Week #50 A New Movie Musical (Possibly The Mishap Movie) - Movie

So, because there’s something very wrong with me (or possibly very right depending on your perspective) I bought a collection of old movie musicals on DVD from half price books (hey it was only $10 for 50 movies, that’s like 20 cents a movie!)

After watching a few of these I realized that most of the plots seemed to contain the same basic few steps.

Step 1: Two young men who may or may not be brothers head out into the world to make a name for themselves (usually at least one of them is a songwriter allowing for an easy pretense to segue into musical numbers.)

Step 2: They meet a wholesome, pretty, likable, witty young woman whom they both develop feelings for.

Step 3: They get some sort of opportunity for a big break. While preparing for it they meet all sorts of quirky characters who help them on there way.

Step 4: They have a falling out over the girl.

Step 5: In some way the girl manages to bring them back together usually aiding them on there way to success at the same time. (i.e. planning a big concert and inviting a major talent scout then convincing both the friends/brothers to play the concert without them knowing that they’ll both be there until the last minute.)

I’ve always liked movie musicals but most of the recent ones have left me a little cold. None of them seem like really unique pieces of art in their own right. Most seem to be either new stories with music from an established pop band (i.e. Momma Mia, Across the Universe) or movie musicals based on stage musicals based on films that weren't musicals (The producers, hairspray).

What I’d like to do is a movie with an entirely original plot as well as songs. A revisiting of the old form as described above but in modern times with modern sensibilities.

I don’t write music or know how to make a movie so this one probably won’t progress much past an idea unless someone else wants help out.

It did occur to me while I was writing this that this could be the perfect format for the Mishap Rock and Roll Movie I wanted to make. We could have have James Call and Ryan Beebe be the two brothers coming to the big city to make it big. How could we go wrong?

Week # 27 Shows at Lobot - Event

Ryan Beebe, my old friend and co-conspirator asked me recently if I’d be interested in booking shows with him at Lobot Gallery, a venue and art space where he lives.

The idea is simple enough. He’s got a great space and it’s open most weekends, we might as well start filling it with people and music.

We’ll be starting small, one show a month starting in early October and then moving to a biweekly thing in the beginning of the year. These wouldn’t be huge shows just something to keep us busy and keep the art/music world in Oakland thriving.

We met the other day and we both agreed that the thing to do would be to make them theme show. Kinda like the Mishap shows but way more layed back.

We need bands, art and films. Oh and we need a name for our project something simple that doesn’t commit us too much to any one aesthetic.

Here’s the themes we’ve come up with so far:

Tropical (in the Winter of coarse)
Black Coffee (Where we serve coffee)
Jumpsuit Party (Me and Ryan got thrown out of one these once)
Outer-space Cocktail Party
County Fair
Dance Contest
Dance Marathon
South of the Border Party
Talent Show (Ryan did one of these for his birthday it was bad ass)
Roller skate Party
70’s Porno Party (Biggest mustache contest)
Movie Monster/Vampire Party (Not around Halloween)
Christmas Party (In summer)
Art’s and Crafts
American Gladiators
Bouncy house (in the house)
Laser Tag (All we needs the equipment)
007 Party

Let me know if you guys can think of anything else.

Week #9-Mishap Poetry Contest

A few years back I’d started writing taking my poetry more seriously. I’d started submitting it to contests and magazines all over the country. I noticed after a while that so many of the contests seemed like sort of scams where everybody would send there entry fee and the people who won would get a small amount of that money as a prize but most of it would just go straight into the pockets of the people running the contests.

It occurred t me that it would be interesting to have a contest where you got a little more back if you won. Where the money sent as an entry fee really went to something real. Me and Ryan Beebe of the Gomorrans came up with an idea to have a poetry contest where the top five winners get there poems recorded as songs on an album we then released and sent out to all the entrants. We could try and do like one a year.

I’ve always really dug poems put to music like Elvis Costello’s “drunk man’s praise for sobriety” and the one Ryan did a while back from the Emily Dickinson Poem “My life closed twice”. I think it would be a really good way to bridge the gap between the literary hipsters and the music hipsters.

In modern times I guess music doesn’t really exist in a physical form as much so it would probably make more sense to make it a website rather than a CD. I’m still into the idea of CD’s so I may just want to make a few for sentimental reasons if we ever do this thing.

This idea came to me and Ryan about four years ago and we never really progressed with it. Writing about it now it actually seems like a pretty cool idea. If anyone out there wants to partner up with me on it all I’d need is like one persons help to get this thing going.