Wednesday, March 8, 2000

So we’re off. Jerry, Tony, Chad and I are headed out to NYC. We nearly died about seven different times on the plane ride into NY. But didn’t. We took a cab and went downtown and hooked up with Jessie Blanco, our generous host (you might remember him from Park City). We all swung by the New York Underground Film Festival HQ and got our passes and shit and then headed over to Jessie’s pad in Brooklyn to settle in.

Had some grub and went down to the opening night show at CBGB. I met up with Mike Galinsky (director of Radiation, whom I met in SF). Mike introduced me to Eamon Bowles of The Shooting Gallery.

We put up lots of Rock Opera stickers in and around the joint. Had many drinks and ate some Valiums. Mike Galinsky tried to interview us for InSound.com, but the booze and pills kept us in a state of stupor.

Next, we headed over to the Bowery Bar and had as many free drinks as we could dump into our guts before they cut us off. I ran into Sarah Jacobson and we chatted for a bit. Jerry turned into Toe and was stumbling drunkenly about (the pills didn’t (or did, depending on which way you look at it) help any). Jerry-Toe eventually passed out on a couch in the Bowery Bar.

I think we took a taxi back to Jessie’s pad.

Thursday, March 9, 2000

The fellas wanted to see some sights, so we hopped on the train and headed down to Central Park. We milled around the park for a while and then headed down to Times Square. From there I called Matthew O’Rourke at MTV (I’ll be shooting some bands at South by Southwest for them back in Austin, upon my return, so I figured we should meet). We checked out the MTV HQ and met up with Matthew.

We bailed from the MTV building and caught the Smashing Pumpkins playing a live set on the other side of the plate glass window for Total Request Live. We milled around for a while and then found ourselves in the WWF store and checked out all their wrestling related crap. It was pretty impressive.

We headed back to the NYUFF to catch a movie. We saw The Target Shoots First a damn fine documentary about Columbia House Music. After the screening, we headed down to Thread Waxing for free drunkenness. We met the director of The Target Shoots First, Chris Wilcha, and I gave him a Rock Opera CD. I also ran into Jeff Ross of the San Francisco Indie Fest. Chatted with Sarah Jacobson again. She asked where our guns were (everyone from Texas has guns, so this question isn’t that uncommon). I told her that when you leave Texas from the airport, you have to check your guns before boarding the plane and that they return your gun to you upon your arrival back in the Lone Star state (I think I had her going there for a bit).

I had made a shitload of Rock Opera stickers and Chad managed to put stickers on the backs of damn near all the folks at the party. Including the Ed Halter, fest director, Mike Galinsky, and the singer on the stage. It was pretty freakin' funny.

Friday, March 10, 2000

We went down to Von for the filmmaker’s brunch at 1PM. That’s my kinda brunch time. I saw some folks with Rock Opera stickers still on their backs. Pretty freakin funny.

Blaine and Ruyter (Nashville Pussy) had hooked us up with Mike Edison, the Publisher of High Times Magazine. So we called him and he invited us down to their office.

Tony and Chad headed down to check out some museums and Jerry and I went down to hook up with Mike. Mike is a cool mofo, he used to play drums in the Raunch Hands and we had plenty to talk about. We sat around the office shooting the shit. He introduced us to Steve Bloom, one of the Senior Editors and… well, High Times. Fuckin A.

Jerry and I met back up with Tony and Chad and we headed down to Von for Cocktail Madness. Need I say more? I ran into Reed Paget (director of the bad ass doc Amerikan Passport) and we got drunk.

Saturday, March 11, 2000

I woke up early and headed down to the Anthology Film Archives to take part in a panel discussion on music rights and clearances and what not. Sitting with Gil Holland, Steven Beer and other players, I was really just sitting. But it was a good panel filled with tons of useful info.

I hooked up with my Aunt Catherine at the panel. We ate some lunch afterwards and caught up on old times. I also met up with Randy Randall.

We milled around most of the rainy day, at least until it was time to head downtown for our interview on eYada. Randy hooked us up with the Internet radio show hosted by Tim Ried and Debbie Rochon (of Troma fame). Jerry, Randy and I showed up early and started drinking some beer to loosen up. By the time we went on, we were primed and ready. The interview went great. We were shit talking up a storm and kept Debbie and Tim (who was in Austin at SXSW, so he called in on the phone) laughing like hyenas. We gave Tim tips on where to get hookers and crack while in Austin and sent him over to the Red Eyed Fly for drinks.

Our first screening went over great. People were getting rowdy and smoking weed during the film. It was fucking awesome.

After, we all had more free whisky at the after party. A couple of the guys from eYada, Bradley and Frank the engineer, came down and partied with us. We all got shitfaced drunk. Jerry turned into Toe and found himself a sidekick in the form of a half naked man painted entirely in silver. We call him the Silverman or The Silver Butthole Surfer. Jerry, I mean Toe and the Silverman were interlocked in a big messy drunk crutch-like hug. I’m not sure who was holding up whom. Toe had Silerman paint all over him, including on his face (I can only assume that Toe, was resting his face on the shorter Silverman’s bald and silver head. Either that or he was sucking silver ass. But there is no evidence of gaysexual activity).

At around 4 AM I saw the Siamese Silver-Toe-men staggering off into the darkness. At first I laughed. And then though, "Well officer, the last time I saw Jerry he wandered off into the darkness with the Silver Butthole Surfer. I mean, how hard can it be to find a silver man?" Then I realized that it would be bad to return to Texas minus an actor and only the story "Curse of the Silverman" in Jerry’s place. So I followed them for about five blocks. I snuck up behind them as they rounded a corner. I peeked around the corner and saw the Silverman punching in the code to his apartment and Toe in tow. Toe saw me, and oblivious as a drunk monkey, he says, "Hey Bob, come on in."

It was at this point that either the Silverman realized that he wasn’t going to be able to lure Toe into his Dahmer dome without a witness, or that three was a crowd for his tiny apartment. So, the Silverman stuffed a tiny bag into Toe’s pocket and said to me. The drugs are in his pocket and scurried off into the building. Toe didn’t know what had just happened. So I snatched the coke from his pocket and dragged him back to the party for more drunken and drug fueled mayhem.

Upon our return, we found the party near dead. But Randy had stolen a bottle of Jameson's. Party on. We befriended a homeless bum and got more drunk. The eYada guys were still hanging like troopers and it looked like Bradley was about to get laid (somehow both Toe and I drifted into Bradley’s thick New York accent and were talking like natives). Toe’s new homeless friend whipped out a harmonica and Toe quickly snatched it from him and belted out some corn bread prison blues. In the end, the bum had to wrestle the harmonica from Toe’s lips. Randy made amends by graciously giving the bum the half empty bottle of whiskey and we hopped into a taxi for our retreat to Brooklyn.

Sunday, March 12, 2000

We woke up lake and did the wake and bake with some home-delivered kind bud.

We took it easy most of the day. Later in the evening, we made our way down to Anthology to catch the screening of The Scott and Garry Show. The Scott & Jerry show is a cheesy access show that showcased a live musical act followed by an interview. The show ran in New York City during the mid-eighties and featured bands like The Raunch Hands, early Beastie Boys and half of _ Japanese and such. The highlight for me was an appearance by the Butthole Surfers. Apparently they had all just dropped acid and after they played they did the interview. Paul all but molested the poor host. Every time he was asked a question he would storm off and make a bunch of feedback noise with his guitar. A minute later he would return, stumbling over everything in sight. Two seconds later, the entire spectacle would repeat itself. Again and again. It was fucking funny.

We had our second screening. Aunt Catherine and Uncle Peter showed up and were relieved to find that they liked the movie. The screening was pretty good. Everyone seemed kind of haggard from the relentless whiskey. The room temperature set at a muggy 90 degrees didn’t help much. But despite this, we got our good share of laughs.

After the screening, we moseyed down to the closing night party. More free booze. While I was there, I saw my pal Reed Paget and we shot the shit for a while. Sarah Jacobson was also there, as was Chris Wilcha (who won an award for Best Documentary about Music or something like that). I hung out with the Lost Film Fest folks and we talked of screening Rock Opera at their fest, so I gave them a press kit and tape (just like a pro).

Monday, March 13, 2000

Said good bye to New York and hopped the plane home.

First thing after arriving in Austin, I headed down to the Ritz Lounge to hook up with the No Dance folks for our screening tonight. I hung with Jim, Echo, Drew and the gang for a while and then we started the films. Before Rock Opera was a short film called A Clockwork Maury. It’s a fake doc about Stanley Kubrick’s brother Maury and it’s pretty darn funny. It was the perfect way to warm the crowd up. Rock Opera played next and the crowd was good and raucous (and drunk). The screening was to a packed house with dozens of people standing or sitting on the stairs.

Tim Ried (from the eYada show) was at the screening and liked the movie a lot. We hung out with him and took him to the Red Eyed Fly to get drunk.

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - Saturday, March 18, 2000

For the duration of the SXSW music festival, I worked for MTV along side Mike Galinsky (thanks for hooking me up with the gig) and shot several interviews and live performances of: Cypress Hill, Man or Astroman, The X-ecutioners, The Pinehurst Kids, Puffy, Steve Earl, Del the Funky Homosapien, Polysics, At The Drive In, Gomez, and a shitload of others. I pulled every string I could find and finally convinced the two Mellissas (the directors of the spots) that we needed to film Nashville Pussy, and we did. The show was bad ass. I also broke away for an interview of the Pussy gang a few days later. Oh, yeah, I met Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top fame and Jerry gave him a Rock Opera CD.