Produced by Emily Johnson
Directed by Jon Hill
Writers Sarah Cathcart and Emily Johnson
Cast:  NORA – Emily Johnson; NORMAL MATT – Matt Offerman; NARCISSIST MATT – Matthew King; ESSEF ECKS – Echo Kellum
Cinematographer:  Jim Hunter;  Editor: Isaiah Camp
Sound Mixer: Jeremy Green;  Sound Design and Supervision: Jay Nierenberg — Sublime Sound
Music by Kevin MacLeod
Camera Assistant: David Ruchman;  Color Correction: Richard Flores – Primary 3

We had fun a lot of fun shooting our homage, A Room With a Pond With a Staircase and a View. We also learned what a good writer Izzard is.  A few words of silliness yielding comedic tension in the way Picasso or Matisse could turn a few pencil lines into a cat or an odalisque.

Before Turner Classic Movies, before deluxe DVD re-releases — before VHS! — there was Elwy Yost, with his selections of classic films.  His presentation style was warm, passionate and in cahoots with his viewers — “uncool” in the way that Fred Rogers was uncool but awesome.  Yost would pair his film selections with excellent interviews with major and minor players from back in the day (e.g., Rouben Mamoulian telling a story about daring to ask the great Eugene O’Neill for cuts to the screenplay for Golden Boy).  “Isn’t that marvelous!” was a frequent and infectious Yost-ism when interviewees revealed a gem about how a film got made.

He was a major influence on me and many other Torontonian showbizistas of a certain age.  Here’s a nice appreciation that offers more detail.

Always find out rigidly and exactly what you mean, and never strike an attitude, whether national or moral or critical or anything else. […] Get all your facts right first: that is the foundation of all style, because style is the expression of yourself; and you cannot express yourself genuinely except on a basis of precise reality.
—Shaw, Bernard. Advice to a Young Critic: And Other Letters. Notes & Intro by E.J. West. New York: Capricorn Books, 1963.

At times, it can be tempting to write beautiful sentences; and they have their place.  But if forced to choose — and one is typically pressed for time in the grants game — it is preferable to chase down the facts about inputs, outputs and outcomes.  It is better to risk offering a dry sentence that answers the prospective funder’s question than a beautifully written evasion.

I enjoyed seeing our work of art become the jumping-off point for other artists’ expression—as with jazz players riffing on a standard.  While the scenario they created and the selections they made from the book are their own new artistic choices, I was tickled by how the filmmakers and cast (Dave Vaughn, Matt Dick and Mikaela Dyke) captured the spirit of friendship and playfulness that our poetry celebrates.

Below, a photo of one of the last remaining available copies of this handmade book/objet-d’art:

CREDITS:

Produced by:  Jens Kohler & Tony Schwartz

Shot and edited by:  Billy Marchese

Composer:  Chris Piorkowski

CERT PSA from Kohler Schwartz Productions on Vimeo.

The New Subalterns is a project I am working on as part of Eartraffic, my collaboration with Rikk Salamat.

Allow me to offer you my variation on the mixed drink known as the Tequila Sunrise.  Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce…

The Köhler Sunrise

In a tumbler, half filled with crushed ice, ADD:

2 oz. of tequila.

Fresh squeezed orange juice.  (I do mean fresh squeezed, backyard fresh, preferably still warm from the sun.)

STIR.  When the ice has stopped spinning, ADD:

1/2 oz. of Aperol.  (Yes, Aperol’s rhubarby goodness instead of grenadine.)

GARNISH with orange chunk.  Serve.  Straw optional.