Tons of cool downloads. DIY movie Midwest tour report. Pacific Northwest Tour dates. Lots of interviews. and more stuff.
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I’m back for three days, then off to the Pacific Northwest. I leave tomorrow for Bellingham, Seattle, Portland, Eugene OR, Olympia, Vancouver, Canada (I’ll be in Canada for July 4th even!)
I had a blast on my Midwest tour. Showed the film in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Champaign, Indianapolis and Bowling Green Ohio. My friend Kime drove me around. She rocks.
This tour was less eventful and more successful than the East Coast one. And I mean that in a good way. No crazy stuff, no insanity, and I even came home with a little money.
Coolest person of all was Scott from the Fuel Café and The Garage in Milwaukee. That dude is an excellent host, and booked a great show. Had 140 people the second night. He also bought my airline ticket, and put us up in his house.
I did an interview on a high school radio station in Indianapolis. We videotaped it, and it’s up here:
http://www.kittyfeet.com/IndianapolisInterview.wmv (8 megs)
It’s funny..the sweet kid (scott) doing the interview thinks I’m getting out of hand at the end….but it’s all good and he was very cool.
I ran into Todd Wilson in Milwaukee. We had a blast. He looks the same. And is still funny as hell. I consider that success! (guitarist in my band Baby Opaque, from when I was 20. Download New upload, 3-meg MP3 file. it's, Baby Opaque, in Virginia, 1984, doing the Johnny Cash song "Long
Black Veil" with Ian MacKaye singing backup. I sang lead and played bass. Michael Berube played drums. dig it. http://www.kittyfeet.com/stuff/Cash.mp3
Took a photo of this sign in Michigan for my friend John Beers.
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We got into the film into Silver Lake Film Fest here in LA.
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The flick’s getting shown on some TV.
Every week, it seems, on channel 29 cable access in San Francisco.
also
Akaku, MAUI Hawaii Community Television Air > > Dates: > > > > > > Sunday, June, 23rd 10pm > > > > > > Monday, June, 24th 9pm > > > > > > Sat, June 29th,
10pm > > > > > > July 5th, midnight > > > > > > July 9th, 10pm
Drexel public TV dutv@drexel.edu http://www.dutv.org/
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Tonight I did an intro for my movie on a Los Angeles TV station, Adelphi TV. They’re showing my film on there too. My friend Jo Moskow video taped it. Here’s an excerpt:
http://www.kittyfeet.com/AdelphiInterview.rm
6 megs, real media. It's funny because it's got me off camera before the interview starts, bitching to Jo about how overworked I am, then all cheery on camera.
the stuff I’m saying about “these independent artists behind me” is referring to the dancing Mexican midgets they chroma-keyed in behind me with the blue screen.
Camera (mine, not theirs) by Jo Moskow.
It’s showing in Los Angeles on Adelphi Cable channel 6, Friday July 12 at 8 pm.
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This is cool: the ENTIRE audio track for the DIY or DIE documentary. (55 minutes). Either in RealAudio:
http://www.hitsofacid.com/temp//DIY_film_WHole.rm
(doesn’t sound great, but is only 2 megs!)
Or MP3 format (sounds great, but it’s 25 megs.):
http://www.hitsofacid.com/temp/DIY_film_WHole.mp3
Feel free to link and trade for free anywhere.
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check out http://www.richmackin.org/
my friend from Boston who writes funny letters to corporations and prints the results. A punk rock Lazslo letters. Dig it.
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Little 2-meg file of Liza Matlack dancing. She’s in the film, but we didn’t have any footage when we made it:
http://www.kittyfeet.com/liza2.mov
will put some on the DVD. I’m working on the DVD now. It’s called “DIYODVD”. :-)
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cool photo by my friend heather.
check out her weird art site:
http://thecreativezero.homestead.com/
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Interview done on tour via e-mail from Milwaukee with Michele Laudig for the Phoenix (Arizona) New Times:
Fri, 28 Jun 2002
>I'd like to know how the project started
>is it your first?
I have made two five-minute shorts. "DIY or DIE, How To Survive as an Independent Artist" is my first feature. I tend to do things in the most convoluted way possible. Doing a first feature with 30 people in 4 cities was a nightmare, but I loved it.
I just kind of did it, and hit a home run with my first attempt. This is because I did it backwards. Most people say "I want to make films, what should I make one about?", whereas I had a definite idea for a story and then quickly learned filmmaking to tell that story. And the story filled a need for a lot of people.
>Is filmmaking your main occupation? This month, it is my livelihood. I tend to go through phases, and make money at different things, almost always art. In the past three years, I’ve worked two months temping at a day job, and in that case I always made sure I was working for someone big and piggy so I didn’t feel bad while "running my office from their office" (Xerox, Fed-Ex, phone, etc.)
I have a published novel, ("Starving in the Company of Beautiful Women") two screenplays, and 12 records with 4 bands (Bomb, Baby Opaque, Slish and The Beef People). I oil paint and do computer art. I always have to be doing something or I go insane.
Sometimes I supplement my money with Web design or video editing for others (in LA it’s pretty easy to get work editing demo reels for aspiring actors, since they’re everywhere.)
Right now I’m sitting in a near-stranger’s house in Milwaukee, he’s not here but gave me a key. I’m on tour, and this film inspires love and change in people.
"Here.….take my keys….." and "Your movie made me quit my job", and "You have touched my heart, may I kiss you?"….etc.
It’s not a movie so much as a video vehicle for change, personal redemption and growth. I don’t know much about politics, but like to change myself and help others find something deep and real inside,…that thing we all have, and grow it.
I consider myself a professional catalyst, and for some reason, the universe often puts small and medium sized checks in my mailbox.
I fucking believe in God like nobody’s business. The god of my understanding is non-wimpy, not the old bearded in a man in a throne that my parents dig. My god is a 700-foot tall women who adores me and makes sure I get fed everyday as long as I keep making art.
I’m not getting rich. I am, however, entering the most interesting phase of my life. I am getting flown all over the country to present this film and talk about it. Then I go back to Los Angeles for three days, wash my socks out in the sink because I can’t afford to do laundry, and then hop on another plane. I’m meeting wonderful people and making life-long bonds with them. I make lessmoney than I would working at McDonalds, but my high school friend who is a six-figure corporate lawyer tells me he envies me.
I feel stuff so flucking powerfully sometimes. Right now I’m listening to some amazing music (Massive Attack?) and I can feel a rain storm coming quickly and hard in the summer air. This music is etching into my cortex harder than the Pink Floyd I listened to on LSD as a child, and I don’t take drugs now. Wow. Dig it.
>what inspired you start the project,
I wanted to show my heroes in an equal light with my unknown friends to downplay the star system and up-play talent and vision.
>and do you consider yourself a DIY guy?
sure. I do everything myself, with help. I multitask about 14 hours a day, always on art.
However, I don’t however consider this a movement per se, and I certainly don’t consider myself an expert. When I do the Q&A after showing the movie, I often get the feeling that people think it is and I am. But I’m just a human trying to get by In the world. I would welcome a support staff, I’m probably headed for a heart attack by 50 at this rate (I’m 38), but I wouldn’t lick big corporate donkey dick to get it.
>how you selected/sought out the people interviewed (are they your friends? heroes?) and what you thought of them, why are these people important
They all either did something that had a big effect on the world, or just did something I like. Or both.
I’ve heard it said "Not many people bought the Velvet Underground’s album, but everyone who did started a band." I was going after people like that, but even less known. J Mascis is who Kurt Cobain wanted to be when he grew up. Ron Asheton is broke, but invented the punk guitar sound that’s on every record you listen to. Lydia Lunch is the reason young girls still wear black. Richard Kern is the reason that handheld camera work is so big in Hollywood and on MTV, and he’s never worked for either. Jim Thirlwell invented industrial rock. A lot of people haven’t heard of these people, but we’ve certainly heard their influence.
And people in the film like my friend Simon Clifton and Eric McFadden and Liza Matlack and Dana Schecter are even less known, but equally as cool as those folks. So you just GOTTA put them in a movie, you know?
>-- I have my own personal thoughts on the famous ones, but you're the filmmaker, after all),
lay it on me baby……
>and how is your film's tour going?
Amazing. Beats working. And things keep falling into place in a way that PROVES that there’s a god.
> Any future films in the works?
Nope. I do everything one day at a time, with a lot of planning ahead of time. The inspiration for the next one will hit me sooner or later, probably while I’m standing in line at the Post Office or something equally mundane. (That’s why I never leave the house without a pen!)
>Did your thoughts on the interviewees or the DIY ethos itself change throughout the project?
The ethic, yes. I had a spiritual awakening about not needing to be a star. It’s on film. While Mike Watt’s telling me about "looking people straight in the eye". It’s cute. I get all tingly every time I see that part.
I made this movie for one reason: because I wanted to see this movie and it didn’t exist. I’ve seen it over a hundred times and still love it. I watched it every day for six months while we were editing it, and I watch it every time I show it with an audience. And it still gives me a boner.
>The subtitle notes that the film is "by, for and about independent artists" -- what kind of insight do you think the film provides "for" indie artists?
Some have complained that the film is less "how" to make it and more "why". But folks who say that are delusional. This ain’t "Making art for Dummies." It’s not laid at your feet. It’s basically a crash course in being pure of heart enough to make dirty pretty kick-ass changes in the world.
Watch it a couple times. If you’re meant to, you’ll get it all, and them some.
>That's a lot of questions, I know. You don't have to address them one by one -- I'd just love to hear your story. It sounds like such an amazing and fun project, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it! Thanks so much for your help, Michael. Hope you have a lovely trip, wherever you're heading . . .