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Tapes from the Script
March 17
Late Sunday afternoon I attended a Word Theatre poetry reading called 'Tongues on Fire" in West Hollywood. The big draw was actress-poet Amber Tamblyn reading from her latest volume, Bang Ditto. The passages she read were mostly about relationship rage ("I would sleep with your friends if you had any") and were delivered with a certain arch-deadpan tonality, like pithy fire-drill alarms.

Tamblyn's writing is fierce, brilliantly honed and sometimes razor-hilarious. She also sang two duets with her mom, Bonnie Murray.
My admiration for Tamblyn began with her lead performance in Stephanie Daley, which I first saw at Sundance '06. (Distribution mucky-muck delayed its release until April '07.) I called her performance "awfully damn good...conveying a haunted, gloom-ridden, terrified emotional state, and she's immensely watchable, attractively so, every second she's on-screen."
Amber has been seriously invested in poetry since 2005 or thereabouts. Her first poetry book, Free Stallion (Simon & Schuster), came out that year. She exec produces an annual L.A. poetry event, "The Drums Inside Your Chest", and is the co-founder of Write Now Poetry Society. She's hooked up these days with comedian David Cross. She currently lives in Brooklyn's DUMBO district.
Amber's actor-manager dad Russ Tamblyn (who's partnered with Joan Hyler these days) was in the audience. Post-performance we briefly spoke about Robert Wise's The Haunting ('61), a landmark horror film in which Russ co-starred. An English home known for being actually haunted was used for exteriors, he said, with interiors filmed at Elstree Studios. We talked about that killer climactic scene in which a large wooden door bends and contorts from the pressure of ghosts, and what it might have actually been made of.


Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 25, 2009 at 9:51 PM
comment #1
Ulysses
says ...
I've been an admirer of Amber since her days on General Hospital. She also starred on the splendid "Joan of Arcadia" for two seasons.
Posted by Ulysses
at October 26, 2009 7:13 AM
comment #2
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
I love her. I wish she's my best friend or something.
*sigh*
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at October 26, 2009 7:21 AM
comment #3
Ulysses
says ...
Punk, how do you feel about Christopher Marquette, the male equivalent to Amber ?
Posted by Ulysses
at October 26, 2009 7:27 AM
comment #4
Ulysses
says ...
Well, perhaps "male equivalent" is the wrong term, but they worked together wonderfully on Joan of Arcadia; I would love to see them do something else together.
Posted by Ulysses
at October 26, 2009 7:31 AM
comment #5
Josh Massey
says ...
I loved Russ on "Twin Peaks." In fact, anybody on that show gets a lifetime pass from me.
Posted by Josh Massey
at October 26, 2009 8:41 AM
comment #6
M. Hulot
says ...
Like most 20 something's who catch the poetry buzz, Ms. Tamblyn's poetry suffers from the pretentious, I'm too young to to have anything of relevance to say so I'm going to talk about my vagina and sex, and immature visions of love. In other words, her poetry really sucks.
And frankly, I'm suprised that you think it's any good. But then again, you think Public Enemies is basically a masterpiece, so it's not like your critical eyes have seen with any clarity for quite some time.
Posted by M. Hulot
at October 26, 2009 8:48 AM
comment #7
Pynchon8
says ...
[Deleted because the poster has the sensibilities of a pig.]
Posted by Pynchon8
at October 26, 2009 8:58 AM
comment #8
M. Hulot
says ...
So true, Pynchon!
Posted by M. Hulot
at October 26, 2009 9:55 AM
comment #9
dogcatcher
says ...
I think Tamblyn is twenty-seven years old.
Posted by dogcatcher
at October 26, 2009 10:19 AM
comment #10
nemo
says ...
John Keats was dead for almost 2 years when he was 27.
Posted by nemo
at October 26, 2009 10:34 AM
comment #11
Abbey Normal
says ...
I hate poetry in general, but I must protest nemo's comment...anything that even vaguely equates Tamblyn with Keats is to be vigorously mocked and opposed. First of all (and I'm sure this is painfully obvious to everyone but just indulge me), in 1795, the year Keats was born, I doubt the lifespan was more than 50 years old or so, given all the tuberculosis floating about. Both his parents died before he was 16. so Keats may have been young in a chronological sense, but in terms of culture and experience there was a lot of life and tragedy in those 27 years. He packed more in during his short time here than Tamblyn ever will (at least I hope so, for her sake).
Posted by Abbey Normal
at October 26, 2009 10:47 AM
comment #12
Jeffrey Wells
says ...
Wells to the coarse & slovenly beast known as M. Hulot (who has posted at HE many times under many guises, and has always managed to ugly things up): You're cruel and snarly and not very wise. "What could "relevance" possibly mean when discussing someone's poetry? Relevant-schmelevant. You start with the raw material of your life and then you finesse and condense and reformulate and reshape until it starts to sing on its own. Amber Tamblyn has done all this and more. She has a voice and a style that is hers and hers alone. I was listening to and loving her stuff as she read it. It worked. It was thrilling.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells
at October 26, 2009 10:51 AM
comment #13
Terry McCarty
says ...
There are other, less-famous-than-Amber, female poets worth checking out in this city: Ellyn Maybe, Rachel Kann, Mindy Nettifee--to name just three.
Posted by Terry McCarty
at October 26, 2009 12:04 PM
comment #14
BarryR
says ...
Any new comment about THE HAUNTING is always welcomed--one of the best ever ghost films ever created. I find it amusing that the eerie exterior location is now the Ettington Park Hotel (check their website!).
Posted by BarryR
at October 26, 2009 12:23 PM
comment #15
M. Hulot
says ...
Wells,
What, I'm not entitled to speak my honest opinion? You hate on certain movies, their makers, their stars, ALL THE TIME. And you are often far more coarse than I was here. So, are you admitting that it's okay for you to be worse? HE readers know full well that you often revel in cutting people down to size, and you often do so in angry, hateful, and toxic manner.
I've seen Tamblyn read a couple of times in NY, and I've read all of her published stuff (which makes more of an astute judge of her work than you, given that I've actually read and have seen her read, more of her work than you, giving me more thorough and comprehensive overview.
As far as my use of the word "relevant", perhaps I should have been more specific. By relevant I meant important, urgent, worthwile, interesting. But her work is none of those things in MY opinion. Her work lacks depth and substance and it is, as I have stated above, largely involved with dealing im themes that are typical of girl her age. Most of her work is about as deep as the navel of an anorexic teen. It is self indulgent, immature, pretentious, and is deficient in provoking any real discourse or feeling.
If you don't like my opinion, so be it. But that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to it.
Posted by M. Hulot
at October 26, 2009 2:12 PM
comment #16
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
Yay! M. Hulot doesn't like Tamblyn's poetry and he didn't like my play either. Now I feel better.
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at October 26, 2009 6:40 PM
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