THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS
New Fiction By BUREAU Editor Joshua TRILIEGI
Each Chapter is Written Consecutively in a 24 Hour Period without Notes & Published
SEASON TWO / EPISODE 11 / CHAPTER 33
Maggie and Charles originally met in a coffeehouse in Greenwich Village exactly thirty years ago: the spring of Nineteen Sixty-Two. Their kids got together and decided that since Charles' return, a party was in order. Moon had invited their friends, Cally dressed up the house, Mickey rented a keg and asked some local musicians to stop by throughout the day. Charles and Maggie had been spending their nights together and rediscovering the things they both had originally admired about one another. Apparently, Charles, although out of commission for a decade, still had that magic touch. Maggie's demeanor had changed and everyone noticed it. She became, quiet, reflective and available. Jezz remarked to Maggie, "You're so mellow lately". Maggie replied, in hush tones, as if a secret were being told, "I think I'm in love again, after all these years. Can you believe that ?" Charles was out in the backyard with Mickey and the two ladies watched them through the window. "Yes, I can see why." Mickey had been preparing the motorcycle for Jordan, who had chosen an upright model that carried two comfortably with a front shield and a major audio component. He painted it black with gold pinstripes. Cally and Jezz had opened the hair salon successfully. The business was brisk and constant. They had recently decided to add nails and pedicure services as soon as possible. Then it could be a one stop shop. One day, a guy walked in and asked for a trim. Jezz, who usually sat at the reception, looked over at Cally, who looked at the man and said, "We can take care of you in fifteen minutes, would you be a dear and run next door for a cup of tea, Jezz will give you the money and get yourself one too." The man was surprised, "Oh, sure, thank you." Jezz gave the man a bill from the register drawer, looked over at Cally, who simply kept cutting hair and suddenly, they doubled their customers by fifty percent. After all, this was a business, not a private club. Jezz looked at the cash, closed the drawer and they both had to giggle. Charles and Mickey had recently bonded over an incident that had everything to do with the money that Jordan had given him for the motorcycle. The bundle of cash was originally wrapped in a very strong and archival sheet of LSD that Charles had been carrying for too many years to remember. When Jordans bus hit Charles on the coastline, Jordan had picked the bundle up and since then had found a way to return it by investing in the salon. Apparently, the bundle had been rained on and soaked through each and every bill, especially the edges, so that if perspiration or any form of humidity occurred, it actually activated LSD and could effect the person handling the currency. Mickey who was responsible for serving everyone refreshments the night Jordan handed him the money, had activated the paper bills and when he got home that night, began a twelve hour journey into the mind. Charles had stayed up all night with him, guiding him through. He had done this plenty of times and was the perfect guide to do so. Since then, Mickey and Charles had finally broken the ice and most of the barriers that existed because of Charles' ten year absence. Mickey assumed that one of his friends had slipped him something as a gag and had no idea that every time he gave somebody a piece of that original currency, there was a very good chance that they were about to, 'Trip the light fantastic'. All a person had to do was touch the dollar bill, then rub their eyes, or any area that might be susceptible and they would be tripping. Mickey did business with a lot of people. Some of them were total squares who were most likely, about to become: well rounded.
Jordan could see that his mother was not here to visit, but to stay. He didn't exactly know how that was going to work out and one day he returned home to find a letter from his father. It was from Lompoc prison with a number printed in the upper left corner, instead of a name. The letter explained that Little Mac had been seeing the recent events on television and in the papers and he wanted Jordan to know that he was proud of him. Jordan, put the envelope in his coat pocket and just wasn't really ready to deal with these feelings that had gone unchecked all these years. He was generally pretty dissatisfied with many of the things that had played out in his life as a child, he had not looked back and didn't wan't to start now. Here he was starting a family of his own, doing it right, and now, his parents showed up. Half the time, he felt like the parent during those early years. They were beautiful, but they had let emotion override common sense and it hurt them as a family, it hurt him and, ultimately, it hurt the common goals that they fought so hard to achieve. He didn't say anything for a while and then at breakfast one day, he mentioned casually, "I got a letter from Mac." Wanda and his mother, who went by the name of 'Baby' stared at Jordan. "Well, what did he say," Wanda exclaimed ? Jordan just shook his head, ran his fork through the eggs on the plate in front of him and mumbled, "Not much, the letter is in my coat pocket." Baby got up and pulled out the letter as well as a piece of paper that was crumpled underneath it. She pulled out both items and brought them to the table. Jordan looked and saw that the other piece of paper was the brown wrapping paper with the funny designs all over it. It was the original wrapping paper that had covered the money bundle that he took the night he ran into Charles on the coastline. It had a funny little design all over it in faded multi colored blocks that looked like little stamps with perforations in a grid. He had never really paid much attention to the pattern, but here in plain view, it was full of animated details. Baby read the letter aloud and she cried. Mac was a good man and although they had not been close lately, she hated to be reminded that he was still paying a big price for who he was. She had never met a man like Mac and knew he was an original and had given her a boy like Jordan who was now providing her with a new life and a grandkid. Then she wiped her eyes and looked down at the other, crumpled sheet of paper. She opened it up and recognized what it actually was : a sheet of vintage LSD. "What the f*ck are you doing with this," she screamed. Jordan jumped in his seat as if he were six years old. "What," he looked at her blankly ? "Do you know what this is," she asked him ? Jordan shook his head, meaning no. This here is enough L-S-'f*cking'-D to turn on Jimi Hendrix for an entire tour. "Have you ever heard the song, "Are you Experienced ? Well, this is exactly what he is talking." Jordan just stared at her, Wanda was quiet this whole time, but now she joined in, "Well, lets have it boy. Whats the story ?" Now he had two angry mothers at the table and there was no way out, he had to come clean.
Jordan started in and described everything that had happened from beginning to end. Then he explained that the night they visited the salon in Venice Beach he had returned the money as an investment in the new business and was setting up an account for their child with the profits. He didn't mention the part where he was also given a motorcycle just yet. Both of the women sat silently and stared at Jordan. He didn't know if it was admiration or anger. Then he looked at the crumpled paper and said, "Well that explains a lot of things." Baby busted out laughing and Wanda couldn't help but join her. "You mean to tell me that you're not just a revolutionary, but your also experienced," she asked matter of fact ? "Yes, Momma," Jordan admitted. Then she cackled, "Now I know for sure you is Mac's boy." Wanda looked at Jordan, Jordan looked at Baby, Baby looked at both of them and simply said, "You kids will never really know what life was like back then, and I don't wanna hear another word about it." She got up from the table but couldn't stop shaking her head and smacking her lips in amazement at the boy's story, the house was quiet. Jordan sat up, excused himself from the table, he walked over to the stereo, pulled out an album, dropped the needle and the sounds of John Coltrane reverberated through the household: A Love Supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme … Later that evening Jordan explained that one of the perks to his investment in the salon was half price at the salon and a new custom hand built motorcycle. He then suggested that they drive over to Venice Beach tomorrow, he would pick up the bike, while the two ladies had their hair done and had a second look at their new investment. The ladies agreed. He had created a future and Wanda was seeing this thing in a whole new light. Jordan dropped the ladies off at the salon, gave them the keys to the car and walked over to Mickey's shop. He was still not entirely aware of his own notoriety, but, because of the incident on television, people knew who he was. Mickey was happy to see him and said the bike was ready. Jordan was impressed, "It's beautiful man." Mickey smiled, "Yeah it is." He handed him the keys. Jordan started the motor, cranked his wrist an eighth of an inch and felt the power of the road underneath his feet. He headed straight towards Lompoc prison. While Wanda was getting her hair done by Cally, Jezz and Baby were talking up a storm, then Jezz looked down and saw Baby's toes. They were perfectly groomed and painted flawlessly with little designs and flourishes that Jezz had never seen before. "Who did your nails," she asked and Baby answered, "Oh I did, been doing nails for me and a family of girls since I was twelve. Done Wanda's too." Cally heard the girls talking and noticed that Wanda's toes had been perfectly designed with a triple french tip in three tones of light pink. They were gorgeous. Cally said out loud, "You did that ?" Jezz and Cally looked at one another, they looked over at Baby and both agreed quietly. "Why, what is it," Baby asked ? Jezz replied, "You see that section over there ? How would you like to run our new nail department ?" They described the hours and the pay as well as the tips and Baby said that if Wanda and Jordan didn't mind her staying on, until she could get a place of her own, that she would be glad to have the opportundegradationity. Wanda chimed in, "Baby, you know you have always got a place with us." The woman had been through so much agony and struggle and degradation in her long journey, that it hit her all at once: she had actually landed safely. She was beautiful, she had a son, she had a home and now she actually had something to offer. Her eyes welled up, then she asked what time did they open tomorrow ? "Fine, I will be here."
Stan had taken Cliff's drawings around to a few of the art galleries and finally found one. They thought it would make an interesting exhibition as well as a great promotional back story that leaned in favor of the idea that everyday people, as well as professionals, had the ability to envision a future happenstance. The art gallery owner was also a clairvoyant. They sold books and the accessories that go with the territory: sage, essential oils, crystals, ceremonial items from around the world. But first and foremost, it was an art gallery with a large exhibiting space that Stan could definitely envision as a first show for Cliffs current works which included the giant centerpiece drawing which depicted the riots and had been drawn long before, as well as a series of works that were connected to cases involving people that Cliff had predicted, through pictorial reference, some particular outcome. When Stan brought the works, he also brought images and articles of the actual people. One of them was a portrait of Junior, so Stan then brought a picture of Junior. He explained that the works involving public cases would not come with a reference, as that would be encroaching on the privacy of those people, but for the sake of convincing the gallery owner, he brought the source proof. Other images were more date related, the day he had executed the work was juxtaposed with the event later occurring. And still others where Cliff had drawn an animal and later that animal had shown up in Cliffs life in some way. Stan had explained the incident with the hummingbird, the dear and a family of foxes, wherein the drawing had appeared first and the occurrence not long after. It was an impressive story and what appeared to be an interesting body of work. Once Stan had seen the art work out of the house and the images laid on the floor of the gallery with clean white walls, he saw something totally different. Cliffs artwork had a raw, expressionistic, emotional style. He had a keen eye for detail with a great sense of rhythm and an overall composition that was interesting to look at both up close and from a distance. Something that couldn't be said of many of the professional artists working in the contemporary field of Modern Art. The gallery owner likened the work to Max Ernst and the German expressionists, even William DeKooning. Recently an artist from out of state had cancelled a show that was slated for next month, so the gallery owner suggested they move to frame the small and medium works and the large centerpiece would be attached directly to the wall utilizing museum style specimen attachments as they do with butterflies and the like. The main work had over a hundred small pieces of paper that equaled one giant overview of the city from above with all of the freeways, neighborhoods, the beaches, the mountains and the deserts of Southern California. " Strangely enough, this is the exact combination I prefer to display," the man explained, "You want one very large impressive work that only a major collector can afford, than a few mediums for the mid - range or blue chip crowd and then some small works for the everyday buyer." Stan was pleased with the gallery and they set the dates and signed a simple contract that was a fifty - fifty split. The works would stay up for six weeks and then the gallery owner had a year exclusive regarding any new works or commissions that might come the artists way through whatever promotion had been generated in the way of advertising and editorial attention. "Were also going to need a one page bio and some quotes from the artist," Stan didn't know how that was going to work out, but he figured to cross that road when he got there. He wanted the whole thing to be a surprise, so went he got home that night he didn't say a word. It didn't feel exactly right because there were no secrets in their home. But this was special and Stan felt that driving up to a room full of people with Dora and Cliff would simply be the best way to celebrate. He also felt that it was his turn to deliver something special to the boy and this was his way of doing it. Although the gallery owner didn't say much about it, he became fixated on the image of Junior and decide to use that as the main promotional image. It was a striking portrait that looked like an Indian.
Stan had created the biography page, but still needed some quotes from Cliff. So one day, after school, Cliff was sitting in the backyard and Stan came home early and just started asking Cliff questions about the art. "What do you think about when you draw ?" Cliff responded, "When I draw, I don't have to think about anything, thats why I like to draw, it's a way to have something that is mine." Then Stan continued to delve, "What makes you draw something like a particular animal or a person ?" "Sometimes I have a dream," Cliff explained, "…and other times its like a thing in my head." Then Stan asked, "What about the really large piece ?" Cliff looked over at Stan and said, "Gee dad, when did you get so curious ?" The man laughed and said, "I've always been curious." Cliff looked at him with a smirk as if to say, 'I don't think so.' Then Cliff humored his dad and said that, "The big one was like that time I was sick in bed with a fever. There was no stopping it, even when Cliff had wanted to sleep or to get some graham crackers and milk, the drawing told him not to stop. It was a scary dream," then he added that, "…the animal dreams are always happy, even when it's a weird animal." Stan had the boy now, "What do you mean weird ?" Cliff thought about it, "One time, this giant snake came crawling out of a rock and every time it bit me, I became stronger, then more and more snakes appeared and they also bit me and each time they did, I grew taller, by the time they had all bit me, I was way over the city and thats when I did the large drawing. 'Cause I got so tall that I could see everything from above." Stan looked at the kid and had to hold back his emotions, he took a breath and simply said, "I think we should have these man to man talks more often," then Cliff hugged his father and said, simply, "Me too." Eventually Stan had to tell Dora and Cliff that he had a surprise for them and that next friday night he wanted to take them somewhere. Invitations were sent out and people were told not to mention it as this was to be a surprise. The gallery owner had promoted the show and it happened to be a big art weekend because of a big international art event at a neighboring gallery the same night. People walked back and forth between the shows and Cliff's art was getting some play. Stan, Dora and Cliff went out to dinner and then drove to the gallery. They parked across the street. The place was fully lit and it was now after dark, the gallery was packed with artists, buyers, hipsters. Stan had decided not to put the year of Cliffs birth on the bio and even if he had, most people would have surely assumed that it was the year the works had been made. As they crossed the street, Dora saw the name on the window in large letters: CLIFF GOLD New Drawings and she let out a hoot. "Look at that, what does that say ?" Cliff looked at the words on the window and said, C - L - I - F - F , that says Clliiifff," and then he got a little confused, "Why does it say my name on that window," because tonight your drawings are being shown to people and your dad wanted it to be a surprise." Cliff just stood there. He wasn't very impressed with the idea and then he said, almost irritated, "O.K. Now what ?" Then Stan stepped in, "Now we go inside and mingle with these people who came to see your artwork." Dora led the boy behind Stan and they walked into the brightly lit gallery. The noise level was immense, everyone was talking animatedly about the work, the Los Angeles Times art critic and some of his hangers on stood listening to his every word. An old lady was spouting soliloquies about the majestic honesty, the passionate execution, the deep and intellectual new take on the city. Stan and Dora were extremely proud and impressed. For Cliff it was the equivalent to a Charles Schulze Peanuts cartoon on television. All the adults simply sounded like.
Cliff had a great sense of authenticity and he couldn't find it anywhere. Then he looked up and there was Jordan. "Little man, you did it. This is cool stuff. We are thinking of buying the turtle." Then Cliff looked at him with a strange furrowed brow as he often did under circumstances such as these. "Whattya mean ?" Then Jordan kneeled down and said, "I want to pay you money so that I can have the piece in my home." Cliff just looked at him, "You mean to take it, away ?" Jordan sensed something wasn't going the way he had expected, he called Dora over. Then the gallery owner came over excitedly and exclaimed he had just sold the major work to one of the most important collectors in Los Angeles. She owned works by all the majors and many of the up and comers, half her collection was on loan and toured the world museums, it was a major sale. He had been working on this collector for years and it finally paid off. She wanted to meet the artist. Cliff was now unsure of all of this. He didn't even know if he wanted the works to be 'away' from his home, either temporarily or forever. The major collector and her husband and a few of their friends stood with cocktails in hand expecting to meet some brilliant young art student or a grizzled old discovery and up walked Cliff. The gallery owner said, "Madame and Messieurs, I would like to introduce to you : The Artist, Mister Cliff Gold. They thought it was a joke and then they looked back at the giant drawing and again at the boy and realized that it was not a joke at all, it was a wonderful surprise. "We have bought your drawing," the lady said, and to Cliff, again, it sounded like, "Whaa - Wha - Whaa - whaa - whaaaaaa." Then Cliff said, "Wait a minute." It was one of the things he liked to say whenever he was trying to figure stuff out. "So Jordan's taking the Turtle and now you're taking the City," he asked irritatedly ? The art collector responded, "Well we are going to pay for it and we will take very good care of it and you can even visit it if you ever want to." That didn't so too bad, then he looked at Jordan and suddenly thought about Richard Pryor. Stan and Dora hadn't even thought about asking Cliff if he cared to sell the works and they became a little concerned about it. Then they sold two more pieces and now Cliff was not sure about this at all. He walked up behind Stan and pulled on his coat. Cliff became very shy and said he wanted to talk. They walked out front and he looked at his name again on the window. "Dad, they are taking away my drawings." Then Stan looked at the boy and said, "Yes isn't that wonderful, they really like them," and Cliff just looked at him. "I don't know dad, what if the big drawing gives that lady a bad dream or something. Not everyone can survive the snake bites." Stan looked at the boy in bewilderment, Dora came out to check on them, "Hey guys what's up ?" She was ecstatic and decided to have a cocktail. Stan explained,"Well, uhm, well, Cliff is having some reservations about letting a few of these pieces go 'away'. Dora kneeled at the boys eye level and said, "You don't have to let any of them go if they mean that much to you, understand ?" He slowly shook his head up and down a few times and then Stan added, "…but if you let these pieces go, new ones will come to you and then we can do this again sometime." Then Cliff looked at his name again, he looked at his parents and said, "Our name is G - O - L - D, Goooooaaaalllllddd ?" And Stan said, "Yes." "But how could that be," he asked ? "…everyone knows that G-O-L-D is the color of a crayon." Stan said they would explain it to him later. "Look, all these people came to see you." Dora remarked. Cliff looked inside and the only person that caught his attention was Jordan, he really liked the man. "Could we make a deal ?" The two adults looked at one another and saw that their son had some lawyer in him after all. "What kind of a deal," asked Stan ? Cliff was working on this one, "Uhm, the kind of deal, it's the kind of deal where you let me do something that I want to do and then I let you do something that you want to do." For Cliff, this was a major accomplishment and Dora was beaming. But Stan, being the Judge and all, was still caught up in the negotiation, "So whats the proposition ?" Cliffs eyes opened a bit, "The prop, the prop - uuuhhh - zissshhh - unnnn is this." And he said matter of fact, "They take the art and I do Richard Pryor live from Washington DC" Dora looked at the crowd and wondered how it would go over with this group. Stan was impressed with the boys ability to even negotiate but was torn. He wanted to tell his friends that the boy had sold major works of art to big time collectors, but he was concerned about the words. Then Stan said."You know that word that starts with an N ?" And Stan drew an N on the window. Cliff thought about it and said, "Yeah." "You can do Richard Pryor live from DC but you cant say that word, o.k? and that's my final offer and it's not negotiable" Cliff looked at the man, who was his father, held out his hand, they shook on it and Cliff ran into the gallery.
He pulled on the back of Jordan's shirt, "Hey re - member how you said that with the right dudes that the Pryor thing would fly ?" Jordan shook his head yes, then cliff added, "Are these the right dudes ?" Jordan looked around and then shook his head no. "But why not ?" Cliff asked. "I don't know how to explain it, but these are definitely not the dudes I had in mind." Cliff looked at Jordan and was puckering his lips to the side thinking about it. Then he looked back toward the window at his mom and dad through his name on the glass. "Look, these dudes are white and I was thinking of some dudes with a little more color in their palette." Then Cliff got all excited, "These dudes are WHITE ?" Jordan shook his head in the affirmative. Now Cliff knew exactly what to do. He walked to the back of the room looking out towards the street and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemans, my name is Cliff Gold and this is Richard Pryor live from Washington DC …" and then he got into character and started in, "I see that even some of you White people came out tonight," and he looked at Jordan. "…Yeah, its funny to watch White people around the brothers. especially when they come walking back and see that their seats have been taken. Pulling out their ticket stubs and shit… then the brothers say, Ticket stub ? Mother f*cker I ain't seen this dude in three and a half years, now go sit your ass down somewheres else … Yeah, White people are something else, you ever notice how they cuss ? It's like, 'You Damn Peckerhead' or 'Son - of - a - bitch' and the brothers just let it out. My dad was a great cusser, he could cuss like no man I have ever seen and he was tough too. They dont make dudes like that anymore. And if they do, they got 'em all locked up. 'Cause they so damn honest, have told too many truths and shit … I was even surprised to see so many white people came here tonite. And they all sittin' together, ever notice that ? Just in case something happens to the motherf*ckers, they'll be ready… just in case we start something, you know, like a meeting or something … cant have none of that … and they got all kinda long words for shit, like commiisserrattting, what the f*ck is that ? the brothers is just talking in the park and some c*cks*cker in court says they was co-misser-ating… Damn, that will confuse some brothers too … We was doing what ? I ain't never done non of that, he told his lawyer, never , ever , ever, nope, ain't done none of that…" Then Dora gave Cliff the signal, Jordan clapped, everyone joined in and Cliff ended his routine. He walked up to Jordan and asked, "Did it fly ?" Jordan looked at him and said, "Dude this is your show, you do what you gotta do and wether it flies or not, well, who gives a damn. I thought it was great." Then they shook hands and Cliff said, "Cool, I gotta go home now," and he walked out.
Fred had been spending much more time at home, now that Alex and the rest of Sam's family had learned how to run the new business' on an every day level. He would show up a few days a week, keep the books, write the checks and deal with all of the license's, warranties for machinery and the like. He began to redesign the house to fit the tastes of a man living alone, as opposed to a husband and father. He turned Josie's room into a music room, with her record collection and original player, some instruments he had found from the old country, an old square banjo looking guitar and some wooden flutes that he remembered being played from his childhood. After the riots, many of his partners began to sell old items due to the fact that their business had been ransacked or just simply trying something new. One of his friends sold him an old jukebox that was stacked with old songs from his country. They were classic forty-five's on vinyl that included folk songs, pop tunes, big city modern stuff and old school classics from his parents generation. He had no idea what the machine was going to mean to him and how many great memories it brought back about his family, his childhood and his country. In his bedroom he hung a collection of swords that he had gathered through the years. Fred was a samurai in the way that he did business and he believed in a code. He bought new everyday machines for the kitchen and made the place his own again. He even began to transform the yard into a zen garden, somewhat inspired by his recent visit to Ryan's family's home. He even took off his ring. On Saturday evenings Fred began to frequent a small restaurant that was within the same market place as his new yogurt shop. The lady who ran the place had always flirted with him and he simply assumed that she was being kind and probably was just a person who knew how to make her customers feel welcome. One day, she stopped by his table and asked how everything was going at the shop and did he know that there was a lovely new spot just a few blocks down that had live acts from overseas, then she simply said, "Why don't we go over there tonight and take a look ?" Fred peered up, took off his glasses and said, "Take a look ?" "Yes," then she added, "I let the manager close up on Saturdays. I will bring you a pot of tea and then we shall walk over there together and see if it's as good as they say, o.k. ?" Fred shook his head, yes. He had to admit she was beautiful and had a voice that was easy to listen to. Fred had watched her move from table to table for the past few months and noticed that she moved like a dancer and was the perfect hostess. He had never loved anyone but his deceased wife and a girl that he knew in school as a boy. Then he stopped to realize that he had never even attempted to see women after his wife's death. Maybe he was incapable of loving again. He drank his tea and the lady grabbed her coat and waited for him at the door. When he reached into his wallet, she laughed, don't be silly. She waited for him to open the door and together they walked east a few blocks and entered into a darkly lit lounge. "My name is Ta," she told him. She ordered drinks and they enjoyed the live music. Fred began to loosen up, they spoke in their native language and he completely opened. They talked about surviving the early wars, the recent riots, local politics and he eventually told her about his wife and daughter.
Of course she had already known most of those facts because she had already been asking around about him from the time he bought the new place. Near the end of the evening, they walked upstairs and danced to a singer who specialized in ballads. Fred explained that he had recently purchased an old jukebox with all the songs from their childhood and he had forgotten how important music was to one's identity. At the end of the evening, they took a cab back to the marketplace. Fred, held the cab for Ta and began to say goodnight. She stared at him disappointingly and looked at her watch, "It's not even past ten-thirty, I'm not ready to come down and what will my girlfriends think ?" Fred didn't entirely understand, he'd been out of the game so long, he had forgotten how to play. "We most go out for dessert and a nightcap," Ta announced and the taxi driver gave Fred a big smile, as if to say, 'you lucky bastard'. Fred felt like an old man, he paid the driver, opened her door and walked her over to his car. When he opened the door for her, Ta reached over and kissed him, "Thats better," she said and sat down. Fred closed the door, got inside, started the motor and backed out of the parking space. Ta turned on the radio, but it was all modern music for kids. "Hey, why don't you show me this jukebox you were telling me about. I want to hear some music from back in the day. We can pick up something for dessert on the way." At this point Fred simply let Ta run the show. He had never known a woman who had been so independent and he was beginning to enjoy the fact that he didn't have to lead. When they pulled up to the house Ta said, "Oh I love it." He gave her a tour of the place and saved the music room for last. When he opened the door and Ta saw Josie's picture on the wall, Fred said, "This is Josie," and she simply responded, "Oh Dear … Oh, I am so sorry." "It's OK, that was a long time ago" Fred replied and turned on the jukebox. Then Ta reached for Fred and squeezed him tightly to her, he hugged her in return and they danced to the music until they both became tired. Ta grabbed Fred's hand, led him down the hall and began to undress herself under the window light of his bedroom. He began to speak and she simply held her finger to his lips and for the first time in a very long time, Fred fell into the arms of a woman and made love as if it were the last day on earth. He couldn't stop himself and she didn't want him to. Their lovemaking was overwhelming and as the sun came up, she said to him, "I think we should do something totally reckless." He answered, "We just did." Then Ta confessed, "Well then, I think we should keep doing something totally reckless, because that was the most beautiful I have experienced ever." Fred looked at the woman. She was lovely, she was modern, she was funny and she knew what she wanted: she wanted him. Fred thought about what Ta had said while staring directly at her and slowly shook his head in the affirmative. Eventually saying, "Yes, I think you are correct. Yes." and then he repeated what She had said, "We must go on doing something totally reckless: together. It's the only way." She laughed and rolled all over the bed like a child. Ta had been looking for a real man for years, someone honest, someone strong, someone to love and now she had finally found him. Ta and Fred had fallen in love.
When Fred had cleared out all of Josie's things, he held onto a few items that he could never let go, her sketchbooks, her diary, her albums and all of her scrapbooks. One day, for no reason at all, he did the unthinkable, he opened her diary and began to read it. In it were deep descriptive passages of her longing and her love for Junior. How she was afraid to tell her parents and about the times they would steal away to be with one another. One of the sketchbooks was entirely dedicated to Junior with photos, ticket stubs, napkins from places they had eaten, cards from him and letters saying how much he loved her. A ticket to Catalina island. Fred remembered that she had told he and his wife that she was going on a field trip with her girlfriends. He was starting to realize that he didn't really know much about women and maybe he didn't know much about anything. He took out the original file and autopsy reports, the Diary and the scrapbook on Junior and put them on the living room table where they sat for over a week. Then, he simply grabbed the contents got into his car and drove down into the Harbor. Fred knew where Junior was staying and he had also found out that Chuck, the original cop on the case, had since then married Juniors sister Celia, complicating matters. He pulled up to the house and didn't know exactly what he was going to do. Fred grabbed the three items and walked to the front door which was open. When he knocked, a small girl peered through the screen door. "Mom…" She said, "…theres someone at the door." "Is Louis Junior home ?" Fred asked. "Celia was working in the kitchen and shouted, "No. he's not can we take a message …" then the little girl looked at Fred and said, "My Uncle Junior disappeared and their worried about him. He's been gone a long time. But don't say anything." Fred nodded in agreement and Celia came to the door. "Can I give him a message ?" Then Fred said, "Is Chuck home ?" which startled Celia, she knew that her husband Chuck who had recently made detective and her brother Junior, who had friends on the other side of things, did not run in the same circles. "Well. Yes, he is, he's in his office, just a minute." She knocked on Chuck's door, "Honey, theres a man here asking for you." Chuck opened the door, he had recently shaved off his mustache and she was still getting use to it, she kissed him. "Babe, he was asking about Junior." Chuck walked down the hall and then exclaimed his surprise, "Fred, good to see you. What the hell is going on ?" Fred had his hands full and nodded that he wanted to speak in private. "Step into my office here. Babe could we have a couple beers, Please ?" The two men walked down the dark corridor and entered Chuck's home office. "So what can I help you with ? I heard you bounced back with a couple of new businesses. I also heard we let you down out there. I'm sorry" "That's ok, all things happen for a reason," Fred responded. "I lost a daughter, you gained a wife." Chuck looked at him and wasn't sure where this was going. "You know Chuck, the other kids car was not street legal." Fred continued, "In fact, since then the regulations on those cars have been updated to specify such. That model car is now known to flip at high velocities." Chuck was confused, Fred was doing a total reversal. "This kid Junior, he had no prior record, he was smart, he was funny and my daughter was deeply in love with the kid." Fred opened the scrapbook and displayed all the adornments. Chuck looked at the scrapbook and saw pictures of Josie and Junior at the beach, in the parking lot of an old cafe, at a punk rock concert in Hollywood. "Look, I don't know what I'm doing here," Fred said, "But, I think it has something to do with the way in which a person like yourself or a person like myself or the system as a whole could actually get things wrong." Chuck looked at Fred, but could find no words. "Everything has changed, Chuck. I see things differently now, I see things from a much different viewpoint and I just want to say that I wish things could have been different, for Josie, for Ryan and especially for Junior." The two men sat there quietly. Celia brought in the beers and the room was dead silent. The sound of the girls in the backyard could be heard, they were screaming and playing loudly. Celia opened the office window and told the girls to quiet down, "Your father is working, now quiet down," Fred stood up, "No, let the girls play, our work is over." He dropped the file report on Chuck's desk and simply said, "This case is closed." Then, he turned to Celia and said, "This is for Junior," Fred handed her the diary and the scrapbook, "It's from my daughter Josie, she was the love of his life and he to her. If there's anything I have learned in this lifetime Its that love is the only thing we can keep when it is over." Then the man walked down the dark hallway, out the front door, down the steps and into his car. He started the engine and didn't look back. Celia and Chuck looked down at the scrapbook and wondered where the hell Junior was ?
Junior entered the bullfight arena to the sounds of trumpets in the background and the plaza was just as he had remembered. He had planned to simply sit alone and bide his time until the final portion of his assignment was ready for completion. But on the way in, he ran into his fathers old business partner Rafael, who had introduced Junior to his son Rafi and a very magnetic young socialite they called Ezzie as well as a group of wealthy friends of the family. Everyone insisted that Junior sit up front in their section, he felt somewhat obligated and complied. Rafi sat on one side of Ezzie and Louis Junior sat on the other. "What does Ezzie stand for," Junior asked ? Their eyes met and she said, "Esmerelda. My father was a big fan of Victor Hugo." Junior didn't know who Victor Hugo was but he had seen the original Hunchback of Notre Dame and remembered the gypsy girls name was one and the same. "Esmerelda, like in the hunchback." and her eyes flashed. She had assumed he was referring to the book and now she was impressed. "I have always liked that name." The men were all talking about the very recent controversy surrounding the authenticity of an item in the news. When Junior asked what they were discussing, she grabbed the paper from one of the men and explained that there had been either a swindle, or a robbery surrounding a recent artifact that was, " Described to be the actual original cloth that Jesus had been wrapped in directly after the crucifixion." It had travelled to Mexico City to be studied by a group of scientists who had claimed it was a duplicate. Some said that the real cloth had been delivered to Mexico from Europe, but that it had been replaced by a fake. The fabric had been identified as authentic to the proper dates, but that the blood could not have been that old. Now true believers are claiming that the real cloth has been lost. So the controversy continues. " Rafi is a scientist, so he does not believe in such things." she concluded. "And you," Junior asked ? "I am very open to the possibilities," she said, through a subtle smile. Then added, "They say you are an Indian ?" Junior looked over at Rafi disapprovingly and whispered in her ear, "Arn't we all ?" Junior explained further, "My father owns a ranch, when we were children, I played nearby a spring where an old Indian lived. He was able to perform rather unnatural or I guess you might say supernatural things that had astounded me. He eventually shared his medicine with me. I know how that must sound to you." She played coy, "Oh, do you ?" Junior had to laugh, she was sophisticated. "Your english is very well spoken," he commented. Then she parried back, "Yes, we are taught at a very young age that to speak english means we may one day marry a rich American gringo like you." Junior corrected her, "I am not exactly a rich American gringo, more like a pocho, isn't that what you call us ?" He grinned. "So, you did do your homework last night," she replied, then she turned the newspaper over and Junior saw a picture of the old man who had given him the tour the day he had started his assignment in Mexico City. She looked at him and noticed his composure drop, "What's wrong," she asked ? "What does the paper say about this man ?" Junior inquired. Esmerelda read and explained "It says that he fell from a balcony." Then one of the men added, "More than likely, he was pushed." Then Junior asked, "Do they relate the story of the lost artifact to the death of the man ?" Esmerelda read on and said, "No, I don't think so. Why ?" Junior had to keep his cool, then added "Just curious. Junior needed to check in with his people. He needed an excuse to step away, the first fight had started, but it was a young matador and a very small bull, so nobody paid it any mind. Junior excused himself and ran to find a telephone. By the time he got change, found the phone and made the call he was starting to panic. He got his people on the phone and was told that everything had changed. Junior was no longer there to distract from the main event. He was the main event.
Junior was supposed to be carrying a replica, but the old man had given him the original and now his life was in grave danger. Then he reported that he had seen the local paper and that the old man, who had been his guide, had been killed. A voice on the other line simply said, "Do you believe everything you read ? Your new assignment is to cross the border just after sunset, as soon as it gets dark. There are going to be some distractions and if you don't get over in time then you will not get out alive. Do you understand ?" Junior said that he did. A group of people who expected to receive the original item will now do anything to shut the border down and ensure that the item does not leave Mexico. Be ready for anything. If you make it across, within three miles of the American border, you will see a replica of your car along the freeway, when you do, drop back and let it take the lead. Then we will present an opportunity for you to accomplish, I cant say what it is, you will know when you see it. Understand ?" Junior said that he did and then the voice on the other end clicked. He checked on the car. Then he ran back up the steps. "Did I miss anything ?" Junior asked the girl. "I don't know. Did you ?" she replied. He gazed through the audience for anything that looked obvious. If his life was in danger, then the safest place to be was exactly where he was. Then he answered in a whisper, "Well, maybe just a little. I had to call my father," he lied. Then Rafael said aloud, "Your father says you were trained as a bullfighter at nine, ten and eleven." "Is that so," remarked Ezzie ? "Well, I played around during those three summers, but unfortunately, I never followed it past childhood." Junior had always identified with the toreador, but for some reason he was now identifying with the bull. Sitting among these refined people after all he had been through, now his life was in danger, he looked at the bull and saw Quasimodo. The crowd cheered and the picadors marched out and stabbed the beast. Why was his life the way it was ? Maybe it was true, that he was an Indian in a world full of overly educated non believers who could explain away any natural or supernatural phenomenon. He had seen unexplainable acts with the Indian and he knew there was a force of life. Most notably experiences with animals. Wild animals in unfathomable numbers appeared and disappeared, weather, light, healings and so forth. Was that all just a natural occurrence or a trick ? Now he began to look at Rafael and wonder what had really happened to the Indian ? They said he had just disappeared. "You're awfully quiet," the girl stated. "Yes, I was thinking about what Rafael said about those early years. It was a very magic time for me. But, I guess that childhood is like that." then he added, "I feel good sitting next to you. Does that sound ridiculous ?" "On the contrary," she whispered. Then he changed the subject, "What else does it say about this cloth of Jesus ?" The crowd began screaming, 'Ole', ole', ole' as the second toreador made his lunge and gracefully, ceremoniously landed his sword directly into the heart of the bull. A man on horseback marched out and dragged the animal out of the ring. The girl answered, "It says that the original cloth had come from a church in Italy, a place called Turin and before that had travelled throughout the middle east. The borders have changed so many times that they don't know if was traced back to Persia, Iraq or Iran." She added, "All the places where your Presidents are constantly fighting." Then Junior remarked , "My presidents ? You make that sound so personal. We have no power over presidents anymore than you do." "I guess thats true." Esmerelda agreed. "Of course its true," added one of the college boys. Now the headliner appeared. The man was respected by everyone and this is why they came. The bull entered the arena and the toreador dropped to his knees.Rafael explained the history of this particular type of bull. He knew where and what and for how long it had been bred. A fierce beast created for only one purpose, to pummel a man down. Than Rafael explained."This is the first man this bull has ever seen unmounted by horse." When Junior looked up, he noticed that the sun was slowly fading behind the other side of the arena and he gauged the time by eye. The picadors broke the beast momentarily, but instead of tiring, it became more enraged. He held up his capote' and stood erect in the classic style of Belmonte, an antiquated approach that was formal and dignified, then the bull had turned and the audience was aghast as the horn entered his left hand on the inside of the palm and extended through the other side six inches. The toreador lifted his hand from the horn, as a group of his comrades came out to carry him away, but he said no. He walked over directly to Juniors party, his composure was astounding as blood simply poured from his hand. The toreador asked Esmerelda for her scarf and Junior grabbed it, folded into fours and then wrapped the scarf around the man's hand a number of times and knotted it on the outside tightly. The toreador bowed, reentered the center of the ring, requested his sword and the audience went wild. Seldom does a toreador continue after a pierce from the bull to a hand or a limb. He must hold the capote and the sword to create the illusion that will allow the bull to distract itself and accept the sword to the heart and succumb. The toreador took several turns successfully, the bull was tiring, he had the beast exactly where he wanted him and when the bull lunged forward, his sword entered the perfect position and the bull had dropped to the floor. The audience reaction had given the toreador both ears and the tail, a rarity. He strolled around the arena holding the honors and thanking the crowd. When he walked over to hand the tail to Esmerelda and an ear to Junior. Esmerelda hadn't noticed that Junior was gone. Rafi teased her, "Where's your new lover ? Did he get queasy at the sight of blood ?" She took out the roses, handed them to the Toreador and accepted the tail. A roar filled the Plaza del Toros as Junior got into his car and drove north.
It was still an hour away from sunset and a good ninety minutes from total darkness. His father had a stopping point in the old days where you could park and find out what the border wait was going to be, sometimes if you pulled up at say three pm, you might be in line till five thirty, but if you waited till four or five, you might only wait twenty-five minutes. Junior remembered it was just east of the plaza and slightly south of Boulevard Revolution where he would run to look at all the strange things going on as a kid. He surprised himself by finding it. He parked the car next to the bell tower that sat in the center of the park. As soon as he did so, a group of men wheeled out a freshly forged bell on an old wooden cart. Junior sat on a bench and asked the man shaving ice what was going on ? The man explained that somebody had stolen the bell long ago and they finally had melted down enough brass handles and objects to re pour a casting and replace the object. A pulley lever had been placed at the top of the tower and a rope had been threaded running both up one side and down the other. They tied one side to the bell loop and then the men wrapped their hands around the other end of the rope and they began to pull. As the bell got closer to the top, it became harder and harder for the men to hoist it, even with the assistance of the lever. The men had gotten the bell just feet away from the top and then they tied it off. The man shaving ice said that these men needed his help. It was almost complete, they just needed one last pull. Junior looked around, but there were nothing but young boys and old men. He grabbed hold of the rope and the men all began to pull, just as it reached the top, one side of the lever gave way, the other men let go of the rope and as the bell came hurling down, Junior was hoisted eight feet into the air and landed flat on his back, he heard the bell land seconds later, it missed his head by a few inches. he stood to brush himself off and noticed that the thumb from his right hand was missing. He looked down to the floor like a man would do as if he dropped his keys and there sat Juniors dismembered finger. He walked over to the man shaving ice and grabbed a bucket that was full, he threw the finger into the ice, wrapped his hand in a bandana and turned to see that the men were fumbling around his vehicle. Junior took the ice bucket and swung it at one of the guys, then took his bandaged hand and backhanded the other, blood splattered all over the man's face. Now the trunk was open and the last two men were rifling through it. Junior opened the drivers seat door, tossed the bucket inside, he ripped the eight track cassette player from the dashboard and swung it at the man closest to him, who dropped to the floor and the last remaining man simply ran away. Junior walked back over to the man shaving ice and handed him a hundred dollar bill. He took another bucket full of ice and simply said, "No Habla" The man looked at the bill and assured Junior that he would not speak of this to anyone. He then got into the car, started it, shoved his hand in the bucket and drove toward the border.
The wait looked to be thirty minutes or so, the sun was setting. Junior jockeyed for a position and waited in line with everyone else. The lines are football fields in length. All along the way, people are selling blankets, plaster sculptures, cigarettes, tequila bottles, all kinds of artifacts as last minute sale items. A duty free, last stop from Baja California. This was the part that he had always hated. At the end of each summer he would cry his way down this steel snake pathway back to America. Every car next to him, now seemed suspect. He looked terrible and was sure to be rousted if he didn't clean up quick. He reached into his suitcase and pulled out a plastic bag, wrapped his right hand and taped it at the edges. Then he removed his shirt, put on a clean sweatshirt, wetted his hair and refreshed his face which was sweating profusely. His body was no doubt in shock, but the ice was helpful, his entire hand was numb and the cold began to crawl up is forearm. Junior prepared his i.d. and registration on the dash and attempted to conceal all signs of distress, which included the other bucket with his thumb. He put that on the back seat floorboard next to his fishing tackle box, looked in the rear view mirror and a warrior looked back at him. He was now ten minutes from the kiosk. Three cars back a group of people in a beat up car to his left were rustling through some packages and Junior had become alerted. They pulled up to the left of him. Some cars get searched and some cars don't. It all depends on the border patrols individual intuition. Junior pulled up to the barrier, she checked his i.d. ran the plates on the car, which was registered in his dad's name. "I'm an American citizen, my father holds dual citizenship and he and I have been fishing. He's staying on and I'm coming home. We own a produce ranch outside of Centro Province." When she walked around the car, she noticed the trunk was shutting improperly. "Somebody tried to break into it while we were fishing, but I never keep anything in it so … " She opened the rear door, peered inside the bucket and saw the thumb, Just as she was saying, "What the hell is that ?" The car to Juniors left busted through the kiosk barrier and opened fire on the border patrol, they blasted their way through, jumped over the concrete island and were now entering America up the wrong side of the freeway. All entires into America were now on lock down. Junior knew he had minutes to cross over or that was it, he was dead. He ripped the plastic from his right hand exposing the bloodied hand, "I lost my thumb on the side of a fishing boat and if I don't get to a hospital in America within an hour, I'm going to lose it." She looked at the bloody hand with the tenons hanging and the extended raw bone stub and threw up on her own shoes. Then she got on the phone and said, " I need a motorcycle escort through Chula Vista into San Diego Medical center, an American male in a red 1976 Le Sabre has a dismembered hand that needs urgent care." A voice came over the dispatch, "Can he drive ?" She had to wipe her mouth, "Sir can you drive ?" "Yes, I just need to get over the border." "That is affirmative," she spoke into the phone, "Pull up to that lane on the right with the yellow lights. Two motorcycle cops came zipping up around and waved Junior onto the lane, the lights turned green and Junior crossed the border with escorts. The fog rolled in and now it was pitch black. The motorcycles kept a steady lead and were traveling a good eighty miles an hour. Junior stayed several paces behind and waited for the duplicate of his car to appear as he had been directed. And then, just like that, a car identical to his raced up in front of him, he dropped back and within a minute, a diesel truck cab pulling a long enclosed trailer container pulled in front of Junior. The back pull up doors were open and a full steel ramp with shock absorbed wheel extensions trailed along the rear of the truck. He clocked the speed of the truck at a consistent fifty-five miles and hour and then dropped back to forty-five. Then he gunned the peddle back up to seventy-five and his vehicle shot straight up into the back of the cab. Junior slammed the brakes, as the door rolled shut behind him, he pictured the bell, slowly falling from the top of the tower, it hurled itself through space in his direction and as the instrument hit the ground, on impact, a lightening bolt fissured up the side of the instrument and forever and ever, the bells first ring would be only his to hear.
THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS
The Editor of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine Announces a New Experimental Fiction Novel all about Los Angeles. Mr Triliegi wrote a chapter a day for several weeks, working without notes or any preconceived structure and posted the results daily at various BUREAU Sites that regularly showcase Art, Theater, Music, Photography Cultural & Community events. Part One of The Series lasted all of 22 Chapters and was a resoundingly successful, accepted Literary Art Work. Mister Joshua Triliegi again repeated that process for SEASON TWO with 11 New EPISODES. This post is The final Episode/Part 2
THE NEW CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED DAILY M - F AT OUR DIFFERENT COMMUNITY SITES AND CAN BE TRANSLATED INTO A MULTITUDE OF LANGUAGES FOR EASY READING. THE MOST RECENT CHAPTER APPEARS AT THE TOP AND THE PREVIOUS EPISODES APPEAR IN ORDER BELOW THE DAILY. YOU MAY ALSO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE PART ONE FOR FREE AT LINK COLUMN ON LEFT OR TO READ THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS SIMPLY SCROLL DOWN AND ENJOY THE READ.
" I thought it would be a good writing exercise to simply write about what I see and hear everyday on the streets of the city. To simply create a chapter a day based on the people and things going on in Los Angeles. Since we all come from so many backgrounds, styles, cultures and languages, I decided to structure the multi character novel to represent all of Los Angeles. I simply write a chapter a day by allowing the characters to unfold & the story to reveal itself based directly on the things I see and hear."
" Its pure fiction based on generalities. For instance, Chapter Three, which was inspired by a girl I saw on the bus earlier in the day, she had a sketch book with some nice artworks and I thought about her." Or Chapter One, based on a conversation I had with a guy who was entering back into society from a long stretch in the penitentiary. I thought about what other people in his life may have been thinking."
" Its a challenge to simply introduce a character and follow the creative line as it flows into something structured and complete. I usually know the beginning & the end of each Chapter, and simply let the middle fill itself out. I like the daily discipline as well as the audience being in on the process. In this particular case, I don't really take notes. I just start with an idea and let it flow. This is not a normal novel by any means, but it is a new and interesting challenge for both the writer and the readers. We are publishing it in SIX cities and a it's read in a wide variety of languages Its been a lot of fun I hope the people of Los Angeles and the world will follow it out as it reveals itself. As the writer, in this particular case, I am just as curious as the reader as to what will happen and how things will go. The cool thing about this project is how quickly the characters began to take on a life of their own. "
" It is an interesting way to work. I am putting together several other writing projects and decided that this would be a good warmer upper. We get anywhere from a 50 to 400+ views a day on our website for our Articles, Reviews and especially our Audio Interviews, so this particular literature project should be good exercise and at the same time, allow people to see how a novel is actually created day by day."
- Joshua Triliegi
The Entire Part One Is Available On Our Site Bureau Of Arts And Culture . Com As Well As Here On Our Community Sites In L.A. / N.Y.C / S.F. / Santa Barbara / San Diego And The New International Literary Site With Links To Publishers, Book Stores And Literary Events. This Particular Excerpted Version Is Accompanied By The Fine Art Paintings Of Contributing Artist David Febland Represented By George Billis Gallery In La And Nyc. The Paintings Existed And Were Created Without Knowledge Of The Novel Project, Though We Felt Their Presence Here Allowed For A Visual Narrative That Compliments The Series.
Published at BUREAU of Arts and Culture Sites in: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Santa Barbara and The Bureau International Literary Site in August 2014 Written by The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi Tune in Here Every day Monday to Friday for More Fine Art Paintings by New York Painter David FeBLAND with a featured Interview in SUMMER
BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE LOS ANGELES Welcomes The World. Los Angeles is a very special City and we welcome everyone to visit us here. We have The Mountains, The Ocean, The Desert and The Metropolitan City scape as well as Hollywood. A place where legends are made and personalities are discovered. On an everyday level, a very special aspect of Los Angeles are the people. A United Nations populist. Every language, every religion, every culture is somewhere in the city. Many have a district of their own offering events regularly and open arms to those who are culturally curious. The variety of Music, Cuisine and Culture is astounding. The Landmarks are many. The History is rich.
The People of Los Angeles know very well how to 'represent'. It may take a lifetime to get to know this great city, but what a lifetime it would be. Although this site is extensive, it by no means represents ALL of Los Angeles. But, we DO plan to do just that. Soon you will find links and photo essays representing ALL of LOS ANGELES. THE LOS ANGELES Community SITE for BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE is one of several Sites that offer ideas and events celebrating each city with LINKS to The Main BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine Site On - Line. The Magazine offers INTERVIEWS with Artists, Writers, Filmmakers, Chefs, Dancers, Designers, Actors, Musicians, Disc Jockey's, Playwrights, Photographers, Surfers and those behind the scenes in The World of ART, MUSIC, FILM, SURFING, SKATEBOARDING, BIKING, ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY, CUISINE, FASHION and ECOLOGY. We have Sites in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Barbara, San Diego and an INTERNATIONAL Literary Site with links and Articles regarding Books & The World of PUBLISHING for all types of Readers. Thanks for visiting.
TUNE IN FRIDAY THE 22ND OF AUGUST FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION TO SEASON TWO OF OUR ORIGINAL SERIES ON L.A. : " THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS " A New Fictional, Episodic, Novel. A Chapter a Day Experimental project, completely improvised, without Notes, by Our Editor & Publisher : BUREAU of Arts and Culture Founder Joshua A. TRILIEGI GUEST FINE ARTIST is DAVID FeBLAND Represented by George BILLIS Gallery in LA + N Y C. THERE ARE FREE DOWNLOADABLE VERSION ON THE LEFT HAND COLUMN + TAP
ON THE COLUMNS TO THE LEFT AND TO THE RIGHT YOU WILL FIND LINKS TO FREE MAGAZINES THAT CAN BE DOWNLOADED ON YOUR COMPUTER, LINKS TO EVENTS, LINKS TO SOME OF OUR SUPPORTERS & TO THE BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE WEB SITE. YOU MAY ADVERTISE ON OUR SITES AND IN THE OCCASIONAL PAPER EDITIONS, DONATE AND RECEIVE ORIGINAL COLLECTIBLE WORKS OF ART, PAINTINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS and MORE ...
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Image: David BOWIE The ARCHER By John Robert Rowlands Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago Illinois USA
Welcome to The SUMMER 2014 Edition of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. We are very pleased to bring you a New Slate of Interviews featuring writer Luis VALDEZ of Zoot Suit / La Bamba Fame. Our Guest Artist is Philadelphia Painter David PALUMBO. This Edition features The Iconic David BOWIE Essay and the Musical Tour Art Exhibition. Terry RICHARDSON with a New Photographic Essay from Elvis Presley's GRACELAND. David LEVINTHAL with a sampling from his Fine Art Photography. An Essay on Sci - Fi Screen Writer George Clayton JOHNSON. Various In Depth Interviews with Fine Artists: John WESTON, Gustavo GODOY, David FeBLAND and Designer Andrew WHITMORE. FILM Interviews with The Directors of Billy MIZE + The Bakersfield Sound, Druid PEAK, Lake Los Angeles, Supremacy & The PLEASURES of Being Out of Step: Notes on The Life of Nat HENTOFF. Music Interview/Top Ten List of Very Cool Things by Kenny VASOLI Four Chapters of The New FICTION: " They Call IT The City of ANGELS " by J.A. TRILIEGI
DAVID BOWIE: IS The Other Man
David Bowie Is the most important contributor to Modern Rock and Roll. Many people forget that Bowie is actually the Godfather of Punk Rock and New Wave Music. That includes: The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Souxie, Gary Glitter & The Entire English New Wave invasion of the 80's. The big difference being that, he outlasted all of those who he had inspired. And to this day, he still puts out interesting, experimental Music. David Bowie is also the most influential contributor to Modern Rock & Roll, hands down. He is the original Chameleon.BOWIE is The Space man, The Thin White Duke, The Spider from Mars, The Cracked Actor, The Joker, The Glam-A-Rama, The Trusty Narrator of our Story, The Social Critic, The Sexual Seeker, The Man who Fell to Earth and so much more. Possibly the most daring and experimental performer in Rock and Roll ever, make that the most daring, most respected and the most successful performer in Rock and Roll Music History. Todays new music scene is entirely dependent on David Bowie's influence.
Bowie alone brought back the return of : The Story, The Character, The Opera, The Entertainer, The Show, to Rock and Roll Music. He became his characters and then killed them off accordingly, like Mary Shelly and Doctor Frankenstein did with The Monster. Bowie's musical alignments with fellow performers like Iggy Pop, John Lennon and Mick Jagger are legendary. Bowie is really the Elvis of a new time and place. He speaks to more than one generation in our homes. The albums are still very much classics. They take us on a journey. They are mini novels. They are sensitive, brash, gentle and oddly scathing. The music is not dated because it was decades ahead to begin with and so we return to David Bowie year after year, decade after decade, again and again. Bowie personified life in London, Berlin, Japan, New York, Hollywood and then, finally, the entire World. In "Young Americans", Bowie told Americans more about ourselves than we would ever know before. Speaking directly to sexuality, politics, housewives, young men, young women and to all of us kids. He spoke and we listened, even Bing Crosby couldn't deny Bowie's influence.
There is so much yearning in Bowie's music, in his voice, in his lyrics, in his trembling statements about life, about love, about loss. He is connected with, on the one hand, Opera and on the other hand, Literature. And in the middle, is this very gentle and fierce performer who, when he grabs the microphone, and warms into the song, flinches his head, smiles, echoes & reinvents the performances as he goes along. When David Bowie gets into the performance, something quite magic happens, to us, to him, to the audience. David Bowie is elliptically responsible for the careers of film makers like David Lynch. Had Bowie not played The Elephant Man on Broadway, for recording breaking performances, in the 1970's, the play would not have been optioned and turned into a film, which launched the career of David Lynch. David Bowies foray into androgynous characters is also partly responsible for the rights of alternative lifestyles that are currently in the limelight at this time all around the world. His music invaded the toughest neighborhoods and even the toughest hoods in those 'hoods. Ziggy Stradust alone is possibly the most legendary music character to celebrate the beauty of Performance, Insanity and Displaced Heroism ever created by anyone ever. Its starts with " Ziggy played Guitar … " and then it ends with, "… Ziggy played Guitar." The bookends of Rock and Roll for The Modern Man: End of The Story. Well, at least until the Next David Bowie album. Download the 178 page SUMMER magazine at link to left
Luis VALDEZ changed The Entire Literature Landscape with his Fierce Hit Play, "ZOOT SUIT". Here in Southern California, The Play is much more than words. It is a personal and positive Idea that gave many people the inspiration to do something with the things they saw, not only in their homes and neighborhoods , but to reclaim what was happening in the media, to own the stories that they were being told and to simply reclaim what was rightfully theirs to begin with: Their Own Family Stories. In This Interview Bureau Editor Joshua TRILIEGI and Luis VALDEZ discuss his career, his working process and the development of a powerful force that continues to inspire millions of Indigenous People around the World and teaches everybody else.
Mr Valdez went on to create The Film "LA BAMBA", which told the very important story of Latin Musician & Songwriter, Ritchie Valens. Fueled by the proliferation of 1950's Retro Nostalgic Films such as American Graffiti and its follow up Happy Days, as well as The Musical Biographical genre's popularity of projects like The Buddy Holly Story, Elvis and the like: LA BAMBA was the perfect project that entirely launched the energy and force of ZOOT SUIT into the stratosphere of popular media and culture, finally a story that rightfully claimed, explained and honored The Latino Experience, or as Luis Valdez might put it, "The Chicano Experience" in popular music history. The film itself touches on the family paradigm in both mythical and real circumstances.
A beautiful & entertaining film that holds up today just as it originally did upon its creation. In the same way that Zoot Suit gave us the career of Edward James Olmos, 'The Chicano Bogart', La Bamba gave us a multitude of talent in front of and behind the scenes: Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Los Lobos & Others.
Since then, Mr Valdez has continued his influence as The Worlds Leading Latino and Chicano Playwright traveling everywhere, all the time, sharing his great wealth of knowledge and experience with a world thirsty for truth, experience & entertainment.WE are very proud to bring you Luis VALDEZ, unexpurgated, uninhibited and unbeaten.
We spoke with Kenny Vasoli of the Band VACATIONER
about his process in making music, composing, inspiration and touring with the band. BUREAU Magazine readers will recognize VACATIONER Music, We showcased it on The Bureau Site in JUNE.
BUREAU: This is an interesting direction and a very cool new album, tell us how you go about creating a tune from the time you write it to what were hearing now.
K.V. : Thank you for saying so. The songs usually come about through a process of me writing top-line and bass-line to a short instrumental track sent to me by my partners, Matt Young and Grant Wheeler. After I come up with a rough draft from home, I'll drive up to their studio in Brooklyn to lay down the final version.
BUREAU: Touring is a big part of the industry you're in, what are the pros and cons of life on the road?
K.V. : Traveling and playing music are two of my greatest interests in life. So it's a natural desire for me to keep moving with a touring lifestyle. Surely, It can be mundane at times. The thrill of it just cannot be matched by anything, and the mundane spans of time are always overshadowed by the memories of fun and adventure.
BUREAU: Do you do a lot of reading, if so, what are you into these days ?
K.V. : I am a slower reader than I'd like to be, but I cheat my way through heaps of audio-books. I am giving "How Music Works" by David Byrne a whirl with my eyes. I'm absolutely loving it. He is very scientific in the way he writes, but is so articulately human at the same time. I'm totally fascinated with Byrne's mind. I had finished "Bicycle Diaries" around this time last year.
BUREAU: What Inspires you most, IE : Film, Art, Music? Tell our readers
a bit about your creative process.
K.V. : I think I'm most inspired by art that not only impresses me, but intimidates me in a way. I love experiencing a loss of self and a humbling when I witness artists executing their work so effectively. It almost scares me. True inspiration is fleeting. I find that I can't just conjure it at will. It's like I have to wait for the reception of the signal to come in clearly, and then I record everything I can before I lose it.
BUREAU: Here at The BUREAU were all about ART + Culture. Give us a List of top ten Cultural References for our readers to check out: Art, Film, Music, Surfing, Design, Etc…
1.Daniel Madeline Collage artist. I've always liked trippy collage work, this guy seems to be among the trippiest.
2. Matt Schwartz Photographer, I recently had the pleasure of working with Matt. I had been a fan of his work prior to the shoot. His pictures are colorful and vibrant, and he usually shoots really beautiful girls.
3. Duncan Trussel Comedian & podcast host. Duncan has a personality that shines brightly through his voice and his words. An expressively positive human who can verbalize thought-provoking humor with inherent ease. To say he is a comedian isn't framing it perfectly. He is somewhere closer to a humorous Terence McKenna. His podcast is called The Duncan Trussell Family hour, I highly recommend it.
4. Yorgos Lanthimos Filmmaker. His most recent movie, Alps, blew me away. Without spoiling too much, I love the way he makes you feel around in the dark for what exactly is going on. But even when you figure it out, something is still very alien. It feels like a Twilight Zone episode a bit, like you are in a different dimension of earth. Yorgos is perfect example of someone who is able to rattle me with their art.
5. Antonio Carlos Jobim Musician & composer . I've been swallowed by a deepening interest in 60's/70's era Brazilian music. When you go down that hole, you are bound to come across Antonio Carlos Jobim. He wrote and performed some of the greats. The album "Wave" is considered a masterpiece. "Stone Flower," however, is my favorite of his records.
6. Eckart Tolle Author & Spiritual Philosopher. I occasionally receive an eyebrow lift when I discuss spiritual philosophy, and understandably so. It's deep into the hippy dipping pond. I'd simply be remiss to leave Eckart Tolle off of my list, he is a significant cultural character in my life. Hearing him speak relaxes me a great deal, so I listen often.
7. James Murphy Musician, producer and just rad dude. This guy knows how to live! LCD was my favorite band when they played their last show, and somehow I felt great about the closure. I'll always get excited seeing his name attached to a project.
8. Maggie Hayes Artist. Maggie is a beautifully talented painter, mixed - media artist, photographer & model. Another figure in my life who positively motivates me to raise my own bar.
9. Righteous Jolly Mixologist. I know of Righteous through mutual friends, I first met him at a pal's birthday celebration at a bar he was managing. He was making some of the most interesting drinks I'd ever experienced, with ingredients he created himself. If you are in Philadelphia, he has a place called Bourbon & Branch. Ask him to make you the one that has the jalapeno in it! Yum.
10. Jimmy Cobra Carbonetti Guitar-maker. Cobra plays guitar in Caveman, he builds every guitar they use. They look and sound gorgeous. Beautiful timeless style.
The BUREAU Film INTERVIEW
DAVID L. LEWIS : FILM MAKER
Documentary Film maker Davis L. Lewis speaks with Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi
The new documentary, The Pleasures Of Being Out Of Step Notes On The Life Of Nat Hentoff features music by Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. The film focuses on an interesting story and the career of one of America's leading Music Critics and Independent writing voices in last few decades. An authentic and personal film with a an up - close look at a very outspoken writer.
BUREAU: NAT HENTOFF is quite an interesting character: we enjoyed the film. How did you come to choose this subject as a feature documentary and tell us about the journey from impetus to final release if you will ?
Davis L. Lewis: I’m glad you enjoyed it! The initial impulse was complicated but basically boils down to this: As a journalist myself, I’ve always loved the “war stories” I heard in the newsrooms and bars where we tend to congregate. As I got older, and as the digital age crept up & then roared over us, I began to realize that we are losing a generation of journalists who made their lives in the printed word. We are very good about telling other people’s stories, but not so good at telling our own. I felt an overwhelming desire to preserve some of that history. There were lots of possible subjects, but Hentoff presented a particularly intriguing one because of the jazz. I was never an aficionado, and only had a vague awareness of his earlier work. So the chance to learn more about the music was big draw. I remember how hard I worked to prepare for the interview we did on jazz — and how nervous I was when we sat down to do it. Afterward, I asked him how we did, and he said, “At least you knew the right questions to ask.” That was a big relief! I’ve worked all over print and broadcast journalism, but this was my first feature-length film, my first large-scale independent project. The creative challenge as the director was to try to get past the usual bio-pic documentary formula and create a film with its own aesthetic that helped us tell the story. I think we did pretty well at that, although I’m sure not all the critics will agree. As the producer, the biggest pleasure was putting together a great team that helped me keep up the creative momentum over the length of the production. The biggest challenge, of course, was finding the resources to get it all done.
BUREAU: A Documentary like this usually takes some time. Averages of 60 to 85 hours often paired down to 90 minutes is always rather challenging, What was your ratio and discuss how you went about ' finding ' the shape of your film ?
Davis L. Lewis: If you include all the archival material available to us, that ratio is pretty close, probably a little short if you count the music too. We had to make pretty careful choices about what to shoot. We based our decisions on what we thought we would get out of it and that process worked well for us. The problem is the man is so prolific. We knew there was no way we could tell it all, so we had to make narrative choices as well. We tried to keep our focus on the thematic thread that unifies the whole film, which is the relationship between free expression as a creative value and a political value, and the relationship between those values and the ability of an individual to create an identity. We chose an unconventional structure because we wanted to show the connections between those values in Hentoff’s life, and the connections between the people and ideas that popped up at different points. We spent a lot of time in the editing room moving those pieces around, teasing out different themes and association and making sure the connections were as clear as we could make them. We also had to leave a lot of stuff out, but maybe we’ll have some nice extras on the DVD.
BUREAU: The blend of MUSIC, ART & POLITICS symbolized by the single opinion of an individual, in this case, Mr Hentoff, created quite a controversy. When did you first become aware of Mr Hentoff and now that the film is completed, what have you learned about Documentary Film making ?
Davis L. Lewis: I came of political age in the '70s, a particularly awful time in American politics, and I first became aware of Hentoff through is his work at the Voice, which presented such a strong counterpoint to the corruption of that era. He is always outspoken, but it seemed to me that he was rarely a blowhard. At his best, he puts a lot of thought into his work and comes by his conclusions honestly. So even if you don’t agree with everything he says, you can respect him for saying it. I think he would be horrified by someone who agreed with everything he says, or at least he would find that person boring.
The most important thing I learned about documentary filmmaking is patience. It took longer than I thought it would, but I think our focus on quality and depth helped us get to the end. And I learned to always work with the very best people I could find, but people who believed in the project. Because it takes a sustained effort to follow through to the end on a project like this, and it’s hard to sustain that effort if the people you work with don’t believe in it. And you want them to be satisfied with the work at the end as well. I met a producer early on who I wanted to work with, and she turned me down. But she gave me a great piece of advice. She said we had a mature project and that quality work always rises to the top. I always remembered that, and it helped me through some of the tougher stretches, and helped me to be patient. And I hope she’s right. We’ve gotten this far. I would ask her to work with me again. [ CONTINUED - ]
BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Photography Essay : David Levinthal
"I first began to work with toys as the subject matter for my artwork in 1972 while I was a graduate student in photography at Yale. Initially I was interested in the toys merely as objects. As I continued working I began to try to re-create the feelings of childhood play by photographing toy soldiers on the floor of my bedroom and using simple painted wood blocks to represent buildings and cities. I quickly found that narrow focus that came from photographing objects less than an inch tall gave the toys more life and a sense of realism that was not inherent in them. Setting up the toy figures is just the beginning. The set itself is just the background. It is a scene. And it is within and from that scene that the images themselves are found."
Illustration Portrait By BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine Summer Guest Artist David PALUMBO
100 Must Read Books Compiled by DAVID BOWIE
- The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby, 2008
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, 2007
- The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard, 2007
- Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage, 2007
- Fingersmith, Sarah Waters, 2002
- The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, 2001
- Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler, 1997
- A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes, 1997
- The Insult, Rupert Thomson, 1996
- Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon, 1995
- The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, 1994
- Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard, 1993
- Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C. Danto, 1992
- Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia, 1990
- David Bomberg, Richard Cork, 1988
- Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick, 1986
- The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin, 1986
- Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd, 1985
- Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey, 1984
- Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter, 1984
- Money, Martin Amis, 1984
- White Noise, Don DeLillo, 1984
- Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984
- The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White, 1984
- A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980
- A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 1980
- Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980
- Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler, 1980
- Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess, 1980
- Raw (a ‘graphix magazine’) 1980-91
- Viz (magazine) 1979 –
- The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1979
- Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz, 1978
- In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan, 1978
- Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed. Malcolm Cowley, 1977
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976
- Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders, 1975
- Mystery Train, Greil Marcus, 1975
- Selected Poems, Frank O’Hara, 1974
- Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, 1972
- In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971
- Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky, 1971
- The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillete, 1970
- The Quest For Christa T, Christa Wolf, 1968
- Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn, 1968
- The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967
- Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg, 1967
- Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr. , 1966
- In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1965
- City of Night, John Rechy, 1965
- Herzog, Saul Bellow, 1964
- Puckoon, Spike Milligan, 1963
- The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford, 1963
- The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963
- The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963
- A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962
- Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell, 1962
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961
- Private Eye (magazine) 1961 –
- On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding, 1961
- Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961
- Strange People, Frank Edwards, 1961
- The Divided Self, R. D. Laing, 1960
- All The Emperor’s Horses, David Kidd,1960
- Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse, 1959
- The Leopard, Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, 1958
- On The Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957
- The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard, 1957
- Room at the Top, John Braine, 1957
- A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno, 1956
- The Outsider, Colin Wilson, 1956
- Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1948
- The Street, Ann Petry, 1946
- Black Boy, Richard Wright, 1945
- The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker, 1944
- The Outsider, Albert Camus, 1942
- The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, 1939
- The Beano, (comic) 1938 –
- The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell, 1937
- Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Christopher Isherwood, 1935
- English Journey, J.B. Priestley, 1934
- Infants of the Spring, Wallace Thurman, 1932
- The Bridge, Hart Crane, 1930
- Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh, 1930
- As I lay Dying, William Faulkner, 1930
- The 42nd Parallel, John Dos Passos, 1930
- Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin, 1929
- Passing, Nella Larsen, 1929
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence, 1928
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
- The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot, 1922
- BLAST, ed. Wyndham Lewis, 1914-15
- McTeague, Frank Norris, 1899
- Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual, Eliphas Lévi, 1896
- Les Chants de Maldoror, Lautréamont, 1869
- Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, 1856
- Zanoni, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1842
- Inferno, from the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, about 1308-1321
- The Iliad, Homer, about 800 BC
Mr Palumbo is a prolific painter working in a multitude of styles. David has an ongoing series of works including: The Tarot, The Portraits, Fantasy illustration, Gallery Fine Art and his sexually charged, if not controversial Quickies. The later available in publication as well as for purchase individually. Once familiar with David Palumbo's work, each style or series is immediately identifiable and interesting. The Quickies definitely push the envelope and raise the bar as well as the blood pressure on sexually charged and inspired figural art work. David Palumbo is that rare breed hybrid of working illustrator, fine artist and individual creator who is pushing the envelope on what can be done with an image.
Mr Palumbo's portraits of well known personalities such as Sidney Poitier, Mathew McConaughey, David Bowie and Jane Fonda capture the essence of the person and also stamp his own style and interpretation accordingly. David Palumbo has what we might call a painterly style: excessive brush strokes, textural experimentation, impressionistic via the materials. Schooled as a classical figural painter with a keen interest in cinema and raised among a family of artists has led him to be commissioned by a wide variety of publications and we are very proud to have him as Guest Artist for The June/August Edition of BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine & BUREAU of Arts and Culture . com & Community Sites On Line. The David Palumbo Sci-Fi or Fantasy illustrative work is not only exciting, bold, striking, sometimes scary and even gory, but also imaginative, humorous and always services the story being told. BUREAU readers may remember Mr Palumbo's artworks affiliated with the Fiction project in the recent June edition of the magazine. David's work brought an entirely new & fresh approach to telling the story and we noticed right away how accessible and welcoming as well as supportive his work is to the text. The dark humor involved in his fantasy illustration harkens back to the American comic books from the nineteen sixties and even further back than that, some of his themes relate back to early 19th and 20th century illustrative technique's of the English variety: Sherlock Holmes and Jack The Ripper.
With the resurgence and popularity of Vampires, Zombies and a new form of sexually expressive literature, art and film in today's current creative landscape, we are sure that the popularity of Mr David Palumbo's artworks is on the rise and we are glad to introduce our readers, as well as allow Mr Palumbo himself to describe his process and share a top ten of his favorites. We spoke with David Palumbo about his career, his education and his approach when it comes to making Art for a living and who he keeps an eye on when it comes to inspiration. Enjoy The David Palumbo Interview and many Artworks dispersed throughout. Rather than censor the artist, we give you full warning now, this is Mr Palumbo un - edited. THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IS DOWNLOADABLE AT THE LINK BELOW ...
BUREAU: Please suggest a list of ten artists that our audience should know about and why.DAVID PALUMBO: Hmmm. Ok, I hope some of these are already well known, but here are ten artists I’m currently really digging:Mead Scheaffer - I don’t know much of his story, but damn can he paint. Scheaffer was an illustrator in the first half of the 20th century who was brilliant with design, limited color, and something about his brush calligraphy just kills me.J.C. Leyendecker - Another early 20th century illustrator, Leyendecker was so bold with shape and silhouette that I’m often looking to him for inspiration. His stylization of figures adds such elegance and drama. Precursor to Rockwell.Jeremy Geddes - an Australian contemporary painter who has transitioned from illustration to fine art. His work is so moody and stark. I love the illustration and gallery work equally.Antonio Lopez Garcia - a Spanish painter, still active I believe, who is known for his immense cityscapes and incredibly life-like interiors. The depth and tangible quality of his work is unreal, especially if you ever have the opportunity to see one in person.Sam Weber - a contemporary illustrator based in Brooklyn who’s done mostly editorial and cover work. Sam’s look has been evolving since I first became aware of him. Back then it was very graphic and stylized, often monochromatic and minimalist. Recently he’s been turning more hyper-realist but still with a strong graphic punch and terrific mood.Alex Kanevsky - a contemporary fine artist who does very abstracted depictions of figures and such. I’m endlessly fascinated by how far he can break the lines and planes while still showing a clear representation of the figure.Robert McGinnis - an illustrator who did a ton of crime novel covers with sexy women in the 60s and 70s. Think of Bond girls and you’d think of McGinnis.Sanjulian - a European illustrator who did absolutely brilliant 70s gothic and horror (and romance) book covers. Wonderful 70s texture and amazing montagesGreg Manchess - a contemporary illustrator who does genre and mainstream work with a very painterly hand in the spirit of the Pyle school. Wonderful chunky strokes and incredible compositions.John Harris - an English illustrator who does beautiful painterly space scenes rich in color and emotion. Almost nobody can get away with loose atmospheric takes on SF like Harris can.Mr. Palumbo's worked has been showcased in: Ace Books . Blizzard Entertainment . Centipede Press . Dark Horse Comics . Daw Books . Heavy Metal . Lucas film . Marvel Entertainment . The New Yorker . Night Shade Books . Pyr Books . Roadrunner Records . Rolling Stone . Italia Scholastic . Science Fiction Book Club . Simon and Schuster . Scientific American . Subterranean Press . Tor Books . Wizards of the Coast and In the collection of: George Lucas . Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art . The Association of Fantastic Art he has Numerous Awards Including : Chesley Award - best game related illustration (2013) / Spectrum Gold Medal - book category (2013) / Spectrum Gold Medal - book category (2011) / Spectrum Silver Medal - comics category (2011)
BUREAU Magazine: New CINEMA
Billy MIZE & The Bakersfield Sound
History is sometimes told by outsiders, sometimes by insiders and sometimes by someone simply very interested in the facts, in this case: it's a little of each. Billy MIZE and The Bakersfield Sound is a New Documentary that tells the story of California's forgotten history. We have got a lot of those around this Golden State. So very much has happened out here in The West. William J. Saunders steps up to tell the story of his Grandfather, songwriter and musician, Mr Billy Mize. A local legend of sorts for anyone living in the middle of California in the 1950's & 1960's. Billy Mize was a big part of what is now commonly called, 'The Bakersfield Sound'. An offshoot of Country Western Music with its own Rock - a - Billy bar room blend of hard driving guitar, rough edged rhythm and wide audience appeal that to this today is influential to musicians such as Dave Alvin, who appears in this film to help tell the story. So too does Merle Haggard and a host of people who were there or highly influenced by the music that was created during that time. A hard driving, hard working community of people whom many migrated to California during The Great Depression ala John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and settled into middle California seeking employment in Agriculture.
" This is a Patchwork Quilt of a Film that is
Truly American in its Creation. "
Billy Mize and his pals had to actually establish the Academy of Country Western Music to chime in and recognize each other and their contemporaries out West. Artists such as Elvis, Dean Martin, Barbara Mandrell and others are sited as influenced and impressed by The Bakersfield Scene. Billy Mize, looked after new talent, collaborated, produced and performed with the likes of folks such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, who would go on to prosperous profits and notoriety while Billy, sometimes, did not. This documentary elliptically raises the question: What is Success ? Is it a top ten hit or is it a happy marriage or is it simply being satisfied with the things you have done ? Ask that question to three different people and you will get three different answers. This film allows each viewer to decide for themselves that answer and meanwhile we learn much about the center of California, The Music of Bakersfield and the career(s) of a whole group of people that clearly deserve our recognition. This is a patchwork quilt of a film that is truly American in its creation.
This magazine was once an Art Studio, it transformed into a professional Gallery and later into a multi media center for celebrating the arts of all types: Fine Art, Painting Sculpture, Photography, Classic and Contemporary Arts, Poetry, Music and Film. About this time of year almost twenty years ago, we decided to screen several original Twilight Zone prints on 16MM film reels and invite an audience. Back then, if you were sincere, forthright and naive enough, you could simply pick up the phone, make a few inquiries and next thing knew, you were on the phone with someone like George Clayton Johnson. By the way, thank you to the lady at the writers guild who broke protocol sensing that many of our older, wiser and more talented writers in this town were not getting enough attention from the next generation. In Bogart and Bacall fashion, she helped Sam Spade. The phone rings several times, " Hello, Is this George Clayton Johnson the original writer for The Twilight Zone ? ", I asked, sounding not unlike a child actor from an Old Time Radio Show: raspy, anxious, hurried. At that time, I had no idea that George also wrote Logan's Run, The story for The Original Oceans Eleven and a slew of Television shows including: The first Star Trek episode, Kung Fu, Route 66 & Alfred Hitchcock Presents. "Yes, this is he." The voice on the other line replied. I was ecstatic, this was not the first writer from the series I had called, many had passed away, others lived in New York or elsewhere, and to top it off George had actually been the writer of one of the reels we were showing and of some of the best work in the Zone series: Kick The Can, A Penny for Your Thoughts, A Game of Pool, Nothing in The Dark : Each Twilight Zone Classics.
I explained what we had planned and asked if he might be interested in appearing for the screenings, [ long pause ] "Yes, I would." In Hollywood, that is the phrase that opens doors, that is the phrase that begins careers, that is the phrase that starts the great journey, it is the phrase we want to hear from those we love, those we wish to work with and those we admire. And, in classic sci-fi style: everything appeared different after that dialogue. The objects in my office seemed different, as if gravity meant nothing, the world was do able, the opportunities seemed endless and I was about to hang out with a writer I had admired since childhood. Suddenly, we were The Bureau of Arts and Culture, we were purveyors of not just Art, Music and Poetry, but now, we were actually presenting and honoring great writers in town. George showed up trailed by a film crew, he was the great philosopher and old pro and I was a mere student & enthusiast: the perfect combination. It was Obi Wan & Luke. It was the great Chief and a New Warrior. It was George and I. It was also our first official, 'Question and Answer ' exchange with a real working writer. Mr Johnson was a fabulous guest, there was standing room only, we were 'On The Map'. Flash forward almost 20 years. Mr Johnson has had a total resurgence, due to the many remakes of his original story: Oceans Eleven by director Steven Soderberg and the other subsequent films including, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen. From what we are hearing around town, there will soon be a new Logans Run. We at the BUREAU are very proud to have been on the forefront of recognizing one of The most imaginative and greatest writers working in Hollywood since the early Nineteen Sixties. We wish to thank George Clayton Johnson for his contribution, not only to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Film and Television, but for his collaboration, cooperation and very cool demeanor in working with and recognizing our earnest and heartfelt efforts at a time when many pros had no idea who we were and what it was we were doing at the time. Many still haven't. Mr. George Clayton Johnson has always been ahead of his time and in a way, so are we. Even our name was confusing to people: The BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE. It sure sounded official for an Artist run organization. So much so that, curators from Cultural Affairs working for the city actually came down and hand picked artists for Exhibitions. So to did many reporters for Vanity Fair, Coagula Arts Journal, The LA Weekly, The LA Times, The New Times, Venice Magazine, Fine Art International. Cultural Non profits such as LA Goethe Institute were extremely enthusiastic about our exhibitions & events.
All in all, The BUREAU found itself at the correct place at the correct time doing what many Institutes do with big bank rolls, non profit status or major grants from corporate and private institutes. We did it with enthusiasm, we did it with honesty, we did it with care and we did it without all the phony and fake affiliative aspects that now have pervaded the entire landscape of entertainment, art institutes and music/film related non profits of today. Were still doing it with this publication and we will go on doing just that with whatever venture this artist run organization enters into. After all, we also make Art, Films and Books. Without the George Clayton Johnson's of the world, This organization would not be what it is: Thank You George.
INTERVIEW: Director Deon Taylor
Deon Taylor Directed, Supremacy, a new Film Starring Danny GLOVER & Lela ROCHON
We spoke to Deon Taylor about his experience developing and directing this New Drama.
BUREAU: Although this is a wholly original production based on a true contemporary situation, did you look at crime dramas in your research within the genre ? William Wyler's The Desperate Hours with Humphrey Bogart comes to mind.
Deon Taylor: During the process of preparing for the production of "Supremacy" I worked very hard to stay away from films that lived in a world of containment or hostage situations. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to shoot from my heart and have no pre-game plan. I felt the story was so unique and had so many layers that, creatively, it needed me to be a blank canvas. On another note, I love "The Desperate Hours." Classic!
" This film taught me to live in the moment
and simply be true to the story. "
BUREAU: What particular challenges did you face in entirely switching modes here and taking on high drama ?
Deon Taylor: There were always challenges on this film. Personally, the biggest challenge was staying true to the family. The film is based on a true story and I wanted to be sure to stay in tune with the tragic events that took place that night. This was a challenge simply because, as a creative filmmaker, you’re always looking to see how you can make something bigger and more effective. This film taught me to live in the moment and simply be true to the story.
BUREAU: Working with Danny Glover is a godsend for any director, once you knew he was on board, discuss with our readers how the rest of the film fell into place.
Deon Taylor: Danny Glover is a godsend! Danny was my first call after reading the screenplay. I don't really have the words to explain how I felt once he said “yes” to the project. Danny has always been one of my favorites and represents so much to me. When I think of his career and his body of work, it's beyond amazing. You're talking about one of the first, Black, action heroes that had success globally. From "Silverado" to the "Lethal Weapon" franchise to "The Color Purple," how do you top that? Without talent like Danny Glover and Sidney Poitier, there would be no lane for incredible talents like Jamie Foxx, Will Smith or Denzel Washington. So when I go back to the call and hear the words, "Yes, I'm doing your movie," words cannot explain how I felt. It was simply a blessing and I am so grateful for him and the opportunity he allowed me to have. It is very hard to believe that Danny Glover has not been nominated for an Academy Award over his 40-year-career. He is Academy-worthy in my book and I love him.
BUREAU: Eric J. Adams wrote the screenplay for this riveting drama, when did you first read the script and what made you decide to take this project on as a director ?
Deon Taylor: I first read the script two years ago and everything in my body said, "Go make this film." As a 100 percent independent filmmaker, the challenge then became, "How do I raise the money needed to make such an important film?" I felt strongly about this film as my entire family has had dealings with race-related issues. I truly believed through film I could shine a light on ignorance.
BUREAU: Several dramatic scenes in the film depend highly on pitch perfect performance. Sparse dialogue and situation force some of your actors to find a certain tone: Lela Rochon rises to the challenge beautifully. Could you talk a bit about creating a
creative atmosphere on the set for your actors.
Deon Taylor: Lela Rochon is amazing! Her spirit is beautiful as well. When setting the stage for "Supremacy," I had to find the perfect locations in which the talent could immerse themselves. For high-energy characters like Lela, Joe and Dawn, I found myself talking to them constantly, building layers for their characters and creating backstories. This process was the key ingredient in grabbing these amazing performances.
BUREAU: In a film like this, the ending is all important, it's a bit of a nail biter. Since it is actually based on reality, what are the challenges of delivery a true story that thrills along the way ?
Deon Taylor: To this day, the ending of the film brings a tear to my eye. The speech, the energy, and the performances all mesh perfectly. I would love to take the credit but I give that to God, who allowed me to rewrite the end of the film on set with Danny, Joe and Eric. It was so cool! Going into the film, I knew I wanted the audience to go for a ride. I wanted to shoot this film in a way that would allow the audience to feel trapped and, at times, hot and confused, which is what the family felt. This was challenging at times due to the fact that I was shooting on 16 mm film, and we had no money. I simply had to truly do my homework and understand that I had no extra days or pick up days. What I shot is what I would have in editing. This makes you a bit more aggressive and it truly makes you work harder.
I knew I wanted the audience
BUREAU: There is a real minimalist approach to background of characters due to the storyline. What challenges do you face when creating a cohesive world under theses conditions ?
Deon Taylor: The challenge is constant! The race overtones, the violence, the drama, the family being at odds the whole film - you find yourself emerged in this crazy world as a filmmaker. You take it home each and every night. You're dirty in a sense. That was how I felt. It was almost like a game. You're sweating, you're focused and you do not want to lose. So, the challenge simply becomes, "How do you get performances to be top of the line?" With the cast I had that was not hard! I love them all.
BUREAU: Joe Anderson puts in a fierce performance that is both extreme and magnetic.Would you describe the process from casting to final performance.
Deon Taylor: Joe Anderson is a star! From the moment Joe walked into the room for casting, I knew he had it. The challenge became how intense we wanted Tully to become. I tease Joe a lot because he knows how big a fan I am of his work. When I think of all the amazing talent in Hollywood like Bradley Cooper and Tom Hardy, I list Joe right up there. I've never seen anyone more committed than him. He pushes himself into an angry state to deliver. There were times that Joe and I would have a crazy argument over a scene and within a hour we would have nailed and then laugh about it.
BUREAU: Your film utilizes the psychological flashback as a sort of tension builder. How much leverage do you give your editor Richard B. Molina and describe a sequence
where he helped you to unify the project.
Deon Taylor: The process as a filmmaker is always difficult. When you are doing a project like "Supremacy," the relationship between editor and director has to be absolutely incredible. While in the cutting room with editor Richard Molina, we spent hours and hours collaborating on scenes and moments. We became best friends in a sense through the process. One scene that comes to mind when I think about Rich is the second flashback in the film. There is a scene where Tully and Doreen pull over and she goes to please him. The scene is very graphic and super intense. I originally removed it from the film. Even though I loved it, we pulled it because of time issues. Rich worked his ass off and trimmed multiple scenes in the film in order to allow that scene to make the cut. I love him. He is so great. It's funny because when I watch the new "300: Rise of an Empire," I can tell you what scenes Rich had his hands on. He is a genius.
BUREAU: Give our readers an example of how an actor influenced the shooting of a particular sequence and shaped the film in a way you might have done differently without their particular contribution.
Deon Taylor: While shooting the end of the film, we were set to shoot the final moment between Tully and Mr. Walker (Danny Glover). As we were reading the lines I could just feel the energy was a bit off between Danny and Joe. I yelled cut. I walked Danny to the side and he simply said, "We need more here." He was right. At that moment I stopped production, rewrote the entire last scene of the film and then shot it. To this day, that is my favorite moment in "Supremacy."
Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp3gl4PLH9A
DAVID FeBLAND : FINE ARTIST
BUREAU: Tell us about your relationship with creating imagery: When & how did it start?
David FeBLAND: I began creating imagery in my head long before its physical embodiment on canvas. I didn’t even think of myself as an artist until I reached my 20’s, and I began to create wholly self-expressive work only as I reached the age of 40. I was a 6 year old child growing up in the bucolic countryside of Southern England when suddenly my family relocated to Coney Island, Brooklyn. It was 1955, during the ebbing but still raucous era of side shows and bawdy entertainments of a working class seaside town. The giant spatulas hadn’t yet been affixed to the front of the Sanitation trucks, better to evenly tan the Unfortunates who fell by the wayside. That was coming but still in the future. My new neighborhood was a lively place where Freak shows were commonplace, and the people who worked them for a living went about their local errands after hours. My first explorations in my new country included quotidian encounters with The Hairy Lady (full mustache & beard), The Leopard Girl (skin half black, half white), The Fat Man (at 400 lbs, a real standout rather than today’s next-in-line at McDonalds), Mr. Pinhead (don’t ask) and a supporting cast of dwarves, simians & fire-breathers. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. This seminal experience gestated for a long time before finding its way into art as I engaged in a variety other life pursuits, but it formed my view of public life forever. I never really took my eyes off the street again, and l believe that at that early age my interest in human interaction with our physical surroundings was set. However unconsciously, my lifelong determination to cast the world around me as dramatic narrative was established. We carry a few essential ideas into and through our creative lives. We go back to them again and again in a process of refinement. Our craft improves, we discover new methodologies and media, but they always support a nucleus of what I would call essential truths that we form early in our experience.
BUREAU: These days, the line between illustration and Fine Art is not entirely clear. As a former illustrator, how do you differentiate these two worlds?
David FeBLAND: I will invoke a famous 11th Century rabbinical scholar, Hillel the Elder, by way of addressing this question. He was asked by a cynical student to explain the meaning of the bible while standing on one foot. To this dismissive question, he calmly replied, ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. All the rest is commentary on that one essential idea’. If I pay my grandmother a visit and she asks me to make a drawing of her cat to hang on her wall, I am creating an illustration. If I pay my grandmother a visit and decide to surprise her with a drawing of her cat to hang on her wall, I am creating a piece of fine art. Intentionality determines the difference between the two. All discussion of style, context, and emotional power over the viewer is commentary on this one essential idea. A work of fine art, whether good or bad, successful or not, is internally generated by the artist no matter the extent to which it may reference the world around us. I have seen some spectacularly well crafted, insightful and emotionally moving visual works, produced by some truly gifted artists, that were created to illuminate written works… but because they exist to support an external idea, thought, command or campaign, reside in the world of illustration. I should add that this is not a judgment of value. I have seen abundant examples of horrific art, breathtaking failures by any measure, that nevertheless stand as fine art for having been created as independent works, intended to stand (or fall) entirely alone.
BUREAU: Do you make a living as an artist? Please describe that process and how it has evolved through the years.
David FeBLAND: Yes, although not in a way that a professional working in a non- creative arts field with a comparable level of education, talent and determination would consider a living. More seriously, the utter lack of a Plan B has compelled me to make a success of my career in fine art. Mine was not the traditional route here. Having not gone to art school & without the very helpful contacts students often acquire there, I had no easy initial entry routes. I was unprepared for the generally cool reception afforded an unknown artist walking into rarified New York galleries. I had spent the previous 18 years running a successful practice as an illustrator & when l walked away from that life in the early '90s, I was used to the meritocratic & far more congenial world of publishing - or even advertising. l did, however, have some essential business, professional & strategic skills acquired over that period & after a year of getting thoroughly stonewalled, I regrouped & decided that a frontal attack on The Beast wasn’t a successful strategy for someone with my background. I began to approach galleries, curators & university art museums everywhere ELSE, all the while entering competitions & group exhibitions wherever they were calling for artists, building a resume quickly over the next few years. Eventually this led to my first gallery representation as well as some critical press, which attracted further interest in my work (as well as sales). Today, the art market is driven as much by online presence & art fairs as by conventional gallery relationships. But where to show & whom to approach from the myriad choices in a fluid world? It is important to understand the nuances & differences in world cultures when plotting a strategy of how to market one’s art. While today, most Western markets rise and fall more or less as one, the differences in culture are immutable; a painting I cant sell for love or money in, say, Atlanta, might sell instantly in Berlin.
David FeBLAND: Today, it is that knowledge that has driven me to develop gallery relationships around the world as a sort of hedge against regional cultural indifference to my work. To understand, for example, why paintings representing American subjects are less likely to sell in the UK than, say, Germany by way of planning a successful international strategy, one has to understand something of the historical relationship between the cultures. It is my view that the UK has a far more uneasy relationship with contemporary America than do the Germans. With some level of bemusement, the British continue to see us as the renegade colony now imposing our culture upon them whereas the Germans still see us as having saved them from a national horror. They visit America in great numbers with genuine affection and a more benign attitude, coming from today’s secure and stable national economy that was in no small way made possible by our intervention. They can afford to experience an expansionist American culture without a sense of existential threat. Whereas the paintings I send to the UK tend to reference their own culture, I sell paintings that make a great range of American references through a number of German galleries with some level of ease. While there are many reasons for this, I cant help thinking that historical relationships are an important factor.
BUREAU: Styles of Art, popularity, trends, values, schools of thought come and go. How do you maintain your particular vision while maintaining relevance?
David FeBLAND: I think it is a mistake to spend too much time or effort pondering ones relevance within the artistic world. Consideration of these matters soon leads us to reach for inclusion in a School or ally with a movement, moving us closer to derivation or appropriation and further from our own artistic truth. My own work eschews most references to popular culture and art world homages, and I believe that its relevance within the artworld may suffer for it. (Many of my collectors have a literary background, not coincidental, I think). My work isn’t about itself, and that puts me at the margins of many contemporary conversations about art. But the alternative is worse: a craven attempt to adapt my work to fit more neatly into art world conversation is as intellectually dishonest as readjusting to meet a sales marketplace. Heat-seeking missiles are more the purview of warfare than art fairs. If my work does have significance, then this will be demonstrated over the life of my career (or beyond it) where each painting represents a building block in service to a greater purpose, a vastly larger idea that becomes apparent in the fullness of time. The good news is that we are in a more pluralistic art world than ever before.
In a recent conversation with a well-placed Chicago art dealer, I heard him describe the evolution of the “scene” in that city over the last 25 years from one driven by abstraction into conceptualism, back into abstraction, then into figuration and now into a world where ‘anything goes”. I try to ignore the direction of trends, do what feels most artistically honest to me, and then shamelessly promote this work when and wherever I can.
BUREAU: Tell us about the most recent work and how it relates to storytelling.
David FeBLAND: My work explores a psychological space that modulates between aspiration & reality. It’s an essentially uncomfortable place – one where you have the sense of not quite being where or what you think you are. This is a contemporary state of mind that I represent in depictions of the transitional edge of combustible & colliding urban neighborhoods, its corporeal equivalent. After observing just such city spaces for many years, l realize that the concept of an Edge - or more precisely, the turmoil where urban neighborhoods collide - is as much a state of mind as a physical reality, and therefore eminently transportable. This isn’t a view I have come to quickly. For years, I embraced the boast that “it can only happen here”, as New Yorkers are fond of saying, and truly, it has always been convenient for me to mine for inspiration from the perch of a densely populated Island, my home in Manhattan, where everything happens at a stone’s throw. Living in New York, I appropriated the common phrase, “living on the edge”, making it a Cardinal Rule of Survival at home but applying a second, more literal, meaning. Surviving here meant staying as close to the water as possible, far from Midtown, thus avoiding the City’s crushing & overheated core.
David FeBLAND: So when I recently had to move my studio into that core, under the threat of eviction from my previous space, my creative response was to figuratively cross the water, venturing away from the Island entirely, to observe new places and subjects. I learned that interpreting the life I lived and observed in New York was certainly expedient but by no means inclusive. My current work is a reconsideration of our relationship to our physical environment. When I was given the opportunity to exhibit in LA, l knew l would have a chance to witness patterns of human behavior in a very different kind of city. My research for this show took me to the West Coast, and I quickly immersed myself in forms of travel and daily give and take foreign to my life in New York. (I didn’t even own a car there for 35 years!). I wanted to create pictorial reference points that would be familiar to Los Angeles audiences either directly or through inference, but I invented narrative tableaux driven by my belief that most human interaction is universal. I was lucky to be in LA during an extended period of clear weather, characterized by transparent, smog-free skies and brilliant, saturated color surfaces. I immediately determined to incorporate high-key tonality into my paintings. This became something of a subversive inducement to viewers; I would seduce them into a closer perusal of the works and allow the less comfortable elements of the stories to reveal themselves more subtly over the course of the viewing. This is a strategy I have no intention of abandoning any time soon.
David FeBLAND Fine Art Paintings continue on the following pages at The New Fiction Project
[ TAP HERE TO DOWNLOAD Entire ESSAY / INTERVIEW / ARTICLE ]
MARNI ZELNICK: Film Director
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi talks with Marni Zelnick about her most recent feature film.
TRILIEGI: DRUID PEAK is a wonderful film. Tell us about your earliest interest in this particular subject and how you went about developing the project.
MARNI ZELNICK: A lot of the story elements that eventually became part of Druid Peak were things that had been germinating with me for a long time. The effect external geography can have on our internal selves; the almost haphazard but devastatingly permanent way life can be lost when you’re a teenager; the fact that people so rarely ask the right questions of each other; the power animals have to communicate without speaking, and how their vulnerability can move even the most stoic heart. I think every writer has those things. But the immediate catalyst for the film was a $100,000 production grant offered by the Sloan Foundation for a script dealing with science or technology. Funding for first features can be incredibly difficult to find and I knew I wanted to apply for the grant. I went to their information session and they were probably no more than fifteen minutes into it when the image of a kid running alongside a pack of wolves streamed through my head. It was the unification of a million things I cared about. All of those ideas I mentioned plus Jackson Hole, Wyoming—a place that had been significant to me both as a teenager and an adult. The story kind of grew out of and around that image.
TRILIEGI: The Film starts out with a common problem facing much of the youth of today: Urban Dissatisfaction. Your lead character, Owen, goes through a slow and steady transformation, discuss the arc of this character.
MARNI ZELNICK: You know, I would say it a little bit differently. I would call it environmental dissatisfaction, rather than urban dissatisfaction. I think it would have been easy to make Owen an urban teen and for the conflict to simply be urban versus rural life. But as a film with an environmental subject, I wanted the issue to be more complicated than that. I specifically set Owen in West Virginia because it’s a place as potentially beautiful as Wyoming, but we’ve used the land very differently. The town we shot in, Mt. Hope, was an old coal town where the seam was mined to exhaustion. The land was depleted and the town never recovered. So a potentially very beautiful place had been used in a way that left its inhabitants with very little, both visually and in terms of opportunity. Owen is a smart kid who feels crushed by the claustrophobia of the place. There’s nothing there for him. He may not be self-aware enough to articulate it that way, but he’s stopped trying to make anything of himself or his life because he doesn’t see where it could lead—what the point is. His arc is a lot about realizing that there are still choices to be made. He can choose a different place, a different life, a different self. [ continued ]
ABOUT BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE:
An Electronic Interactive Version of BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine. 'Electronic' meaning you are reading it with a device, 'Interactive' meaning you can actually tap the featured interview or image & listen to extended Audio Interviews & Links. BUREAU Magazine can be read without being on-line, though it is much more useful and interesting if you are actually on-line or you may visit our website and enjoy a compendium of Interviews, Articles, Reviews and Essays. We suggest you view the pdf in the Two Page and Full Screen Mode options which are provided at the top of your menu bar under the VIEW section, simply choose Two Page Layout & Full Screen to enjoy. This format allows for The Magazine to be read as a Paper Edition. The BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE has been a respected ART Institute since the early Nineteen Nineties. Many of the original BUREAU members have gone on to have stellar careers in The ARTS. Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians such as: Lucas Reiner, Spike Jonze, Alex McDowell, Martin Durazo, James Gabbard, Christina Habberstock, Lorna Stovall, Heather Van Haaften, Chris Greco, Don Harger, Ron Riehel, Joan Schulze all had very early collaborations with The BUREAU Projects. Our relationship with ART spaces who have been interviewed / reviewed by BUREAU: Jack Rutberg, Susanne Vielmetter, Tobey C. Moss, Shoshana Wayne, Known Gallery, Sabina Lee, The Bowers Museum, The Geffen Contemporary, Hammer Museum, RED CAT, The Skirball Cultural Center, Museum of Contemporary Art in L A, San Diego and in Santa Barbara help to create well earned future partnerships, distribution as well as a 'word of mouth' that is priceless. Collectively, they have been in the business for hundreds of years. Not to mention the thousands of public readers that have received the magazine on their door steps. Our coverage of the MIAMI Art Fairs with in depth audio & slide presentations allow us to create a lasting relationship with the ' National Big Tent ' art events that allow for fundraising activity. We recently interviewed the Grammy Museum and are creating a lasting relationship. The same pattern applies for THEATER: Edgemar, LATC, Circle Theater, Cygnet, Robey. MUSIC : The Echo, The Redwood, The Roxy, Grammy Museum, Origami, Vacation, Record Collector, LA Philharmonic & The San Francisco Philharmonic. BUREAU has created relationships with Film, Music and Art festivals, National & Local Radio Stations, continuing the tradition created with BUREAU Film projects and the utilization of Print, Radio and Web to facilitate publicity, fundraising & awareness. Triliegi Film programs were discussed on KCRW 89.9, KPFK 90.7 and Indie 103 FM within the non profit umbrella in the past and we plan to sustain & develop those ties. We were invited to Cumulus Radio's Commercial Rock Formatted KLOS 95.5 FM [ Bureau mentioned on air] to consider an affiliation. We recently interviewed Miles Perlich of KJAZZ 88.1 FM and we were given tickets to Classical Music concerts by K-MOZART Radio & we invited a guest reviewer to attend. The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine will continue to create a lasting relationship with the Art Institutes, Media & Schools that drive the Arts in America. We distributed Paper Editions to OTIS Art School & The Campus at USC to support alignments with faculty, staff & students who will become future entrepreneurs & participants in the Arts. Our upcoming interview with Barbara Morrison and her connection with UCLA Jazz music department with Herbie Hancock & The Thelonius Monk Institute is solid.We delivered the first edition of the magazines to: Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Palos Verdes, West Hollywood, Los Feliz, Malibu and The beach communities: Hermosa, Redondo & Manhattan beaches. We received financial support from the arts & culture communities by creating a dialog about the arts, reviewing their art exhibitions, theater plays & films. Art Galleries from Culver City to Bergamot Station to Glendale approved of and supported Edition One. Now we have an online READERSHIP that grows exponentially. BUREAU sites in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, New York City and very soon Seattle, allow for anyone, anywhere, to see what is going on in the arts in that particular city. Which we feel will allow for us to apply for support, distribution and grants within those particular cities and for local businesses to buy ads. We add new cities quite often and create a lasting relationship with the established Arts Foundations in ART, MUSIC, THEATER. Which usually includes Classical music, Art Galleries, live Theater and Film. We added Surfing , Skateboarding and Biking to get the interest of a younger readership and indeed it worked. We have also celebrated those subjects with our fundraisers, selling artworks in relation to Biking & Skatng. We partnered with local & national businesses that assisted & we provided logo affiliation & coverage on the web: Chrome Bags, Jarrittos, LA Skate, DTLA Bikes and The Los Angeles Bikers coalition, to name a few. Older Established Artists from diverse cultures also participate in the BUREAU of Arts and Culture Exhibitions and Interviews. We brought together Native American, African American, Chinese American, Armenian American and Mexican American elder artists in a single exhibition: a financial as well as critical success with "Gathering The Tribes: Part One". We hand delivered the first paper Edition throughout Southern California and select neighborhoods in San Francisco. We introduced the magazine & created Popular Cultural Sites. We are an official media Sponsor for L A Art Fair & PHOTO LA Photo Fair. We extensively cover and or interview galleries at Art Fairs such as, Platform LA, Pulse LA, Untitled Art, Basel Miami, Art Miami, Miami Project, LA Art Book Fair. We provide an extensive overview, Audio walk throughs, visual presentations with 100+ images per on-line feature. If that doesn't convince you, nothing ever will.
