March Update and "A Bucket of Blood"

Hey! It's time to post again! Actually, it was time to post again weeks ago, but I've been as busy as.....okay, this one....a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. What's been up? Well, here we go....

I've had an ongoing project for work involving the creation of 18 four-to-twelve minute training videos, including the framework to launch them from and the overall course framework. After eight months, it's almost at an end. Grueling but ultimately rewarding. Maybe later, if I feel so inclined, I'll post one of 'em on YouTube...pretty proud of what we accomplished with almost nothing except cameras, three lights and a crappy space.

Band stuff continues as always. The Hickoids have played a show or three, and the Pocket FishRmen played Metal & Lace last Friday. Coming up this weekend is the special Jason Craig Birthday Show at Beerland Saturday, March 2nd. I'll be doing double duty that night, playing with both Pocket FishRmen and Honky. Honky has a new drummer they're working in who lives around here, so this might be my last time to play with them for awhile. Should be a fun gig. And wearying!

Watched "A Bucket of Blood" last night for the first time. Although the title "A Bucket of Blood" doesn't even apply to the plot, it was a pretty enjoyable 66-minute Corman B-classic. Dick Miller shines in this one.

That's it for now. Mo' soon.

"Sansho the Bailiff"

Okay, went back to art movie territory....well, due to another flick I'll talk about later....MUCH later....and it was "Sansho the Bailiff." I hadn't been in a hurry to see this one, but after seeing "Ugetsu," which I really liked, I figured I'd better check another Mizoguchi flick out. And it's a good one. Didn't like it as much as "Ugetsu," but that may have something to do with the subject matter. "Ugetsu"'s just a good solid entertainment, good story, etc. "Sansho" is one of those brooders about the morality of mankind, etc. If you're not in the mood for that, well, good luck.

That OTHER movie I mentioned at the beginning of this post? I'll save that for next post.

February Start - FishRmen at Hole

Now it's been a REALLY long time!

Okay, let's see, what's happened? Well, Pocket FishRmen headed up a show last Jan. 25th at the Hole in the Wall that was a really fun evening all and all. We had two stages going, one rock, one acoustic-ish. The rock stage had the Ron Titter Band, Cunto! and the FishRmen, and the acoustic-ish stage had Rice Moorehead (solo), Little Boy Blue and the Boomswagglers.

All went relatively smoothly....and we made some decent scratch from the door. Cris and I are talking about doing another one, maybe with a slightly higher cover to get our friends some mo' money next time. Oddly, the Hole had divided up the money when we received it, so we had no say-so in who got what. And their dividing method was a little strange, but I'll keep it at that.

Hickoids played last Saturday at the ND (or North Door, as people say to me now). It was a nice but rather subdued set. We had the thankless task of playing two bands after what was ostensibly a Reivers reunion gig, although Shoulders hadn't played in some time, either. Everybody sounded great, but I knew few of the people in the crowd....this being what I used to call an Austin "white rhythms" festival.

Else? Well, I'm flying to DC on Sunday to appear in some work training videos. This would normally be fine, but the schedule is very unbecoming. I have to be there Monday morning for some rehearsal, but they're not shooting any of my stuff until the last day, Friday....which means I'll miss a Hickoids show scheduled for San Antonio on Friday the 15th. They've decided to not do the show, although the fantastically talented Tom "Tony" Trusnovic could fill my shoes in a heartbeat. Kinda brings a tear to my eye. And in return....well, I'm not doing this sort of thing for work any more when this kind of conflict could arise. Use me Tuesday through Thursday to your heart's content, but otherwise...

Have watched some interesting stuff recently, but that's for another post.....maybe later today.