Sayles new movie is getting a lot of hype.   So with much anticipation I began to watch this movie.  It is the story of a down and out club owner and piano player, Danny Glover, in rural cotton country Alabama.  The club owner is troubled, behind in the rent and harrased by the local sheriff.  There is a slide playing blind man who offers words of wisdom, played by Keb Mo, and a young guitar hero, our own Gary Clark Jr., who rolls into town in a train boxcar.  There is also the young beautiful country girl who dreams of making it big in the city. Any of this sound cliche, well, it is.  This is how the whole movie comes across.  It is a story that has been told many times before and where as the acting in this movie is well done, the movie as a whole falls flat and seems to drag.  I found myself waiting  to see Gary Clark and Keb Mo play and getting frustrated that it was taking so long.

Honeydripper

REVIEW BY BREE PERLMAN

I want to begin this by saying I’m a John Sayles fan. Lone Star is one of my favorite films. The same cannot be said of Honeydripper. There is a strong temptation to make use of the title in this review both for what it could have been and what, sadly, it was. At first I resisted, and then, well, I didn’t. First the former: the stifling Alabama heat, the expressive blues, the racial tension, the religious questions–all had the potential to add up to a sexy, heated film about living our dreams, overcoming our demons, and the power of music to guide us along the way. That would’ve been the honey. What resulted was more of the drip; Mr. Sayles, the dripper–and not in a good way. While there are moments of quirkiness that give the film an offbeat and original charm, most of the color-by-number characters and formulaic story feel as thought you’ve hit the “blues preset” on your Casio instead of the electric charge Danny Glover’s character, Tyrone Purvis, and his partner Maceo so desperately want you to believe is pulsing through their veins and forcing them to risk everything for. As an experienced cotton picker in the fields tells Gary Clark Jr’s character, Sonny, “Everything in life has a rhythm.” Unfortunately, Honey Dripper spends more time bashing us over the head with that ideal than ever finding its own.

FROM THE WRITER OF ALIGATOR COMES A STORY (I THINK) OF OWNING AN ALL  BLACK BLUES CLUB IN ALABAMA. THAT IS NOT A KNOCK AT ALL. I AM A BIG FAN OF ALIGATOR. SURE THE PREMISE AND PLOT ARE SILLY, BUT THE CHARACTOR WORK IS REALLY AMAZING. SAYLES ALWAYS PENS GREAT CHARACTORS. NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED HERE.

WE KNOW THAT THE CLUB IS NOT DOING SO WELL AND  THAT IT GAMBELS ON BRINGING IN A DRAW PERFORMER. WELL, THINGS GO AWRY AND A YOUING TRAVELOR, STEPS UP AND  OVER FILLS THE PLAYERS SHOES THAT DIDN’T SHOW. THIS FILM MISSED IT FOR ME. THEY WERE IN THE DEEP SOUTH IN A HARD TIME. IT WAS A HARD TIME TO BE BLACK AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN HARDER TO BE BLACK AND OWN A CLUB. THIS WAS TOUCHED ON BUT ONLY DUSTED OVER./

GARY CLARK JR. KEPT ME GLUED TO THE FILM, I DO WISH HE PLAYED LONGER.

LONE STAR IS AN AMAZING  FILM THAT WE DISSECTED IN FILM CLASS. THE WRITING, DIRECTION,ACTING AND EVEN CINEMATOGHRAPHY WERE GREAT. REALLY AN AMAZING PIECE OF WORK. I REALLY ENJOYED ROBERT FORRESTER’S CHARACTER WORK IN ALIGATOR. GOOD STUFF.

THIS MOVIE I MUST HAVE MISSED SOMETHING BECAUSE I COULDN’T FEEL THE SOUL………

January 27th New York Times has a long article on harmful impacts of the world’s increasing meat consumption. Here’s the link.

If you want to learn more about vegetarianism and veganism go to the Austin Vegetarian Network’s website, http://www.vegnetaustin.org/ .

Speaking of vegetarian, I am going to interview the owner of the Bouldin Creek Coffee House for an upcoming Austin Daze print edition. Bouldin Creek Coffee House is a vegetarian restaurant and coffee house on South First and Elizabeth.

My wife bought me sun oven for Christmas and I’ve been cooking potatoes with it on sunny days, between the recent dreary, wet days. The sun oven has reached 350 degrees F. I’ll try cooking other food.

While some people are closely following the presidential primary races, a perhaps more important election will take place this May – Austin City Council. I say perhaps more important because so few people vote in these races that your vote – and getting your friends and family to vote – can make a bigger difference.

A shockingly low percentage – roughly 12 – of registered Austin voters bother to cast votes in City Council races that do not coincide with state or national elections. And lots of voting age people who live in Austin aren’t registered.

A new political group has formed to influence Austin city council elections – the Better Austin Today political action committee or BATPAC. The BATPAC is a welcomed effort because it’s the first time in at least ten years that such a broad, diverse group of public-interest citizen activists have come together to have a unified voice in local elections.

Learn more about the BATPAC at http://www.betteraustintoday.org/.

This weekend Russ and I attended Fangoria’s “Weekend of Horror,” a film festival sponsored by the magzine celebrating all things horror. The fest presented screenings of films, tons of merchandise, and the chance to engage horror film icons and masters. The real horror was the registration lady we met as we entered the festival. She refused almost every request and answered each question with a snarl and a fanged attitude which theatened to slash Russ and me. We made it into the show just in time on Saturday to hear a panel discussion with the reunion cast of Friday the 13th. Kane Hodder who played Jason, who is one big mother@#&*, along side the director answered questions and told stories about throwing people through windows naked, roofs falling on their heads, and houses blowing up. All very interesting, but the most intriguing part of this panel was director John Buechers commentary on the state of the Motion Picture Association of Americas rating system. Buecher stated that “horror is like comedy, it needs a payoff” and that the MPAA “snipped the testicles off of (the movie)!” He followed by saying that the MPAA were ” a bunch of 50 year old housewives in Encino” which was greated with a round of applause from the marginal crowd in the room.

On Sunday we made it to the festival a little earlier and had escaped registration with our skins still intact. We even got a bottle openner for free! Free stuff is cool. We wanted to check out, in our opinion the two heavey hitters of this festival, Robert Rodriguez of Grind House and actor, makeup artist, and stuntman. Both gave great talks and were very cool. Robert Rodriguez, a very down to earth type of guy, talked about the movie biz, but was pretty secretive about upcoming projects. He did mention that a Clash of the Titans movie is on the board. When asked about working with Quentin Tarantino he stated “Its better not to have him around” because they were like two kids and never got any work done on the set.

The coolest part of the whole festival happened by chance. Russ and I went to get a cup of coffee and who walks up but Tom Savini. Tom Savini is the guy that “makes horror look good.” He has been involved in more classic flicks than you can count and is THE guy in the industry. He has started his own special effects and makeup training school where top artists in their field instruct the next generation of horror masters. Look for the interview with Tom Savini in an upcoming issue of the Daze. You can’t top running into Tom at a coffee stand and getting a chance for a face to face meeting, I mean they were charging 40 bucks just for an autograph in the show. After that Russ and I packed it in. All in all the show was not much to scream at, but cool to sink our teeth into some of the real pros of the industry. Peace, E

Have you ever wondered about the implications of rising demand for bio-fuels, fuels used to power cars or generators from plants?

The New York Times has a good article on the rise in demand for palm oil, as a cooking oil in China, India, and elsewhere, and as a fuel for cars in Europe and the US. Here’s the story.

Diesel engines were designed to be run on a variety of oils, not just petroleum-based oil. Some people run their diesel vehicles with restaurant grease. I think this is a great use of what society casts off as “waste.” We need to figure out ways to convert “waste” into useful parts of our lives.

Water, for example, should not become “waste” simply because we’ve washed our dishes with it. That water can be constructively used to irrigate plants outside the house.

Writing for the Austin Daze is something I really appreciate. The blog is a fabulous opportunity for me because the print editions come out only every two months or so, and I can post articles, thoughts, and observations here just about any time.
I will likely focus my posts on the status of the growth machine in Central Texas. By growth machine, I refer to the related industries that profit from increasing population, increasing spending, increasing consumption of land, water, and plastic crap from China. I will include links to reference pages or Web pages that inspired my writing.
One of my favorite Web sites is www.TheOilDrum.com. If you are interested in the world’s energy situation, check out this website. They have a daily digest of world news related to oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, etc. energy issues, as well as articles on global warming and the economy.

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is promoting three easy ways to reduce your carbon emissions: eat less meat, ride a bike, and buy less stuff. Here’s the article.

Eating less meat saves you money. Riding a bike saves you money compared to gas, car payments, car insurance. And buying less stuff of course saves you money.

So let me get this straight – reducing my carbon emissions saves me money? The best thing I can do for the planet is keep more money in my pocket? Yes!

Now you won’t see anything in Austin’s climate protection plan calling for citizens to eat less meat, drive their cars less, or buy less stuff because Austin’s plan only speaks to reducing the carbon footprint of city buildings, city departments, city vehicle fleets, etc.

While one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions is car driving, our mayor Will Wynn, the proponent of Austin’s climate protection plan, voted for spending $1.4 BILLION building toll roads on our existing highways. This will only deepen our addiction to car driving. Maybe he thinks that’s OK because everyone will be driving plug-in hybrids, buying electricity from Austin Energy to “fill up.” From strictly an urban planning standpoint, investing in highways ensures sprawled-out development, which makes bicycle transportation much harder. And realistically, we cannot replace a region’s fleet of cars with plug-in hybrids in a short time span. It will take decades for that to happen. In the meantime, let’s direct public transportation dollars to things like . . . public transportation, bike lanes, bike rental stations (like Paris), showering stations to encourage cycling.

I also don’t expect to see many politicians anywhere in the US asking potential voters to cut back on the cheeseburgers, as they don’t want to alienate the big donors in agri-business.

http://www.creationent.com/cal/fangotx.htm

ROCK AND ROLL

JESUS MAN..
THAT WAS MY UTTERANCE AS THE CREDITS ROLLED. I TURNED TO MY FRIEND AND TRIED TO SAY SOMETHING SENSIBLE…..NOTHING BUT “JESUS MAN!?” AGAIN.
WE ALL LAUGHED UNEASELY.
THE FILM EXPLORES THE MYTH OF VAGINA DENTA.
YEP, THAT MYTH………
DID I LIKE THE FILM?
NOT REALLY. THE PREMISE YES……
DID IT MAKE ME FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE?
VERY.
THIS FILM HAD TOO MANY THINGS ON ITS PLATE AND IN THE END IT BECAME JUMBLED, BUT THE SHOCK VALUE WAS THERE. WAS IT A COMEDY, SOCIAL COMMENTARY OR HORROR PICTURE? IT ATTEMPTED AT ALL THREE, BUT DIDN’T QUITE DO IT AND TOWARDS THE END BECAME A VIGILANTIE FLICK.

WE INTERVIEW THE WRITER/DIRECTOR TOMORROW AND I LOOK FORWARD TO ASKING HIM ABOUT WHERE IT TOOK HIM AND WHAT REACTION WAS HE AFTER.
THE FILM WILL AND HAS GOTTEN ATTENTION
ME, I JUST CRINGE AT THE “MAN’S BEST FRIEND” SCENE.

Hello Darlings,

I have a wild week planned as a lot of good music is coming our way.

So you think you’re cool? See how you rate tonight, Tuesday Jan 15, as Gallows takes over Emo’s. Frontman Frank Carter was voted “coolest man in rock n roll” by New Music Express, the top music mag in the UK. He even beat out Keith Richards. Now, I might be cool, but I am not as cool as Keith. Check out Gallows pure punk sound at http://www.myspace.com/gallows .

Thursday brings The Frontier Brothers to Emo’s. I am eager to see if they can sound as good live as they do on their EP, Solar Power Struggle! which is getting quite a good buzz. Check them out for yourself at http://www.myspace.com/thefrontierbrothers .

Next Tuesday, January 22 at the Beauty Bar (can you hear the echo on my voice?) our hometown boys Brownout will kick off their tour in support of their upcoming Freestyle Records release, Homenaje. I hear all of you out there saying, “I already have a copy!” Now it’s being released internationally, which means see them now my dear before we have to share them with the rest of the world. Check out our interview with them at http://austindaze.com/?p=307 and groove to them online at http://www.myspace.com/brownoutmusic .

I hope to see all of you lovelies at these shows. Until then, cha-cha!

HOW YE BE?

OK, WORKING WELL & really busy WITH THIS RUTA MAYA GIG.

WE HAVE A REIGN ON FEBRUARY. PLZ, IF YOU WILL, GO TO WWW.DO512.COM AND VOTE FOR OUR SHOWS AND OTHER AUSTIN SHOWS. IT IS EASY.

ALSO, OUR OWN, BREE PERLMAN IS PRODUCING A PLAY, TITLE SHOELESS, AT THE HIDEOUT THEATER. GO HERE AND BUY TICKETS AND SHOW HER EFFORTS SOME LOVE.

ALSO WE WILL BE RELEASING OUR NEXT ISSUE IN MARCH. WE WILL BE BLOGGING AWAY MY FRIENDS.

NAMASTE, RUSS