I’ve submitted my short film “Filling the Hole,” which I made with Rich Eckersley, Amanda Estrada and Melissa, to several film festivals. SXSW seemed to indicate that it went to the second round of consideration when I entered it for the 2003 festival but they ultimately declined to show it.

My cable access show, Lube TV, continues to run on Wednesday nights right after the “Reel Deal.” That’s on channel 10 in downtown Austin but on other channels in other areas. We have shot 103 episodes but only 99 have aired as I write this. Episode 100, which is mainly a clip show celebration has been shot but my producer and co-host, Mark Brauner, hasn’t got it on the air yet. He’s pretty busy playing a soldier in “The Alamo.”

The Hollywood Reporter Book of Box Office Hits

The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp

Roger Ebert’s Book of Film

Sphongle

Human League – Dare (21st Anniversary CD)

Hallucinogen

Bruce Springsteen- The Rising

The Supreme Beings of Leisure

Leo Sayer – Just a Boy

Stars on 45 (ripped from vinyl)

Iggy Pop – Avenue B

Manatee –Music is Useless

Pet Shop Boys – Release

I’d kind of forgotten about Iggy’s “Avenue B” CD when I came acrossed it last week. It’s a pretty good record, highly recommended for anyone reaching a milestone birthday like 40 or 50.

Best of Bowie

The Original Kings of Comedy

Mulan

Almost Famous – “Untitled” version

Jackie Brown

Kingpin

Altered States

I found two Easter Eggs on the Bowie DVD all by myself, almost by accident, and that led me to get on-line and look for more. I found a really good website for such things. There’s a cool deal on the Bowie video where you can access the entire 20 minute version of “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” and then within that Easter Egg, you can access another Easter Egg, a video version of “Blue Jean” done for MTV. Wow! There’s also a cool interview clip with Bowie talking to an English music show host about the sexy fan mail he gets. I wish there would have been more interview clips and stuff like that. When I was a kid, before I was into Bowie, I saw an interview with him on “Midnight Special” done by Flo and Eddie and I’d love to see it now that I know what they are referencing. I remember them talking about “Ziggy Stardust” (the persona) but at the time I had no idea what they were talking about.

And when is Bowie’s 1973 appearance on NBC-TV’s “The Midnight Special” (“dubbed “The 1980 Floor Show” with special guests Marianne Faithfull and The Troggs) going to be made available to the public on DVD. I have a bootleg VHS copy but I’d love to see it mixed and mastered for official release.

Anyway – back to Easter Eggs: I also looked up “Almost Famous” and found a really amazing Easter Egg outtake – actually an extended take from the film where Crowe attempts to get a certain “read” on a line from Kate Hudson for six minutes. Watching her and co-star Patrick Fugit repeating this sequence of dialogue is a really fascinating look at how a movie is shot and how actors “act” in film. Amazing.

Thru 2/21 – Kurosawa Retrospective – Dobie

Thru 2/28- Almodovar Midnight Series – Dobie

Thru 3/2 – Twisted Olivia – Zach Scott

2/13 – Kissinger – Mercury@Jazz

2/14 – Pink Swords – Flamingo Cantina

2/14 – Big Head Todd and the Monsters – Austin Music Hall

2/14 – outTrio (Terry Bozzio/Patrick O’Hearn) – Steamboat

2/15 – Asylum Street Spankers – Saxon Pub

2/16 – All Girl Roller Derby – Playland

2/18 – Voodoo Glow Skulls – Flamingo Cantina

2/19 – The Queers - Emos

2/21 – Billy Joe Shaver – Cactus Café

2/21 – Bob Schneider – Antones

2/21 – Pong/Sexy Finger Champs* - 710

2/22 – I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness – Mercury@Jazz

2/25 – BR549 - Stubbs

2/26 – Manatee – Flamingo Cantina

2/27 – Reckless Kelly – Saxon Pub

2/28 – Ben Kweller – Emos (early)

2/28 – Briefs – Emos (late)

2/28 – Dave Chappell/Lewis Black – Paramount

3/9 – American Hi-Fi – Emos (early)

3/9 – Brown Whornet – Emos (late)

3/20-4/27 – Love! Valour! Compassion! – Zach Scott

Greg Beets, sometime “Austin Chronicle” writer and frontman of the amazing, now defunct Peenbeets, is playing with a new band that will do a gig at the 710 with Pong and Sexy Finger Champs on 2/21 (a Friday night!). Greg’s Mrs. plays in the Champs, by the way. I can’t wait for this show! Pong are awesome as well and anything Beets is involved in has my interest piqued.

Max (in Austin 2/28)

Gerry (in Austin 3/14)

The Stone Reader (no known Austin date yet)

Road to Perdition

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Antwone Fisher

The Recruit

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Deliver Us from Eva

Kangaroo Jack

DVD Mania!

2/4 – Formula 51

2/4 – Igby Goes Down F13 Review!

2/4 – Little Secrets F13 Review!

2/4 – Sweet Home Alabama

2/11 – My Big Fat Greek Wedding

2/11 – The Fast Runner F13 Review!

2/11 – Full Frontal

2/11 – Murderous Maids F13 Review!

2/11 – Possession F13 Review!

2/11 – Swept Away (Madonna version)

2/18- The Four Feathers F13 Review!

2/18 – Rules of Attraction

2/25 – Knockaround Guys

2/25 – Road to Perdition

2/25 – Tuck Everlasting

2/25- Welcome to Collinwood

2/28- The Banger Sisters F13 Review!

2/28- Sex and Lucia F13 Review!

3/11 – Swimfan

3/18 – Sordid Lives

3/28 – Ghost Ship

3/28 – Auto Focus F13 Review!

3/28- Bowling for Columbine F13 Review!

3/28 – Jackass F13 Review!

3/28 – Frida F13 Review!

3/28 - The Man from Elysian Fields F13 Review!

3/28- Moonlight Mile F13 Review!

3/28- Punch Drunk Love F13 Review!

1. Pushed thru a Puppet

2. Corporate Wives

3. Sauerkraut Thrust

4. Axes of Evil (has to be a heavy metal band with two lead guitarists though)

5. Trombone Bottom

Awhile ago I had three days off in a row from my day job. I had planned to go see a bunch of movies that were out, including some that will probably get nominated for awards. One that I did get to see was “The 25th Hour,” but others, like “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and “The Pianist” slipped out of view for awhile.

One of the reasons I didn’t get to all the films I wanted was because one of my roomies, Mike, wanted to go out drinking on 6th Street on a Friday night and I finally acquiesced and agreed to go and skip the films. Well, first we tried to get tickets on-line for “Dangerous Mind” at the Alamo North (figuring we’d kill two birds with one stone and drink AND watch a movie) but it was sold out. (This was its opening weekend in Austin). Bummer.

Our other roomie, Mike’s fiancée Amanda, went too and acted as designated driver. So, of course, I got shit-faced. Anyway, we went to Casino el Camino and I played all kinds of cool tunes on the juke. My favorite bartenders, Ivan, Gargoyle and Me-O (I don’t know how to say it exactly, let alone spell it) were all there and, as always, took really good care of us. Mike and Amanda spent a lot of time playing the bar video games, which I played too. There’s this one game called “Photo Hunt” where they put two pictures that are almost the same side by side and you have to spot the difference, sort of like the old Newspaper “Hocus Focus” game. This one has photos though and, if you want, you can choose pictures of scantily clad guys or girls. I swear to god, when we play the one with the naked chicks, I can spot the differences with the best of them, but you put the pictures of the half-naked guys up there and I can’t find shit. It’s funny. I get distracted.

After we had been in the bar for a bit, an hour or so, I noticed this big light coming from the bar and looked over. There was someone with a big video camera with a huge light on it filming someone drinking a shot. A few seconds later, someone said something about it being Dave Attell who does that show “Insomniac” on Comedy Central. I look over and the guy in front of the camera (the one who wasn’t wearing a huge foam-rubber cowboy hat) was awfully short. I didn’t think this could be Attell, but sure enough after craning my neck and nonchalantly looking for several minutes, it turned out to be him.

He spent several minutes at Casino’s and talked to several freaks and took lotsa footage. I was dressed in my furry, girl’s sleeveless jacket and white jeans, so I thought I might be freaky enough to get on camera. I hung around but tried not to look too impressed but to no avail. I didn’t get tapped. The Hollywood bigwigs are just afraid of the magic that is Lodger… What can I say…

I said something to one of Attell’s 47 producers and crew wannabees hanging about. I mentioned that they should interview Leslie, Austin’s most notorious freak. That the show wouldn’t really be about Austin if Leslie wasn’t in it and they said that Leslie had been on camera but was going to end up on the cutting room floor. S/he probably tried to touch Attell’s dick.

After I was good and drunk and Attell had moved on down the road, we met up with Amanda’s friend Kahn and she took us over to nasty old Spiro’s. I freaking hate Spiro’s! It’s one of those pissy, trendy joints where lackluster 20-something ignorant fucks smoke cigars and drink Brandy while 20-something bimbos wear clothes that they got at a fashion mall and act like they might fuck you if you drive an expensive sports car. Kahn’s sister was having her birthday party there, for some stupid reason, and she wanted to go back, so we went. Kahn snuck me in through the back while my roomies paid five bucks to get in. We went through the place, out on the patio and back inside a club next door (was this the back entrance to the oft-closed club Plush?) and a guy stopped me when I walked in and said, “This room is only for the ladies.” I didn’t care, so I stepped back out but once he saw we were with Kahn, he ushered us all right in.

I was pretty shitfaced by this time, so I don’t remember much. There were a lot of male dancers that were black or Hispanic and looked like thugs. Not a single cute, pasty-assed white boy in the bunch. (The ladies can have them, door dude!). So I drank and the girls all got dances.

I don’t remember much past this. I apparently passed out on the ride home. I also apparently tried to give Kahn’s sister a birthday spanking. She must have started rubbing on my furry, girl’s jacket. The ladies love it!

Me and the roomies also watched a night on the WB where they ran three episodes of “The Surreal World” (or is it “The Surreal Life?”), the reality based show like MTV’s “Real World” except instead of non-actor, unknown wannabees, the WB has peopled their house with has-beens. Corey Feldman, Emmanuel Lewis, Vince Neil, MC Hammer, some girl from “Survivor,” Gabriella from “90210,” and a Playboy bunny all live together and have special things that they do when they get a “tabloid” paper from the producers who send them on some sort of mission or adventure or something. In one, they had a talent show and had to go sell tickets to it themselves. In another they go to Vegas and party all night then drive back to LA and go to church where Hammer preaches.

This was an astounding episode as Neil had said earlier on the ride there that he had given up on prayer after his 4 year old daughter had died. Hammer brings him up in front of the congregation and they all pray for him. Neil is genuinely affected by this in a poignant and profound way. It’s an amazing TV moment.

But nothing is as fun about this show as is watching Feldman. He’s a hoot. He’s either a genius at taking advantage of an opportunity to be on television or the most ridiculous celebrity ever. Watching him hero-worship Neil is amusing but seeing him cry after he fights with Gabriella is nothing short of an absurdist masterpiece. Feldman truly makes the show live up to its title.

Now I’m sorry I wasn’t there when Fedlman hosted a showing of “The Goonies” at the Alamo Drafthouse recently. I did see some footage of that on the cable access “Show with No Name” recently. Feldman looked drunk off his ass!

Are we going to war? The answer to that seems obvious. The question is: Should we? (I love this quote I heard recently: Maybe it isn’t about whether or not man as a species CAN survive but whether or not man as a species SHOULD survive).

I have mixed feelings about the war. One the one hand, I believe Saddam is a genuine threat to democracy, freedom and civil rights. He’s an evil man and we need to take care of him before he does serious harm to us and his own people.

On the other hand: Are Americans any less evil? We’ve been over there mucking about in the Middle East for decades and the serious wrongs we have done to those people only furthers the inhumanity Americans have shown to Native American Indians, Africans, the Vietnamese, South Americans and just about any other culture you care to name.

Watching the film “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” recently, thanks to the Dobie here in Austin, opened my eyes to some of the more unsavory parts of our history in the last 30 or 40 years. We have overthrown governments with coups, had world leaders kidnapped and murdered, and made choices that have led to the deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent people. It’s sickening to think that our government has done much of this in the name of “furthering democracy” and stopping Communism. We have been as savage, as brutal, as ignorant and as wrong as any dictatorship might be.

Still, we have helped to turn the world into a free world. Look at the freedoms enjoyed by Germany and the Soviet Union now. Isn’t it fair to say we had a huge hand in this? Isn’t it fair to say that for every atrocity we’ve committed in the name of freedom, we’ve also created freedoms and more humane living conditions in some other culture or country?

I don’t think we need to be the world’s peacekeepers or the world’s conscious. But someone has to work at attaining these things. I think America is as giving and helpful as it is brutal and destructive.

Yet our history is littered with wrongs we have done other cultures. I was up too early the other day and the History Channel was running a show called “The Fifties.” Inserted amongst the stories of the Edsel and television commercials was a story about United Fruit (marketers of Chiquita Bananas) and their struggle with the government of a South American country in the 50’s. Eisenhower was president and much of his cabinet had stock in United Fruit. When a president was elected (in a free, democratic election) and tried to help the impoverished people of this country (many of whom worked for United Fruit for 50 cents a day), American sent in aid to train a military coup to overthrow the new president. They succeeded. This tale was told with the jovial nature of a nostalgia show. It was not a expose’ or an indictment or an accusation. It was presented as goofy, trivial fact. It’s sad enough that this is so but what is even more unfortunate is that it was told with the vainglorious presumption that things like this only happened 40 or 50 years ago. Truly, America has as much to be ashamed of as it does to be proud of.

So to war. I have my doubts that our motivations are as pure and as selfish as President Idiot would try to have us believe. After all, as a recent political cartoon pointed out, both he and Osama Bin Laden are in the same family business… oil. And that’s really what it’s all about isn’t it?

Of course, I wrote the above just a couple of days before the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere on a crystal clear Saturday morning. What a sad and mournful day. But this beautiful, wide-eyed innocence that comes from tragedy! Wow.

The space program is a shining example of exactly what is right with America. Over the next few months you will hear pundits and idiots lambaste the space program, question it, degrade it, devalue it and call for its end. They are fools. The space program is exactly what America is about, discovery, cooperation, pioneering and questioning. I don’t give a flying fuck (no pun intended) how much money it costs. I don’t care how much of that money is misspent. There are far worse things (like war) that our Goddamn tax money goes into (like paying Strom Thurman’s salary).

The space program is a beacon of hope to this country. When I was a kid, I never thought that we would be friendly with the Russians. The Cold War made such notions seem naïve and impossible. But now we are friends with the Russians. We are allies. We share a space station with them and with the nations of the free world. Is America a corrupt money-grubbing, war hungry nation? Only when you see us at our worst. See us at our best and we are a beacon of hope and dreams and a child of wide-eyed amazement.

I want to see this country and think of this country as it is when it is at its best. I am glad that there are people that question this nation and are skeptical and cynical. But I am not going to be one of them. Hopefully optimistic. That is how I intend to perceive this nation.

I mention this last part because I spent some time with my friend Dusty lately, on the night of the Columbia disaster, as a matter of fact, and we had a long discussion about it and the war. He is one of those “anti-war” kids, a peace-nik, as they say… A hippie. But he’s more of the short haired, has a job, bisexual, intelligent hippie type. Not a tie-dyed in the wool, longhaired, bearded Grateful Dead type.

Dusty actually thinks that it is possible that the government set-up the Columbia disaster to divert the masses’ attention away from the war. Isn’t that ridiculous? It borders on paranoid. But this is the kind of things that the hippy-dippy-trippy people he hangs out with obsess about. He has a lot of friends who have something to do with this local book store called Monkey Wrench that also is some sort of subversive cooperative. They’re all anti-war protesting types. Again, this is really all fine and good by me. I’m glad there are people who question our government and look into this sort of thing. But some of their notions are just as simplistic and as ridiculous as the government’s.

I had a really good time chiding Dusty about how “the man” wants him to be a protesting peace-nik because it gives him a false sense of actually having a voice. “The Man” is an enemy created by those who would do evil to distract simple-minded protesters like himself from the real issues facing the country. I kid him that the recycling movement is just a joke to placate hippies like him and that the garbage all goes into the same landfill anyway, no matter how we divide it up before we put it on the truck. And that the recycling industry is just as corrupt and evil-minded as the government. There are just as many companies who make big money from the government contracts that they get to recycle as there are government contractors who provide instruments of war. The Man wants him to recycle because it gives him a false sense of actually having a voice.

Dusty is very smart and I want him to think for himself. He follows the anti-war peace-nik dogmas as blindly as others follow the government’s dogma. He thinks he’s cool and free and smart and against the government when really all he is is a blind follower of those who would just as easily hold him in their clutches as the government does, given the chance. These guys are like the animals on animal farm before the revolution. Right now their motto is ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL but put them in power and the slogan will softly focus into… ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL – BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

Anyway, Dusty took me to some benefit for the Monkey Wrench store at a place called the Chicken Wire Ranch over on East 6th in the barrio. It’s a BYOB type place that’s little more than a converted house where someone has set up a stage in their backyard. It was cool as fuck. There were a ton of cute little college-aged anti-war guys there. I really liked it.

I like Dusty and I like going out with him. But every time I think we are going somewhere and it is going to be just him and me (not that think anything sexual is ever going to happen between us – he’s caught up too much in image for anything like that to happen)… As I was saying… every time I think we are going somewhere and it is going to be just him and me, we end up meeting up with his “boyfriend” Salvatore. And it’s not that I don’t like Salvatore; I do. But I just hate that Dusty calls me and asks me if I want to do something with him and then when we go, Salvatore is there. Or he brings Salvatore with him. It gets annoying.

So Salvatore was, of course, at the Chicken Wire Ranch. I knew he would be, so I brought my rooomie Amanda too. We had a good time. We got to see two bands. The first had 2 drummers and about 4 sax players. Plus a girl that played the Theramin. That was so cool. I want one. I’m going to download instructions on how to build one from the net somewhere and make one. I think that would be so cool. You’d get invited on stage to all sorts of weird open mike nights if you played a Theramin.

A side note: My friends wanted to have a band once where I was going to wear a dress and a wig like the girl Wendy, from the fast food chain, and play an anvil with a hammer. I would have done it too.

Anyway, this first band was sort of a noise band and the incessant honking of the saxophones made me think that they must have been some sort of “save the geese” type rockers. Still, we planted ourselves in front of the Theramin player and dug on her.

The second band was a more traditional type. A three piece with a guitarist that sang, the drummer had written Rock City Motherfuckas on his bass drum (or something like that). They were fun but only did a few songs. One of them was called ”Big Eyes.” The lead singer wore checkered Vans just like mine.

Dusty didn’t want to stay anymore at the makeshift club, so we went back to his place and kept drinking. Salvatore went with us but soon went to bed. We ended up going over to his neighbors’ apartment. They were about the dullest college guys ever to have a kegger. They were the kind of college kids who thought they were cool because they had Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album covers pinned to the wall of their apartment.

I went into the bathroom and they had some Rolling Stones on so when I came out, I said, “I didn’t like the music that was playing in the bathroom so I shit in the sink.” They didn’t think that was very funny.

We eventually went back to Dusty’s and drank some more. Amanda drove me home after 4am.

Was Mark Savlov serious when he bitched about the amount of commercials that run prior to movies in a recent article in the Austin “Chronicle?” Nope. He was just setting up his readers for his hype of a local company that has created interactive programs that run before movies to “entertain” the audience. This prototype is being tested at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema North here in town. Shameless huckstering from a member of the “Chronicle” staff! What a surprise! And on their dime! And he makes it seem like a coincidence. I wonder how much of a payoff Savlov took?

By the way, Savlov also misconstrued what the exec at Regal Cinema was talking about when he said that they were planning to run 20 minutes worth of commercials prior to a film. Regal is planning, with NBC, to integrate commercials into a 20-minute program of entertainment materials.

Kevin In the Dirty City

My friend Kevin, whose in a band called In the Dirty City, sent me this note about recording their first album:

“We saved all the vocal tracks until January 1st so that the lyrics could act as supplementary New Year resolutions. Finally, on December 2nd we finished recording our 44 minute, 6 song epic E.P., which we've taken to calling ‘Kawstoom’.

“There's still alot of work that needs to be done. There's no official mix yet. It's currently being mastered, and we've yet to decide on artwork, but the recording process is done and dead (like Latin) through and through. The tentative tracklist is as follows:

Cellar Door

Healthy Smile

::crash:: (KAWSTOOM)*

Longtooth

Anomalady

Holes in the Walls

*featuring Boy 2 of the Oblong Boys

“Expect short/sweet experimental vignettes acting as segues between songs composed by Cera Barrett and Bon-Ton Heath.

“Portions of the recording are available in MP3 format at: www.inthedirtycity.com/noise.html

“Just don't expect these rare closet mixes to sound too similar to the final product.”

-Kevin

Ben Kobbs and Robert Chritopher Ohlson, among others

My friend Ben Kobbs is a cameraman who works on several local projects with J.P. Lipa. The two are currently shooting filmmaker Robert Christopher Ohlson’s short “Meat Market.” Ohlson is also a pal of mine. He’s shown some of hi stuff on Lube TV.

A couple of weeks ago, Ohlson sent me a note about what he’s up to that went something like this:

“Little update as to what I'm up to - We're shooting a short film called ‘The Meat Market’ in two weeks.

“The Meat Market is an absurd, stylized black comedy set in modern day Texas. Sonny and his older, seemingly retarded brother, Maynard, have to make a sale - they have to find a company willing to distribute their meat products or they'll lose their farm. Their last hope is a beef distributor giant, MEAT TUNNEL INDUSTRIES. But George Sledge, CEO of MEAT TUNNEL INDUSTRIES, pushes Sonny and Maynard to their breaking points during a what-was-supposed-to-be normal sales pitch, and all hell breaks loose.

“Armed with a calf named Betsy, a Mexican prison, a Vegas showgirl, a disco-dancing coke-fiend lawyer named Lester, Darwinism, butchers, styrofoam, whiskey, the Viet Cong and a palm-sized New Testament, this sales pitch is going to be a slaughter.

“It's starring a GREAT theatre actor named Paul Norton and The Brothers Zellner, David & Nathan. On the crew side, we've signed on a great DP named Jay P Lipa and Graham Reynolds, of the Golden Arm Trio, is scoring the film... set to be finished May 1, 2003.”

The official press release added:

“…this Robert Christopher Ohlson film is an ambitious one that he hopes, ‘will shed light on some of my personal struggles as it engages the viewer on the visual, intellectual and political levels.’

“The Meat Market will be released in the Summer of 2003.”

Ohlson sent me a short with David Zellner a few months ago called “I Love You” that I really liked. I’m hoping we can get him to come back to Lube TV soon. He’s a really cool guy.

Ben told me that the shoot lasted 6 days and went really well. He says the finale of the piece is quite zany and unique and I can’t wait to see the damn thing.

This is sort of news from friend of a friend. My pal Ben Kobbs knows Jay Harris! Here’s some not-so-new news about him:

“Word from The Hollywood Reporter is that Paramount Pictures is in negotiations for the feature film rights to Jason Harris and Zack Morrissette's self-published comic Bad Guy. The film is to be produced by Barry Josephson and screenwriter David Hayter, both of whom have experience in bringing comics to film.

“According to the Bad Guy website the comic ‘tells the story of an assassin named John. However, John is no ordinary gun-for-hire, as he deals exclusively with the CONTRACT KILLINGS OF SUPER POWERED BEINGS [emphasis theirs]. He's the guy sent in when the costumed SUPER-FREAKS step on the wrong toes. The story is told through excerpts of John's journal. He does this to keep himself from going insane. The job has gotten to him and he can't sleep, he can't focus and he desperately looks for something - ANYTHING - to get his mind in order.’

“Hayter told The Reporter, ‘In a nutshell, Bad Guy is like taking the world of Spider-Man or X-Men and putting Dirty Harry in it.’ Hayter's name is well-known as the writer of X-Men and The Hulk. He's also worked on adaptations like X-Men 2 and Watchmen.

“Josephson's name may also be familiar. He was a producer on the Men In Black films as well as the short-lived but much adored The Tick live-action TV show.

“‘We're extremely excited about all of this as we had only one issue out,’ Morrissette said to The Reporter. ‘Barry was involved with The Tick and Men in Black, which is a great resume from a comic book producer's standpoint. Barry is intent on keeping the voice of the comic the same, which we think is great.’ Added Harris: ‘We're looking to quit our day jobs so we can put out a second issue. We're also excited to be working with David Hayter. For him to want to work with a couple of no-names like us is a validation for the self-esteem.’

“To quote the Hollywood Reporter: ‘Bad Guy, an independently published comic book, which Barry Josephson and screenwriter David Hayter will produce. The comic's creators, Jason Harris and Zack Morrissette, will write the screenplay, which will be supervised by Hayter, writer of such projects as the comic book-turned-feature film franchise X-Men and The Scorpion King, among others. Bad Guy is set in a world in which those who wish to be superheroes can interview at the Oden Co., which then puts candidates through various genetic, physical and mental tests. Oden then decides on an appropriate superpower, costume and city in which the chosen ones will be based to fight crime. When the superheroes get bored on the job and begin abusing their powers -- using them for evil rather than good -- a mortal named John takes it upon himself to fight the villains via contract killings.’

Ben is also friend of a friend to James Cox. Some news about him:

“Val Kilmer will play late porn king John Holmes in ‘Wonderland,’ a movie about the 1981 involvement of Holmes and his teenage lover in a quadruple homicide, to be distributed by Lions Gate Films. Producers and Lions Gate also are in advanced negotiations with Josh Lucas ("Sweet Home Alabama"), Kate Bosworth ("Blue Crush") and Lisa Kudrow to co-star. Christina Applegate and Kevin Pollak are in talks to join the cast.

“Shooting will begin in Los Angeles in early November under the direction of James Cox ("Highway").

“The script, based on the true tale of the murders on Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles, was penned by Todd Samovitz, D. Loriston Scott, Captain Mauzner and Cox.

"’What always interested me in this project is the truth of the incident,’ Cox told Daily Variety. ‘True crime has always been a passion of mine. But this was not just a murder story. There is also a unique love story, elevating this film above noir crime and making it universal.’

“Cox said he and the other writers had, after looking over all the second-hand material on the murders, interviewed Holmes' ex-wife and his girlfriend at the time. Both have been involved in the project creatively.

“Cox said Kilmer was always his first choice to play Holmes, who died in 1988 of AIDS complications. ‘Wonderland’ is not the first project inspired by the Wonderland murders: Killer Films and Magnet Entertainment are developing "Superstar 81," penned by Tristan Patterson, which like ‘Boogie Nights’ sets a fictional protagonist in the porn world.

Ben told me that filming has already wrapped on this.

Earthcam recently revamped their webcam site. They are now charging people just like Camarades started doing. You know, they only want $4.95 a month and I would have paid it gladly, it’s worth $60 a year, but they also made it so you need Netscape 6.0 or newer to run the site. That’s fucking stupid. I DL’ed 7.0 and it was slow and looked horrible and didn’t work worth a shit. After 10 minutes I deleted it from my hard drive. I have Netscape 4.7 and I love it. It’s a perfect browser. No fancy-schmancy bullshit and no soft muted color scheme. Explorer doesn’t work well with Earthcam either. Fuck Man! Guess I’m going to have some withdrawals here soon from not seeing webcams. That’s gonna suck. Anyone know any good free sites?

Some New Links

Added to the filethirteen.com Links section recently:

http://www.geocities.com/bigheadedpygmies/ - a site about how short celebs are but contains lots of images of celebs in Austin

http://www.austinwide.com/ - everything you want to know about Austin

http://www.austinmovietimes.com/ - the name says it all

http://www.inthedirtycity.com/ - website of the Austin band In the Dirty City

http://www.dvdeastereggs.com/easter_eggs.php - a site that lists most of the hidden stuff on DVD's

http://www.road-dog-productions.com - website of filmmaker David Lowrey.

http://www.cineshare.com/ - Austin's Film Resource

http://www.jeremyschwab.com/ - website of the Texas based actor

Until next time, I’m just slightly out of frame,

Lodger 2003

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