« August 2009 | Main | October 2009 »

September 26, 2009

More Tennessee in P-Town

Curator, David Kaplan hops his bike to rehearsals and a Gay Studies Class from a Local U
Curator, David Kaplan hops his bike to hit rehearsals and a gay studies class at a local U
 
Glorious weekend on Cape Cod and Provincetown is hopping.  Last night, Betty Buckley and the entire cast of GHOSTS FROM A SUMMER HOTEL wowed a sold-out perfomance of this Williams piece based on the F.Scott Fitgerald short story.  The Festival has SOLD OUT ALL TEN SHOWS.

My friends from Boston that I met on Maui arrived this afternoon and we had a tour of the village, lunch by the shore and tons of shopping.
 
Stephen & Meredith Schulte
Stephen & Meredith Schulte
 
Stephen and Meredith brought along their delightful friend, Jessica Wolkiewicz. We are meeting at 7pm for the New Zealand production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Fisherman's Wharf.  My favorite Williams play will be followed by a cocktail party for Betty Buckley who was such a marvelous Zelda Fitzgerald last night...
 
Jessica Wolkiewicz joined Stephen and Meredith. We will all be seeing STREETCAR tonight. Jessica was a wonderful surprise.
Jessica Wolkiewicz joined Stephen & Meredith.  We will all be seeing STREETCAR tonight.  Jessica was a wonderful surprise.
 
 We are a foursome tonight, The Schulte's, Jessica and Me.  Should be memorable.
 
Jessica, Meredith & Stephen
Jessica, Meredith & Stephen

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 07:03 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

September 25, 2009

P-Town

Glenn Shadix & David Kaplan
Glenn Shadix & David Kaplan
 
Wonderful flight to Boston yesterday and a 90 minute ferry ride took me to the heart of Provincetown. Checked into The Waterford Inn and spent my first day exploring the village and greeting friends from all over.  Attended the opening night party for the T.W. Festival and met the charming Betty Buckley, who I will see tonight in William's play (based on an F.Scott Fitzgerald short story), "CLOTHES FOR A SUMMER HOTEL" about Scott and Zelda--of course..  The picture above is David Kaplan, curator of The Festival.  We are on the balcony of the cottage David keeps in Provincetown--it was, for many years, owned by Eugene O'neill.   Today's plays start at 1pm so I am dashing off this blog and getting ready to being an audience until after 10pm with quick breaks!
 
Glenn Shadix at the Waterford Inn in Provincetown
Glenn Shadix at the Waterford Inn in Provincetown

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 04:42 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 16, 2009

Poem

Here is the poem written and read at The United Methodist Church on Sunday (see previous blog entry).  The author, Mohja Kahf, is a Palestinian Muslim who read this in support of Temple Shalom.  It was so moving in it's delivery I am at a lost to transmit the emotional energy it held on this historic occaision.  Here is the poem written and read by a magnificent lady who I was most honored to meet Sunday night:

All Good
by Mohja Kahf

In the end, it’s all okay,
I would like to reassure those of you
who may have been troubled
by Hajar’s vicissitudes
or the questionable actions
and sometimes disturbing language
in which they have manifested here

Out in the blue infinitude
that reaches and touches us
sometimes, Hajar and Sarah
and Ibrahim work together
to dismantle the house of fear,
brick by back-breaking brick
With a broom of their own weaving,
they sweep away the last remains
They sit down for a meal
under the naked stars

Ismail and Isaac come around shyly,
new and unlikely friends
Hajar introduces them
to her second and third husbands
and a man from her pottery class
who is just a friend
There is no more possessiveness
Later generations of girls and boys
trammel over everyone’s lap,
welcomed by more than one
mother and father
Massacring our children
at the altars of our greed and pride
is no longer acceptable practice

Sorrows furrow every face
This, in the firelight, no one denies
No one tries to brush it all away
with saccharine lies
or rushes into glib forgiveness,
disrespecting the right of the oppressed
to redress their suffering
No one claims to corner
the market of affliction

Everybody’s losses have been named
in excruciating detail as they deserve to be,
and mourned
Cruelties on every side
have been deeply and at length atoned
allowing the old family drama
finally to die

The grieving has gone on for untold ages,
frenzied and rageful in our immature years,
slowly becoming penitent and wise
Despite the abject pain
we have experienced,
no one wishes they could change the past
because of which we have arrived
at this transforming time

Hagar pours a subtle, sweet
and heretofore unheard of wine
Sarah laughs again, more deeply
It’s amazing how restored Abraham looks
Everyone, this time around, can recognize
in the eyes of every other,
the flickering light of the Divine
and it is like nothing we have ever known before
yet it is
what we have always known at core

I would like to reassure you all:
In the very end, in the fourth,
unseen dimension that has been here
from the very beginning, unfolding
just outside the limits of our perception,
suffering, not in its rawest form,
but distilled in temperate hearts,
takes us to higher levels of cognition
We break out of the cycle,
Here, Now, to higher life,
and it is fine

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 09:41 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

September 15, 2009

Faith to Faith

 
On Friday September 10th, my fiend Jason Maloy and I began our road trip to Arkansas to visit Little Rock (where I enjoyed a visit to President Clinton's Library). We then traveled on to Fayetteville Arkansas for the second annual Gala Benefit & Silent Auction benefiting The Building--A Dream Capital Campaign Fund for TEMPLE SHALOM of Northwest Arkansas held at Fayetteville's UNITED METODODIST CHURCH.  The Jewish Community has been using the local Unitarian Church as their home and their dream of building a permanent home is becoming a reality due to Fadil Bayyari's tremendous act of generosity.  Bayyari Construction services are being donated at cost to the project and Mr. Bayyari, himself, is donating his services as general contractor. NEVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY HAVE CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTS DESIGNED A JEWISH TEMPLE THAT IS BEING BUILT BY A MUSLIM CONTRACTOR.

Glenn Shadix & Jason Maloy
Glenn Shadix & Jason Maloy

This building partnership has also had the added benefit of creating a vision of understanding and respect for all viewpoints.  Temple Shalom has established a FAITH TO FAITH Initiative that will provide people of all religions, ethnicities and cultures a safe forum in which to share and learn from each other.

To inquire about making a tax-deductible donation to the BUILDING OF A DREAM CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FUND please contact: Barry Brown, Capital Campaign Chairman at (479) 871-1457 (cell) or at his home: (479)750-4004 or email at bbrown@uark.edu

Barry gave me a personal tour of the Temple, now under construction and I was treated as an honored guest during my time in Arkansas.  A highlight was a beautiful poem read by Mohja Kahf at the Gala benefit Sunday evening.  What a wonderful example for all communities of Faith. It was certainly worth the 16 hours I spent in my car on the way up and then back to Birmingham!

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 07:10 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

September 11, 2009

Monstrous Schedule

Glenn Shadix
 
Off with my dear friend, Jason Maloy, to Little Rock to join in the opening of a new Synagogue and a trip to The Clinton Library.  Then after The BSC Starlight Supper on the 20th, it's P-Town Ma. for The Tennessee Williams festival and a gathering of old friends and ten T.W. plays, then appearances in Nashville, Cleveland and by Nov 15 I will be in Manhattan to honor Tim Burton at his M.O.M.A. Retrospective.  Busy fall and then FRANCE,  and, when weather warms, on to Austria and Berlin.  I hope WORK does not disrupt my plans...The best laid plans of mice and men...well, you know what I mean.  Will be in Birmingham between some of these trips!  Love to all-GS Got my iPhone with me...

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 04:26 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

September 04, 2009

What a World--Delightful and Bizarre!

 

The above YOUTUBE speaks for itself.   Wow!.....Had a wonderful day yesterday.  Spoke with Karen Black who is anxious to work with David Kaplan at his Tennessee Williams Festival next year.  I love Miss Black, who I met in 1977 and have made two films with in the past few years and her husband, Stephen Ekleberry and I have know each other since he first arrived from Paris to Hollywood in 1978.  I knew them both before they met each other and married over twenty years ago.   Karen is currently in casting for a play she is producing in Georgia.  This actress has made over 300 films since the 1960's and with hits and misses is still one of the most prolific actresses of our time.  Truly love this lady...

Got my hair cut yesterday at The Clip Joint on 20th street in Birmingham, did my shopping (Love SOJOURN's, at 217 20th St North in Downtown Birmingham. " Fair Trade advocates for environmentally friendly and sustainable products" ) hit a noon meeting at Our Lady of Sorrows in Homewood and came home and wrote into the wee hours of this morning.  Today has been housekeeping and filing and choosing a new camera. Mine disappeared during my Cabana Pool party at The Roosevelt on Hollywood Blvd two weeks ago.  This time I am getting a small (fits in your palm Nikon 5630 that I will NOT leave unprotected at a party for 500!

Weather is here, wish you were beautiful.  No kidding, we are having the mildest September ever (in my experience) in Alabama and I am loving it!  Love to all and a special note:

Lost my dear friend, Mary Turner to cancer this week.  She wrote me bi-monthly during almost my whole time living in Hollywood ( THREE decades). This was a wonderful and kind lady who I have known all my life and she will be greatly missed.  God Bless you ,Mary, and rest in peace.

Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend.  Please support our President as he prepares to speak to the nations' children next week on the importance of hard work, education and staying in school. There are, inexplicably to me, many who think this is a terrible idea.  Who are these folks?  Their arguments baffle me.
Later--------GS

Posted by Glenn Shadix at 02:43 PM | | TrackBacks (0)