All these wonderful things

The Largest Rube Goldberg Machine Ever? OK Go's Amazing New Music Video for This Too Shall Pass

Point of personal privilege...

Wanted to point to the new video by the band OK Go for their single, This Too Shall Pass.  This video was several months in the making and I'm honored to have been involved with it (I was the EP).  And particularly  proud of the band, producer Shirley Moyers, director James Frost, DP Dermott Downs and the entire team at Synn Labs for their hard work, creativity and patience in getting this complicated, epic video just right.

As I wrote in this space about a month ago, I've been involved with a number of music videos over the years, but this one is really something special.

Take a look:

My Documentary Decade

Dear Readers -

Apologies for dropping the ball here on the blog the past few weeks.  Between wrapping up shooting on my new film and prepping and planning for this year's Cinema Eye Honors, I've been procrastinating my return to somewhat regular blogging.

Here's a piece I started writing as I was en route to Branson, Missouri just after Christmas.  I'll be posting a couple more looks back at the year we just concluded in the coming days/weeks.  Pardon the delay.

_______________

There’s a story to what happened to me this decade and it starts in the spring of the year 2000.  I was then an Executive Producer at a production company that specialized in music videos, working with a bunch of talented filmmakers, routinely awarded budgets of $350K to make a 3 ½ minute clip that would – hopefully for the band, the label and their hangers-on – be awarded a coveted slot on the Carson Daly-hosted "Total Request Live".

The clips had to be of a certain high production value, the labels seemed to believe, or there would be no possibility of landing on the afternoon countdown show, one of the few venues remaining on MTV for music videos.  So the budgets, even for bands that you and I would never hear from again, had to be mid-six figures.  Or else said band might slip into the ether.

By the spring we’d surfed this wave for almost a year and I was starting to feel restless.  More and more of my own creative ideas were being poured into the work that was coming out of our company, but the execution of these ideas – and the ownership of same – fell, quite naturally, to the director. 

I remember sitting in the color correct of one particular video, a video whose concept I had proposed (and one that would later become such a hit on said MTV countdown program that it would help launch the band and the director’s career) and feeling like I had well and truly reached the end of my ability to stand in the shadows.

Simultaneously, there was a very real sense that the status quo in that industry could not sustain itself.  MTV was continually cutting back on the number of videos it was playing and the labels were under attack from digital downloads.  And how could labels keep spending that kind of money on bands with little hope of recouping the costs of such extravagant vanity videos?

Just prior to this – at the end of the previous decade – I started to direct my own projects – a friend’s music video here, a public service announcement there, and finally, a short film.  And by the end of the year 2000, there was a merger.

My short was out on the festival circuit.  I felt – for the first time – not like an Executive Producer (which was a job I loved and, if I do say so myself, was pretty good at) but like a filmmaker.  I remember flying to London to oversee the shoot a video in the fall of 2000 and writing “Filmmaker” on the occupation line of my landing card and being strangely, wonderfully proud of this new designation.

By that point I had already, mentally, turned my back on music videos.  For a decade I’d worked on more than 100 – respected indie bands and big pop artists – but now I was increasingly ready to go my own way.

And within three months, I’d be in New York shooting footage for what would become GIGANTIC, my first documentary feature.

The how and the why of GIGANTIC’s birth is less important than the fact that the arrival of this decade – one that has been castigated and bemoaned for its acts of terror, war, political combat and natural decay – signaled a significant shift in my life.

My documentary decade.

I couldn’t have known as I was running around New York with my Sony PD-150 following Johns Flansburgh and Linnell in the spring of 2001 what would happen in the decade that followed.

I could not have imagined KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON or CONVENTION. 

I had no notion that I would start a blog (blog? What’s a blog?) or an award for nonfiction filmmaking.

I would never think that I’d end the decade in the Ozark Mountain town of Branson, Missouri celebrating the arrival of a new decade with a camera in my hand.

I never dreamed that I would take it all so seriously, so personally, so occasionally obsessively.

I fell into documentary almost by chance and – in some kind of Faustian bargain – documentary has run away with me.

And Kim Longinotto Wept...

...as Adam Lambert was runner-up on this year's American Idol.  Although he did place higher than Danny Gokey, so maybe he still prevailed in the "battle for the soul of America".

Congrats...

...to our friends They Might Be Giants on their 2nd Grammy nomination, which came tonight for their latest kids opus Here Comes the 123s.  So far John and John are 1 for 1 at the Grammys, so we fully expect them to come home with the gold once again.

Also congrats to Death Cab for Cutie on their 2 nods, in the alternative album and rock song categories.

Now Playing in NYC: The Holy Modal Rounders With Super Extra Bonus Features

On ongoing recovery from the flu has put me behind on a bunch of posts, but definitely didn't want to forget to say that Paul Lovelace and Sam Douglas' film THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS... BOUND TO LOSE is now playing in New York City at Anthology Film Archives.

I met up with Paul & Sam (as well as one of their subjects, Peter Stampfel) when their film screened at True/False in and I was impressed that they were approaching their film and its exhibition in exciting, creative ways.  But they've really done somethng unique and special with their New York opening, as Michael Tully explains on his blog:

"Taking his cue from tireless self-distributors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (MARDI GRAS: MADE IN CHINA, KAMP KATRINA, the upcoming INTIMIDAD), with a splash of Todd Rohal (THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE) thrown in for good measure, Lovelace has recruited a parade of forces to turn each night into its own distinct event, filled with introductions, short films, and post-film musical performances by a crazy great lineup (which I have posted below).

I would recommend you support the theatrical run of THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS... BOUND TO LOSE even without all of these bonus perks, because the film itself is an enlightening, entertaining, and unexpectedly complex depiction of what it means to be an artist. If you've never seen Peter Stampfel play live, I hereby order you to attend one of the performances. The man has a rare musical gift and a perspective like no one else. It'll be the best ten dollars you'll spend all week."

I've missed out on telling you about Friday and Saturday's events, but there's much more to come this week, and I think that all of us who talk about DIY distribution or bemoan the travails of getting the larger distributors to take on docs really owe it to ourselves and others to support these special event screenings.

Here's some information on events through this Thursday:

SUNDAY 12/9
Before Screening: Short films by William Ferris

After Screening: Live Music performance
The Velocity Ramblers (featuring Peter Stampfel, John Cohen, Sam
Shepard, Walker Shepard, Pat Conte & Betty Berkin)
at Pianos - 158 Ludlow St
4PM & 10PM

MONDAY 12/10
Introduction: Robert Christgau (legendary music writer)
with Short Film: "Robert Christgau: Rock n' Roll Animal" directed by
Paul Lovelace

TUESDAY 12/11
Introduction: Lenny Kaye (Patty Smith band)
with Short Films: "The Fugs" directed by Ed English and "Mirror
Abstractions" directed by Harry Smith

WEDNESDAY 12/12
with Short Film: "President Nixon's Inaugural Address 1969" directed
by Kevin Rafferty

After Screening: Live Music The Muscular Christians
at Parkside Lounge  317 E. Houston St
10PM
Free!

THURSDAY 12/13 CLOSING NIGHT
Introduction: Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders & Gary Lucas
with rare Holy Modal music videos

After Screening: Live Music
Rare performance by the legendary Du-Tels (Peter Stampfel/Gary Lucas)
at Bowery Poetry Club – 308 Bowery
10PM
$15

In addition, Peter Stampfel and the filmmakers will appear on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.

Five Month Photo Spectacular

For much of the past 14 months I've been on the road with my film.  And with this past weekend's sojourn to my old Missouri stomping grounds, that traveling is now starting to draw to a close.  With that, I realized that there have been a whole flock of photos that I never got around to posting from the past five months on the road - including pictures from our Seattle premiere in May, our screening at the Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia, our US theatrical premiere in New York as well as screenings in Philadelphia and the aforementioned Missouri.  So, with much (or little) fanfare, here's a recap of some of the past five months, starting with Seattle on June 2:

About A Son co-composer Steve Fisk and co-producer/author Michael Azerrad inside the W filmmaker lounge.

IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS director James Longley and legendary Seattle photographer Charles Peterson (and my About A Son co-conspirator) at the Barsuk Records-hosted after-party following our premiere.

Some of my crew at the after-party, including Eddie Adams (having a drink) and Ian Jennings (far right).  It was awesome to see everyone at the screening.

Moving on to St. Louis on July 22, when we did an advance screening at the Cinema St Louis Filmmakers Showcase:

Some of my pals from Edwardsville, Illinois join me for drinks after the screening at Blueberry Hill in the U-City Loop - Tree Ojeda, John Washburne, Nick Twesten and Julie Smith.

More Edwardsville friends - Mike and Stephanie Fedder.

Mark Bielik, Cliff Froehlich and Chris Clark, gurus of Cinema St Louis (and currently holding down the fort at the St Louis Film Festival) at Blueberry Hill.

Later that night, Nick Twesten man-handles my old pal Thad Summers as my newish pal Dave Johnson gets cell-photographic evidence.

Skip forward nearly two months to my short visit up to Nova Scotia for our screening at the Atlantic Film Festival on September 18:

Coming in by air...

...eating from the sea...

...dance party on the shore.

Center frame, the back of Norwood Cheek, my old friend and fine filmmaker who was in town to conduct a music video workshop with local filmmakers in Halifax.

My host in Halifax, Leigh Meldrum, and I at an afternoon reception.  I had a lot to live up to as Leigh previously had been squiring Mr. Al Maysles around the festival.  Methinks I paled in comparison.

Just a couple weeks later I was back on the east coast and in New York City for the premiere of my film at the IFC Center (where it's still playing, FYI, on the weekends).

My old New York pals David Levine and Sherise Lee before the premiere.

Balcony Releasing's Greg Kendall, legendary filmmaker Murray Lerner, Balcony's Connie White and Michael Azerrad at the NYC post-premiere party.

Filmmaker Sarie Horowitz (THREE OF HEARTS), the Flaherty Seminar's Mary Kerr and filmmaker Rachel Libert (BEYOND CONVICTION).

Writer/filmmaker Jonny Leahan, Holly Herrick of the Sarasota Film Festival and filmmaker Jennifer Venditti (BILLY THE KID).

Woodstock Film Fest programmer (and frequent indieWIRE contributor) Michael Lerman, filmmaker/blogger Michael Tully (SILVER JEW), filmmaker Paul Lovelace (BORN TO LOSE) and producer Jessica Wolfson (CRAZY SEXY CANCER and more) react to some post-party karaoke action.

This is our last dance.  This is ourselves...

Two nights later in Los Angeles:

Filmmaker Dave Mendel, About A Son producer Shirley Moyers, About A Son cinematographer Wyatt Troll, About A Son sound editor Kyle Schember, yours truly and filmmaker Gabe Fleming at the LA post-premiere party.

Three of my oldest and dearest friends, Diane Munoz, Kimm Birkicht and Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser at the LA reception.

Two weeks later, I was in Philadelphia...

...where I got to hang out with my pals Joey Sweeney and Ruth Carpenter.

Then back to Manhattan the next night for a performance by Who Shot Hollywood - four 11 to 13 year old boys from Massachusetts who sound a bit like Supergrass - at CMJ.

Lead singer & bass player Lucas Kendall.

Drummer & backing voicalist Dana Kendall.

Finally, earlier this week at the Moxie Cinema in Springfield, Missouri...

...where I got to spend some time with Moxie guru Dan Chilton and filmmaker/blogger David Lowery...

...Moxie co-guru Nicole Chilton and True/False Film Fest's David Wilson.

And with that I got back to Los Angeles (after a detour to Branson, MO, about which I hope to have more to say at a later date) for a week of catching up before I head this Wednesday to Denver for the fest there.  Whew.  I've exhausted myself.

But thanks, as always, to all the friends who hung out with me along this journey - from September of 2006 to the present.  You are swell.

Tom Hall, Karina Longworth and Agnes Varnum Step Up to the Challenge

The About A Son Soundtrack challenge that I wrote about yesterday kicked off almost immediately yesterday when Tom Hall, Karina Longworth and Agnes (Aggie V) Varnum dusted off their musical memories. 

Tom, who somehow manages to turn even this exercise into a showcase for his excellent and comprehensive blog (cut it out, Tom, you're making us all look bad), posts descriptions AND YouTube links for each of his tracks.  My favorite inclusion?  The Spinanes, the dreamy Portland, Oregon duo fronted by Rebecca Gates, who's album Manos kicked off with one of the best 1-2-3 punches in all of early '90s indie rock - 1. Entire, 2. Noel, Jonah & Me and 3. Spitfire.

Karina uses the film's chaptering of Kurt Cobain's life by the cities in which he lived for her list, which includes soundtracks for her days in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.  Favorite cuts?  Scott Walker's It's Raining Today (which gives me a good reason to point to Stephen Kijak's excellent SCOTT WALKER: 30th CENTURY MAN) and the Breeders' Metal Man.

indieWIRE and docitout's Agnes Varnum split the difference.  She provides the links for her songs but no explanations:

"After all, sometimes it’s more fun to guess why something might mean something to another person (like people tend to do for stars like Cobain) or to try to figure how it might have contributed to how we are now."

Since I'm in one of my recurring Emmylou Harris fixations at the moment, not-so-coincidently coinciding with the release of her epic Songbird box, I'll point to Aggie V's choice of Harris' Timberline as a personal favorite.

Now Tom, Karina and Aggie have each challenged two more people - and I know of at least three responses that are imminent from the original challengees.  I'll keep linking as they respond, until it gets so exponentially out of control that everyone's head spins.

The About A Son Soundtrack Challenge

A couple weeks ago, I was talking to Annie Zaleski at the Riverfront Times in St Louis (my hometown arts and culture weekly, since gobbled up in the Village Voice/New Times/Google/NewsCorp/Citibank mergers) and we were having a lovely conversation about the new soundtrack for my upcoming film, KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON (the soundtrack came out a week ago on Barsuk Records, the movie has its theatrical premiere a week from tomorrow at the IFC Center in NYC).

Towards the end of the interview, Annie - who had seen the film and knew that it contained the music of bands that were important to Kurt rather than his own music - threw down the guantlet, as she explains in this blog post:

In a similar fashion, I asked Schnack what songs would be on the soundtrack to his life. He had this to say:

"My mom and dad ran a summer camp, in Grafton, Illinois. So there would have to be a camp song in there. There’s one we sang all the time when we were done for the night, called ‘I Love the Flowers.’ It might even have Christian overtones, an old traditional folky song. There’s a line in it that ends with, “All these wonderful things,” cause that’s how the song ends."

There was a long pause after that, and Schnack laughed and said he had to call me back with more song ideas. A few hours later, I received a list of the following songs in my inbox -- all representing (ostensibly) the different periods in Schnack's life.

[ed note: You'll note that "I Love the Flowers" contains the lyric that gives this blog its name.]

It was actually lots of fun to do (I could probably have added at least 6 more songs - as exists in About A Son) and so (with inspiration from my pal Ryan), I've decided to challenge a few of my favorite film bloggers to come up with their own lists, the soundtracks to their own lives.

Here are the rules:

1.)  It must reflect music from each part of your life, including childhood, awkward pre-teen years, all the way up to your current existence
2.)  It should be music that is not just your favorite songs, but also things that make sense thematically
3.)  It cannot be your own music
4.)  Challenge at least 2 other bloggers to do the same.

So, I hereby issue the challenge to Matt Dentler, Tom Hall, Eugene Hernandez, Karina Longworth, David Lowery, Anne Thompson, Michael Tully and Agnes Varnum. 

Now, in case you didn't click on the link, here is my list (Annie has YouTube links for selected songs on her blog):

1. Traditional Camp Song, "I LOVE THE FLOWERS" (a.k.a. Boom De-A-Da)

2. Harry Chapin, "CATS IN THE CRADLE"

3. Journey, "OPEN ARMS"

4. Talking Heads, "ROAD TO NOWHERE"

5. Violent Femmes, "GOOD FEELING"

6. Pixies, "MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN"

7. Superchunk, "THE QUESTION IS HOW FAST"

8. The Lemonheads, "MY DRUG BUDDY"

9. Liz Phair/Muzzle, "FUCK AND RUN"

10. R.E.M., "NIGHTSWIMMING"

11. Jawbreaker, "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT'S KILLING US BOTH"

12, Wilco, "NOTHING'SEVERGONNASTANDINMYWAY(AGAIN)"

13. Joni Mitchell, "FREE MAN IN PARIS"

14. Ike and Tina Turner, "RIVER DEEP, MOUNTAIN HIGH"

One Year Ago, Six Years Ago and Today

With all our reporting on this year's Toronto International Film Festival, we couldn't help thinking about the world premiere of our own film - KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON - at the festival one year ago.  365 days ago - to the minute - as I write this, we were still celebrating and dancing at the very fun party we had at the Drake Hotel.  It's hard to believe that the film that I had in my head for so long, had now been public for a full calendar year, and I'm glad that soon (three weeks from tomorrow), it will finally open at the IFC Center in New York.

Six years ago in New York was a landmark moment in the making of my first film, GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS), and as I write this, my producer/partner Shirley Moyers and I were eating a very late dinner, still basking in having wrapped our shooting with They Might Be Giants, after they had played an midnight in-store performance at the Greenwich Village Tower Records (now closed).  They were celebrating the release of their new album, Mink Car, which was released the next day, September 11.  Not thinking anything particular of that night - other than the fact that we were wrapping our work with the band - we ended up capturing their cover performance of the Cub track "New York City", which ended up being an emotional moment at the end of the film that no one could have predicted.

And today, September 11, 2007 - bringing it all full circle - Barsuk Records releases Kurt Cobain About A Son: Music From the Motion Picture.  It's a record that I'm very proud of, since choosing the songs for the film were one of my favorite parts of making ABOUT A SON.  And I'm grateful to all the amazing artists who allowed us to use their music in the film and/or on the soundtrack.

I hope you'll check it out.

Here's an excerpt from Ned Raggett's review at the OC Weekly:

Set to a variety of images and filmed segments of the towns in which Cobain lived and worked, the film features a soundtrack containing no music from his band, but instead mostly draws on those performers and peers from whom he took inspiration. As such, it functions almost as a ghostly, Cobain-hosted radio show, with occasional snippets from the tapes interspersed among the songs, most clearly when his discussion of Scratch Acid leads into that group’s demented semi-ballad “Owner’s Lament.”

Soundtrack producers Linda Cohen and AJ Schnack (the film’s director) do an excellent job at sequencing the soundtrack, giving new context to many numbers. Hearing Creedence Clearwater Revival’s still-thrilling “Up Around the Bend” helps show how Cobain took inspiration from the group, while placing it between Bad Brains’ frenetic hardcore classic “Banned in D.C.” and Half Japanese’s goofy sex song “Put Some Sugar On It” rescues the Creedence number from the dull classic-rock universe in which it’s been mired for years. Meanwhile, the cover of Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer” by Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service singer Ben Gibbard that closes the disc gently reveals how the general play of Cobain’s influences continues.

Once again, here is the tracklisting:

Steve Fisk & Benjamin Gibbard — Overture
"Never intended" [interview excerpt]
Arlo Guthrie — Motorcycle Song
The Melvins — EyeFlys
"Punk rock" [interview excerpt]
Bad Brains — Banned in D.C.
Creedence Clearwater Revival — Up Around the Bend
Half Japanese —  Put Some Sugar On It
The Vaselines — Son of a Gun
Butthole Surfers — Graveyard
"Hardcore was dead" [interview excerpt]
Scratch Acid — Owner's Lament
Mudhoney — Touch Me I'm Sick
"Car radio" [interview excerpt]
Iggy Pop — The Passenger
Lead Belly — The Bourgeois Blues
R.E.M. — New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
"The limelight" [interview excerpt]
David Bowie — The Man Who Sold the World
Mark Lanegan — Museum
Benjamin Gibbard — Indian Summer

 

R.I.P. Hilly Kristal

From the AP:

Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.

Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club's eviction from its home of 33 years, died Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital after a battle with lung cancer, his son Mark Dana Kristal said Wednesday.

Last October, as the club headed toward its final show with Patti Smith, Kristal was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment. He was hoping to open a Las Vegas incarnation of the infamous venue that opened in 1973.