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October 2008
Bowler rolls 300 game, dies
How many times have you heard someone jokingly say, “If i could just [blank], I would die in peace”?
Presumably, Michigan bowler Don Doane passed this week with a smile on his face, and hopefully a sense of peace. A 45-year member of a bowling team called “Nutt Farm,” Doane this week achieved the dream of all bowlers, bowling a perfect score of 300. As he high-fived his friends minutes after his accomplishment, he fell to the floor, dying immediately of a heart attack.
[From the story on WZZM.com]
“You get nervous shooting a 300,” says teammate Todd Place. “The pressure keeps building,” says bowling alley owner Jim Nutt.Minutes after achieving the life long goal of a perfect game the 62 year old bowler collapsed and died at Ravenna Bowl in Ravenna. “Don just collapsed,” says alley owner Nutt. ” At first we thought he just fainted.” “Then when I rolled him over I realized it wasn’t good,” says teammate Place.
The teammates say he was giving a high-five minutes before. They tried to revive him but Doane never spoke another word. He died of what was apparently a massive heart attack “He looked fine, reached across the table and gave me a high-five and he fell over,” says Place.
“I think he died by the time he hit the floor.” Don Doane was a member of the “Nutt Farm” bowling team at Ravenna Bowl for 45 years. His teammates says its strange not to see him on league nights.
“It was like a book, a final chapter,” says Place. “He threw his 300 game with all of his friends, gave each other high-fives and it’s like the story ended. He died with a smile on his face.”
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David Lynch to produce Webisode with Austin company
Who knows if it was his trip here last year to promote his new book, “Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity,” last year and appear on “Texas Monthly Talks,” but it appears enigmatic filmmaker, author and artist David Lynch must have taken a liking to Austin. According to reelpopblog.com, “Jen Gregono, chief content officer at [Austin-based] On Networks, let slip during a panel discussion [at the OMMA Video Conference] that her company recently signed mad-genius director David Lynch to a webisode series based on his mad-genius new book ‘Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity’.”
Should be fascinating. Check out my write-up from Lynch’s taping for “Texas Monthly Talks” last year in which he discussed the book, filmmaking, his creative process and more.
(Thanks to SXSW News Reel for the tip.)
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Wisps of the Windy City on a poppy-seed bun
But, eventually, “Chicago got a little cold,” as Miller likes to say, and he decided to head back down south to warmer climes and an opportunity to be closer to his brother and nephew.
Miller spent much of the last four years working in various capacities for multiple Central Market locations, but eventually he “got hungry” for a taste of home and wanted to realize the dream of self-employment.
Surveying the food scene in Austin, Miller realized that his adopted hometown, for which he professes the love and appreciation of a native, was in dire need of a true taste of Chicago. And nothing says Chicago like a boiled Vienna hot dog.
The classic Chicago style ($3.75) comes as previously described, but for those who don’t want to stray from their favorite preparations, you can get a dog with toppings of your choice ($4) or experiment with “The Austinite” ($3.75, with mango salsa and avocado) or take the healthier route with the veggie dog ($4, which you can get with homemade veggie chili).
While many folks in Austin may know the pleasure of snapping the casing on a Vienna dog and the subsequent burst of flavor, some might be a little less familiar with another Chicago staple, the Italian beef sandwich ($6). The beef, slow roasted by Miller for three hours, is best served “sweet, hot and wet,” as Miller describes it, meaning you get both sweet and hot peppers and extra au jus sauce, leaving a succulent shaved beef sandwich that melts in your mouth. If you want to really step your game up, you can go with Miller’s favorite, the Italian Deluxe ($7.25), which is a 6” Italian sausage topped with roast beef.
As a testament to his love and respect for these regional favorites, Miller went to great lengths to describe his dedication to authenticity. With vending from a trailer making impossible the ability to keep the traditional Gonnolla bread fresh, Miller has moved to ordering his rolls from Phoenicia Bakery and is in discussions with South Austin’s Moonlight Bakery to develop the perfect roll for his Italian beef sandwiches. So, traditionalists can rest easy.
But the food is only part of the appeal of this recent addition to Austin’s burgeoning trailer scene, one Miller credits for expanding Austin’s palate. Miller’s effervescent personality has already made him famous among regulars, several of whom he now counts as good friends, and he and his big smile can be found manning his trailer seven days a week.
Austin’s new champion of the flavors of Chicago envisions opening a full-service restaurant eventually, but for now Chris Miller is grateful to be “living his dream,” combining his two favorite things - Austin and Chicago style food.
Chris’ Little Chicago
3600 S. Lamar [map]
512.300.1791
Monday: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Tuesday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sunday: 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
(Chris hopes to have his Web site up by the end of November. In the meantime, here are some photos of his menu.)
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Your A-List: Best Tennis Courts
Austin is known as an outdoorsy town, with thousands of running, cycling and water sports enthusiasts. But we’ve also got our share of tennis lovers, who not only benefit from good local tournaments but a proliferation of public courts around the city. The winner of this week’s Your A-List poll for Best Tennis Courts, with 31 percent of the vote, is the South Austin Tennis Center.
South Austin Tennis Center doesn’t just throw up the nets and let people run wild, either. They are seriously committed to helping players of all levels improve their game. Beyond court rentals, there is a full slate of lessons for players of all ages and skill levels, as well as special classes such as the endurance-testing Cardio Tennis, which “provides an effective cardiovascular workout as well tennis-specific fitness and shotmaking training … set to upbeat music and taught by enthusiastic teaching pros.”
The SATC is now operated by California transplant Noah Rippner and his sister Brie Rippner-Parsons, both former national champions at the collegiate and junior level, respectively.
As stated on their site, “Noah and Brie endeavor to enrich the Austin Tennis playing community by making South Austin Tennis Center a professional, trustworthy, comprehensive, and above all else WELCOMING destination for Austin tennis players of all varieties.”
South Austin Tennis Center [site]
1000 Cumberland Rd. [map]
512.442.1466
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Others receiving votes
- Caswell Tennis Center, 23 percent
- Austin High, 10 percent
- Old Settlers Park, 9 percent
- Westwood Country Club, 9 percent
- World of Tennis, 5 percent
- Intramural Fields, 4 percent
- Little Zilker Park, 4 percent
- Penick-Allison Tennis Center, 4 percent
- Austin Tennis Academy, 2 percent
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Sarah Vowell’s ‘Wordy Shipmates’: Learned, funny
People have wielded the term “Puritan” as a pejorative for years. If you’ve ever tried to accuse someone of being straight-laced and sexually cloistered, chances are you’ve resorted, without thinking twice, to the P word.
In her pop history “The Wordy Shipmates,” Sarah Vowell wants to inspire you to think again. “I’m always disappointed when I see the word ‘Puritan’ tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys,” she writes. “Because, to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to hell.”
Despite the prevalent stereotype that they were stodgy, simplistic moralists, the Puritans were an intriguing and, at times, contradictory lot. These brave pioneers suppressed radical individual thought yet represented the first golden age of America, reading and writing with a voraciousness that would put most of us to shame. They annihilated native cultures in their dogged mission to the New World while trumpeting the virtues of idealized communal living. And they were rather passionate about sex … as long as it was between two people bound by a marriage contract.
From her first book, 1997’s “Radio On,” a critical diary of American radio (on which she has since become a major player, thanks to her work on public radio’s “This American Life”), to 2005’s “Assassination Vacation,” which detailed a road trip she took to excavate the history of presidential assassinations, Vowell has proven herself to be a thoughtful and sarcastic writer who struggles openly with the glory and shame of American cultural and political history, not to mention its present state.
In “The Wordy Shipmates,” she spotlights not the Separatist Pilgrims who rode the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth — they of elementary school plays — but the Nonseparatist Pilgrims who left England 10 years later, in 1630, to form the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Rhode Island.
The Puritans of Vowell’s work felt the Church of England had become almost indistinguishable from the Catholic church. But instead of berating the church and starting a full-fledged war (like the ones then raging in continental Europe), they humbly bowed their heads and gathered for a brutal journey to a new land in hope of purifying their parent church and starting anew.
Vowell admits that the differences between Separatists and Nonseparatists borders on nitpicking. She confesses that her interest in the latter comes from the fact that, unlike the Separatists, who abandoned the Church of England, the Nonseparatists hedged their bets.
“(I find their) qualms messier and more endearing,” Vowell writes. “They were leaving for the same reasons the Pilgrims left, but they had either the modesty to feel bad about it or the charitable hypocrisy to at least pretend to. Maybe it’s because I live in a world crawling with separatists that I find religious zealots with a tiny bit of wishy-washy, pussy-footing compromise in them deeply attractive.”
That passage shows Vowell at her best, finding humor and nuance in people and ideas that are often painted with broad strokes or ignored.
Beyond her love of their neuroticism, Vowell feels sympathy for the Puritans because she believes history has overlooked their thirst for knowledge, writing and reading — a passion seemingly shared by the author’s gang of public radio and McSweeney’s mates, although to entirely different ends. After forming the Massachussetts Bay Colony under the guidance of John Winthrop, the Puritans, whose pamphlets, speeches, sermons and letters serve as the primary source material for Vowell’s book, established Harvard in order to give their sons a place to “receive proper, orthodox theological education grounded in the rigors of studying Hebrew and Greek.”
Still, Vowell hardly whitewashes their history. “Certainly the Puritans believed and said and did many unreasonable things,” she writes. “That kind of goes with the territory of being born before the Age of Reason.”
Vowell ably ties several of the ideas of 17th-century New England to many of our modern predicaments, namely the idea that the people of Massachusetts Bay intended to help the American Indians much in the same way that the Bush administration has attempted to spread democracy in the Middle East. Additionally, we see how history repeats itself, sometimes perversely, when Winthrop’s claim that the Puritans were establishing a “city on a hill” in America popped up in the rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
“(Kennedy) boils down the two phrases from ‘A Model of Christian Charity’ that mean the most to him: ‘We must always consider, (Winthrop) said, that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,’ ” Vowell writes.
“I fall for those words every time I hear them, even though they’re dangerous, even though they’re arrogant, even though they’re rude,” she continues. “(Kennedy) does not mention that the whole world is staring in America’s direction because we have a lot of giant scary bombs, but I am guessing that is partly what he meant.” It’s a tribute to Vowell’s open-mindedness that she can regard such historical ironies as at once chilling and seductive.
The book’s only weakness is its nonlinear structure, which ultimately undermines its coherence. Unlike her previous three books, “The Wordy Shipmates” isn’t broken into vignettes or individual stories. Instead, Vowell tries to weave a complex narrative that begins on the coast of England in 1630 and ends in modern America. The constant back and forth between the 17th and 21st centuries can be dizzying.
Thankfully, the bits and pieces that make up “The Wordy Shipmates” are engaging and informative. Unlike the Puritans, Vowell is no judgmental killjoy. But like them, she is never boring or stupid.
Sarah Vowell at BookPeople
Tuesday, October 28
7 p.m.
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Design industry praise for Misprint Magazine
Legendary Statesman cartoonist Ben Sargent brought me a copy of the upcoming issue of Print magazine this morning. In the December issue, the Regional Design Annual 2008, the magazine praises “The Shape of American Design” and 863 winning entries from around the country. The Austin section features 19 different designs, from a menu and letterhead for Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, designed by Christian Helms and Derrit Derouen at The Decoder Ring, to gift cards for Central Market from the McGarrah Jessee agency.
But, hands down, the biggest winner from Austin was Bryan Keplesky of Misprint Magazine, which I profiled this week. Keplesky received four nods (out of 19) from the industry magazine. Below are the designs acknowledged and a few images (some partial):
- 1. Cover and spread from Misprint’s September 2007 issue
- 2. Cover and spread from Misprint’s 2008 issue
- 3. Poster for Misprint’s 2nd Annual Beard and Mustache Competition
- 4. Poster announcing Misprint’s holiday party
1.
2.
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Your A-List: Strongest Drinks
A cold beer can be nice on a hot day, but it’s so filling. Sometimes you just need a nice stiff cocktail to jump start your happy hour, or nose dive your night. Located in the middle of an ever-growing downtown, the Cedar Door, with 20 percent of the vote, takes home the prize as purveyors of the strongest drink in this week’s Your A-List poll.
The signature cocktail of choice for downtown workers, and lovers of the bar who have followed its move from West 15th Street (1975-1984) to East Cesar Chavez (1984-1989) to its riverside location (1990-2001) and eventually to its current Brazos Street location, is the Mexican martini. The drink is delicious, and packs the punch of a few beers, but is strong enough that the bar limits patrons to only two per customer. Head over to the giant patio, or the beer garden behind the bar, and you will more than likely find tables littered with shakers and martini glasses, as well as an affable regular crowd.
Others receiving votes
- Brown Bar, 13 percent
- Club de Ville, 11 percent
- Lucky Lounge, 11 percent
- Whisky Bar, 11 percent
- Casino El Camino, 10 percent
- Stephen F.’s Bar and Terrace, 9 percent
- Hole in the Wall, 7 percent
- The Mohawk, 7 percent
- Red Fez, 2 percent
Write-ins: Rain, Side Bar, Six
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Misprint Magazine interview: The men behind the masks
For the past four years, Harvey Merrybottom, aka Anthony Moschella, and Chadwick Pennyrich III, aka Bryan Keplesky, have entertained thousands of Austinites by pointing out that the emperors (and serfs) of Austin’s hipsterocracy are wearing no clothes.
But coffee is for early birds and closers. Bourbon is the official drink of choice for these two scathing and sarcastic, yet eminently likable, chaps who have been self-publishing the small zine since 2005.
Fueled by a love/hate relationship with the Austin music scene and a desire to take just about everyone on the Austin hipster scene down a peg, these two kindred spirits decided to start poking holes in the mythos of the city’s tastemakers and musical heroes.
In 2005 the ubiquity of blogs threatened to overload our servers and minds while throwing the traditional media world into a frenzy, so Virginia native Keplesky and New Jersey native Moschella decided to go against the prevalent thinking of the day. Everyone and their mom had a blog and fancied themselves an expert on something, but these two wanted to kick it old-school.
“You would just see that so much value was placed on these music bloggers. Some guy from Pitchfork with an English degree is writing this stuff that doesn’t make any sense. And people take it as gospel, and we couldn’t let it slide,” Moschella said.
“What were we gonna do about it? Were we gonna make another blog that said your blog sucks? Also part of it was to create something tangible. Even though it was completely ironic and meaningless. And it seemed like sort of a ridiculous idea to do something in print, on paper, because it was so irrelevant.”
Since its first issue, Misprint has been skewering the overinflated egos of musicians and mocking those who find social currency in the bars they frequent, the skinny jeans they wear, the fixed-gear bikes they ride and the bands they follow.
“People take themselves entirely too seriously. Look, you’re in a band, so’s everybody,” Moschella says.
But Moschella and Keplesky, who have kept relatively low public profiles writing under pseudonyms, have made it clear since their first issue that they “don’t love to hate, but hate what they love.” In an age of irony, these two are the jesters of Austin’s royal hipster court. And for those who would deride the duo as being sarcastic whiners with an ax to grind born out of jealousy or insecurity, they’ve already beaten them to the punch.
“It’s because we were too crappy to be in a band. That’s what it comes down to,” Keplesky says of the zine’s genesis.
“When people get to meet us, we’re just nerdy guys. I’m a software engineer. I’m not like this cool guy in a band. I just sort of notice what’s going on,” Moschella says.
That perception has led to 14 issues, many of which have ended up serving as something of an archive of Austin’s changing social landscape. Moschella and Keplesky take the temperature of Austin and filter the city’s shifting dynamics through their writing.
“I think it’s a pretty accurate capturing of what people who are about our age who do roughly the same thing that we do are experiencing,” Moschella says.
From fretting over the smoking ban to mocking the arrival of condo-mania and gentrification, the two have found a way to stay topical on broad Austin cultural issues. But the main focus of their humor almost always finds its way back to the music scene. In discussing their most recent issue, “The Grown Up Issue,” the two made an analogous comparison of a maturing and softening of Austin to Misprint’s primary readership.
“The city as a whole is sort of growing up. Austin’s lifestyle is changing. It used to be a place people would come to play in a band. People still do that, but now it’s also a place people come to buy a condo,” Moschella says.
“It’s playing out on Red River (Street); it’s playing out downtown; it’s playing out in the bands that are getting popular. A perfect example … look at the bands that have emerged from Austin the last couple years, the ones people have really latched onto … totally dad-friendly, safe-rock: Okkervil River, Shearwater, Spoon, What Made Milwaukee Famous. And they’re great bands, and I like them, too, but you can’t call Spoon an edgy band; you can’t call What Made Milwaukee Famous an edgy band. My mom could like those bands; my mom does like those bands.”
If those sound like fighting words, you haven’t read Misprint. Their brutal honesty in criticizing the things that they love has led to an uncomfortable run-in or two with ice throwing and car vandalizing musicians, but more often than not, the targets of their snark generally love being in the spotlight. As it turns out, the Misprint guys aren’t the only ones who appreciate irony.
“I find that more bands actually want us to make fun of them,” Keplesky says.
And it’s not just musicians who can laugh at themselves and appreciate a little bit of publicity.
“Our first advertisers were the ones we called out by name,” Moschella says.
“That’s pretty much our business model,” adds Keplseky.
As for the state of their business, Misprint is pretty much a labor of love for these two, despite their ongoing joke about their unbelievable wealth.
In truth, the guys say they make just enough money to where they’re “not totally discouraged from doing it anymore.”
“Do we have to pick red or black? Is there another color? We’re in the pink,” Keplesky says of their finances.
While some people might consider the two cynics and pessimists (charges that roll off their backs), it is apparent that these affable and unassuming guys are wholly in love with the city they mock.
“I like the people. I love the energy. I like the pace of life. I like everything about the place. I think this town is on the cusp of great things,” Moschella says.
And Misprint will be around to make fun of those things as well.
Misprint Magazine party
Saturday, October 25
9:30 pm
Club Deville
$3
Music from Queen cover band Magnifico!, DJ set by Weston from White Ghost Shivers, and free Misprint coozies
Check out these photos from previous Misprint parties:
Misprint Mustache and Beard party at Club DeVille | Misprint party at Flamingo Cantina | Misprint party at Scoot Inn
Outtakes from the interview
Odam: “If you could have anyone in the scene beat you up, who would it be?”
Moschella: “Will Sheff [from Okkervil River]. I’d fight that cat and his tiny little blazer. With his blazer on, I’d almost definitely win. With his blazer off, I’d give him about even odds. I’m scrappy.”
Keplesky on the two-man operation and poseurs: “I met someone who apparently wrote an article for us that didn’t. That was kind of awkward.”
Keplesky on typography: “That was like the first thing in my life that I really noticed and would annoy me, when I’d see like bad typography. Everybody has things that they obsess about, for me type was always one of them. But even then it’s like a heightened thing. Or maybe I’m just mellowing out.”
Moschella on the plethora of live music in town: “Bryan wants Austin to be the live background music capital. You wanna be in a place where a cool band is playing, you just don’t wanna watch them or hear them that loudly.”
Keplesky on the relative positive aspects of Austin being the Live Music Capital: “It’s better than like visual art. You gotta put it in perspective. It could be a lot worse … like digital art.”
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Thoughts on ‘Happy Birthday Harris Malden’
At the beginning of “Happy Birthday Harris Malden,” it is clear that something is amiss. There is a wild card at hand. With people running up and down stairs and between houses to find birthday boy Harris Malden (Nick Gregorio), we get the urgent, and somewhat comic, sense that there is a boy on the loose. Someone must be caught before he does damage to someone, something or himself.
As we finally track down this mysterious character, we learn that he is not a child, but a man. A good looking, well dressed, seemingly normal, if not a bit neurotic, man … then we see the mustache. Harris Malden wears a drawn-on mustache (that is actually foam latex, according to the credits later). As for why, we are not altogether certain. But it seems wacky and whimsical and certainly sets the tone for the first feature length film from the collective known as Sweaty Robot.
Leading the charge to corral Harris is neighbor and childhood friend Paul Levine (Eric Levy), who is dealing with more drama than his infantilized neighbor … he’s also got a hot and bothered girlfriend, Susan (Brigitte Hagerman), at work who wants to move in with him.
When Paul’s girlfriend surprisingly shows up at the house where he lives with his grandmother, we finally get the big reveal. As an aggravated Paul explains to the uninvited Susan, that Harris lost his father and suffered serious burning on his 5th birthday. After the tragedy, Harris’s mother painted a mustache on the child to keep him from having to see the burn scar above his lip, a physical reminder of the loss of his father. Ever since that time, Harris’s friends and neighbors have sheltered him from the outside world, never allowing him to enter the city center and never letting him know that he looks ridiculous with his self-applied facial hair.
Granted, the entire conceit his absolutely ridiculous, but it sets up a sweet and at times hilarious story of friendship and the lengths to which we go to protect our loved ones. Amidst the mania surrounding Harris’s condition, his younger brother attempts to break free from his mundane life and strike out on his own, while Paul battles with whether he should stay with his loving and hilarious grandmother or finally grow up and move in with his grandmother.
The pace can be a bit frantic at times, due in large part to zooming cameras and harried tracking shots, but the absurdity of the premise and low-budget feel is tempered by a warm heart. Levine’s acting leaves quite a bit to be desired, something reminiscent of early Kevin Smith movies, but his quick give and take with Hagerman, a striking visual presence part Mira Sorvino and part Jenna Fischer, is clever screwball at its indie best.
A thought kept nagging at me slightly throughout. Something about the film seemed very familiar. It actually felt a lot like a SXSW film to me, but I didn’t even really understand why or exactly what that meant. Then it hit me. “Happy Birthday Harris Malden” is a lot like mumblecore (the “genre” launched thanks in large part to SXSW) with more whimsy and less ennui. It came as no surprise then, that during the Q&A, some of the guys from Sweaty Robot told the audience that former SXSW Film Director Matt Dentler, in his new role at Cinetic, has reached an agreement to just represent the filmmakers’ rights in the digital arena. Reached in New York, Dentler said of the film, “I think it’s a good film, and a funny film. And comedies work well in the digital space, plus the guys behind the film are very well versed in this new media space.” Dentler, who originally saw the film at the Cinevegas Film Festival in June, would not elaborate on plans for distribution but said folks could look for the film online by the end of the year.
The Q&A was actually funnier than the movie itself, with the guys sharing some of their thoughts on making the movie, trying to market it, and the risks and rewards of independent film. It is obvious that there is a bit of a mutual appreciation party going on amongst the Sweaty Robot collective, but they have reason to feel a bit giddy. They’ve made a strong feature that I think should presage greater things in the future, that is if anyone can figure out the future of independent film.
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Panel wrap: David Wain
People love the Austin Film Fest for its casual nature, for the opportunity it affords you to get close to filmmakers and screenwriters without the pomp and circumstance that surround some other fests. That dynamic is as evident in the casual chats in the Driskill Victorian Balcony room as anywhere.
With the couches pulled from the room, 75 folks pulled up some carpet Sunday to listen to/engage with funnyman David Wain. Probably best known for his work with sketch comedy troupe The State, Wain, a repeat visitor to the fest, has had a relatively large cult success with his films “Wet Hot American Summer” and “The Ten.”
He visited the festival this year to screen his first major studio comedy, “Role Models,” starring Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott.
Wain entered the room on the quasi-secretive Malkovich floor at the hotel without escort and nobody present to introduce him and took a chair at the front of the room, making a funny observation about the floor-bound attendees and promising a “freewheeling, intimate discussion.”
“It’s a hotel. I’m sure they have chairs … like 1,000 chairs,” he said. Oh, Austin, you casual charmer.
In a faux wistful tone, Wain noted that “it all began back in 1969,” the summer of love and year of his birth. He then took the audience through a brief rundown of his life and career, which included a childhood in the Shaker Heights neighborhood of Cleveland; an aborted dalliance with magic (“the more I did magic, the less a chance I would ever lose my virginity”); an education at NYU, where he would eventually join up with the folks who would form The State; and his stint at MTV, which led from the show “You Wrote It, You Watch It” to “The State.”
The biggest thing I took away from the pleasant chat was the fact that Wain and his partners have endured over the past decade close to 40 failed projects. It is a testament to his (and their creative) energy and ability to work through rejection and frustration that he finds himself in the envious position of directing “Role Models.”
He was brought on to the film late in the game after receiving a phone call from Rudd (one of the stars of “The Ten”) saying they had lost their director. Wain, former State member Ken Marino, and Rudd took the barebones script and reworked it along the way, finding ways to add their own absurdist voice to scenes throughout the mainstream movie. The end result … a somewhat formulaic movie that features the intelligent and biting wit for which Wain and Rudd are famous. (Check out Chris Garcia’s thoughts on the film here.)
Beyond discussion of his own career (which currently includes his own web series, “WainyDays” and voice work on Adult Swim’s “Super Jail”), Wain also touched on the sad state of independent film and the difficulty getting distribution, as well as an impassioned reaction to Gen. Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama earlier in the morning.
In such casual settings, with a funnyman at the helm, the members of the audience, feeling like they are part of a special comedic clique, often feel the need to crack a few jokes and match wits with the talent. But, such is the nature of these casual chats, and one of the reasons AFF is such an enjoyable fest. And, the disarming and witty Wain, apparently appreciated the back-and-forth, writing today on his blog that Austin “consistently has the coolest audiences anywhere.” That’ll go to our heads.
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AFF panel wrap: The Online World
As any frustrated indie filmmaker (or excitable dude with a camera and some editing software) will tell you, more and more content is moving online. This phenomenon is actually a double-edged sword; while there are seemingly infinite places to get your material online, the glut of material and the short attention span of online viewers are making it harder and harder to get your original content discovered, much less make you any money.
Thus was the point of the panel The Online World Sunday morning at the Driskill Hotel, with panelists Todd Berger and Austinites Chris Hyams and Brad Neely.
The gentlemen returned several times to the remarks by CEO of The Film Company (and former Miramax president) Mark Gill’s talk at the Los Angeles Film Festival this year, in which he declared that, “yes, the sky really is falling” on independent cinema. (For any lovers of cinema, his entire speech is worth reading.)
In his speech, Gill wrapped up his bleak picture of the indie film words with a little bit of a positive message: “If you want to survive in this brutal climate, you’re going to have to work a lot harder, be a lot smarter, know a lot more, move a lot faster, sell a lot better, pay attention to the data, be a little nicer (ok, a lot nicer), trust your gut, read everything and never, ever give up.”
If you’re looking for a cool lifestyle, you’re in the wrong business. If you want work-life balance, go get a government job. But if you really want to make movies—even after all the unvarnished bad news I’ve dumped on you today—then by all means do it.”
Yikes.
The discussion Sunday basically revolved around the way these three men have tried to find their place in the overcrowded marketplace that is seeing opportunities for distribution shrink annually.
I can’t say that any new ground was broken in the conversation, but it was interesting to hear the view points of men who approach the subject of promoting and distributing online content from much different points of view.
Berger is a writer/director/editor who, along with his partners in The Vacationeers, had an internet sensation with the online videos “The Googling,” which showed in a humorous light the power and ubiquity of Google maps. He came at the panel from the perspective of a prolific writer who was working hard to find avenue to get his original work distributed.
Hyams, a co-founder of B-Side, a company that provides interactive online content management for audiences and film festivals, in order to discover great fest films and then promote them, approached the subject from a marketing standpoint.
Neely, who arrived about 30 minutes late, was the most aloof of the three, confessing to a lack of understanding about marketing and the business end of the creative world. Instead, he mostly focuses on creating original work and being true to his art. And what happens after that simply happens.
Below are a few points made by the guys on the panel:
Berger: People zone out from watching online content at about the 2:46 mark. You have to find a way to tell a story in segments of that length. Even if it’s episodic, people have to be able to watch those episodes as stand alones.
Berger: People have still not figured out a way to make money off of ads on sites. People are starting to get sponsors for entire episodes. Many folks are now suggesting that producers go directly to advertising agencies to get sponsorship deals from their clients.
Hyams: “Online video is a lot like Internet stocks in 2000 … there is value, but where is it?”
Hyam: The online world is going become far more Darwinian. Not all good online content will make it, but the only content that will make it will be good.
Hyam: “You can trick people into watching TV or going to the movies. Not so with the Internet.”
Hyam: There has been such a glut of material online because the tools have become so accessible.
Hyam: Average YouTube viewing time is 87 seconds. Viewing habits across the board are moving from the TV and cinemas and on to people’s laptops.
Neely: “It’s a mistake to put too much stake in any projection [of where online content is headed].”
Neely: You can’t be worried about the fear of not getting seen. “It’s important to try and make things with other people [viewers] in mind, but all I want to do is work with good material.”
Neely: After I create the work, then I just want to sit down with someone who tells me where to put it online in order to be viewed.
Berger: In five to 10 years, there will be no difference between computers, TV and phone. You will have one handheld device that allows you to ‘take over’ any screen and view content from your handheld on it, including your desktop.
Neely: If creators of content don’t take into consideration the medium for which they are creating something on a visual level, there will be an unfortunate homogenization aesthetically.
Neely: Everyone’s success story in the online content world is going to be different.
Neely: “Don’t worry about getting paid for the first 10 years.”
Hyam: It’s hard to just be a writer. You have to be a creator or on a creative team.
Berger: You might have to do a boring job at a production company before you can get work where you have more responsibilities.
Hyam: Using HuLu for as a “premiere platform” for the film “Crawford” combined with a publicist, led to more viewings of the film in its first three days of release than opening weekend for “An Inconvenient Truth” or “March of the Penguins.”
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Capsule review: ‘Who is KK Downey?’
One of the beautiful things about the Austin Film Festival is that it gives a sizable platform to young writers who might not otherwise be able to reach such a large audience. Sure, you can see films like “Role Models,” “Slumdog Millionaire” or “W.” at the fest - all strong movies in their own right - but those are movies you will be able to see at cineplexes soon enough. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But AFF is as much about discovering hidden gems as it is about seeing big name films and attending informative and casual panels. Further, the fest has developed relationships over the past 15 years with young filmmakers, many of whom return semi-regularly to promote their films at the fest that helped launch their careers. Such is the case with the comedy collective known as Kidnappers Films from Montreal. After screening shorts at AFF for several years earlier in the decade, the group returned this year with their first full-length feature, “Who is KK Downey?”
With all of the feel good talk about minor films, aside, however, I must admit that, while the premise of the comedy “KK Downey” was intriguing - two hipster doofuses create alternate personas in an attempt to finally breakthrough as artists - the film unfortunately falls quite flat. Terrance is a jaded rock star, hopelessly in love with an ex-girlfriend who regards him as sad and desperate and has since moved on to date a music critic for “Gaze” magazine, a publication akin to “The Village Voice.” His bud Theo is a chubby, pitiful would-be writer who plays drums in Terrance’s horrific band, while kowtowing to the delusions of grandeur shared by his old friend. After coming to the realization that Terrance, despite the financial support of his parents and the shameless self-promotion of his band, will never be a rock star and Theo, despite his constant desire to talk about his forthcoming novel, will always be considered just another suburban kid writing about subjects with which he has no real relationship and not a literary star, the two decide to take fate into their own hands.
The two decide to take Theo’s manuscript, “Truck Stop Hustler,” a profane piece of literary pap involving a drug-abusing, trick-turning Southern Boy trying to find his place in the world and his next high, and make Terrance the lead character, KK Downey. What ensues is a sometimes funny examination of the way society latches on to cultural trends and its passion for hero-making, even when that which is being idolized is banal and trite. The two fall into a pit of buying their own hype, with all the ensuing groupies and drugs one would expect. The film has its funny moments, depicting the shallowness and simplicity of the hipster scene, and ones that attempt to be touching, such as in the boilerplate love story of a boy trying to win back a woman. Fortunately, the movie never takes itself too seriously, always reminding us that the film is farce at heart, while humorously reminding us of the fate of similar real-life characters such as J.T. Leroy, and to a lesser extent James Fray.
Sadly, the movie doesn’t hit hard enough at the places where it does find laughs - the desperation of its protagonists, the stereotypes it ridicules and the inanity of the premise. There is not enough heightening going on here, as it sometimes gets lost trying to tell the old boy-loses-girl, boy-tries-to-get-girl back story. Maybe the biggest problem of the film is the fact that none of the characters are actually likeable or sympathetic, not that a film has to have this element, but if you’re not going to like any of the characters, you want to be laughing more.
“Who is KK Downy” screens again Wednesday night at the Dobie at 8 p.m.
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Tone of ‘W’ may surprise some moviegoers
When it was announced that Oliver Stone would be directing a bio-pic about President George W. Bush, many people from both sides of the spectrum rolled their eyes expecting a political hit piece. They may be surprised to find that the film actually paints W. and his family in a rather sympathetic light.
The film does take some digs, but more at Vice President Dick Cheney than W. himself. The problem with the film is that it lacks any historical perspective, due to the fact that Bush is still in office, and reveals nothing that astute citizens do not already know. That said, the film is worth viewing simply for the amazing performance by Josh Brolin as W. Toby Jones, James Cromwell and Jeffrey Wright also turn in excellent performances, as Karl Rove, George H. W. Bush and Colin Powell, respectively, although Jones and Wright are not able to match the physical presence of the men they portray.
The gist of the film, as one would expect, is that America was led down a tragic path by a simplistic, born-again Christian with a massive “daddy complex.” As he wastes most of his twenties and thirties as a booze-hound, skirt-chasing, good ol’ boy, W. is haunted by the expectations and disappointment of his father and the comparisons to his more talented and disciplined brother Jeb.
After finding God, and sobriety, W. makes it his mission to both make his father proud and stubbornly prove to him that he has the capacity for greatness. This motivation, compounded by what W. considers a call from God to lead the country, leads to the oft-lamented march to war in Iraq, spearheaded by Cheney and his neo-con pals. In “Star Wars” parlance, Cheney plays the evil Emperor to Bush’s in-over-his-head Darth Vader. It is fascinating, however, to see W. repeatedly attempt to tamp down both Cheney and Karl Rove’s visible influence. A man of intense and confounding pride, W. wants to make sure that he is seen as the leader. After a life spent being chastised by his father for his lack of responsibility, W. wants to be seen as an undisputed leader.
It would be easy to say that W.’s story is Shakespearean in nature, but that would likely be doing a disservice to The Bard, as W. is too simple a figure to be considered on such a grand scale. While the election of Bush as the 43rd president is certainly confounding and something that would have been unthinkable just a decade before, the real tragedy is that which besets the American people, not to mention those of Iraq, as Bush attempts to prove that he is as strong, if not stronger, leader than his father. Unfortunately, according to Stone, the son lacked the introspection and thoughtfulness of his father and ended up being a puppet that was used to do the duplicitous work of the men who stood in the shadows behind him.
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Your A-List: Best Liquor Store
With 60 percent of the vote Austin’s own Twin Liquors took the crown of Best Liquor Store from last year’s winner, the newish Spec’s. Growing up, there was a jingle for a dry cleaners that stated if you couldn’t find one of their locations in 10 minutes, you were lost. The same could be said for Twin, which has 53 stores in the Greater Austin area. That’s a lot of convenient booze. The local family-owned and operated company, which can be spotted sponsoring events around town, also offers in-store specials, such as their popular in-store wine tastings at 4 p.m. each week. A fantastic way to get your weekend off to the right start.
Twin Liquors opened in downtown Austin in 1982, but its roots actually extend all the way back to the late 1800s. Read more about the company’s detailed history on their Web site.
Others receiving votes
- Avery Fine Wine & Spirits, 17 percent
- Spec’s, 13 percent
- Grape Vine Market, 4 percent
- Whip-In, 2 percent
- Reuben’s, 2 percent
- Wiggy’s, 1 percent
- Centennial, < 1 percent
- Spirits, < 1 percent
- Warehouse Liquors, < 1 percent
Write-in: Favorite Liquor
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Your A-List: Best Local Record Label
In an amazingly tight race for the title of Best Record Label in last week’s Your A-List poll, Chicken Ranch Records took home the prize, earning 37 percent of the vote, compared to runner-up Deep Eddy’s 36 percent.
In order to be a great Austin label, you can’t just put out strong, original material from a variety of bands, you gotta be able to throw a party, as well. In addition to putting out solid acts such as The Woggles, The Clutters, The Yuppie Pricks and Mr. Lewis and The Funeral 5, Chicken Ranch has established itself as one of the main party-throwin’ SXSW showcases in town over the past few years.
Chicken Ranch was established by Michael Dickinson in 1994 while playing in a punk band in Louisiana and has since bounced around the South, pinballing between Austin and Nashville, but it seems Dickinson is here to stay, for which the Austin music-loving community should be grateful.
Others receiving votes
- Deep Eddy Records, 36 percent
- New West, 10 percent
- Texas Music Group/Antone’s, 6 percent
- Peek-a-boo, 3 percent
- Arc Light, 3 percent
- Australian Cattle God, 2 percent
- I Eat Records, 2 percent
- Dead Oceans, 1 percent
- Sweatbox, 1 percent
Write-ins: Dorato Records, Xylo
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Your A-List: Best Gym
In a battle for the title of Best Gym in the Your A-List poll, David took down Goliath, as the little gym that could, Hyde Park Gym, took home 34 percent of the vote, vanquishing foes with bigger names and bigger budgets (Gold’s, 24 Hour Fitness, etc.).
Looks like someone’s been eating their Wheaties. And pumping some serious iron. Located at 4125 Guadalupe St., the nondescript gym has been in business since the beginning of the Reagan administration. And while it may look small from the outside, the local gym that prides itself on no initiation fees, contracts or pushy sales people, features 7,000 sq. ft. of space for you to work up a sweat.
The gym features an interesting payscale, whereby you can pay for one visit ($8) or two years ($309). So whether you’re trying to sweat out the booze from the night before, fit into that new dress or get totally ripped, Hyde Park has a plan that can work for you. And for those skeptical of the place, you can also try it out for free for seven days by clicking a link on their site.
On a related note, check out Pamela LeBlanc’s recent article about heart transplant Lemuel Bradshaw, who stays heart healthy pumping up at HPG, and watch video of him here.
Hyde Park Gym
4125 Guadalupe St. [map]
459.9174
Others receiving votes
- Lifetime Fitness, 29 percent
- Gold’s, 9 percent
- 24 Hour Fitness, 7 percent
- Pure Austin Fitness, 7 percent
- UT’s Gregory Gym, 6 percent
- YMCA, 4 percent
- Castle Hill, 2 percent
- The Hills Fitness Center, 2 percent
- Premiere Lady, 1 percent
Write-ins: Body Business, Brothers Boxing Gym, Bruce’s KO Boxing Gym, Fit and Fearless, Richard Lord’s Boxing Gym
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Your A-List: Best Live Music Venue
In the Live Music Capital of the World, there may be dozens of excellent venues, but only one can be named the winner of the Your A-List poll for Best Live Music Venue. This year, that honor goes to Stubb’s, which took home 38 percent of the vote.
The outdoor ampitheater with the elevated slope sitting alongside Waller Creek has become quintessentially ‘Austin’ and for a dozen years has anchored the Red River music scene. How many other cities boast a venue where you can see anyone from The Roots to Wilco just after eating a nice barbecue dinner? Not many, I would imagine.
Located at 801 Red River St., the venerable bbq joint first opened in Lubbock before making the wise trip south, where it is equally known for its music as it is for its food, with both the outdoor stage and the club stage inside offering something to suit anyone’s musical tastes. If you really wanna get a taste for both the live music and the food, head over on Sunday for the Gospel Brunch.
Others receiving votes
- The Backyard, 22 percent
- Antone’s, 11 percent
- Emo’s, 7 percent
- Paramount Theatre, 6 percent
- The Parish, 5 percent
- La Zona Rosa, 5 percent
- Elephant Room, 3 percent
- One World Theatre, 2 percent
- Beerland, 2 percent
Write-ins: The Bugle Boy, Hill’s Cafe, Momo’s, Saxon Pub
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Your A-List: Best Running Trail
You can’t be considered a great city if you don’t have an excellent running trail (see: Chicago, Seattle, New York, D.C., etc.). In Austin’s case, the pride and joy of the running community (along with the walking and people watching communities) is the winner of this week’s Your A-List poll for Best Running Trail, Lady Bird Lake.
The 10+ mile trail is accessible from the north, east, south and west and widely considered the crown jewel of Austin’s outdoor scene. Check out a map of the trail here.
Others receiving votes
- Barton Creek Greenbelt, 10 percent
- Enchanted Rock State Nature Area, 2 percent
- Walnut Creek Park, 2 percent
- McKinney Falls State Park, 2 percent
- Pease Park, 2 percent
- Bastrop State Park, 2 percent
- Palo Duro Canyon State Park, 1 percent
- McKinney Roughs, 1 percent
- Lake Georgetown, < 1 percent
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Your A-List: Best Sandwich Shop
Seems you can’t go hardly anywhere in Austin these days without seeing one of the many Thundercloud Subs shops, winner, with 34 percent of the vote, of the Your A-List poll for Best Sandwich Shop.
People like to complain about what Austin used to be like, you know, before the condos and stuff. Maybe they should start using the, “I remember when there were only three Thunderclouds in Austin,” because now, according to their site, there are 26 locations in Austin, Round Rock, San Antonio and New Braunfels. I feel old.
Thundercloud made a name for itself in Austin, before the ubiquity of chain sandwich shops, by offering good sandwiches with fresh ingredients at low prices and served by friendly staff. Three decades later they are still at it, and chances are, if you’ve lived in Austin for more than three months, you’ve eaten at one. And if you’ve lived here three years, you know somebody who has worked at one. And if you’ve lived here 13 years, you’ve probably worked at one. That’s what I call an institution.
Others receiving votes
- Schlotzsky’s, 11 percent
- Which Wich, 10 percent
- Texadelphia, 10 percent
- Jimmy John’s, 9 percent
- Hog Island Deli, 7 percent
- New World Deli, 7 percent
- Kitchen Door, 6 percent
- Texas French Bread, 4 percent
Write-ins: Bambino’s, Delaware Subs, Foodheads, Gene’s New Orleans Food, Hoody’s Subs, Jersey Mike’s, Katz’s, Ken’s Subs, Tacos and More, Little Deli, McAlister’s Deli, Panera Bread, Pita Pit, Tex-Andwich, San Francisco Bakery
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Quick bites: Hog Island Deli
While some of my friends complain that Hog Island Deli’s bread is brick hard and inedible, I have had pretty decent experiences with the place, even if they do stuff their meat in the sandwich instead of layering it. Today I got their Philly cheesesteak and have to say it is the best cheesesteak I’ve had in Austin. So there.
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Your A-List: Best Beer and Wine Selection
It may not be in the heart of the city, but Davenport Wines & Spirits, located on Capital of Texas Highway still draws folks from all around town with its large wine and beer selection, its climate-controlled wine cellar and free wine tastings. The 10 year-old establishment is winner of the Your A-List poll for Best Wine & Beer selection, with 36 percent of the vote, beating out heavyweights Spec’s and Central Market and indie titan Whip In. In addition to beer and wine, Davenport also boasts of an outstanding selection of unique vodkas, single barrel bourbons (my favorite), single malt scotches, cigars and more.
Davenport Wines & Spirits
3801 N. Capital of Texas Highway
Building E-Suite 180 [map]
732.2900
Others receiving votes
- Spec’s, 31 percent
- Central Market, 9 percent
- Whip In, 7 percent
- Grape Vine Market, 5 percent
- Whole Foods, 5 percent
- Twin Liquors, 3 percent
- Wiggy’s, < 1 percent
- Reuben’s, < 1 percent
- Austin Wine Merchant, < 1 percent
Write-in: Hyde Park Market
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