Glücklicher 250 Geburtstag Mozart!

mozart
Originally uploaded by alflamont.

Obwohl ich nicht Ihr größter Ventilator bin, (ich bin mehr einer Beethoven Person), muß ich altem "Wolfie" einige Stützen geben. Ich habe zu einem Mozart Oper Festival täglich auf meiner Weise nach Hause gehört und ich muß sagen, daß das freche Giovanni, das goofy Cosi anzieht und die magische Flöte noch mir glückliche Gedächtnisse holen und mein Herz füllen. Glücklicher 250 Geburtstag Wolfie!


"O Mozart!Immortal Mozart! How many and what countless images of a brighter, better world hast thou stamped on our souls." -Schubert

The Biz

Aw Man! This is going to suck to say. It's going to come across as elitist and self important. All i can say, is that I DO this. This is my life. 60 hours a week. Everyone in LA wants to talk show business, and everyone has "Advice" to give. Well, let me just throw THIS out there. If you're not a manager, and agent, a casting director or someone who deals with living, breathing, casting choices, then DO NOT GIVE ANY FUCKING ADVICE TO ACTORS! The following is a cut and paste job of some advice an actress friend of mine received from someone who lives in LA:

I have a lot of friends who are actors. It's a tough gig. Find a steady yet flexable job yo pay the bills and then take as many classes and do as many auditions as you can. As with any art, the only way to get better at something is to do it. Getting as much good experience as you can while building a reel is key. That reel can help you get agents and parts, so you want to try and get involved with pieces that reflect you as an actor and that you cna be proud of. For every striving actor there is a striving director, so keep a look out for work in indipendent short films by people trying to break into directing.

Oh mother of the baby Jesus and all the Saints in heaven...did you read that?
Let's forgive the spelling. Let's forgive the notion that acting is an art, the question this guy needs to ask is "Do you want to make a living at acting, or just twat about?". The recipe he has given this girl is a recipe for a lot of mistakes, and a lot of wasted time. THIS is how actors end up in a lame fuckaround, rather than building towards a real and lasting career.

I know the intentions were good, but I also know how saturated this town is with actors and how if you want to REALLY give a friend a hand, you'll avoid giving shit advice. Do everyone in LA a favor, and let's steer actors to the brutal guillotine that is the real Hollywood. Let's introduce them to SAG, AFTRA, Pay or Play, Favored Nations, Modified Low Budgets, Breakdowns, Sides, Pilots, Non-Union Episodics and all the true hazzards of a budding career. Keep them away from lowlifes with no budget, a self obsessed script, and a digital cam. Deliver your friends from "Features" that are written, directed, produced, and starring John Q. Fuckup. If your actor friends are to die, then let them do it, and decrease the surplus population. At least you gave them a fighting chance.

Tristan and Isolde (The surrender of self to Love)

I recently murdered the story of Tristan and Isolde while making a point of the necessity of pain and anguish, the acceptance of these parts of life as inevtabilities of a passionate and well led journey. I used Tristan and Isolde as metaphors for resigned passion and love. unfortunately I paraphrased the most touching part of the story, so I've decided to retell it and expose casual readers to my thoughts. The Story goes as follows:

Tristan was a knight who was sent by his king to retrieve Isolde, a beautiful princess whos marriage to the king was to provide peace to two long battling kingdoms.

Isolde was beautiful and young, and her nurse worried that she would not accept the old farty king as a husband. As insurance against a pretty young girl's better instincts, the nurse made a love potion that Isolde would drink when she met the king.

As fate would have it, during the trip the dashing Tristan and beautiful Isolde accidentally drink the potion, and a deep love ensues.

The nurse wakes the next day and finds the new lovers in each other's arms, weeping. They know what this means. They know that suffering and more likely death for Tristan would soon follow.

The Nurse exclaims, "You have drunk your death."

"If by ‘my death’ you mean this agony of love, that is my life!" responded the loving knight, "If by my death you mean the punishment that we are to suffer if discovered, I accept that. And if by my death, you mean eternal punishment in the fires of hell, I accept that too."

So essential to the journey is a complete surrender into the moment and passions of love, that this Boy-Knight and his teenage princess are willing to accept both physical death AND eternal damnation for their love, is a testament to romantic love, attraction, and the depth to which it moves us.

The same story as ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. No matter what the end result, or the misery you may feel, it is always worth it. The anger of betrayal, the crushing loneliness, and the resurrected self, a better and more conscious self, are all in thanks to the surrender we once made. Though we sometimes miss that glorious bliss, we are greatful for the ability to surrender to it, and the supreme happiness it once brought to our lives.

Marriage Schmarriage?

A friend of over 3 years has recently revealed to me that he in fact, has a blog. To my friend's credit, the blog contains some very complete thoughts on a variety of subjects. None bear the sophmoric self-indulgent mark of say... MY BLOG , but rather his entries are precisely why blogging was made available. The sharing of ideas. My friend and I are simpatico on many fronts. Both of us are notoriously liberal, both of us are savagely independent. However, he has recently railed against the institution of marriage. Now I know what marriage means here in LA, its obvious that this country in particular seems to have made a mockery of the institution, and that in the media, marriage is only an accoutrement or an accessory for Paris and Paris or Britney, K-fed and their wretched bumpkin offspring. Republicans and their mini brains can't wrap their heads around the notion that marriage needs more defense from an overzealous Nicole Ritchie than from a committed gay couple. So why marriage at all then?

I think we can all agree that love is present regardless of the ceremony. The financial benefits are a cheap spiritual excuse, and barely worth mentioning. My friend makes many valid points. As someone who finds the likelyhood of marriage ebb away as each passing day makes me a more bizzare version of my previous self, i could see the shenanigans and buffoonery associated with the whole wedding season with as cold an eye as any doomed to a bachelor's life. So why the heaving sentimentality? I obviously disagree with his stance on marriage,but why?

Allow me to refer to a story from the Indus valley:
It is beleived that when a man is created, his opposite is also created in the world. These spirits are then seperated. If a man leads a holy life, one that is true to himself and kind unto others, the the man will be reunited with his other self. The other lost in birth. If he is untrue to himself and others, then he will find another mate who does not quite complete him.

Taken literally of course it's absolute nonsense, as with most religion. But by god what beautiful depth there is to the notion of finding yourself in the other. My progressive friends will all agree that the face of god, and true holiness does not lie in yourself but rather in the other. The ability to feel the pain of your neighbors, and bear the agony and ectasy of someone's life along with yours is a momentuous occasion. As with all great transitions in life a ceremony and celebration must accompany the spiritual transition of a being who switches to being self serving to becoming a servant of the life he or she has chosen. THAT is marriage. Jewish weddings have the breaking of a glass to symbolise the pain that comes with leaving your previous self behind, followed by the joy of dancing and singing to celebrate a new life.

How many times have you seen a couple get married and it changes nothing? The big change came when they became committed long ago. The cermonies are simply a celebration of that step. you gather everyone around you who your love affects and you bring them close.Nuns are married to god. Businessmen say they are married to their job. Ultimately marriage is an admission that you are a being who has been spiritualy changed, the ceremony the act the legal stuff, is just an embellishment for the true, mature , denial of self it represents. As long as people interact, care and grow, marriage will happen.

Ultimate Showdown

Optimus, Indy, Batman, Honest Abe, etc. VS. Godzilla

NO IMAGE NCECESSARY

Thanks, mAc

Things from 2005

Ok, so I'm sorry for not posting in a Cyber-eternity. Here's the deal. I had collected some great links and images last year, and never found time to post it. That being said,a new year's post is just the thing.

#1
Charlie Chaplin and Einstein

Man I love this picture.

#2 Another Fine Mess


This Badass image is actually a print that was being sold at a small gallery in London. i tried to purchase it, but the Artist has dissapeared, and he took his art with him.


#3 The Tortoise and the Hippo
Anyone who knows me, knows that i am not a sentimental sap. That being said, I am extremely proud to say that the true story of THIS orphaned baby hippo and the 130 year old tortoise it adopted, will soon be a feature film produced by my company RELEVANT entertainment.



#4 As Pilots Season Approaches, who doesn't feel like this at least a few times a day?


#5 Always Look on the bright side of life, and death.



#6 The tale of Pac-Man


Sweetness.