ABOUT-INFORMATION FOR BIO NEW WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY SWEDISH FILM DIRECTOR LOVISA INSERRA-DOMAINE NAME MAGICK BARD

Antonio Pineda was one of the founders of the Straight Theatre in Haight Ashbury during the San Francisco renaissance. Straight Theatre hosted artists like the [...]]]> Glad to report Tony’s out of the slammer in Thailand and is working on new projects.

ABOUT-INFORMATION FOR BIO NEW WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY SWEDISH FILM DIRECTOR LOVISA INSERRA-DOMAINE NAME MAGICK BARD

Antonio Pineda was one of the founders of the Straight Theatre in Haight Ashbury during the San Francisco renaissance. Straight Theatre hosted artists like the Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, John Lee Hooker, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, the James Cotton Blues Band and John Fahey. Poets like Beat legend Michael McClure, Richard Brautigan, David Gitin  and The Living Theatre performed there and influenced the nascent poet with their friendship and bonhomie.McClure introduced him to the poet Jim Morrison, legendary front man of The Doors. The final chapter of his debut novel, The Magick Papers, is influenced by his interaction with Morrison and McClure. Minuit Aux Pere Lachaise, a theatre piece based on the aforementioned has been translated into French by Antoine Blanc.

Pineda studied flamenco ballet in California with Rosa Montoya and Cruz Luna. Montoya belonged to the Montoya clan of flamencologists. Pineda also studied in Madrid with the prestigious masters Ciro, Raul, Maria Madelena, Antonio del Castillo and Juan Antonio de los Reyes. He performed in California with his dance troupe, Los Flamencos de Bronce.

Pineda is the author of the well recieved underground novel, The Magick Papers, an exposition of the psychedelic culture. He is the co-author of, Dark Cabaret, a cinema book re the shooting of the motion picture, Dark Bridge, on location in Bangkok by film director Marcelo Von Schwartz. The book is in the tradition of the French Nouvelle Vague, influenced by Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Erich Rohmer, Antiononi and Fellini.It is comprised of Von Schwartzs favourite shots from the film accompanied by the poet and his text, as well as a turn in the film by Pineda as an actor. Richard McLeish of the Bangkok Post reviewed it favourably.

Pineda has acted in motion pictures like, The King Maker, produced by icon, David Winters. He has also done short films and bits in other feature films.

The poet has read his poems in Amsterdam at the Hemp Hotel, the International Fall Poetry Festival in San Francisco commemorating Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti celebrating his 93rd birthday, and at the Foriegn Correspondents Club and International Butoh Festival in Bangkok. Von Schwartz  filmed his reading at the Butoh Festival and is in the process of editing it. Phnom Pehn in Cambodia was the venue for another poetry shoot by De Leon, a young British auteur. Lovisa Inserra,Swedish film director, recently shot a reading of, Penitentiary Walls, an indictment of the penal industrial complex for profit in Bangkok, as well as a music video featuring Pineda.

Pineda is colaborating with Von Schwartz on another book. His poetry has been translated into French by the illustrious translator, Antoine Blanc. The Bangkok Post is preparing a Q and A interview with the poet entitled, My Bangkok, which will be featured in the biweekly supplent of the Post, The Magazine, in February.

Good luck guys, on the new website.

Since the release of ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’ in Thailand alone, his first hard hitting ‘faction’ novel became an instant best seller as a perfect paperback, consistently selling for more than ten years, with a first edition selling for up to $200, confirming the author’s cult status, which has left many wondering about [...]]]> WHO IS IAN QUARTERMAINE?

Since the release of ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’ in Thailand alone, his first hard hitting ‘faction’ novel became an instant best seller as a perfect paperback, consistently selling for more than ten years, with a first edition selling for up to $200, confirming the author’s cult status, which has left many wondering about the author’s background.

In actual fact, Ian Quartermaine’s controversial series of ‘faction’ novels are always a combination of authors. Only then does Ian Quartermaine become a tangible figure.

The editor and packager of all of the Ian Quartermaine novels is prolific non-fiction author and ghost writer Jake Anthony. Jake, an accomplished actor (Tony Bitch, the Original Simon Cowell in the “Goodies” series on British TV, still with a ‘cult’ following worldwide) and other character actor roles, worked as a copywriter and journalist in PR, before penning his own series of self-help holistic health, anti-ageing, IQ enhancement and his in-depth knowledge of South East Asian with travel books. Key in Jake Anthony to check out the 30 plus titles as Kindle e-Books on amazon.com where they consistently sell on a daily basis.

Having regular contact with the international acting and writing community, Jake often met up with other actors and authors with the thread of an original and often controversial tale but who lacked the hard hitting, fast moving, graphic writing style which decades as a journalist provided Jake with. Add Jake’s in-depth knowledge of South East Asia for half his life and his interest in history since a young boy, sometimes became a meeting of minds and talent, whence Jake powered the project along. This is where Ian Quartermaine enters the picture.

‘Sleepless in Bangkok’ commenced with a former major in the Australian forces telling Jake about his horrendous experience of guerrilla warfare in the Vietnam War at the height of the conflict, his respect for the people and the corruption of Western politicians who sent young soldiers to their death for political points in their home nation in a war that did not threaten the West and in particular, not Australia. As a long time journalist experienced in South East Asia including the brutal Pol Pot era in Cambodia, Jake combined both of their real life experiences and there was ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’ in all its ‘factional’ reality. Authentic work which the reader instinctively knew was so.

‘White Slavery’ – For King & Country, a graphic, brutal but true story of life at sea in the days when Colonial Britain ruled the waves, based upon generations of oral history emanating from the authors’ forefathers who sailed before the mast for hundreds of years; ‘Siam Streetfighter’, another historic tale of the brutality of life in Old Siam based upon being there for many decades; ‘From Other Worlds’ and ‘Cybernaut’, two ground breaking sci-fi novels about sentient beings in non organic, genetically engineered, and artificially mutated intelligence forms, which in retrospect forecast the future, foretelling what may come, and might persuade human-kind to change their ways! Part Three of the series about sentient beings as anthropomorphic cars with free will in a non human world – sentience being a Buddhist concept – was Jake’s 1992 ‘Cars’ copyright which Disney/Pixar used as the basis of their 2006 and 2011 ‘Cars’ series. They are presently being sued in California, case currently under appeal; ‘Sleepless in Bangkok 2’ whose sub-plot reveals the living hell and horror of life in Burma under the Colonels (not many people know that from personal experience, so all of the Ian Quartermaine novels are totally authentic); and ‘Supertanker’, a novelization of Bangkok based, Australian producer and screenwriter Ric Lawes’ ‘Supertanker’ – 9/11 was just a practice run – all followed.

The Ian Quartermaine novels have consistently received to-kill-for reviews, a cult following on the Internet, and regular sales in Thailand, which suggests Jake and Ian Quartermaine have become masters at the graphic writing, editing and packaging craft and two minds can be better than one, creatively speaking. New story ideas based on life and exotic locations, past and present, emanating from friends and colleagues, add an extra dimension. Like the melding of talent between the movie director, screenwriter and lead actors when making an Oscar winning movie, so far it has worked.

However, Ian Quartermaine novels are for adults only, unsuitable for Middle England and Middle America, where political correctness rules. Sex in all its forms, violence in all its forms – freelance and organized to engender political oppression – and government more as a corporate state, are now a reality. By understanding the growing realities in life worldwide by way of graphic, informative, hard hitting entertainment, Ian Quartermaine’s ‘faction’ novels just may help the reader to come to terms with it all. Knowledge is power. If not, just enjoy the cheap thrills action books and movies elicit which the surface veneer of all the Ian Quartermaine novels provide, above deeper sub-plots for those with insight and a higher IQ level.

The author’s initials are IQ. Quartermaine was classic author Rider Haggard’s much travelled adventurer hero in the novel ‘King Solomon’s Mines’. Get the connection?

IS THE US LEGAL SYSTEM ON TRIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE ‘CARS’ COURT ACTION UNDER APPEAL? ‘TONY BITCH’ (THE ORIGINAL SIMON COWELL) PONDERS UPON THE IRONY OF IT ALL.

Jake Mandeville-Anthony, the plaintiff in the ‘Cars’ action, which is currently under appeal, is an actor as well as a writer. [...]]]> “CARS” DISNEY COURT CASE SCANDAL – “PART ONE”

IS THE US LEGAL SYSTEM ON TRIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE ‘CARS’ COURT ACTION UNDER APPEAL? ‘TONY BITCH’ (THE ORIGINAL SIMON COWELL) PONDERS UPON THE IRONY OF IT ALL.

Jake Mandeville-Anthony, the plaintiff in the ‘Cars’ action, which is currently under appeal, is an actor as well as a writer. 35 years ago he played a ‘cult’ role as Tony Bitch (since named “the original Simon Cowell”) in a satirical British TV series called The Goodies. In it, Tony Bitch stated he would not bother to see the act but would just mark it. He then verbally destroyed the act in question. See the 3 minute video clip attached to this article.

By some kind of ‘Life Imitating Art’ irony, in the Motion to Dismiss stage of this case, in effect, the presiding judge managed to emulate the fictional Tony Bitch and decided not to see the evidence in the case, skipping that stage by refusing discovery, and just judged it. As the Motion to Dismiss pleadings were almost solely concerned with “substantial similarities” between the two parties works’ at law, a self-fulfilling prophesy was created that there were no substantial similarities between the plaintiff and the defendants’ works. The perfect Catch 22. Tony Bitch and Jake Mandeville-Anthony believe life cannot be allowed to so closely emulate satirical art with such accuracy, or that becomes an abuse of the presiding Judge’s discretion well outside the bounds of reasonableness.

THE SERIOUS SIDE:

In the recent ‘Cars’ court action in California, Jake Mandeville-Anthony’s case (the plaintiff) was struck out in its entirety on all counts with prejudice, by way of a Motion to Dismiss application made by the defendants. In an action alleged by the defendant to be without merit because there were no “substantial similarities” (Disney/Pixar said, well they would, wouldn’t they?) between the two works, both titled ‘Cars’ which on its own is an anomaly as with identical titles it’s not possible to get more substantially similar in fact identical, to that.

Incidentally, the defendants’ two earlier working titles were the same as the plaintiff’s. That is too much of a ‘coincidence’ but without discovery allowed by the presiding Judge, the Court never became aware of that.

Most legal authorities in the USA state when making substantive rulings it is more usual for a Judge to strike out an action by way of a Summary Judgment, where at least discovery is allowed and the evidence in the case is seen and reviewed by all parties. In the ‘Cars’ action, this the presiding Judge did not do. However, it is much more usual to allow a Judge and Jury to decide an action, which was originally agreed between the parties.

That is, until Disney/Pixar decided to break their original agreement and slipped in their Motion to Dismiss application to strike out the plaintiff’s case based solely on “substantial similarities” between the plaintiff and defendants’ works.

Without discovery which the presiding Judge did not permit, and with judgment based solely on the initial filing of the case, a mere ‘outline’ at best, added to the hearing for oral arguments being arbitrarily cancelled by the Judge and absolutely no trial, had all the hallmarks of an in-camera, non-trial as approved by North Korea’s Great Leader, rather than the outside world’s vision of the judicial principles of the United States of America as declared by the nation’s Founding Fathers.

As reported on 1st August 2011, by Eriq Gardner in the Hollywood Reporter, Jake Mandeville-Anthony’s ‘Cars’ ruling is: “The latest evidence of the ‘substantial similarity’ burden facing aggrieved writers who believe their work has been stolen. In recent weeks, copyright theft lawsuits have been thrown out over ABC’s ‘Modern Family’; ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’; and NBC’s ‘My Name is Earl’, among others.”

The Writers’ Guild of America is understandably appalled.

The Benay Brothers, authors of ‘The Last Samurai’ screenplay is another near decade long case in a similar mode where the lower court threw out the plaintiff’s case by way of Summary Judgment and no trial. As with ‘Cars’ both screenplays had an identical title to their alleged copyists, which is as substantially similar as it can get, and in ‘Cars’ and ‘The Last Samurai’ both screenplays were written before the defendants’ work and both seen by executives of the production company’s who eventually produced and released them.

In ‘The Last Samurai’ case the Appellants’ Court reversed part of the lower court’s judgment.

The Hollywood Reporter article confirms a disturbing trend by the US courts in opposition to most legal authorities that Summary Judgment (and in this case, a mere Motion to Dismiss) is drastic and should be used with caution, “so that it does not become a substitute for the open trial method of determining the facts.”

This trend clearly favors big corporations over the non-corporate individual plaintiff minus the resources which media giants have at their disposal along with some Neanderthal lawyers, and if individual judges continue to throw out cases on a wholesale basis in opposition to the spirit of the law by using Summary Judgment or Motion to Dismiss – instead of the open trial method of determining the facts – the legal process itself will fall into disrepute. Thereby follows a Corporate State. Anarchy and disrespect for all laws, follow.

In the ‘Cars’ action, the plaintiff’s case was not even given the benefit of Summary Judgment, where at least the evidence would be available to the Court and questions of fact explored and adjudicated.

Another really dodgy twist whereby the defendant’s had an advantage over the plaintiff was Disney/Pixar’s lawyers already had full discovery of the plaintiff’s earlier action because the case papers had been transferred from the UK to the USA after a Consent Order allowed that occurrence. Because no discovery process was allowed by the presiding US Judge – despite numerous applications by plaintiff’s Counsel for Expedited Discovery – it was continually denied and the plaintiff never saw any of the defendant’s work for substantial similarities comparison, in a hearing based solely around “substantial similarities”! Because the defendant’s failed to advise the Judge they were in possession of full discovery – that is usually called “withholding evidence” – added to the fact the presiding Judge never allowed the discovery process to commence, left her unaware the plaintiff was under an inequitable disadvantage throughout the case and by arbitrarily cancelling the hearing for oral pleadings before making her ‘in-camera’ judgment to strike out the plaintiff’s claim on all counts, with prejudice, the plaintiff’s Counsel was unable to bring the matter to the presiding Judge’s attention at the scheduled hearing – arbitrarily cancelled even though plaintiff’s counsel had already purchased his halfway across America plane ticket!

In addition to withholding information the defendants’ should have advised to the Court – all now on Court record – the defendants’ lawyer told the court something they should “not” have told the Court, viz., the plaintiff’s earlier UK action was “struck out with prejudice” (which means without merit) and it follows if the plaintiff’s case had been struck out with prejudice in the UK, as with ‘scenes a faire’ where one thing follows another, the same would happen to the plaintiff’s US case. It would be difficult to think up a more effective ploy to “discredit” and prejudice a plaintiff’s case at the commencement of the pleadings stage. By the defendants lawyers injecting (deliberate misrepresentation) bias into the plaintiff’s action by way of a planned piece of perjury – the defendant’s lawyers being fully aware the plaintiff’s action was merely transferred from the UK to the US by way of a Consent Order – such gross abuse of the process whereby crucial evidence was withheld from the Court by the defendants, followed by totally misleading the presiding judge with a perjured statement, would have instantly got the plaintiff’s UK case struck out in its entirety if the boot was on the other foot. This can be mentioned because all of the above is available for all to see in the UK and US court records.

However, there are further examples of the defendant’s perjury and abuses of the process which cannot be mentioned whilst the case is under appeal.

No judgment can be allowed to stand which was purchased by way of perjury and withholding evidence from the Court. The plaintiff is not a fool and all of the evidence relating to the above is available on-line in Court Records. The plaintiff knows the case well enough after almost 20 years being involved with it, to be able to cross reference the records to find the proofs.

Modern Corporate Justice US style? Hopefully not, but in short succession, there have been seven or eight alleged copyright theft cases all adjudicated without a trial and struck out in favor of mega-rich media corporations. Is this an unwritten bias to protect California’s essentially contributing economy to the bloated and grossly mismanaged US economy? It appears cases to right the wrong are being unilaterally protected against mega corporate theft, the most drastic being ‘Cars’– struck out by way of a mere Motion to Dismiss application by the defendants’ without the discovery process being implemented and minus even one hearing for oral arguments – let alone the Jury Trial originally agreed!

Kafka would have approved but America’s Founding Fathers probably would not.

The Air France plane taxies onto the runway of the airport at Phnom Penh. My mate Alan and I navigate our way through customs and immigration procedures, and are met by a van outside to take us through the blistering heat to our modest hotel. The [...]]]> PHNOM PENH- ROCKING IN THE HEART OF DARKNESS-BY ANTONIO PINEDA

The Air France plane taxies onto the runway of the airport at Phnom Penh. My mate Alan and I navigate our way through customs and immigration procedures, and are met by a van outside to take us through the blistering heat to our modest hotel. The Dead Kennedys, iconic punk band of the San Francisco New Wave comes to mind, in the guise of their legendary punk pop tune entitled, “Holiday in Cambodia.”

Once considered a rough and dangerous combat zone where one was subject to be mugged or assaulted, Phnom Pehn is undergoing a transformation. Bars, pubs, hotels and clubs are springing up everywhere, in large part due to the government asserting transparency in encouraging business investiture from the west. Unlike Thailand, there are no police showing up at your business for monthly brown paper bag deposits, nor tea money for vested interests, corruption has been minimalized and the country is experiencing an upsurge in tourism and investment.

Our Cambodian Connection, Paul De Leon, meets us at our hotel and whisks us away for brunch at, The Blue Pumpkin, a trendy venue by the side of the river that courses through the heart of the city. It is immaculate, well appointed in white in the tradition of Bed Supper Club, with tables and pallets at the back. The food is French influenced, with a bakery downstairs churning out beaucoup des baguettes and pastries. The venue is fashionable, the food first rate and cheap, with friendly service. Windows overlook the river, and the crowd is spicy and well construed. Paul is a gracious host and racounteur, regaling us with info re the machinations of this vibrant scene. Classic flanneurs that we be, we celebrate Baudelaire and promenade down the boulevard that runs by the side of the river, as tourists and locals stroll by the pubs and bars . Paul has arranged to shoot a poetry reading at a French restaurant nearby.

The venue is well appointed and the upstairs room is perfect for this enterprise. Paul sets up the camera. He sips a Ricard pensively. I lay out my poems for the reading. Paul signals for ACTION. The camera rolls. I read from the text of my new book entitled Dark Cabaret, a cinema book in the tradition of the Nouvelle Vague I composed with my collaborator film director, Marcelo Von Schwartz.

I read a fistfull of poems that are in the process of being translated into French by Anthony Georges Whyte. I conclude the reading with the final text from Dark Cabaret. Paul signals, CUT.  Paul is well pleased. We order some tucker. A lavish French meal and an excellent bottle of Bordeaux is served.

Paul takes us to the Foriegn Correspondents Club for happy hour. A congenial crowd has gathered to drink and schmooze, with the obligatory sight of the river outside the balcony. It is a welcome departure from the FCCT in Bangkok. As darkness falls  Paul hires a tuk tuk for the night to squire us around town. Our driver Sam is  a young local, wise and friendly and a proud family man who proudly shows us pictures of his son.

We pile in, the driver wheels through the boulevards by the river, and we head over the bridge to the other side of the river, where there is but one hotel run by a Swiss bloke, and the population is totally native. It is an eye opener. The people are friendly and unspoiled. The next spot is back on the other side at the first venue to be opened in town, Sharkies. Time stands still as the expats and demimondaines drink and shoot pool.

Next on the expat trail is a cosy place named, Circe, the temptresses inside are gracious and charming. The owner is a French guy who speaks Spanish. We converse in Castilian, and he reveals that Circe has been open for 8 years. The hostesses are Khmer. It is time to roll to the disco du jour aptly entitled, The Heart of Darkness.

The driver pulls up and we roll out into the Heart of  Darkness. Joseph Conrad would probably be drinking at the bar if he were alive today. It is full up with locals out for a good time and the usual suspects, mostly pretty girls burning it up on the dance floor. We decline an offer to continue on to Pontoon, another disco with a massive reputation, but segue to Walkabout, a pub in the hood. It is cosy and lively, a spot where people come to chill and be chilled. We decide to continue on to Martini, a traditional hook up venue.

Martini is rough and ready, with an open air bar and tables, replete with a small disco inside. It is one of the oldest venues in the city. Back in the day you could only come here accompanied by a driver who was armed for the match. Today it is totally mainstream. Paul threatens to take us to Ciao, the next day. It is an offshoot of the Foriegn Correspondents Club and is located by the river. Curiouser and curiouser we roll ,deep in the street, marveling at the gorgeous Khmer and Vietnamese hostesses.  This town has smoothed out the rough edges and replaced it with the pulse of the last frontier, a zone where twilight rules and adventure beckons. The jungle plies its allure of reptilian lore, sinuous love, exotic freedom and strange delights as evidenced by the poems of William Blake transformed by Jim Morrison and the Doors into the mysterious verses ie.

Some are born to strange delights, Some are born to strange delights , Some are born to strange delights, Some are born to the endless night, End of the night, End of the Night, End of the night, END OF THE NIGHT.

The landscape has changed. The temples and ruins are visited by a horde of backpackers. The cheap lodgings, great food, and inexpensive hostels have attracted them like moths to a flame.The country is also family friendly in its new incarnation, and groups traveling en familie with kids in tow are now the norm rather than the exception. White women on the road are also much in evidence as they are well met and get a lot of attention. 

We hit the road to an area hard by a bar entitled Equinox. There has been an open mic session at the bar next door. It is populated largely by rowdy white girls and boys, and could ostensibly be in the Haight Ashbury of San Francisco or the Village in NYC. The crowd is in good nick and is by and large attractive and strangely wholesome. They drink, carouse and cruise each other, posturing and posing, flirting and networking. The Cambodian night has worked its sexed up magick. It is a welcome departure from the exotic delights we have experienced so far,as it is now well past the midnight hour.

Paul lays down the game plan. It is time for the final installment in this night of pleasure that could be paraphrased by the immortal Louis Ferdinand Celine who penned, “Death on the Installment Plan.” We taxi through the avenues of night en route to our final destination, a venue aptly entitled, Candy.

Candy is open like 7-11, in this city of endless night it is open 24-7. The bar is situated by the river on a side street. Vendors outside sell street food. Inside it is populated like the title of an Elvis Presley flick, ‘ Girls, Girls, Girls.’ Terry Southern would be wildly popular here, as his novel, ” Candy” predates the existence of this down and dirty yet charming venue. We sit at a booth and are soon in league with the local charmers.

The sun is beginning its inexorable rise over the sin swept streets of the city. The chariot of the sun drives through the dawn skies, drawn by black stallions whose hooves thunder and flash lightning , signalling the advent of a rain storm. Spent yet strangely exhilarated by the adventure, we hit the street accompanied by comely denizens of Candy. We are all ravenous, and the girls are going to take us to a favourite den for a heary breakfast. We promise to return to this gilded city of iniquity, where one can perpetrate crimes literary in the company of sexy maidens. But that mes cher amis, is another story for another day.

JUAN ANTONIO DE LOS REYES BALLET FLAMENCO WORLD TOUR

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Juan Antonio de los Reyes is bringing the Iberian art of flamenco to audiences world wide. He has just concluded a successful tour of the Philipines, and is now engaged in showcasing flamenco dance, music and song in Dubai, as part [...]]]> ADVENTURES OF A FLAMENCO DIPLOMAT

JUAN ANTONIO DE LOS REYES BALLET FLAMENCO WORLD TOUR

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Juan Antonio de los Reyes is bringing the Iberian art of flamenco to audiences world wide. He has just concluded a successful tour of the Philipines, and is now engaged in showcasing flamenco dance, music and song in Dubai, as part of a world tour. Ballet Espana Bravo Flamenco is now playing to sold out audiences in Wafi City, at Sevilla a venue that seats 700 guests.

Our friendship goes back to Madrid, and the halcyon days of the great Antonio Gades, the premier flamenco artist of the 20th century. Gades was also immortalized in films by director Luis Suarez, who was married to Geraldine Chaplin. De Los Reyes performed with Gades for 3 years in the National Ballet of Spain, and as flamenco, like the Greek myths of old is passed on to new generations orally and by social artistic interaction, has acquired the secret knowledge possessed only by heirophants of this ancient art.

His impeccable scholarship is grounded in the impeccable roots of flamenco genealogy, having performed and studied with Mariemma, Gades, Rafael de Cordoba, and Antonio del Castillo.  I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing and studying with the aforementioned when I was in my pomp. Many a summer was spent on the Costa Brava, where Antonio del Castillo was a headliner in the boites de nuit dansantes, and Juan Antonio de los Reyes was his lead dancer. Flamenco is a marriage of dance, music and song. The interplay between the cantaor who sings the verses, the dancers who accompany the guitar and the music in its tradition and aesthete is a complex fabric, as each is dependent on the fusion of all these elements.

The guitarist for Ballet Espana Bravo Flamenco is Salva. Sabicas, Manitas de Plata, and the long list of gypsy kings who retain the purity of this path descended from the Vedic Roma tribes, Egyptian and Arab calls to prayer, and North African rythms, chansons and musical instruments  reflect the influences Salva brings to the stage.

The cantaora is Sonia, the gypsy song book is a storehouse of lore, Andalucia sings as did the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, and the folk traditions are handed down from generation to generation inspiring the adage that Spaniards are born to sing and dance. Sonia twists filigreed cante as the bailaoras Elisa, Cristina and Marta, conjure minarets with the fingers, castanets rolling like thunder and feet drumming to a metronome of long ago.

Jaleos Bulerias is one of the dances on song , and an audience favourite. Seguirillas, mysterious and theatrical is also represented in the program. Farruca is a manly dance , ironically enough made famous by the great gypsy dancer Carmen Amaya , who danced farruca dressed as a man . Tientos and Tangos are light, breezy and entertaining with antecedents in Andalucia, the cradle of gypsy dance and song. Sevillanas are performed in Sevilla during the Easter holy week, and are danced in pairs, with castanets or in the gypsy way with finger and pitos, or finger snapping. Fandangos de Huelva originate from Huelva where Christopher Columbus embarked on his discovery of the New World, but are not to be confused with Grand Fandango which is deeper cante jondo as epitomized by the great cantaor Manolo Caracol. Jaleos de tablao is an entertainment where the entire company engages in a dance off, vieing to outdo each other. Guajira colombiana is from the New World, when Spanish conquistadores were influenced by the music of the Americas and fused it into the flamenco. Bamboleo rumba is pop flamenco at its best, as personified by the hugely popular Gypsy Kings, who possess showmanship, bravura, infused with the culture of the genealogical roots of flamenco and have inspired a whole new audience of payos, the gypsy Roma word for non gypsies.

Ballet Espana Bravo Flamenco will leave Dubai to tour Greece. Legend has it castanets were invented in Greece, and later found their way to Egypt. The ballet is slated to perform in Athens, home of the gods of dance, chanson, thetare and philosophy, and Thessalonika, where they possess an ardent following.

They are involved with the Spanish Embassy in spreading Iberian culture, and under their aegis, will bring their art to Singapore and Thailand. Plans are also afoot to tour China. Bangkok awaits the forthcoming Adventures of a Flamenco Ambassador with bated breath.   There will be a cultural interchange with all countries visited on the world tour.

Flamenco has come a long way since gypsies were persecuted for its practice. To the gypsies who invented it, it was like the blues is to African Americans who cultivated this uniquely American art form under the chains of slavery. Both are about love and loss, lament and regret, injustice and revenge. The liturgy is both sacred and profane, anti-establishment and humanist, created by genetic codes blessed by the Creator for the aforementioned purposes.

 Both have a connection to Africa, the blues to west and east Africa, and flamenco to North Africa , to the ouds and dumbeki- the mushroom shaped drum that originated in brave Carthage and Morocco, Arabia and Egypt.  Blues evolved in the deep South, on the plantations in the Mississippi Delta, where slaves and sharecroppers picked cotton and sang in the fields. It has roots in Texas, and famously in Chicago, home of the modern blues where The bluesmen drank the bittersweet mead of the post war blues explosion, and young white psychedelic rockers tuned into this dynamic music. Andalusia was the focal point where the gypsies  mutated the influences of India, Arabia and Africa and made it all their own.  Like the bluesmen they were marginalized for their race and color. Once again young white Europeans championed flamenco, and Madrid and Barcelona gave it a new audience of white Iberians performing in gypsy dressage, just as the English rock n roll invasion of the USA featured  Brits in blackface, burnt cork and charcoal,  in the minstrel tradition, wailing as if they were born in the Missisipi Delta . It is in the blood, people are born to the blues and flamenco.

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Once again in the guise of bespoke noir poet, I cross the threshold of the scene of many a literary crime,  the Foriegn Correspondents Club in the noir heart of Bangkok. The venue is celebrating the book launch of, Bangkok Noir. Christopher G. Moore greets me and [...]]]> CHRISTOPHER G. MOORE NOIR AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE-BANGKOK NOIR

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Once again in the guise of bespoke noir poet, I cross the threshold of the scene of many a literary crime,  the Foriegn Correspondents Club in the noir heart of Bangkok. The venue is celebrating the book launch of, Bangkok Noir. Christopher G. Moore greets me and introduces me to his colleague, the author Dean Barrett. They are busy signing copies of the book, which is a collaboration of 12 Bangkok authors. John Burdett is late and on the way. I make my way to the bar to order a hard boiled martini, shaken not stirred.

Jerry Hopkins sits at the bar, and places his order. He is the author of the title, Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive. The book is an exploration of the mythos behind Jim Morrison and the Doors. It became a best seller and was one of the sources used by Oliver Stone for his massive hit movie, The Doors. Jerry is hale fellow, well met. We exchange ripostes. I was introduced to Jim Morrison by the Beat poet Michael McClure in Haight Ashbury back in the day. We met at McClures pad on Downey Street. Michael had launched his celebrated theatre piece entitled, The Beard, to international success. I had had the privilege of introducing him on stage at the Avalon Ballroom where he read from his volume of poetry, The Ghost Tantras. His theatre piece , The Blossom,   was performed at the Straight Theatre, along with a mimo-drama entitled The Philosophers Stone by Antonin Artaud, in which I portrayed the persona of the Harlequin.

McClure brought Jim to the performance by The Living Theatre at the Straight Theatre, on Haight Street, which was formed and organized by my childhood chums and I. Steve Ben Israel, one of the founding fathers of the Living Theatre, recently reached out to me to say that after the performance, Jim hung out with Steve and the Living Theatre and played them the new album. Jim and McClure were conspiring to print the  volume of poetry by Jim , The New Lords, now a collecters item as only 200 copies were made.

Our paths were to cross again months later in North Beach, where I  ran into Jim having a drink at the Peppermint, next to the Galaxy across from the Condor, famous North Beach boites de nuit. Since the statutes of limitations have now expired, I can now reveal that I turned Jim onto 2 capsules of needlepoint mescaline , which he dropped forthwith. I dropped as did my date Theresa, a lovely dancer. Peppermint was a cosy bar, the music was down and dirty and San Francisco was then the epicenter of the youthquake revolution.  Jim was a beautiful dude, clued up to the Beat poetry movement, well spoken and erudite. McClure was his literary mentor. The mescaline worked a treat, and the Jolly Roger of the counterculture flew high that night. Jim was a poet and a proper gentleman.

Joe Cummings is schmoozing at the bar, he introduces me to the film director Lovisa Enserra. She is Swedish, and has a project she hopes to shoot in Thailand in December, entitled Bangkok Betty. Joe is an author, journo, muso and bon vivant. As Morrison would have said, “Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.”

The authors of Bangkok Noir are introduced on stage. The audience is lubricated and on song. There is a delicious interplay as the authors and audience exchange views and opinions. The proceeds from much of the book go to charity. This is a marvelous reflection on the noir tradition, as it traditionally represented the marginalized and disenfranchised elements of society. Moore has graciously consented to muse on and answer questions that reflect his influences as a noir author.

Q. James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammet are considered as icons of noir literature. Did they influence or color your ouevre?

A. These three writers laid out the outline for hardboiled crime fiction. Most crime writers owe a debt to their novels. The idea of bringing to life those who live on the margins of society, who steal, lie, cheat and murder have a huge pull for readers whose lives rarely cross such individuals. These authors did two extraordinary acts: they were able to identify the corruption, unfairness and social injustice that excited the emotions in modern society. These authors slapped a personal face on characters who struggle to make a life when the odds were stacked mile-high against them and we saw how they were dragged through the sewer by the bullies, the gunmen, the gangsters, and crooked congressmen, cops, lawyers and judges. How they never had a chance inside a system with fatal moral decay. That’s noir. Hardboiled novels—and a case can be made that is more accurate to describe most of their novels—delivered a sliver of hope against a stormy, dark sky.

Modern crime fiction has taken the discontent with the social problems in our political, social and cultural system and shaped the respond with a whole new levels of violence and despair. This is a pushback in the competition with the daily outpouring of video footage on YouTube and other sides from war zones, natural disaster sites, airplane crashes, along with the pump action shotgun of images from daily murders from somewhere around the globe. In the days of Cain, Chandler and Hammett, most people didn’t have access to witness this level of violence. And the people who commit the violence and the victims are immediate, in your face on the screen. Authors writing half a century ago, had no such competition. Their books features murders and characters that evoked a far more exotic, distant, and unusual world that the one contemporary crime authors write in.

In an Internet driven information world, every twenty-four hours brings fresh video footage, still images, blogs, and newscasts with yet more examples of the dangers of life, the envy and greed and jealousy that motives people, and the bodies, always a new cemetery of bodies pass before our eyes as we become not just accustomed to noir as the norm but deadened to its message.

The gloves have been tossed away, and it is bare-knuckled fighting from one end of the planet to the other. The twisted characters of the past have their descendents on center stage, day in and day out, until evil becomes banal and empty. The shattering of the ethical and moral compasses leaving most people without a benchmark to judge whether conduct is acceptable other than it gets an individual what he wants.

Vincent Calvino shared that ‘flawed’ characteristic of noir heroes. Someone banished to live an alienated life along the margins of Bangkok society. As an outsider to Thai society, he has an ability to understand some of the basic ideas such as ‘face’ and superstitious aspect of the culture with the belief in ghosts, the power of amulets, and the daily rituals at local spirit houses. These cultural insights come in handy as Calvino runs down cheating husbands, scamming foreigners, and corrupt businessmen.

The Calvino novels also have that strikes a hardboiled tone. Calvino also works on the inside of Thailand. In each case, he deals with social injustice, moral compromises, privileged classes, untouchable thugs, and with clients who bartered their souls to work and live in Thailand and often want a way out. In Calvino’s world the odds are stacked against any individual who tries to go against the powerful and influential figures who can crush him with impunity. These cultural factors shape the character, his emotions, reactions and choices. Watching him navigate through the Thai underworld is classic noir.
 
Q. The roman noir or series noir are terms used to address the noir tradition. Do you consider your work as neo noir?

A. The noir tradition is the mirror that shows the ugly, dark angles of society, the lens goes down to the gutter and keeps on digging until it finds it can’t go any farther. This idea of being doomed, subject to larger forces and conspiracies, and never certain who to trust and for how long. It is this world that draws an audience from the larger middle-class. This readership from time to time may have a glimpse of lives in shadows, the back alley, the seedy bar, and the rundown boarding house or motel. And there were the criminals, big and small, who roamed these places packing heat.

A noir film or book takes the reader inside the world for hours and let’s them observe the actions and psychology of characters whose morality has been mixed in a blender and is poured out in sheer violence, greed, lust and terror. But for the grace of god feeling that you are separated from those character by a fine, arbitrary line; and as reader by an act of fate you are not on that side, you are participating along with the author is an act of active imagining such a life.

There has been a break from the old noir tradition as I hinted above as the information about lives on the fringes of society is no longer a secret locked away. If anything, it’s just the opposite. We have too much information to meaningfully filter and assess the underlying message, and in the process we’ve lost some of the mystery that noir evoked in the past. We cocoon ourselves in narrow social, cultural and political niches and hold on as we surf through an ocean of digital noise.

If they want to check in on the nasty, evil side of life, they watch The Wire, or Breaking Bad. Programming devoted to following prisoners around in American prisons. Fiction authors compete with these powerful TV images; and some of the best TV writers also write crime novels like George Pelecanos who writes The Wire and brilliant crime fiction.
 
Q.Film noir with its low key black and white visuals, roots in German Expressionist cinematography, hard boiled heroes and femme fatales are personified in The Maltese Falcon. Shot in 1941, it is regarded as the first film noir of the classic era. What do you reckon the impact was on cinema history?

A. I will leave statements about the history of film noir to the experts, especially the ones who have studied the films from the 1940s through the 1950s—the golden age for film noir. The common thread in most of the film noir in this period is the large, sprawling big city, one stuffed with corrupt cops and officials. The locations run from the bars, flophouses, diners, gambling parlors, and nightclubs. And there are warehouses, old factories, rundown hotels, bus station lounges, and rental car lots. People are on the run. They need places to hide; they need transportation, guns, liquor, money and women. You set those people in motion in those places and the outcome is bound to come out in blood and bullets.
 
Q.Your novel, Spirit House, has been optioned by Hollywood. When can your fan base anticipate seeing it on the silver screen?

A. Spirit House is being developed into a feature film. The people who were behind Michael Clayton, Damage, and Duplicity have been doing an excellent job. There is a script by Hollywood screenwriter Chase Palmer, which is one of the best scripts I’ve read. Having read the script, I can say it will be the first Hollywood feature film that nails the gritty, edgy aspect of Bangkok. I don’t think anyone will ever see Bangkok quite the same way after they see Spirit House. The chances are looking good for production to start later this year in Thailand.
 
Q.Who would you fancy to portray Vinnie Calvino on screen?

A. Asking the novelist who wrote the book, which is the basis of a film is flattering. It’s a bit like asking a Bangkok motorcycle taxi driver, who’s won a ticket to the Chinese Grand Prix, his opinion whether to go with Sebastian Vettel or Jenson Button to drive the Formula A racing car. I am certain a lot of people would much care about his opinion about Formula A drivers and their degree of care would likely be higher than accorded my choice for who plays Calvino. Though Mark Wahlberg would make a great Vincent Calvino. He has the right look, attitude, age and style. Not that I am making any rash suggestions or recommendations. Think of it as a whisper from someone who does often take advice for Bangkok motorcycle drivers.
 
Q.What film directors do you admire in the modern and noir genres?

A.I am a fan of Graham Greene and I like what Frank Tuttle did with This Gun for Hire, which is based on a Greene novel: This Gun for Sale. And you don’t get much better than behind a film than was the case for Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder, who co-wrote the script with Raymond Chandler.  The Big Sleep directed by Howard Hawks was based on Chandler’s novel. As you can see, I love the noir films adapted from novels.
 
Q.What actors male and female interest you as relevant?

A. That’s beyond my pay grade, sir. As the question begs to ask: relevant to what? If I had to guess, I’d say that it means someone in a production house who must write a very large check knows exactly what ‘relevant means.’ I have no idea how to measure relevance in the movie business other than down the road, the film makes money and so the casting must have had the relevant actors..
 
Q. Michael McClure the Beat poet and my literary mentor made me aware of the importance of the works of Stirling Silliphant back in the day. As Stirling was your friend and fellow writer, how do you assess his importance as an icon of Old Hollywood in the 21st century, his relevance as an expat in Thailand, and the rumour that he was the basis for a character in your books?

A. Stirling Silliphant was one of the most genuinely creative writing talents I’ve ever met. He was one of those rare people who didn’t need to find his muse; he was always seeing an angel everyone else missed, he had a sense of pacing, conflict, character development and drama quite like any other I’ve ever known.

He was a mentor when I first came to Bangkok, and championed A Killing Smile in Hollywood. He had dinner with Norman Jewison in Toronto years ago, and had sent Jewison a copy of the book. He wanted Jewison to turn it into a film. Jewison shook his head, on that the story was set in a whorehouse. “No, I couldn’t make such a film.” When you were Stirling’s friend, he fought for you, phoned people, wrote them letters. He told Jewison that he had the wrong take on the book. It was about a sub-culture in Bangkok and revealed the dark hidden life of expats and locals, and the moral complex environment that both sides exploited. Jewison shrugged. He’d made up his mind. It didn’t matter that Stirling had won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation, for The Heat of the Night—which Jewison had won an Oscar for Best Director.

Stirling’s battle on behalf of A Killing Smile was lost with Jewison but he never gave up trying to find a director/producer for that book. I’d say, a hundred years from now, looking back at Hollywood writers and producers, that Stirling’s name will be on the A list of those who made a substantial contribution in both films and TV. He was a giant then, and his reputation will only increase over time.
 
Q. Neo noir film as embodied by Polanski in Chinatown, and Taxi Driver by Scorsese, have given noir a new audience. Do you think Vinnie Calvino is ready to assume the mantle of characters portrayed by Bogart and Robert Mitchum?

A. That’s what we are going to find out with Spirit House. Every age has its Bogart and Mitchum waiting in the wings. Ours has that potential as well. This is one of the reasons the producers of Spirit House have been very careful to commission and receive an excellent script. That’s what makes, along with the right director, the actor take his performance to the next level. Bogart and Mitchum captured the spirit of their age; I am hoping whoever is tapped to play Vincent Calvino will bring to life for a new generation the image of our noir. I’d hope Calvino as the flawed hero will come to represent our own journey in a world that Bogart and Mitchum, and their contemporaries wouldn’t much recognize.

Noir influenced many generations of cineastes. Moore has elucidated brilliantly his concept of noir for today. Noir was also an influence on the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave that was formulated by Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jaques Rivette, Claude Chabrol and Jean Luc Goddard. Cahiers du Cinema was the literary magazine that was the voice for this cinematic revolution. The aforementioned formulated their manifesto on cinema for nearly a decade before Jean Luc Goddard made the revolutionaty breakthrough in 1960.

Breathless, or A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, paid homage to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a bold style for a new day. Classic noir film was worshipped as historical archetypes to be revived, rejected and restructured. Jean Paul Belmondo portrayed car thief Michel Poiccard aka Lazlo Kovacs, with Jean Seberg as his gun moll. Poiccard reveres and styles himself after Bogart and his film persona. Goddard employed jump cuts, hand held cameras, eschewing film soundtracks for natural sounds of birds singing, cars purring, trees rustling and guns firing, as well as improvisation. Although these seemed like innovations and revelations, in fact the surrealist master Luis Bunuel had employed all these effects in his eponymous film, Diary of a Chambermaid, starring Jeanne Moreau.  The New Wave was reinventing the noir tradition. Breathless made Belmondo and Seberg into international stars, and Goddard into the enfant terrible of New Wave.

During my bohemian days in Paris, I stayed in Saint Michel at the Hotel Du Albe. Saint Michel was then inexpensive, cool and hip, with fantastic food and wine, movie theatres and cafes where one could go to see and be seen, to meet and greet. A poet friend suggested I try the Hotel De Suede, a brisk walk from Saint Michel. I booked a room there. The poet joined me for lunch, then proceeded to explain how Jean Seberg had been discovered dead in the boot of a car parked across the road from the Hotel De Suede. Seberg had been dating a Black Panther, and was known for her radical political views. The FBI was rumoured to have filed her dossier. She has been the subject of many conspiracy theories. Her tragic murder has never been solved. This dear readers is true and classic noir.

Christopher G. Moore is to be congragulated for flying the Jolly Roger of noir high, and contributing to charity and good works in this era when tasteless  bling and greed are euphemisms for success. Mark Wahlberg is indeed a good choice to portray rough, tough and handsome Vinnie Calvino. Private Dancer by another writer who contributed to Bangkok Noir, Stephen Leather is now being cast and will be shot in Bangkok by Ric Lawes and his production Company, Location Thailand Films. Noir is well and alive, thriving and residing in Krung Thep, City of Angels.

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Once again in the guise of bespoke lysergic poet, I roll to the premiere of , Mindfulness and Murder, at the Paragon Cineplex. Tout le creme de la creme of Bangkok cineastes are promenading about at the gala event. Attired in my black raw [...]]]> MINDFULNESS AND MURDER-TOM WALLER DIRECTOR-BASED ON THE NOVEL BY NICK WILGUS

BY ANTONIO PINEDA

Once again in the guise of bespoke lysergic poet, I roll to the premiere of , Mindfulness and Murder, at the Paragon Cineplex. Tout le creme de la creme of Bangkok cineastes are promenading about at the gala event. Attired in my black raw silk suit and skinny black tie, I make the rounds and join the liggers at the bar.  Tom Waller, making his directorial debut in this motion picture shot on location here in Thailand, greets me.  Tom is casual in a white sports jacket, yet chic and elegant. As Arnold Schwartzenneger is wont to say, he is dressed like a film producer, Armani louche and trendy. Tom is charming and eloquent, as he greets guests and players in the film game.

The cuisine is provided by Serenade, a hip bistro in the Ekhami area. Serenade is run by Timber, who in the company of his devils disciple, Nico, is in the process of throwing down some tasty tidbits on the bar.  Kaprice Kea, cineaste about town, joins me at the bar to nosh and swig. Gorgeous models and film actresses are stalked around the roped off arena by film cameras. Bangkok film maker Jimmie Wing bellies up to the bar. He is the director of a prestigious short entitled,Wet Nana Dreamscape, and is hard at it on another flick.

Joe Cummings, Renaissance man about town, congragulates Marcelo Von Schwartz and myself on the success of the book launch for Dark Cabaret,  a collaboration between Von Schwartz  and Pineda, at the Warp Studio. The book is based on the film entitled Dark Bridge. Directed by Von Schwartz, it is in the tradition of Nouvelle Vague. It features local actors Peter Rnic, Nate Harrison, Antonio Pineda and Keysha Malbraque. The film will recieve its premiere at a date to be firmed up in May.

Nicholas Snow prepares to interview Tom Waller. Cameras roll as Snow chats Tom up for the television cameras. Krystal Vee makes a delicious appearance. Krystal is one of the stars featured in, The Scorpion King 3. Ron Pearlman is the star of the aforementioned film shot on location in Thailand. Desmond O Neil engages Krystal in talk re his new film script.

Howard Posener, magician extraordinaire to the stars is in good nick, as we discuss local screenwriter Jake Anthony and his lawsuit against Disney-Pixar. Richie Moore and his gorgeous girl friend Topaz hit the set. Pete Arias rolls in accompanied by lovelies  Nat and Tam. Pete is the producer of a short film destined for the 9Film Festival.  It is directed by Bumdog Torres, a hip author and film maker from Los Angeles. Bumdog grew up on the mean streets of Crenshaw. The only way out of Crenshaw is as an athlete, hip-hop muso, or film artiste. Sadly Crenshaw loses much of its youth to drugs gangs,  prison or drive by shootings.

The short film stars Pete Arias as a cool dude, Kelly B. Jones as the femme fatale, Bumdog Torres as a cynical yet charming artist, and Antonio Pineda as the pimp-playboy. Martin Landsberg was the DOP, and the unsung star of the film is the red camera in all its glory. It will be screened in competition at the 9Film Festival in Bangkok later this month. It is a competition where all entries must be 9 minutes in length. Pete and his posse threaten to liaise after the screening of the film by Waller at Bed Supperclub, where the after party will be raging full on.

We repair to the cinema for the screening. Former Bangkok Post sub editor Nick Wilgus penned the novel on which the film is based. The protagonist is Father Ananda, an ex- cop who is now a Buddhist monk at a temple. A dead body turns up in a water jar. The police are reluctant to take action. Ananda is forced to take action, and is exposed to dark secrets about the monastery. The film possesses a moody atmosphere. The good and bad of monastery life is depicted in honest and unflattering terms.

Saffron robed monks smoke cigarettes, are implicated in secret drug rings, and ponce about sporting Yakuza like tatoos. It is definitely a new spin on the old war horse genre of detective murder mysteries, which is exactly what the author and director intended. The film is really about a good monk who is protecting his faith.

Wilgus professes to find solace in the teachings of the Buddha. He admires its commitment to the here and now, and what one can do to improve our lot in life. He has spent more than 30 years studying religion and spirituality in its various forms and manifestations, and feels more closely connected to Theravada Buddhism. The film has won three awards at the ThrillSpy International thriller and spy film festival 2010.  The movie recieved awards for best actor, best director and best cinematography.

The lights dim as the credits run. Cineastes debate the pros and cons of the content. It is an overwhelming succes. People are captivated by its originality. I roll with Timber and Nico to the after party at Bed.

Tom is as always the gracious host as he escorts me to the roped off area at Bed. A chocolate martini is the drink on offer to guests. Dean Kelly Jr, the ace face of Bed, AKA Junior, joins the party. Zoe Popham greets me. She will be hosting her Creative Ministry at the Bed in the first fortnight of May, an event not to be missed.

Joe Cummings hits the set. This prolific man about town is working on three screenplays and two novels. His tenure as deputy editor at The Magazine of the Bangkok Post is full on, as well as playing guitar in La Sabrosa Sabrosura, a Mexican band which has been rocking local audiences with its blend of salsa, rock, and reggaeton. He invites me to the Sabrosura gig at Love Cafe on Saturday next.

Chris Wegoda, actor and the brains behind The Actors Association of Thailand, is engaged in discussing the artistic merits of the film, with Pete Arias, Tam and Nat. Chris was also an actor in the short film produced by Pete entitled, Bumdog and the Escort. The film was based on a script by Bumdog Torres. Are we having fun yet?

There is no mercy for the Wycked. The party is rocking out of bounds. Stay tuned mes cher amis to yet another installment of the Bangkok Chronicles. Mindfulness and Murder is a must see. Kudos to Tom Waller for organizing a brilliant night out in the name of  love. We will catch you later at the Sabrosura gig,  at the next soiree organized by Zoe Peckam to celebrate Creative Ministry at the Bed, or at the May  premiere of the feature film influenced by noir and Nouvelle Vague, Dark Bridge, directed by Marcelo Von Schwartz.  But all the aforementioned dear readers, is yet another story for another day.

The current lawsuit by Jake Anthony against Disney/Pixar in the USA for alleged plagiarism of his ‘Cars’, ‘Cars 2’ and ‘Cars-Toons’ screenplays is fascinating the world, occupying page upon page of Google and Yahoo.

The story broke in the Hollywood Reporter’ and is currently on more than two and a quarter million Internet [...]]]> DISNEY’S GRAND THEFT AUTO?

The current lawsuit by Jake Anthony against Disney/Pixar in the USA for alleged plagiarism of his ‘Cars’, ‘Cars 2’ and ‘Cars-Toons’ screenplays is fascinating the world, occupying page upon page of Google and Yahoo.

The story broke in the Hollywood Reporter’ and is currently on more than two and a quarter million Internet sites.

The whole world is now asking who is this screenwriter and what are his other works? The massive press coverage with tens of thousands of comments from journalists and the public alike, are raising many questions.

However, my beef is, the plaintiff, Mr. Jake Anthony, ‘is’ being tried by the media, with many UNSUBSTANTIATED character assassinations and unsubstantiated and/or fabricated facts.

For instance: “Unknown writer comes out of the woodwork and sues Disney for ‘Cars’” infers Mandeville-Anthony is a louse and being unknown in the USA, suggests he cannot have the talent to write the biggest cartoon movie and merchandising success ever. Strange as it may seem, it is obvious there ‘are’ talented writers emanating from outside the USA who are not compelled to live there!

John Lasseter claims he was able to write the ‘Cars’ series because he loved toy cars as a kid and his father was in the automobile industry! Disney’s PR team failed to state he was an auto parts salesman in small town America. I am sure John Lasseter’s father was/is a good man, but someone who ‘knows’ a cars parts salesman and liked toy cars as a kid, does not qualify John Lasseter to write a sci-fi tale of humanoid cars in a world totally lacking in humans. It is doubtful Disney will have an answer of any credibility, for that!  

In contrast, ‘Cars’ was Anthony’s ‘third sci-fi work’ – the other two ‘Cybernaut’ and ‘From Other Worlds’ – original stories which he edited and packaged in novel form based on his own original screenplays. Oliver Stone read Anthony’s ‘White Slavery’ – For King & Country, and contemplated making it as a movie. However, he agreed that although factually true, it was too strong for Middle Britain and Middle America.

Check out John Lasseter’s imdb.com entry as a writer and you will see he has never actually written anything! Disney’s PR team or its “black mouse with a big stick”, can really make people think black is white! How Disney’s PR team will handle this fact should be interesting.

Another interesting fact from Disney’s imdb.com entries on ‘Cars’, the story was credited to Brenda Chapman – recently fired in a very public way when her work as director of ‘Brave’ was considered sub-standard.  [NB. See the article about the ‘real’ Pixar below]. In addition, the screenplay for ‘Cars’ is credited to a total of ‘eleven’ writers, of which John Lasseter was just one.  We all know a committee never created anything of merit. That’s what pro writers do – like Jake Anthony. Bloggers, if you are not part of Disney’s behind the scenes bloggers team, please check your facts before attempting character assassination of a ‘real’ writer.

Comments like: “Why did he ‘come out of the woodwork’ right now after ‘Cars’ has been a ginormous box office hit and did not take action against Disney in 2006 when Cars was first released?” suggests a novice in the industry wrote the blog.

This just didn’t suddenly ‘creep’ out of the “woodwork”. Having worked with Jake Anthony at times and mixing with the showbiz/literary community in Bangkok, I know for sure that he commenced the legal aspect of his action against Disney in July 2005 – one year ‘before’ Cars was released (June 2006) and has the documents to prove it.  It takes years to obtain a lawyer in the USA and launch a court action and ‘Cars’ took almost 6 years to reach the stage where it has an imminent injunction hearing, so hardly an itinerant writer trying to scam a payday from Disney, just as the movie is about to be released.  

Add the fact that Anthony’s literary agents in Hollywood and London died decades ago, and after a personal tragedy he spent a major part of his life in South East Asia & The Orient, might well explain how his name and work are little known in the USA and more so in Bangkok, Singapore and Tokyo.

But more about the “unknown” Mr. Jake Anthony: My personal experience knowing him, I would say he is the classic writer, Lord Jim Joseph Conrad type who has actually traveled South East Asia & The Orient for many decades, seeking answers. The old saying a writer must be in the world, rings true of him.

Go to amazon.com and search Jake Anthony on kindle books, and you will find more than 20 ‘breakthrough’ subject matter Guerrilla Guides. For those interested in knowing more about the actor/author, each Guerrilla Guide contains photos and a mini-biog. Hardly an “unknown” writer.

In addition, Jake Anthony has been an editor and packager of other authors’ work for more than two decades, and adds some of his own writing style and magic into each of their creations.  Just go into amazon.com and key in Ian Quartermaine and a series of controversial books including one ‘Book of the Year’ (‘White Slavery’) and several controversial ‘faction’ novels can be viewed and instantly purchased. One is the notorious ‘Sleepless in Bangkok’, which has sold for over a decade despite being banned at times, with second hand “collectible” copies selling for up to $200.  And don’t forget ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Sex’.

Jake also edited and partly wrote the novel version of producer and screenwriter Ric Lawes’ “Supertanker” – ‘9/11 was just a practice run’.

Jake Anthony writes and edits great stuff and I am not surprised when he moved from ‘cult’ to commercial genres such as ‘Cars’, that he hit the box office and merchandising jackpot.  Unfortunately for him, Disney/Pixar has been collecting the cash.

But Mr. Anthony’s abilities do not stop at a long history of editing and writing.  As an actor in the UK, he was in ‘The Goodies’ send up of Talent Shows, called ‘Hype Pressure’. He was more recently cast opposite Bruce Willis in Oliver Stone’s ‘Pinkville’ two years ago, until the Writers Guild of American shut Hollywood down for six months and it got cancelled and/or postponed.

If Jake Anthony was say known for his appearances on a well know show like ‘Saturday Night Live’ many Americans would have heard of him. This well know “Icon” of a show in the USA emanated from an equally well known show in the UK called “The Goodies”, of which Mr. Anthony was a guest artist and earned the title “Tony Bitch, the original Simon Cowell” for his standout appearance.

If Mr. Anthony can be the “Original Simon Cowell” which few in the USA know about, maybe it cannot be too much of a stretch to see him as the originator of the ‘Cars’ series.

As a screenwriter, his first and his most recent screenplays were accepted for production – Cybernaut’ and ‘Siam Streetfighter’.   

Thanks to Asia Books in Thailand, the democracy of the Internet, e-books and amazon.com his work is now reaching world markets. Perhaps the current law suit against Disney/Pixar in California will finally give credit for the ‘Cars’ series to its rightful author, Jake Anthony.

Yes, and Jake Anthony edited and packaged my own hard hitting detective novel ‘The Magick Papers’ (an absorbing, never predictable tale of crime and punishment  set in the 1960’s Flower Power-generation) which has been consistently well reviewed and can be purchased as a kindle e-book from amazon.com or downloaded (free software) to your computer, Blackberry or i-Phone.  Just key in Antonio Pineda or ‘The Magick Papers’.

Interviews with the normally elusive Jake Anthony can be arranged only via Ric Lawes: www.locationthailand.com

PS. We all remember Disney’s ‘The Lion King’.  Check the many Internet exposes and Jake Anthony’s ‘Cars’ looks like a doppelganger event. Disney/Pixars modus operandi appears obvious to all bar the ‘bloggers’ who are trying to create subversive demolition on the man I personally know to be the rightful author and owner of ‘Cars’.

Disney’s ‘Simba the Lion Cub’ was frame by frame “substantially identical” to the much earlier ‘Kimba the Lion Cub’, created by legendary Japanese author/director/animator Osamu Tezuka,  Fortunately for Disney Co, he had died and his company, which owned the rights, had gone into liquidation.  No doubt, Disney breathed a sigh of relief, as would its shareholders.   

Japanese animators were so upset by the apparent similarities, they published a petition on behalf of their late idol: “To the Japanese, Mr. Tezuka’s works are a national legacy. Therefore the respect and admiration we Japanese felt for Disney Co. is severely diminished. It is not possible to explain the damage inflicted upon this aspect of Japanese culture.”

Fortunately, Jake Anthony can and has, sued.  But will the Goliath level of power, influence, big money and dirty tricks of a big corporation, be able to beat a courageous and talented David? Watch this Internet site for more on the story.

Antonio Pineda.

www.magickpapers.com

‘NB’.

Is Pixar Sexist? Anger as Studio Replaces Female Director on ‘Brave’

Published: October 20, 2010 @ 6:50 pm

By Sharon Waxman & Jeff Sneider

Pixar reaped a heap of anger Wednesday as the blogosphere accused Disney’s animation house of sexism — and worse, being formulaic — for firing Brenda Chapman, the first female director in its history, from “Brave,” a film she had written and nurtured through the development process.

For one thing, the animation industry is not known as a warm and fuzzy place for women.  And Hollywood overall? Women remain a fraction of the industry’s directors, just 7 percent according to the latest study – the same ratio as a decade ago.

The Pixar news sent a particularly angry ripple through the blogosphere as the studio confirmed that Brenda Chapman (above) had been taken off the girl-centric film about an archer-princess.

Aggravating the situation, “Brave” will be Pixar’s first film to star a female lead character, with Reese Witherspoon voicing the title role.  Mark Andrews, who earned an Oscar nomination for his Pixar short “One Man Band,” was tapped to take Chapman’s place.

“This is really upsetting,” wrote one commenter called Killskerry on Cartoon Brew, the animation-news site that broke the news on Monday. “It’s so discouraging to see a lack of ladies in high up positions.”  Even Chapman’s colleagues inside Pixar were reported to be angry.Drew McWeeny on Hitfix said a friend at the studio “talked about how upset many of his colleagues are, simply because they were hoping they were going to see Brenda’s film. It’s a real testament to her that it seems like this is the first one of these Pixar staff changes that has really upset other animators.”

See following story, “Blogosphere Blasts Pixar Over ‘Brave’ Director’s Exit.”

It’s no wonder Chapman’s firing has created such a flurry of protest. She was the first woman ever to direct an animated feature from a major studio — DreamWorks Animation’s “The Prince of Egypt,” which she co-directed with Steve Hickner and Simon Wells in 1998.

She also worked in the story department on such animated classics as Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King” and joined DreamWorks Animation when the studio opened in 1994.

“It’s unfortunate because Brenda Chapman would have been the first woman to direct a Pixar feature. As a result, this story will probably get a lot of attention but it is not all that unusual for studios to replace directors,” said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. ”However, I don’t see this as a major event in the larger picture of women working behind-the-scenes in the film industry.”

Pixar was apparently proud enough of her hiring for “Brave’ that they even boasted about her at Annecy, the International Animated Film Festival.

WARP STUDIO-BANGKOK

The book launch for the Nouvelle Vague inspired photo-cinema book, Dark Cabaret, was celebrated at the Warp Studio in Bangkok. The venue is a converted warehouse hard by the Sheraton Riverside on the shores of the Chao Phraya river. It is situated in a cosy warren of art galleries, antique shops and [...]]]> DARK CABARET-BOOK LAUNCH

WARP STUDIO-BANGKOK

The book launch for the Nouvelle Vague inspired photo-cinema book, Dark Cabaret, was celebrated at the Warp Studio in Bangkok. The venue is a converted warehouse hard by the Sheraton Riverside on the shores of the Chao Phraya river. It is situated in a cosy warren of art galleries, antique shops and artists studios that occupy converted commercial spaces. This section of Bangkok is now feted to be the future art center of Krung Thep, City of Angels.

The Warp is run by Belgian artists Peter Smits and Christian Develter. The walls are festooned by paintings in a distinct Warhol tradition painted by Christian. There is a pool table at the rear. Neon tube letters spell out WARP at the back wall. The floors are varnished hardwood, as is the ceiling with skylights to admit brightness. The proprietors graciously have allowed local film maker Jimmie Wing, to shoot pickup shots for his film entitled Expats, as the Warp is a perfect place to shoot with its wooded contours and natural light.

The rites of spring were ushered in by throngs of bohemian and trendy admirers who came to see and be seen. Tepandine catering orchestrated a teppanyaki demonstration of sumptuous delicacies. His Excellency Felipe Frydman, the Argentine Ambassador contributed a case of an excellent Argentine Cabarnet Sauvignon for the palates of all. He has concluded his five year diplomatic tenure here, and Bangkok will lose a brilliant architect of art, tango, and culture when he returns to Buenos Aires.

Pieter Compernol (PTENDERCOOL, Cross Cultural Creations), the proprietor of a classy furniture factory across the road by synchronicity held a first class cocktail party for the crème de la crème in the city. The two parties mixed and mingled, holding court back and forth and although it threatened to rain, the night was redolent with the heady scents of the flowers by the river, and the wineing and dining of inebriated guests.

H.E. Felipe Frydman addressed the throngs, and gave his blessings to the conspiracy of artists involved. He was to celebrate his departure from Bangkok by inviting us to his farewell bash at the Siam City Hotel, replete with orchestra, tango dancers and fine wine to wash down the gourmet fare. It was attended by diplomatic services and the top echelon of Bangkok society. We will miss his indomitable spirit, marvelous hospitality, nurturing of poetry, cinema and tango, as well as his bonhomie.

Dark Cabaret is comprised of  the cult film director Marcelo Von Schwartz favourite frames from his feature film Dark Bridge. The text is by cult poet and film actor Antonio Pineda, whose lysergic novel The Magick Papers is a legend in the Californian underground. Dark Bridge is in the process of making the tour of the international film festivals in the year to come.

The book is in the tradition of Le Nouvelle Vague. Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut, and Jean Luc Goddard formulated the manifesto for the New Wave, with their writing for the mythic Cahiers de Cinema. Breathless, filmed by Goddard in 1960, fueled the inception of this cinematic revolution which embraced innovations such as jump cuts, hand held cameras, the eschewing of artificial music soundtracks for real sounds and improvisation.

The existential decadence of the Swinging Sixties inspired young film makers like Von Schwartz, to cut film from a different cloth than the commercial clichés that existed. Neo Realism was the bridge between surrealism and the new breed of cineastes. Books extolling the creation of film, and promoting innovation among poets, painters, script writers and cineastes were then the norm, rather than the exception and Dark Cabaret explores this concept.

Bacchus promoted harmony among the revelers. Pan played his festive pipes, as Pineda read excerpts from Dark Cabaret in an inspired reading, followed by Von Schwartz who spoke regarding the film and the book. Clips from the motion picture were screened on the wall. Among the revelers were film directors, actors, models, and celebrities that make up the strata of cineastes, writers and painters in Bangkok. Signed copies of the book by its authors were on sale, and the crowd availed themselves of this collectors item.

The night sang and flowered like a surrealist gala, where the beautiful women and impossibly sophisticated gents promoted literature, painting, cinema and philosophy. The book launch for Dark Cabaret may now be history, but the screening of the motion picture Dark Bridge, will be celebrated in Bangkok at a future date. You dear reader, are invited to this confluence of art and culture, so keep your eyes and ears open to attend the next installment of this ongoing experiment in cinema by Von Schwartz et allii.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Cabaret/108910089188694?closeTheater=1

MARCELO VON SCHWARTZ FAVOURITE FRAMES

FROM THE FEATURE FILM DARK BRIDGE

TEXT BY ANTONIO PINEDA

January 2011 will celebrate the book launch of Dark Cabaret on AMAZON.COM, an event long anticipated by cineastes in Bangkok aka Krung Thep, City of Angels. The director, Marcelo Von Schwartz, not to be confused with another Schwartz, the late film [...]]]> DARK CABARET, AMAZON.COM

MARCELO VON SCHWARTZ FAVOURITE FRAMES

FROM THE FEATURE FILM DARK BRIDGE

TEXT BY ANTONIO PINEDA

January 2011 will celebrate the book launch of Dark Cabaret on AMAZON.COM, an event long anticipated by cineastes in Bangkok aka Krung Thep, City of Angels. The director, Marcelo Von Schwartz, not to be confused with another Schwartz, the late film icon Tony Curtis, was born in Argentina and resides in Barcelona and Bangkok. He studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He has employed his talents as an architect in Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Turkey , Spain and Norway.

Dark Bridge, shot on location entirely in Thailand, is a culmination of the awards he received as international recognition of his short films. The director’s oeuvre is focused on “The dark side of things.” His nightmarish and dreamlike work is highly influenced les bete noire, artists who explore the dark side of high art. Francis Bacon often alluded to as an Expressionist painter satirized and mocked the hypocrisy of society, with his outlaw sexuality and erotic paintings of his milieu.

Otto Dix, German Expressionists are extensions of this tradition. Von Schwartz numbers among his cinematic influences Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, Josef Von Sternberg are deities in his cinematic pantheon. Nosferatu, directed by Murnau who died tragically young in mysterious circumstances, is the defining classic of the vampire genre.

Fritz Lang made Metropolis into a prophecy of what modern cinema would achieve.  Von Sternberg created Marlene Dietrich as The Blue Angel, unleashing on cinema the silver screen deity whose rampant sexuality and sophistication was the template for all who came after her.

Nouvelle Vague serves as a major inspiration for von Schwartz.  Jean Luc Godard is credited with launching the New Wave in 1960.  Breathless, starring Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg exploded onto screens, hand held cameras and ambient backgrounds, improvisation and eschewing traditional film soundtracks for the natural sounds of birds singing, cars purring and gratuitous violence incited and excited. Alphaville, starring American expatriate singer Eddie Constantine remains  a classic. Francois Truffaut, Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol invented the cinematic philosophy of Noevelle Vague with Cahiers de Cinema. Fellini , Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren were to celebrate this philosophy of Existential decadence with, La Dolce Vita.

Manifesto Films chose to shoot Dark Bridge in Bangkok and the surrounding countryside. I performed in the shoots that were at the Furama Hotel, hard by the infamous entertainment area known as Soi Cowboy. The scenes were shot in the lobby, dining room and upstairs foyer of this unique boutique hotel. Nate Harrison stars as Dr. White, a young surgeon who has come to Bangkok for a date with destiny. I and Christopher Evans portray doctors who confront him with the contradictions in his persona. The film features co-stars Keysha Monique Mabra as the exotic cabaret dancer, John Winters as Dr. White as a youth and Peter Rnic as a crusty, garrulous war veteran who reveals the protagonists darkest secret.

The location for the Dark Cabaret sequence took place at the Texas Bar in Washington Square, an area famous in Bangkok for its spicy nightlife. The streets pulse with sensuality. It is an oasis of sin, dark embraces and chocolate kisses. The Texas Bar is famous for its spicy gumbo and saucy Demimondaines, and its atmosphere exudes all the charms of an ageing demimondaine.

Music by Recoil, whose front man Alan Wilder was  formerly of Depeche Mode contributed the soundtrack for the cabaret scene. Von Schwartz explains how he got the approval for the music from Wilder.

“When I was preparing the cabaret scene,  I discovered by chance the music of Recoil. From this moment on, time and time again the notes of Strange Hours rang in my head. The scene, its tempo, the movements of the camera, the incredible and sensual undulations of Keysha, all came together in a brutal harmony. The scene was charged with immense energy. When I finished the first cut, I sent it to Alan Wilder. He responded immediately. He loved the scene. Alan approved the inclusion of the music by Recoil. In exchange Recoil utilized scenes from the cabaret sequence and other scenes from the film in videos projected during their performances during their extensive and well received world tour, Selected 2010.”

Bruno Brugnano, composed the soundtrack for the film. Keysha performs a dance for the pleasure of gods and men. She dances in hells fyres, ecsydiast supreme, as the cameras roll and the patrons bask in her heavenly glow. Dr. White finds redemption and debasement in this scene, as Rnic reveals to him the identity of his true father. Most of the frames from the book are taken from the scenes shot at the Texas Bar.

An hourglass erected of blood and sand, a ritual of life and death, an exposition of the powerful, the beautiful and the damned, Dark Bridge is dark and impenetrable like the love of a divine temptress. Cinema seeks the noble truths. The mist behind the veil is the reward of the cineaste. The text reveals a place where nothing is sacred. The flowers of evil court and tempt the poet. Phallic fleurs are placed before the altar, as the priestesses, oracles of Delos, dance before the shrine, worshipping what they dare not know.

Lust enters the heart like a thief in the night. Desire spreads like a forest fire. The bete noir of frisson seduces and entraps. The stallion lays down with the mare. The lion mates with the lioness in the jungle.  A world ruled not by Mars but Aphrodite. Le Nouvelle Vague canonized the power and sexuality of women.

The Bangkok night is presided over by the star Venus. The neon lights of the metropolis attract with its siren charms, forbidden fruits and seductive nymphs inspire cinema.

Antonin Artaud predicted the aforementioned with his seminal oeuvre, The Theatre and its Double. The Marquis de Sade, revered by the Surrealist art movement as the Divine One, influenced the cinematic vision as did Jean Cocteau and Luis Bunuel. It remains to you, dear readers and moviegoers, to reflect upon the cinema created by Von Schwartz and his conspirators in cinematic crime.

Dark Bridge is a Fantasy Psychological Thriller, a Neo-Noir Film. Like a Moebius stripe, it develops in a dreamlike atmosphere.  The boundaries between dream and reality are no too clear, they are mixed up. The narrative is non-linear. The story appears fragmented through bursts of complementary images and at the same time shows flash-backs that will allow David White, as well as the audience, to move forward along that dark bridge towards the opposite bank, the one with the hidden history, and the hellish ending.

The story is presented from the single point of view of David White, who, emotionally altered, gives an emotional and intriguing account throughout a long and increasingly nightmarish flash-back, since his arrival in Bangkok to the end. The two ends of the bridge are clearly differentiated: the story in the present, of urban character, presents a harder image with unsaturated colors and high contrasts. David White will feel lost, and will find the city around him more and more confusing. He will be more and more trapped by it.

On the other hand, and as a visual counterpoint, as David White moves forward along that bridge towards the secret history, more and more flash-backs appear.  They resonate showing fragments of his father’s history with Li, the mysterious and beautiful Thai woman. They are bucolic images, flooded by the light, which reinforce the spirit of the hidden story but contrast violently with its fatal outcome.

“….I ‘ve found a magical bridge in Bangkok.

A bridge between East and West,

the present and the past,

and a father and his son.”

Marcelo von Schwartz

Links to the book purchase and more info

www.dark-bridge.com

www.happyendingfilms.com

www.vonschwartz.com

www.amazon.com

By Antonio Pineda

Boaz Zippor greets me at the entrance to Boka Gallery in the Saphan-Kwai area of Bangkok. He lights up a cigarette, as he greets his guests and discourses at length on painting and photography.

“My photographic art in this exhibition is as raw as you can [...]]]> A NIGHT OF BUTOH, POETRY AND ART- BOKA GALLERY

By Antonio Pineda

Boaz Zippor greets me at the entrance to Boka Gallery in the Saphan-Kwai area of Bangkok. He lights up a cigarette, as he greets his guests and discourses at length on painting and photography.

“My photographic art in this exhibition is as raw as you can get, this is why i love Butoh. it is lean and mean and shows every human sentiment in its most naked form,” he explains. He escorts me to the lower level of his home, which houses his extensive collection of photographs and art.

“It might look like a dark art, but if you look closely at all the photos, it is always the light that is guiding you through the image, hence it is actualy the ‘dance of darkness’ as Butoh is known, that brings light into our life.” says Zippor.

His wife Toto, a famous artist by her own merit,  is tending bar. She is also an accomplished painter whose work, through the years has matured to what can only be called neo-Thai style, with influences from all over Asia but a strong Thai base and traditional cultural roots. His Excellency the Argentine Ambassador, Felipe Frydman, has donated a dozen bottles of Argentine Malbac, for the occasion , an augury from the gods.

A coven of literati and cogniscenti lig at the bar. Painters, authors, poets and beaucoup des cineastes. Marcelo Von Schwartz, director of the film , Dark Bridge, arrives with his camera to shoot the poetry reading I will be performing. The Argentine-Iberian film maker shares a glass of Malbac with Don Felipe. Marcelo is a denizen of Barcelona, but he now resides in Bangkok although he grew up in Argentina. He is in the final edit of his debut feature film entitled, DARK BRIDGE.

Boaz Zippor, our gracious host is in his element, as he shows guests about the photography on the walls of the bottom floor of the gallery. Tom Waller, an award winning local film director chats with me about his latest film. Kaprice Kea, producer-director and bon vivant shares his views on cinema.

The Butoh performance is full on. The dancers emerge from the house in whiteface, dressed in white with red sashes. The men are bare-chested. Two women and two male players enact a ritualistic mimodrama. The performance takes place in the outside jardin. The music is hypnotic and the actors dance with strong centers, interacting with one another, the concept is alluring and mysterious. A translucent moon beams down on the players, the audience drinks wine and smoke.  The audience bursts into applause as the performance comes to an end. The dancers come back after they take their bows to lig and discuss the performance with the audience.

Dean Kelly and his lovely lady Nikki make the scene. He is one of the organizers of Bed Supper Club and graciously invites us s his guests to Bed . We roll upstairs to the upper gallery where the poetry reading is about to take place . Marcelo Von Schwartz sets up the camera on a tripod to film the reading. Dark Bridge will be on the film festival circuit in 2011. He and I have also collaborated on a book, entitled Dark Cabaret, which is an exposition of the shooting of the film. Dark Cabaret is comprised of Von Schwartz stills from the movie accompanied by my text. It is in the tradition of the Nouvelle Vague, and will be available via Amazon in 2011.

I take my place behind the bar upstairs. Von Schwartz signals for ACTION. The celebration of this reading is in the Beat tradition. San Francisco has just celebrated Litquake, and Bangkok continues the tradition of On The Road that Jack Kerouac inspired so many years ago. The Beats in California still inspire reverence and admiration. Lawrence Ferlinghetti recently was honored in San Francisco on his 93^rd birthday. The International Fall Poetry Festival organized by The King OF Poetry, Philip Hackett, invited me to perform a reading ther September last.

Von Schwarz shoots on, oblivious to the extraneous distractions. I read from my new work, a section entitled, Bangkok Blues. After a dozen poems I conclude with a poem dedicated to Dr. Albert Hoffman, the legendary scientist who pioneered the discovery of LSD, entitled Waiting For The Revolution. The reading goes down a storm.

I introduce Boaz, who reads some of his work. He is a talented poet, photographer and local icon. His poetry is by turns humorous and cynical, contesting social issues and keen insights.

The art of Tauromaqia in Spain is famous for a tradition called Espontaneos. This takes place in the bull ring when people leap the barriers to assume the matadors gig until they are escorted from the arena. An Espontaneo jumps to the forum. He is a young film actor named Lucas. He rips off a poem to the delight of the onlookers. Another bearded bloke jumps in as Lucas exits and wails with a hip hop cadenced poem or two. The place is jumpin. Mark Johnson, Bangkok film actor, plays his guitar throughout the entire scenario, giving the performances Beat entenderes.

Von Schwartz takes me aside and confirms he has shot an hour of film. We repair to le jardin where the hip hop poet continues to regale the guests with his poetry.

The Malbac continues to flow. Legendary cineaste David Winters rings me to cue me up re my next assignment. I had the pleasure and privilege to gig a 2 day shoot with David and his son John in Pattaya. The director of the title, Teddy Bear, is a young Dane, Mads Mathieson. He is a film director you will hear much about in the future. David was one of the co-stars, and John did a cameo as his son in the flick while I swanned about in the shots. My next scheduled public appearance will be at the wrap party for the motion picture, Teddy Bear. It was shot on location in Bangkok, Pattaya and Denmark. The gig will be celebrated at Brown Sugar, one of the hippest and oldest venues in Bangkok. But that mes cher amis is another story for another day.