My new car, L.A., old people and Marsha Brady

I got a new car!!

It's a 2005 Honda Element and it's green. That pic is of the back of it so you can see the sweet WILCO sticker I put on it. That sticker was really the only reason I got the car...it looks so cool. I had the sticker, it didn't like, come with the car. Anyway...I'm driving it down to L.A. to see five a.m. so if you see this and live in L.A. (or feel like making a last second road trip) come down!

This morning I had to go pick up some medication at Kaiser and a real pet peeve struck me that I've been meaning to write about. Old people. I love all my grandparents, I just don't like other peoples old people. Here's why...
Since I go to work a little later than most, I frequently go to the store or run errands at 10 or 11 a.m. If you ever go to a supermarket at that time, it's all old people. And drunks waiting to buy morning booze. But mostly old people. They're all sweet and everything, but they stand at the counter (or checkout stand) and just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Loudly. About really inappropriate stuff. Case in point, some old man was in the front of the line at Kaiser talking about his bowel disfunction for a solid five minutes. Come ON man, move along! I hate being there anyway and I really don't feel like waiting in a long ass line for you to give out too much info. It happens almost every time I go to the supermarket in the morning too. Either that, or (like yesterday morning) some old lady will count out $7.00 in change while at the counter.

I know it's mean to say, but I get impatient. The worst part is, I know my grandma does that stuff and more. She used to be on a first name basis with the baggers and checkers at Safeway. She'd bring them like...vegie-burgers she made and would tell them all about her family. Once I went to the store with her and all the checkers knew who I was. Yikes! I just wanted to air out one of my many grievances in regards to the old. Next time, why I think they should be forced to drive cars made of nerf.

And finally...in my ramblings...last night I had a dream I made out with Marsha Brady in the hedge maze from THE SHINING. In the dream I was at a party with my wife and some other people and somehow ended up in the hedge maze with her and she made a move. I distinctly remember saying "hey, hey! I'm married and my wife is like, right over there!" but then I went for it anyway. After some kissing and ass grabbing, I was next talking to a friend who said that was a dumb thing to do, what...with my wife nearby. Normally dreams are hazy, but I remember clearly saying "Dude, it was fucking Marsha Brady! C'mon!" Amen.

SXSW pictures: Film Fest

Here's some pics I took from the film fest. I finally realized, I just don't take alot of pictures. Enjoy...

Hey! It's Mark Bell...and my finger!


A better shot of Mark


It's Film Threats own ERIC CAMPOS!


The ugliest chick in Austin


Group Photo...we're all totally sober!

RIP Buck Owens

Aw man, Buck Owens died yesterday. I love Buck Owens the man and his music and I was bummed to hear of his passing. In 2002 I visited Buck Owens Crystal Palace in (where else?) Bakersfield, CA. I had always wanted to go there since I was always a Buck Owens fan and while in a radio production class, I decided to do a show on "A Night at the Crystal Palace." You can listen to it Here. It came out pretty good even if my goofy friend Mario sounds rather Muppet-esque.

We had a really great time doing the taping of the show. The Crystal Palace is like a museum made by Buck Owens for Buck Owens. At the time, it was a living tribute because Buck was there. Pictures everywhere, gold records...Memorabilia. The night we went, Buck came out and sang some songs then gave the stage over to country music ingenue, Jessica Andrews. and it was great. It was like seeing a live version of Hee Haw or something. The Crystal Palace is supercool...great food and a nice time out with the family. You should go and pay tribute to the man who created the Bakersfield sound. That is, if you ever find yourself on the streets of Bakersfield.

I'm still sad Buck Owens died but I know the Crystal Palace will live on. You can check it out here. Godspeed, Buck!

Home again home again, jiggedy jig

Wow. Ouch. Wow. That's about all I can muster right now. I had an amazing time but damn am I tired. I basically spent 12 hours a day on cement either walking to a show or theater, standing in line and then watching a concert. Add to that copious amounts of cheap beer, one big meal a day, lazy morings that turn into afternoons in the darkness of a one person hotel room and, I had a BLAST! I think I have a sinus Here's some pics. Kinda crappy, off my camera phone, but I haven't unpacked the *real* camera yet.

How movies should be watched...with beer and popcorn. Minus that ladies head though




The world famous Antone's! Great show by Marah, lame crowd that stood and stared and wouldn't let me get any closer. So I just screamed lysics and "fuck yeah" into their ears until they moved.






Me at Zilker Park. Whaddya mean it doesn't look like a park? You're tripping! Acid flashback! Just kidding. This is a party I went to that was like, the coolest party EVER. It was free to get in (if you knew the password...which I did...sort of) and they had X-Box 360's set up all over. I kicked Mark's ass in boxing! They had old skool video games (caterpillar, ms. pac man, galaga) this big wall with motion detectors so you could play volleyball....free beer....it was neat.





Here's a view of Austin taken after I ate a huge salad at Hooters. It should be noted, I love the restraunt Hooters, but had never went to the one in Austin. I always imagined the "scenery" would be great but it was really disapointing. First off, there was like 5 families in there. Hooters isn't really family dining. It's for drunken, leering, dirty dudes, not 8 year old girls sitting next to daddy as he leers and checks his March madness brackets. Second, although Austin has a huge college, the waitresses were kinda gross. They were like, big hair Texas girls with too much makeup. However as I left, the night shift came in and it looked alot better. My salad was great and I also ordered 10 buffalo wings and the waitress brought me like 30 for the price of 10. Math isn't a pre-req at Hooters. Nothing like 20+ cold buffalo wings at 3 a.m.

Ahoy Mateys!

Lets see...

After hitting SXSW like sailors on shore leave, I took it easy last night. I don't want to point any fingers, but I'm going to imply that Pete is a bad influence. Granted, influencing me to blow off a screening and drink beer isn't tough to do (and the screening ended up being about transgendered women in prison! Bullet: dodged!) I still blame him for it because it's easy and he's now gone.

Yesterday I saw a great movie called GRETCHEN. It's about this "invisible" nerdy girl who keeps falling for these real assholes. My review should be up at film threat soon. After that, I switched hotels. this new one rocks! It's like a studio and it's right by a bunch of clubs that have bands I want to see later in the week. After I checked in, I saw THE CASSIDY KIDS and it was AWESOME! I wrote about the experience on the film threat blog and since I'm on dial-up, linking it could prove tricky. Just go over there and look under blogs.

After THE CASSIDY KIDS, I was planning on attending the party for the film. But then my friend called and said they were at capacity so I said screw it. I went to Whole Foods and got some grub and called it a night. The Whole Foods here is INSANE. It's 3 stories and they just have tons of crap. It's like Costco only healthy.

Today I'm going to go see LOL because I really like the guys involved and I want to see it with a crowd. After that I'm going to haul ass over to the amazing Alamo Drafthouse to see THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE and get some dinner...while I watch the movie. Woo-hoo! Then there's some parties I hope to attend. I tried to upload some photos, but this damn dial-up sucks. I'll try again later...

Day One...

Whew! After getting up at 2:45 and crossing 1/2 the country, I got to Austin, met Pete at the airport, went to the hotel and started drinking. Whee! The cool thing (among many) about SXSW is that there's no pressure like there is at Sundance. I geninely like Eric, Mark and Pete and it's nice to be able to just hang out. We had some beers in the lobby bar then I hung out in the room watching SAVING PRIVATE RYAN while Mark edited stuff for FT. Lemme tell ya, if you want to get geared up to go have fun, don't watch SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

After that (and after some yummy room service) we headed over to the opening night party. It was really cool to see people I haven't seen since last year. I also got to meet Judah Friedlander who is RAD. He played Toby in AMERICAN SPLENDOR. The guy was totally cool but I stupidly didn't get a picture with him. Maybe tonight if I see him. I did get some pictures and here they are:

That's this large bulding in Austin at sundown. My camera phone isn't great so I'll be sure to start bringing my regular camera out.


O.K....this is Kris Williams, the girlfriend of Joe Swanberg who did "LOL." She's super hillarious and super, super cool. She decided we should take a picture and this is the first one. She wasn't satisfied with it so she suggested we move to a brighter spot...in the middle of someones dart game. The people were nice and one of them took this photo:

Worst. Picture. Ever.

So now I'm off to Ironworks for some BBQ and I'll see at least one movie today...not sure what yet.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love you, tomorrow...you're only a day awaaaaay!!

Bright and early (6:25 a.m.) I leave for Austin, Texas for South by Southwest!! I cannot wait! Normally I get nervous and weird before I head out for a long trip, but I'm giddy about going to Austin. The lineup of films is AWESOME and I can't wait to see "The Cassidy Kids," "V for Vendetta," "A Prarie Home Companion," "Heart of Gold" (with Neil Young in attendance!) and a bunch of other stuff. I tried to pick out stuff I really want to see and then I'll fill in the blanks per what Film Threat needs, eating, sleeping and drinking tons of beer.

The other good news is that I got that aforementioned hotel room right downtown and it's all mine Sunday the 12th-the 19th. When I was younger, I couldn't stand to be alone. As I got older eating alone or going to the movies alone was a frightening idea. Now, I love it. I'll be responsible only to myself for 7 whole days and while being responsible (or likely, irresponsible in my case) for only myself I'll be smack dab in the largest music conference in the U.S. and at my favorite film festival.

I'm also stoked to see Marah (and I vow to see them this time), Bob Schneider, Rhett Miller, The Drams and some other stuff I have highlighted. Other highlights include:

Getting to hang with Chris, Mark, Eric and PETE from Film Threat
Seeing my friends Dan Brown and Kelly Williams who live in Austin
Seeing Joe Swanberg and Kris Williams of "LOL" (the movie) fame
Ironworks BBQ
Lonestar Beer everywhere
The Alamo Drafthouse

*Sigh* Can't I just fly out now?

Crap.

2 words: Fuck. Crash.

Oscar Night

I like the Oscars. I do feel art shouldn't be forced to compete, but film is an art form and a business si it's all good. We have people over to watch the show on my huge TV, we have a pool and I always win. Well, I usually win. The only bummer this year is there's no real surprises and no movies I'm really rooting for. I really liked all the Best Picture nominees but there's nothing I'm a total fanboy over. Still, it's fun to watch the show. Here's my picks and in parenthesis are what I want to win if there's a difference:

Best Picture: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Munich)
Best Actor: Phillip Seymore Hoffman (Heath Ledger)
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney
Best Actress: Felicity Huffman (I don't care, at all)
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz
Best Director: Ang Lee (Steven Spielberg)
Original Screenplay: CRASH (anything but CRASH but specifically SQUID AND THE WHALE)
Adapted Screenplay: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (MUNICH or A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE)
ANIMATED FILM: WALLACE AND GROMMIT: CURSE OF THE WERERABBIT

We do a bunch more in our pool but I'm just hitting the big ones here. Check back to make fun of me for losing!

Talking to you girl, it's like long division YEAH....

I've got quite a few emails and comments (personally) about the Rhett Miller CD I was pursuing and to answer them: It's good. It's very frothy and very sweet and I'm not sure how I feel about all the orchestration, but I like it. Moving on...

This Friday I leave for South by Southwest and I'm literally STOKED. I'm like...all a flutter inside but, in keeping up with my week thus far, I got some shocking, fucked up news. I thought Team Film Threat was staying until St. Patty's Day which is Friday the 17th but I found out Wednesday that they're ALL leaving Monday the 13th. Thus, my hotel situation became dire. I not only needed to find housing for 4 more days, but the pickens are slim....so slim the reservation I made was for a dirt bag hotel on a frontage road 6 miles out of town! Getting a cab at 1 a.m. during the biggest U.S. music festival is laughable and I was already hating it. Then, as if sent from above, I got some great news.

I'm on the yahoo group for Slobberbone, a band I love dearly and who recently broke up. Their new incarnation "The Drams" are going to be at SXSW so I'm excited to see em. Out of nowhere and in my lowest point (having my car just die and getting stuck with 4 days of a hotel bill) some Prince on the Slobberbone yahoo group decided he couldn't go to SXSW and offered up his reservations to a fellow 'Bone fan. I emailed him and WHAMMO! I'm (likely) all set at a hotel right smack dab in the middle of town! And it's like $15 cheaper than what I had! All is well now and I've started making preliminary plans for music and films to see.

it's SO HARD though. It's like doing long division or registering for classes. Like...if I see MARAH here on ____ night, I'll miss Rhett Miller _____ at blank p.m. On and on. Plus there's free parties all day, sleeping, films...ugh. It's quite simply the best problem to have and I can't wait till this time next week!

Lousy Smarch Weather...

Last night I got my flight for SXSW. My mom was cool enough to give me sky miles, but now there's no turning back. Not that I would want to turn back, SXSW is about all I live for. Also last night, I remembered the new Rhett Miller (of the Old 97's) solo album came out and I totally spaced it so I had to get it today. Thus, my day was planned. Wake up, take the neighbors kids to school, come home and do the film threat news, go pick up all the camera equipment I borrowed from school to return tonight (I shot a short over the weekend, more on that later), get the Rhett Miller CD, go to work, leave a lil early so I can drive an hour and 45 mins to class...but resting assured because I'd have new driving music. Piece of cake.

The morning was fine but my 1991 Ford Taurus has bad brakes and the transmission has been slipping. But I took the kids and made it home no problem. Before doing the FT news, I checked my bank account: overdrawn $38.00. D'oh! A drag, but todays payday so not a total wash. So I do the news and head off to get the Rhett Miller CD.

I always buy records at Backdoor Disc but they changed owners recently and I've been less than thrilled with them. Sure enough, they didn't have the CD. Strike 2 against them. So I headed to Santa Rosa to the other Sonoma County indie record store, The Last Record Store. Hoyt who works there says "we had 5 copies, but they're all sold." Crap. Over to Best Buy.

In case you're wondering why I'm pursuing new CD's when I'm $38.00 in the hole the answer is simple. I'm an idiot. So off to Best Buy. After 20 minutes of looking, me and the clerk find a copy. Hoo-fricking-ray! As I head to the register with my Cingular rebate card ($35.00 on it) I see the NETWORK special edition is on sale for $19.00. Score! I grab it and head to the counter. Turns out the total is $34.00 and I really only had $33.00 on the card. Rather than say....put the DVD back, I figure..."hey, why not get a bunch of DVD's and put them on a credit card!?!?" Sooo smart! I'm trying to get out of debt, am $38.00 overdrawn and decide buying MORE than I can afford is the best choice.

At the new release rack, they had a sweet looking WALK THE LINE 2-disc set. Sold. I see there's a "media" box set featuring NETWORK, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN and DOG DAY AFTERNOON for $48.00. That's a $20.00 savings because all three are new releases and all three are $20+. Sold. Add the Rhett Miller CD and I think the MIDNIGHT COWBOY special editions and I'm up to $120.00! Wheeee!! Me American, love to spendy! Hell, I'm not even sure I got MIDNIGHT COWBOY, but I can't remember. Way to think about what you're buying, dumbass! I jump back in my car to head over a big mountain that I have to go over every day to get to work.

As I said, my car has been iffy and today was no exception, but I figured she would last me until I got back from SXSW. However at the exact midpoint of the mountain, my transmission gave out. It's done. If the repair is more than $300.00...my car is done. So I somehow made it over the mountain and into work (all in first and part of second gear) where Erica took me to St. Helena with her so I could take her car. Now I have to get all the camera stuff out of the car and into her car, drive back through St. Helena to get to Marin. Ugh. And I have no car. But at least I have a bunch of new DVD's and a less credit than I started with.