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In New York, Max meets a psychics woman in an elevator, who tells her to go and seek the man of her dreams, if she thinks she is best for him, for people should FLOURISH and THRIVE in a relationship.
Backstory
When
I was 18 I met an amazing man in Rome. Actually I met two. One I ended
up spending 5 years with - A German Baron who was making a living on
the streets of Europe as a pavement painter. The other was a tall dark
Mexican who lived in the same ‘pensione’ as I. He was the first man I
had any feelings for since my first love as a teenager in Australia. The Mexican and I had a deeply moving but - for the most part -
platonic love affair. I had told him I was saving myself up for a
German - I just knew I was going to meet the man of my dreams before
long. I wasn’t hot for Latinos and clearly saw myself with a German
artist. Sebastian was 6’2” with shiny dark hair and one of the most
beautiful men I had ever seen, and though we spent months together I
restrained myself from ever really letting go. When we finally parted
company he told me we should meet and marry in ten years time after
he’d made his mark on the world as a film director and I’d cured myself
of my obsession with German men. He headed to Hollywood and we lost
contact.
Jump 20 years later. I am in Los Angeles. Living in a tree house in Venice. I’m kind of mixed up and confused as to where I want my life to go next. I’m dangling in some kind of limbo.
The music career wasn’t what it was cut out to be and I found myself still needing the wild excitement of travel and unpredictability. I think I’m an artist at heart, but have I seriously committed to that? Or am I inherently nomadic and indeed already living the life of a bohemian that can’t conform?
My girlfriend and artist from Berlin shows up for afternoon tea. ‘I just met a man - I had a wild weekend with this amazing man whom I think you would really love - he’s your kind of guy - really tall, dark, speaks Italian... I look at her with a cold hard glare. ‘Give me his number’ I demand, reaching out my hand. She laughs. ‘Seriously’ I say. ‘Give me his number’. She produces his cell number. It’s a 310... I dial. ‘Caliente yovo’ I say into the phone. I hear that distinct Mexican vocal click. Oh My God. It is Sebastian. He knows it is me. Twenty years have gone by and here he is in Los Angeles. ‘Where are you?’ I ask. ‘At the airport - I’m about to get on a flight to Mexico City. I will be back in May for Mona’s annual Cinque DiMaggio party. Let’s meet there?’ Mona is the mutual friend that Tania - the artist - connected me with. I can’t wait. I can’t believe this. We have been reunited.
Cinque DiMaggio comes. I happen to be house sitting in Griffith Park only steps away from Mona’s amazing Art Deco mansion. The festivities are underway and Sebastian has arrived. We sit at the large kitchen table and start filling in the holes of our lives. The chemistry and familiarity is gripping. We are drawn to one another - with the same force that pulled us together twenty years earlier in Rome. I am dating a blond that I had met at an earlier party at Mona’s. It had been sometime between partners and I really needed someone to break the drought. This poor man was clearly smitten with me and I was obviously using him for sex. He didn’t fully understand what he was witnessing between Sebastian and I and ended up having a car accident on the corner of Franklin and Western in his haste to get to me.
Sebastian and I spend glorious days together in the same platonic way we did twenty years earlier. I learn that he has been living in Mexico City, but his girlfriend of four years and he were breaking up until she discovered that she is pregnant. It is a complex time and he leaves the decision up to her - as to whether they move forward together and parent a child or go their separate ways. He is in Los Angeles while she works it out. I clearly don’t want to influence or add to the confusion and tell him that if she wants this child he should return to Mexico and be a wonderful father and make his movie...this dream he had so many years ago...it’s time for him to make his movie. He receives a call. She wants him back. We disentangle ourselves from this emotional web of memories and dreams and go our separate ways. Accepting that their fate might just not be for the two be with each other, Max once again leaves LA, hitchhiking back to New York. But only a few hours east she gets stranded in 29 Palms, CA.... There, she befriends OXANA, THE ACTRESS, who she helps to open up emotionally. She also gets to perform at the "Lonely Hearts" radio show, whose DJ falls in love with her.
so my animation pieces - whereever / however they can fit
i'm aiming at having 3 little video art pieces - the back story will be pretty arty at this point - we can refine it for the film/style later but it will be kind of 'stand alone' - to set up the character.
#1 Woody meets Max (i was also thinking of cutting out Harrison Ford's head - and incorporating it somewhere into another piece... maybe i will stick the photo of his face on a doll..)
#2 'Sleeping Beauties' (video narrative)
#3 'Backstory - the story of a singer'.
I got a miniature suitcase and made a max doll - so I am making a kind of mixed medium 'stop motion' film introduction about the characters background... leaving Australia... going to Rome.... meeting Sebastian.... it will end in NY.... meeting the psychic ..then
'....to be continued.'
#4 'White Australia' (1901-1973)
...so I'm thinking of my first animation - could even be about
her (the singer) ...as a child - love of singing...butterflies coming
out of her mouth...suitcase of butterflies and suitcase of feathers
(flying) and moving to New York...
I love the idea of a lonely dazed bride roaming the city streets....or the desert...
We shouldn’t doubt our abilities or distrust our instincts and we should live and learn and build and love our art and lives and just keep dreaming and steaming into the future with smiles on our faces.
Crowded River
I'd like to write a song
where I can say
I was wrong
pushing you away
I 'd admit oh I 'd confess
no 'one' can fill this empty nest
I'm pushing you away
lay down be a bridge for me
lay down ( it's a) crowded river,
you're the last one I wanna see
before I close my eyes
I'd like to write a book
where I can say
quick come look (quick come look
quick come look)
I'm pushing you away
I'd edit out the middle bit
That got so hard
That didn't fit
I'm pushing you away
Crowded River
lay down be a bridge for me
lay down ( it's a) crowded river,
you're the last one
I wanna see before I close my eyes
lay down be a bridge for me
lay down (it's a) crowded river
lay down keep me diving deep,
deep down into the night
Let you down -
sofly (slowly) carefully float -
blow you away (slowly)
all aboard origami pea green boat -
pushing you away
be a bridge for me
lay down be a bridge for me
lay down ( it's a) crowded river,
you're the last one
I wanna see
before I close my eyes
I'd like to right my wrongs
Right my wrongs
(what went wrong, what went wrong)
I cast you out, I reel you in -
cry me a river dive in deep
You 'd better learn to swim.
(on the lonely hearts radio show)
Two months ago I was living in New York and I met a psychic. I met her at a party and she took my hand and asked me about love. I told her about this man I've been dreaming about who already has a wife and she said he is mine if I want him - if I believe, that it is best for him. She said people should FLOURISH and THRIVE in re- lationships. If they suck your life force then they shouldn't be and if he isn't thriving then I shouldn't feel bad about creating a change ...she says I'd just be 'speeding it up'....Sebastian, the guy said I am ‘unconsciously apologetic' in my life...I told her, the psychic, that I get everything I want and then I lose it. She said it's because I don't think I deserve it...And I have to believe that I deserve to have what I want and not push it away... This is a song I wrote on the subway. It's called crowded river.