Trimpin: The Sound of Invention

I can't wait to see this documentary as I once built a model for this crazy artist during his proposal phase for an installation at the Sea-tac Airport... which he later got and completed... This man is a crazy genius and its great that others can finally see this bizarre man's life in action just like I did so many years ago when I got that gig that summer....

the sound of invention from Peter Esmonde on Vimeo.

Amazing... Showbears

Bad news bears...

So Last night I had an oh so uncomfortable chat with my mother. Things appear to be a tad bleak this holiday season for my family as my mother's job has cut her down from 5 days of work to only 2 or the occasional 3... My Father apparently was layed off from his job with the hopes they can bring him back on in the spring. Both my parents are in their late 60's and live on a very fixed income, this isn't good. My own financial situation isn't pretty either. Swamped with student loans, and other piles of bills, Zack finds him nearing the end of one job, with two weeks off till the following one starts... with no pay in between and maybe some paltry amount of unemployment that will arrive to late to help, this ain't lookin' pretty. I'm worried for them.

So after that bomb shell, my mother asks the question i've been evading lately... "When are you coming for Christmas?" Oh. Shit. "Well mom, I am kind of flat broke and can't afford to come this year... the cheapest ticket I could find is $550 and that isn't gonna work for me." She started to cry. My mom has had me there every single christmas since I was born but one... and that's a good track record for 29 years, well this would be number 2... It was tough to tackle all of this stuff in one session for the both of us, so we hung up morose and kind of bummed about the whole discussion. It's hard leaving things like that for me. I don't like that creepy unspoken hurt hanging in the air between me and others. Over-all it kinda sucked ass, so I didn't sleep very well.

On a more positive note, I did get an interesting possible offer this morning for where to spend my Christmas that would be much cheaper, and could be great... Fingers crossed that it pans out for me. *smile* We'll see...

This weekend I am going out with some friends on their Gay Scuba Club "The Barnacle Busters" christmas lights harbor cruise for a few hours Saturday. I'm really excited as this might be just the thing to get me into the holiday spirit, and a little booze and good company is always fun. Long Beach here I come!

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

What a great name for a band...well one that will make sense for maybe another couple of years... but I can't stop watching this video for their song "Sophisticated Sideways Ponytail!"

Who Knew

...while doing a little research for a Seattle guide for a friend of mine I discovered there is a lesbian porn called "Meatless in Seattle." ...gotta love it....

I am so outta here...

A very Merry Christmas to one and all. I am going to be leaving for Seattle on Thursday to visit the family and will be sparsely blogging while I'm there....unless of course I get completely bored (or angry) and choose to spend my ddays typing away avoiding them all. Here's some funny pics for you all. I'm sure there'll be a few more posts before I leave, but I wanted to get in some good wishes just in case. Thanks to one and all who placate me by reading and watching the trash I throw on here.

Speaking of stopping traffic...

When I was 19, I didn't own a car. My father would have to drop by and pick me up to drag my ass home for a weekend with the parents. The drive from Seattle back to Enumclaw was usually a quiet and boring adventure as the radio in his truck had been busted for some time. To pass the time I would people watcch as the cars passed by, and believe me when I say, the northwest didn't have the most attractive pickin's when it came to this pasttime.

Now I am not a person who makes eye contact with stragers all that easily, for the most part I am avoiding it at all costs. I think this habit comes from my time avoiding panhandlers and tourists' questions in SF, as well as the unfriendly vibe I got when living in Pittsburgh. Very rarely would I make eye contact for longer than a second while staring down these semi-conscious drivers of the I-5 corridor.

One day on my way home with dad at the helm, I was taken aback by a very handsome man in the red pickup truck next to us who kept looking back and smiling. I glanced at my dad to see if he noticed the flirtation but he didn't, so I smiled right back locking eyes with the handsome devil to my right. He kept up the pace riding right alongside us and I kind of wish I would have pulled out a piece of paper and written my number on it. As he stared me down for a long minute, he seemed to forget about the car in front of him down the way that had pulled to a stop due to congestion by the offramp. BAM! It all happened so fast that all I saw was a blur of airbag and a chunk of red reflector flying toward the side of our car and then he was gone... We were already far down the road in our fast lane. "Damn! did you see that?!" my dad yelped. "Um....yeah dad...weird...he must not have been paying attention."

I was actually kind of freaked, had I just caused an accident? Now when I think about it, I realize: I am the most beautiful Geisha... I can stop a man in his tracks with one look. (Ok it took more like 17 looks and one long gaze, but it still did the job.)

My waiting for Guffman moment circa 2000

Once upon a time, during the summer of 2000, I joined a group of artisans headed to a little town called Leavenworth, Washington. Our mission, and my paying gig, was to assist in costuming a cast of over 250 locals, in 5 days, for a single theatrical performance called "Icicle Times" that spanned the history of the area from early Native American beliefs to modern day. Basically you could superimpose the plot of "Waiting for Guffman" onto this experience and it wouldn't look all that different. "Red White and Blaine" and "Icicle Times" both made me chuckle and feel embarrrassed for the people on stage with equal amounts of gusto.

A little Backgound: Leavenworth is a small town located in the Eastern slopes of the cascade mountain range in Washington State. If I remember correctly it took us about 4 hours to get up there in my dad's Bronco II. The town had been slipping in tourism so they had a twon meeting and decided adding a theme to the town just might work. The town was reborn in the 1960s into a Bavarian Village theme, very much like a small German village you might find in your European travels. "The authenticity has attracted many people of direct German, Austrian and Norwegian descent who have made Leavenworth Washington their new home and livelihood." -According to the chamber of commerce. Really? I guess I did eat a sausage or two while I was there...so that must be true!



One-Reel was the group putting on this gigantic project, commisioned by Harriet Bullitt. (Sidenote: it was rumored that Harriet, longtime resident of Leavenworth and co-owner of King broadcasting in the Northwest, commissioned the piece to perhaps get a better local public image after it was found that her family's logging investment was one of the prime causes of the devestating fires in 1994 that nearly wiped out the town. But you didn't hear that from me....like I said...just a rumor...wink) Anywho, the production was intended to bring the town together by creating a theatrical history of the town, that could be done every few years and would incorporate as many townspeople as possible. Me and my friends Jen and Carrissa were all brought on by Ron the designer to assist him in pulling things, sewing hems, making special outfits like the cookoo bird costume for the giant clock scene....I'm not kidding...



The costumes varied through every period within the last 100 years and also included costumes like a "School of Salmon" and more.... We worked in the basement of the local church that sat across the street from where the tent was set up. The preacher's wife lived two dorrs down and just kept coming in and bringing us treats. Eventually that graduated to bringing us treats and trying on clothes like a little girl playing dress up. Then one day that dress up included a red feather boa....and then it was clear.... she HAD to play one of the prostitutes in the wild west scene! She seemed cautious, but she got the roll no prob and her hubby almost lost it when he saw her up there. He laughed it all off, but you know that night they had some serious fun a few doors down!



Peg Phillips from "Northern Exposure" fame was the narrator in the show. It was pretty cool having a tv personality in the show, I was impressed....and she really was the nicest lady on earth. She didn't even care if we expected her to go out there wearing nothing but a pasty, she trusted us. Sadly she died two years after this event, but you can always see her as Ruth in "Northern Exposure" now that dvds of television shows are so popular.



Here's the Salmon "Teacher" costume I ddesigned and built for the "School of salmon" scene. This woman drove me nuts. She was a local middle school teacher that was such a diva. She kept asking if it would be possible to just paint her face like a fish so she didn't have to "wear a costume." I kindly explained that the kids were wearing fish on their heads as the "Students" and if she wanted to comman some presence in a tent filled with 1000 people that this was the best way to do it. It took the director "schooling" her to get her to shut up and wear the damn thing. (I always liked the book in its mouth that flapped up and down when she walked.)



Um...I think we all know what I'm really taking a picture of here, but this was the local sherriff that played the sherriff in the wild west scene. I was his dresser and as a thank you, he gave me a really cool cowboy hat of his. ahhh swoon...his wife is one lucky gal.



I just loved this pic I got of one of the "Bavarian townspeople" heading into the port o potties in such a beautiful serene countryside. You can even see the church we worked in across the street.



Us playing with the costume accessories for the train sequence. (God I look so young...)



Me and Jen comparing the pregnancy bellies we had made that afternoon.



Pieces of the cukoo bird head used as falsies....you get the gist... we had alot of fun! I love looking through old photos and the memories they bring back.

Click HEREto see a short video about the show, with some great footage of the bizarre event, by our local PBS station. Made possible by viewers like you...

THIS sounds amazing

Sometimes, Seattle really knows how to throw a party!

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=316770

Plays are like cars....

Amy Thone is brilliant, and is getting high kudos from "The Stranger" in Seattle. Most likely none of you who read, or glance at my scattershot blog will know who this woman is, but you should....and now you can...

the article: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=316789

Amy thone is an actress, professor in acting at my alma mater Cornish College of the Arts and an inspiring director. I first worked with Amy on "Cloud Nine" by Caryl Churchill my second year in undergrad, she was directing and I was designing the set. This was my first big mainstage and as the show changed late in the game from "Troilus and Cressida," we were already behind. I had a matter of two weeks to finalize designs in two weeks on a show I had only read the night before and would get all of two good long days of meetings with the director as that was what our schedules would allow. I fell in love with Caryl Churchill about halfway through the piece, so knowing Amy had picked this show let me know we might have a similar charge for the material. I was right.

Our first meeting was in the Ned Skinner Theatre where the show was going to be held. The theatre was a great big turn of the century gymnasium with a frame beams above, a makeshift grid of lighting poles, moveable seating units, and a running track perimiter around the upper walls that always proved a challenge to incorporate or hide in a design. We launched into our discusssion with an in depth disecction of the piece an I must say it still strikes me as one of the most exhilarating discussions I've ever had with a director about what we felt, what we disagreed with, what we wanted the audience to feel, and how we put our stamp on this work for all to see..... She rocked my world as a director, and still to this day I have yet to collaborate with a director so insanely connected to a piece that I actually could feel the life of it growing with each passing word. In the article she is wuoted as saying "I think of plays like cars—every play has its own engine; you have to learn to pull it apart" and she certainly practices what she preaches.

Amy Thone truly inspired me as a teacher, a collaborator and an actor in the many shows I have seen her in over the years back in Seattle. Congrats Amy on receiving a Genius Award from the Stranger, its been long overdue!

Also receiving a Genius Award from the Stranger is the Strawberry Theatre Workshop which is headed up by my former professor Greg Carter, and a team of several cohorts from back in my Cornish days. He's another brilliant guy with strong opinions, great work ethic, strong attention to detail, is a good devil's advocate when its needed, has passion for politics and art, and is just an all around smart creative man. Congrats to them as well for all their crazy brilliant work being recognized.

here's an article on them as well: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=316793

Who knew kickball could be so sexy and bitchy?!

My friend Mark has some friends in Seattle who are part of the Westcoast Kickball League and are on the team "Ball Deep." (Brilliant name by the way guys.) Yesterday they played the team called "Space Tractor," I'm not sure how it went but there seems to be alot of competitive trash talking that has now taken itself onto the youtubes!

Here's "Ball Deep's" taunt video against "Space Tractor":



And here's the sexy, dark and kind of amazing video put out by "Space Tractor" :



They're both pretty wonderful eh?

Hot deafs!

Please forgive me readers if you take any offense to the following stories....

Back in Seattle, while out on the town, there was a group of very attractive guys we reffered to as the "Hot Deafs." I'd be there drinking down a surfer on acid at the Cha-Cha and there in the corner they would appear, hands moving rapidly, looking all hot. Dancing in the creepy mirrored hell that was the Cuff, I would turn and again, near the entrance or on the patio the "Hot deafs" would be having their meeting of the minds. They were some of the most handsome men in Seattle, some of them knew it in that sick smug way too, but most were just sexy deaf guys I would pine after. There was one guy in the group who would help translate and order drinks, he had apparently only a partial hearing loss, we called him "wingman." He was the keeper of the hot deafs it seemed, and the only portal to them unless you knew sign language. One drunken night I made the mistake of trying to chat with him and his friend over at R Place. The night ended with him getting angry that I was more interested in his friend and he poured his drink on my shoes. The adventure with the hot deafs ended there for me, but I still pined away.

Those of you who know me pretty well, understand that I have no filter at times, and love a good joke about gays, deaf people, poor people, rich people....wait, ok pretty much everyone is fair game for my amusement. Here's where this applies: I have to give myself credit, I have always done a feirce impression of Marlee Matlin. I know if she ever met me, she would have every right to punch me right in the face......hard. (Especially due to the weird psuedo sex dream about her I had... We were married and in bed and she said to me "Fuck me haaaaard!" in that muffled half speak tone of hers... I lept out of bed.) We recently nicknamed the cute female kitty who's been hanging around our backyard Marlee since she seems a little deaf herself, at least on one side. Maybe she could do a guest stint on the L-word!

I think perhaps I've always been a little fascinated by deafness. It's strange but when asked that age old question which sense i'd chose to lose if I had to, never said my hearing. My work is even about visuals, but sound to me I guess is somehow more precious. Maybe it is music? I'm not sure, that's getting too deep for this blog. I truly wonder what the world would be like if you lost a bit or all of your hearing. I've tried putting on noise cancellation headphones before in psychology class to get the basic feeling, but I really am not sure how I would feel about the world around me. It seems like relating to everyone around me would be such a hurdle.

Due to all my joking and seeming insensitivity, I and others have joked that perhaps my "punishment" would be to end up with the deaf man of my dreams. (Doesn't sound like a punishment to me! Maybe a punishment for him....) Who knows.... it worked for my friend Jenny Anderson! She had a penchant for joking about being crippled, and joked about wheelchairs and disabilities like it was her job..... then next thing we know, she had the disabled man of her dreams roll right into her life.... it mostly must have worked because he thought all those jokes were pretty funny too. They often have wheelchair day together at the mall, and Jenny gets her ass in one of those chairs and enjoys huffing around with him side by side. They even wanted to find themselves some good ol' fashioned wheelie porn at one point, but alas that is not a very big industry. Maybe they'll make their own?

Beware hot deafs of LA! Maybe i'll take up sign language just in case.... and this time I don't want to end up with another drink on my feet.

Oh Seattle...hehehe

Ahhh sometimes I miss this kind of spirit in a city...just plain ol' fun!

4/20 Downhill office chair races in Seattle:

Goddess Kring...

Ok, so there used to be, and possibly still is, a show on Public Access in Seattle by this crazy chick calling herself "Goddess Kring." Imagine the bizarre moment when said crazy chick walks into your life drawing class as a model... You were freaked out before, but now she's staring into your eyes... Scaaaaaaary...

Seattle=Passive Aggressive

And sometimes they just tell it like it is....

East Side Story...

The Bellevue Squares vs. The Factoria Trash! Sorry, I couldn't resist putting this one on here... one of the funniest skits they did on "Almost Live" in Seattle.

Lynwood Beauty Academy

For those of you here in LA, you may not find it nearly as funny as a Seattlite would, but if you think of it more in the realm of say women from Fresno, or Solvang, or maybe Saugus.... then you'll completely understand!

Missing the fun of the past...

I would so rather be here, than at work today:Hinsight is always more glamorous of course...

Workin' the door... again

I'm off to "local Gay Bar" in about 3 hours... I must say I can't frickin' wait. It really is my non-job job... Too fun and easy to pass up, as well as blending nicely with the rest of the workweek so I still feel like I get a weekend. (Drop by boys and girls, I'm gonna wear my spikey santa hat for some good ol' fashioned alterna-cheer... I know its tacky.) I'm excited to get a break from my other job: "Hate Hatey." This has been too long a week. First thing when I get to job #2 will be to get myself a drink.. and then perhaps another. I may as well while the job still exists. We'll see how the end of the year goes and if local gay bar is still a friendly place to work.

I need to get my ass outta bed tomorrow and finish some damn christmas shopping! I was so gung-ho a couple of posts ago about the holidays, but now all I want to do is crawl under those covers and finally get some rest. The end of the year is just exhausting. I'm excited to go home to Seattle though. (Sidenote: I'm a little sad the trees are back up at sea-tac airport as I wanted to get a chance to do or say something bitchy when I walked through.) It'll be great to see my parents. This year has been a really rough one for me and for the first time in a while I've found myself repeatedly thinking or saying I want my mommy.

Well, before I get out my credit card: any of you bitches want something special in your stocking/ stalking, you better speak up or forever hold your peace/ piece!

Hungry Jackie! Kill! Kill!

In Seattle, there exists a strange creature by the name Jackie Hell. I've been waiting a while to find a good video to share her with you all, here it is... Thanks to Mark for the tip off, and to his friend Jason who made it!



Gotta love a good drag queen art film.