Did I ask you for your love?
Did I ask you for your dedication?
I don’t want, I don’t want your love.
I don’t want, I don’t want your affection!
But I’ve got to have the car
I need it for the weekend.
I’ve got to have the stereo,
And a couple of deletions
I’ve got to have the freezer
Put some fun back in my eating
I’ve got to have it all until I’m complete!
I want a New Toy, to keep my head expanding.
I want a New Toy, nothing too demanding.
Then when everything is in roses everything is static
Yeh my New Toy, you’ll find us in the attic.
You.. Sometimes you make me feel… I feel so insecure.
Sometimes you make me feel… nothing at all
I’m sick of the TV
Well look at the news
I’m sick of the radio
But what can you do?
I’m sick of the Hoover

I’m sick of it all, so what can I do?
I get a New Toy, to keep my head expanding.
I get a New Toy, nothing too demanding.
Then when everything is in roses you don’t get any headroom.
Yeh my New Toy, you’ll find us in the bedroom,
New Toy
New toy…

My sister just sent me this message:

Last spring my daughter and her friend created a very short film about a pair of saltines being attacked by our dog. Yesterday we figured out how to post it on YouTube for the whole world to see. We have yet to figure out why that’s a good idea, but oh well. The film is called “saltine attack”, and I have no clue how to tell you to search for it, because we are blocked from searching in YouTube at work. We coded it as “Comedy” and the keywords we put in are “saltine” and “dog”. I will warn you that yesterday when we uploaded it there were 206 other videos about saltines. Who knows what the total is today. I had no idea it was such a popular genre, since it has been such a long time since I was in film school.

Last night brought a short film program to the Milwaukee Art Museum, “A Haunting Inspiration: Francis Bacon in Film.” Curated by Jonathan Jackson, program director for the Milwaukee International Film Festival, the evening included a range of films, some of whose influence upon Bacon was obvious or openly acknowledged, others of which were influenced by him.

One of the former was the film “Un Chien Andalou” by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. Jackson, in his introduction, remarked that Bunuel claimed the only rule for the writing of the script was that “no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted.”

The Pawn, in his artistic past, worked extensively in the theater, mostly lighting and set design, some sound as well. One favorite collaborator was Paul Krajniak, a visual artist who, to all appearances, saw theater as a means to an end. He would mount extravagant shows on grand themes, in which all of the action seemed to drive inexorably towards the most stunning tableau. It may have been said of Krajniak that his only rule for the writing of a script was that no words be used. I more than once received scripts from him that quite literally were picture books. Page after page of schematics and sketches that tried to advance a story, or set a stage, or merely sound a theme.

Paul is color-blind, which made lighting his shows an even more interesting challenge but also brought unparalleled freedom. On his last show, “Knee-deep in Atlantis,” he brought in a colorist with whom he spent some time in consultation. She then presented a pallet of colors which the scenographer, costumer, makeup artists and I all took as our launching point. The interplay of light, fabric and makeup, all in tune to that minimal pallet, made the the stage visually sing at times. The tableau would unfold in beautiful display and the audience, obviously perplexed by the seeming discontinuity of the words and action, would let off a vibe of contented wonderment at the spectacle.

Oh that pictures of those shows existed…