What’s up blogosphere? It’s been a long time. I have to say that blogging doesn’t hold the appeal it used to and I’m not sure how often I’ll check in with this wordpress jam. Instead, I twitter occasionally and started a Photo a Day project on tumblr so my presence on the internet is still alive and well. I’m breaking my silence to talk about a dude named Jeffrey W. Ruggles. Years back when I started work as the Office P.A. for a reality TV production company called Rocket Science Laboratories, Ruggles was the guy that trained me. He had previously held the position but was now promoted to logger and he spent 15 minutes telling me which coffees needed to be refilled and where to take the trash out to. I quit that job less than two months later and didn’t see Ruggles again until he showed up for the Zero Film Festival screening of Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. We found ourselves to have mutual appreciations for certain types of film and mutual ambitions in that world. He gave me a copy of his film, Bicycle Lane and I was very happy and relieved to find that it was totally great.

Now we are becoming fast friends and even collaborators. Ruggles has come on board as a producer for This is Martin Bonner and we are trying to get pre-production on that sucker moving along. He also celebrated the first Los Angeles screening of Bicycle Lane last week and his birthday a few days later so it’s been a Ruggles-centric month for me so far. Which is totally cool. Have a peek at the pictures below and become a friend to Bicycle Lane on facebook so you can find out if it’ll ever play near you.

Hollywood.

The lovely Anne Walls.

George Ducker and John Singleton mingle.

Josh Locy may tell you he got in a brutal fight, but he actually got poked in the eye playing basketball. Rec basketball at that.

Don Black, the star of the movie works the crowd like he’s George Clooney or something.

Space 15Twenty- the only place where you can eat a chicken sandwich and watch indie film at the same time. Also, those are Josh’s custom made slippers from Colombia.

“Yeah, yeah, I made this movie and it’s awesome. What of it? Any questions?”

Ruggles and I after party it up at the after party.

Ruggles’s birthday involved boiling crawfish alive and then sucking out their brains. George obliged, I did not.

This man is 30.

For the last two years and some change, I have been working on a movie called Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. It cost hardly any money and was one of the best experiences of my life and I always hoped that one day it could be seen by as many people as possible. That day has arrived people.

The good people at Cinetic Media and Amazon Video on Demand have made the film available to rent or purchase online starting now! What are you waiting for? Go-

Amazon Video On Demand

And here’s the trailer one last time-

Those two things don’t really have much in common, except this post, which finally brought me back to the world of blogging. Over at David Lowery’s blog, I saw a quote from Vincent Gallo regarding The Brown Bunny, which I thought was terrific enough to share.

“What, what exactly do I get out of making these films? I mean, I don’t make any money, I give up three years of my life on each one, I make a lot of enemies because I’m bossy and pushy and crotchety, and I get old and crabby and my back and my neck and everything hurts now, and I didn’t go on any dates. What do I get, this weird satisfaction that I was able to put something in the world that now exists that most people don’t like anyway? I don’t know, this is just a sick in the head move. But at the time it seemed like the most important thing.”

I don’t mean to imply that I feel the same way or that I can compare to Vincent Gallo in any way, but I’m certainly appreciative of his sacrifices so I could see his work.

I also wanted to link to the new Coldplay video, “Strawberry Swing”. I hardly ever see videos any more and if there are many more like this then I am missing out on some beautiful creations.

This one hurts. Michael Jackson was the very first person I ever looked up to. I wore “Bad” out on tape. “Dangerous” was the first CD I bought for myself. I practiced the moonwalk until I could do it forwards and backwards. I watched Moonwalker fifty times. As an adult, I still sit back and listen in wonder to the amazing music he produced.

From I Want You to Back to You Rock My World, I can listen to the whole catalog without shame. And I am.

I work right next to UCLA so when I heard the news, I walked over to the hospital. I found a crowd of people taking pictures. Not sure what they were taking pictures of except each other, making up some crazy mob. It was depressing.

I always rooted for Michael, and believe he went to the grave with a clean conscience. He was a great person, second to none in global recognition and second maybe only to Bono in genuine concern for the Earth’s underprivileged among the music community. People just couldn’t understand how someone could genuinely love children the way he did and not want to fuck them. Says more about us than him. Wherever he is now, let’s hope he is better understood.

Aaron Katz sent me a link to a The Pains of Being Pure at Heart music video with the message “sue these bums”. Specifically he said to watch at the 51 second mark. Here’s the video:

And here’s a music video I made for Keegan DeWitt in 2006.

Coincidence? Probably. No suit here.

And how good is that song? Definitely pick up their album if you don’t already have it.

A distinct lack of blogging on my end has led to some introspection. What have I been doing with my life lately? I wish the answer was “Plenty!”, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. One thing I have done, is join twitter. So if you’re on there and want more updates on my existence, check me out.

As for Luke and Brie Are on a First Date, well, that movie still exists. We signed a deal with Cinetic Rights Management, who found us digital distribution through Amazon Video on Demand, but a glitch in the output has caused a rather lengthy delay in getting that available to the public. It’s been frustrating but hopefully that will be resolved very soon. In the meantime, a DVD of the movie is also for sale on Amazon if you’re into that sort of thing. We have one more festival screening coming up that I know of and I’ll mention that again when the time comes. It’s been a nice ride for that movie.

I’m ready to move on though and I’m working now on making This is Martin Bonner my next film. That’s a working title that made more sense when the film was just an idea but now that it’s a script, something better must be found. I had a meeting with an actor that I wrote a major part for and he’s interested so that’s one hurdle already crossed. Now if we can get some funding, we’ll really be somewhere. I’m aiming for a late March 2010 shoot so the countdown has begun.  Here’s a video with a clue as to what you can expect.

This new initiative to see more concerts is proving itself to be quite rewarding. On Saturday night, Tara and I walked down to Spaceland to catch Loney Dear perform for a scant $10. I had thought it would be sold out since they’ve gotten some ink on Pitchfork and they opened for Andrew Bird on their previous trek across the United States, but it was only about three quarters full. Everyone else’s loss. Looking a bit like Vincent D’Onofrio in Men in Black (sounds like an insult but it’s not), lead singer Emil Svanängen simply owned the stage and the crowd from the first minute. The four members of his band jumped around different instruments and synthesizers, all while serving as a chorus of “oohs” and “ahs” that frequently appear as the climax to his songs. Emil is Swedish and charming and charmingly Swedish, illiciting as many laughs from on stage banter as swoons from his heartbreakingly sincere lyrics and melodies. These guys should be big.

The video below is for their first single off the new record, “Dear John”.

When Luke and Brie Are on a First Date played in Los Angeles back in December as part of the Zero Film Festival, a guy named Stefan came up to me afterward to say he really liked it. He was there from Germany with an experimental short of his and he recommended I get in touch with his buddy Sven who organizes a cool film event in Germany called Film Brunch. I sent him the movie and he liked it enough to make it their May selection.

Fast forward to yesterday and I get an e-mail telling me that the screening happened and it was a success, which is good because I was worried about how much a not totally fluent crowd would lose in a film that’s all dialogue with no subtitles. Basically, a group of people get together, 25 in all, and have brunch and then watch a movie. We should do this in L.A.

Stefan was cool enough to send me a picture of the screening room and some of the brunchers. Looks great. Thanks to those guys for organizing it and including our movie. Check out their website if you speak German.

On July 2, 2008, I wrote a blog about the seeds of an idea being planted in my head. It took almost ten months exactly but that idea is now a script. Albeit a rough first draft of a script. It’s still tentatively titled This is Martin Bonner but I think that needs to change. It’s still something I think I can feasibly make and am gonna try my best to do so. I’d want to shoot it in Reno either in November or April so there’s no time to lose on that second draft. I’ve already gotten some good feedback and so this blog is a reminder that I have no excuses.

Want to sneak a peek? Click here.

Now, who can help me get this in the hands of Ciarán Hinds?

Wednesday night, Tara and I made the trek out the West Hollywood for the sold out Dan Deacon show at the Troubadour. We missed out on getting tickets originally so we had to buy them at an inflated price on craigslist. Lame, but I was pretty sure it was going to be worth it. When we got there, Teeth Mountain was playing and we watched for a second before deciding we would rather get drinks in the other room and talk. Nothing against the band, which actually sounded pretty good.

From the other room we heard the next act, Future Islands, begin their set and it sounded pretty cool so we went back inside to check it out. I’m not really sure how to describe these guys except to say they’re kind of like Matthew Dear beats mixed with Bear vs. Shark vocals, if I may make two references to John Gaviglio at once. Synthy dance beats behind gravelly, screamy vocals that sound like Tom Waits and Morrissey getting in an argument. I really dug it and Tara bought their cd after the show. It’s definitely good but unfortunately, the singer’s manic enthusiasm is something you can only really experience at the live show. Some other dude filmed them performing what I guess we all agree was the standout track so check it out below.

Finally, Deacon set himself and his thirteen piece band up and was ready to start the show despite a number of issues with the lights and sound setup at the Troubadour. Deacon doesn’t like performing on stage and instead sets his little table up on the floor with everyone else gathered around him. That’s cool if you’re into solidarity but not so cool if you’re into seeing the performer perform. Luckily, I’m pretty tall and could see his face but I had no clue what he was doing with his instruments or computer. He warmed us up with some group calisthenics and “meet-your-partner” exercises that let us know this was going to be an inhibition free environment for the next hour or so. One song in, it was clear that this crowd came to let loose. A serious mosh pit of sorts evolved and threatened to take Deacon’s fragile setup with it before he announced we should “Just dance” and not pretend we’re at a Pearl Jam concert.

At one point, Deacon separated the crowd into two halves and picked a volunteer from each side to begin a “fancy dance” contest for the next song. Simple instructions- When the song starts, start dancing and then pick someone else from your side to take over. This lasted less than 30 seconds because the first two knuckleheads never let the circle and so other eager dancers just fled into the space until there was no space anymore. Epic following directions fail. The crowd made amends with the next activity, which was to form a human tunnel made out of two people standing face to face and clasping hands above their heads. During the song, people could walk through the tunnel until they reached the end and then made themselves the latest link. Amazingly, this actually happened until the chain went from the dancefloor, up the stairs to the balcony and back down the other side. It was fun and we celebrated our success by dancing more.

The bottom line is, this was a totally unique concert experience and if you want to dance your shit senseless and bop into other hipsters wearing flannels, there’s probably no better show to go to. But I wasn’t really prepared for that and was going as a fan of the music. Live, the music was kind of second fiddle and all the wonderful instrumentation and varying tones that makes Bromst such a great record are kind of lost. To be perfectly honest, all the songs sounded the same to some degree. So, I’m glad I went but I’m more glad that I have the record to spin on my drive to work tomorrow.

Pics below!

And for good measure, one of my favorite things in the world, which Deacon played some part in making.