Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > October > 15
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Your A-List, Best Sushi
Sushi is sushi is sushi. Right? Wrong.
The fight for second place was close: Midori (19 percent) and Musashino (17 percent), with Maiko (8 percent) making a strong fourth. Sushi Sake copped 6 percent, while Kenichi probably disappointed its legions of fans by earning only 6 percent. Kyoto, once an oasis of Japanese food in a town without Asian stand-outs, took 4 percent. Coming in under 5 percent were Umi, Korea House and DK Sushi. Imperia’s sushi bar was probably too new to compete.
Write-ins: Express Teriyaki & Grill, Japon, Kenobi, Korea Garden, Maru, Mikado, Mizu, Nikko Sushi, Origami, Thai Spice, Tokyo Steakhouse, Tomo
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Your A-List, Best Movie Theater
Entertainment Weekly named Alamo Drafthouse the best movie theater. In the country. How can you argue with the smash-up of sensitively selected movies, filling pub grub and potent potables?
Its kin — still run by Tim and Kerry League’s gang — took three spots: Alamo South Lamar (25 percent); Alamo at the Ritz (11 percent) and Alamo Village (7 percent). The only other serious contender was Regal Gateway (9 percent). Its art house sibling, Regal Arbor, earned only 3 percent.
The list of theaters taking 2 percent or less is long: Bulluck Museum IMAX, Paramount, Regal Westgate, Tinseltown Pflugerville, Cinemark Southpark, Millennium, Dobie, Galaxy Highland, Regal Metropolitan, Cinemark Cedar Park, City Lights, Cinemark Round Rock, AMC Barton Creek Square, Cinemark Hill Country Gallleria, Showplace, Tinseltown South, Regal Lakeline Mall, Starplex and Chestnut Square.
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Andrew Shapter’s ‘Happiness Is,’ Part 3
Interview continued from post below…
Out & About: Early screenings of your documentary have inspired a brigade of volunteer marketers (they’ve already descended on us!). How will the DIY method translate into distribution?
O&A: Social media seem to have made a huge difference in recent political and philanthropic campaigns. How will your volunteers use it?
AS: The volunteers are a strategic, “wired” group of individuals who really understand that peers are power. This is a generation that grew up having access to endless information and messaging, so they really rely on the dissemination of information from others to influence their thoughts, decisions and actions. Because the message is so simple, the foundation is built upon initial awareness generation through grass-roots media that you’ll see around town, and then capturing the power of word-of-mouth into a loyal, expressive movement. But, when the success spans beyond what our group can handle, that is where additional support from outside distributors could come into play.
“Happiness Is” plays at 9:15 p.m. Sunday at the Rollins Theater and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Alamo Lake Creek.
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Andrew Shapter’s ‘Happiness Is,’ Part 2
Interview continued from below…
Out & About: Asking people about the ideas behind “the pursuit of happiness” appealed to your personal passions. How did this passion catch fire with your team? Did anyone lose the spirit?
O&A: It seems to me that “Happiness Is” works best when you move from abstractions to concrete examples. And you give generous time to three or so excellent subjects. How did you settle on your ex post facto stars?
AS: Well, the film is basically the result of hundreds of spontaneous interviews from a 4,000-mile road trip. We purposely avoided the structures of traditional documentary filmmaking by making the crux of it about the question, “What is your pursuit of happiness.” The characters that we ultimately featured were the happiest people we met on the trip and had the most compelling things to say. They have completely different personalities, yet, they have a few distinct things in common that helped us reach some conclusions. One of these is that the typical definition of the “American dream” of wealth and success didn’t factor in. Our “happiest” characters lead a life of purpose by devoting their lives to helping those in need. I’m not talking about giving money. I’m talking about those who work with the most unfortunate of Americans every day. Their work enables them to appreciate their own lives in a more profound way.
“Happiness Is” plays at 9:15 p.m. Sunday at the Rollins Theater and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Alamo Lake Creek.
More interview to come…
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Andrew Shapter’s ‘Happiness Is,’ Part 1
Andrew Shapter, who directed the 2006 documentary “Before the Music Dies,” returns to the Austin Film Festival this year with “Happiness Is.”
We talked with Shapter via e-mail last week about his new project, and here’s what he had to say:
Out & About: You obviously spent countless hours interviewing people all across the country. How did you assemble your crew? Were they volunteers? What was the overall cost of filming?
Andrew Shapter: The hard costs were about $150,000 for over two years of production. My crew was a mixed bag, including folks from my first film, “Before the Music Dies.” We started strong and then the bad economy set in, which had us struggling to the finish line. That’s where volunteers came in. Usually a sound guy and I traveled on the cheap and stayed in basic motels, but, sometimes we met people who would put us up in their homes. Doing it this way really enabled us to capture some back-porch moments from some pretty colorful characters from all corners of the country.
“Happiness Is” plays at 9:15 p.m. Sunday at the Rollins Theater and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Alamo Lake Creek.
More interview to come…
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