January 2007

0006 Matinee Soup ‘Brushing’, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

I had a great day today.

I had my first ever wardrobe call as an actor in a feature film. My scene will be shot on Monday 5 February.

A coupla weeks ago, I went to an audition for a part that my agent was hesitant to send me to, and the casting director was hesitant in seeing me for.

Shane (my super-agent) was kinda, ‘Roy, this is a bit of a HECTIC role. And I don’t know if it’s your cup of tea. Are you okay with semi nudity?’

Christa, South Africa’s top casting director, was kinda, ‘Hmmm. Roy. Are you SURE you’re okay playing this part? If you GET the part, will you realllly be comfortable doing it?’

The audition itself was fun. And the girl who was reading opposite me was utterly scrumptious. And Damon, my best buddy and horror script writing partner was behind the camera (he’s one of Christa and Digby’s regulars).

Afterwards, Damon said, ‘Dude, if you DON’T get this part, I’ll… well, I’ll… whatever. You nailed the audition, dude. Spot on.’

So I got a call from Shane a few days ago, saying, ‘You got it, Roy. You’re the Sugardaddy in Darryl Roodt’s latest feature film! Congrats!’

I said something similar to, ‘Yeeeehaaaa! Fuckin’ ay!!!! Asssskicker!’ Something like that. I forget exactly.

And Shane said, ‘Underpants.’

I said, ‘Huh?’

He said, ‘I’ve negotiated that you won’t have less than your underpants on.’

‘I don’t mind nudity,’ I said.

He said, ‘I’ve discussed it with Christa, and she agrees. Underpants. Nudity can definitely come back to haunt you later.’

So this is the scene I’m in. Yup… it’s ONE scene. I’m a bit player. I’m the mean muthafucka client of a prostitute. She’s late. I’m waiting. She arrives. And I get her to start giving me a blowjob. But she’s reluctant. So I get a little, uh, nasty. And some older woman comes into the room. It’s her mother. So I attempt to ‘persuade’ the mother to join in on the fun. Which is when the gun comes out, and the knee makes contact with the only scrotum in the place.

And, as of today, I know EXACTLY what that scrotum is going to be wearing. An extremely garish pair of scants. Striped. Loud. Pimpish. And the rest of me is going to have nothing on except a gold chain.

All of which has NOTHING to do with my sixth installment of MATINEE SOUP. But hey.

I painted this one on… wait for it… my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, using ArtRage 2.2 with the Uncut psychedelic hard rock cd playing in the background. No prostitutes, toothbrushes, or underpants were handled in the making of this pic. Actually… I may have handled the underpants a little. Just a little.

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Lu — Tattoo Concept sketch — with notes, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Lu is a manager at Look ‘n Listen in Cresta. He and I started chatting when my special order of the band SUN KIL MOON arrived.

He said, ‘Yeah! When I saw that someone else in the world was into Sun Kil Moon, I thought, "Hey! There’s hope for music in this country!" And then when I overheard you asking about Micah P Hinson, I thought, "I’ve gotta talk to this guy." Yeah!’

So we started chatting. He’s a muso, into roots music and alt.rock. When I showed him the list of artists I was steadily trying to track down, he knew almost every one of them. (And, uh, almost every single one of them was unavailable in this country. But hey.)

And then he asked what I do, and I told him I’m an artist. And showed him my ‘Right Arm’ tattoo. And he told me about his idea for a tattoo. So I said I’d give it a shot, with embellishments.

So this is the result. Lu’s original brief was for a tower with two instruments of power, like a hammer and an axe, or something like that, with energy radiating from the tower.

It’s for his upper arm, so all of the elements going off the edge of the page are meant to go all the way round the arm. For me, that sorta roots the tower to his arm, and seats it well. It’s anchored, potent. And the arms holding the instruments of power are kinda like musicians’ arms. And the instruments are musical instruments.

This is really just a raw and rough concept design. It’s nowhere NEAR what the tatt itself would look like. But hey. Things have gotta start somewhere.

I’ve just sent it to him. So I’m awaiting his response. Chances are it won’t be totally to his taste. Cos I’ve added loads of my own mythology into it.

I sketched this in ArtRage 2.2 on my Toshiba Tecra M4.

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