New Wilco

The new Wilco came out this past Tuesday and it's really great. Yeah, of course I think it's great, they're my favorite band. But...this one is just a nice, mellow...almost introspective album. There's hardly any "noise" and no experimentation as there has been on most of their last 5-6 albums. I've been telling people "it's the perfect springtime album" and I totally believe that. My favorite song on the album is "I Hate it Here" (no, I'm not being drab...the song's not what you might think) but I also love "What Light." Here's the lyrics...they're incredible:

If you feel like singing a song
And you want other people to sing along
Just sing what you feel
Don't let anyone say it's wrong

And if you're trying to paint a picture
But you're not sure which colors belong
Just paint what you see
Don't let anyone say it's wrong

And if you're strung out like a kite
Or stung awake in the night
It's alright to be frightened

When there's a light (what light)
There's a light (one light)
There's a light (white light)
Inside of you

If you think you might need somebody
To pick you up when you drag
Don't loose sight of yourself
Don't let anyone change your bag

And if the whole world's singing your songs
And all of your paintings have been hung
Just remember what was yours
is everyone's from now on

And that's not wrong or right
But you can struggle with it all you like
You'll only get uptight

Because there's a light (what light)
There's a light (one light)
There's a light (white light)..................

and so forth.

Go buy SKY BLUE SKY today! It'll make you feel good inside!

We're All in This Together

I'm reading Owen King's book of short-stories (and a novella) called "We're All in This Together" and it's simply amazing. I was totally, totally, totally blown away by the novella within the book (which is titled "We're All in This Together") and I didn't want it to end. Sometimes I get bored and kind of zip through pages, but with this story, I really took my time. It was like eating a really good piece of cake where you just savor it. I savored the words and every once in a while, King would throw in some vital piece of info so casually and so pwerfully, I had to set the book down and gather myself to put together what had just happened. King writes in such a cool way. He's extremely creative yet throws in pop culture references that fit and don't attract undue attention to themselves. He throws them out there then works them into the story in a way that works. Dare I say...genius?

I won't give details about the story as I won't do it justice. The nuts and bolts are: a kid in the year 2000 is at that crossroads in life where you have to grow up. He hangs out with his retired union organizer grandpa (who is a raging pothead) and tries to ruin his mother upcoming marriage to a real L7 square. The story is told in flashback (or as if the author were in the present, as it were) and it's just great. I haven't laughed out loud at a book in a while nor have I felt such deep feelings of sadness as well as kindred spiritness in both the author and the characters in the book.

I finished the first short story last night and it was good. I really dig King's writing style. But it's to the point where the novella blew my doors off so hard, everything that comes after it will be held unfairly to comparison. I may switch over to something else to let my feelings chill out.

Go get this book! It's the perfect springtime/summer read. You'll love it, I promise.

http://www.owen-king.com/

Ramblings from a rut

I'm in a rut. I feel bored and restless...stressed out and lazy. I have equal amounts of things I want to do, need to do and should do, yet don't do anything. Aside from Spiderman-3, there's nothing I'm really excited about. I hate feeling this way.

I spent this morning trying to avoid getting out of bed and basically scrolling through all the crappy thoughts in my head. Then, when I finally got up and got in the shower, I tried to think of what I could do that would make me "happy." Until recently, I took a perverse pleasure in beating myself up and feeling crappy. So, rather than jump into that mental cesspool again, I asked myself point blank what would make me happy. Nothing came to mind. But, I figured I'd write some stuff here because I've learned that just doing little things can get you going again. Soo.....


Last night I had a dream that I was watching a super sneak preview of "Indiana Jones 4." It was o.k. There was alot of running going on. That dream segued into a dream where I had been forced to be a kindergarten teacher for a day. I wasn't too worried until I got to the class and just drew a total blank on what I should do. I also remember the teachers assistants asking me to sing a song with the kids and I couldn't think of any. Then I remembered "Old Dan Tucker" and we sang that. Either before that or after, I had a dream that I was handing out snacks to the kids at my work and it was basically a big bin of gross looking saltines. The kids weren't happy.

Last week on my way home from work, I stopped at the liquor store to get a diet coke. I saw a mom from my work buying 2 pints of "Damn Hot" cinnamon schnaps. This woman just had a baby 3 months ago and it was in a stroller in the store. Hher other kid is a lil on the slow side too. I kind of hid in the back of the store until she left but as I went to my car, I felt relieved. I had always thought the woman was just stupid, now I realize she's just a drunk. At least she walks around town all day with her kids instead of driving.

I went to the Butter and Eggs day parade Saturday in Petaluma. It was so-so. I didn't see as many people as I thought I would. I had a bunch of beer and only ate a corndog. My sister offered to take Igby to my moms and then come pick me up and take me home later. That was awesome of her. I needed to get home because I wanted to see a concert that night. My sis got me home and I ate a cold pork chop from the fridge and called my friend Kevin to see if he'd come get me. I then promptly passed out and missed my ride. I called Kev and he said he rang the doorbell and called me 3 times and nada. I was out.

Rather than call it a night, I took a cab down to the show. I asked the cab driver if he knew Norman Greenbaum. He said, "No, but that song kicks ass!!" He and I then sang "Spirit in the Sky" for the duration of the 10 minute cab ride. Norman Greenbaum lives in Santa Rosa which seems really cool to me, I thought the cabbie might have known him.

The show I went to was good, but I was just beat down tired and drunk. I took another cab home and had the cabbie take me through the Jack-in-the-Box drive thru.

So...there's my random musings. I feel much, much better.

My newest lil opus...

So, a few weeks ago my doc filmmaking partner John and I participated in the "Fairfax Documentary Challenge." Basically, you had 10 hours to make a 4 minute doc that has to do with the city of Fairfax, CA. Neither of us had been to Fairfax so we started emailing around, asking for ideas of what we could do.

Of the 6-7 responses we got, all of them mentioned this "colorful" local character that wears super short shorts, drives an old convertable and is rarely seen with less than 3 young girls on his arm. We had to find this guy!

So the Friday night before the challenge, John and I holed up in a bar in Fairfax and started trying to track this guy down. We got some good leads and the next day, we made this doc. It's pretty cool (if I do say so myself) and John and I won second place in the challenge!

Enjoy and pass it on!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkziEfeb374

If this little snippet...

...ever gets old or doesn't make me totally, totally crack up...start diggin' my grave...

I think I mentioned it...but

Our little film that could (sometimes) is playing at this years Sonoma Valley Film Festival! That's right, STRINGERS has managed to get into it's 3rd film festival (out of like, 7 submissions...not bad!) and I couldn't be more proud to show it in my home county. Even more exciting is the fact that we're playing before the film VOYEUR which looks very cool and intriguing. AND we're in "Mia's Lounge" which is the hip and edgy theater. They're going to have wine and cheese and I spoke with the festival somallier, my old buddy Chris Sawyer, and he's doing a pairing just for our film(s)!! I reccemmended Mad Dog 20/20 or Boones Strawberry Hill...but I don't think they're sponsors. We shall see.

Anyway, if you're within distance, we're playing on Saturday night at 10:00 and then again Sunday at noonish. I'll be at both screenings for the intro and Q&A but Sunday I'm also on a panel about documentaries so I'll intro STRINGERS, go do my panel and come back for the Q&A...all with what will assuredly be a massive hangover! Yay me! Barf. Then again, I can't really put away the wine so if there's no beer, I should be O.K. Then again, Sonoma is about 15 minutes from my house and there's a nice selection of local bars.

I hope to see some of you there. More info at:http://www.sonomafilmfest.org/

We got second place!

So our film "Riding with Snoopy" took second place in the Fairfax Documentary Film Challenge! Very cool! We won a really nice Premiere editing package...a value of over $800! The theatre was sold out and all the doc films were really cool. I'd do this again next year for sure!

Doc Challenge

So last weekend my filmmaking partner John and I participated in the "Fairfax Documentary Challenge." A bunch of people were in it and we all met at 9:00 a.m. in Fairfax, CA to go over the rules. Well, they did. I was late. I get lost going to Fairfax every single time. It's actually quite funny. John and I went to a bar there last Friday to see if we could sniff out some good stories and then a scant 12 hours later I was driving to the exact same spot and got lost. Anyway...

At the meeting, competitors found out these three elements that every doc had to have in them: grass, trees and the word "Fairfax." Since Fairfax is a tiny town nestled into a hillside, those elements were pretty easy to include. So we met at the bar again and got started on a few different ideas.

Both John and I asked around a bunch and we kept hearing about this whacky local guy named "Snoopy." He apparently wears really short shorts and knee high socks and always has 2-3 18 year old girls with him. He also rides around in a big ole convertable car. We decided he was our guy and embarked on a quest for Snoopy. We found him and had him give us a tour of Fairfax in his big ole car. Some random girl came along and we all piled in and cruised around town. I was half hiding in case anyone saw me in the passenger side of his car-it had no seat- and I half wanted someone to take a picture of me, John, Snoopy and some random girl driving around Fairfax on a Saturday morning.

After a good 40 minute tour we hunkered down (in the bar...I still wasn't drinking at that point) and edited a four minute film we titled "Riding with Snoopy." Somehow John found a kid that ahd actually written a song about Snoopy and we included it in the doc. Pretty serendipitous! I think it came out really, really good! I also learned that "swiss chard stems are the toothbrushes of the colon" so that was helpful.

I'm heading out to the awards now so hopefully we'll win something!

Moving on...

So I realized I never fully wrapped up my SXSW trip so here goes.

That bad photo you see was taken at HOOTERS after I barely beat Film Threat's own Mark Bell at a mini-hoops free throw shooting contest. Yeah baby! I won 10 free wings, a shirt (which I gave to Pete to give to his wife) as well as that polaroid and supposedly my name on the HOOTERS marquee for a week. I walked by it later that week and it wasn't up there. BOOoooo. Anyway...

After the FT guys left, I got my own room at the Doubletree. It was sort of off the beaten path and was WAY too expensive, but it was a ncie hotel. The very first night I was flying solo I went and saw Peter Case (of the Plimsouls), 2 Cow Garage, The Drams, Tommy Womack and Mic Harrison (of the V-Roys) ALL together in one showcase. It was awesome!!! I had a bunch of beer and proceeded to stumble on up the street. Well, I wasn't 2 blocks into my 10 block walk when I got pulled over by some bully asshole cop who said he "got a call I was urinating in the street."

I wasn't peeing in the street. It's something I would do and have done, but on this night, I didn't do it. I was really tired and drunk and just wanted to go to my room and go to bed but this ass was like...pushing me. At first he got in my face trying to get a reaction and I just stood there and said, "I didn't pee in the street." Then he got all investigative and asked how many drinks I'd had, where I was coming from, going to...etc. I calmly explained my evening and of course lied by about 10 beers when I said I'd had 5-6. He kept like...prodding me verbally...trying to get me to spazz out but I didn't. it took about 15 minutes for him to run my ID and make me stand there lile a common criminal. I didn't make a peep and when asked (repeatedly) about peeing I said, "I swear, I didn't pee in the street."

He eventually let me go to my hotel with a stern finger point in the direction i was to walk. F-ing dick. The irony is that about 3 blocks over from me was 4 blocks of wall to wall partying and he chooses to harrass me. Ugh. It really pissed me off once I got over been scared to death. I was already kind of in a funk from missing my flight and this experience really upset me. So much so I "took the next day off" from treating myself poorly. Then Friday, my last night there, I decided that when I got home I would go on the ole wagon for a month. It's been a week today and I feel exactly the same as usual...except with no beer. In the end it'll save me money and save me inches around the waist, but I'm spoiled and I want what I want. Blah. Oh, friday, my last big night I had an awesome time. I had a chicken fried steak at Threadgills, hitched an illicit ride from a hotel van and saw Steve Poltz then Is aw Carrie Rodriguez and grabbed a cab outside the show to save me a walk. Truth be told, I was scared of getting pulled over so it was a lifesaver.

To cap off my trip I went to the Texas Chili parlor and had a last beer which I savored, then I walked to 7-11 and got nachos and went to bed. Neat!

So, I'm home now and getting I'm adjusted. OH! STRINGERS got into the Sonoma Valley Film Festival so John and I are stoked!! Should be an great time and it's just in time for my month of wagon riding to be over. Look out Sonoma!

Tomorrow John and I are doing this documentary challenge where you get one day to shoot and edit a 4 minute documentary. That should be fun...especially since I won't have a hangover.

Home again, home again jiggedy jig.

Sorry for not posting, but I have some good excuses. While in the end I had another amazing time at SXSW, the trip was kind of plagued with boneheaded moves courtesy of yours truly.

When I last posted, I said I was leaving in the morning for SXSW. Friday morning I got up like it was Christmas morn I was so excited. It was like Christmas morn when I was a kid though, not Christmas morn now. Now when I wake up I groan at how much money I spent or feel bad for not spending enough because I'm broke. Anyway, I was really excited. My wife drove me to the airport and I went to check in. Only, there was no reservation for me. Huh? I was plenty early so I know I didn't miss it and I then became baffled. I had my mom book my flight because she's too sweet to me and has a bunch of sky miles (and, I'm broke) so I called her and got the confirmation number. I told the airline lady and still, nothing. I kept thinking of that Wilco song "Reservations" and the line "Iiii've got res-er-vations..." But I didn't. It was then airline lady, myself and my mom realized...my flight was THURSDAY. DAMN IT!!! I missed my flight by a DAY! What a total moron I am!

I don't take kindly to being told "no" when I really want something so I scrambled to find another flight. All of them were booked solid. There was a flight leaving in an hour for Houston and I thought maybe I could get that one and have my buddy Pete pick me up. But, that flight couldn't be transferred via the Skymiles and it cost $625.00. Crap! Crap crap crap. I called my wife and had her come pick me up. I pouted all the way home and when we got back, I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head. Even Igby couldn't cheer me up.

After some late night harrassing text messages from Pete and Mark, I woke up and did it all over again. My sister Kiff drove me to the airport (Thanks, Kiff!) and away I went. Finally. But this flight was a long one and I didn't get into Austin until like, 8:30. Basically, I missed two days of the fest and the opening night parties. Grrrrrrr. My buddy Zack picked me up at the airport and WTF-fest continued as the airline had lost my bags. Grrrrr. I like to clean up after a long flight, especially if I'm going out so that was frustrating. Real frustrating. But, we all met up at the hotel and went and saw the crappy zombie sheep movie BLACK SHEEP.

The next day I had some screenings plus I was tired from the long flight and late night. When I woke up, Pete and Mark were gone so I hopped in the shower (my luggage was at the hotel when we got back). I have stayed at the Courtyard Marriott before and I really like it. The rooms are big, free breakfast, free internet. it's great. I was just about to get out of the shower when I started to slip. I caught myself and thought, "damn, this shower is slippery!" Then I turned back around to turn off the water and totally ate shit. In the shower. Like some old man in a rest home. Needless to say, 6"4/275 pounds of wet, naked DLew ain't too pretty. I have a big pruple bruise on my ass cheek to prove it. And it hurt. And thus, WTF-fest ambled on.

Things picked up from there and I saw some great films and saw some old friends. I brought my camera but as always, forgot to use it. Then Wednesday rolled around and Mark and Pete took off. I was all alone to brave the music part of the festival. More on that later...

SXSW..again

Tomorrow morn I leave for South by Southwest in Austin, TX and I simply cannot wait. I need to just get away, have fun, see great films, hear great music, see old friends, drink free beer, eat good food. It's my vacation and I cannot wait. Seriously. like, remember when you were a kid and you'd chew on paper on your back teeth and it would feel weird and good? That's how I feel right now. Ugh...wish I was there now.

Rather than go item by item of my insane schedule, I will instead post a list of the bands I saw that are playing and have the best band names. Keep checking here, www.filmthreat.com and http://cine.petaluma360.com/ for updates...there will be lots.

Here's my list of favorite band names. These are real bands playing SXSW...no clue if the band is worth a shit:

my! gay! husband!
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Holy Fuck
Fucked Up
Nervous Hospital
Les Breastfeeders
Smoking Popes (five a.m. considered this name....briefly)
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
Holy Shit!
Bubonic Plague
I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House
Windom Earle (it's a major geek factor)
Medicine Fuck Dream
Green Milk From the Planet Orange (they're from Tokyo no less)
Yuppie Pricks
Two Hoots and a Holler
Lesbians on Ecstacy
Cat Scientist
River City Rapists
Big Balls
Patty Hurst Shifter
The Faceless Werewolves

My SWAG

I just did a post over on my Petaluma 360 Blog so I won't do it twice. Plus, I could use some hits o'er there. Read all about my SWAG bag HERE. There's photos too!

Also, the radio interview was alot of fun. I mostly just tried to keep up as the host had seen the movie the guy I was with did, but hadn't seen STRINGERS. It was a good time and a good experience to have so early on in my career as a filmmaker.

It was funny though because the guy I was with, John McDonald really did it "right" with his doc "The Ghost Mountain Experiment." He had interns and nice equipment and he even had a helicopter to get some shots! He told a story about landing at some remote cafe to have breakfast to which I replied, "Jeez, all we did was sit in the back of a 1986 police car and grab In and Out Burgers at 3:00 a.m."

Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh...on the radio...

So my short film STRINGERS is playing the Cinequest Film festival this week. I'll be there Wednesday March 7 for the 4:00 screening BUT...if any of you loyal blog readers can go to another screening (there's one Saturday AND Sunday) and VOTE for us to win the audience award, that would be swell. Real swell.

Also, tonight (Monday March 5) I'll be live on San Jose's own KFJC discussing STRINGERS (I think) at 5:30 p.m. You can figure out how to listen live on the internets by going to:

http://www.kfjc.org/netcast/index.php

You can even call in and ask me questions...I think. Hope you'll check it out. Once again, ehre are the showtimes for STRINGERS at Cinequest:
Stringers is in Shorts Competition Program 5: Docu-Nation
March 7, 4:00 p.m.
at the Camera 12 Cinema
288 S 2nd St
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 998-3300

3/10/2007
9:30 PM
Camera 12 Cinema

and
3/11/2007
4:15 PM
Camera 12 Cinema yet again.

Cinequest info can be found at: http://www.cinequest.org/

Thanks for your support!

Hooray for the Hollywood Reporter!

And their excellent taste in quoting people! Notice the blurb on Jackie Earle Haley...right hand side...

Update on my short film

So I went and saw Todd Snider last Wednesday night in Petaluma. In case you missed it somehow, I made a short film based on his song "Just Like Old Times." I got permission from Todd as well as his management and record company and off I went.

So, after completion I showed the movie to Todd's management company and asked them to forward the link
to Todd so he could watch it. About an hour later I got an email from
his manager saying Todd couldn't get it to work on his computer so he
wanted to know if I would bring a DVD down to the show and give it to
Todd's tour manager so he could check it out. Sure, no problem.

So I brought it down and gave it to the tour manager and thanked him
for putting me on the guest list. We went our seperate ways and I hung
out and watched the opener then I ran up to the lobby for a beer.
While I was up there, I see the tour manager looking around. He spots
me and comes over and says "Todd watched the movie and really, really
liked it. He'd like you to come backstage so he can meet you."

WOW!

I've met the guy a few times but I probably came off as some dorky
fan. Now I would re-meet him as "an artists." Heh heh heh.

So I go backstage and Todd's sitting there and he says "Thanks for
making that movie, I'm very touched. My wife loved it too." I said
"thanks for writing such a great song!" Then Todd asked
"So where did you find those actors?? They were really GREAT!" I told
him that they were all local and that Stephen (the lead) was in a big
production right now in SF and that Betsy does some local stuff in
Santa Rosa and at SRJC. I had forgotten, but Todd then reminded me, he
WENT to SRJC (for 3 days...as he likes to say in one of his stories).
I told him Milo (the cop) was a good friend of mine as well.

I didn't want to bug him or turn into insta-fanboy so I shook his hand and split. He put on a GREAT show and it felt really good to once again start something, finish it and show it off. Yay me!!

Also-my short doc STRINGERS is playing CINEQUEST film festival in San Jose next Wednesday. I'll only be there that day (SXSW starts the following Friday...WOO HOOOoooo!) so if you're around SJ at 4:00 Wednesday, March 7, come see my film!

My new short!!

Check it out...I'll write more about it later!

Someone will die, someone will fly

Just saw the character who flies fly on HEROES...and I started clapping. That's awesome!!!!! I'm torn on who will die. All week I thought it would be Ando...then I figured it would be Claire's mom. Now....I'm thinking it's Ando and that's cold man. Frigging cold.

Update....10:03 p.m......wow.

A very Matscentric VD to you...

Well you wish upon a star that turns into a plane
And I guess that's right on par
Who's left to blame?

If you were a pill
I'd take a handful at my will
And I'd knock you back with something sweet and strong
Plenty of times you wake up in February make-up
Like the moon and the morning star you're gone

Tonight makes love to all your kind
Tomorrow's makin' Valentines

Hey you pop up in this old place
So sick and so refined
Are you strung out on some face?
Well I know it ain't mine

If you were a pill, I'd take a handful at my will,
And I'd knock you back with something sweet and strong
Trouble keeping your head up when you're hungry and you're fed up
Like a moon and a lone star you're gone

Tonight makes love to all your kind
Tomorrow's makin' Valentines

If you were a pill, I'd take a handful at my will,
And I'd knock you back with something sweet as wine
Yesterday was theirs to say, this is their world and their time
Well if tonight belongs to you, tomorrow's mine

Tonight makes love to all your kind
Tomorrow's makin' Valentines

Another incredible DVD cover..

WOW!! Loving this one!! Again, not sure why....the design? I do like red...and I do love me some Rosario Dawson. Hmm...that's not it though. Hmmm...why is this so brilliant...?

Pupdate

Sorry for not blogging here...I've been super super super busy. Santa Barbara Film Fest was FUN!! Luckily my buddies Mitch and Phil (aka The Butcher Bros) were there so we tore it up. Those guys own that festival. They won the award for "Director to Watch" last year and everyone loves them there. They made the trip much more fun. I wrote all about it at my other blog "Petaluma Movie Reel" which can be found here: http://cine.petaluma360.com/

So since I've been movie blogging too much lately, I thought I'd give you an Igby update. He's great!! He's so cute and loves sticks, as you can see in the photo above. Erica also discovered he can fetch! He totally chases balls and sticks and brings em back. He's so smart. He loves to snuggle Erica...way too much. He likes to sleep either on her shoulder or on her head...pretty funny. I sometimes think he doesn't even like me, but he's kinda mean to Erica and he and I get along good. If he was a human, I'd buy him a beer and we'd make fun of Erica behind her back.

There's also a dark side to puppies...
They're really "bitey." We're both nursing little wounds all over our hands. They also like to chew on everything and that's only going to get worse. Plus, he's still a pup so he pees and shits all over. Sometimes he's good about waiting to go outside or hitting his mat, but usually when we come home from work he's done some redecorating. He also doesn't sleep all the way through the night. I'm lucky to have Erica because she gets up with him and takes him to pee. If I have to get up, I can't go back to sleep so her doing that is really great.

One thing I noticed is, I'm not grossed out by Igby's gross stuff. I noticed it last week when we were playing in the yard. He had some serious eye goop and if that was someone elses dog or kid, I'd be grossed out. But without even thinking I wiped it with my finger and then wiped that on my pants. Plus, I just pick up his poop whenever I see it. I mean, I use a tissue, but still. Not something I'd have pictured myself doing without thought or hesitation. I did get a little queasy when he had worms, but other than that I'm a pooper scooper.

Anyway, that's the Igby update. Here's a picture of him at the vet! He was getting his shots but this photo was right before they took his temperature...and not through his mouth. Look at this photo and tell me if he knew what was coming...