Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Well What's All This Then?

Well it's been a little while since we've had some updates here, which is fair, because I've been taking a bit of a break from thinking about the film for a wee bit. I'm back-ish now though, at least with some updates.

No new video for awhile, because I had to leave all my tapes in Denver after the tour with John. I was flying to DC, then back to Chicago, had limited space, and more importantly, didn't want to absent mindedly set the bag of tapes down somewhere and lose them all. But, with them in Denver, it's been impossible to put up new stuff.

That being said, I'm going out tomorrow and doing an interview with Donal (early friend of John P & member of many bands together), then roaming around Chicago to shoot what could be called 'b-roll' or 'second unit' stuff. Basically shots of Chicago and whatnot. I'm going to put on my headphones, listen to some loud music and cart the camera all over the city. Am legitimately looking forward to it!

For you Chicagophiles out there, I'm going to get some of the classic stuff, but there will be some weird stuff too -- Capone's house, the Biograph theater, some of the weirder/darker historical stuff.

In the meantime, if you need to SEE some stuff, I took hundreds of pictures of the tour and they can be found over at Facebook, and John's been posting some sweet little videos and such too.

To sate the masses, I WILL post a few little iPhone clips I took on tour every couple of days till we're back in Denver, which is this weekend.

This clip is John in the room Elvis was born in, explaining to Bobbie -- the 80+ year old guide -- just what he does for a living. Cheers.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Congrats to John Porcellino!

Even if the excellent write up on the Denver comics scene in the Westwod this week weren't awesome, it turns out, ole Johnny P. has been nominated for an Eisner Award!

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
• Absolute Justice, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithewaite (DC)
• A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)
• Alec: The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf)
• Essex County Collected, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
• Map of My Heart: The Best of King-Cat Comics & Stories, 1996–2002, by John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly)

Some stiff competition, it's true, but I always did root for the underdog!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Oh Geez, Oh Pete

Well, we're in Norman OK, and my mind is truly swarming. So many sights, sounds, wonderful people, great events, monster issue back issues and strange Americana history events.

What can you say about a tour that has gone from hunting gators in Gainesville FL, to standing in the spot Elvis stood when he was 10 getting his first guitar, to driving through Dealey Plaza past the school book depository?

As Jonathan Richman would say, 'whatta woild!'

Of course, the FILM is going well. I've filmed about 30 additional hours of events, interviews, and John P. driving around (he's driven all 6,000+ miles of this trip, so far, yet seemed confused when I called him 'tenacious').

I've learned so much about so much, and it's starting to come together in my brain -- the right story to tell, and how to tell it. Of course, NOW I'm going, 'I should have filmed THAT! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!', but I'm careful not to beat myself up.

So what now?

Drive back to Denver tomorrow, then do taxes and rest for a couple days, fly to DC, meet up with Crystal, try to do an interview with Ian MacKaye -- assuming our schedules can coincide -- then back to Chicago, where I need to set up and interview a couple more family/friend types, trek down to St. Louis to chat with Kevin H. (and check out Lincoln's house in Springfield), then back to Denver on May 1/2.

Then, I'm going to not think about John P., King Cat, video, film, soundtracks, or interviews for about 4-6 weeks. I'm going to re-settle into Kilgore, get a dog, hang out with my lady, plan a wedding, and enjoy the beginning of summer. Oh, and I have to start getting ready for kil GOREFEST '10.

Then, come mid-late summer, I'll start back up. I'll go through each tape, and boil down the material I want, and try to get it down around 8-10 hours. Then spend the winter running it down further and further until it's at a workable 90-120 minutes. John's talking about a summer tour of California, so I may try to figure out some of that too -- we'll see!

I'll keep updating this blog here, posting thoughts and murmers, and all input and feedback is welcome. Oh, and here's a neat-o reference to yours truly from the Austin Domy reading the other day.