A conversation with Guy Forsyth during Halloween, if you’re wondering about the costume.

Guy Forsyth at SPI Fest from Austin Daze Magazine on Vimeo.

Phillips Go Gear is sponsoring a contest at www.undiscoveredaustin.com. This is one of the artists in the running for the prize. He explains what hip hop represents to him, and how he represents his life through his rhyme.

Daisy: Last time I saw Street Dogs, you were opening for Tiger Army.

Mike McColgan: At Emo’s.

DR: I think it was here at Red 7.

MM: Was it Red? We’ve been on a lot of tours, so forgive me. It becomes like a blur sometimes. That was an excellent tour. And truth be told, when we play in Texas, Austin always goes off whether we’re playing Red 7 or Emo’s. It’s always been good to us, whether we’re doing tour support or headlining. Read the rest of this entry »

I am proud to call Nick D a friend. He has really pulled through for me at tight times. I am becoming a fan of hip hop with every show he does. Thanks Nick ………………

AUSTIN DAZE: FIRST OFF HOW DID YOUR (STAGE) NAME COME ABOUT?

NICK D: REALLY, PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS CALLED ME NICKY D. AND mISTA NICK, BUT i ALWAYS LIKED THE OLD SCHOOL WAY OF USING YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME AND BY THE TIME I GOT REALLY SERIOUS, I JUST SHORTENED IT TO NICK D. A LOT OF MY FRIENDS STILL CALL ME NICKY D.

AD: DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WOULD ALWAYS BE A PERFORMER? AT WHAT POINT DID YOU SEE THAT THIS COULD BE A PROFESSION?

ND: YES. MY PARENTS WERE HIPPIES WHO HUNG AROUND A LOT OF AUSTIN MUSICIANS AND THEY TOOK ME TO ALL OF THE CONCERTS AND BARBEQUES GOING ON BACK IN THE DAY. WHEN NO ONE WAS AROUND AND THE INSTRUMENTS WERE LAYING AROUND AND MICS WERE TURNED ON, I WOULD SEE WHAT IT FELT LIKE IF I WAS ON STAGE. Read the rest of this entry »

Mr. Herrera and his band of all star musicians will be visiting Austin City Limits music festival on Saturday afternoon at 5:45 bringing both virtuoso talent and high energy Cuban dance music to Austin. I had the opportunity to speak with this man who has a personality that is instantly engaging, energetic, yet relaxed as if sitting on a veranda one steamy Havana afternoon.

Austin Daze: Could you tell us a little about your background and musical path?

Nachito Herrera: I am originally from Cuba. I was born in a little town southwest of Havana. I started to study piano at the age of 7 with a concentration on the classical styles of the great composers. I was hearing many things as I grew up. There were many influences. My dad was a jazz player also. At the age of 16 or 17 I became interested in the world and in the traditional Cuban music. I began to think about it and began to take classes and play with my father. The rhythms and the music really interested me. At the age of 23 I became the musical director of the Tropicana Orchestra in Havana. Read the rest of this entry »

WHAT IS THE STRIP CULT AND HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?
-The Strip Cult is a rock theater show that starts with sleazy 1960’s go go dancing and turns into an acid trip with Charlie Manson. I wrote the music and script, and we have performed at the Hideout Theater and the Parish. Now the new version of the show will premiere at Ruta Maya on Thursday June 19th.

Where did idea come from and how did you do research?
I have been studying Charles Manson for years, and have listened closely to all of the unedited jailhouse interviews. Manson remains a deeply important revolutionary and philosopher, with a strong message for America in these End Times. There was a point back in the late Sixties
when people clearly saw where we were headed if we didn’t change our ways. Now that we are well into the collapse of the American Empire it is interesting to take another look at those prophets of doom.

What can we expect on thurs? I don’t think I have ever seen these descriptions together- sex starved love kittens & rivers of gore. My interest is solid.
On Thursday night the audience will see beautiful young girls grinding it out to stripper blues. They will see psychotropic visions created by the best lightshow artists in Austin. And they will be introduced to an uncanny recreation of the real spirit of Charles Manson. Plus two other great psychedelic bands (The Strange Attractors and The Daze).

And it’s only 8 bucks.
THURSDAY RUTA MAYA 930 PM BABY

FRONTRUNNERS

We sat down with Caroline Suh and Erika Frankel of Frontrunners, a timely, smart, documentary about the student union presidential elections at Stuyvesant high school in NYC. The film is both a microcosm of what is happening in our country as well as a personal, human piece about these kids and their unique school environment.

Director Caroline Suh’s sweet, engaging documentary Frontrunners puts the student union presidential elections at Stuyvesant front and center, right there for all of us to observe, laugh at and talk about later. In fact, it is the conversation afterward that makes Frontrunners such a worthwhile film, as it forces us to look at the much bigger world of elections. Stuyvesant could act as a microcosm for America — the student election carries many of the same detestable themes that we see in the elections for public officials in this country. They deal with issues of racism, sexism and of course, the art of the spin.
AUSTIN DAZE: What was the inspiration for this project?

CAROLINE SUH: When we started out we wanted to make a campaign film but we wanted to do it with a twist. We really loved the old school campaign films like The Perfect Candidate and Primary but we wanted to do something with young people and do something funny. That was one of our goals. So that’s how the film started. We searched around for a real story where there was actually a real election story with teenagers and not just something that we would have to fabricate from nothing where it would really just be a popularity contest and where really no one cares. So we found out that Stuyvesant in New York City had these great elections and we knew about the school because we lived in New York and it’s a very prestigious and competitive school. It kind of just took off from there.

AD: How did you guys meet?

ERIKA FRANKEL: We met years ago actually at PBS working on some projects there. We’ve worked on a few different projects over the years but this is the first feature independent documentary that we’ve worked on. I think we are crazy enough to want to do it again.

AD: How did the students react to the camera?

CS: We were really surprised because they were very unselfconscious around the camera for the most part. Much more so than we would have assumed they would be. I think it’s because it’s that generation of people are much more used to documenting themselves and seeing themselves on videos. They make videos for their classes. They have seen reality television which is totally different than what we were doing but much more part of their culture.

AD: Did you find a difference between the teenagers of today and what you were like when you were a teenager?

EF: I think that what in a way charmed us about the place in some ways. It brings back all the memories about being in the school. The announcements; the buzzer ringing. The atmosphere in the school has this very intense teenager vibe. When you are there you just kind of feel very hyped up and kind of sweaty—it’s very hormonal. We lived by the life of the school, making appointments for 5^th period. It was great.

AD: What’s next for you all?

CS: We’ve been talking about our next projects. Erica may direct a project next and I may direct another project but we love working together so we wanted to be supportive of whatever we do.

EF: We had a fantastic editor who is someone who we also knew from PBS so it was kind of a familial situation. Michael Tully who was our music supervisor is a friend of the editors. We liked the idea of over the years working on our own projects but also working together.

AD: Have you both always wanted to be documentary filmmakers?

CS: I haven’t always wanted to be a documentary filmmaker. At times I’ve wanted to be a writer but I kind of fell in love with documentaries.

EF: I started as an anthropologist. Film was just a medium to look at different cultures.

AD: Do you have any wisdom for other filmmakers just starting out?

CS: We were at the awards ceremony and a couple of people who one said, “You can do it.” And I totally agree with that. I think there is an intimidation factor sometimes and there is a block against starting but I do think that once you start it will take on a life of its own. It really is about the experience of making the film as well as everything after it. At least for us.

AD: How did you go about starting?

CS: We did have all the finances together and we owned a camera and sound equipment. We both work in the industry to make a living but decided we were just going to start doing this and everything kind of fell into place as we started filming. We knew certain things: how many days we were going to shoot and the price of post-production and we had all these ideas of these things but we really just started. These days if you have a camera and equipment you can just do it.

EF: I wanted to say for filmmakers, it’s supposed to be fun. We didn’t go into investment banking. We made a choice to make films because it is fun and we want to share it with people. Keep that in the back of your mind during those hard times.

AD: Can you talk to us about what you were trying to get across with this film?

CS: Yeah, that’s something I wanted to talk about. We really wanted the film to be a campaign film and it also became a slice of life film about the school because we really fell in love with the school and thought it was a really great place. It is a portrait of the school and it’s a campaign film also that’s driven by these great characters that we were lucky to find. We think it’s very, very funny.

AD: They have real personalities.

CS: They are wonderful. I think they all come across very well on film—they are very expressive in their own ways.

AD: Did you find that your perspectives changed at all about campaign film?

CS: It really became very clear to us while we were filming that we had to make it about the school. It’s a very unique place and that is definitely a big part of the story.

AD: Where are you headed after?

CS: We are trying to figure our distribution.

EXPLICIT ILLS

We were lucky to briefly catch up with the writer, Mark Webber (writer), Rosario Dawson and Francisco Burgos to talk about Mark’s beautiful and touching film, Explicit Ills.

AUSTIN DAZE: How are you guys enjoying the film festival so far? How long have you been here?

ROSARIO DAWSON: Just a couple of hours. I had a film that was accepted to screen here last year and it didn’t work out and I was really bummed out because I’ve just heard such wonderful things about this festival for years. I’ve worked in Austin a couple of times and I think it’s a great city. It’s a place, when you think of, that you just know automatically people here love art and they love music and they love movies. Culturally, it’s a place where you want to present something like this. If it does well here it says something really powerful. I think it speaks to a community of people that I feel should see this film and if it does well here it says that in a strong way. More so than I think some other festivals—it’s renowned in that way. So I’m really excited to be here with the project.

AD: Thoughts on SXSW festival?

MARK WEBBER: I’ve been dying to come to this festival for a really long time. Amongst our peers and festival circuit, even being at some of the other ones they talk about this one. So I’m honored to be here. You feel the vibe and it just feels really right for me.

AD: Where did this story come from?

MW: It’s a very personal story for me. I grew up in North Philadelphia next to the badlands—where this film was shot and the two characters live in. It’s a story about love and drugs and poverty and friendship and relationships and the social movement in this country. I wanted to tell this story in a very fragmented way. It builds up and connects in the end in a way that I have experienced so much of life through marching and activism.

RD: I worked with Mark on a film that was Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut called, Chelsea Walls. At that point we were both very young and talked a lot. We were just in this little room in the Chelsea hotel. And that place itself inspired a lot of conversation because it is such an insane space and it is all about these artists who have come from around the world to try and make it there with all the rest. And he (Mark) had spent a lot of years involved in activism because of his mom and they had really harsh times of extreme poverty where they lived out of his car with his mom. So we talked about that then and I talked about how I grew up in a squat on the Lower East Side and there was a period there when we didn’t have water, heat or electricity and my family made do. So we had this really interesting background that made activism and social awareness a very natural thing for us. We really bonded over that. And then we kept in touch and then suddenly I get these calls from Mark saying, “Oh my goodness I’ve got this script that I’ve written and I want you to read it and be a part of it and tell me what you think.” And I jumped on a plane with it. And all of a sudden I’m reading this script on the plane and I’m balling. I’m just crying my eyes out and was so touched by it. I’m reading about this man’s childhood and his home and going, “This is the first movie that you wrote and the way that you want to tell this story is just incredible.” There are these incredible people that are flawed. And they are not always done so honestly, authentically and richly. I was just moved and sent him a text immediately because I wanted to tell him exactly how I felt right after reading the end. Then we talked and I was so honored that he asked me to be a part of it and so touched that this was the story he had to tell. This is authentic coming from him. This isn’t I’m going to tell this story about poor people and maybe it will give me some kind of cred. It is really heartbreaking but it also is really beautiful. He is amazing.

AD: How about your experience with this film? How did you get the part?

FRANCISCO BURGOS: I got the part by just going to this big place and meeting Mark Weber and Mike Lemon. I was trying my best to read the lines but then I made this little mistake and I said, “I made a mistake” to Mark Weber but then he said, “It’s Ok, if you go to the movie that’s how you get the lines.” So then I tried my best to say it perfectly. I came out but then he said sit down and then he called my mother. That’s when he said, “I’m an angel just like I am in the movie.” So that’s when I figured out that maybe I might be called so I went all the way to the Bronx. My mom went to the shop that she works in, this ice cream shop then we went to this store just to eat and then she went to the bathroom and then out of nowhere she heard the phone ring and she picked it up while I was eating French fries and said that I got a callback for the movie.

By Ursula Garcia
Super Pal Universe is a new band made up of Austin teens and tweens, mentored by Austin musician Sara Hickman. Read the rest of this entry »

How many times have you thought that the film adaptation of a Stephen King story could have been made better? Come on, you know that most of the films that are the best of King’s work suck. Granted there are some fine examples that do manage to successfully make the leap from page to screen but they are few and far between. Frank Darabont has been at the helm on a few of those exceptions and The MIst, is another success.

I saw this film a month ago and it is still with me. This is disturbing actually. It hasn’t helped that in the past week, the mist has been creeping outside my house and courtesy of this thriller, I now sleep with all my windows and doors shut.  I don’t know why I think this helps, but it does. This film centers on a group of everyday people trapped inside a store by some unknown horrifying force. When fear is introduced everything gets flipped upside down. Michele Williams of the Austin Movie Show and I met with Frank and had a nice talk. Video footage of this interview will be available on our website.

AUSTIN DAZE: So you are in Austin for the first time. How do you like it?

FRANK DARABONT: I really like it, I’m not just saying that. That are very few places that I like right away and this is one of them. Read the rest of this entry »

AUSTIN DAZE: What does the word “freak” mean to you?

SAMANTHA X: The word freak is derived from the word, “To dance with nature”. We consider it to mean a fabulous genetic anomaly who is willing to perform and show the world how wonderful they are. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113015537,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: Have you guys been doing the festival circuit?

DIABLO CODY: We’ve definitely been doing the festival circuit. We went to Telluride, and then we had our official premiere at Toronto, and now we are here. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113015829,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did you get involved in this project?

ANDREW WAGNER: seven years ago, Fred my writing partner and I lived in the same neighborhood and my wife and I were walking the dog, and he was walking down the block and he had this book in his hand, Starting out in the Evening. And I said, “Wow, something about the words, I love the name, tell me about it.” Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113795312,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: Your current film, Reservation Road, is a family drama. I understand your next project returns to global political issues. Can you tell me more about it?

TERRY GEORGE: It’s a biopic based on the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello. He was a Brazilian UN Diplomat who was killed by the first Al Qaeda bomb in Baghdad. And Sergio had all through his life worked for the UN but with no attachment to any country. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113016097,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: How did you first get into music and when did you know that was going to be your path?

TAB BENOIT: I first got into music at birth-probably before birth-my mom said I used to kick to the beat in her stomach. As far as I could tell I’ve been playing something all my life. But I didn’t think about doing it for a living until I was out of high school. It didn’t seem like it would be possible-coming from a little bayou isolated life. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113796904,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: This is your second time to Austin this year. What do you think of the “Live Music Capital of the World?”

CHRIS BAILEY: You can go out any night of the week and see 50 different bands anywhere. I saw that on the Tele in the hotel–I thought that was astonishing. But is it really true? Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113797158,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: Tell us about the new album.

TONI PRICE: I call all my music soul music. An artist is just expressing herself and there is not a why or a who or nothing-we are just trying to express ourselves. These are songs I want to sing and songs that I want to hear and hear them played right. And there are not a lot of those out there these days. Read the rest of this entry »

[fa:p:id=2113016371,j=r,s=s,l=p]AUSTIN DAZE: Where did this ensemble come from and how did you all get together?

CARLOS SOSA: Bob Schneider was doing his own thing at Antone’s on Tuesday nights. And after 12 of playing with him I felt like I just wanted to do something of my own so I talked to Will at Lucky Lounge. Antone’s was always packed on Tuesday nights and he would stop I think at 12:30. Will’s formula for Lucky Lounge was that he didn’t ever want music past midnight but I figured that if I started there when Bob’s show lets out people will come to Lucky Lounge. And it worked. Read the rest of this entry »