audio in the snow: Trimpin hits WKU

With documentary, it never happens the way you imagine.

It's been 25 years and a lot of miles since I've driven through the Southland. 16mm and Steenbecks have been swapped out for HD and Final Cut. Doc classes that once read Margaret Mead now screen Michael Moore. In the hills, pot likker stills bump shoulders with meth labs.

As Minnie Pearl would say: I'm just proud to be here.

Driving north out of Nashville (Pontiac = good stereo system), I expected maybe some cold Kentucky rain and verdant hills, but got hit in the face with Winter Wonderland.

After playing tag with the big rigs through the flurries on I-65, sat down to a convivial dinner with Profs. Steve White (a fellow grizzled veteran), Ron Demarse (who valiantly led his students through a six-week feature shoot), and Marjorie Yambor (a hip media prof with a soft spot for baby elephants). Afterwards, we stumbled outside to find everything from the Steak n Shake and the Starbucks to the Shoneys blanketed. Ron and I dug out the Pontiac and skidded to the screening.

There's always competition for eyeballs. Tonight, not only a blizzard, but WKU b'ball. Still, a surprisingly large audience for the film. A flatteringly lengthy and incisive Q+A, topped off by a nostalgic tour through a roomful of ancient black 16mm equipment.

The next morning, more snow; morning film class is cancelled. So I head south to Vanderbilt.

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)