Another cast member has a blog. Jill Blankespoor, who plays "Dude Girl" in the press conference scene of Washington Interns Gone Bad and who has original artwork hanging in the film as well (the painting in Becky's bedroom) has a blog. It's been up for a little while, but I wanted to wait until she had some stuff on it before linking.

While searching for mentions of Washington Interns Gone Bad, I found one in an unusual and not exactly in context spot: Breast Implants Gone Bad

This is why I love Salon.com. Free Yo La Tengo mp3. It's a 7.5 minute cover of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" with insane call and response with a bunch of little kids. Good stuff.

Video from the Sorry-Assed State Of The Union is up. I've never actually met Mike Flugennock, but this guy not only does all of the great posters and flyers for the local activist crowd, he usually gets video from most actions up in record time. (link via demandmedia)

Do you find Rush Limbaugh as repugnant as I do? Would you like nothing more to see his show get dropped? I mean, Bill Maher got his show yanked for saying one thing that got taken out of context and blown out of proportion, but this blowhard gets to spread hate and lies for 5 hours a day. It's high time that he gets his ass cancelled, and I'm happy to say that a campaign is under way. Visit Take Back The Media and see how they've already gotten some of his sponsors to stop advertising on his show, and how you can help put pressure on the rest of them until there's nobody left. While I was on that site, I came across another blog that I'm adding to my blogroll. It's called The Lefty Directory and it's a compendium of other leftist bloggers and great interviews with them. I, of course, emailed them about Washington Interns Gone Bad and offered up a copy which will hopefully generate a review and/or an interview in time for the Visions show.

Somebody already has a great parody page forJoe Lieberman's presidential campaign. I was won over by their tagline alone: "Joseph Lieberman. A new kind of Democrat. The Republican kind." (link via Zoe)

Looks like one of the finalists on that godawful Joe Millionaire show is in a bunch of bondage fetish movies. I'm not sure which one she is, though somebody I know who refuses to be named has been watching that show and I'll have to ask her about this.

Here's a great article on the anti-war protests from a couple weeks ago, sent to me by John Griffiths.

Sorry State of the Union was Lots of fun! I handed out about 400 flyers for our Visions show and a lot of people either said that they had heard about the film, knew somebody involved, or just thought that it looked like fun. I also got to hang out with Reverend Billy a bit. Thievery Corporation's set was really good, but I didn't get to hear any of the other musical performers. Bravo to the Shirts Off Coalition for pulling off this historic event, the first time any president's State of the Union Address has been met with significant protest.

Tonight is the Sorry State of the Union Concert and Protest! It's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be there flyering for Washington Interns Gone Bad with a new flyer that I put together especially for this event. I've been spamming publicizing many news message boards with messages about both this protest as well as the film, and the traffic to the film site has definitely spiked up a bit from my efforts. Plus, it's managed to piss off a lot of conservatives which is a nice bonus.

Last night we saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I highly recommend it! Sam Rockwell was amazing as Chuck Barris, though it seemed like they went out of their way to show his bare ass as much as possible. The film had a great look, too. Not bad for George Clooney's first stab at directing. It probably didn't hurt to have a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Steven Soderberg on hand as a producer.

So I was hanging out with Russ and he tells me about this DVD that he has to let me borrow. He saw it playing on one of the TVs at Asylum but didn't know what it was, so he searched for Yakuza and Zombies and eventually he came upon Versus. This movie is so bad ass! Picture the Evil Dead movies if they were directed by John Woo and he had a very tight budget. See it if you can find it.

While I hate to be such a cross-blogger, this was just something that I could not refrain from posting. Feminist message board gets attacked by anti-choice trolls, feminists get sarcastic, right wing "journalist" gets involved, and hilarity ensues. via metafilter.

OK, so this one wasn't in Washington, but here's another story about another intern gone bad! (link via metafilter)

The Washington Interns Gone Bad guestbook has finally gotten flamed by a rightwingnut! It's about damn time, too! I've been provoking the bastards on the yahoo news message boards for weeks. Not a political news story goes by without a bunch of messages from Slack Fist Productions telling people that if they think the politics in the article are ridiculous, then they'll love the new underground political comedy, Washington Interns Gone Bad. I also try to throw in something nasty about Bush, Lott, Cheney, Ashcroft or Reagan if it's on topic. It's been increasing the traffic to the site pretty nicely, though I'd think it would attract more angry guestbook entries than just that one. Now if I can only get a bunch of them to picket our Visions show! What's this? That's right, we're going to be showing Washington Intens Gone Bad at Visions on Tuesday, March 4th, 9:00pm!!! It should be a blast. We need to fill every last one of the 200 seats, so please come support this film if you can.

This is some pretty messed up shit right here. Guy fires up his webcam and ODs in front of his online friends. Link goes to the metafilter discussion with more links to the chat transcripts and articles.

New Orleans pictures are now up. Most are from the cemetary tour, but there are some of the French Quarter. I shot more places on video and I'll try to get a short video montage of some other things like Bourbon street at night and a streetcar ride through the Garden District.

When bridal message boards get scary - Anne reads a lot of bridal message boards and every now and then things get a little nutty. This time, it's over a supposed pentagram in a tiara.

It's a snowy Monday Tuesday morning and what a rude awakening it is! After spending a fabulous long weekend in New Orleans, we get back to a nasty letter from Metallica's lawyers demanding me to cease and desist with the t-shirts that I ceased and desisted weeks ago (details). I'll have scans of that letter for your viewing pleasure soon enough. That's on my to-do list right after getting up pictures from Floriday (2 weeks ago) and New Orleans this weekend, plus shooting and editing a quick introductory video to send to this place in California for a video job, plus finishing compiling our wedding guest list databse and doing a mail merge to send out save the date cards, plus visiting with an out of town friend, plus trying to get a new computer set up for Anne, plus tackling the Mt. Everest of laundry piling up, plus taking care of movie business. It's safe to say that I'm feeling a bit stressed and this snow coming down sure doesn't help matters much what with making everything all the more difficult to get to. While I'm a bit stressed about my upcoming move, at least the lack of snow in California will be one less thing to worry about (though I get to replace that with earthquake anxiety, yay!)

Oh the delicious irony! As George Bush is getting ready to annihilate tens of thousands of Iraqis, he has the gall to declare this Sunday "Sanctity of Life Day." Are you fucking kidding me, George? Kurt Vonnegut tries to explain Bush's mental state.

And in even more protest news, this one is sure to be a winner! I'm talking about the Sorry State of the Union. This is quite possibly the first time there has ever been a protest of a president's State of the Union Address and it's happening right outside while dumbya lies to congress and America about how he's making this a better place. Thievery Corporation will be playing and while not listed as of yet, I've heard that they are in talks to get Sonic Youth to play as well. I'll be covering this one extensively on video and hopefully be able to post some of that here.

This weekend is going to be another big anti-war protest weekend in Washington. A bunch of my friends and one of my cousins are all coming down for it, but Anne and I are going to New Orleans! We have a 4 day weekend for the Martin Luther King holiday and while we've been doing a lot of travel for family stuff, we haven't done anything just the two of us in a while. So we booked a last minute weekend getaway to the Big Easy. Anne's been there once, but I never have and it's been on my list of places to see before we move out west. For those who are going to be in DC for the protests, you have several options. The large scale rally and march starts at the west side of the Capitol at 11am, but the ANSWER colalition is notorious for putting on far too many boring speakers who speak on irrelevant topics (not unimportant topics, just not issues that relate to the immediate need to stop Bush's war machine). The local anarchists are going to be having a feeder march starting near Union Station and meeting up with the ANSWER rally. There are also a couple of nasty right wing counter protests planned which might be fun to infiltrate, mess with, mock, etc. All the details for all events this weekend are available at the DC Independent Media Center. Happy protesting, folks!

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I wish Joe Lieberman would just crawl away somewhere and die! But instead, this sanctimonious prick is insisting on running for president with a speech talking about how much he loves militarism, Bush's warmongering and further erasing the lines between church and state. I'm amazed that he didn't use the opportunity to bash movies and popular music or discuss his witch hunt of dissident academics with the likes Lynne Cheney and Bill Bennet. Joe Conason has a great piece about how bad holy Joe is on his blog. At least his innevitable embarassment when he fails miserably in the primaries should be fun to watch. I also took the opportunity to promote Washington Interns Gone Bad on the message boards of that news story. Anyone who reads this blog is more than welcome to try to promote the film on any message board they can get their hands on.

First Pee Wee Herman and Ferris Beuler's principal, and now Pete Townshend has been arrested for child pornography. I really hope it's not true. This has not been a good year for the Who.

Aren't you glad we have a supreme court "justice" like Antonin Scalia to crusade for LESS separation of church and state? Maybe we can start burning witches again while we're at it. Reading this kind of shit first thing in the morning really gets my blood boiling.

Just got back from a weekend in Florida with my dad and stepmom. They have a condo on Amelia Island, right off the coast near Jacksonville. It was a lot of fun. Their town was where they shot the film Sunshine State I got to see dolphins through binoculars from their balcony, visited an old Civil War fort (which was actually built by the Union army), ate a lot of really fresh seafood, got to hear a really good bar band and saw some other cool things. The South is like a whole other planet though, and it's always scarier than I think of it. It's just so rednecky and conservative in the ugliest ways. They sure do love that confederate flag down there. I also got to experience a real southern flea market and it was the shit! I ate some boiled peanuts which are all the rage down there, but kind of gross if you ask me. There was booth after booth of biker-wear, every possible way to display those stars and bars, blatantly pirated movies and CDs, ornate swords and various collectible blades (including some Klingon replicas) and cheap samurai replicas with real lizard skin covered scabbards, bongs, antique tools, old video game systems, used stereo equipment and cheap no name instruments, bb guns, tacky home decorations, and pets. Yes, they were selling little baby turtles, parrots, ferrets, iguanas, and puppies, many of which were crammed three to a tiny cage which really pissed me off. And there was some serious mullet action going on! Pictures coming soon.

Oh, you've just gotta love the kinds of judicial nominees that supposed "compassionate conservative" idiot "president" now that he thinks he can push upon us. This is how he considers himself a uniter?

From the department of pharmacy ineptitude: yet again, I have witnessed a serious pharmacy fuckup in action. You may remember the last time when I almost got the wrong pills. This time I was getting one of Anne's prescriptions filled. As if going into a CVS Pharmacy in Washington, DC wasn't just the joy of joys already, Anne is in the process of swithcing insurance providers so we're in about a week and a half of her being uncovered and it's time to refill a prescription. We figured it was going to cost some money, but when the pharmacist told me that it would be $269, I almost shit my pants right there near the laxative aisle. Now, right on that prescription bottle it said not to go off this medication without first consulting your doctor, so waiting a week for the new insurance card to come in the mail wasn't really an option, so I spent much less money on just getting a week's worth. So they bottle it up and bag it up, but by that time, there was a line of customers. When it's finally my turn to pick up the prescriptions, the woman behind the counter couldn't find them. That was because she accidentally GAVE THEM TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER!!! And before bothering to get a replacement for me, she ran over to the printout because her main concern was that she might have CHARGED the other customer for them. She gives out somebody else's freakin' prescription, and the first thing she does is make sure she didn't charge the person??? Anyway, I finally did get the week's worth of meds and some random lady got a free bottle of something that they have no idea about with my fiance's name on it.

Cool Blog Alert: William Gibson has a blog. What, you don't know who William Gibson is?

Last night I finally watched Duck! The Carbine High Massacre. It was well written and well shot with good effects, funny jokes, and great social commentary. Unfortunately, the sound was AWFUL! They had a lot of great original music in it, but many times it was so high in the mix that you couldn't hear the dialogue. There were also parts that I had to trun the volume up so high on the TV that there was distortion. I don't get why even the most low budget of filmmakers (and mind you, these guys had a higher budget for this than we did for Washington Interns Gone Bad) would skimp on something as important as getting a good sound mix. I should put them in touch with my sound guy and see if they could work something out.

Free music! Salon is giving away a track from the new Godspeed, You Black Emporer! CD. For those unfamiliar with GSYBE, they'e a huge post-rock orchestra from Canada and they play epic instruemtals with a full string section including bowed guitar. It's cool stuff and worth the 19mb download.

It's a snowy Monday morning and I'm here in my office waiting for a phone call and for our office cleanup days to start. Welcome to the world of low budget nonprofit organizations, where instead of paying for regular office cleaning, we all get together and do it on the first week of January. Gee, wat fun! Though besides the fact that it's lame work, it is a nice chance to chat with the coworkers. Many of the same conversations always tend to come up around here, my favorite being cheesy 80's nostalgia which always ends up with some of us singing "Everybody's Working for the Weekend." Right now I'm listening to Interpol. I'd seen them mentioned on a few blogs and top album of the year lists and this weekend I got curious and downloaded most of the album (which I now intend to buy). It's good stuff, definitely Joy Division-esque, though with some very Strokes-like melodic instrumentation.

Ah yes, it's snowing here in Washington. Anne and I went out in the snow and shot some really trippy video that I plan on editing to a song by Echo Box. The man behind Echo Box is Eddie. He's dating my friend Jenny (who you may have seen playing the republican bimbo in Washington Interns Gone Bad). She told me about his music and I completely reworked the opening credits sequence to use one of his songs. His music is eerilly cinematic and you should check it out. And speaking of music from the Washington Interns Gone Bad soundtrack, Grandma's Mini, which features both Marisa Torrieri who plays the very intern who goes bad in the film, and Ann Brandstadter who plays Rosa the waitress. Their ode to working crappy jobs and drinking Guiness, Learn to Love Your Shit Job, closes the film. Anyway, they are going to be having a CD Release Party on Feb 7th at Staccato Lounge (18th & Florida - across the street from Common Share) which was also a featured location in the film. Other bands in the soundtrack also have websites where you can check out their tunes. Be sure to visit the Nighties, Spur, Milkmachine, Sumac, Captain Paradox (featuring yours truly on bass as well as Adam Kroloff who plays the sleazy congressman in the film), and a Cricket in Times Square.

Cool Blog Alert: Demand Media is a collaborative video weblog run by former 942 housemate and one of the uber-geeks behind the dc indymedia site, Alan Bushnell (link via Zoe)

Comments seem to be working now and I've got all the blogger stuff updated. I'm not too crazy about how the little bits of text that pop up in the static field look, so I'll be messing with them today. So what do folks think of the new design?

OK, I've just updated the templates for my site and there seems to be a problem with the comments. I'll get it working as soon as I can.

Here's a top 10 year end wrapup list that I can get behind... 10 Worst Corporatations of 2002.

It was bound to happen. I got the first rejection letter from a festival today. Nodance sent me a nice little email. Lots of competion, over 800 entires, limited space, tight selecting criteria, blah. Now, I'm not expecting to get into every festival I enter, but I had a pretty good feeling about that one, and rejection, even when half expected, always hurts. So now Tromadance is our only hope of playing in Park City. May the Toxic Avenger smile upon us.

Happy friggin' new year, folks! What should I do to commemorate the turing of another calendar year here on this blog? Should I do a best of/worst of/etc list? Resolutions or some other sort of personal reflection? Recap of my own New Years Eve festivities? I don't think I'll be doing any of that here. The first few weeks of the new year are going to be pretty busy for me. This weekend I'm meeting with my sound guy to get the final sound mix for Washington Interns Gone Bad all taken care of. Next weekend I'll be off to Florida to visit my dad while Anne goes to NY to visit the family that she used to work for. I'm finally all caught up on things at my job, though there's a bunch of new things looming in the near future. Also, our impending cross country move/apartment hunt/job hunt is creeping ever sooner and I'm still scared shitless of the prospect of having to find a new job in a new city where people with my skills are a dime a dozen. And I'm still not unpacked from our trip to California (yes, I am King Slacker when it comes to that kind of shit). But sometime in the middle of all of this, I plan on launching 2 new sites. One is a site for our wedding with all the details that our invited guests will need, timed to launch around the same time that our save the date cards go out. The other is a complete redesign and re-organization of this one. This current design went up sometime in the spring of 2000, so in web years, it's ancient. The new one will take some elements of this current one and run with them. If anyone has any comments on the usability of this site or any suggestions for my upgrade, please feel free to leave me a comment (knowing that it may or may not be considered).