deadCenter Film Festival Opening Rides High With “Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo”
Blayne Weaver, director of “Weather Girl.” Photo by Nate Billings.
The impact of hundreds of film enthusiasts gathered Wednesday night in a blocked-off section of Sheridan Avenue to see “Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo” was not lost on director Bradley Beesley. As the 9th Annual deadCenter Film Festival kicked off with a party and an outdoor screening of Beesley’s latest documentary, Beesley said he could see just how far the festival had come.
“I think my first deadCenter was back in 2000 with “Hill Stomp Hollar,” and there was probably 20 people in the cinema,” Beesley said. “Here tonight there’s a couple of hundred, and over the course of the next week there will be thousands and thousands. I think it speaks volumes to what the festival and the city has done in the past decade to bring people in.”
“Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo,” Beesley’s documentary about the lives of female inmates participating in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s annual rodeo in McAlester, kicked off a festival featuring over 90 films screening in several locations throughout downtown Oklahoma City.
Festival program director Melissa Scaramucci said the quality of the films has continued to improve each year, and this festival has made some technological leaps, including outdoor screenings in high-definition. She said the festival’s growing stature in independent film circle, along with its increasing attendance, still surprises her.
“Last year, at the Wednesday night screening, we were blown away when 600 people came out for that thing,” she said. “To see a movie in the street on a Wednesday night at 9:30 is ridiculous. And we have the same level of anticipation for this film.”
Because of the exclusivity of major film gatherings such as the Sundance Film Festival, truly independent filmmakers often take their latest creations to several regional fests to gain exposure and seek distribution. Director Blayne Weaver, whose film “Weather Girl” screens at 9 tonight at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, said the contrast between deadCenter and other festivals can be striking.
“This thing runs like a well-oiled machine, and that’s amazing,” Weaver said. “When you show up in a city you don’t know, and you don’t know where you’re supposed to go and nobody really cares that you’re there, that’s no good. But here, everybody is so cool, friendly and informative about where you need to be and what you need to do. It’s the little details that make a film festival successful, and you can see that’s really working here.”
“We were here in 2006 with our last film, ‘Ten ‘til Noon,’ so it’s nice to see the festival’s grown but stayed the same in a lot of ways,” said Paul Osborne, whose documentary about film festivals, “Official Rejection,” will screen at 2 p.m. today at the museum, followed by a panel discussion.
“This is one of my favorite festivals — the people who run it know how to put on a good party, and filmmakers really appreciate that, but they also put on a good show,” he said. “This is really one of the best ones.”
Video of the Day: Mandy Moore, “I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week”
This video is too silly for normal consumption… BUT!
The chord progressions here remind me of mid-’70s Todd Rundgren — Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers, a guy who knows from classic pop, co-wrote most of Amanda Leigh. Golden.
Mandy’s look increasingly reminds me of Diane Lane. Golden.
The opposite, which would involve chord progressions reminding me of Diane Lane and a look reminding me of mid-’70s Todd Rundgren, would not be so golden. Then again, Diane Lane was lip-synching in “Streets of Fire.” But I digress.
Andrew W.K. Will Be Keynote Speaker at Dfest, July 24-25
From Tom Green, co-founder of Dfest:
Andrew W. K., known best to worldwide audiences for his over-the-top, give everything brand of rock, will be featured at the 2009 Dfest Music Conference as our Keynote Speaker. We are excited to have such an accomplished and unique personality to share wisdom and insight from his notable career.
Andrew W.K. was born Andrew Wilkes-Krier in Stanford, California, and was raised in Michigan. A piano player since the age of five, he spent his high school years playing in bands, and after graduation, in an effort to expand his creative endeavors, moved to New York City in 1997.
After playing numerous solo gigs, word spread around New York and Europe, and was signed to a record contract with Island Def Jam Records. In 2001, his first album, I Get Wet, was released. Critically acclaimed, Andrew appeared on magazine covers across the country and the globe, including NME, which featured him twice. After the release of the album, he was featured in GQ, Rolling Stone, Spin, Q, New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and others, all of whom agreed that with his arrival on the music scene, rock music had a new influence.
Following the release of I Get Wet, Andrew embarked on a world tour, taking part in Ozzfest and Warped Tour, as well as arena and club shows with Aerosmith and The Locust. He made major television appearances on the Tonight Show, the Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, CNN, and many more.
His second album released was The Wolf, which was received with equal enthusiasm. His third album, Close Calls with Brick Walls, was released in 2006.
Currently, Andrew is recording music for new releases, including the albums Young Lord and Carrier, and is working on a solo instrumental piano album.
As he continues on new and exciting musical developments and changes, Andrew W.K. is still having an important influence on the music world, and as he branches out creatively, will remain at the forefront of the music industry and community.
Taylor Swift Is On A Boat
First there was that Def Leppard collaboration on CMT’s “Crossroads,” and now Taylor Swift is getting up in T-Pain’s grill for a CMT Awards (June 16) promo shoot.
Dental bling is apparently now all the rage in Music City. Perhaps with Jay-Z putting the kibosh on Auto-Tune, T-Pain is looking to robo-warble all over some steel guitars.
Britney Spears Lip-Synch Event Scheduled For BOK Center
Jessica Alba goes a little “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” on us, and now this: tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. June 19 for “The Circus Starring Britney Spears,” coming Tuesday, Sept. 15 to the BOK Center in Tulsa. Tickets are available online at www.bokcenter.com, Reasor’s stores, Arby’s Box Office or by calling 1-866-7-BOKCTR.
Of course, this all depends on your idea of fun. Here’s Jim Derogatis in his Chicago Sun-Times review of her recent Chicagoland stop:
So yes, there was plenty to look at–and I say “look at” rather than “listen to” because it’s long since become a ho-hum matter of fact that Spears hardly troubles herself to actually sing onstage, instead relying on pre-recorded, electronically-sweetened digital backing tracks. (The fans know it’s not about the music, the argument goes, so why should the lip-syncing bother anyone else?)
Yet for all of the flashy distractions, people ultimately paid $150 a ticket ($350 for the “In the Zone” package and $550 for the “Toxic VIP Experience”–in these difficult economic times!) to gape at Generation Y’s most infamous train wreck, a woman who, at the still tender age of 27, has weathered two marriages and two divorces, lost custody of her two children and made two trips to the psychiatric ward, in between 2,000 other public embarrassments.
Now here she was in the flesh in Rosemont in the midst of her second comeback attempt, once again staggering zombie-like through a carefully planned, rigidly controlled and relentlessly marketed show based on the familiar commodity she’s been peddling throughout her career.
At this rate, expect Heidi and Spencer to roll down Sheridan Avenue in Bricktown at any moment.
Video of the Day: Diane Birch, “Nothing But a Miracle”
Diane Birch- Nothing But A Miracle
Man… 1972 hasn’t sounded this good since Josh Rouse’s 1972, or the actual one.
Random 10 for June 9, 2009
Jesus Saves, I Spend
1. St. Vincent, “Jesus Saves, I Spend.” Get your “mind sandwich” badge here.
2. Diane Birch, “Rise Up.”
3. Utopia, “Magic Dragon Theatre.”
4. Lily Allen and Mick Jones, “Straight to Hell.”
5. Outkast, “Ms. Jackson.”
6. Fishbone, “Party At Ground Zero.” Five bucks plus inspiration times papier mache equals greatness.
7. Lavender Diamond, “Side of the Lord.”
8. The Knux, “F!RE (Put It In the Air).”
9. Evangelicals, “Here In The Deadlights.”
10. Chester French, “She Loves Everybody.” “She craves attention/So I use protection”? What a terrible line in what is otherwise a great electro approach to Sixties pop style.
Flaming Lips Are All Aboard the Express Kundalini
The Flaming Lips will join Black Francis, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Dandy Warhols and Film School on New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love & Rockets, which is co-produced by former XM Sirius “Left of Center” DJ Christopher the Minister and will receive it’s digital release June 28. For those craving the tangible item, a disc will come out in August.
Love and Rockets are best known for their 1987 classic “No New Tale to Tell” and the 1989 Top 10 hit “So Alive,” which is covered on the collection by Better Than Ezra (?), and of course they were the 75 percent of Bauhaus that wasn’t Peter Murphy, and 66 percent of Love and Rockets was Tones on Tail — this has been your Former ’80s Hipster Math Lesson(tm) for today.
The Lips are a nice fit for “Kundalini Express,” which appeared on 1986′s Express. Here’s a look at the reunited L&R performing “Kundalini” at last year’s Lollapalooza:
Video of the Day: Stardeath and White Dwarfs, “New Heat”
The Birth is out today. Buy it immediately.
Jay-Z Delivers Death Sentence to Auto-Tune
Via Pitchfork: Jay-Z’s first track from The Blueprint 3 is called “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),” a booming mid-tempo rap excoriating both the omni-present pitch-correction software and rappers who use it to robotically scale the chart. In a witty use of Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” the refrain is purposely sung terribly, and Mr. Carter raps that “Y’all n—-s singin’ too much / Get back to rap, you T-Pain-in’ too much.”
The irony? “D.O.A.” is co-produced by No ID and Kanye West, who famously Auto-Tuned himself into techno-humanoid synth-perfection on last year’s 808s and Heartbreak. Are we looking at mea culpas all around? A return to lush arrangements of ‘Ye’s Jon Brion era? I liked 808s and Heartbreak in theory, but it felt more like a worthy experiment and less like a major West production.
At any rate, here’s to Auto-Tune going out. And let’s herald a return to the Vocoder:
