I've Moved!

I went ahead and picked up this blog and moved it on over to a new Posterous account. The design is a lot cleaner and the photos come out bigger and better looking.

You can find the new blog at walterglass.posterous.com. I'll be posting lots of photos and some personal and film-related stuff. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Candice on the train

Backpack

Two Photographs

I was recently listening to an episode of Radiolab about the Voyager spacecraft, which was launched in 1977 containing a golden record that was embedded with sounds meant to represent the human experience, in case an alien species ever came across the spacecraft.

The episode was primarily about asking different folks what they would include on the spacecraft to represent themselves, and this got me thinking about what I would put on there. Ultimately I settled on two images which mean a great deal to me.

The first one was taken by Edward Steichen around 1898. It's called Woods Interior. The second one I took in 2006, and I never gave it a title.

Code Breaker Creative and Aztlan Contra Danza

So three of the most talented and creative people I know here in Austin - Omar Jimenez, Steven Garcia, and Paul Del Bosque - recently founded an advertising company called Code Breaker Creative. I was fortunate enough to be able to consult on some work they're doing for the Aztlan Dance Company and their upcoming luchador-themed Aztlan contra Danza show. The Code Breaker guys came up with the idea to build a viral video campaign around the idea of luchadores in everyday life, and here's a sampling of the results (I shot the one in the office and helped edit the others):





Check out the rest of the videos here, and if you're in Austin be sure to check out the Aztlan contra Danza show April 29th-May 2nd.

Milton Reppert (my grandpa)

My grandpa, my mom's dad, Milton Reppert, passed away on January 1st of this year, a couple of months ago. He was one of the kindest, gentlest people I've ever met, and I don't think I'm incorrect in assuming that everyone who met him felt the same way.

In a lot of different ways the past couple months have been very hard for me. Besides losing my grandpa, I've been doubting myself creatively, and less and less sure of my place in the world. It may sound strange, but one thing that has consistently cheered me up and helped me to focus lately has been reading my grandpa's obituary. There's something about the way it captures the sweep of a life I knew very well, reminding me what an amazing guy he truly was, that makes me feel like everything is going to work out.

I've excerpted the obituary in its entirety below, but emphasized my favorite parts if you just want to skip to those.

Milton Edmund Reppert Milton E. Reppert (84) passed away on New Year's Day, 2010 after a brief illness. Born in Washington D.C. on Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1925, he was the only child of Mary Eagles and Edmond Hugh Reppert, a colleague of Admiral Nimitz. They moved to San Diego, where Milton grew up and graduated from Pt. Loma High School. Milton attended Georgia Technical Institute, on a G.I. scholarship, after serving in Germany during WWII. He earned a degree in electrical engineering there and also attended San Diego State. His artistic abilities allowed him to earn a degree from The Art Center in Los Angeles and land a job painting insignias on airplanes for a living. Around this time he met his wife, Winnie, on a blind date, and it was "love at first sight". Milton's big break came when he joined the Independent Press-Telegram as a commercial artist in 1952 drawing away until 1961. He later joined the American Advertising family in the City of Industry where he commuted 36 miles a day by bicycle. He happily returned to the Press-Telegram in 1978 until his retirement in 1990. Among other things, Milton created the caricatures on the cover of Tedd Thomey's Stepping Out section. He had an inimitable style, which made his drawings a hit with readers. When he retired from the Press-Telegram his fellow employees turned out a six-page layout of lauding letters and commendations. Milton began serious bicycle racing in his 40's and continued to race and win, well into his 70's and belonged to several bicycling clubs. His trophies and ribbons adorn his garage. He cycled thousands of miles every year, and always rode as many miles as his age on each birthday while in his 70's. Milton was a creative designer and meticulous wood worker, sculptor, carpenter , fountain builder, painter, mobile maker, a true jack-of-all-trades and master of most. After retiring from the Press-Telegram, Milton and Winnie became world travelers. They visited every state in the Union, traveled to every continent and sailed all of the seven seas. He is greatly missed by all and remembered for his humble, good-humored nature, integrity and quick wit and his keen eye for the beauty life has to offer. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Winifred and four children, Hugh Reppert of Naselle WA; Susan Glass of Corpus Christi TX; Ann Webb of Grover Beach CA; Nancy Reppert of Long Beach CA; and Janet Underwood of Rossmoor CA., and six grandchildren, Austin, Ian, Molly, Callie, Walter and Andrew.

I don't think that I could fabricate a life better lived than his. I hope some of it rubbed off.

Big Banks for Blanche

So this weekend I got to be part of something fun. Big Banks for Blanche has been following Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) around the country as she wages a desperate campaign to salvage her political career against electoral threats from the left and right.

The stance of Big Banks for Blanche (one that I share) is that Blanche Lincoln is a radical corporatist. I won't spend too long on the soapbox here, rather I'll just steer those interested to her voting record , her top campaign contributors, and her committee assignments, and then anyone who really cares can look up some of her really odious public statements.

So I'm holding one of the (hidden) cameras in the above video. Basically we snuck in to a private, $1000-a-head fundraiser being held in Austin for Lincoln, using fake names and leaving envelopes holding fake checks in the collection basket, listened politely while Blanche Lincoln delivered a short speech packed with blatant lies about health care reform, unions, and the cap-and-trade bill, and then the video starts. In my heart, I genuinely believe that we ruined her day, and I'm very proud of that.

So if anybody is really, really interested, Arkansas' Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter has mounted a primary challenge against Lincoln, and is actually making it a pretty tight race. He's not bad on most of the issues I care about, and if he manages to get the nomination it would send a powerful signal to other Blue Dog Democrats like Lincoln that there's a price to be paid for fucking with your base. Check out the link at his name above if you'd like to learn more.

The End of Photos

So for the past couple months I haven't had much news to report, but I have found a new mini-hobby in iPhoneography. This is either exciting and creative or obnoxious and pretentious, depending on your perspective I suppose, but some very innovative developers have designed what I think are some really stunning photo filtering applications for the iPhone that I have been enjoying immensely. My favorites are Hipstamatic and ShakeItPhoto, although there are lots of other cool apps to explore and new ones coming out every week.

I know that my massive readership can't go a week without hearing something from me, so I've been trying to keep the masses sated by updating this blog every couple days with my latest iPhone photo. Things are starting to pick up again so I think I will be posting actual content and relegating the photos to my new Flickr stream, which you can find here, if you're interested.

To see some really great iPhone shots (with a cool concept to boot), check out my new favorite blog - old new york in a modern world. Photos of New York processed with lo-mob, another one of my favorite apps.

Three wise men

Shower

Since 1947

Someone leaves

And you feel like you'll be sad forever

TV

617 Catalina

Love

Everything will be all right

Caligari

Birthday

Window

Here for good

Is this me for life

RIP Mark Linkous

Most people have heard about Mark Linkous, the frontman for Sparklehorse, committing suicide by shooting himself in the heart last Saturday. While reading this obituary in the New York Times, I was particularly struck by this, for very personal reasons:

After graduating from high school he moved to New York City and started the band the Dancing Hoods, which relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of mainstream rock success. But disillusioned with the music business, Mr. Linkous returned to Virginia and reinvented his sound as Sparklehorse, a name that he applied to himself as well as his band.

“We were trying so hard to get signed, and I just quit and came back home and just gave up on all those aspirations of being a rock star,” he said in an interview in 1999. “That’s when I started making good music.”

My knowledge of Sparklehorse isn't real deep, but this has always been one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite videos (directed by Guy Maddin).



This guy mattered.

Old songs

The Evangelist partners with NE Community Lutheran Church

I'm excited to announce that my production company (consisting of me and Sean) is partnering with the Northeast Community Lutheran Church in Minneapolis to film The Evangelist.

They're giving us a space to film our church scenes, all we have to do is put together a community dinner that will feed 85-125 people. Should be interesting.....

Santiago

New things here

27

Take away this ball and chain

O brave new world

Daniel

I'm sorry

Candice

Queens in Super 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKHYNfH4hPI&feature=youtube_gdata

You clap hands, and I'll start bowin'

Nothing matters when we're dancing

In winter

Singing to himself

Icon

I'm going to start posting photos here, in addition to the wordy posts about what I'm working on. Takes less thought.

Quick updates

The blog has been a little quiet lately, but I have been busy - just don't have a whole hell of a lot to show for it right this minute. Here's a quick update on what's going on:

•The Mothfight video is two-thirds shot (think I mentioned that in a previous post) and I'm starting to edit it together. It's coming together really well, and when it's done I think that it will really be something cool and different. Should be shooting the final third here in the next month or so, have had some challenges and setbacks but now everything's back on track.

•Just had a really productive meeting with Robert Canada (he's the guy who talks in the jail in this video) about the Austin Broadnax documentary. It looks like it will be expanding a bit to incorporate some narrative elements and lots of other neat stuff as I learn more about this guy and his fascinating family. This morning I got to see the only known photograph of Austin, who would not allow himself to be photographed after "the incident in Gonzales." Watch the video to learn more.

•This is exciting. The star of Corpus and my main collaborator Sean Neely will be playing one of the four leads in the Jungle Theater's upcoming production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? If you happen to be in Minneapolis this May, you don't want to miss this, should be kickass.

The Evangelist screenplay excerpt

I mentioned a couple posts back that Sean and I would be shooting a short film called The Evangelist in May, I've been working on polishing up the screenplay for the past week or so. Here's part of a longer monologue from the script, written by Sean and myself:

People have been searching for your

mouth. People in church every

Sunday. We have taken memberships

and dinners, bake sales. We have

forgotten why we are there. We

confine the church to the church.

You have come to tell us that you

are coming back into our homes.

Back to our families. We serve you

in our jobs, our marriages, through

our children. Being home schooled,

being the light, preaching your

word. Whatever your plan for us, it

has nothing to do with the Sunday

address, the words of the corrupt

and venal priests spitting impotent

venom on the dead-eyed.

Bryan Poyser's Lovers of Hate at Sundance

Most Austin folks are already well aware of this, but the Austin Film Society's Director of Artist Services (and accomplished filmmaker) Bryan Poyser will be premiering his new feature Lovers of Hate in competition at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

This is very exciting for me, in part because I got to see an early cut of the film and it's really fucking good, but also because Bryan is such a cool fucking guy. Bryan was running TFPF when Sean and I got a grant for Corpus in 2007, and he was an invaluable resource throughout the production - helping to hook me up with a Super 8mm projector when mine broke down, and giving me an unbelievably honest and insightful critique once I'd completed a rough cut. The guy knows his stuff - I learned almost as much about filmmaking in an hour talking to him about Corpus as I did in four years of film school, except he didn't charge me a hundred thousand dollars.

So if you take my experience with Bryan and multiply it by every filmmaker in Austin who he's similarly helped out (he didn't get this for nothing), it's hard to think of someone more deserving of success as a filmmaker. I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about Bryan and LOH soon.....

To-Do List - First Half of 2010

I'm writing this down half for you and half for me - for you to know what I'm working on, for me to keep myself organized for the next six months. In rough chronological order:

1. Finish Moth Fight music video. Two thirds of it is shot, need to shoot the final third and then cut it all together. Possibly submit to the Austin Film Society's SXSW member showcase, if I finish it in time. I'm also in the planning stages of a video with Western Ghost House, although that likely won't shoot for a couple months or so.

2. Finish documentary short on forgotten Texas outlaw Austin Broadnax. I've shot about half of this, just need to get some more interviews with family members and some additional b-roll and it should be a pretty solid little documentary. I might also submit this to the AFS SXSW showcase, assuming I finish it in time. Here's what I have so far:

3. Shooting short film in Minneapolis with Sean in May. It's called The Evangelist, about a church janitor who tapes a televangelist program in his apartment. I'll be writing much more about this project soon.

4. Put together funding proposals for my next feature film Tyler. I've written a little about Tyler here. My goal right now is to put in a solid application for funding with the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund (I've had some success with this before). Hoping to get more money this time around, we'll see what happens.

5. Writing writing writing. I've got two finished first draft features that need some work: Hospital, a murder mystery set in New Orleans, and 1910, a Western that may or may not be inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I'm also about five to ten pages in on three other features: Austin Broadnax, a biopic about the man discussed in item 2, The Demons, a political film about the war on terror, and a remake of Corpus. I've decided that the real problem with the original Corpus is that it wasn't self-indulgent enough, so I'm correcting that.

6. Hold down my new day job as Outreach Coordinator for Sunshine, a documentary broadcasting nationally on PBS Independent Lens in May.

Actually finishing all of the above by June-ish is only half of the battle - the second half is getting this stuff to an audience, which is a whole separate skill set I'm still very much learning. But I'll figure that out in due time - here's to a fun and productive 2010.