Q&A with Shredder Orpheus director Robert McGinley

By David Reilly

On September 23, BAMcinématek wraps up Skateboarding Is Not a Crime with an ultra-rare screening of director, writer, and star Robert McGinley’s gonzo Seattle skate punk rock opera Shredder Orpheus. For the occasion, McGinley dug out from his garage the only existing 35mm print of the film; he’ll appear at BAM for a Q&A following the screening. We spoke with him about some of the wild backstory behind this truly singular curio of skate cinema.

Could you tell us about your involvement in Seattle's skate, music, and art scenes at the time, and how this project came about?
During the 80s I served as On the Boards' founding artistic director and had a blast developing OTB's new performance programming, which included utilizing the space for punk rock shows (Dils, Dickies, Dead Kennedys, Sub Humans, etc.). I had a brief stint writing reviews for the Seattle rock magazine The Rocket and covered a lot of local new wave and punk music, so I knew my way around the scene. Around 1987 I co-produced a skate punk band called Agent Orange (they sounded a lot like a precursor to Green Day) that tore the theater/dance floor apart (by the way, it was a challenge cleaning up the sweat, puke, and urine after these shows before dance class the following morning, not to mention a Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane show the following weekend!).

If I wasn't doing a show I would meet my skate buddies downtown, sneak into parking garages, ride the elevators up 12 to 14 stories, and skate the ramps down—kind of like urban snow skiing on skateboards. It was insanely fun (sick), not to mention illegal, so the added danger of avoiding arrest by police and/or security ramped the adrenaline high. We were chased a lot but somehow we avoided getting caught.

In Context: Anna Nicole

Illustration by Nathan Gelgud

 
Anna Nicole runs at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House from September 17—28. Context is everything, so get even closer to big, brash, blond spectacle with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

Meet a Friend of BAM: Gil

This month in Meet a Friend, we chatted with an Emmy-nominated film composer who specializes in sensitive, socially conscious material. He also happens to be a BAM member.

This month's featured Friend: Gil

Member since: December 2012

Where are you from? What neighborhood do you live in now?
I was conceived in Manhattan and was born in Louisville KY. I grew up in London, Holland, and Israel. So I would say ... planet Earth, in general. I live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

If you had to describe BAM to someone who had never heard of us, what would you say?
BAM is the mothership. She makes daily landings in Brooklyn, bringing the very best of intergalactic creativity, in all media, for the benefit of all of humankind.

16 Ways to Annamate Your Life

Vicki Lynn Hogan (aka Anna Nicole Smith) did it. You can too.

Here are 16 tips and tricks from opera’s newest heroine to get you started:

1.    Get your start in a town nobody can pronounce.

2.    Take the jobs as they come.

3.    Choose your idols wisely …

4.    … and don’t lose heart when you can’t quite measure up.

The Blue Dragon—now, a graphic novel!

by Susan Yung

Illustration by Fred Jourdain, from The Blue Dragon book

Turning a graphic novel or comic book into theater or film is a reliable method of producing eye-popping entertainment. Spider-Man and Annie, currently on Broadway, are two examples, not to mention all the superhero blockbuster movies. But can you think of a graphic book that was inspired by a film or show? (Add in comments, if so!)

Illustration by Fred Jourdain, from The Blue Dragon book

Shanghai in Next Wave—From Dragon to Heaven

by David Hsieh

Tai Wei Foo and Robert Lepage in The Blue Dragon. Photo: Louise Leblanc

Robert Lepage directs and acts in The Blue Dragon; his character Pierre is a Canadian expat living in present-day Shanghai. In The Edge of Heaven, Gary Lucas reinterprets Chinese pop songs created in 1930s Shanghai. Both shows filter this major Eastern metropolis through Western eyes—befitting, as the history of Shanghai is closely intertwined with the Western presence in China.

Situated at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the middle of China’s coastline, Shanghai’s strength lies in its ocean-facing harbor. But China didn’t have much use of it before the 18th century since the major north-south shipping route was the Great Canal linking the Yellow and Yangtze rivers inland. And except for some isolated periods, China was not a sea-faring empire.

That changed in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanjing, after the British “fire-spewing ships” streamed up the Yangtze River and forced China to open five ports for trading, including Shanghai. Although not a sleepy fishing village like Hong Kong, which China ceded in the same treaty, Shanghai, by Chinese standards, was not a major city (its official status was a level below) nor a historical one. It had a population of about 200,000. The city wall, built 300 years earlier, measured only three miles in circumference. The landscape was as flat as a piece of cardboard and prone to flooding. But acting on the advice of William Jardine, a ship physician turned opium merchant turned parliament member, London decided this would be the base for its future operation in China. Modern Shanghai was born.

The Executive Files: Casting pole dancers for Anna Nicole

by Alice Bernstein

From the 2011 Royal Opera House production of Anna Nicole
Photo: ROH/Bill Cooper

6 FEMALE DANCERS: All Ethnicities, height range: 5’2 – 5’6, dress size range: 4-6; dance detailed, unison, count-based contemporary dance material that's heavy on gestures and grounded weighty moves, although no floor work involved. Strong acting ability required.  Some, not all of the dancers will need to be strong Pole Dancers.  Please indicate on submission if client has pole dance experience.

That email was the start of another wacky chapter in my work as executive vice president at BAM. We needed to cast six pole dancers for our fabulous new opera, Anna Nicole. Pole dancing in Houston, TX as a means of providing for her son, Daniel, gave the real Anna Nicole Smith her start in show business.

We were two gay men, two straight women, and one straight man in a studio measuring a tiny 10' x 35'. Every 10 minutes a woman wearing nearly nothing would pick a tune and start writhing around and between the three poles, trying to be as provocative as possible while performing amazing gymnastic feats. It was fairly standard for them to be able to grasp the pole at a good height off the floor and position their body parallel to the ground. Uh, and then open their legs wide. I mostly avoided eye contact but our straight guy—oh okay, George Steel, artistic director and general manager of our producing partner, New York City Opera—was the focus of each dancer’s every move. He didn’t squirm. Much.

Great Scott

By Robert Wood

Warm birthday wishes are in order for composer and inventor Raymond Scott, who would have been 105 today. Best known as the go-to man for musical zaniness in the 50s and 60s—Looney Tunes purchased his entire back catalog for use in their cartoons—the Brooklyn-born Scott might be better remembered as one of the fathers of electronic music, responsible for such instruments as the Clavivox (co-designed by a young Bob Moog), the Videola (a film music recording tool), and, perhaps most impressively, the Electronium.

Designed to be an “electronic composing machine" and described by Scott as a “cockpit of dreams,” the hulking Electronium—bedecked with more buttons and switches than the dashboard of the Space Shuttle—is a partial inspiration for Questlove’s upcoming show at BAM, which will celebrate the history of electronic music as only the indelibly plugged-in drummer can.

We’ll have more to say about Scott later, but for now we say happy birthday, sir, wherever your current cockpit. Here's a video:

The Labors of Silence

Obie award-winner Ain Gordon’s new work, Not What Happened, fills a historical void by imagining what happened in a woman’s quotidian 19th-century existence. Forrest Holzapfel, a photographer and Gordon’s collaborator, also explores our forgotten history through stark images of obsolete objects and rural landscapes. These photos are imbued with memory due to Forrest’s keen eye and dedication to local history, and, as the backdrops in Not What Happened, give the main character, Silence, a greater voice. Below Forrest elaborates on his images, their relationship to Ain’s work, and his own personal search for what happened. A selection of Forrest’s photos will be on display as part of Next Wave Art in the Fisher Lower Lobby through December 22. He will also take part in a post-show discussion with Ain Gordon on September 27. 

Kin & Cup

The Labors of Silence
by Forrest Holzapfel

Inhabiting the mind of another person is a leap of imagination which demands empathy.

Silence is pregnant with meaning: a character from Ain Gordon’s theater work Not What Happened, a woman worn from the labor of existence and from the convolutions of her heart.

Silence is also our constructed, remembered sound of 1804. Feeling the character Silence’s place in the world however yields more: the scrape of iron on hot brick and the popping of split beech in the cavernous fireplace. The slide of a bead of sweat down the bridge of nose, crunching the lees of the woodpile underfoot, a gasp of crisp winter dawn air in the dooryard.

Looking for Lethem: A Field Guide

by Jessica Goldschmidt

Jonathan Lethem joins us next week to celebrate the release of his newest book, Dissident Gardens—and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

So, apparently, is everyone else.

To save you the hassle of wading through the wealth of Google results you’ll get back for searching “Jonathan Lethem Dissident Gardens” to prep for next Tuesday’s event, we’ve assembled the tastiest morsels of Q&A, critique, and cultural hubbub (the New York Times printed a sentence with f*** in it???) surrounding the book’s release.

• The New York Times Book Review's in-depth, glowing review.

• Unbound: Jonathan Lethem moderator Laura Miller on Lethem’s delight at sneaking an f-bomb into The New York Times;

• And an impassioned rebuttal from Mother Jones arguing that the Bard of Brooklyn has had “f***” in Times print for years;

• New York Magazine’s illustrated map of Sunnyside, Queens, annotated by the author;

• Lethem on books he's read, loathed, and more by The New York Times Book Review;

• Lethem and Dissident Gardens in music by Elle magazine;

• And the one you've all been waiting for: Lethem in interior décor by The New York Times.

Don't miss Unbound: Jonathan Lethem, an exclusive book launch with readings, discussions, and book-signing by the author on Tuesday, September 10th.