“The beauty of the procedural quality and character of a work of art is that very often you set out to do something like X, but during the course of the action something else happens and takes the idea in a previously unheard of or surprising direction. It is not only a matter of ideas bouncing off and against one another, it is also about the material realities, about how the chosen material guides and directs the process. Sometimes the end result is in fact much more than even you yourself thought at the beginning, and you recognize some of its main connotations only afterwards. And this, of course, is the hardest part of the process, how to keep it open and alive – and to let those surprises really lead and guide you.”

–Mika Hannula

It’s 10:37pm on a Sunday night.  I’m looking at a clean cut young woman, all of 20.  She’s got a cute short boy hair cut, like a pixie, and is kneeling beside  a young man in his early 20′s, Asian, very fey, and well put together, in a matching cream scarf and rain coat.  What is striking about them?

They are digging in the trash.

They haven’t lost a term paper.  There isn’t a love letter that someone accidentally threw out.  When I walked by, what struck me about her, is that she was eating cupcakes out of the garbage.  This isn’t ironic or kitsch.  Also they aren’t (seemingly) crazy.  No, what I witnessed is Freeganism in action. Read the rest of this entry »

So this trailer does not in any way shape or form do this movie justice, but just trust me, High School Record is pretty great and really funny and raw and good. And just because I potentially was drunk when I first saw it, that MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! I’ve watched it sober and want to keep watching it all the time it’s good and no, I’m not drunk right now, and even if I was YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!

Ahem.

Yeah, so. Um, yeah. Also, the company that put it out, Factory 25, is doing some great stuff so show some love, y’all.

This is pretty great, and had me laughing all over the place. Thanks to Vashtie for putting me on to this. Good looking, kid!

I’m posting this video for two reasons.  One, I like it, which is reason enough, GET OFF MY BACK!  Also, it’s a good indicator of where I’m at right now with how I’m thinking about this movie I’m about to make and stories in general.  I was once told that story is a routine interrupted.  Which is such a great quote, I wish I knew who said it. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Channel 101 for making a space where this can get major (and totally deserved) props. And big ups to Brett Weiner and his awesome mom!

Have you guys read the New York Magazine Article Roseanne wrote about the process of making her sitcom? It’s pretty incredible.

Thanks to Sidesplitter for the heads up!

So my thing lately has been punk rock comedy. I spent part of my weekend writing a comedy manifesto which is inspired by stuff like this. The rest of the week, I’ll be posting excerpts from the manifesto, and showing references to things that inspire or supplement the ideas. Hope you likes!

From an interview with the creator Jillian Mayer:

“I like to think that the short is structured like a joke or a throwaway YouTube video,” says 26-year-old Jillian Mayer, “but it also has serious art concerns behind it. This highbrow versus lowbrow dichotomy fuels a lot of the festival, and collaborators’ perception of Miami. There’s a savvy audience here, but it’s not as large as other major cities. So, one way of doing things here to draw the crowd that wants 2-D butt and gay jokes is to expose them to what appears to be a funny viral video but is actually video art.” Read the rest of this entry »

So my mom was featured on the My Parents Were Awesome website, run by the hilarious and talented Eliot Glazer, who just released a book of the same name, which you should buy because he is nice, and it’s good, and it’s a nice thing to do good stuff for nice people.  Especially when they are singlehandedly trying to make the internet a better place.

I am really happy that this photo exists, and is available for other people to see, but it also makes me sad, because I miss my mom (RIP), who seriously was awesome.  This photo is from when she was a junior model in Paris.  Or maybe from right before, when she went to CalArts.  Did you know that when she was 16 she applied to colleges because all of her older friends were doing that, and she thought it was a good idea, even though she was only a junior in high school?  When she got accepted (because her work was so awesome and she failed to mention her age) her high school (LaGuardia, where they made Fame!) was like WTF, so they struck a deal: if she successfully completed her freshman year of college, she’d get her high school diploma.  So she moved to LA at 17 and bought a car even though she couldn’t legally drive it.  I mean she drove it anyway though, ’cause you know, my mom was a badass.