I would have put ASTRONOMY in the subject line but they didn't have it. Even so, this is about as dreamy and SUPER, extra-ordinary NATURAL as it gets.

I do hope everyone had a nice Turkey Day and that the holiday weekend treats ya'll fine and dandy.

This one goes out to my brother who LOVE LOVE LOVED Carl Sagan. I feel pretty confident that Bobby is waaaaay out there in a galaxy far, far away (and yet right next door thanks to a friendly wormhole) along with our beloved Mr. Sagan!

First of all, I'm mighty annoyed since I just wrote a very nice blog about all this and now it does not seem to have been saved! UGGHGHHGHGHGH!

So now I must repeat but very tersely as I am going to be late for a meeting. Click here to read about and see my Time Traveling Hooker film. We screened it Saturday night as part of The Masses evening where they showed their Work of 2009. It was really meant to be just part of that installation and not viewed as a 'film' but it did look grand projected.

The grandest part of the evening was getting to collaborate with Golden Hits, a subsidiary of Dublab, a L.A. based DJ and musician collective. Golden Hits for that evening was  Jimmy Tamborello (of DENTAL and POSTAL SERVICE), Katie Byron and frosty. I did a new spoken word piece , "Heath Dream  #2) and it was a real epic! Golden Hits recorded it and they just emailed to say that they really think "we pulled off something special".

I hope so! I loved working with them and REALLY hope to do a album length collaboration with them. With luck a new CD will be in the offering in 2012!

Okay, well' that's all I have time to write about now. THIS TIME I'm gonna save all this in case I F-up again and lose the blog.

Have a happy Tuesday all!

Good GOD! Can it really be about 3 months since I've checked in here on MySpace? Whew. I figure I've lost all my MySpace friends by now. Maybe everyone followed me to Facebook.

But we still love the MySpace and so here we are again. I've been mighty busy since August. I hosted a movie night at the Roosevelt Hotel where we showed one of my favorite movies of all time, MY MAN GODFREY. If you haven't seen it make a point of doing so. It might be the most perfectly crafted film ever. Not to mention an incredible screwball comedy and classic of the Golden Age of Hollywood. They set up a screen and seats around the pool and before the film I performed FALLING FOR AN ACTOR, a song from my last CD along with video that my pal Matt Amato made (a compilation of sexy matinee idols who always seemed to paly a caddish role.) A Facebook friend videotaped it and I'm in the midst of redesigning my website where I will post it.

Little did I know that the film director Gregg Araki was in the audience. I got a call not long after to do  a cameo in Araki's new film "Kaboom!" which is, I think, gonna be a real mind-blower. One of the craziest scripts I've ever read. I play a rich Beverly Hills type who has a weekly tryst with one of the young leads . The young hustler's name is "Thor" and is played by a 23 year old actor who, thanks to some mighty fine blonde hair extensions, is as "Thor" as anyone is going to get outside of Norse mythology! (My character - known only as "Woman in Hotel"- has some extensions too!)

I then went to Memphis where I had the lead role in "Youth Dew" which is part of a trilogy of half hour films that comprise the whole of "Women's Picture" directed by Brian Pera. Brian contacted me through FACEBOOK and sent me his first (and only) film, "The Way I See Things" which I loved. Next thing I knew we were concocting a story together and then I was in the always delightful city of Memphis wearing another wig and in front of the camera in one of the best roles I've ever been given! This baby had RANGE! Here is a test photo of me as "Miriam Masterson", hostess of a home shopping network show who loses everything (and reclaims her soul) in the course of the day.





More about this project when it's edited and ready for the festival circuit. All I'll add now is that Brian and his entire crew were a dream to work with and I was treated like a queen. More please!

Well, I'm glad I've managed to add something to this blog. I now need to go write a blog for The Masses website about the Time Traveling Hooker video shown earlier this year in the Joshua Tree Inn as part of my installation for artist Andrea Zittell's High.Desert.Test.Sites. event.

 The Masses are an arts collective made up of film/video directors, musicians and artists. They are having a big event this Saturday at the Downtown Independent where they are showing everyone's work from 2009. Among that work is that video ,  "Time Traveling Hooker: Room 8" , which I've been graciously credited as 'director'. (I guess bossing everyone around - mostly my pal Matt Amato who shot and edited the piece- means I'm now a director. That's a Capricorn for ya!) I am also going to perform some new spoken work with the DJ collective Dub Lab. Info about the event can be found here.

Oh, and one more goodie. I was lucky enough to see Leon Russell perform this past Sunday at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown. What a supreme joy it is to see a musical legend (and genius..he wrote "Superstar' for Chrissakes!) live in person (and at a very intimate venue)! I got some great photos too. I'll post them when I can figure out which file I put the dang things in.

Peace out, ann

Big hugs and loving kudos to my husband John (pictured below) whose architecture work is the featured story on the cover of today's L.A. Times!

You can read the story and see two fabulous photo galleries (plus other goodies) by clicking HERE!

 

Sorry I haven't been blogging. It's been a bit of whirlwind for yours truly. From Charlesotn WV I went to St. Louis to do a role in the indie film "Ten Hours A Week" and then back to LA, then the desert, then back and WHEW! It took a few days of full-out vegetation before I could wind myself up again. And so here we are, wound up and rarin' to get ready for SF!

Yes, I will be up in San Francisco performing at The Lab next Friday July 17th. This rather last minute booking is part of the Mission Creek Festival. I will be coming up to SF with my harpist Alexander Rannie and we are going to perform excerpts from my latest show "Back Home Again/Dreaming of Charleston" as well as tunes from Bongwater, The Luv Show and my last CD "Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories". (And maybe some NEVER BEFORE seen or heard material!) More info on the whole she-bang can be found below (copied from the Lab's Facebook event invitation). It's a rather small space and pre-sale tickets are going fast so ....book your seat now! See ya'll in the Bay Area!

The Lab

Friday, July 17, 2009

Time:

8:00pm - 10:00pm

Location:

The Lab

Street:

2948 16th Street @ Capp

City/Town:

San Francisco, CA

Mission Creek Festival >> http://www.mcmf.org/

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15 - $20 sliding scale.
Purchase tickets in advance at Brown Paper Tickets
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72718


Ann Magnuson joins The Lab for an evening performance as part of the Collision series, in conjunction with the Mission Creek Music Festival and the Lab's 25th Anniversary Performance Series. Ann will present songs and spoken word pieces from the past, present and future in recital with L.A.-based musician Alexander Rannie on harp.

With Dynasty Handbag, Curly Lou and DJ Koloni.

Ann Magnuson is a performance artist working in a myriad of media including TV, film and on stage in theaters, festivals, cabarets and art spaces around the world. She has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Whitney Museum of American Art (where she performed her 5-hour “Tribute to Muzak” in the museum’s elevator), the Museum of Modern Art, and the Andy Warhol Museum. She was the lead singer and lyricist for the psycho-psychedelic band Bongwater with whom she released five albums.

Curly Lou has been reinterpreting Swedish popular music from 1920-40's since 2005. Working in the borderland between music and the history of cinema, she's been able to catch the feeling and sound of this era and bring it to life today. The repertoire is a cultural heritage,both timeless and modern. She has previously performed in France, Spain and Italy. In Sweden, she has performed at cultural institutions as well as at theaters and clubs including Swedish Museum of Modern Art, the Culture Centre, Göteborg Konsthall, Röda Sten, Orionteatern, Atalante, Klubb Berlin, and Klubb Koloni. Besides being an artist, she's a project manager for several historical film projects in Stockholm and Göteborg.

Ann Magnuson>> http://annmagnuson.com/index.html
Dynasty Handbag>> http://www.dynastyhandbag.com/
Curly Lou >> http://www.myspace.com/vocalissa
DJ Koloni >>http://www.myspace.com/kolonigbg
Mission Creek Festival >> http://www.mcmf.org/

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15 - $20 sliding scale.
Purchase tickets in advance at Brown Paper Tickets
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72718

Check out this article in the Charleston Daily Mail!!

This morning I opened up one of the Charleston, WV papers and saw this AMAZING spread on the front page of the Entertainment section that featured the photo you see on my BACK HOME AGAIN/DREAMING OF CHARLESTON poster (currently my MySpace profile picture) in this gorgeous layout that filled nearlly the entire page. I practically fell out of my seat...except I was standing. Maybe the earth moved a little, I can't tell. My first thought was WOW! And then this wave of profound sadness hit me like a tsunami because I couldn't show my Dad. He passed away about a year and half ago and as happy as I am to be home again the whole city (if not the state, the country and the planet) feels so empty knowing he is not here. But I am still grateful for the fabulous promotion which you can see online. The lay out is not the same nor the photo but they do feature one of my latest pics done with the fab photog Austin Young!

I do hope everyone in Charleston who is a Myspace pal will come to the show (and tell their K-Valley friends). I also hope Dad will be watching the goings on here in Almost Heaven from what I hope IS Heaven when we do our first show on The CLay Center stage on Sunday - which, interestingly enough, is Father's Day. Sigh. I miss my Dad. But I am happy to be back 'home' again. Hope I can keep it together. Was it Sophie Tucker who said "Honey, if you cry, they don't"? Or was it Ethel Merman. Some old broad who trodded the boards way back when.

Love to all!

I was just checking in to thank any and all of you MySpacers who came to my shows at the Cavern Club Theater last week! You all helped make our little workshop a smashing success. Now I'm preparing to do the show for the hometown audience in Charleston, WVa. The piece, called BACK HOME AGAIN/DREAMING OF CHARLESTON, has been commissioned by this years FestivALL.  Click on this link for more info!

But then I was looking on the FestivALL homepage and was THRILLED to see this lovely preview/review by a fellow West Virginian Beach Vickers (who was at the show this Saturday). If you are reading this Beach, thanks a BAZILLION!!!

From the FestivALL homepage

Having just enjoyed Ann Magnuson’s one-woman show “Back Home Again: Dreaming
of Charleston” in its first preview in a packed, literally underground theater in Los
Angeles (before it officially premieres as part of FestivALL in Charleston, WV, later this
June), I immediately emailed my mom and other West Virginia family members and
friends to not miss it. Ann cut her theatrical teeth in Charleston community theater before
taking on “Hollywood” acting and touring original performance art pieces across the U.S.
Her “Dreaming…” is a love letter to her hometown in songs, stories and even old film
footage of Charleston. Warning: it’s hardly a simple tale of “barefoot hillbilly” makes
good, but a surprise-a-minute hodgepodge of everything from science fiction monsters to
Mae West imitations, from creepy nightmares which turn out to be true to elaborate
teenage memories which might be partly a joke – or are they? Ann’s onstage accompanist
is a very cool harpist, equally at home playing “Country Roads” or hard rock! Prudes or
younger children shouldn’t go. Ann can slip in a couple of colorful (but appropriate)
words and knows how to poke fun – lightly but pointedly -- at drugs, sex, politicians, and
polluters.  But she entertains not preaches about the benefits of attachment to hometown
and one’s youth – even after you leave it. It’s very West Virginia-specific, right down to
the rhododendron, and so, since they gave the show a standing ovation its first night in
L.A., I’ll be interested to see how the hometown crowd reacts.
 
Beach Vickers
Former reporter for The Montgomery Herald
And Charleston community theater guy
Now at NBC Universal in L.A.
(June 3, 2009)

hello dear MySpacers (is anyone out there?)

If so and you're in the Los Angeles area, I'd love to have you attend a workshop production of a new show I've been writing, "Back Home Again/Dreaming of Charleston". It's been commissioned by a festival in my hometown in Charleston, West Virginia and I'm 'trying it out' here in L.A. at the Cavern Club Theater (under the famous Casita del Campos restuarant in Silver Lake).

Join me on a surreal romp thru the hills and hollers of "Almost Heaven" West Virginia. I will be accompanied solely by harp, played by the amazing Alexander Rannie. Comedic monologues! Poetic reveries! Bittersweet memories! Old fashioned hyperventilatin' preachin'! (Minus the snakes. Then again, who knows?). Music includes original tunes (including a few Bongwater chestnuts like "Mystery Hole", "Junior" and "Psychedelic Sewing Room") and covers from Disney to Debussy to The Moody Blues to Mae West!

I'll be doing the show at FestivALL in Charleston, West Virginia at the Clay Center stage on June 21 & 23. Click here for more info.

I know there hasn't been too much traffic on my MySpace ART QUEEN photo album BUT if anyone out there is interested in bidding on any of the art (to benefit a local animal shelter in Joshua Tree) then just know the deadline for final bids is this Sunday, May 17th at noon, Pacific Time.

Happily, I have a flurry of interest on Facebook. But I will check MySpace from time to time and DEFINITLY on next Sunday so as to update the bids.

If you are interested simply put your best and final offer in the comment section under the photo of that particular piece. OR, if you prefer to remain anonymous, send me a message as I'll check those too!

And if you don't have money for art (or none of the art appeals to you) BUT you love animals and want to support the ONLY non-kill shelter in the high desert (that DESPERATELY NEEDS FINANCIAL HELP) AND you might want a tax dedcution this year....send your tax deductible contribution to:

The Morongo Basin Humane Society
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/CA984.html
4646 Sunview Avenue
joshua tree, California 92252
Phone: 760-366-3786

THANKS! And have a great week! luv on ya'll, ann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4UWfw5YnM

We've become intense balletomaniacs. My husband found this -"ballet l'oiseau de feu firebird Stravinsky - capture de l'oiseau"- on YouTube. This is perhaps the most magical thing ever caught on film! Nina Ananiashvili IS the firebird! Love the Bolshoi's brand of theater. Dig that fantastic set. The entire film is something to behold!