r.i.p. nash the slash

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Alash, Poor Nash

The local concert I most regret missing happened sometime around 1979 — I’m not certain of the date. Nash the Slash played the Festival Cinema, a hole in the wall indie-theatre now a pizza joint on the corner of Sargent and Arlington. A one man show, complete with a live performance of his self-composed soundtrack accompanying a showing of Luis Bunuel’s and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou on the Festival screen. From all reports it was an evening of legend. I always lived in hope that he’d come back and redo that sort of thing someday when I could catch him.

Except … while checking information for an earlier blog, I found out poor Nash died just over a year ago, May 10th, 2014, at the age of 66. The circumstances were mysterious — as they should be, given it’s Nash — but rumour has it a heart attack got him.

His look was the first thing that made him appealing of course. The tuxedo, top hat, sunglasses and bandages. When I finally did get to see him live at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on his Children of the Night tour, he wore his traffic cop uniform instead of the tuxedo, which I was always a little disappointed by. The bandages and glasses were still there, however.

It was a great concert. Nash was hailed as an early one man band technical genius, performing mostly on electric violin and mandolin, surrounded by a host of drum machines and other programmable technological instruments he liked to refer to as “devices” in his liner notes. But he was a down-to-earth genius. My favourite memory from the concert is the image of Nash bashing one of his devices repeatedly with his fist to get it to play right.

Nash was a founding member of the prog-rock group FM, which paradoxically never made it big until after his solo career took off. He played with the group again in the 80s and 90s, while still performing his one-man shows as well. He was one of the first independent artists in Canada to start his own record label, Cut Throat Records. His music was … well, very Nash.

He did a lot of covers, maintained a certain horror image, threw in social and civic commentary in a variety of his own compositions, did straight instrumental electronic music, and had a pronounced classical streak. Decomposing was a 1981 vinyl EP featuring three instrumentals that could be played at any speed.

I think a pretty representative 10 song Nash the Slash mix would consist of “The Chase” from 1979’s Dreams and Nightmares; “Wolf” and “Dead Man’s Curve” from 1981’s Children of the Night; “Pretty Folks” and “Vincent’s Crows” from 1982’s And You Thought You Were Normal; “Psychotic Reaction” and “Who Do You Love” from 1984’s American Bandages; “Guns and Sandwiches” from 1999’s Thrash; and “Baby O’Reilly” and “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” from 2008’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Nash.

No one would claim Nash the Slash had a golden voice, but he had a way of biting out lyrics that stood out. My brother, one of the ultimate Stones fans, couldn’t help commenting after hearing Nash’s take on “19th Nervous Breakdown” how Nash gave the cover a presence all his own simply by emphasizing the lyrics so clearly. Doing things like working in phrases from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf in instrumentals like “Wolf” and making them sound like completely integrated rock riffs was also a trademark. As one critic wrote back in the seventies, Nash might be electronic, Nash might be classical, but he never loses sight of that rock Slash. No electric guitars in his act, but always the same impact.

Where’d the name come from? From a murderous butler in a Laurel and Hardy silent movie! How can you go wrong?

Yes, it would have been good to see Nash do the soundtrack live to Un Chien Andalou. There were rumours that he wandered out into the night and performed the piece again outdoors at the Winnipeg Folk Festival back around 2010, but I’ve never met anyone who can confirm that.

As my son Dylan grew up and developed his own musical heroes, there was one double bill we both would have paid good money to see. Nash the Slash and Buckethead. It was only a dream, alas, never to be realized now. But what a show that would have been!

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Part Two of Episode Twelve, Kafka-Ish hit the Net Monday, May 25th, and the results are announced on Friday, May 29th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Debating the philosophical pros and cons of the insect life, with a sword fight (sort of) tossed in for good measure.

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish — The Usher Motel

Episode Twelve: Kafka-Ish — Metamorphos-Ish

All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.

finding an audience

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Knowing Your Audience

Know your audience. One of the basic precepts of Introduction to Creative Writing.

The idea being that if you know who your audience is, you will write exactly what they want to read. Or conversely, if you know who likes the sort of thing you write, you target your marketing towards that sort of personality.

Most of my stuff goes out over the Internet these days. I don’t have a clue who my audience is, or how they even find me …

So I decided as an important exercise in literary development I should at least try to define who I see my audience as. A phrase came to mind unbidden and practically immediately that I think embodies the concept quite well.

My audience consists of reasonably intelligent, unpretentious sorts with good senses of humour.

What a pleasant bunch of people to know, I thought! — if only through the written word. When I pondered the concept further however, getting down to specifics, I began thinking … oh oh. This isn’t a very large group.

Let me deconstruct my statement. Reasonably intelligent. All right, what do I mean by that?

Well-read, to begin with. Sort of goes without saying. They wouldn’t have found me if they didn’t read in the first place. However talking to my son and thinking of conversations around the lunch table with my ex-co-workers and the experiences my wife and other people I talk to relate and thinking of the family and all, I come to the practically inescapable conclusion … practically no one reads anymore. So I lost most of the population right there.

In fact, I recently came across a study that stated 80% of American families did not buy or read a book last year. I doubt the numbers are much different for Canada. So if I add in the calculation that my stuff isn’t even in the bookstores …

I’m going to start a new advertising campaign for myself. You have to spin things positively.

John H. Baillie! The author over 90% of all Canadians agree not to read!

Moving on then — unpretentious.

That’s a positive trait for anyone to have. But then I look at the current state of mainstream Canadian Literature, an industry entirely subsidized by the Government for the overindulgence of the academic community and those who aspire to an ivory tower supposedly coated in maple syrup and therefore erroneously defining our national identity and I realize writing in this country is the very seat of pretension for the nation! So the Canadian writing community is the last place I want to look to for a lack of pretension — I’d do better going after the infinitely larger, infinitely more faithful hockey crowd — except they’re the folks who don’t read!

How many Canadian novels published in the last thirty years does this plot summary represent? “Something’s gone wrong. I think. Gee, I don’t have a clue.”

Okay, so on careful examination I discover my first two points reveal I am alienated from 98% of the market I am supposedly trying to reach. What about the third point? Someone who reads me must have a good sense of humour.

What do I mean by a good sense of humour? I once worked out that there are five basic styles of delivering humour. One — be disgusting, because for some reason a huge percentage of the population finds disgusting hilarious; two — be topical, meaning rely on political jokes or on humour making fun of current events in every field, meaning your laughs generally mean nothing after about a month when the world moves on; three — focus on your family or your ethnicity, humour that rarely goes out of style, but you need a light touch, otherwise you end up sounding bitter and disrespectful; four — slapstick, your physical humour, which isn’t exactly designed for the written word so much as the visual approach; and five — actual wit, taking language apart and throwing it back at you in ways that make you appreciate it anew.

I like the last two best. I’m not above the third, but you have to be careful. And I will occasionally descend to the depths of the first, but I don’t really care for it myself. I only use the second very occasionally, due to the short shelf life.

Now analyzing that assessment, I realize I’ve shot myself in the foot again. I only occasionally use disgusting humour, but the largest audience is looking for precisely that. There’s also a fairly sizeable audience who are into the political humour approach, but you have to be fast off the mark there, and ultimately, I’m just not that interested in politics to satirize it properly. I’m cautious about using family and ethnic humour, and slapstick doesn’t really transfer well to the printed page. Although I try.

Which means I like best the idea of wit, which is the hardest to do and probably has the smallest audience. A lot of people don’t get the joke. Or even realize there was one.

In the immortal words of Rocky and Bullwinkle:

Bullwinkle: You got that reference, Rock?

Rocky: Yup.

Bullwinkle: Millions won’t.

I’m running out of feet here to shoot myself in with my definition of audience. Sometimes you need to be an octopus to be a successfully unsuccessful author.

Okay, let’s be reasonable and turn things around. People are a lot more intelligent than anyone gives them credit for, including me; there’s nothing more pretentious these days than writing a blog and I’ve entirely adapted to that practice; and a few good jokes sprinkled in the right spots are going to reach the people the other obstacles I place in my path will prevent some readers from appreciating what I do. I’ll willingly hoist myself on my own petard if it means getting one more reader. (You remember Petard? Marcel Petard, played defence for the Habs in the sixties?)

So I’m going to stop worrying about how to find my audience, and settle for hoping you find me. You know who you are, you don’t need my help defining yourselves. And if you have found me already, you are all obviously women and men of rare discernment, regardless of how else you see yourselves. And I hope there’s no end to that range of definition …

I think what’s most important is that I would like to make any reader of mine feel special. I certainly think you are.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

The Electric Detective Chapter Eleven goes up on Monday, May 18th, while part one of Episode Twelve, Kafka-Ish hits the Net on Friday, May 22nd. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

“Metamorphos-Ish”. It was a natural. The big question is, who gets to be the bug?

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish — The Usher Motel

Episode Twelve: Kafka-Ish — Metamorphos-Ish

All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.

russellography

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Russellography

I would list Ken Russell as directing 22 feature films worth noting. In fact, he was involved in so many different projects in so many different ways, it’s hard to put a number on his output. And I’m completely ignoring his substantial body of television work in this list as well. But of the 22 films I am noting, I’ve seen 15. As I’m not particularly a movie maniac, this is a pretty high rating for a single artist’s work from me.

I haven’t seen:

French Dressing (1964)

Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

The Music Lovers (1970)

Savage Messiah (1972)

The Russia House (1990)

Prisoner of Honour (1991)

The Lion’s Mouth (2000)

The one I most regret not being able to track down is The Music Lovers, Russell’s biopic of Tchaikovsky with Richard Chamberlin as Tchaikovsky.

I have seen:

Women in Love (1969)

The Devils (1971)

The Boy Friend (1971)

Mahler (1974)

Tommy (1975)

Lisztomania (1975)

Valentino (1977)

Altered States (1980)

Crimes of Passion (1984)

Gothic (1986)

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Salome’s Last Dance (1988)

The Rainbow (1989)

Whore (1991)

The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002)

Some more than once.

From worst (and Ken can be pretty bad) to best (but he can also be incredible), I’d give Mr. Russell a personal pov report card like this. I don’t expect anyone in the world to agree with me. Ken Russell is not the sort of artist who fosters consensus of opinion.

Lisztomania (1975) — It would have been better without Roger Daltrey in the title role. I saw this movie both in the theatre and then later again on television. The sheer ridiculousness of it carried a certain weight in the theatre, but on TV it just appeared dull. An extended music video that got out of hand.

Tommy (1975) — trying to do too much with too many. I know it was a hit at the time, but again too much flash-bang, with too many disparate stars mugging it up competing against each other with Oliver Reed somehow stuck in the middle pretending he can sing.

That’s it for the bottom. Every other movie by Ken I’ve seen I at least liked. Some struck me more forcefully than others, however. On the next level up, we’ve got:

Whore (1991) — Theresa Russell turns in an heroic acting job. The strangest scenes stick with you. The film was more or less repressed in North America, at the same time Pretty Woman was making it big. Russell famously stated that at least his movie told the truth about a prostitute’s life. But very brightly, in typical Ken Russell overblown colour.

Mahler (1974) — starring Robert Powell as the composer and Georgina Hale as his muse. Oddly enough, I found this movie a bit dull, needing a little more flash-bang. (I may be joking -- you figure it out.) Again, I know I’m in the minority, as Mahler is generally considered one of Russell’s finer works. Maybe it’s just the composer that doesn’t grab me.

Gothic (1986) — the night Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley told each other their ghost stories and Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein. With Gabriel Byrne as Byron, Julian Sands as Shelley, and Natasha Richardson as Mary. A truly nightmarish party, with some powerful scenes again very difficult to get out of your head. The feeling of the inevitable devolution of the evening into terror is quite effective. Followed by a happy picnic the morning after.

The Lair of the White Worm (1988) — One of Bram Stoker’s other novels getting a modernized Grand Guignol send up, with Amanda Donohoe as the worm woman and Hugh Grant being terribly English. Silly, really, but oddly entertaining. Especially the bagpipes snake charming scene.

Moving on one more layer upwards:

The Rainbow (1989) — the second of Russell’s two related D.H. Lawrence movies, this one actually a prequel to Women In Love, featuring some of the same characters. Especially the central character Ursula Brangwen, here portrayed by Sammi Davis in a wonderfully uninhibited characterization. Glenda Jackson gets to play the mother of the character she made famous in Women In Love. Also featuring Amanda Donohoe and Paul McGann, a restrained — for Russell — treatment of the novel, not quite as bohemianly grandiose as Women In Love. But you could say the same of Lawrence’s two novels.

Salome’s Last Dance (1988) — Russell making the excess work. Theoretically a performance by the inmates of a brothel of Oscar Wilde’s notorious play, Salome, put on for Wilde himself and his boyfriend, snuck into the cast as John the Baptist. Enjoyable in an odd sort of decadent manner it’s probably better not to admit to. Imogen Millais-Scott is compelling as Salome, an unusually elfin sort of transgender femme fatale.

Altered States (1980) — Russell takes on straight science fiction with Paddy Chayefski as scriptwriter. Unsurprisingly, the two egos clashed. William Hurt gives a solid performance as the scientist regressing himself back to a primeval form through drugs and a sensory deprivation chamber. Oddly enough, there’s an earlier, much scarier black and white obscurity starring Dirk Bogarde on more or less the same theme.

Crimes of Passion (1984) — definitely not a movie I’d watch with my wife. But very enjoyable on a variety of levels, nevertheless. Kathleen Turner does an even more engaging turn as Theresa Russell’s later Whore-role as China Blue, the prostitute with the double life, and the climactic scene in homage to Hitchcock’s Psycho reversing roles on Tony Perkins playing a depraved preacher is very effective. Throw in a brilliant little cameo by Annie Potts as a housewife psychologically incapable of being “funny”, and you’ve got a strange, X-rated little gem.

And at the very top of the list …

Valentino (1977), which I said enough about last week. Recently learned that even Ken considered it a flop, but what the hell. Works for me.

Women In Love (1969) — according to Wikipedia, Russell’s “signature film”, and the only one he ever received a Best Director nomination for at the Oscars. It struck a note for its time, with full frontal male nudity and an unrelenting approach to both the sterility and the passion of Lawrence’s characters. With stunning performances by Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden, and Eleanor Bron.

The Boy Friend (1971) — starring Twiggy and Tommy Tune. I saw this on the late movie on television one night back in the late seventies and was blown away. A totally nonsensical musical, that never seems to be mentioned anywhere anymore, but didn’t do that bad at the time. Twiggy won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical Comedy for it. Ken Russell using his powers of excess for good. Just plain delightful.

And the number one Ken Russell movie of all time, that no one has apparently ever seen in its entirety …

The Devils (1971) — Based on The Devils of Loudon, by Aldous Huxley, a nonfiction account of a major case of apparent demonic possession of a convent of nuns in 1632. Oliver Reed plays the priest chosen as the scapegoat by the religious authorities to be tortured and martyred to expiate the obvious high degree of sinning going on. Vanessa Redgrave plays the head of the convent. So … throw Ken Russell and a convent full of naked nuns acting out their wildest fantasies and you’ve got a mixture that you don’t end up surprised by reading the full uncensored version of the movie has never been shown. The North American release was apparently more heavily cut than the European version. I saw it on TV, so who knows how much I missed. Still powerful and so definitively Ken Russell. Especially when the well-muscled, hippy lead exorcist comes swaggering in in his John Lennon wire rim glasses wielding a mighty crucifix … One of Oliver Reed’s most stunningly realized roles. Just for the record, it’s a good book too.

I left one movie off this list. 2002’s The Fall of the Louse of Usher, which was actually the last new Ken Russell film I saw. The reason I don’t rate it against the others is because it’s really little more than a home movie Russell made fooling around on his estate with family and friends. Of course, in a Ken Russell home movie you do get scenes like the singing group The Medieval Baebes appearing as a particularly wanton witches’ coven, so it’s got its own weird appeal. Not a great movie by any means, but odd in its own right. And as certain of my own characters like to say, there’s a lot to be said for oddness.

But what really sticks out about this movie for me is a line in the credits. Not only does Ken Russell write, produce, direct, and star in this movie, he also does all the cooking. I have to admire that degree of auteurial thoroughness in an artist.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Fittingly, during a week I’m doing a Ken Russell retrospective, the Competitors tear each other apart as in no other Episode, as Poe-Ish, “The Usher Motel” concludes on Monday, May 11th. See who’s left standing on Friday, May 15th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

And Pearl never did get her soup.

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish — The Usher Motel

All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.

two rudis and ron

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Defending the Indefensible

I mostly classify Ken Russell movies as films I shouldn’t try to watch with my wife.

I did try once. On a highly unusual night back in 1981, when we were still dating. The Winnipeg Art Gallery featured a unique entertainment double feature one Saturday evening, Ken Russell’s Women In Love, followed by a concert by Nash the Slash on his Children of the Night tour. Naturally I rushed out and got tickets for both. Big mistake.

Renee made it through Women In Love, but bailed out after Nash’s first song. More because of the volume than anything else, being a lover of the more refined decibel levels of classical music and jazz. I caught up with her after the concert back at her place. She was deprogramming herself by watching a Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn movie on the late show. She forgave me again and we got married anyway.

After all, it wasn’t as bad as the first date I took her on …

Ken Russell was a British filmmaker who died in 2011, famous for a style focussing on excess, especially regarding sexual matters; for mixing cultural crossovers in his productions sometimes more successfully than others — casting rockstars Roger Daltrey from The Who as Franz Liszt and Ringo Starr as the Pope in Lisztomania for example; and for ostensibly making biographical movies but choosing to do so more by focussing on the rumours surrounding his famous subjects’ lives and presenting them as the main story — such as Tchaikovsky supposedly struggling with homosexuality by marrying a nymphomaniac wife in The Music Lovers.

Ken Russell also made an astounding number of films. More on that next week. I’m only interested in one this week.

1977’s Valentino. Starring Rudolph Nureyev.

Doing a little background research I was pleased to discover the movie was a bit of a hit in Britain. Because it tanked abysmally in North America.

It played for about one week in Winnipeg. And this was pre-video. To my knowledge, it was never shown on network television. It’s taken this long for the flick to resurface for me. I saw it in the theatre during that one week it played. It was a dismal day, raining, I had a cold, very little was going right. I thought the movie was brilliant. I came out of it thinking I had discovered a new hero for a different sort of mind.

But I always wondered if maybe my reaction was tempered by the circumstances under which I saw the movie. I was set up that day to enjoy anything with a bit of life to it. And one thing you can never say about Ken Russell movies is that they lack energy. So I tried to track Valentino down on video in later years, but it was never available. In fact, there was a surprising dearth of any Ken Russell movies available on video through normal channels in my town. Then, about six months ago our cable company offered a movie channel free for a month, and for whatever reason, Valentino qualified under their mandate and I was able to PVR it.

Although we talked about it, ultimately I decided not to watch the movie with my wife. I have learned a few things over the years. On the whole I think I made the right decision. Not that the movie is anywhere near as over the top as Lisztomania, which Russell made just before Valentino, but there are definitely some moments which must be categorized as thoroughly Ken. But I would still argue, even after a second viewing almost 40 years later, there is still enough to the movie beyond that to justify my original opinion of it.

This movie was hyped to the gills before it came out. Rudolph Nureyev was making his film debut. On top of that, it was “Rudi plays Rudi”, one romantic icon portraying a second, in a typical Russellian crossover of artistic disciplines. Nureyev the ballet superstar as Valentino the silent screen superstar.

I recall seeing the movie on one of its first nights, before the general critical reaction on this continent became known. I walked out of the theatre thinking, “Well, there’s a hit for sure!” Something like two nights later Johnny Carson was berating Nureyev live on the Tonight Show concerning how he felt about starring in such a turkey.

Some of the flak was directed at Russell of course, since Ken Russell never made a single movie he didn’t take flak for. But the bulk of the sniping fell on Nureyev. He was the bigger name with more on the line, and in the general public’s opinion, he had fallen sadly short. Valentino proves Nureyev can’t act! Not true. His second movie, 1983’s Exposed, proved that. Actually, the more I learn about the actual Rudolph Valentino, the more I realize what an amazing job Nureyev did portraying him.

I think where the movie fell short for the general audience in North America was because Russell didn’t take the approach of doing nothing but glorifying his subject. Valentino was a cultural outsider, doing something new, that did not meet with universal acceptance in the early 1920s. Certainly on one hand he was an unprecedented superstar, with an image that he couldn’t possibly live up to. And then the whole circus was over in only five years, with his unexpected early death. But on the other hand, he was a foreigner in a culture trying to find his way as something entirely new, and not entirely acceptable. Something like Rudolph Nureyev trying to make a movie that would satisfy North American audiences in 1977. I would argue Ken Russell’s Valentino primarily and successfully shows the story of a man trying to stand up for his own personal sense of self in a world swirling madly and inexplicably out of control around him.

While I couldn’t help noting the ham-handedness of some of Ken Russell’s direction on my re-viewing, there’s still some brilliant moments. And a mix of impressive turns combined with a few throwaways by a stellar cast. Some of whom obviously got what they were doing more than others.

With a Ken Russell movie you should never entirely lose sight of the cross-pollination going on created by the juxtaposition of Ken’s choosing to do things like cast Rudi Nureyev as Rudi Valentino. One of my favourite scenes is when Rudolph Nureyev playing Rudolph Valentino hauls Carol Kane onto the dance floor for a mad tango to “Kiss of Fire”, to antagonize Kane’s character’s Fatty Arbuckle-like boyfriend. The mere idea of either Nureyev or Valentino tangoing with Carol Kane … Let alone both together.

Leslie Caron is over the top as the over the top early screen diva Nazimova, so it’s difficult to say if that’s a mistake or not. She’s certainly very much Ken Russell. But then she’s also still very much Leslie Caron, and that’s not a bad thing. Michelle Phillips — Mama Michelle — proves that some musicians can act, turning in a very strong portrayal as Valentino’s genuinely weird-in-her-own-right second wife, Natacha Rambova. AKA Winifred Hudnut. When is somebody going to make a movie about her?

And casting the ex-Bowery Boy Huntz Hall as the studio mogul Jesse Lasky was brilliant. Especially the scenes with the vulture and the ape.

But the movie was mostly shot in England, and it’s some of the British actors stepping up to portray crazy Americans that contribute the most impressive performances. The never-fail Peter Vaughan is particularly able as the Chicago newspaperman Valentino challenges to a boxing match for impugning his manhood near the end of the movie, and Felicity Kendall, better known on these shores for the light-hearted Good Neighbours, is nothing short of remarkable as June Mathis, the woman who made Valentino Valentino.

But it is Nureyev’s performance that finally makes the movie work. And that is because, in a typical twist of uniquely Ken Russell movie magic, you never forget you’re watching Rudolph Nureyev playing Rudolph Valentino. It’s not just the dancing. It’s not just a ballet superstar who shouldn’t have to put up with such things having to put up with the indignities Valentino did. Anymore than Valentino should have had to. It’s the quieter moments. When Nureyev is just Rudi. Squared in this case, but still Rudi.

The last ten minutes of the movie are finally what make it still a success for me. I actually considered skipping them on my re-viewing, because I couldn’t believe the end-scenes would work for me with my older, more conservative outlook on life and art. I was afraid they’d just turn out to be another example of Ken Russell’s occasional ham-handedness, and I’d lose the lustre from a rather precious memory from the seventies.

But no. From the moment Peter Vaughan has his first scene to the end of the credits rolling, the movie is brilliant. Rudolph Nureyev/Valentino at his best, and still showing me there can be a different kind of hero in the world.

Works for me, anyway.

*******

Ron Romanowski’s Book Launch, May 4th

A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable

Augustine Hand Press, 2015

Sponsored by the MayWorks Festival

You don’t often have a poet open and close a launch by singing one of his poems at you, but then Ron isn’t a conventional sort of poet.

Integrating everything but a little soft-shoe into his presentation in McNally-Robinson’s arts and crafts alcove, Ron entertained a group of 40 with readings from his sixth collection, A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable. As Ron stated, the book takes its title theme from the first piece, “The Fall Girl”, detailing a tragic event it seems unlikely people can move on from, but do. Having to deal with the emotion of an event they don’t want to face.

A heavy theme for the book, but the launch stayed light, Ron engaging his audience with a personable, enthusiastic, and cheering performance. Ably introduced by Nurit Drory, offering a short recap of the intros she’s done for Ron’s previous five books.

Ron pointed out the cover of the book has been remarked upon as a potential recruiting poster for a new poetry cult. He’ll take the names of anyone interested.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

The lightning’s still flashing in Chapter Ten of The Electric Detective, posted Monday May 4th, and Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish, starts on Friday, May 8th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

To quote the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman, how Grand was my Guignol? Edgar Allan meets Alfred Hitchcock in “The Usher Motel”.

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish — The Usher Motel

All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.