Other iconoclasts, libertines, hedonists and profligates; dissolute aristocrats; decadence of the fin de siècle; Simon Raven's tales of boarding school buggery; the Perry Bible Fellowship; Jennifer Beals; serious literature; Mikel Rouse; cultural criticism and film theory; Massimo Vignelli's graphic design; Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton movies; intellectual history of any sort; platform tennis; squash; skiing; historic preservation, mid-century Modernism and contemporary architecture and design; among other things
Music
Les Baxter, Olivier Messiaen, Sparks, The Raveonnettes, Henry Mancini, 101 Strings, Ray Coniff Singers, Barbra Streisand's vocalise of Fauré's "Pavane," Elvis Perkins, Serge Gainsbourg, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, György Ligeti, Caetano Veloso, Dandy Warhols, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Hug, Tom Waits, Sylvie Courvoisier, Animal Collective, The Association, Philip Glass's Dance Pieces and his more recent film scores, Fioritura, Steve and Edie, Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, 1960s garage bands, 1960s Euro cinema scores, T-Rex, Kinks, Jethro Tull, ELO, MC Solaar, Decemberists, Kronos Quartet, Erik Satie, Wilco, Diamanda Galas, Tallis Scholars, The Cowsills, Anglican sacred music, Iannis Xenakis, George Dalares, Schuman's Piano Concerto, White Stripes, among numerous others
Movies
DIRECTORS: Guy Maddin, Carmelo Bene, Olivier Assayas, Hal Ashby, Erich Rohmer, Herzog, Ozon, Chabrol, Tarkovsky, Visconti, Pasolini, Fellini, Cassavettes, Bergman, Kenneth Anger, Jodorowsky, Shirley Jackson, Guy Debord, Michael Haneke, Curtis Harrington, Woody Allen, John Schlesinger, Radley Metzger, Lucky McKee, Gaspar Noé, John Frankenheimer, Henry Jaglom; FILMS: Two for the Road, Ils (Them), Withnail & I, Inland Empire, Mindwalk, Play It As It Lays, Imaginary Heroes, Maidstone, Games, The Rain People, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Last Year at Marienbad, Eyes of Laura Mars, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?, Last Summer in the Hamptons, Alice, Sweet Alice, Five Easy Pieces, Les Choristes, Bonjour, Tristesse, Swimming Pool, What's Up, Doc?, For Pete's Sake, Warhol's movies, A Delicate Balance, The Party, The Trip, Yours, Mine and Ours, Staircase, The Children's Hour, The Fox, The Killing of Sister George, The Love Machine, Nashville, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Seven-Ups, The Incident, Diary of a Mad Housewife, A Reflection of Fear, Scream, Pretty Peggy, You'll Like My Mother, Eyes of Laura Mars, Persona, Autumn Sonata, Wild Strawberries, The 400 Blows, Cries and Whispers, Seconds, Goodbye, Columbus, The Sterile Cuckoo, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Joe, Overboard, Juliet of the Spirits, Fame, Shampoo, A Wedding, Anything Joseph Losey directed, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, too many films from Hammer, Shepperton and Ealing Studios (UK), Made for Each Other, Coming Apart, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, The Driver's Seat, Divorce His/Divorce Hers
Television
THE L WORD!!! Inspector Linley Mysteries, Little Britain, Extras, Arrested Development, Lovespring International, Rescue Me, The Sopranos, Big Love, Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, Oz, Footballers Wives, Frontline, Night Gallery, Bewitched, Britcoms, The Avengers, The Persuaders, The Prisoner, To Tell the Truth (1969-1977), Zoom, Degrassi--every iteration, including the current one on The N
Books
"The Secret Lives of People in Love" by Simon Van Booy is simply transcendent; and "Earthly Powers" by Anthony Burgess is a masterpiece and arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century. In general, I'm drawn less to specific titles than I am to authors and thinkers, including Cavafy, Benjamin, Adorno, Deleuze, Foucault, Sontag, Barthes, Baudrillard, Artaud, Derrida, Debord, Lacan, Kristeva, Melville, Paul Goodman, L.P. Hartley, Cheever, Leonard Michaels, Deborah Eisenberg, Muriel Spark, Simon Raven, Denis Johnson, Paula Fox ("The Widow's Children" most especially), Paul Auster, Patricia Highsmith, Gore Vidal's essays, Fran Lebowitz, Robert Musil, Barbara Pym, Doris Grumbach, David Foster Wallace, Stephen Birmingham, Francine du Plessix Gray, Lewis Lapham, William Gaddis, Elias Canetti, Marguerite Yourcenar, Rilke's poetry, John Irving, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Greil Marcus, Rosalind Krauss, J.P. Donleavy, Ann Pyne (Has she published since her intoxicating 1992 collection of elegantly spare stories, "In the Form of a Person"?); and too many others to list here
Heroes
Gore Vidal, Geraldine Page, Norman Mailer, Massimo Vignelli, Charlotte Rampling, Baudelaire, Simon Raven, Robert Silvers & Barbara Epstein, Michel Foucault, Elizabeth Montgomery, Herman Melville, Viveca Lindfors, Louis Auchincloss, Sir Norman Foster, Stephen Fry, Henry James, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ben Bradlee, Bob Barker, Dr Renee Richards, Bette Davis, J.-K. Huysmans, Anthony Perkins, Pasolini, Taki Theodoracopulos, Katharine Hepburn, Marlo Thomas, Fran Lebowitz, Orianna Fallaci, John Cheever, Gianni Agnelli, Dina Merrill, L.P. Hartley, John Weitz, Rimbaud & Verlaine, Ruth Gordon, Kitty Carlisle Hart, all of Bloomsbury, Lord Byron and Ninon de Lanclos
About me: New York-based actor and writer. ACTOR'S CV and ACTOR'S REEL are posted above as blog entries.
RECENT EDITORIAL:
"MEET THEO," written and photographed by Jason Chen; JPG Magazine, Issue 16, June-July 2008
RECENT FILMS:
"MOONSHINE," dir. Roger Ingraham. In addition to its official selection and premiere at Sundance in 2006, this film has an October 2008 premiere in New York at the From Here to Awesome Festival.
"SLIPPERY SLOPE," dir. Sarah Schenck. Winner of the 2007 Broad Humor Film Festival in Los Angeles and three sold-out screenings at the Montreal World Film Festival, this film was released on U.S. DVD in August 2008. Also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
"HANDS," dir. Xavi José. Sponsored by SONY Computer Entertainment Europe; premiering at the Landmark Theatre, Los Angeles, next month!
"TAKE OUT," dir. Sean Baker. After a successful summer run at the Quad Cinema in New York, this film opened on five screens in Los Angeles.
"BETWEEN SOMETHING & NOTHING," dir. Todd Verow. Following its premiere at NewFest 2008 in June, this film has traveled as an Official Selection of LGBT film festivals in Tel Aviv, Philadelphia, Mexico City, Jakarta, Fire Island (where it took the Jury Prize for Best Feature), Berlin and Hamburg; as well as the Chicago Underground Film Festival. It is available on DVD from Water Bearer Films in the U.S., and in France under its French title, "Le Choix de Joe." Also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
"CHICKEN POX," dir. Andrew H. Shirley. Following its June premiere at STIFF 2008: Seattle's True Independent Film Festival, followed by the 2008 Planet Ant Film & Video Festival in Detroit, this film made its New York premiere in September 2008, as part of the Newfilmmakers Series, at the Anthology Film Archives. It was screened in December 2008 at Galapagos Art Space, DUMBO, Brooklyn.
"THE WEEKEND," dir. Michael Kuskin. Now on DVD from Warner Bros. Home Video. Also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
"BULLDOG IN THE WHITEHOUSE," dir. Todd Verow. Now on DVD from Water Bearer Films. Also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
"VACATIONLAND," dir. Todd Verow. Now on DVD from Water Bearer Films. Also AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
RECENT TELEVISION:
"IDAINARU MYSTERY WRITERS: ELLERY QUEEN"; prod. TV Man Union, Inc., for nationwide satellite television in Japan
"PERSONAL JUSTICE," Season 1; Episode 8; prod. True Entertainment for TLC Discovery Channel
"GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS," Season 4, premiering March 2009; prod. Greif Company for A&E Network
"ON 31st STREET," dir. Deena Kontalipos & prod. Ikseni Productions, for worldwide broadcast on DISH Network Satellite TV
"SENSING MURDER," Season 2, Episode 1: "Video Store Murder," prod. Granada Television for the Discovery Times Channel
RECENT TELEVISION PILOTS:
"STUCK," dir. Ben Bowman
RECENT WEB SERIES:
"THE SHOW," sponsored by Diesel; prod. House Productions, Milk Studios
"MI AMOR FOR MY FAMILY," dir. André Maffioletti and prod. Solomon Productions
ET CETERA: VERNISSAGE.TV
As Vernissage TV's New York Correspondent for the past two years, I have interviewed numerous artists, curators, dealers and scene-makers who populate the New York art world. An archive of these v-blog/podcast dispatches are available for viewing on the Vernissage TV website, by entering my name in the search box on the VTV home page.
Who I'd like to meet: ARTISTS AND FILMMAKERS WHO CREATE DARINGLY PROVOCATIVE FILMS, WHETHER AS INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE CINEMA OR AS LESS CONVENTIONAL VIDEO ART; AS WELL AS VISUAL ARTISTS WHO SEEK MY COLLABORATION AS A MODEL OR MUSE.
As for friends, I'm typically drawn to elegantly decadent types, culturally sophisticated and personally evolved, preoccupied with ideas and a life of the mind; those whose wit and sense of style are entirely their own. Above all, one's abiding decency and integrity are what speak most to me, along with reasonably impeccable manners and a universal regard for mankind, particularly those less fortunate. Probity, purpose, perseverance and pluck are key. Civility and grace, without question. Behaving honorably is not just for heroes; it means standing by your word and delivering as promised. Believing in something and making a difference shouldn't necessitate an announcement or require recognition, for accomplishment is its own reward. Does anyone else find gratitude so frightfully undervalued in this society? Take nothing and no one for granted and you'll sleep better at night. In the end, that elusive fiber known as 'character' is the only true measure of our worth.
