the NYU visit. I heard back from Marvin last week, and he said he'd do all he could to help you/us. Wow, I only vaguely recall that text Ishmael is talking about. I sure hope it's somewhere in the 'Them' files. I imagine it must be. I'm totally blanking on that text. Weird. ** David, Oh, I like the idea of my skeleton being an ally who must be monitored. That was beautiful. If I steal that for my novel, you'll get a footnote. ** Stan_cz, Ugh, on the seriousness of this new mom fallout. Well, hopefully you'll be away from her soon one way or another. My apartment in LA isn't too far from LACC, just up the Avenue, almost walking distance. Interesting. Yeah, I'm not an expert on that school, but I've known people who've attended, and, basically, from what I understand, going there would be a way to get you to LA but not necessarily a way for you to learn anything particularly special. But I don't know how the school is faring in terms of its quality at the very moment. I've never heard of Duotrope's Digest before. Hm. I'll go fool around with it and see what use it might be from my perspective. Maybe others here have used it. ** Bernard Welt, I guess I'll have an audio peek at the new Tortoise. They've always just seemed to me like they were a few IQ and hipster points north of the easy listening genre. Not my thing. But I've certainly thrown away the wrong band before. 'Year One', huh? Really? Hm, okay, probably when it's rentable then. ** Alan, I don't know a lot about the origin of the Burroughs 'essay' on my work. As it was told to me, Burroughs wrote it himself. It was just a think out loud reaction to his having read 'Closer' and 'Frisk', I think. As far as what I think of it, it's hard for me to get beyond how incredibly honored I feel that he was inspired to write something about my work. I thought it was quite beautiful and curiously thought out. I haven't looked at it since the Leora Lev book first came out, but I should. The early Keanu Reeves circa the 'River's Edge', 'Permanent Record', 'Bill and Ted', 'Prince of Pennsylvania' era was someone I was thinking about and using a character model when writing 'Frisk', I think most particularly re: the character 'Henry'. Reeves might actually be referenced in 'Frisk' too, I can't remember. That's the connection. No, I don't have a problem with you photocopying the correspondence. If you were going to print or quote from it, it might be good to run that by me first, but, no, it's totally fine for you to do that as far as I'm concerned. Thanks, Alan. ** SYpHA_69, Well, you got the psychiatrist's number, so that's a good step, right? You think you're going to call him and set up an appointment? If your doctor's right about the source of your symptoms, that kind of 'treatment' could be the best medicine for what's ailing you, you know? Good news about you beginning to get back into your writing, obviously. The muse dictates when that should begin, and making art can be something of a curative thing as well, of course. ** Marcus Whale, Hey. Oh, that writing by you is beautiful. Everyone, you might think about heading over here and reading a lovely short piece of writing by the artist, writer, musician, and d.l. Marcus Whale if you have a minute. Wait, you did a collab thing with Kiddiepunk? Whoa, I want to hear more about that. That's as fascinating a meeting of two talents as I can think of. Oscar's a music artist? ** Kier, So you're in NYC now, obviously. What do you think? Is everything okay? Etc.? Man, I so, so wish I could pop into Printed Matter tomorrow, and I hope someone who does attend takes pix and posts them somewhere or passes them on to me so all your buddies and admirers around here can have the virtual experience. ** Ken Baumann, Thanks a lot, Ken. Hey, I came across Michael Kimball's 'life story on a postcard' post about you yesterday. That was quite interesting. And the one about Shane Jones too. Very nice blog he has going on over there. I just ordered MK's novel after having intended to for months. Are you and the writing and everything else good? ** JW Veldhoen, Man, weird how deathy your birthday accidentally ended up being. Including Sky Saxon, who, if I'm recalling correctly, you were also a big fan of like me. ** Trinie, Hey! Thanks, pal. Now that I'm 'home' and have internet everywhere I look and can walk without screaming and sit while only screaming very softly once again, I'll be all over your email pronto. Are you still pre-rugged nature trip? ** NB, Betterness seems to be in the works for me, yes. So I have you and your bizarre home rituals to thank. Well, thank you! And, well, other than my back, hm, well, the theater thing was great, and now I'm getting shit done and trying to work on my novel a bit before I head off to London for the 'Jerk' shows. That's kind of my whole story, I guess. Nothing quite as dramatic and impendingly (not a word, I know) life changing as your current situation. Fingers crossed about the tattoo guy stuff. I mean, heck, why not? I'd like to have some writing news from you by Monday, it's true. That would be most welcome. ** Mark, Oh, Mark, that is so incredibly sweet of you. Plus, it's pretty and it touched every part of my soul that isn't being squirmed into a balloon animal by my aching back. I have to ... Everyone, the wonderful and multi-faceted artist and d.l. Mark composed a 'get well' song for me, and I swear to Whoever that if you share in my listening experience, you will get well too, whatever your malady of the day might be. It's right here. Give that dog a Tastee Treat, and give yourself a big hug and pretend those warm arms are mine. Thank you, thank you! ** Bs, Hey, welcome. Wow, your blog is terrific. Those Diana Davies photos are really something, just to mention what's sitting at the blog's top. A pleasure. And I just had a quick initial look at the work on your site, and a major ditto re: that intro too. Glad you liked the Eddo Stern stuff. Yeah, I think he's pretty fantastic. I was lucky enough to be able to include an earlyish piece of his in the most recent gallery show I curated called 'The Funeral Home' at Marc Foxx in LA. Anyway, nice to have you here. I hope you'll delurk more often. ** Roger P, For better or worse, I was both my own page boy and Stephen O'Malley's page boy yesterday, which wasn't the wisest move, but I seem to have survived even if perhaps I've now taken a baby step backwards in my recovery. Oh, well. Yury swims in Paris, and I should join him, and I think I probably will. Swimming would be a good thing, yeah, maybe not right at the moment, ouch, but as future preventative. How are you today? ** Math t, Wheeee, indeed. I'm right there. If you can take any Kier pix, please do, yeah? If not, no big. ** Creative Massacre, Most of the photographers I know and most respect are all about 35 mm film, so, yeah, I understand. What do you like to photograph? What interests you as a photographer, or is there any common theme or subject or whatever to your photographing? ** Misanthrope, Balloon animal making in person is kind of sexy, although balloon animal makers themselves don't tend to be so sexy, even when they're doing such a sexy thing. Weirdly or not weirdly, I have no emotional reaction to the MJ death at all. It just seems very, very bizarre and strangely not a vast surprise or something. His music never meant much of anything to me. He was mostly just the weirdest celebrity out there to my way of thinking. Strange thing to say, I guess. ** Panda?, Hey, man. Yeah, I just saw your email in my box this morning. So very cool of you, thank you. I'll open it and build the day and write to you soon. Really, thanks a lot. I really, really can't wait to see it and then see it here. Oh, and now I've seen your comment yesterday. The album is out! I'll go download it as soon as I type the final period here today. This deserves some kind of huge party or something. Damn the limitations of the p.s. Okay ... Everyone, I think a number of you have previously had the mindblowing experience of listening to the music of one of our resident local geniuses, namely the mighty Panda? Well, under the new moniker Pacific Blush, Panda? has just released his first album 'Skeletal Garden' on the virtual Japanese Alice label, and I personally can hardly stand to wait the few minutes it's going to take me to finish this p.s. before I can download it. You, however, needn't wait another moment. You need only click this humble blue phrase. So you guys do that, and then I'll go do that in a bit, and then I'll meet you all back here, okay? Man, that's so exciting! I'll get it pronto like I just said and start living anew in its wake. ** David Ehrenstein, Thanks again for the great yesterday, David, and pass some of that thanks onto Mr. Reed. I was late getting that Governor/affair news. It's starting to feel a lot like Xmas. All those big deaths all at once yesterday, so strange. If I were a superstitious type, I'd be waxing apocalyptic. ** Oscar B., Hey. Yeah, the holograms are still in, but we're having to do a big rethink about them. So far, the original idea of figurative holograms isn't working well, although we're going to try some more options. But we're thinking of going more abstract and trippy and apocalyptic with the holographic stuff as well. Gisele and Stephen are going to Japan in September to work with Shiro in his lab to experiment. We have until October or November to decide what to do because we'll need to shoot the holograms during a window of time around then. Oh, so the Recollets has a big say? Hm, that's very good. Keep me up on the timing because I'll talk to the powers that be more specifically about our collaboration, which could tip the balance in your favor ostensibly. Interesting, cool. ** Bill, Oh, do let me/us know about the microsound email list 'Naked Lunch' thing, yes. I want to try to do something 'NL' related on the blog, and I guess I'd better get on that pretty soon. A Paris residency? Well, that's potentially excellent news as far as I'm concerned. What are the details, if you can say? Is it via Centquatre or somewhere else? I mean, obviously, it would really great to have you here. ** Killer Luka, Yeah, you've had bad back shit, right? Ugh. But I'm limbering up a bit. The new drawing is stunning. Everyone, the startlingly great artist and d.l. Killer Luka has a new drawing eventually intended for a Felicien Rops-themed gallery show in NYC that she has kindly shared with the commenting area's populace and that deserves to have some lurker exposure as well. Hence, I hereby lead you to it. Just awesome, KL. ** Colin, Glad you both dug it and survived the chair fall. That last part could have been a little disaster, speaking as a temporary injury expert. ** Armando, Hey, Armando! It's very, very good to see you, man. I've been over here wondering how and where you were all this time. You sound pretty good, am I right? How are you going to spend your summer, man? Yeah, welcome back! ** Steevee, I know, three in a single day. That's an unusually death weighted set of hours, for sure. ** JoeM, Hey, Joe. Very weird MJ news. Kind of boggling. ** Heliotrope, Yeah, Sky Saxon. Made me sad. What a great, strange voice he had on top of the band's curious stylings. The last thirty seconds of 'I Can't Seem to Make You Mine' are up there with the great treats of rock. Wish I'd seen one of the recent, revived Seeds gigs. The youtube clips make them seem pretty on a par with how good the late era Love gigs usually were. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I kind of figured that guy would reappear, actually. Gut instinct or whatever. That Gaiman book sounds pretty tasty. Hm. I know exactly where in Paris that I can pick up and flip through a copy at the very least. Glad your skin is settling back into whiteness and politeness. Yeah, things went very well with the theater piece construction. We made a lot of progress for only having four full days to work. Plus, it was a lot of fun, and it was even fun with my back-related misery. The graphics part didn't advance that far, but we figured out some things that we thought would work but that don't in fact work, and that's good. No, it was a train ride. Three and a half hours from Paris with a stop over/train change in a pretty town called Besancon. Belfort is near Dijon, where the mustard comes from. ** Blendin, Pal, sir, my friend, howdy. The back in question betters itself too gradually for my taste, but I'll take the ease where I can get it. Cool: your reaction to 'The Ash Gray Proclamation'. I'm actually pretty proud of that one. Best piece in the book by far for my money. Thanks. Your rambling was music. I liked it. It was good music ... you know, like Oxbow, not like, uh, The Decemberists, to give what I guess is a controversial opinion. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Whoa, that's one hell of a concert line up you just saw. Whoa. Tell me that thing was recorded. Christ, it must have been. People aren't that stupid. Oh, yeah, you can send me revisions. You should do it today, obviously, 'cos otherwise ... well, you know. I'll peel my eyes for them. ** Okay, we're caught up, and things are relatively back to normal around here now. I intro'ed the post up above. It's what it is. Feel no need to do anything out of the ordinary re: it. I'll go download Panda?'s album then walk off my stiff back, and I'll see you tomorrow.