Xanadu my Hero, Buying Bewilderment

First there was the cult song and now the high-priestess of underground art emerges from the afterglow of self-annihilation with The Sparky Show.


   Xanadu Xero! Welcome to London! 
What do you make of our version of the city  that never sleeps, that goes to bed at 10 pm?

My dreams of "Swinging London" are dashed, but that might be the reason artists are so much more accomplished and interesting here.

 Tell me a bit about the book, what inspired it. Is Sparky a real person, how did you meet?

The book is 110% true.  I met Sparky while roasting in the embers of my crashed/burned dignity, which is it’s own saga.  I was attempting to force dawn on a Dark Night Of The Soul by grabbing at experience in the Los Angeles 'underground scene' - which itself crashed and burned thanks to that Combo From Hell - pretense and drugs (RIP.)

  Tell us a little about your life pre-Sparky Show and what inspired you to write it?

Sparky

I wrote The Sparky Show to exorcise him from my DNA.  I was in mourning - to be un-flatteringly honest, in bad shape.  My daughter was three thousand miles away, menopause had slammed me on its bed of nails.  I had no career, no husband, no acclaim.  I was down so people kicked me for sport, de rigueur in L.A.        

  You've had such an exciting glamorous life. What keeps you grounded? Why do you make art?

I'm grateful for my 'privileged' Beverly Hills upbringing because I have no illusions about what our culturally perceived 'glamour' is: not much.  If I'm grounded, it's a step up from spiritually interred, where I was stuck.  My age, views, output are ugly by Los Angeles standards, where norm deviations must be in Vogue first.

As Nurse in Ward 12 , Secret Cinema, London November 2010

  What is your most important role? Artist, writer, creator, mother, etc?

I respect your question, but I feel post 'role'. The word implies logical order and I feel none. I want to give and receive love, encourage others, throw food for thought with FoolishPeople, hopefully improve something and have fun with my all-guns-blazing time left on earth which, in the sunniest of circumstances, ain't much.

  What is the role of an artist and

I'll be happy if I can reconnect wires in people's brains that have been culturally, or traumatically, cut.  That's a pretentious statement, but I feel I have something to share now, thanks to two generations of triumphs and defeats - which are now blurred in my mind.

AAA

 Who inspires you?

John Harrigan inspires me.  He is my favorite living artist, a man with immaculate honor - perpetually brave.  Anas Aremeyaw Anas - the courageous Ghanian journalist.  My daughter, who teaches low income kids in New Orleans. 


Gin / vodka?

Tequila!!!!

  La Perla / Victoria's Secret?

Depends who's buying!  It's kind of depressing to buy La Perla for one's self - I'm not that into me.

  If you could challenge all the preconceptions others have about you in five words what would you say?

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” -Rumi   (That's six.)

 I have three wishes to grant you. What are they?

Excluding the ‘Ascension Of Man’ stuff, I’d have to say (1.) My collagen fibers at 25… (2.) A hot male with moral courage who knows how to love… (3.) Proper funding for Foolish People.

  You told me yesterday it is very hard to grow old gracefully as a woman in Hollywood because of the pressure to stay looking good. Does this matter when you are such a talented and creative soul like you? How do you deal with it?

Far as I can tell, “growing old gracefully” means decomposing with a smile and no opinions.  Fuck that.  I appreciate your kind words but talent and creativity pretty much spell ‘hell’ for women in The First World unless lavishly remunerative and unoriginal.

 What's your 'scope?

Horoscope?  I’m a double Scorpio with a Libra Moon, a Pushmepullyou.  If you mean extent and range of view…  I don’t know.  I can’t even say ‘Out Of The Box,’ because there is no box – that’s a collective hallucination.

You said you would never love again in the same way that you loved Sparky, do you think he stole away that part of you?

He stole nothing, I offered it all – even threw it at him.  The last shards of my naivete, however, were pulverized in the process.  Not only is LOVE not enough, it’s rarely defined the same way by those involved. 

Xanadu Xero

What's your favorite magic spell?

Perseverance, focus, truth and intensity.  John Harrigan demystified MAGIC for me when he explained that it’s basically a commitment to common sense.

  You've spent a lot of time around celebrities, writers and other creative types.  Who was the man / woman who most turned you on and made you think, OMG. This is special.

No one in thirty years has sizzled ‘special’ to me until I found Foolish People online.  When I read their motto: ART ON THE INSIDE, BLOOD ON THE OUTSIDE, I gasped.

The ridiculously charismatic John Harrigan

  So after the Sparky Show which is a visual and sensual burst of colour like starbusts on your senses, what's next?

I’m co-writing a film script with John that we plan to shoot next year with FP in Los Angeles and Prague.

  How is LA different from London? Could you like it here? Do you notice the different nuances in the culture and classes?

London is more obviously depressed than Los Angeles, though I see the whole First Word sinking fast.  I love London but for the APPALLING tube system, enslaving all but the very rich - dictating their lives!  There are only two classes now anywhere – Looters and Scramblers.  It disgusts me.

Buy The Sparky Show, a sumptuous, multi-media, techni-colour romp and  raging rave of a love story here . And Xanadu Xero, may your neon lights shine forever, on you Xanadu.