I'm a spoken word artist, filmmaker, photographer, writer, casting business development person...and a lot of other things...maybe too many other things. But, these are all of the things I do with the rest of my life...when I'm not working...this is what A.D.D probably looks like. I'm just guessing!
I'm a horror film fanatic...and LOVE Rob Zombie...because this man...knows how to make a bloody horror flick. I'm Susan E...no relation-- I found this a few graves over while shooting "Resurrection Apprentice" on location. Perhaps I should have found it spooky. I'm weird. I didn't. I thought it was good luck, as producer to find my name on a grave when making a horror film."Ink runs from the corners of my mouth...there is no happiness like mine...for I have been eating poetry.." (~Mark Strand)Is it the shape of the letters...or the sound they make in my head when I look at them?"Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of
definition." -Eli Khamarov
"All writers...have pretty wives. Someone should look into this." Kurt Vonnegut
This is my vagabond shadow, cast on the Kerouac Memorial several years ago...for my Lowell, MA. Self-Portrait.This picture...makes me happy. (I recently tracked down a near mint version of this typewriter for my own collection...sadly, the case is not red...but the typewriter...aaaaah...perfection) It makes me want to live in a silver airstream trailer in the desert with an astro turf lawn and a pink flamingo on a stick out front.
My newest puppet...in progress....
Sculpture, photography, painting, my collections of manual typewriters(pre-1950's), vintage watches(1930's & 40's), and pre 1960's polaroid cameras...a good coffee(Cafe' Du Monde in New Orleans makes the best)...the stronger the better, staying up all night and making weird animated films with the puppets I've made...
time to relax, walking just to get away and think, hockey, kickboxing, camping, sunshine, the smell of fresh air,POETRY (spoken, written, thought, lived).I'm currently learning Italian...I'd like to live there one day...I think Italy just may be paradise. "Positano bites deep", Steinbeck wrote. "It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone."
When I first meet someone...I notice their hands...I find that a persons hands say a lot about them..I find that interesting.Untitled Painting 1999.
My grandmother--the woman who first gave me the breath of poetry...and gave me the confidence and inspiration as an artist....My mother--who showed me the beauty of imagination and took me on nature walks when I was little.Blue woman Sculpture.My dad, for becoming my best friend when I grew up...and could really appreciate what an amazing man he is, how truly brilliant he is and be thankful for where we travelled with him as a family because of his work.Self Portrait with Terra Cotta Sculpture.Sculpture of Woman. 1998.
Beatnik Sculpture.Jazz Man. Terra Cotta Mask.Nomad Woman. Sculpture. Terra Cotta Mask. Bongo Drum Player, Stop Motion Puppet & Cat.Blue Nude. Oil Painting.
I'd like to meet:
Photographers...Writers...Artists...Filmmakers...Visionaries
...OTHER INSOMNIACS...people who live life with a savage voice devouring experience with great passion and veracity.People who know what it means to speak "Sixteen thoughts down"...and speak every breath of it without apology.The other night, I attended the 150th Anniversary of "The Atlantic," I never quite prepared myself for the experience that was Patti Smith. She was a complete force...she was Cowboy Mouth, she was this incredible spirit who just blew my damn mind."I don't consider writing a quiet, closet act.
I consider it a real physical act.
When I'm home writing on the typewriter, I go crazy.
I move like a monkey.
I've wet myself, I've come in my pants writing."
--Patti SmithAnd then of course...Rob Zombie. His music, His movies...his mind...enough said. (ok...I think he is hot. Rob Zombie is hot.)
Paul Kariya. He kicks ass....period.Annie Leibovitz. She knows her shit.David LaChapelle...I'd love to have him take my picture...his mind is warped and beautiful all in one package. He is someone who gets it.
Add to my list of artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians that I didn't quite get to in time....Jeff Buckley. Brilliant. Simply Brilliant.A friend of mine from a lifetime ago once wrote a book about me, in his mind...entitled...STALKING JACK KEROUAC. I couldn't think of three better words to sum up the years I spent between 16 and 30. Now...well...now that I have found him (and am a little older)...I live with the ghost of his words in everything that I do.
And all that I can say...is welcome back Mr. Kerouac...where have you been?"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
-Jack KerouacI would have also liked to have met one of the most exquisitely inspiring filmmakers to live: Krzysztof Kieslowski. Perhaps in the afterlife...There is a huge list of musicians that I'm completely breathless listening to...they are among those that belong on this list...music makes my world move.Tool...a kick ass band with exactly the right thought when you need it...
Music:
This is my VERY FAVORITE Chikinki song...when I listen to it...it is stuck in my head for DAYS! ASSASSINATOR 13Jeff Buckley, Rich Price, JJ Grey & Mofro, Warren Haynes, Rob Zombie, Ray LaMontagne, Govt. Mule, Head Automatica, Derek Trucks Band, Susan Tedeschi, Amadou & Mariam, Zenima, Odyze, The Chemical Brothers, Nick Drake, Cary Brothers, John Lennon, Nine Inch Nails, D.O.C., Outkast, Chris Cornell, 80's Music, Rick Springfield, Dave Matthews, DJ Logic, Robert Randolph, Nina Simone, John Coltraine, Grateful Dead, Rilo Kiley, Jack Johnson, Our Lady Peace, David Amram, Alice Coltraine, Men At Work, Sade, Beastie Boys, Citizen Cope, U2, Albert Hill, Janis Joplin, Thelonius Monk, No Doubt, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Jovanotti, Leonard Cohen, Mike Ness, Max Pezzali, Gianna Nannini, Tom Waits, Leo Kotke, Miles Davis, Norah Jones, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Ani DeFranco, Zero Assoluto, LL Cool J, Run DMC, NWA, Public Enemy, Johnny Cash, Gorillaz, Social Distortion, Mary J. Blige, Reik, Fischerspooner, The Zombies, A Tribe Called Quest, Audioslave, Kids Against Combs, Bob Marley, Cake, Oasis, Mars Volta, Phil Lesh, Stereophonics, Cassandra Wilson, Cat Stevens, Chikinki, Methods of Mayham, Crystal Method, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Filter, Morphine, Garbage, Primus, Greyboy, Lauryn Hill, Lo Fidelity All Stars, Portishead, Medeski Martin & Wood, Paolo Conte, North Mississippi All Stars, Poe, Robert Walter, Sex Mob, Galactic, Skerik, Inner 61, Dubstar, Placebo, The Killers, Butthole Surfers, De La Soul, Digable Planets, John Lee Hooker, Scissor Sisters,White Stripes, Youssou N'Dour, Concrete Blonde, Sneaker Pimps, Colin Hay, The Smiths, Van Morrison, Frou Frou
Movies:
This is one of my all time favorite Stop motion video's, incredibly moving.Boondock Saints, Rize, Wristcutters: A Love Story (Tom Waits--How cool is it that it has Tom Waits in it!?), The Dead Girl, Thank You For Not Smoking, Stephanie Daley, Little Miss Sunshine, Half Nelson, Stealing Heaven (one of my favorite tragic/love stories), V for Vendetta, Shopgirl, Roman Holiday (Gregory Peck is one my all time favorite male actors), Fahrenheit 451, How to Steal a Million, Love in the Afternoon, Vision Quest, Groundhog's Day, Clerks, Office Space, The Mother, Garden State, Charade, Sabrina (both versions), Kieslowski's Color Trilogy: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge. ***Occupation: Dreamland**, His Girl Friday, North by Northwest, My Favorite Wife, An Affair to Remember, The Door in the Floor, Let's Make Love (my favorite Marilyn movie--I LOVE Yves Montand), Blue Velvet, Breakfast Club, When Harry Met Sally, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Pulp Fiction, The Pillowbook, Seven, Casablanca, The Matrix, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Poltergeist, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fight Club, Crash, Secretary, Anything Monty Python, Raging Bull, Silence of the Lambs, Twelve Monkeys, The Shining, Jaws, Crawlspace, Ghost World, The Devil's Rejects, Reality Bites, Black Christmas, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween (the first one...and so anxiously awaiting Rob Zombie's version!!), House of 1000 Corpses, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Silver Bullet, Ghost Ship(best first 6 minutes of a horror film EVER), Mallrats, Chasing Amy, The Incredibles, Cabin Fever, Finding Nemo, Blade Runner, The Graduate, Lost in Translation, Sixteen Candles, Old School, Un Chien Andalou, L'ge d'or, Little Otik, Darkness/Light/Darkness, anything Louise Brookes, Charlie Chaplin, Silent Films, Any horror film I can get my hands on....Black and White, foreign with subtitles and passion...so many more...(and of course The Resurrection Apprentice a movie written & Directed by the amazingly talented Glenn McQuaid & produced by me. Starring Larry Fessenden)
It's the time of your life that may last a
lifetime.
What John Hughes movie Are You?
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (song "Slept So Long" by Orgy) (the actual entire movie is amazing--1919 German Expressionist film...worth seeing)
Television:
Favorite of all favorite's is DEF POETRY, Weeds, Entourage, Californication, Brotherhood, Carnivale, Deadwood, Sex in the City, Six Feet Under, Ab Fab, Sopranos, Dead Like Me, most things on TCM and yes admittedly, sometimes commercial television (most women would be lying if they said they didn't watch Gray's Anatomy--Damn good writing, I have to say--it isn't just because of the cute men). But more of a film girl. (we'll not mention my late night MSNBC or cooking channel addiction...pretty much anything Alton Brown)Where is my Mr.Big?And did I mention...I have a bit of a OLTL.."problem," ahem...I'm sorry...it just sort of happened. I can't help it. I love a good love triangle. Sexy is sexy...
Books:
I am a literary FREAK. Words...are what drive me. Writing, is my passion. Writers...are the source of inspiration that makes me tick, very few people know that above all other things that I do..I am a writer, and spoken word artist and have been doing this since I was a child...these are only a few among my many favorites: On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Shopgirl by Steve Martin, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by HST, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, Dry(also A. Burroughs), Junky by William Burroughs, George Orwell's Essays and most of his books, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Sara by J.T. LeRoy, Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski, The Tao of Pooh,The Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Ariel by Sylvia Plath, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, Mao II by Don DeLillo, Getting to Know the General by Graham Greene, Monkey Hunting by Christina Garcia and Dreaming in Cuban also by C. Garcia. Different Dances by Shel Silverstein, or anything illustrated by Maurice Sendak.
Heroes:
My grandmother. She lived her life with a frenzied passion--flirted with every man, made lifetime friends with every woman, joked at any awkward situation, and always wore bright fuschia lipstick even when she had on her pajamas. The classiest woman I've ever known.
