Notes
from Austin Volume 3 #3 - Lodger's
Notes
"Named one of the 50 most irritating queens in media today by
Shrill's Content, Lodger founded filethirteen.com, with the
help of his friend Web, in his Austin apartment's bedroom in
1999. Since then, he has been named one of the "100 most fucked
up people in Austin" by just about anyone who has met him. He
has been a guest on ACAC's "Lube TV" and is often confused for
Roger Ebert. In addition, the website has been featured on News
8's "Websightings." He has also been profiled in the Austin
Chronicle. He is currently the CO-host of "Lube TV" and enjoys
an active social life. Lodger has shot many short video films,
some of which will air on the cable program, and intends on
shooting another very shortly.
On my nightstand: (Click to Buy!)
Dagaberto
Gilb - Woodcuts of Women
Kurt
Vonnegut - God Bless You, Doctor Kevorkian
Kurt
Vonnegut - Bogambo Snuff Box
T.C.
Boyle - Stories
In my CD player: (Click to Buy!)
Rent
Soundtrack
Eno
- Music for Airports
The Jam - The Jam
Zappa
- Sheik Yerboti
Nina
Simone - Here Comes the Sun
I have been listening to the "Rent" CD almost every day and
every time I hear it, something new comes to me. The most obvious
revelation of late is the massive almost subtextural theme of
chemistry the score has. And why not, the whole play is about
AIDS, when you bottom line it, and AIDS is about nothing if
it isn't about chemistry. AZT, the drug (chemical) that treats
AIDS is mentioned throughout.
But the most basic of chemistry, fire, is the true subtext
here. This is no more obvious than in the song "Light My Candle"
where Mimi meets Roger and fire is used to represent passion
and love. Later, Roger, who hasn't yet come to terms with
having AIDS, angry that his feelings, his chemistry, his lust,
is "ignited" by Mimi, screams passionately, "Take your powder,
take your candle." The "powder" here refers to heroin, presumably,
since Roger is a recovering junkie who got AIDS presumably
from sharing a needle with his girlfriend, who is now dead.
Mimi is a junkie too and she has dropped a baggie in Roger's
loft earlier. The candle refers to the way in which he met
Mimi, when she asks him to light a candle in a covert effort
to meet him. But "powder" and "candle" (fire) represent a
chemistry of explosive power evoking an image of gunpowder
and fire. The chemistry of love, passion, and AIDS (which
Mimi and Roger both have, unbeknownst to the other) is explosive
stuff. When he sings, "Take your powder, Take your candle,"
he is literally referring to her heroin and her candle, but
in subtext the images represent passion and lust. Roger thinks
because he has AIDS he has to shut down his feelings. For
a long time in the play, Roger is simply morose and waiting
to die.
Also earlier in the play Roger sings "One Song Glory" where
he passionately confronts his fate as a dying junkie musician
who has left no song behind to be remembered by. He talks
about going out in a "blaze of glory," again evoking fire.
He also sings of "truth like a blazing fire" and "an eternal
flame." And in the titular tune "Rent" Roger asks, "Where
is the power you once had to ignite the air" before literal
fire for light and heat (as the power is out on a cold night)
is sung about by he and Mark.
There's more. Just listen to the score. Jonathan Larson
was a genius writer.
A week or so ago I got to see local author Dagaberto Gilb at
a sort of book signing/celebration at the Continental Club.
The event was celebrating the release of his new collection
of short stories called "Woodcuts of Women" published by Grove
press. Gilb is a Mexican-American whose work is so subtle that
it often seems to have no plot at all. There are generally no
large plot points, no revelatory climax, no huge dynamics in
his stories, yet, these stories are wonderful and poignant slices
of time that gently grab you and touch you. "Woodcuts of Women,"
his third book, is no exception to this.
When Gilb's novella "The
Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna" was published in
1994, I met the author. I was doing a radio show in Houston
at a rock station and I got to interview him on the air. By
this time he had also had his first collections of short stories,
"The
Magic of Blood" in stores for a while as well.
Gilb is an interesting and deeply intelligent man who worked
as a laborer and construction worker for many years before
publishing some shorts in magazines and getting Grove Press
interested in his work. His stories, often set in the border
areas of Texas around El Paso or in Southern California, often
feature construction workers, day laborers, and vagabond workers
and travelers. His protagonists are almost always young Mexican
American males looking to find work and, more often, love,
in a world that is a continual struggle to survive. Yet they
are also thoughtful, feeling creatures who wonder about the
profundity of life as much as how to get a pretty senorita
in to their bed or how to pay the rent.
"Woodcuts of Women," which I haven't finished yet, has two
really exceptional stories. In "Brisa," Gilb comes the closest
he ever has to having a revelatory climax where his main character
meets a girl who is much younger than he yet still as much
in youth as he is. Allowing the girl to lead the relationship,
the two remain hard and somewhat distant to each other until,
at the end of the story, at a church, their true deep love
for each other is finally revealed to one and other. In "Mayela
One Day in 1989," Gilb mentions homosexuality (more than just
in passing) for the first time in one of his stories and even
suggests that the protagonist, a rather macho Mexican American
male, can understand why the men in a gay bar gather around
a pretty boy dancing in a G-string. The story, like many of
Gilb's, is a simple slice in time, a day where a young man
meets a women, accompanies her to a gay bar, watches how she
behaves, listens to her conversations, and then takes her
home. It's a day that subtly changes the protagonist in a
profound way yet it's tone and manner are so simple and breezy
that the poignancy of the piece would escape you if Gilb wasn't
so gifted. Gilb is without a doubt one of the most important
writers in Texas right now. With his ability to write brilliant
short stories, his usage of his Mexican American heritage
as the setting and feel of all of his stories and his concentration
on human relationships, especially the male/female dynamic,
Gilb will captivate you with his skill. I recommend any of
his books to the uninitiated reader, however his short story
collections are the best place to start.
I had read a review of "Woodcuts" in the Chronicle by David
Garza, and that's where I learned of the party at the Continental
Club. When there, I said hi to Gilb and reminded him of our
prior meeting. He was warm and cordial and tried to remember
me. By the end of the evening he had. I had wanted to simply
buy a book and get it signed but ended up waiting around for
the entertainment of the evening where a couple of local authors
gave readings. One of these was a guy named Rudy who works
at Resistencia Bookstore here in Austin. He read a couple
of great poems he had written. Then an amazing young female
writer/performance artist took the stage. Unfortunately, I
couldn't understand her name. When Gilb finally took the stage,
he referred to her name as coming from some sort of Mexican
virgin saint. It was something like Torencenia. Gilb seemed
to get a kick out of the fact that her nickname was "Toncy,"
pronounced Tahn-cee." Toncy didn't read, she recited her stories.
Well, she didn't really "recite," she performed them, often
in an almost singing voice. It was beautiful. This is a girl
who is going ot be a huge star. She has a CD and I bet Resistencia
is carrying it.
When Gilb finally got on stage, he was a happy man. There
was a huge group of people there for the party supporting
him. He's a popular person. I had even seen David Garza there
briefly. Gilb read a story, albeit not from "Woodcuts," about
a construction worker in LA in the 90's who watches "Dallas"
and dreams of Victoria Principal. While eating lunch one day
at a loading dock, he actually catches sight of the actress.
Gilb's work came alive when he read it. Some of the subtle
humor of his work, which isn't always so obvious when read,
became hilarious when spoken in his own voice. It was a wonderful
and amusing and again poignant story and Gilb held the audience
in the palm of his hand as he read. This guy is a huge undiscovered
treasure.
I've spent a lot of time with Mark Brauner lately as we worked
on some LubeTV stuff, trying to get some new episodes in the
can for ACAC. Mark did a tribute episode to John Christensen.
We also edited an episode that Mark hosted where he repeats
an interview with he and John and Houston filmmaker Vassily
Fedayev. The episode shows Vassily's short "I Want a Hug" which
is brilliant. We also shot and edited a new episode with Vassily
where we play his new short "Impatience" which is a dark and
interesting film about artists and humanity and the inability
of certain people to accept others. The interview which follows
the short is quite interesting and Vassily makes several important
comments about his work.
Finally, one day Mark and I went to the lake and shot a
LubeTV on location. This episode (46) is going to feature
Richard Allen's unique short called "Crashpad," which has
showed at several film festivals. I saw it at Slamdance in
2000. Also included is a Bowie video from his Black Tie White
Noise promotional video called "Nite flights." Bowie explains
that the song is an old Scott Walker tune but I can't seem
to find Scott Walker in any record store. I'll have to look
him up on the net sometime. Check out the LubeTV
Episode Guide for more info.
Mark and I have also hung out at Casinos a couple times. I think
I wrote about the last time where Monica took such good care
of us and a girl who starred in "Equinox Knocks" came in and
made them put on the video while she was there.
This last time, Casinos was pretty dead for a Monday night.
Maybe 710 or Emos had a good band or something. We hung and
talked and drank. It was okay. DJ Sue was there and she gets
a little more annoying every time I go because she plays the
same damn songs every time. Mark went and requested Eno and
she played "Needle in the Camel's Eye," which is the only
Eno song she ever plays, probably because it's the only Eno
song she has. Sigh.
Also this time, the kitchen at Casino's was out of everything.
That has never happened before. They had no french fries,
no pickles and no cheese. I heard Casino telling Ivan he was
going to Sam's club the next day. He was about a day late.
Casino's burgers are always great and the one I got this night
was no exception. But I sure missed the fries and pickle.
Damn.
On Wednesday night, Mark and I went to a party for a new film
being produced in Austin called "One Way." Brandon Howe is going
to star and his compadre Ray Melendz is going to direct. I got
there before Mark but Brandon and his girlfriend Josie immediately
came over and said hi. They were so nice to me. They really
went out of their way to welcome me and make me feel comfortable.
Brandon even tried to introduce me to Flynn from Ain't-It-Cool-News,
who seemed gay, and I had to explain to him that AICN hates
me. I don't know why. Anyway, Mark came and noticed some folks
from ACAC there, including Kirk of Kirk-O-Matic fame. Apparently
Kirk just shoots video and puts it on ACAC unedited, so we did
a few shots for him. It was fun. Kirk's cronies, a strange African
American guy and some older blue collar type, were there as
well. Kirk talked about making "Barn of the Blood Llama" with
Kevin West and we had a good time joking about how campy and
crazy it was and how Kevin would probably never finish "Night
of the Killer Piņatas." I haven't talked to Kevin lately and
my galpal Miss Xanna Don't, who is in the film, seems to be
out of touch with him as well, so I don't know what's going
on with "Piņatas."
The other guy with Kirk, whose son works at a local cinema,
and I talked a lot about movies. He had seen "O Brother" 5
times. He turned out to be a very intelligent and interesting
guy. It was fun to hang out with these guys although we were
certainly the most nerdy bunch in the place.
Later, Mark and I sat at a table and were joined by a cute
young couple. When the girl got up for a moment, I chatted
up the cute guy. Turned out he was an actor from San Antonio.
Part of the party was to collect headshots from actors. The
young thespians name was Eric. He is currently in a production
in SA called something like "The Two Crazy Old Ladies Who
Live Down the Block Around the Corner" which is playing through
March at some theater called something like The Stephen Stolli
Playhouse. Eric was very cute and charming and when his gf
(who turned out to just be a friend) returned, she joined
the conversation. She turned out to be quite a little charmer
herself. I know Mark was enchanted. Of course, I was trying
to vibe Eric like crazy even though he turned out to be straight.
These two were super nice kids and so much fun to talk to.
I really enjoyed the end of the evening there.
Later Mark and I went to Splash for a nightcap and it was
dead as fuck. We played some pinball and chatted. Mark told
me about an incident in college where a guy came on to him
and somehow that helped him overcome his homophobia. Because
the guy was just a nice guy and Mark realized that he wasn't
evil or bad or anything. Well, that's an oversimplification
of the story, but it was nice to hear about. There are a lot
of "coming out" stories out there, many of them on film, but
where is a story about a straight guy who learns to accept
gay people? "Hit and Runway" is about the only one I can think
off.
Someone sent me this link but it's in an Asian language and
I have no idea what it is about? http://www.8341.com
As many of you know, one of my favorite bands of all time is
The Judy's. This was a trio of local Houston (actually Pearland)
guys who put out records and played shows in the Space City
in the early 80's. Their stuff isn't on CD yet, but Michael
at TheJudys.Com sent me an interesting letter the other day
about the band and his site:
"Wow. It's been a long, long time since we've added anything
fresh to The Judy's web site. But we did find a few moments
this week to add some video footage to the site that we've
been sitting on for awhile.
"We've added what may be the only Judy's "concept" music
video ever made. The video comes to us courtesy of Ken Leick
in Austin. If I recall correctly, Ken mentioned that the video
was filmed entirely by an 8-year old. Check out the MOO music
video in the Media section of the site.
"Immediately following the video is a great interview segment
with David Bean from Austin's 1980's cable-access show, "Apartment
108". Thanks for the cool video footage, Ken!
"The biggest question that everyone's asking these days
relates to the re-release of Judy's material on CD. Many of
the details of how and when are still up in the air, but the
band has promised us that as soon as the details are finalized,
we'll be informed. We do know, however, that the reissue project
HAS actively been picked up again, so Judy's fans everywhere
definitely have something cool to look forward to!
And that's a wrap! Lodger2001
Lodger's
Notes: "Named
one of the 50 most irritating queens in media today by Shrill's
Content, Lodger founded filethirteen.com, with the help of his
friend Web, in his Austin apartment's bedroom in 1999. Since
then, he has been named one of the "100 most fucked up people
in Austin" by just about anyone who has met him.
Austin
Film and Entertainment News:
The latest info on Screenings in the Austin area, Austin
films, actors,and directors, as well as info about Austin's
numerous Film Festivals.
Hollywood
News :
The latest info on Hollywood films, actors, directors, and
studios as well as info about Film Festivals and on-line screenings!
Things
to do this Week - Check the calendar!
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