Sylvia episode 2: "Nobody Cares about Gladys"




Sylvia ep. #2 "Nobody Cares About Gladys" from Andrew Klaus on Vimeo.

Scott is my oldest friend, 16 years of sharing common bonds, extraordinary circumstances, and childhood traumas. It's the kind of love they call "bromance: now- I hate that term by the way. It's the kind of love it takes to get talked into seeing some thing as mindbogglingly craptacularly shitty  as the new disater-porno from Roland Emerich (Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 B.C.)  2012- in the theater no less. 
The plot is loosely based on 2012 being the end of the Mayan Calendar and the assumption that American (and global audiences really) don't have a thought in their pretty little heads. It's an unending (nearly three-fucking hours) series of disaster movie clichés and heroic speeches about hope, humanity, America and family values (I counted no fewer than fifteen before i said screw it and went to the bathroom-really a "small" is large enough stop up-selling me 44.oz "mediums"!)
After such spectacular Sci-Fi films like the rebooted fantasy of Star Trek, the gritty realism and horror of District 9 or the reverently faithful apocalypse of Watchmen you'd think something like 2012 could be cheesy good fun...and it surprisingly is in places. Roughly forty-five minutes too long in the beginning of the film it finally starts rolling with improbable car rides through Los Angels besieged by the Big One-on to an airport whilst we manage to fly away always about fifteen feet ahead of the pyrotechnic cloud of the volcano that used to be Yellowstone National Park. Then we get tsunamis, raining ash, fire and brimstone, sun microwaves, yet more speeches, rekindled and newly ignited loves, and a gaspingly high number of solid to amazing character actors popping up in this mess. Here's a brief sampling of those who should be deeply embarrassed and who have been in way better films : John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor (whom I LOVE) , Thandi Newton, Jimi Mistry(whom I have a HUGE crush on),  Johann Urb, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt.....oh you know pretty much EVERYONE...oh and Woody Harrelson waves a pickle in John Cusacks face.

It's actually so laughably bad it's kinda good. The ultimate spectacle disater-porn film. It's all disaster films combined in some weird Voltron configuration to make the mightiest , mindless entertainment possible.

OK so by now everyone who doesn't live under a rock has seen this video. I, of coarse, am totally in love with it. I was afraid she would suffer a sophomore-slump but now have faith that this album will do even better than the last.

Photo © Lori Sue Hoffman 2009

Sunday Sounds returns after a few weeks off!

Sarah, a frequent tipper to Diggin' to China with impeccable taste sent me this link to share, and broke me. We were on the phone together at the time laughing until I was completely red in the face from lack of oxygen, I'm a little dumber now. but thought I'd share.

In my free time when I'm not swamped grading papers and doing my own class work, or shooting photography, or freelance work, or making music...wait...do I have free time? Well I'm squeezing blood from turnips apparently because I've been attached to direct an as yet untitled (as the script isn't finished quite yet) hardcore horror film in January 2010! Expect thrills chills and buckets of blood and to be perfectly honest expect to have your stomaches turned inside out as you are treated to things you have NEVER seen on screen before. Seriously. EVER. and also be prepared for stunts that are very real and performances that will traumatize you for years to come... you've been warned! And don't worry You'll all be getting behind the scenes sneak peeks as we progress.

Daniel Craig is by far the most violent, vicious grizzled objectified man to play the iconic role of British superspy James Bond. I ean for decades of bond girls exploited for the male gaze who can forget, male female, gay , straight-Casino Royale and James Bond emerging from the surf. Here's a few more revealing (NSFW shots)

So I took some heat from some (well from one disgruntled person-Savira!) for twink bashing-which I assure you I will continue to do on occasion unabated but it did make me think wow I hadnt't posted a naked male celeb's pic in sometime (since Hugh Jackman naked) that I thought was hot. Problem solved I give you the NSFW glory that is naked Clive Owen.

I've written about my love of stop-motion and Ray Harryhausen more than a few times here at Diggin' To China. One of the great trashy amazing adventure films that he created special effects for was 1981's Clash of the Titans, starring Harry Hamlin, Sir. Laurence Olivier, Dame Maggie Smith and the amazing Urselua Andress. It was a rollicking mythological adventure film that filled my mind with tales of Gods and Gorgons and a fair amount of bared skin. It was one of the films from my youth that made me become a film director today.

A while back -like nearly three years ago- a woman was telling me about her husband relocating to England to work on a stop-motion adaptation of the Roald Dahl book The Fantastic Mr. Fox which I was excited about as I'm a HUGE fan of stop-motion animation. Jump a head a few years and I discover it's The Fantastic Mr. Fox-by-way-of-Wes Anderson... oh delightful indeed!! Anderson underutilized the stop-motion mastery of the brilliant Henry Selick(Coraline, A Nightmare Before Christmas) in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizou and now turns in a fully animated but no less distinctively stylish film adaptation of a beloved classic. Lovingly handmade with all the jerky wonderment of British stop-motion of the 1960s.

It's been a while since I had an I love you, post and well, it's news to exactly no one that I love Dan Savage I've told him as much in person. But his recent comments to a question asked on the topic of the institution of marriage made me love him all over again.

Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love is a biting slice of one night in hell, in this case a crappy motel in the Mojave desert. May (Val Ludlum)and Eddie (Chris Harder) have reconnected, but most certainly not reconciled after some time apart and have immediately begun reopening old wounds and inflicting new ones while a Greek Chorus of one watches silently from the sideline. Toss in a jealous, possibly insane unseen female stalker referred to only as the Countess and Martin, a sympathetic and unlucky gentleman caller for May, who gets roped into the toxic tête à tête.

Director Mary Kate Ward steers the action from violent confrontation to shocking honesty and raw pathos in CoHo Theater’s production. Being a real life married couple, Landrum and Harder add a complex air of familiarity that comes to long time lovers. Harder gives an oddly comedic turn, at times pathetic and yet always disturbing. For her part as May it’s crystal clear why Val Landrum wanted this role, it’s a hell of a role and the whole play is one hell of a ride. The audience is trapped, fascinated staring at the raw pulsating wounded hearts of these two characters as they alternately seek to console and destroy each other’s happiness.

photo by Win Goodbody

This destructive codependence is such a remarkable part of Sam Shepard’s work and his dialogue is razor sharp in its effectiveness as it induces winces of pain from the audience as these fighting on-again-off again lovers eviscerate each other.

As the insanity of the couple reaches one particular crescendo “the countess” expressed sole through gorgeous lighting and sound design sets them into a particularly violent outburst just in time for Spencer Conway’s entrance as a well-meaning local yokel looking for love-and clearly in the wrong place here. It’s a much-enjoyed lapse into toxic situational comedy as Martin, played by Conway is held semi hostage by the feuding former couple. The tequila flows and so does the darkest secrets as the night wears on. Conway is an interesting choice for the literal minded, almost virginal Martin as he is a character actor with the striking good looks of a matinee idol and poses an impressive figure on stage, towering over Harder by quite a few inches. It’s even more charming then when Martin is revealed the overly sensitive and compassionate foil to Eddie, but also lends a friendly ear to both Eddie and May. Rounding out this dysfunctional trio to a seriously dysfunctional quartet is as perfectly cast Tim Stapleton as a spectral figure commenting to May and Eddie from the sidelines and who’s vicious betrayal seems to have set this whole devastation into effect.

The technical challenges of such an intimate athletic production are apparent immediately in Fool For Love. A squalid motel room is unforgiving as a single location and the most is made of spatial limitations as doors are imagined, as are bathroom walls in bit of theatrical stagecraft. The set is perfect- the bed in particular is an excellent example of the death of the American West aesthetic Sam Shepard pedals so well. The headlights in the window, the glow of a fire all adds great realism to the production. It’s such attention to realism that makes the use of Tim Stapleton’s character slightly problematic. When these moments of supernatural theater magic occur with a simple light change it isn’t quite enough for this reviewer who wished this abstraction from the real had been pushed just a little further with either an alternate placement of the character to the action or a stronger color separation from the cast.

Alternately erotic, violent and (darkly) humorous Fool For Love at CoHo Theater is a solid production wrought with reckless emotional abandon, and brutal desire. It’s a great evening of great performances that’d highly recommend everyone see immediately.

Written By: Sam Shepard

Co-Producers: Chris Harder, Val Landrum

Directed by: Megan Kate Ward

Starring: Chris Harder, Val Landrum, Tim Stapleton, and Spencer Conway

Oct 16, 2009 - Nov 21, 2009Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors.

You may purchase tickets online here.

Or call the box office at (503) 205-0715

Exhibit A

Ladies and Gentleman Boys and Girls I give you Coconut Oasis Jewish Retirement Communities' star resident

Sylvia from Andrew Klaus on Vimeo.