Notes from the Parlour...
July 2005


No matter how many times you've heard the Mark Twain adage about San Francisco summers, you must admit--he was right. Heavy woolen coats and fur wraps. Hot soups and Indian curries. We've been enshrouded in the traditional June Gloom---fog so dense you barely can read street signs, or see past your own hand after 4pm. Grey, peppered mist and heavy winds...no wonder I stay. It's perpetual film noir, the smoke of twilight all day long. Everyone laughs at the tourists, easily spotted shivering in chino shorts and halter tops. Yes, this may be California, but San Francisco is an eccentric entity all to itself. Bring layers.
**Now that I write this, I'm sure the weather will mock me and soar to 90 degrees. Here is my caveat.

Cut to sunny Palm Springs: I received an email from Alan Rode, senior writer for Film Monthly informing me that my CD Diabolical Streak was the music of choice between movies at the 2005 Palm Springs Film Noir Festival. I was told that so many people were asking him and festival programmer Art Lyons "who the women singing is" that they had to make several announcements between screenings! That was exciting news, as well as the fact that one of the festival's special guests was one of my longtime heros--Ray Bradbury! Would love to have met him....

Ice Cream Ants is now in post-production. The film is a surreal thriller written and directed by award-winning Brooklyn screenwriter Jeremy Carr, and produced by Sageworx' Marc Calamia. Ice Cream Ants stars Marcus Ashley (Laurel Canyon) and Tom Noonan (Heat/Mystery Train/Manhunter). I play a dangerous femme fatale named Mona who continuously haunts the dreams of an unamed man and holds the key to his identity.We began shooting in April in New York City, namely Red Hook/Park Slope, Brooklyn and the Upper West Side. A fun fact is that the room you will see as my bedroom is really the home of a Tony-award winning male dancer in Movin' Out. Don't tell anyone.
More fun facts, you say? Well, the horrible, slimy tentacles that invade the bathroom were actually shot from Jeremy Carr's own toilet. The infamous Mona mask, cast from my face (by effects master Jonathan Horton) worked wonders (read Parlour May 2005 archives) with a few tricks involving stealth body twisting on my part. I could not see while wearing the mask, would occasionally 'crack up' underneath it during the erotic sequences, (hey, no one could see, and I was told to writhe anyway). And the wonderfully distrubing characters in the bar scene...ahhhh, words fail me. I only wish those guys were regulars at my local haunt.

Jeremy has posted the first group of production stills on the Ice Cream Ants website. And if you visit the Filmmakers page, you'll see both director and producer donning the infamous Jill Tracy/Mona masks! I do thank Jeremy Carr for going against my wishes (no, I have too much to pack!) and presenting me with a mask on my way to the airport. There were five made in all.

It seems I'm now amassing a collection of art made from my body parts that were featured in various film/stage projects! Who knew? I must say they look lovely amongst the countless curiosities devouring the walls and shelves around here. Last week Bill Domonkos presented me with my bloodied severed ear, under glass, elegantly framed within folds of red velvet, a specimen plaque reading Oreille Divisee de Jill Tracy. This was the ear used in "The Beast," one of last year's classic Grand Guignol stage plays at the Hypnodrome. I played a ninteenth-century Countess who is attacked by a savage wolf-boy--he tears my ear off. (Ear also created by Jonathan Horton.)

Thrillpeddlers has currently launched a new Grand Guignol revue at the Hypnodrome entitled Blood Bucket Ballyhoo. Although I am not acting this time, I was enlisted as a consultant and actual fit model in the recreation of the famed historical insturment of torture, the Brank! (You'll see it in all the promo photos.) Add that to the collection as well....a Scold's Bridle made for my head! Be careful what you wish for...
Blood Bucket Ballyhoo is an uproarious thrill! If you're in the Bay Area, I highly recommend it. Ticket info on the Hypnodrome website. The show runs through the summer. I will be performing later this month in collaboration with the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum and Thrillpeddlers in
Unfettered Souls: Hypnosis, Grand Guignol, and the Guillotine. Visit the website to find out more info on this rare film/lecture/theatrical event. One night only.

Yes, it was long overdue. I've posed with prop guns and dodged pretend assailants in the shadows for years. But it was time to get behind the barrel for real. (If you're hailed the "femme fatale for the thinking man" by countless media, you better know how to handle a weapon. Plus, I've always had a penchant for those sexy vintage revolvers.)
In preparation for an upcoming project, I was fortunate enough to spend the day (my birthday, no less!) with weapons expert Peter Koch. He is the official Bureau of Security and Investigative Services firearms and concealed weapons training instructor. This was a serious afternoon.
I was schooled in the finer points of basic pistol, revolver, semi-automatics, shooting everything from a .22 to a .357 magnum. I don't think I could have handled the recoil on anything larger. Intense to feel that much go off in my hands. (Now I certainly don't condone or encourage real violence toward people or animals, please don't send me emails. That's not why I was there.) I was very intrigued by the mechanisms, precision, the skill of shooting. I was seduced by the challenge. I learned a lot about the particulars of my eyesight-- definitely right-eye dominate. My poor little left eye was not much help at all. Peter said I shot way-above-average for my first time. And I will return. Gaining more knowledge certainly took some of the fear away. I was reloading quickly, knowing how to move and stand properly while armed. How to unload and store a weapon. Approaching a loaded gun. Koch said he sometimes works with families and teens on this very subject. Knowledge is power, and to know how to handle safely, as well as avoiding the danger, is key. The ignorance of the person holding a gun is what should be most feared. And yes, I still have a penchant for those sexy vintage revolvers...now more than ever.

yours in theory and practice,
Jill Tracy

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