Resinatrix Pipecleaning with Ann Magnuson INTERVIEW BY GINA HARP Ann Magnuson is absorbed weekly by the naugahyde nation as Catherine the bitchy editor on ABC's Anything But Love, and embraced lasciviously by the independent music scene as one half of Bongwater. Along the way she's also appeared in several films, created unique one-woman shows, and proven herself as a writer. MONDO 2000: What were you trying to achieve with The Big Sellout? ANN MAGNUSON: Our goal was to do for power and greed what we did for sex on The Power of Pussy. But we didn't know what would come out in the wash. Anything is possible when you get behind closed doors with Kramer. M2: What inspired the theme? AM: Mostly my experiences in the big bad world of Hollywood-the odd feelings one gets when confronted with the possibility of fame and power. A theme for one of the songs is a strange demon that possesses you to constantly need more attention, more approval. It's the power trip_ if I may be so hippyish to imply that power corrupts. But it's also something very sexy. You want it, you need it-it's appealing. Personally, though, I've never found people who are really powerful very sexy. People like Donald Trump or Mike Ovitz or Kevin Costner. I think some of the most powerful people are those who don't need to prove anything. BONGWATER ON THE ROCKS, EXTRA DRY M2: How did you get hooked up with Kramer? AM: I knew him vaguely from the downtown music and arts scene in New York, and he called me. I was in this band called Pulsallama-an all-girl percussive orchestra. He had done sound for us on several occasions, and years after we broke up, he called me. He had just gotten a hold of a studio, Noise New York, and asked if I wanted to come over and play. So we started collaborating-just fooling around in the studio. I admire Kramer. I like working with him, although he can be maddening. He's certainly pissed off a lot of people along the way, but he gets the stuff out there. Regardless of what some people might think, his primary goal is just to make music and get it out to people who'll like it. M2: Why the name Bongwater? AM: It was at the top of a list of mine of names for future bands. M2: It's such a repulsive thing! AM: I guess it's aptly titled. M2: No_ AM: Well, it depends on your point of view. There are people I used to know who drank bongwater to get high. When they were really desperate they either sniffed gasoline or drank bongwater or inhaled fumes from Arid Extra-Dry. It was a sick little decade, the seventies. DON'T LET THE LEFT VEIN KNOW_ M2: How do you maintain your sanity? There's an awful lot of bullshit in Tinseltown. AM: If I didn't do Bongwater, I'd probably open a vein. But if I only did Bongwater, I'd open two veins. M2: Do your co-stars know anything about Bongwater? AM: No, not really. Jamie [Lee Curtis] knows I'm in a folk band down here, which she came to see. She's very supportive. I hesitate to give them the records. I'm not sure they'd like it. It takes a certain sensibility. This girl who worked on the Rock Awards sent our record to a columnist from USA Today who liked me from the show, but I don't think he even listened past the first song. He just didn't get it. He gave it to their music critics who couldn't understand it at all, which seems so_ I mean, compared to a lot of music this is terribly accessible. But everything's so compartmentalized. What's avant-garde to some is mainstream to others, and there's no distinct counter-culture anymore-there are five thousand offshoots. I wonder what they'd make of Ween. We did a show with them at CBGB's. I felt like I was in a freshman dormitory at a mushroom party! SEX APPEAL M2: The Power of Pussy is great. Can you tell me where it came from? AM: It came from entering my sexual prime in all its orgiastic glory as I get into my ripening thirties. M2: It's about many different things. AM: A lot of it comes from the AIDS epidemic-how it's affected me and so many of my friends. Some of that angst, pain, confusion and anger was involved in this record. And it's just the gloriousness of sex-when you finally achieve your perfect orgasm-the beauty amongst all the pain. What else can I say? If I try to explain it too much I'll end up sounding like Madonna on Nightline. M2: People don't like to talk about sex. Too many negative connotations. AM: It's weird, as a teenager in the mid-seventies there was pressure to be more promiscuous than you would even want to be, and then in the eighties it turned 180 degrees. I watched it all happen. I've seen what AIDS will do to a person, and it's enough to make you never want to have sex ever again. And yet we're sexual creatures. We're animals and we need it-it's beyond our control. M2: I just moved to San Francisco earlier this year, and where I come from a frightening number of people are still having unsafe sex. AM: They should close their eyes and think about all their close friends and then eliminate half of them. At least half. But that would be too easy-they wouldn't have to watch them waste away and die. But in spite of all that, sex is still fun! There's a puritanism in this country that's getting the better of us. I mean, everybody has to have sex! It's like eating, breathing, shitting! The more you pretend you don't have those urges, the more frustration and anger you're going to create. M2: At least the gay community here hasn't let the AIDS crisis entirely interfere with their fun-there are sex clubs that promote safe sex. AM: See, that's the thing. This tragedy has brought all of us close together. And we're still going out and partying, being creative, making art and experiencing the joy of life. NIETZSCHE SUCKS M2: I can't help but associate the "art scene" with an air of snobbery. AM: There are a lot of assholes! There is elitism. Although it attracts people who might be a little more perceptive on some levels, it doesn't give anybody license to act superior. Unfortunately, elitism will ruin any scene until you accept everybody as equal-even the assholes. And that's the hardest part. I know a lot of people who'd like to assassinate Jesse Helms, and I'd probably buy the gun for them, but I don't think I'd load the bullets. The most venomous, frightening people can be often the most talented. They were always people you hated and never wanted to be friends with, but they were chock full of talent. And then there are people who can be the sweetest people on earth but they don't have an ounce of talent. You see, talent is a vampire. M2: Hence inspiration for the song, "Talent is a Vampire"? AM: That's actually a paraphrase of a Nietzsche quote that deals with being consumed by the vampirism of your own power. MELTING POT M2: I enjoyed seeing you interviewed on Later With Bob Costas. AM: Oh yeah? That was really dull. M2: Why wasn't Bongwater brought up? AM: Because Bob Costas is_ he's a sportscaster! He didn't know anything about me. I feel uncomfortable on those shows-I have a real attraction/repulsion problem with the concept of being a celebrity. Like all Americans, I've been brought up thinking that one's crowning achievement should be to be famous. And it's completely disgusting. I find myself in these situations where I'm trying to play along with the game and I'm thinking, "What in the fuck am I doing here?" And what am I going to do? Say "Oh by the way, I'm in this band and blah blah blah?" I would've brought it up, but he would've just looked at me with a blank stare, so what's the point? M2: I was just wondering if it was because of the word Bongwater itself, what with the "War on [some] Drugs"_ AM: I don't think a lot of people even know what it is. There was actually a picture of me and Kramer as Bongwater in TV Guide for an article on what TV stars were doing over the summer! Bongs are rather obsolete objects, aren't they? Maybe not in San Francisco, but head shops are illegal in most places, which is absurd. M2: Especially considering how many people smoke pot_ AM: They really ought to legalize it. It's ridiculous. M2: They could be making a lot of money off of it. AM: They could be putting it into education and social programs. But that smells of communism. The religion in this country is the free enterprise system, which is basically dog-eat-dog-the survival of the fittest. There's this backward notion that if you're struggling or have some sort of dysfunction, it's your own damn fault. But the men who make our laws-and I do say men-they're living in mansions, they go to country clubs. Have they ever been stuck in a slum with no option to get out? No way! Those people aren't going to go work for McDonald's and then go to community college. M2: What are you going to do to ameliorate the situation, keep making Bongwater albums? AM: Well, artists really aren't politicians. I think the only people who want to be politicians are shady characters. It's a shame there aren't any statesmen anymore. There aren't any thinkers. That's usually what lures people into power anyway-the big sell-out. We've finally succumbed.