Working for Three Bills*

I went to LA in 1975 for friends and for music. I stumbled into acting simply because it is the ubiquitous activity there. First, my friend Bill Ohanesian made a short documentary of my band BLaM's last performance in 1981; thanks to computer technology, he is now at last able to edit his footage. In this documentary, THE LAST DAYS OF BLAM, I had only to play myself. Very difficult!

A year or so later I composed and recorded a sound-track for Ohanesian's CLOSE UPS, a quirky short film about two fictional film-makers trying to complete their ...um... movie. Using jazzy ideas stolen from the Lounge Lizards and surf ideas from the Ventures, I recorded the music with BLaM's Pat Meehan on drums and Bob Watt's, soon to form Basic Values, on the Gibson Kalamazoo organ. Very cool! Bill's previous short, called SHAVED LEGGS, had copyright material for a sound-tack. So in the 1990s, I would replace this soundtrack with an original one.
Yeats and Gonne on Hollywood Blvd. in 1989

Yeats and Gonne on Hollywood Blvd. in 1989

In the late 1980s at the Celtic Arts Center on Hollywood Boulevard, I played William Butler Yeats in COUNTRY OF THE YOUNG, by Susie Burke. It was a two-character play about Yeats' turbulent relationship with Maud Gonne, played by Moire Armstrong.

Variety went so far as to say I played the part with "magnificent obsession." On a good night, this was true. On a bad night — well, let's just say there was more than one bad night. An elderly Irish couple attended the play on a good night. After the show, they told us that when they were young they had seen the REAL Yeats and Gonne and that we were "quit reMINiscent [emphasis on the second syllable] of them. What a compliment! The fine Irish actor Brendan Dillon directed us and from him I learned more about my voice than ever before or since. For that I'm eternally grateful.

click for P12 page

SHAKESPEARE'S PLAN 12 FROM OUTER SPACE was a feature film version of TWELFTH NIGHT directed by Spike Stewart. I played Feste the jester and, of course, the only non-funny character in Shakespeare's mysterious comedy. There seems to be an Internet buzz about this unique film so, P12's day may not yet have come. Spike shot the movie on every kind of camera he could get his hands on. However, his anchor format was the infamous Fischer Price Pixel 1000. A toy camera which sold for $100. Is P12 the only feature length movie shot on the Pixel 1000? I think so. This distinction aside, it is one of the most beautiful films you are likely to see. It's look might be described as film baroque. It's richness definitely threatens to overwhelm the film and in places it probably does.

The soundtrack was composed by four composers who never met to compare notes and yet who came up with a surprisingly coherent body of music. Aside from me re-scoring Feste's songs; these composers were Spike himself, the late great hurdy gurdy player Ethan James, and producer/composer David Vaught.

With the exception of Kay Lenz as Viola, the cast comprised of an extraordinary gang of Hollywood oddballs. Buck Henry played the priest hilariously. Billy Hayes (whose horror story of a Turkish Prison was made into the film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) played Duke Orsino; Grant Loud (brother of the late Lance and subject with his family of the PBS 1973 documentary series AN AMERICAN FAMILY) played Fabian (Spike tried to get Fabian to play Fabian); Richard Crowley, The Man Who Would Be Sex Pistol (he is seen auditioning to replace Johnny Rotten on THE GREAT ROCK N ROLL SWINDLE), played Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Composer Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo-fame has a brief walk on. etc. etc.

After the closing of COUNTRY OF THE YOUNG, Brendan Dillon had told me I'd be a fool not to pursue acting. However, as he had said these words, I had seen Gita standing to the side shaking her head sadly and wisely. It has been fun to let acting find me, but I have remained the fool; I have not pursued it.

*Bill Ohanesian, Bill Butler Yeats and Bill Shakespeare (ha ha ha)

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