I am in life contractions and they’ve abated for the moment; I am about to leave town on Sunday for a week and anyone who lives in New York knows you have to leave the confines at least every two months for at least a couple of days and I haven’t done so in about eleven months so I have been running on magic fumes and second hand smoke for a while. Now my body knows it’s about to bolt, and I am shutting down, leaving just basic life functions pumping; I am a walking hibernation and yet, under that is a casual maelstrom as one more winter of quiet preparation before a spring of creative launchings where I’ll need a whole case of champagne to break over bows.
It feels good to have taken command of Frenemies. I have always struggled with the concept that I’m a control freak and that I have to be the Steinbrenner of all of my projects; I have tried to release some power and the mistake I keep making is releasing power versus delegation; years ago, regarding Whorapy, which is NOT a play but a FULL CONTACT SENSUAL EVENT; it is set in a fictionalized brothel-speakeasy in 1920’s San Francisco and is written somewhat in verse but always in rhythm. And I know what it is and what it can become and how much effort is required to do it and how to shape that effort; and over the years I have had offers by others to take control of it or cast and have a reading and I somehow manage to keep it under wraps and go back and forth if I’ve kept a urgent garden from getting sunlight; and I’ve been told writers shouldn’t direct their own work especially in theater; well, I’ve been told a lot of things that make sense but in my physics seem stifling; so now I begin to knead it to life again, piece by piece; when the music, when the words, the movement, the sensual velour of it starts to awaken, so do I and every cell of my being forgets regret and forgets ambition and nestles into a large gaping madness that looks like a smeared pond from the tops of the UN flagpoles. I feel galvanized and then there is no quandary about separating life from art; I always say ten times the person means ten times the artist; at this point I am directing my own work; “Caesar is home, James Franco!” Ironic that that scene from the recent Apes film took place in the redwoods near San Francisco where Whorapy was born;
As for Frenemies in the last week I’ve created a poster which is simple and representative of the film itself and most certainly unique. Go to www.calendrome.com to see it. I have sketched out a promo video based on a dream where I was shown a promo trailer of someone else’s movie and I was jealous; then I woke up and went, wait a minute, I’m jealous of me! How fantastic! That will be filmed next month. Next is fundraising for this unique low budget ballad of love and spurs. I am putting together a promotional package for investors/producers next week while at my folks house in Pennsylvania. I’m damned excited actually. I’m acting in it as Zach, the male Ferenemy; I have the camera; I have a great Kate cast, the female Frenemy; it’s going to be fun when we get the fun(dies).
Regarding my home state of Pennsylvania, I have to say I am not too shocked about what’s happening at Penn State; I am disgusted and repulsed and angry, but not shocked. I’m adopted and laws in that state are circa 1795 when it comes to women’s rights and general openness regarding matters of the soul. It’s certainly not the only state but after dealing with them over the years it’s right along the party lines archaic patriarchy.
