Mondays are always a drag and this one was no exception. I had to go back to work at my day job (although I'll be taking off next Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the festival). Working all day, going to movies at night and then writing past midnight always makes for some sore eyes and some long days. What's a film freak to do?

I did have a few interesting conversations with some co-workers and when I started talking to one about "Second Hand Stories," Christopher Wilcha's documentary that I saw last night, we both got really excited about the idea and how cool it could be as a TV show. I was also telling her about John Buyer's website, http://allmylifeforsale.com. That got us talking about reality shows and second hand stores and E-Bay and stuff. (My boss does E-Bay and I sure wish I had thought about doing a documentary about that!) Anyhoo… The important thing is that this co-worker of mine came up with a really interesting idea for a reality program while we were talking. It would be called "What's My Life Worth" and the premise is simple: People come in and take inventory of your financial life, every single thing you own (the show could spotlight interesting items you have and how they calculated a dollar amount for its worth) and then they would balance this against your debts and come up with a dollar total of what your life is worth! Isn't that a great idea for a show? There was some producer here in town a few weeks ago looking for reality show ideas and I sure wish I had had this idea to pitch then.

After work I had planned on meeting up with Web, who does the tech stuff here at filethirteen, and heading to the Paramount for "Robot Stories." Web was in a car accident a few weeks ago and broke his collarbone but he was traveling to Austin (his kids recently moved here with the Ex) so I figured it was no big deal.

When Web arrives at my pad after work, he's got his arm in a sling and is hopped up on Vicadin like a sailor trying to impersonate William Burroughs circa 1958. In other words, he's about useless. Think about it folks, a Webmaster with only one working arm hopped up on feel-goods… It ain't gonna be pretty trying to get up the webpages.

I had wanted to see "Robot Stories at 7pm but eventually I realized that this was not going to happen. Opting instead to get the first three days of coverage up on the site, Web and I spend the next four hours working on that project. It was a nightmare but boy do I now have about 100 times more respect for Web. I always knew he worked hard on the site but I think I really underestimated just how much work it takes to make me a star!

So if the festival coverage seems even slower getting up than usual this year, now you know why.

After Web left, I had a tough choice to make… Music videos at 10:30, "Assisted Living" at 10pm or "Spun" at Midnight. Since I had to work the next morning, I opted for "Assisted Living" at the Westgate. Web had just left at 9:30, so I had to scramble to get to the theater on time. I prayed that traffic was easy getting there and, much to my delight, it was.

The producer/writer/directed of "Assisted Living," Elliot Greenbaum introduced his film and said that he would be around for a Q&A at the end. There were some problems getting the film started, but eventually it did and ran smoothly.

You know how Billy Joel is probably really tired of playing "Piano Man" but he has to do it every time he gives a concert because that's what the people want? And even though he knows that his fans are into it there are some night where he gives a routine and rote performance of the song… That's how Greenbaum seemed during his Q&A. During part of the conversation he mentioned he was hoping to work on a new film that was different in style and structure and that this film was shot over a year or so ago. So basically, I think, since the film is so unique and so good, he's done hundreds of these Q&A's and he's sick to death of answering the same fucking questions over and over. Greenbaum was such a downer and so seemingly unapproachable that I didn't even want to ask him if I could take his picture.

Greenbaum's film is about nursing home residents and he pretty much refused to get into a discussion of the way the elderly are treated in nursing homes and by society in general. I'm sure he's sick to death of talking about it. But this made me realize how much I respect Kyle Henry of Austin. Henry has made a wonderful documentary called "University, Inc." and I have seen him show it numerous times and engage in wonderful and passionate Q&A's afterwards with people. He's told me that this pretty much happens every time he shows the film. And while Henry is a political crusader of sorts (he screens the Monday night movies at the Hideout which often have a political bent), he should certainly be sick to death of discussing the inter-working politics of colleges. I don't think he is though. If you ask Henry to bring "University, Inc." to your school and show it, he'll do a Q&A that will be as passionate and insightful as the one he did after his first showing of the film.

Lodger 2003@SXSW2003