SATURDAY September 6, 1999

Live Oak Brewing Company wants to give us free beer in exchange for placing their logo on future promotional materiel. So we have a party at Corri’s house. It’s pretty low key, just around twenty people.

I talking with Blaine Cartwright (guitar player-singer for Nashville Pussy) and I told him that I wanted to make a music video from their footage in Rock Opera and some clips from the film. He’s all for the idea and he asks me how much I made Rock Opera for and when I tell him it cost 40 grand he nearly freaked as he informs me that their last music video cost 20 grand (the filmmaker paid for it, he was making himself a demo that he could show to Quentin Tarrintino’s film company Rolling Thunder). Blaine asks me how much I could make one for and I tell him that I couldn’t see how we could spend more than five grand and we talk of the possibility of having me shoot their next video. That’d be pretty bad ass. He wants me to film their show at the Back Room with Motorhead on October 1^st.

We hear the attendance for the Rock Opera screening is only 33, but the attendance for the two other films that night were super low as well. Everyone’s hung over.

SUNDAY September 6, 1999

I went BBQ hopping. Bucket had a birthday BBQ over at David & Lori’s house and then it was over to the BBQ at Kurtis’s. Me and Blaine were shooting the shit and he tells me that he’s pals with the editor at High Times and with Chris Gore of Film Threat and even David Cross of Mr. Show, a funny as shit sketch comedy show on HBO. Blaine has lots more connections that he’s going hook me up with once he gets back to Atlanta and can make a list. Pretty fucking cool.

The Fuckemos played at Red Eyed Fly. Lots of folks congratulate me on the opening and the film and all that shit.

The attendance for tonight’s screening was 91. I guess the word of mouth is spreading.

MONDAY September 6, 1999

I met with Jennifer Hill, my new publicist.

Went to the Alamo and got the loot from Friday night’s screenings: $1610. Not too shabby. That’ll pay a few bills.

Me and Jerry put up posters, handbills and stickers at all the head shops in town, both Vulcan video stores, I Love Video, record stores and clubs around town.

Tonight’s attendance was 77.

I received an e-mail from some guy who recently moved to Austin from the Houston area (I think) who reviews movies via a mailing list (and posts them on his web site http://www.filethirteen.com):

Tuesday September 7, 1999

Tonight’s attendance was 83. The film won’t be playing the next two nights because of previously scheduled special screenings.

wednesday September 15, 1999

Well, It doesn’t look too good. The attendance for Friday and Sunday-Tuesday nights isn’t too impressive. Only about thirty some odd people a screening. I don’t think those are the kind of number to keep this thing going.

The Alamo only has one screen so they need to pack them in every time.

It’s time to enact Phase II (downsize!). Show the movie on a scaled back schedule. Maybe one or two nights a week. It wouldn’t even seem to matter what nights since we have the same number of people on a Saturday as a Tuesday.

First things first. I still need to talked to Tim and find out what he wants to do, we had talked about scaling the film back in case it wasn’t bringing in enough loot to keep him happy. He obviously needs to do what’s in his best interest. And likewise, so do I.

I don’t want to jump the gun, but another option might be to talk to the Dobie again. They have four screens and the smallest one seats only like fifty people (although I think the video projector is in the big theater that seats somewhere around 175) . We’d also get the 17-20 year old audience that we weren’t getting at the Alamo because of the drafthouse part of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema..

On another, nearby note, I received a rejection letter from the Sundance Institute today. Rock Opera didn’t get into the competition, but it’s still eligible for the American Spectrum and (I think) the Park City After Dark.

I also got a rejection letter from the Texas Filmmaker’s Production Fund (TFPF), informing me that I again won no cash from their annual grant (the third year straight). It came as no surprise as the winners were announce in last week’s Austin Chronicle. The letter actually came directly from Rick Linklater (who’s kingpin of The Austin Film Society (AFS), the organization that runs the TFPF). It was nice that he took the time to write me personally and he reiterated that the AFS is cheering me on. He pointed out that the folks that make the money decisions are a panel of visiting filmmakers from outside the state of Texas: Adam Goldberg, Loretta Todd, and James Benning. He also said that the panelists felt that since the film was already cut, it would have helped if I had included a cut scene instead of the trailer (I kind of thought that submitting the trailer wasn’t the best idea, but under the circumstances, it was the best I could do. The computer was acting up at the time and I didn’t want to submit a scene from the SXSW version since I didn’t really like it).

CapZeyezZ Dave said that he’d have me and Jerry on his show so the host Dean could interview us and play clips from Rock Opera as well as videos from the bands in the film this Saturday night.

Thursday, September 16, 1999

Through rumor and ultimately, The Austin Chronicle, I learned that last night was the final screening of Rock Opera at the Alamo. This weeks screenings were pulling in just more than thirty people each and that led Tim to yank the film. I’m not upset or surprised at his decision to pull Rock Opera and book another film. What really pisses me off is the way in which I did finally find out.

Tim sends his schedule to The Austin Chronicle for publication on Tuesdays, so he’s know for at least three days what his plans were. In the mean time, me and Jerry are plastering the town with the newly printed posters that read "Now Showing at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema," I’ve booked Jerry and myself on CapZeyeZ, and 101X and the Austin Music Network are still giving out tickets, and Jennifer Hill is sending out press kits and trying to book appearances for me on KVUE (the local ABC affiliate) and KOOP radio.

What would have been nice was a phone call letting me know of their intentions. At least it might have saved me some leg work, and would seem to be the courteous and professional thing to do given the situation. Instead, I call Tim on Tuesday and leave a message. Karrie calls me back on Wednesday and acts like she’s not sure what’s up, but believes that there is only one more screening of Rock Opera, planned for that night. I ask her to have Tim call me, since he’s not coming in to the office and isn’t wearing his pager. Then Nicole, who works in the cheese department at Central Market and has seen and talked to Tim and Karrie while working, sees them scurrying around and obviously avoiding her. And still no phone call. So I give Tim a ring today and he informs me that Rock Opera was performing slow and he had to replace it. I ask him about the plan to scale it back (we had talked about scaling the film back to as little as one night a week (which would suit me just fine) in the event that it wasn’t bringing in enough money) and he says he might have scheduling conflicts and he can’t really get into it today because he’s real busy. So we meet tomorrow.

September 28, 1999

The film is back at the Alamo. It’ll show on Sunday nights starting October 17^th. We’re planning a CD release around November 6^th or 13^th at the Red Eyed Fly.

I re-booked an appearance on CapZeyeZ for me and Jerry for October 16^th. Also, it appears that Voltage will play a live set right before the Rock Opera portion of the show.

Some funny shit has been posted on the Rock Opera Message Board (the first post is the review by that Lodger guy that sent me an email (it’s printed a few pages back, so I’m only re-printing what is relevant to the posts that follow)):

I leave tomorrow morning at around 5AM to hook up with Nashville Pussy for the first leg of their tour with Motorhead. Corri, (maybe) Jerry and I will drive to New Orleans and tour with them through San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. I’m bringing some film equipment and a video camera to document the trip and grab some live action footage of Nashville Pussy maybe to cut into the music video for Rock Opera or maybe for a new video all together.

While I was writing this journal entry, Jeremy calls and informs me that Motorhead canceled the New Orleans and San Antonio shows because their drummer has strep throat. Nashville Pussy will play anyway and Motorhead will join the tour starting in Austin. Whatever, we’re going anyway.

Sunday, October 3, 1999

On Thursday, September 30^th, Corri, Jerry, Tony, Brad & I went down to San Antonio to check out Nashville Pussy. They rocked. I video taped the show so I could have some extra footage for the music video I’m making them from Rock Opera. The plan is to cut in some live footage with film clips, pretty original, eh? I’ve now filmed them four separate times, so I think I have enough materiel.

While I was filming, some asshole threw his beer can at the cam. Luckily he was a bad shot. Ruyter, who spit beer into the lens, was much more accurate.

After the show, we hung out at some lame bar where an even lamer acoustic band played an even more lame set. They jerk on the mic kept kissing Nashville Pussy’s ass and tried to entice Corri Parks up onto the stage to sing a song. Corri just wanted to hang out and have drinks with her pals, so she ignored him. After the show, I suppose the fella was thinking that Jeremy and Corri were snobs, he sucker punched Jeremy. Being drunk and about fed up, I strolled up to the jerk and smacked him in the face. He reeled back and I put my hand in his face and held him back, very much like when you put your hand on a kid’s forehead and they swing at you but can’t reach. Anyway, his pals dragged him off and we bailed and got more drunk.

Moments before the violence some goon staggered head first into the plate glass window and shattered it into bits. Pretty damn funny. See what San Antonio will do to you?

Friday night, Motorhead & Nashville Pussy in Austin and it fucking rocked again. Like their motto "everything louder that everyone else" Motorhead was loud.

Monday, October 4, 1999

I worked a little on the Fuckemos music video. I’d say it’s about 2/3 the way finished.

Thursday, October 7, 1999

Wednesday night, Me and Jerry went to Casino el Camino and hung out with Chris Smith of 16 Deluxe. We talked about me shooting a music video for their upcoming record.

Austin Film Festival

Jerry and I met David Cross from Mr. Show, I gave him a copy of Rock Opera. He said, "Yeah, I’ve heard about this. Ruyter, told me it was awesome."

Saw Rick Linklater and Matthew Muhkonuhhe at Casino el Camino. They are both taking part in the film fest and were out getting drunk like the rest of us.

Friday October 8, 1999

I met Dianne who programs Austin Film Festival and I gave her a copy of Rock Opera. She recently quit working for John Sloss (big time producer’s rep) to take the programming director job at AFF. A good hook up, I think.

After the Cinemaker sponsored short film program at the Dobie, Guillermo del Torro spotted Jerry in the lobby and said "Hey, you’re from Rock Opera!" and then he spied me "Hey, Bob. I loved your movie. It was fantastic." We talked for about an hour and he raved and raved about it and about Jerry’s acting. Even going so far as to say that he’d put Jerry in his next movie if their is a role for him. We told him all about this short that we were planning on shooting on digital. He asked to see a script and tried to pursued us to shoot on Super 8. I told him that I’d love to shoot Super 8, but it’s too expensive. He asked me to get a script to him and he’d help us out if he could.

Saturday: Me and Jerry were at the Red Eyed Fly last night and this fella named Mike I think, was complementing me on the film and shaking my hand and it turns out that he’s the drummer for The Toadies. He was asking me about doing a music video for them. He’s gunna run the idea by the rest of the band and get back to me.

Oh yeah, at the film fest, I saw some movies too.

Voltage confirmed that they will play on CapZeyeZ next Saturday the 16^th.

THURSDAY, october 14, 1999

I picked up the Austin Chronicle today and it was like the Find Waldo thing: Find Rock Opera.

I called Kurtis to confirm their appearance on CapZeyeZ on Saturday and he informs me that they’re canceling. The reason is that they don’t want the bad audio quality that CapZeyeZ has been known to have, to make them look bad. Why they just, days before the show, suddenly came to this conclusion is beyond me.

Saturday, october 16, 1999

Dave Prewitt canceled the CapZeyeZ appearance on account of Voltage canceling (the quality of the audio on CapZeyeZ isn’t up to their standards, to put it in a nice way):

followed by my response

and his::

So, instead of the power of television to promote the film to thousands, I’ll go down to the Red Eyed Fly and use the power of drunken persuasion and flyer pushing. Kinda sucks, but at least I’ll get to see Supagroup.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1999

Went out to eat with Nicole and some of her friends and on the way home, stopped by the Alamo. It looked like there was only about 30-40 people there. I can’t help but feel the doom.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1999

I got this email this morning:

At least I didn’t have to wait until the Chronicle comes out on Thursday to learn that the run has ended.

Anyway… I talked with Lance Farley and we have a date for the Rock Opera CD Release Party, December 4^th (3 days before my birthday no less). Lance said that Honky will play and suggests that we have lots of bands sharing equipment and playing around six songs apiece.

In the mean time, I’ll prepare for that, enter film fests, maybe talk to the Dobie about screening there, and work on some shorts and music videos.

Oh yeah, I’ll be programming the music video section of SXSW 2000. So I’ll get to watch a shitload of them. It should be interesting, being on the other side of a film festival. Maybe I’ll develop some sympathy for them.

Friday, october 17,1999

Okay, let’s put a close to the Alamo run. I was a little upset and pissed at the way things came to an end, so allow me to wrap shit up for you now. Maybe Tim is a champion with a minor communication problem?

Now that I’ve had a chance to think about everything that’s happened, let me describe my current feelings about the Alamo screenings. I think it was really fucking cool of Tim to pursue Rock Opera. He had the balls to take a chance on screening a local film. I am grateful to him for all he’s done and his support of the Rock Opera. The Alamo screenings gave Rock Opera a huge push. I wish the run would’ve lasted longer, but business is business. Rock Opera garnered much critical praise and a shitload of exposure, and was a lot of fun and all that good shit. If I had to do it all over again, no question, I’d leap at the opportunity. So thanks Tim & Carrie, it was a blast.