Thursday, March 30, 2006

Poll: Pick your favorite contemporary song "about" Louise Brooks

By now, I hope some of you might have had the chance to listen to RadioLulu. This Louise Brooks themed radio station features music of the Twenties through today - and includes contemporary pop and rock songs about the silent film star. What's your favorite contemporary song "about" Louise Brooks?

Poll #701462 Favorite Contemporary Louise Brooks Song
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12
Pick your favorite contemporary song "about" Louise Brooks
View Answers
OMD - Pandora's Box (It's a Long, Long Way) (1991)
 6 (50.0%)
Timelock - Louise Brooks (1992)
 0 (0.0%)
Jen Anderson - Lulu the Song (1993)
 1 (8.3%)
John SaFranko - The Final Years of Louise Brooks (1993)
 0 (0.0%)
Ron Hawkins - Lulu (1995)
 0 (0.0%)
Soul Coughing - St. Louise Is Listening (1998)
 2 (16.7%)
Lady Godiva - Louise Brooks (1999)
 0 (0.0%)
Les Primitifs Du Future - Chanson pour Louise Brooks (1999)
 2 (16.7%)
Marillion - Interior Lulu (1999)
 0 (0.0%)
Sarah Azzara - Like Louise Brooks (2000)
 1 (8.3%)
Paul Hayes - Louise Brooks (2003)
 0 (0.0%)
Nouvelle Culture - Actress (Louise Brooks Theme) (2005)
 0 (0.0%)

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Guerrilla Girls


The cover story of the current issue of Go Triad - an arts & entertainment magazine from Greensboro, North Carolina - is devoted to the Guerrilla Girls, the longstanding feminist theater troupe. The Guerrilla Girls were formed in 1985, and have appeared around the United States and the world "working collectively and anonymously, producing posters, billboards, public actions, books and other projects to make feminism funny and fashionable." (For more about their activities, check outwww.guerrillagirls.com). The article notes "Members of the Guerrilla Girls keep their identities anonymous by assuming the names of prominent women in history. The group includes, among others, Julia Child, Coco Chanel, Anna May Wong, Louise Brooks and Aphra Behn, a playwright of the late 17th century known for her bawdy humor."

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Sarah Caldwell (1924 - 2006)

Sarah Caldwell, one of America's most adventurous conductors and opera directors, has died. (Her New York Times obit can be found here.)

Recently, I had the chance to see documentary filmmmaker Richard Leecock screen Lulu in Berlin. At that screening, Leecock paired his Louise Brooks documentary with an unreleased work-in-progress about Sarah Caldwell, and her efforts to stage an opera in Russia. During the question and answer session following the films, Leecock recounted how he had worked with Caldwell on a staging of Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, in Chicago. (This took place in 1968.) Leecock shot a short cinematic passage, as called for in Berg's notes for the opera, with Edie Sedgwick playing Lulu!

Monday, March 27, 2006

Donald Sosin

Today, I received an email from composer and accompaniest Donald Sosin. He wrote to tell me that he will be accompaning Prix de Beaute when it is screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in little more than a month. (See an earlier LJ entry for details.) Donald's music can be heard on a number of DVDs, including NosferatuThe Cabinet of Dr. CaligariThe Forgotten Films of Fatty Arbuckle, etc....  He has also accompanied earlier screenings of Pandora's Box (at the Brooklyn Academy of Music),Diary of a Lost Girl, and A Girl in Every Port. More about Donald and his work can be found at www.silent-film-music.com/  Check it out!

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Returned from Sacramento


Returned from Sacramento, where I had spent Friday afternoon at the California State Library. I was able to finish off some research odds and ends. I completed my scan of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and the Bakersfield Californian, and found about a half-dozen articles and reviews in each. Some good material . . . . I also took a quick look (again) at the Hollywood Citizen News and Los Angeles Examiner - I had to double check some things, as well as the Fullerton Daily Tribune. The Fullerton paper may yield some material, but I just didn't have time to go through it properly. Should I return to the library some time, I may scout that newspaper.

And lastly, I took a look at phone books (on microfilm) from Los Angeles from 1928 and 1940. I wasn't able to find a white pages listing for Louise Brooks in the 1928 white pages, but I was able to find a listing for Eddie Sutherland! The 1940 yellow pages yielded a listing for the Brooks-O'Shea dance studio. If anybody has the inclination to do so, it might be good idea to check the New York City phone books for the various periods that Louise Brooks lived there. It would be neat to find out exactly where she lived.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Zelda, Clara and Other Women Gone Wild

Yesterday, Janet Maslin of the New York Times reviewed Flapper, by Joshua Zeitz. Maslin mentioned Louise Brooks . . . "well-known sources like Lulu in Hollywood, Louise Brooks's classic memoir." The review can be found at www.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/books/24book.html
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