Cenla

So my time in Nashville was relaxing and mostly spent leisurely strolling around the campus of Vanderbilt. A fine campus indeed. Along with several students and professors, I had lunch with Alberto Fuguet, their visiting filmmaker/writer for the next month. Interesting fella who, from the sound of it, is going to make an interesting film up there later in the month. Before the screening last night, I joined some students for dinner...the same students who designed the fine artwork featured here in this post. See above, see below.

We had a fine turnout for the show...especially a surprise contingent from Clarksville, TN...some old friends from Baton Rouge who now work at Mission Clarksville.

Right now, I'm sitting in a coffeehouse called "Tamp and Grind"...oh yeah. Downtown Alexandria seems abuzz this afternoon...is it because the populace has grown restless with the knowledge that God's Architects will play at the Kress Theater this evening? Or is this typical of a Friday afternoon in the hub of Cenla? Or is it because warm weather has finally arrived down south? Or perhaps it's anticipation for the food and music festival Que'in on the Red that begins but one hour before the start of my film? Whatever the case, downtown Alexandria is more bustling than I would have thought possible, and it is certainly more pleasant than the place I see in my own dim memory from a wedding celebration I attended here nearly a decade ago. Perhaps my memory is more, or less, dim because of that celebration and not because of the place...for whatever reasons.

Two things, however, are certain:
1.) I will go a-wandering around this downtown soon, and have a stroll along the Red River, only 3 blocks from where I now sit.
2.) Where I now sit, in the "Tamp and Grind" coffeehouse, is a place better for sitting than any I know of in Lafayette, Louisisana, my hometown, and the generally-considered cultural center of Southwest Louisiana.


My two-night stay in Mobile begins tomorrow night and will include a lately-scheduled, nearly-midnight screening of God's Architects tomorrow night at 11pm at the Crescent Theater. Then Sunday afternoon, the film screens at Bernheim Hall (Behind Ben May Library), at 2pm. Check out Thomas Harrison's article about God's Architects in the Mobile Press-Register.

Music City, USA

29 and holding:  sweet Jesus, it's cold here in Nashville.  

First stop:  The Ernest Tubb Record Shop, where I elbow out some Swedish tourists to nab Conway Twitty Rocks.  Then across Broadway to Hatch Show Print, where massive Vandercook presses roll out smack-your-face, hard-edge posters that tout everything from strip shows to academic conferences, and ballyhoo everyone from Mother Maybelle Carter to Thomas Mapfumo.  

Tool down Music Row, headed for Vandy: Past Great Escape, Chet Atkins Place, Roy Acuff Place.  (Blaring out of the Pontiac's speakers: "Lonely Blue Boy"   recorded:  7/24/61 @ Owen Bradley's studio, 16th Ave S., Music City, USA  Vocals:  Mr. Harold Lloyd Jenkins; on guitar, Grady Martin; on piano, Floyd Cramer; and on drums, Jack Nance -- later in life, best known as the star of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD.) 

Beneath Vanderbilt's staid chilly red brick exteriors, lots of heady conversations. Legendary writer Peter Guralnick waxes poetic about Sam Cooke's producing work; a demure English prof offers insights on Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Latin American cinema; Eric, an expert dancer, still young, talks about having to hang up his toe shoes.  And film prof Will Akers (who could be a stand-in for Sam Shepard) regales me with an old Hollywood story that would make Robert Mitchum blush.  

The students ask about film schools, narrative through-line, crew dynamics, music post-production, shooting with the RED camera . . . and how to land a job.  Sitting at the bar with Laura and Demelza, I hear tell that my new doc short will screen at the Nashville Film Fest.  

(Bless you, Mr. Brian Owens.)

Barbeque at Jacks, then back to the airport, where the lovely young Ethiopian women behind the counter ring me up while chatting about Goo Goo Clusters. 

Like the end of a good Western

So I am back in NYC (aka the Wild Wild East.) The trip is over but like all good Westerns, there were good guys, bad guys, and beautiful women. Lessons learned and guns drawn. As a stranger once said "sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes well the bar eats you."


Below are morals from the road:

Mark a network sound recordists that I met in Durham warned me about love.
Don't be like all my cameramen friends, who falls in love with a woman's face and then realize later that her heart was bad.

Bob a law professor in Delaware/underwater shipwrecked explorer, who sat next to me on a plane to Alexandria, boosted about lust.
At 5am every woman on Bourbon St is beautiful, the bayou's morning light does special things.

Brenda who sells chemical insulation for underground wiring enjoyed flaunting her sexuality while chatting with me on the way to Atlanta.
I am a middle aged woman who still wears a short skirt and knee high boots, my husband loves to hear stories of men picking me up.

In the 9th ward Steve and Jim fished for Thanksgiving gumbo while sharing the most important life saving information of the swamp lands.
I will always take my chances with the gators. Gators will bite your hand off, a poisonous water snake will kill you in 20 mins.

Nick a forensic specialist based in North Carolina confided in me during my plane ride back to NY.
If you are planning to deal drugs, only sell prescription. It is very hard to convict you of trafficking.



Thank you to Allen Bell and everyone at the Southern Arts council that made this trip a reality. Thank you to everyone who gave me a meal, and a smile, and a story. These are things that will be hard to forget.

Buy FLYING ON ONE ENGINE on DVD:
http://bit.ly/4u4GiO

I took 1,362 photos during this trip, here are a couple:
http://bit.ly/4FLH01

Also tour posters are still available if you make a contribution to Dicksheet's charity: Contact me fooefilm (at) gmail (dot) com.

You can read all my previous posts below:
Flying On One Engine Tour Begins on Tuesday (November 04, 2009)Bowling Green (November 12, 2009)
Nashville (November 13, 2009)
Louisiana (November 15, 2009)
Heart of Dixie (November 18, 2009)
White Noise (November 20, 2009)