When the levee breaks got no place to stay...

Damn. Looked like New Orleans dodged the bullet, then the levee gave it up, 200 feet of it and now the big bowl is filling up. The more information that comes out, the worse this all looks. The entire gulf coast has been shredded and I'm sure if you're reading this, you've seen the photos and footage and misery. My New Orleans pal, Lord Nelson (safe in Lafayette now, thank's for asking) has told me tales of woe, like the one where his girl friend and her parents, staying at a motel somewhere in Mississippi witnessed looters breaking into the vehicles of those staying at the motel, stealing from those who have lost it all. What level of hell do they send you to for that kind of behavior? Before all this madness, I arranged to visit my Father in Mississippi (also safe as far as I know) and Scott in N.O. at the end of September and I still hope to make the trip. Though they are warning volunteers to stay away, I want to give back to that town that has given me so many good times. I've shoveled mud before, I'd gladly do it again for all of them now. We are all in this together.

Do know what it means to miss New Orleans?

New Orleans is my favorite city in the USA. I've spent a lot of time there, been to three Mardi Gras and two Jazz Fests and countless other trips to visit my old, great friend Lord Scott Nelson. The Crescent City has a charm, character and funk that has been torn down, paved over and whipped out of most other cities. There are more eccentrics per square mile there then anywhere else in America 'cause they just don't give a shit. The locals joke about Louisiana and N.O. in particular being a third world country and after tonight, that joke will take on a cruel irony. I've read dire predications about what would happen if a category 3 or 4 storm hit; a city submerged and possibily beyond reclaiming. Katrina's a cat 5 monster with gusts up to 200 mph and a storm surge of 25 feet or more. By morning there may not be anything left but memories.

Some memories-

- arriving by a midnight train one steamy August. Lord Nelson faithfully meeting me at the station and we settled into a crawl through the Quarter. The drinks and laughs rolled on until the sun came up and then hot, black coffee and powder sugar down the front of my shirt at Cafe' Du Monde.

- second time going to Mardi Gras. Made a giant rubber tiki mask inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's "The Curse of Lono". Ran wide through the streets and at one point found myself encircled by a dozen or more Japanese tourists all photographing and video-taping me. I sometimes wonder what the footage looks like.

- same Gras trip, finding some weird, side street juke joint with a dirt floor and no windows, but the best smoking blues band I ever heard and yelling till my throat was horse.

- drinking White Russians and bowling at the old Mid-City Rock 'n Bowl.

- watching Godzilla movies and shooting pool on the nastiest pool tables at the Saturn bar.

- seeing the band Royal Fingerbowl play at the Saigon Club, as I recall it was smoker's night and the band was handing out free cigs.

- having a hang-over cheese burger at Checkpoint Charlie's and watching some 60's style funk band with a lead singer sporting an afro larger then a German Shepard.

....man, I got to stop, I'm making myself sad.

Here's to all the folks down in The Big Easy. Good luck, Buddha bless and I hope you'all make it through the night.

OK HW

Go have a ball, a Murderball...

I caught "Murderball" last week and was humbled by the humility and inspired by the spirit of those rolling rugby players. From the opening scene of Mark Zupan dressing himself for the day, to the wild melee of the game, this film showed me a world that, frankly I'd never thought about before. Directors, Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro do a good job of balancing the individual stories with the main drama of the USA Wheelchair Rugby Team's effort to reclaim the title of World's Best from their arch rival Canada. This film has everything; conflict, humor, suspense, great dialogue and characters; so imagine my dismay when I read this CNN article called, "Why is nobody going to 'Murderball'?"

Ticket sales have been slow in comparison to the movie's buzz, and the distributor worries that America just isn't ready for a frank documentary -- even a really good one -- about guys in wheelchairs.

Read rest of the story

Indeed. Cynically enough I am not surprised that the masses are flocking to "The Dukes of Hazards" instead of "M-Ball" after all reality is pretty heavy right about now and the urge to escape is strong. Even though, ultimately what I took away from "Murderball" was something better than two hours of mind-wash. What I got was a glimpse of the nobler side of any of us, all of us and how some face hard realities with grace, strength and style. Do yourself a favor, catch "Murderball" not out of pity or duty or whatever, but because it's just a damn good film. Zahdah.

OK HW

Zank you very much

Zank is ready. You might be more excited about this if you knew what "Zank" was, so let me tell you. "Zank" is a short stop motion animated film that I made a few years ago for the Flicker Film Festival in Richmond, Va. Every fall they hold an event called "Attack of the 50 Foot Reels" where participates create a movie from one roll of b&w or color silent Super 8 film. It's an in-camera edit and the filmmakers see their effort warts and all the night of the festival along with a crowd of one hundred plus folks. I've dared the task twice now, the first time I contributed a mini-documentary about my wife's painting called "Float" and then there's "Zank". I had been itching to do some animation and stop motion fit with the limited time available. I considered various ideas and roughed out some thumbnail storyboards, and that thing happened to me. That thing is the bad habit of getting too elaborate, biting off the big chew and never finishing the project, so I decided to try a different approach. Instead of trying to figure out every little detail, I'd just wing it. I had a "feeling" a definite "theme" was manifesting itself, so I gathered together some simple, pre-made characters to film (called toys) and over the next few nights wandered my way through the fifty feet of film. I finished well before the deadline, posted the exposed reel off and forgot about it until a few days before the event. That's when I thought about a soundtrack, what to do? At previous events, I'd seen folks do everything from live accompaniment on electric guitar to spoken word to just throwing on a commercial CD. As I had no particularly music in mind when I was shooting and lacking in musical skills my own self, I started hunting for a song. My criteria was: one - had to be around three minutes and twenty seconds long (the length of a fifty foot roll of Super 8 film projected at eighteen frames a second) and two - it had to be funky. What I wound up selecting was a Tom Waits song off "Alice" called "Kommienezuepadt" which met the requirements better then I could have designed. The night of the festival, "Zank" unreeled to lots of laughs and a big round of applause. "Kommienezuepadt" eerily matched the rhythm and feel of the animation, so much so that I had a hard time thinking about other music for the piece. I briefly considered looking into getting rights, but that provide beyond reach and I shelved the piece and life rolled on.



Fast forward to April 2004. I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland attending "Dead by Dawn". There I have the good fortune to met Neil Spencer Bruce; film fanatic, world traveler, blogger, and most importantly musician. Between b-movies and pints Neil volunteers to write, perform and record a new soundtrack for "Zank". The world is full of people who enjoy talking, in fact many of those same people believe that by talking about something, you have actually accomplished something other then converting O2 into CO2. Neil is not one of those people. E-mails started appearing in my inbox with links to copies of "Zank" with new soundtracks and every time I made a suggestion, WHAM Neil was on the job adding in his own good ideas until I couldn't remember the Tom Waits version. Yeah, Neil is that good.

So, without further ado I present:

"Zank"

note: this is a 5.82 Mb QuickTime movie. Neil will be hosting a WMV version soon.

I'm looking around for festivals to enter, so if you have any recommendations hip me to'em.

Thank's for looking and any comments are welcomed.

OK HW