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Mermaid movie stills. Film shot Aug. 2009 at Plum Island MA
In 1984 a group of poets called the Fire of Prometheus got together and performed all over Boston. For several years the group performed shows that either entertained or tortured the audiences depending on who you listen to.
They also performed in the east Village, Soho, Toronto, London, and Paris.
The group is doing a one night reunion show featuring the 84 year old Billy Barnum, RU Outavit, Kasara, and Mick Cusimano @
SQUAWK Coffeehouse open-mike Thursday night Aug. 13, 2009 from 9:00 pm to 12 midnight,
located in the Harvard Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge, Ma
https://www.angelfire.com/music/squawk/weekly.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvb29xxhle8&feature=channel_page
https://mcusiman.tripod.com/fire.html
https://mcusiman.tripod.com/und.html
Last night
I went to Fenway Park with 3 friends. Ortiz didn't score any runs, Wakefield didn't strike any one out. In fact the Red Sox were in Florida. behind 3rd base this guy began singing Baby you can drive my car. Guess you're going to be a star.
Yes Paul McCartney was amazing doing many of his legendary songs...Eleanor Rigby, Helter skelter, Hey Jude, Yesterday, Band on the Run, Paperback writer, I saw her standing there, Back in the USSR, etc. they played 2.5 hours. It was a unique experience. you can't underestimate the effct of the Beatles on late 20th Century America and in many ways the world.
Here is a comic strip of the show.
On July 4 I rallied ten people who stayed in town
and filmed three movies The Surreal Cafe,
Don't Spill the Eggs, and Make Way for the Queen.
Here are few stills from the production.
Amazing to see the government swiftly anouncing the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday as divine assessment. If they were so confident of this divine assessment then why did they ban protests, beat demonstrators and cut off web and phone lines? Sounds fishy to me. Anecdotal evidence suggests massive fraud robbing the election from Mousavi and his supporters dressed in green.
Its the same old story. Just look at Zimbabwe last year. Mugabe lost the election hands down, nullified the results, intimidated the opposition and now his country is in financial ruin. Hundreds of people are getting sick with no health care. Hundreds of Zimbabwe orphans are wandering to other countries suffering from starvation. Where is the goverenment helping it's people? Nowhere to be found.
Protests in Tehran have turned deadly. Last night thousands of students in Tehran got up on their rooves and shouted Death to the Dictator!
Monday hundreds of thousands of people defied the government and demonstrated in the streets of Tehran. You can't help remembering that The Tiennamen Square massacre happened just 20 years ago. Last night thugs beat up students in their dorms but they are planning more demonstrations defying the government.
These events put the Iranian hardline government in a harsh light as seen by the international community. Well there is no rest for the weary. I just saw The Stoning of Soraya M a real intense movie about a woman wrongfully stoned to death in Iran.
The BBC and news organizations aren't allowed to leave their hotel rooms. Democratic struggle doesn't come easy in third world countries. The government clamped down on street protests but they have come under criticism from clerics inside Iran questioning the legitimacy of the elections. Recently the government has staged these group trials which several Ayatollahs have objected.
The Iranian people still resist this illegitimate government. To the brave Iranian people...keep yelling Death to the Dictators from your rooftops! Remember Nada! keep rocking the boat until you capsize Ahmadinejad and the repressive government he represents!
Photos from Yahoo news
First stop on my french tour...Grenoble My cousin took me to where she worked...European Synchotron where they spin electrons around a machine and then study them to find cures for Aids, swine flu, etc. 
After a few days of family R & R its off to Cannes to screen my movie The Dreams of Leonardo da Vinci. Its a 9 hour train ride but passing through Avignon I saw castles up on hills and Roman aqueducts. Stopping in Marseille for an hour and a half seemed like a scene from stopover hell. Chaotic crowds scurried around and the garbage cans in the train terminal where overflowing. I guess no one in town wanted to be the ones to clean it up. Walking out onto the balcony I stopped suddenly. The end of the balcony turned into the top of a giant staircase with lions on both sides that went down to the main street of the city. In the background of the city was a mountain with a cathedral perched on top. 
I passed Cannes on the way to Nice and saw yachts in the harbor. 
Since the average hotel in Cannes is over $3000 a week during the 
film festival I had a to settle for a room in Nice at the Clown hotel. Yes there where giant clown heads on the every landing of the staircase that lead to my room. Checking in I passed all the heads again as I headed back to Cannes. 
On the train I met Pauline who had a movie Enter the Preacher in the Short Film Corner and walked down the main drag. Palm trees stretched over the streets, paparazzi hung around the red carpet like locusts, and there was entrance to the temple of film the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival. 
Grabbing my badge I headed straight for 
the Short Film Corner where I was going to show my movie.
There I met Debbie from Boston who translated my movie into French subtitles and talked me into sending my movie to the festival. It was 5:00 PM and that meant happy hour. That meant that the Short Film Corner was the favorite area of the festival from 5-6 since it was the only department that had free wine and beer in the building.
There we meet Bita an actress appearing in the upcoming movie the Stoning of Soraya M about Iran.
It's a powerful movie that you will be hearing a lot about in the next few weeks. The 3 of us spent the next 4 days going to movies, parties, seminars, 
and the international pavilions. We saw an Israeli movie about a troubled family that worked in a car repair shop, Mother a Korean movie about an overprotective mother and The Kings Letter a Dutch film about the Middle Ages. We saw Precious about a struggling woman in Harlem. The cast including Maria Carey walks up the Red Carpet and take their bows onstage to a theater packed with several thousand people. The room goes dark and the film is projected onto the largest movie screen I've ever seen. Unfortunately I had to leave early to catch the last train to the Clown hotel.
Being part of an entourage of film people has its advantages since we have more information and networking opportunities. We got invited to the Egyptian Pavilion where they served their native food and we me the director of Heliopolis a feature movie premiering at Cannes. 
We went to
a party at the Thailand pavilion. Mpower the new film company launching the Stoning of Soraya M had a screening of the trailer and the company background at the exclusive Carlton Hotel followed by a reception on the balcony with scotch, shrimp, and salmon. We met film company people and an Italian couple who design Mazzaratis. We saw Francis Ford Coppola talking about writing the screenplay for Patton and his film career. We went to a talk by UK director Stephen Frears who produced Dangerous Liasions with Michelle Pfeiffer, the Queen and other movies talked about casting and editing.
Going to Cannes movies and parties is fun. Sometimes we would stop by the Turkish pavilion sit under the palm trees and look out at the beaches of the French Riviera and reflect about how that at that momen in time there was n
o other place in the world that we would rather be.
We went to a French comedy on Sat. night but I had to head out once again to get back to Nice so I could check out of the Clown hotel the next day and take the train to Gare de Lyon in Paris.
I met my friend Maria there and we saw a Spanish concert and an avante garde band at a bar. We went to a gypsy band in a club basement. Maria got up to dance with the band. In all the years I've known Maria I've never seen her enjoy herself so much.
Jacques one of the artists from the New Surrealists show I was in back in 2003 took me to see Kandinsky and Calder shows at the Pompidou Center. Debbie arrived from Cannes and we went to the Louvre and the DiChirico show at the Modern Art Museum. Walking by Place d’ Clichy I stumbled upon a movie being filmed on the Paris streets. The scene has a guy following a woman with leather pants down the street.
They didn't even close off the sidewalks as they do in shoots in Boston. Whoever was strolling down the street at the time was in the movie. Debbie had a reading of her play that she wrote in French LE PARESSEUX ou Le Mari est Assis performed at a private house party near the Arc de Triumphe. 
The next day I had breakfast with Maria and headed to the airport. Now when I walk by the river I don't see the Eiffel Tower....which means I'm no longer in Paris. Now...if I could only stop dreaming about those damn clowns.
To watch the Cannes movie click Here.
My new movie Suspicious Minds premiered at Boston Fiim Night
Saturday May 16th @
the Somerville Theater
You can see the movie on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dE-hw9c3Y0
Its a murder mystery/comed
My movie The Dreams of Leonardo da Vinci will be screened at the
Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner May 14-23.
After having this film picked for 3 film festivals this is a major
leap to take it to the international community. It's an animated movie where Leonardo's inventions
and artwork come alive. It's based on the drawings and writings of Leonardo's famous notebooks. Maybe I can get
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to come by and watch it.
Apocalypse Soon. Swine flu is spreading out of control from Mexico
to places around the world.
The Taleban are taking over major parts of Pakistan and the economy
is still in recession. Chrysler is on the verge of bankruptcy. Reading the
front page headlines has too curl your tail these days.
Here is a cartoon that has nothing to do with world events....just an
extra with delusions of Hollywood stardom. 
Tired of your dead end job. Start a New career. Become a brain surgeon in your spare timeSign up for the
Cerebellum School of Brain surgery. You get a manual, a map of the brain with the different lobes,
a cauliflower to practice with and you're on your way.
Start your dazzling new medical career in just six weeks! Watch the movie on Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JolxcLnu_Ms
Posted April 1, 2009
