Richard Linklater on what Docs and Narratives share

From the Austin Chronicle article today, "Zen and the Art of Winning Championships" heralding Richard Linklater's new doc on college baseball's winningest coach, Augie Garrido:

For Linklater, documentary and feature films do share one characteristic: point of view. To differing degrees, they both represent the point of view of the filmmaker. In this way, Linklater challenges the notion that documentaries ever tell the truth but rather serve as a "subjective experience" in their own right. Linklater finds this aspect, "getting to know someone through someone else's eyes," fascinating. He states, "You have a person with an image of himself. And then you have other people's images of him. And then you have your our prejudices and things you bring in from your autobiography. So who knows what the truth is? This is how I formed the material and how it works for me."

Yes. I so agree with this.

ok, our wedding mixtape circa 1983

Everyone knows we got married in a movie theatre (Film Forum when it was on Watts Street to be exact - it's where we'd met working there the year before). We showed the second half of Buster Keaton's "Seven Chances." But the pre and ceremony soundtrack? Keep in mind John's parents were very religious...

Pre-wedding:

Never Grow Old - Aretha Franklin
Wholy Holy - Marvin Gaye
Precious Memories - Aretha
Climbing Higher - Aretha
Let's Get Married - Al Green

ceremony:

You're all I need to get by - Aretha
Forever Young - Bob Dylan
Family Affair - James Blood Ulmer

I really love that Blood Ulmer song!

The full-on reception mix is lost to us. We left it at the newly open (then) Capsouto Freres where we had the reception because they loved it so much. I'm sure along with R&B it included a wide range including punk and Sinatra.

25 Years!!!!

I love this guy

From: Freewillastrology.com

Aries Horoscope for week of May 22, 2008

After working for years in various jobs at San Francisco TV station KTVU, Frank Sommerville was promoted to the top of the heap -- lead anchorman of the 10 o'clock news program. He promised that his new power wouldn't make him lazy or complacent. "Nobody will out-curious me," he bragged. I hope you will adopt the same motto for the foreseeable future, Aries. Your world needs you to be intensely inquisitive about what's transpiring. Uncoincidentally, asking lots of smart questions (and even some dumb ones) will also be the best possible thing you can do for your mental health.

Bat Boy "Comfort and Joy" Mash up

Years ago we stepped out on a limb and invested a sizable amount of personal money into our friends (and frequent Split Screen collaborators) - Brian Flemming and Keythe Farley's Bat Boy: The Musical as it moved from its triumphant LA run in to Off-Broadway. We lost every penny. Although apparently it's a popular community and school performance choice.

I loved the show. I haven't seen it since it's NYC premiere @ 2001 - but this mash up of "Comfort and Joy" totally brought back the delight.

From Brian's blog:

Great fan mashup of "Comfort and Joy" from Bat Boy: The Musical with some obscure animated film...

Another great NYT column by Errol Morris

Another very strong NYTimes column by Errol Morris:

May 19, 2008, 10:56 pm

The Most Curious Thing

By Errol Morris

The following essay shows how a photograph aided and abetted a terrible miscarriage of justice. I invite readers to offer their own interpretation of the considerable amount of material contained in the footnotes.

“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”
– Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“How can you say she’s a good person?” I am sitting in an editing-room in Cambridge, Mass. arguing with one of my editors. I reply, “Well, exactly what is it that she did that is bad?” We are arguing about Sabrina Harman, one of the notorious “seven bad apples” convicted of abuse in the notorious Abu Ghraib scandal. My editor becomes increasingly irritable. (I have that effect on people.) He looks at me as you would a child. “What did she do that is bad? Are you joking?” And then he brings up the trump card, the photograph with the smile. “How do you get past that? The smile? Just look at it. Come on.”

The question kept coming up. How do you explain the smile? What does it mean? Not only is she smiling, she is smiling with her thumbs-up – over a dead body. The photograph suggests that she may have killed the guy, and she looks proud of it. She looks happy.

I should back up a moment.

(more)

I haven't had a chance to see his newest doc yet here in Austin but I can't wait.

Routines shift, now night walks

The routines shift. Now I walk at night. Need to more than ever so it's easier to remember and do. There's something about finding that joy from movement that's essential. Especially when hormones are working against you, or change is in the anxiety stage. The other night John said, "go, get out before it gets dark." But no, I prefer the dark to walk. I love the twilight and the light fading. The glow of the florescent or artificial light, the deepening of the night blue sky. I love the anonymity and the freedom that brings. My optician says I prefer the world through my sunglasses because it's less "confusing." The sunglasses cut down the percentage of information needing to be absorbed. Maybe it's that way with the night as well. It's soothing. It's gorgeous. It's certainly a simple pleasure.

Skitch - cool tool for capture and notation

Talking over lunch about new technologies, Rodney Gibbs promised to send me an interview with a Frontline producer he found interesting. The video panel (titled: Crisis in News Investigative Reporting on the Web) was terrific, but what I really enjoyed was the little program showing the screen capture and his highlighted notes. Turns out the program is called Skitch. Check it out:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Fourth Hail Storm this Spring UPDATED w/ cooler photos

In the east coast we have "snow days" where school and work shut down. In Texas, I guess there are "hail days." Our fourth hail storm this spring, this is what I found when I drove up to the sxsw office. Notice how conveniently the tree fell to the right.




UPDATE: Check out these GREAT reader hail photos from the Statesman!

IFC Cannes Cam!!!!!

My favorite guilty pleasure during this time of the Cannes Film Festival is the IFC Cannes Cam.


It's the coolest thing in the world. You can sit at home and enjoy this 24/7 little 4.5" x 3" window onto the red carpet. You can see watch people milling about, see the fashions, hear the wind, and even watch their formal gala pre-shows with Matt Singer and various guest hosts. I just caught the tail end of Austin's own Tim League doing a bang up job for Kung Fu Panda.

Check out the live feed here. It's addictive and lots of fun!