Swingin' Squirrels

CLICK TO VIEW SOFTCORE SQUIRREL MOVIE

I've made a little video of some randy squirrels experiencing the rite of spring in the dead of (California) winter. It's up on youtube for anyone who is interested in animal antics. Some may say it's exploitation but HEY, these guys were using my hammock. I saw unnatural movement of the thing when I happened to glance out the window. Upon further examination, I found what you will see in the posting. I just happened to have a camera. I would advise against showing this video to children unless you want to answer more than the usual number of questions. Otherwise, only the window I took the pictures through is dirty.

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed during the making of this movie.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

image by lisa jane persky copyright 2007

Show me the "reel" Lisa Jane Persky

One of the tools of the acting trade is a "reel". Mine was made by a really terrific editor named Richard Prince. If you're looking for someone who is a great collaborator with a point of view, I recommend him. Have a look at the many moods of me along with the other fine work he has done on the Sample Reels page of his website. Click This

back in the day (a cringeworthy expression)

Why, just scads of people aren't lucky enough to see the so-stated apex of their era enshrined in their own lifetime--or unlucky enough. However it seems/feels to you, no one ever gets it quite right. It's the Rashoman nature of memory. In spite of the fact that BLONDIE, TALKING HEADS, TELEVISION and other bands of NYC's downtown scene never wanted to be called PUNK (unless, sensibly, they started making money being called it) Deborah Harry writes the intro. The picture of her on the adjacent page is more Debbie the Disco Princess but in most of the book, MOJO gets it right. It's heavy on the photos and a few of them are mine. You might want it. So here it is: PUNK: The Whole Story

Reddy Killowatt

Scroll down to my list of Blogs of interest and visit Mark Evanier's page to see a television spot featuring one of history's greatest brand characters: Reddy Killowatt!

electricians emoticons

can a colonoscopy be far behind?

As words go, medieval and medical are close. Very close. Had a mammogram lately?

Here's what the magical gizmo looks like.

It squishes, mashes and pulverizes as you watch your familiar flesh distorted to unrecognizability under plexiglas. All the bells and whistles of a radioactive device and convienient floor pedals for pressing pleasure. Inviting, huh? Women are used to feeling like meat but this baby makes you feel like the whole cow. It's not even prewarmed, friends. I had my pictures taken today by a tech who was. Warm. She kept telling me to relax. This is the most expensive feel I've ever been given but has the side advantage of being the cheapest boob job in town. If you walk in there with no breasts to speak of, by the time you leave, they will be stretched and pulled into something more, believe me. I kept wondering about the men who come in for mammograms. Yes, guys are supposed to have them too if there is a family history of breast cancer. So listen to your Uncle Lisa and go and get one. Very important. Seriously, if you are due, you gotta do it. Just so you can be in the club. The benefits of this secret handshake can be life saving.

Put the pedal to the metal, guys.

road 'o' snow

great flavors

and a dessert called
"Delights of the Naked Stranger":

Tubular Alarm Bells

I will never buy this kind of toothpaste tube again. At sea level, it oozes and runs like a boil and at high altitudes (say 1000 ft. and up) it is likely to gush and spew. Somebody or perhaps an entire committee thought this was an attractive solution to the wrong problems. Does everyone lose their screw top? Does anyone want to stand their tube on its head as this is meant to do? These are the only reasons I could come up with for such a phenomenal waste of plastic. If you use this, what do you do to keep the thing clean? Should I ignore the pooling pile of blue grit, the fact that you can't even squeeze the last inch or so of toothpaste out because of the hulking piece of plastic that the top presses into (which is rigid and can't be manipulated). You have to just let it run out into a puddle on a plate or something if you want to use it up. I won't, of course. I'm just going to throw it away and write this. Imagine the energy required to produce this piece of garbage that will be with us forever. It's true function is as a thing of waste. It's a tubal monument to bad design and it should just screw off.

You sir, Friendly.

I once participated in a paid (100 smackers) car forum at the L.A. Civic Center. I'm not sure how I got on the list but it was an interesting day spent with a few hundred other people getting in and out of all kinds of vehicles, inspecting them for flair, comfort and functionality and filling out surveys that asked for our responses. I needed alot more blank space for comments than they provided. I knew what I didn't like, what didn't work well for my aesthetic, my size, my needs. I don't think they took my comments too seriously because the next car I bought, though pleasing in most ways, still had the air conditioning vent that blew primarily on the driver's hand.

Design is usually decided by committee and that might be the best system we've got but the "too many cooks" syndrome can cause the group to miss the most obvious flaws. Design is a fascination of mine and this is an interesting interview in Newsweek with a guy I knew nothing about named Bill Moggridge. In his new book "Designing Interactions" he interviews other people who design our tech. In the Newsweek piece he quotes a venture capitalist, David Liddle who describes the "three phases of the adoption of technology", the first being enthusiasts, the second, the professional and the third the consumer.

If your range of responses to new tech design go from "How did they do that?" to "What on earth were they thinking?!" this should all be of interest. By the time something gets into the mainstream, to a customer/"consumer" with no special technological expertise (me), it is often still bloated with the complexities and sometimes the flaws of the first two levels of user. I would much rather be dubbed an "enthusiast" or a "professional", wouldn't you? Consumer sounds so leech or locust-like. Regardless of definition of terminology, if some of the hard and software were a bit more transparent and less flabby not only would I be enthusiastic, but I might even appear to be professional. Yeah, that’s what a consumer (read: novice) wants, isn’t it, the appearance of professionalism? Another thing Moggridge mentions in the interview is something Will Wright (SIMS creator) calls "loops of engagement" which include an easy to operate device that draws you in and further provides you with something to do that you can accomplish quickly and yet another slightly more complex phase and on and on. I love this phrase even if only because it sounds a lot deeper and more sinister than just providing levels of entertainment and difficulty. Remember the book of photos of advertising that supposedly had subliminal messages in the pix i.e.; the Howard Johnson’s plate of fried clams that supposedly looked like naked people writhing in delight? Remember when psychologists were saying all this internet technology was isolating?

The simple human requirements for the future in regard to design of the equipment we use are much the same as the past; communication leading to engagement, community, understanding and interactivity--except more of it and in an ever increasing range of ways. I'd hope and bet that most designers are really aiming to make every device as pleasing and simple and satisfying as an iPod or email.

It's now almost impossible to live unconscious of design in our daily lives. I'm one consumer who would like to be a more interactive part of the design process. When it comes to the product I need and/or want, I'm sure I'm an enthusiast if not a professional. Show me the Beta. I know I'll be reading Moggridge's book.

We WILL. Don't we?

Best article I’ve read this week. Maybe it makes you think. Maybe you do it anyway.
by Dennis Overbye in the New York Times on the matter of FREE (?) WILL

our local fox

2007

ew!

view from the road

Recommended Reading

Being in recuperative mode has it's rewards. I read Moby Duck by Donovan Hohn in the January 2007 issue of HARPER'S. This is an adventurous, thoughtful, philosophical piece that begins on the currents of the Northern Pacific, traverses the fluid definition of childhood, illuminates the environmental price of plastic and so much more. I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It's an enlightening adventure.

getting some reading done

I've been overcome by some creeping crud of late and it has me way down. Not the flu but some other character.
I haven't had an ounce of energy for blogging. My apologies to those of you who keep checking in. I hope to be well and posting for the shiny new year.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

new picture

Van Smith, DIVINE.

Van Smith created Divine's look. His make-up and costuming skills have been widely imitated but he would happily admit to having copied from others including Jayne Mansfield and Clarabelle the Clown. He was my roommate in 1975 -- A great one, too. He made me read The Secret Life of Plants, laugh alot and always eat a sensible dinner. He passed away on Dec. 5. More about Van in this well written and researched obit from The Guardian.
This picture was taken by me in the dressing room of the Truck and Warehouse Theater on East 4th Street, NYC, where Divine and a cast of 11 (including myself) were performing 8 times a week in Tom Eyen's Women Behind Bars.

IT IS SASOUN!

Today, I’m telling you in no uncertain terms that if you love lamb and bread as much as I do that you must leave your computer now and go to SASOUN BAKERY (5114 SANTA MONICA BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CA 90029 and order some Lahmajune. No kidding around. There are other treats to try but get the Lahmajune as it comes out of the oven (which it does over and over for many hours each day) and you will achieve the kind of culinary satisfaction worthy of a three star listing in the Michelin guide.

Lahmajune is an Armenian “fast food” sometimes called Armenian Pizza. The crust is so crisp and thin that the usual pizza toppings would be insupportable. The ingredients are simple (lamb, tomato, onion, parsley, green pepper) and do not involve lard. They have an "A" in the window for more than just good hygiene. And look at the smiling people behind the counter. Irresistable.

See you there.

Judas Priest! It's Gary Valentine.

Since people are coming to my blog looking for Gary stuff, here is this (never before seen) Whisky photo and below that (never before read) Whisky fiction.

BLONDIE WAS A GROUP

This picture was taken at JFK airport in February of 1977 before we all took off for Los Angeles.
The band was on it's way to their first gig at the Whisky-A-Go-Go. The play I had been working on for a year ("Women Behind Bars" by Tom Eyen) had just closed and I was on my way to an audition at Paramount Studios for an Afterschool Special ("SNOWBOUND"). I stayed with Gary in L.A. long enough to get the job and to see their Whisky gig. Tom Petty was the opening act. I wound up shooting the afterschool special over the following two months in both Lenox, MA and Breckenridge, CO.

THANKS FOR THE GIVING

The Grateful Festivity

First off I gotta tell you this is prob’ly nothing you haven't heard a million times before but when I feel like talkin' nobody's gonna stop me. So y'all that's fed up with it might just as well leave the room. Might just as well. I'll clear my throat and give you a minute. I know I'm supposed to be all grateful and thankful but instead I'm all spiteful and irritable about Thanksgiving.

I'm gonna tell you 'bout how it is with my poor white trash family. T'be honest they're not that poor but the extra two cents worth doesn't change a thing.

My uncle Bubba still roasts an entire pig in a hole he dug out back of his home and my Uncle Pete (the refined guy with the gold pinky ring and pictures of Tyrone Power in his living room), won't let anybody eat the pecans til the comp'ny comes. Just who the hell does he think we are?

My mama, She's a yee-haw, campfire singin', plate breakin', mother-is-only-half-a-word-sayin' pirate livin' in a trailer. Mama don't take no mess. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. You better run when you see me smile kinda momma.

How did my mother turn into a loud cowboy? It reflects poorly on me, I think. I feel inside that I am a highly developed person, a person of quality, a sensitive girl.

Every year we all go runnin' over to Bubba and Joy’s house and the drinkin' starts in at about ten a.m. along with the football on the teevee. The general feeling of holiday cheer combines with mimosas, evolvin' into screwdrivers and then scotch 'n' sodas and later into some kind o' wine which eventually is replaced by a "strong milk punch" all making up the kind of day it's going to be--right through to tomorrow--when the backs of hands will be against the fronts of foreheads and there's sure to be moanin'.

"Ma gawd, ma cup runneth ova", says my Mama, flirty like. "Somebody help me with these greenbeans."

Early on they put me in charge of all the children because they know I'm the only one's gonna keep 'em alive given the circumstances of this event. I make 'em leave the house for out back to shield 'em from the carnage of football and the sights and sounds of the dangerously innebriated. For a while we all roll around in the dirt with our dogs in order to get the taint off of our finery. Then like every year, I have the tradition of the Bone Dubbing, which is the only holy moment of the horrid holiday. I get our travel box of Milk Bones from out of the car and take out one bone and every sorry dog in the yard gets to salivating and kids and dogs are all prancin' and runnin' around me and I bang on the happy red box with that bone and shout:
CI-VIL DIS-O-BE-DI-ENCE IS AN OXY MORON
CI-VIL DIS-O-BE-DI-ENCE IS AN OXY MORON
and no kids or dogs have the slightest idea what it's all about but I repeat it five times and and who can, follows along, also repeating. Then I touch everyone's head with the magic insurrectionist's meat-infused sceptre and I hand each dog a perfectly intact Milk Bone and the kids all line up and get one too and I give the "go" signal with mine and we all eat 'em together.

Soon as I'm sure we're all done, I shout again: "THANKS BE T'GOD FOR ALL IS FORGIVEN... AND THIS IS THE END OF OUR RITUAL.". But look at what happens every year, even when we wait until dark: go back inside and people are fightin' and hungry and all agitated, and dinners not ready for another hour at least.

It's just your basic normal Thanksgiving. Husbands and wives imagine they're single and childless and free. Children fantasize that one day they'll find their real parents. I wonder how long it will take to simply die from the shame.

Film Strip

New Work

I'm in the process of describing my corpuscles

Automats 4 Ever

Has anyone been to Bamn? I'd love to hear/read what you have to say about it whether you remember the old Automats or not. For a little kid, the Horn and Hardart Automat was the most compelling and futuristic place to eat. I have intense nostalgia for it even though it didn't last long into my childhood. Listen to this and weep: Horn and Hardart Audio.

Turner Homage/Montage

This photomontage was inspired by William Turner and a new paper that Hahnemuhle Paper Company named after him.

early risers

An homage to the sixties, comics, Roy Lichtenstein, and those of us who rarely miss the crack of dawn.