Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Web Clippings
  • Print Publications

Follow Me

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Medium

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
  • Uncategorized

Ashley Naftule

Freelance Writer. Performer. Chalk Artist.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Web Clippings
  • Print Publications
  • Uncategorized

Dark Lullaby

Ashley Naftule June 13, 2018

Another theatrical project I’ve been involved with recently is Dark Lullaby. It’s an original musical (loosely inspired by the classic film noir Detour) written by performer extraordinaire/pop genius/Burt Bacharach scholar Serene Dominic. We just had our first performance last Saturday night at The Trunk Space’s Hope Hall, and we’ll be doing an encore performance this Sunday night at FilmBar in downtown Phoenix.

Local luminaries like Ryan Avery, Ernesto Moncada, Sheridan Woods, Parker Mordren, and Joobs are some of the talented folks trodding the boards (along with yours truly). Serene will also be there, leading the San Jacinto Death Row Prison Band through the musical’s rollicking blend of rock & roll, country, punk, and even a bit of funk.

The music’s reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally good, y’all- check it out:

Dark Lullaby Soundtrack: https://serenedominic.bandcamp.com/album/dark-lullaby-original-cast-album

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://www.thefilmbarphx.com/movie/dark-lullaby–new-film-noir-musical

  • Uncategorized

Stan & Ollie, Achtung Babies, And Five Buckets Of Popcorn

Ashley Naftule June 12, 2018

Like a button-mashed Chun Li, I’m still kicking. What’s new in my world, you ask? A few things: I acted in a play, got a few new pieces published, and dressed up as The Dude at Phoenix Fan Fest (the con formerly known as Phoenix Comic Fest, aka Phoenix Comicon pre-lawsuit):

33727668_10156259900248361_858437587352682496_n

Medium

I started posting a few comedy and music pieces on Medium. If you’re looking for a laugh or some food for thought to snack on about U2, tickle the link monsters. And if you’re feeling extra generous, give me the clap (*insert Michael Scott “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID” comment here*).

  • Forget The Joshua Tree: Achtung Baby Is The U2 Album We Need Right Now
  • Gifted Stoner Aces Drug Test
  • USPS Releases New Line Of Commemorative Tramp Stamps

Laurel and Hardy Go To Heaven

Last summer I had the great pleasure of putting on a piece of theater I’ve been wanting to do for years: Paul Auster’s short play “Laurel and Hardy Go To Heaven.” I played Hardy and the incomparable actor/director Dennis Frederick played Laurel. We were directed by Ernesto Moncada. The summer show in 2017 was brutal: we were performing in a space with barely functioning A/C. The B&W makeup Becky Jo Harris put on us that made us look like silent film characters out on the loose in a Technicolor world; you try acting your ass off when rivers of airbrushed makeup is burning a hole in your retinas.

So it was a pleasure to bring this short play back for a two week limited engagement, performing it in a place with good A/C. Stan and Ollie built their walls one last time.

laurel

Clip-A-Rama:

Phoenix New Times

  • An in-character interview with On Cinema’s Tim Heidecker
  • FORM Festival 2018: I went to Arcosanti for three days and all I got was a bunch of great memories
  • My man-on-the-scene coverage of Phoenix Comic Fest
  • A review of The Slits documentary Here To Be Heard

Invisible Oranges

  • An interview with Mike Scheidt from psychedelic doom metal titans YOB

Under The Radar

Film reviews of

  • Au hasard Balthazar
  • Graduation
  • Filmworker
  • Westwood

 

  • Uncategorized

IV

Ashley Naftule April 16, 2018

#1. I’ve been immersing myself in the work of Martin Newell over the last month for a project. It’s hard to think of just one song to recommend to people who haven’t heard of his stuff, but “Only A Shadow” springs to mind. Mostly because the song embodies the effortless, he-makes-this-sound-so-easy tunefulness that Newell & The Cleaners could crank out in their sleep, but also because the song makes me think of people calling Art Bell with stories of shadow people (R.I.P Art: somewhere you and Charles Fort are drinking cold ones and trying to out-weird each other with the most bizarre esoterica imaginable).

#2. Just a quick reminder that The Mekons are glorious, criminally underrated, and that you should stock a copy of Fear and Whiskey in your bomb shelter so you can listen to this beaut in the aftermath of World War Piss Tape Distraction.

#3. I recently profiled local artist Jason Hugger in a piece for JAVA Magazine. Check it out (and if you’re in AZ, check out Jason’s art at Grinders Coffee Co.).

Jason Hugger’s Surreal Desert Dreams (JAVA Magazine)

Jason20180311_103213-759x500

Art by Jason Hugger

#4. Speaking of local artists: Space55 recently premiered an original musical called Country Blue Saloon that runs through the end of this month. Written by Duane Daniels & Margo Brookover with songs written by Randy Daniels, it’s an original country music musical about love, cold beer, and hard times at a watering hole that’s seen better days. It plays Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Space 55 until April 29 (Fridays and Saturdays at 8, Sundays at 2).

Y’all can mosey on over to this link and get presale ticks at Space55.

country blue saloon.jpg

 

  • Uncategorized

“10! 10! 10!” ad infinitum

Ashley Naftule April 10, 2018

File under “Shits & Giggles”:

Yet another “soundtrack of your life” tag game is working its way through my Facebook feed. Lately it’s been folks posting the ten albums that had the biggest impact on them when they were younger – which got me to thinking about what albums most warped my brain as an impressionable young Ash.

So, without further ado- here they are.

*Insert Tye Dillinger “10! 10! 10!” chant here*

 

BRAINIAC
DESERTER REV
LA
LOVELESS
MELODY
PINK FLAG
R-788491-1289078199.jpeg
READY TO D
REL
WU
  • Uncategorized

Want an axe to break the ice

Ashley Naftule April 10, 2018

CALLIOPE

Hello! *waves hand* I’m Ashley and this is my first blog. First blogs are always strange and awkward, much in the same way that IRL introductions can be strange and awkward. So let me break the ice by listing all the things I want to see Braun Strowman tip over in the near future.

  • A magic school bus
  • A San Francisco cable car
  • A Gamelan orchestra
  • A Calliope
  • Corey Graves’ closet of screamo singer tailored suits
  • The entire New York Philharmonic
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater

I’d write more, but Monday Night Raw is on and I’ve also got 50 pages left to read of Claire Evans’ fantastic new book Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet (I’ll share my thoughts about it later).

Anywho- if you’d like to read some recent music and film pieces by yours truly, here’s a few links to work I’ve written over the last month.

Under The Radar:

-I started writing film reviews for the folks at Under The Radar. My first review was for Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis’s Shelter.

-I also reviewed the latest film by Resolution and Spring directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorehead: the beguiling and deeply Lovecraftian film The Endless.

Phoenix New Times:

-An interview with Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles about his new record and how he deals with mental health issues as a working artist.

-Last month the inaugural Innings Festival went down in Tempe. I went there to cover the three-day fest and reviewed two of the headlining sets: Queens Of The Stone Age & Chris Stapleton.

-March also featured the debut of another AZ music festival: The Flying Burrito Festival. I reviewed the fest – highlights included stirring sets by La Luz, No Age, and U.S. Girls.

The Hard Times:

-No Oscars In Memoriam Reel is complete without paying tribute to the scene. Because the scene, like the queen and Zed, is dead.

Posts navigation

Previous 1 … 4 5
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×