Species Feces

Boy have we been busy. Up to all sorts of things - some fun and some no fucking fun at all.. but here on the ON'D Express, we strive to satisfy your cravings for fun and we leave the shit behind. We do, however, want to stress that there is good shit and bad shit, and we definitely support and nurture the good shit..
First off, some of us crossed over the volcano, and visited the fatherland. Now we all know that the Germans love themselves some good 'ol dirty shit, so we figured, let's do a little screening for our friends and family. We got to use the basement of a great spot Annapam and projected our little mutant picture for a small crowd in the intimate space which is something like 500 years old. I am almost certain we showed the most fucked up shit that the space has ever seen. It was tons of fun, and ON'D picked up a bunch of new fans. Guten Tag, ya'all.

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We returned to Brooklyn and hit the ground running. Tosso (the master behind the soundtrack of ON'D) had a pretty fancy pants gig with his band, Grupo Irék last week - they played at the Plaza Hotel for Sting and Trudy Styler's Rainforest Alliance. It was a dinner / live auction which followed a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall with Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Debbie Harry, Shirley Bassey, Mary J Blige... I was rubbing elbows with Christopher Walken and Bette Middler. It was fucking fun.

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Quite unexpectedly I got a visit from my old friend Curtis Brown and his family yesterday and we had a lovely breakfast in our garden. The visit was short and he had to hit the road and head back north after only a few hours. I gave him the gift that keeps on giving. The best game ever for road trips. The best pastime for people of all ages. A simple game that I came up with - it is something that I call "Species Feces" and the rules are quite simple. Come up with a poop that rhymes with the animal's name from whence it came. I will give you a few freebies and I hope that you will come up with many more..
Here are the obvious ones for beginners:
Cat Shat
Dog Log
Bird Turd
I got a text message at 2a.m. some months ago from the West Coast contingent with two simple words:
Lemur Steamer
And Curtis, the Harvard man, emailed me this afternoon, just a day after our visit, with a few gems:
Budgie Fudgie
Viper Diaper
Gorilla Flotilla
Now believe me, I have lots more of these, but I am going to leave some for you... So let the creative juices start flowing.

Mr. Brown

I have known Curtis Brown for close to twenty years. He is one of my favorite people. For reals. He is super smart, really sweet and funny. He doesn't take himself too seriously. He can make me feel so special - you know, the rare type that just makes you feel really good when you are around them, like a happy pill. I am lucky to know him.
Over a decade ago, Curtis introduced me to Otis N' Dwayne. A few years later, he introduced me to Dylan, his childhood BFF, Captain and co-creator of ON'D. Curtis is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
I have been gathering Bios for our website, press kit, etc. and after only a half a year or so of begging, Mr. Brown delivered. I am not going to make you wait that long. Here it is:
Curtis Brown is a Cambridge-based crank, college professor, and literary manqué.    He was educated at Berkeley and Harvard.  He has written feature articles for Bidoun Magazine, the Beirut Daily Star, and the Harvard Crimson; and his countless irritable letters to the editor have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the London Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle.   He has taught literature at Berkeley, Harvard, Stonehill College, and Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon.  His former students include Natalie Portman, and Graham Sack, the human child lead in Dunston Checks In. 
Brown’s creative collaborations with Dylan O’Neil date back to 1985, when they were thirteen.   Otis ‘n Dwayne was written on the porch, on the toilet, and in the shower of the Oakland squat the two of them shared in the late ‘90s. 

as one journey ends, another begins

For me, the journey began something like twelve years ago. My friend Curtis Brown was visiting me in Brooklyn and he brought along a copy this movie he was working on... This was back in the days of VHS. A group of about ten or so friends gathered at my D.U.M.B.O loft (my rent at the time was $325.00 a month) to watch Otis N' Dwayne. I, for one, was certainly not prepared for the hours that followed. The movie was mashed together with "scene missing" flashing on the screen every few minutes. I had never watched a film-work in progress before and thought that this was all part of the crazy style of the movie. Anyway, it was more like a collage - a series of images and ideas held together with crazy glue. I really did not understand anything as I watched it. But I didn't care. It was visually arresting and I knew that I wanted to know more and would watch it again some day hopefully.
Fast forward some eleven or so years... Otis N' Dwayne director/producer /co-screenwriter Dylan O'Neil is visiting NYC and drops by a BBQ I am hosting in my back yard with his childhood friend and my old friend Curtis. I start telling everyone about how the two of them made this amazing movie... Naturally, I asked when they planned on finishing the film - seeing as it had been in production for over a decade already. Dylan asked my musician husband Tosso if he wanted to do the soundtrack for the movie and the collaboration was born. Soon after, I started writing songs with Tosso, recording vocals and cheesy keyboards... Over the past year, we created an entire soundtrack of original songs (except for one cover) and scored the movie as well. I never expected to be doing any of this.
We are putting the finishing touches on our baby right now, cleaning up the sound, pumping steroids into it. Soon, we will begin applying to film festivals and raising the funds we need to help finish what Dylan and Curtis started so many years ago.
Welcome to the Otis N' Dwayne blog. We hope you enjoy the ride.