Notes from Austin, Volume 2 #14

Including:

Miss Xanna Don't

soundsoftexas.com

"Red White and Tuna"

Bowie's "1980 Floor Show"

Car posing

Fat Tuesday's

Casino el Camino

"Torch Song Trilogy"

Another UT film student shoot

Todd Snider - not at Waterloo Records

E-mail from Cinemaker Co-op, aGliff and Slamdance!

What is the word for having the talent, desire, time and drive to undertake a project but not the means? Technologically challenged? No, that sounds as if I can't use equipment. I have enough of a knowledge and history with electronics to at least struggle through working with them. I have realized that some of the most interesting and unique moments in the creative process occur when one doesn't know the rules, when one experiments while trying to learn. It's one of the most thrilling aspects of the creative process. Financially challenged? Perhaps. It is certainly a consideration albeit I am so deep in debt right now that 2 or 3 grand more won't do any considerable harm. Fear? That is perhaps it. Unfocused-ness?

That's my problem. I can't stick with one idea or project long enough to really see it through. I've only finished one or two of the scripts I've actually set out to write. My short films are completed the minute we finish shooting them usually. (We edit "in the camera") but I have one, starring Kelly, that needs some work and it could be an interesting piece. But I just haven't found the spark that I need to finish it. When I filmed some stuff with Tim in 1993 or so, we never really finished it. I didn't get around to editing it into something until last year. Even as it is, finished, it is lacking. Even though I still love it.

Right now I want a 4-track cassette so desperately. I want to create music using samples and such. Kelly played me some music one of his friends from Houston does on a little 4-track and it was awesome. Tim and his friends used to make some really cool little songs using a 4-track, a computer and some keyboards. Kelly turned me on to Moby's new CD and this awesome band called Air that are just rocking my world. I want to work with music and sampling. This week. Next week, maybe I'll want to do films again.

Sad pathetic, frustrated loser.

Perhaps that's the term.

I watched "Red White and Tuna" at the Paramount on Thursday night. It was really wonderful. I have now seen all three "Tuna" plays. The first, "Greater Tuna," I saw on video years ago. When Pearl excitedly blurts out, "Fix me a bitter pill, I'm gonna kill me a poodle," I thought I was going to die. This is still a joke me and my mother share.

Mom and I, and our friend Susan, saw "Tuna Christmas" two years ago at the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston. It was hilarious, one of the finest evenings I have ever had at the theater.

"Red White and Tuna' isn't as funny as it's predecessors. What it is, instead and surprisingly, is sweet. It's the end of the project. And Joe Sears and Jaston Williams have grown older, wiser and more mild. Their original play was a hilarious and often bitterly witted slice of Texas-cana. It is the kind of wonderful and biting sarcasm and intellect that one can only find in Texas. It's hilarious. By this, their third play, they have grown and matured. The play, like it's aging character Pearl, feels as if it is about to die out. So, at it's end, it grasp for one beautiful and poignant moment of gusto. The final quick change, which I wont spoil for you here, is a wonderful moment in theater for those of us who have witnessed the continuous story. The final scene is loaded with hopefulness and playfulness that is a tribute to the indomitable middle-aged spirit of America. It's a wonderful wrap-up to a triumvirate of theater going landmarks that have defined Texas' spirit of self-mocery and loving wit.

I got this bootleg video of Bowie's "Midnight Special" appearance via mail order the other day. I've wanted this for a long time. Maybe you don't remember "Midnight Special." Before MTV, before video almost, there was "The Midnight Special." I believe it started in the early 70's, must have been '71 or '72. Bands would come and play or lip-sing their new songs. It was on at, yep, midnight, on Friday or Saturday night. I used to fall asleep in the middle of it often, not being able to stay awake much after 12 as a young boy. The show was hosted, mainly, by Wolfman Jack, who was a huge national DJ and also appeared, as a DJ in "American Graffiti." Two of the most memorable shows were Bowie's "1980 Floor Show" aired around '74, and a "futuristic" show aired in 1980 hosted by the Cars. Usually, the guest host would introduce the performers who came to play, but on the Cars' episode, they had written text to act as host. Also, they showed some videos, 2 by Lene Lovitch and 2 by Iggy Pop (from his "New Values" album).

In 1974, when I saw Bowie's "1980 Floor show, " I was 10 or 11 years old. I remember to this day telling my grandmother about it because it was so weird and, at the end, Bowie sang "I Got You Babe" with this woman dressed up like a nun. (It was Marianne Faithful). I was a big fan of "Sonny and Cher's" show, but my fragile little mind had not seen much of the strange side of world. I think I saw the repeat of the episode with Bowie a little while later and then it disappeared into memory. I had a bootleg album as a teen that was done by the infamous Telly Phone ("Haven't been caught yet!") called "Dollars in Drag" that featured the "Midnight Special" songs in mono and a few old Bowie odd rarities, like his singles with Arnold Corns.

This stage show, where Bowie wears all manner of weird costume, has special guests like Faithful and the Troggs. It must have made an indelible mark on my tender tiny mind. It may be the very reason I am gay today. I can not imagine a more decadent and perverted, hollow and fey rock show. Bowie is all teeth and shoulders. He is vapid sex personified. No wonder I still like smooth, scrawny guys with weird teeth. Faithful is obviously stoned out of her gourd, she sings along to the single of "As Tears Go By" as well as lounging her way through some sort of cabaret ballad called "20th Century Blues." The Troggs do "Wild Thing" and the director, to diffuse their unattractiveness, plays with the color Kodachrome, tinting them green and yellow and pink throughout their number.

The show is, of course, all Bowie. He changes costumes for each tune, employs several back up singers (The Astronettes - who can't really sing, many of them found in Andy Warhol's play "Pork.") and several male dancers in weird spider-like costumes (leotards covered with silly string?). Bowie introduces a new song, part of the "1984" stage show he hoped to produce (Mrs. Orwell nixed the idea), called "Dodo." It didn't see the light of day on an official album until Ryko re-released Bowie's catalogue a few years back. Bowie also trots out a few tunes from the recently released "Pin-Ups" album including "Sorrow," and "Everything's Alright." He performs old classics like "Jean Genie" (his fellatio of Ronno's guitar is cut out with pictures of the bored rhythm section inserted in it's stead). He uses Nasa footage of space launches during "Space Oddity" and performs his own cabaret act with "Time."

All in all it's an awesome performance, if now dated into the realm of ridiculous. Bowie made rock theatrical. He infused it with fey boredom, ambiguous sexuality seemingly born more out of boredom than intrigue, the solitude and the distance of outer space, the solitude and distance of drugs, and the history of cabaret and decadence. It was perfect timing. It solidified the decade as empty, joyless, perverse, and cold - where our only hope, our deepest desire, was to kiss the hand of the thin, white Duke, this pale, fey, sexless wonder of the post-atomic, pre-nuclear age. (He was the nazz. With God-given ass!) Bowie was a Demi-God. "The 1980 Floor Show" was his spectacle.

For me now, it's like waking from a dream. My entire sexual history exposed. It's route, from that small boy, suddenly traced with a black magic marker to the man I am today. Amazing.

This ain't Rock and Roll. This is genocide.

It was such a beautiful day Saturday, that I had to get outside. I was in a Bowie mood, so I decided to car pose.

"Make it a thing.

to look in window panes

and look pleased with myself.

And pretend I'm walking home."

I like to drive around, listen to my CD's loud, dance in my seat, lip-sing and act weird. Don't know why. This just makes me feel so cool. I know, to everyone else I look like an epileptic moron, but from my vantage point it's a hell of a lot of fun. What does it hurt if I feel cool and everyone else gets a chuckle? As I told my mother many times as a teenager, negative attention is better than no attention at all.

I went to Cheapos and bought an Air CD called "Moon Safari." Also a retro CD with some 80's songs I didn't have ("One Night in Bangkok" and "Happy Birthday") and a used Pocket FishRMen" CD. All I wanted to do really though was go outside, jam my stereo loud and rock out!

I remember as a kid, we used to live in the country. I could take my stereo outside, my record player and amp and everything, and just crank up the rock. I used to listen to the first Foreigner album and Bowie and Elton at full blast. I used to have a bicycle, a 3-speed with a basket, and I'd put my 8-track player (which ran on 8 D-cell batteries), in the basket and ride up and down the country road we lived on listening to "David Live" and "Heroes" and "Low" and "Station to Station." I was probably about 13 or 14. You haven't lived until you've driven on a gravel road on a bike listening to "Sense of Doubt" at full blast. Well, it had to be 1978. I really got into Bowie in 1978. He was on Bing Crosby's Xmas show in 1977 and I was just realizing I was gay and I came out from my room and he was just finishing singing the "Little Drummer Boy." I remember picking at my mom for not calling me out. "I didn't know you liked him," she complained back. She probably thought he was a complete freak. Later in he show he did "Heroes." Can you imagine "Heroes" on a Bing Crosby Xmas special on network TV in 1977? It was revolutionary. A few days later, I took some Xmas money and, having gotten an 8-track player for a gift from Santa, bought "Heroes" on tape. My sheltered, tender and fragile life was forever changed. Amen.

One of my friends saw "Torch Song Trilogy" this week and wrote me this note:

"Enjoyed it but would have liked to see the Cinderella ending with Matthew Broderick. What do you think....no imagination? He just looked so good and seemed to be a genuine 'boyfriend' in the movie that it made it heart wrenching to have him killed off in such a way."

This got me to thinking about the film and I responded:

"I thought it was cool in "Torch Song" - well maybe not cool - but interesting - how Matthew B's character died. I certainly didn't see it coming - and it was so heartbreaking. But the third act, where Firestien's character (Oh god, what is his name... Is it Norman?), finds a way to be happy with his mother, his son and his new love. The end of that movie is so damn hopeful and sweet.

"And Matthew B's death, of course, in a way, is a metaphor for AIDS. It's about losing someone to something you simply cannot comprehend or justify. Beautiful.

"If he had lived, and they lived happily ever after... the film would become too much of a fairy tale. I like it better this way because it has more of a sense of reality. No one ever really gets to keep the guy of his dreams (okay, a few do)... More often we are left to "settle" - and find a path to our own joy through what we are given to live with... And there is a deep human beauty in that."

Saturday night I went down to 6th street to drink. I started out at Fat Tuesdays. It's the best place to get drunk quick. They have the frozen drinks that are expensive but will kick your butt. The "190 Octane" is made with Everclear and it rocks. A big glass is $7.00 but damn well worth it.

The band they had was made up of black guys. They were doing a cover of the Ohio Players "Fire" when I came in. It was a weird crowd. There were some handicapped people there, a girl in a wheelchair and some people talking in sign language. It wasn't until the cover band broke into "Smooth" by Santana that I realized how many Hispanic people were there. The last time I was at Fat's they had a salsa band playing. They used to have a lot of alt_rock bands. I don't mind salsa or anything but it's not my bag. I just liked Fat's better the way it was before. Maybe I'm just going on the wrong nights....

After getting pretty buzzed, I went across the street to Casino's. Ivan was serving up the beers and even though I hadn't been in there in a few weeks, he popped me out my Budweiser right away. That was awesome. I continued to get F'ed up. I played some songs on the jukebox and they came on about an hour later. I lip-sang and acted a fool as usual as I proceeded to get drunker and drunker. I went to the payphone and dropped my beer and broke the bottle and called Rich and left a stupid message. All in all I put on a pretty good drunk. Went home, passed out, the usual.

Of course, the next morning, Easter, at 8am my insane upstairs psycho bitch neighbor played her electric keyboard at full blast. I pounded and pounded on the ceiling but to no avail. She just went on and on. Stupid bitch.

Monday night I got to hang out with a young UT film student named Michelle Herrin while she did some location shooting. The scenes she worked on, with her dedicated cast, involved a argument during a date. It was really interesting to see another young director, a UT film student other than my friend Rich, at work. Though seemingly mild-mannered and definitely petite, Michelle had absolute control on the shoot. I had never seen a more professional undertaking, really. She knew what she wanted, she knew her script and she rehearsed with and worked the actors to get what she was after. I only saw her shoot one scene, a rather difficult and exacting sequence, where I don't think she got exactly what she wanted. I almost interrupted to give advice a couple times but resigned myself to simply observing and seeing the process. It was really cool to have the opportunity.

I think she shot on DV. I didn't really attack her with a barrage of question because, of course, she was hard at work. It was neat just to observe.

Michelle doesn't think the film will be shown publicly, as it is a student project, but she is going to keep me updated on how it goes.

Here's stuff from this week's e-mailbag:

From aGliff - The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival:

We’ve heard of an ancient urban legend where people actually put automobiles in their garages. Cars in the house? In a room? How can this be? Clean that garage out and get your car back in! We’ll take that stuff off your hands. We’re having a garage sale to pay for our new projector and cleaning house at the same time. Help us out and contact Bobette Mathis (bmathis@mail.utexas.edu, 444-8137) about your stuff. Everything that doesn’t sell will be donated to charity.

Visit our website at www.agliff.org

and

aGLIFF has added a second screening of the "Queer As Folk" sequel on Sunday, April 30. Visit our website at www.agliff.org or call 302-9889 for more information. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends. Let's sellout another one!

From Cinemaker Co-op:

BRUCE CONNER'S PIVOTAL 1960'S FILM "REPORT" TO BE SCREENED AT THIS SUNDAY'S MONTHLY MEETING!

The Cinemaker Co-op is beginning a new series film screenings to take place each month during its monthly meetings. At each meeting, a member of the Cinemaker staff will select a film to rent from any era or genre in the history of filmmaking and present it along with a discussion of the film/filmmaker/topic.

To launch this program, this Sunday's monthly meeting will feature Bruce Conner's experimental short "Report", a dissection and examination of the John F. Kennedy assassination. "Report" employs one of the early uses of found footage and repetition to analyze and break down familiar images--namely, the fateful few seconds of the JFK shooting. Incorporating original newsreel footage and bits of 16mm leader, "Report" explores the nature of death as well as chronicles Conner's personal response to the assassination of this legendary American figure.

Following the film, we'll talk about Bruce Conner and his role as one of the most important American avant-gardes of the 1960s, not only as a filmmaker, but as a sculptor and painter (a retrospective of Conner's work was recently held in Fort Worth).

Of course, we'll also be talking about the Zapruder film and its subsequent examination (and manipulation) by the Warren Commission along with its significance to the developing format of 8mm.

Monthly meetings are open to the public, and filmmakers are encouraged to bring their own films (Super 8 or 16mm) or videos (VHS) to show and discuss. Refreshments aways provided!

Sunday, April 30, at 7pm - ACA Gallery at the ArtPlex - 1705 Guadalupe - Info 236-8877 or cinemkr@texas.net

and

AUSTIN CINEMAKER CO-OP DARES YOU TO MAKE A FILM IN A WEEKEND!

The weekend of May 5 - 7, 2000 marks the return of the Cinemaker Co-op's most popular mini-film festival of the year, MAKE A FILM IN A WEEKEND!

During these three days, the Cinemaker Co-op will host a mad spree of filmmaking. Participating filmmakers will have just TWO DAYS to make a one-reel, in-camera edited Super 8 film, which will be screened for the public two weeks after its completion. No sweat, you say? Not so fast! Each film must feature a mystery PROP, the identity of which will not be released until the FRIDAY before you begin shooting!

Here's how it works: At 5pm on Friday, May 5, participants come to our office where Cinemaker will reveal the secret PROP. This prop could be anything--an alphabet block, a honey bear, a Tootsie roll. You then have until 5pm, Sunday May 7 to return your cartridge of Super 8 film plus $15 for processing. Your film has no bounds--it can be about anything, in any style, as long as the prop appears somewhere during the course of the film.

All films will be shipped out to the lab on Monday by Cinemaker. Filmmakers must then submit soundtracks for their films (without seeing the finished product!) by May 13. Films will be viewed for the first time on May 21-22 at the Ritz Lounge!

For more info contact:

AUSTIN CINEMAKER CO-OP - 1705 GUADALUPE SUITE 201 - AUSTIN, TEXAS - 78701 - (512) 236-8877 - cinemkr@texas.net

On Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. at The Austin Community Access Center, 1143 Northwestern, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF) salon, and the Austin Film Society hosted an informational workshop for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund 2000. AFS Associate Director Anne del Castillo and TFPF2000 Coordinator Rosanna Brillantes provided information about applying to the Fund and screen previous applicant sample work. Previous TFPF recipients were in attendance to talk about their experiences in applying for the Fund. The Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund is an annual grant awarded to emerging film and video artists in the state of Texas. Administered by the Austin Film Society since 1996, the Fund has granted over $180,000 to 81 individuals whose work demonstrates promise, skill and creativity. Funds are raised each year through film benefit premieres such as U571, EDtv, The Faculty, and from a combination of corporate and private donations. TFPF2000 sponsors include Liberty Bank, Steven Soderbergh, Universal Pictures, The Austin Chronicle and Steven & Marci Dell. In September the Fund will award $50,000 in grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to regionally produced projects. Application forms are included in our May/June Newsletter and are available by request to: Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund - 3109 North IH-35 - Austin, TX 78722 - 512/322-0145 - email: tfpf@austinfilm.org

Information about the Fund is also available at our web site: http://www.austinfilm.org.

News from the Slamdance folks:

April 27 - 30 Baltimore (Maryland Film Festival)

Slamdance projectionist/perma-juror Gabe Wardell, who runs the Maryland Film Festival, will be entertaining fellow Slamdancers Dan Mirvish and Henry Turner, along with a number of Slamdance 2000 alumni films. Stay tuned to the website for a complete list of Baltimore screenings: http://www.slamdance.com/2000/ontheroad/

May 13 - 16 Cannes

When the going gets tough, the tough go to France. And so it is that Slamdance is planning its return to the beaches of Cannes for screenings, party, parades and assorted aquatic acts of anarchy (If we're lucky, Paulie Shore will show up again!). The complete schedule and list of participating films will be on the website as soon as we know: http://www.slamdance.com/2000/ontheroad/

SCREENPLAY COMPETITION

Screenwriting update:

Kirk Moody and Bill Flesh, co-writers of OBlue Carousel a finalist in our 99 screenplay competition just signed with Original Artists for literary representation. This was a direct referral from a manager who read their script because they were finalists in the 1999 Screenplay Competition!

The second deadline for this year¹s Screenplay Competition is May 17 (postmarked) - so you can still get it in and get the reduced entry fee. Otherwise, the final deadline rolls around on July 5. All the application material is available online through the Slamdance website: http://www.slamdance.com/screencomp/

OTHER SCREENINGS AND UPDATES

Look for the following Slamdance 2000 films screening at the L.A. Independent Film Festival: AMARGOSA and MATT IN LOVE: http://www.laiff.com/

Congrats to Slamdance 1999 favorite THE GIRL NEXT DOOR for getting a very nice theatrical rollout - courtesy of our pals at Indican Pictures - starting April 14 at the Screening Room in New York. Upcoming dates include San Jose, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin and San Diego. The film opens in LA at the NuArt on May 12, and we're all looking forward to a patented Stacy Valentine premiere party! For more info, go to the film's website: http://www.gndmovie.com

Look for Glenn Gaylord's Anarchy Slamdance short, LOST CAUSE, screening in a program called QUEER SHORTS at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood via American Cinematheque and Outfest on Thursday - April 20th - 7:30pm. More info is available at: http://www.americancinematheque.com

Congrats to Anarchy's inaugural winner Monika Mitchell's NIGHT DEPOSIT for getting invited to 11 festivals since winning Anarchy. Monika's also gotten an agent, distribution and tons of offers since the festival. Upcoming fests for her include Newport Beach and New Haven. Keep checking the "Propaganda" section of the website for some new photo diaries and articles about Slamdance. And did you see the piece in Entertainment Weekly about Sundance trying to boot us out of the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City? See, we ARE still the underdogs!

And that's a wrap for this week - See ya soon

lodger2000