I'm Back!

Alas, i've now returned from my expedition to Cleopatra's birthplace. I'm looking forward to a rest over Christmas, then getting on with what i've learned and seen whilst i was out there. 

It was good. 

Cairo Arrival

We made it. I'm in Cairo now, having survived the flight. It may be a little quiet here for a while, as i'll be writing in the Cairo blogs, but i'll try to put a note in here too every now and again.

I'm very much looking forward to the next couple of months. 

Some ACE news

Good news! I do get to go to Cairo. I leave shortly with Helen. 

Whilst there i hope to see better what Egypt is like, which will then hopefully better inform the work i am doing here. 

So, i've started another two blogs to help document this trip -

http://cairoexpedition.blogspot.com/

http://aproductiondiary.blogspot.com/

A travel blog and a production-specific blog. I will continue to write here too, and hope to be able to write directly onto the Crescent Arts website soon too. I'm packing now, and preparing for the flight. I don't like planes. 

These are important i think.

 

I used to play football against my little brother. I beat him 10-0 once. A tree doesn't make a sound if no one hears it though.

A Mirror Every Day

I bought a Daily Mirror the other day, to read about Rooney's sexual indiscretions and see if they'd be in support of a union general strike (less work, more pay, i say).

I like the idea of news being a mirror. Its kinda like when Brutus says 'for the eye sees not itself, but by reflection, by some other things.'

Berlusconi says sex isn't fun if you have to pay.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1195128/I-paid-sex-theres-satisfaction-Berlusconi-hits-escort-claims.html

What a man he is. I bet Anthony never paid either, wit and appearance are enough for anyone to fall at your feet. Quite a feat. 

Footballers' have it right though, don't they? 'Less work, more pay'. 

Paying for things isn't good, but it must be nice to be in the position to afford it, Silvio.

Screen Tests

I've begun doing screen tests for the play using the masks i've been making and the projections of Alexandria. 

The first one was kind of successful i think. The disintegration of the body into pixels is a bit hard to see though, as it needs to be dark for the projection. Maybe i should use screens.

 

The spinning pyramid against the mask gave a nice effect though. 

They did screen tests to decide who would play Cleopatra et al. I think Joan Collins would have been better. Her eyes are further apart. 

It's not your eyes, its the distance between them. 

Projecting Alexandria Experiment 1

As part of this digitalisation experiment i've been working on, i've been making backgrounds onto which the pixel transformation could take place.

Here is my first attempt at projecting Alexandria into the Crescent Arts studios.

Liz's transformation could take place over it. More on this soon.

Digital Costumes

I've been making more masks and costumes today. I like the digital effect a lot. This 'pyramidization' of the body.

I am going to investigate what happens to you when you body becomes digitalised. It might help with the acting process in future re-enactments. 

This is a costume I made of Digital Liz. It still looks too scary though. Maybe it'll look better on someone. I'll do some experiments with it in the next few days and see.

Charity starts at home

What does that saying even mean? Just 'cause something is a saying (out of context) doesn't mean, like, its real, you know?

I dunno, i just seem to be hearing it alot at the moment. It came up again in the Daily Mail today-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1303358/PETER-MCKAY-Charity-really-start-home.html

Its a funny article. I like the bit where someone describes pakistan here:

'Superficially cosmopolitan - for their children typically study abroad and imitate foreign accents and customs - they are left with utter contempt for those who are less fortunate.

'Few show izzat, or respect, to the lowest who work in their kitchens, drive their cars or hawk trinkets to them in the markets.'

Few of the rich pay taxes. 'This is a system of the elite, by the elite and for the elite,' said a retired government official who worked in tax collection for 38 years.

Thats just capitalism intit? 

Anyway, i generally say give people money if they'll die otherwise, you know?

Pyramid Studies

Given the apparent importance pyramids seem to be having going forward, I've decided to start a parallel blog called 'Pyramid Studies', where i will focus specifically on this subject. 

http://pyramidstudies.blogspot.com/

Digital Pyramids

Pyramids are pretty important i think. Structurally, they seem to be a blueprint for almost everything. I've been trying to draw ones for art, with like Hurst at the top and me and Helen near the bottom. Its free market stuff intit? 

Anyway, in making the Manda masks yesterday i noticed another (maybe more important) thing about pyramids. They work in the same way that digital pictures do, with lots of little blocks. And so now they aren't smooth, but have lots of little blocks that make curves and lines. (I know they were smoothed over at the time, but the point still stands)

So they're more than just blueprints for economics, they were a plan for the future construction of our world. Important indeed!

Here is a picture i made inadvertently by cutting out Manda's eye in a pixelated picture of her. 

Its called Digital Analogue Pyramid 1.

Masking

I've been making masks of Manda today, having finished editing the first meeting re-enactments. I think masks might be important going forward.

                                         

It does seem to look kinda scary though. I'm not sure if this is just in the way that all masks are scary, or this one in particular. I suppose its like people finding burkas scary, maybe? I dunno.

Anyway, these Manda masks will mean that i can start using boys to play Manda/Liz/Cleo, which i guess is what the play is about. 'and I shall see / Some squeaking Cleopatra boy' 5.2 219

                                          

My hair kinda ruins the suspension of the belief here though. I need a haircut. 

Suleman's Gifts and Toys

I saw a guy wearing an 'English Defence League' t-shirt in the pub last night. I didn't know they are actually real people, i thought they were just on tv and in newspapers. But they are real, i saw one. And in the multicultural progressive haven of Scarborough! I don't think they'll be happy about a new shop called 'Suleman's' that i saw on the seafront. 

They are taking over!

Michael Munn is Octavian. Or Cleo?

In the observer the other day the cover story was about Michael Munn, who wrote 'Richard Burton: Prince of Players'. Here is the article: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/25/michael-munn-biographer-interview-tim-adams

Now, Prince of Players (i must admit) is the only biography i've read about Burton. Whilst my reading list has led me to extensive reading on Liz, Richard seemed like he was a bit simpler, and one biography up to this point seemed enough. Especially as the author knew him personally. 

But this article paints Munn as a liar. Well, it doesn't say that exactly, i guess it isn't allowed to. But that's what it wants to say. If so, i've been well tricked. Excellent falsehood! Munn is also described as a Zelig in this article. Woody Allen's chameleon man, who is all things to all people. I recently re-watched this with Helen (its on youtube) and it's still brilliant. 

I guess upon reading of Munn's apparent deception, i initially likened Munn to Octavian, in his use of words that aren't true. But Zelig reminds me more of Cleopatra, needing to adjust herself to the situations she finds herself up against ('I'll seem the fool i am not'). Minorities often have to do this i think. But both Cleo and Munn are trickier than Zelig. Whilst Zelig is scared, Munn and Cleo are using things to their own ends. 

But who knows what to believe. All seems a bit wordy at the minute. I might use Munn as a character in this project, he seems pretty productive. He also directed Anthony and Cleopatra once. 

I better read another Burton biography now. I'll keep reading.

Building Pyramids

Sorry I haven’t been writing much recently. Helen recently got a commission to do a public artwork for Scarborough Council and I’ve been helping her do it for the last few weeks. I haven’t been enjoying it very much but the wage will go towards our trip to Cairo.

Below are some pictures.

 

It is called ‘Wavelengths’, and was painted (just by the two of us!) onto the hoardings in front of the Spa, obscuring the re-construction work there. Ironic, I thought, because my work is about not obscuring re-construction.

I read in an old National Geographic yesterday about the building of the pyramids. It felt a bit like doing this. Apparently the makers weren’t slaves, they were waged workers. Like me. But, like in any work you don’t want to do, if you have to do it for the money, you’re kind of a slave anyway aren’t you?

But, its finished now, thankfully. It looks really good, Helen is very talented I think, and she is pleased with how it went. So am I, I'm glad to have been a part of it to be honest. Again like the pyramid workers I guess. Its up till March so you should go see it. Me, I’m looking forward to getting back to my work now, and getting on with my ACE bid for the trip to Cairo.

How to be a Movie Star

I just received another book about Liz that i ordered second hand from Amazon, called 'How to be a Movie Star' by William J. Mann.

Inside the cover I found lots of notes, made about the book. Maybe some other artist has been doing a project about her too. 

I thought i could transcribe what is written here, and then amend my project for a while to do what this person was intending to do. 

But, i had some trouble reading the writing. Thats sometimes a problem with the notes i write too. I wish i had neat handwriting like my friend Anne. But i'm left handed and writing isn't designed for minorities. 

Anyway, here is an attempt at a transcription. I'm not sure it is that helpful actually. It reads more like this person was writing a book about her. Still, i like some of the points. It is funny they're annoyed at the US taxes being higher than the UK, even though we get to go to hospital. I've highlighted the things of interest in red. Here - 

How to be a Movie Star

Transcription of notes found on the first page

no filmography

no ________, is: “The caress of a steel vise”!, of 46; 92

Chap 1 is really chap 5 or 6 – but he is getting the     

_____ of ______

22            _______ Way – no proper noun can be typed

_____ a par of Wikipedia accompaiment

23            a lifestyle so spoiled it would make a

socialist out of Thatcher

29            She conceived of life as a movie, so, given

his ______ ______, does Mann

           98         “Surefire moneymaker” – but nowhere is this explained

                         same for ref to her beauty, etc

 122         She couldn’t boil water

      >137          marriage to Wilding, as to Nicky Hilton, an act –

                          ______ are people ______ at pretending

177          “making movies… never a passion for her” - + it

                 shows

178           part on love worth analysing – he can’t see people

                  ____ Liz are incapable of it

181            cd only be written by a gay!

182            Liz ______ Eddy _____ marriage is phoney –

                   so why doesn’t Mann???

192            “Hollywood happy”, for Don Quix Todd plans on

                   “renting Spain” – the age of US capitalist ______

196             + yet he knows they were children – it’s a bulimic

                    ______, gorging + _____ on ____ _____

218            Todd’s plane crashes – but Mann has already prepared

                   us for the ____ + Eddie Fisher

222            “melodrama was the stuff of E’s life” – see 226 for life

                   + _____ _____

   *244-7            for letters of ______ ______ you been to another age

 257           good eg of Mann’s technique of focussing on life not art

  274-5          Butterfield 8 is her life – except she has never given us

                        what we want – an all American car crash death

  298           she wins Oscar, but Mann can’t see that it was

                    given for nearly dying a page earlier!

         307           MUST QUOTE

Transcription of notes found on the second page

   341      Sandpiper not about _____, ___ _____, but sure

people change the terms of the stories ___ ___ ____

and we call them stars

  346       Liz as milkshake or martini – USE!

  349       Liz as rule breaker – salaries, sweary etc

  351      Another good part about _____ _____ and fame

               direction

 352        Good Burton __

    >>356        V. brave of her, really, to go fat and old for who’s

                        afraid – in the age of Twiggy and _____ ______, . .

358         ______ _____ way line Martha – yet that’s how we

see her

370         US taxrates higher than UK’s!

372-3         Sued coz Cleo _____ were _____ _____

                    morals are blamed

398         drink +______ - no wonder she was

               friends with Jackson

 I'm not sure how useful this has been. I like the bit about the car crash though. This is interesting. I think i'll watch Crash (Cronenburg) again and think about this. There's a lot of re-enacting in that film. 

A Project Diary

This blog is intended to be a record and update of my project 'The Tragedy of Richard Anthony and Cleopatra Taylor' and will accompany my moving image and 2D work.

It will primarily be a record of my thoughts whilst I work, but will also be a place where I discuss issues that arise within my practise.