Play Doh
CS4
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Art + Film Project
Working on a big new project with my friend James Minchin III. Series is based off the field recordings that Alan Lomax did for the Library of Congress in the 1930's and 1940's.
Nathaniel Rateliff + The Wheel - Shroud
Nathaniel Rateliff + The Wheel - Shroud
Nathaniel Rateliff + The Wheel Field Recording Test 1 from Rod Blackhurst on Vimeo.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Meese - 'Forward Motion'
New music video I directed for Meese.
Meese - 'Forward Motion' - Director Rod Blackhurst from Rod Blackhurst on Vimeo.
Real Choice? It’s Off Limits in Health Bills - NY Times
Real Choice? It’s Off Limits in Health Bills
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: August 25, 2009
In 2007, Senators Ron Wyden, above, and Robert F. Bennett introduced a bill that would have created an open marketplace for health care insurance. The effort was backed by only 13 other senators.
It refuses to pay for certain medical care and then doesn’t offer a clear explanation. It does pay for unhelpful care that ends up raising premiums. Its customer service can be hard to reach or unhelpful. And the people who are covered by this insurer have no choice but to remain with it — or, at best, to choose from one or two other insurers that are about as bad.
In all likelihood, I have just described your insurance plan.
Health insurers often act like monopolies — like a cable company or the Department of Motor Vehicles — because they resemble monopolies. Consumers, instead of being able to choose freely among insurers, are restricted to the plans their employer offers. So insurers are spared the rigors of true competition, and they end up with high costs and spotty service.
Americans give lower marks to their health insurer than they do to their life insurer, their auto insurer or their bank, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Even the Postal Service gets better marks. (Cable companies, however, get worse ones.) No wonder President Obama’s favorite villain is health insurers.
You might think, then, that a central goal of health reform would be to offer people more choice. But it isn’t.
Real choice is not part of the bills moving through the Democratic-led Congress; even if the much-debated government-run insurance plan was created, it would not be available to most people who already have coverage. Republicans, meanwhile, have shown no interest in making insurance choice part of a compromise they could accept. Both parties are protecting the insurers.
That’s a reflection of the thorny politics of health care. On one hand, big interest groups are lobbying hard to keep some form of the status quo. Insurers don’t want people to have more choice. Neither do employers and labor unions, which now control huge piles of money spent on health care. Nor do hospitals and drug makers, which benefit from all the waste now in the system.
On the other hand, the people who stand to benefit most from having more choice — all of us — are not agitating for change, because the costs of the system are hidden from us. A typical household spends $15,000 each year on health care. But most of it comes in the form of taxes or employer deductions from paychecks, which means insurance can seem practically free.
As a result, people may not like their insurer, but they don’t hate it, either. If anything, they are more anxious about losing their insurance than they are eager to be given more choice. And that anxiety has driven the White House’s decision to pursue a fairly conservative form of health reform.
To be clear, the versions of reform now floating around Congress would do a lot of good. They would make it far easier for people without an employer plan to get health insurance and would make some modest attempts to nudge the health system away from its perverse fee-for-service model.
Yet they would not improve most people’s health care anytime soon. Giving people more control over their own care would. White House advisers, however, decided against that option long ago. They worried that opening up the insurance market would destabilize employer-provided insurance and make Mr. Obama’s plan vulnerable to the same criticism that undid Bill Clinton’s: that it was too radical.
They may well have been right. Then again, given all the flak they have been taking anyway, they may have been wrong.
•
The best-known proposal for giving people more choice is the Wyden-Bennett bill, named for Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, who introduced it in the Senate in 2007. There are other broadly similar versions of the idea, too. One comes from Victor Fuchs, a Stanford professor sometimes called the dean of health economists, and Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and an Obama health-policy adviser.
In the simplest version, families would receive a voucher worth as much as their employer spends on their health insurance. They would then buy an insurance plan on an “exchange” where insurers would compete for their business. The government would regulate this exchange. Insurers would be required to offer basic benefits, and insurers that attracted a sicker group of patients would be subsidized by those that attracted a healthier group.
The immediate advantage would be that people could choose a plan that fit their own preferences, rather than having to accept a plan chosen by human resources. You would be able to carry your plan from one job to the next — or hold onto it if you found yourself unemployed. You would never have to switch doctors because your employer switched insurance plans.
The longer-term advantage would be that health insurance would become fully subject to the brutal and wonderful forces of the market. Insurers that offered better plans — plans that drew on places like the Mayo Clinic to offer good, lower-cost care — would win more customers.
“That’s the way the rest of the economy works,” says William Lewis, former director of the McKinsey Global Institute.
Politically, though, the full voucher plan is still too radical, which is why the Wyden-Bennett bill has attracted support from only 13 other senators — four Republicans, eight Democrats and Joe Lieberman. So Mr. Wyden has come up with a narrower version.
It expands the exchange that Democratic leaders are already planning to create for the uninsured so that many more people would be allowed to use it. (If the exchange were limited to the uninsured, any government-run insurance plan, a crucial part of reform for many liberals, would not be available to most people.) But Mr. Wyden isn’t having much luck with this idea, either. The support for the employer-based system is simply too strong.
And the defenders of the employer system have some legitimate arguments. An insurance exchange may end up having some of the same pitfalls as 401(k) plans, in which some workers make poor choices. Having employers navigate the complex landscape of insurance, the defenders say, may be better for employees.
Here’s what I would ask those defenders, however: Given all the problems with health care — the high costs and decidedly mixed results — how comfortable are you defending the status quo? Why force people into a system you think is better for them?
If people were instead allowed to choose, all but a small percentage might indeed stick with their employer plan. In that case, a Wyden-like proposal wouldn’t amount to much. It certainly would not destabilize the employer-provided insurance system.
Then again, if lots of families did switch to a plan on the exchange, the impact would be quite different. With fewer employees signing up for on-the-job insurance, companies might shrink their benefits departments. The number of companies offering insurance would keep dropping. The employer insurance system could begin to crumble.
But wouldn’t that be precisely the fate that the system deserved?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: August 25, 2009
In 2007, Senators Ron Wyden, above, and Robert F. Bennett introduced a bill that would have created an open marketplace for health care insurance. The effort was backed by only 13 other senators.
It refuses to pay for certain medical care and then doesn’t offer a clear explanation. It does pay for unhelpful care that ends up raising premiums. Its customer service can be hard to reach or unhelpful. And the people who are covered by this insurer have no choice but to remain with it — or, at best, to choose from one or two other insurers that are about as bad.
In all likelihood, I have just described your insurance plan.
Health insurers often act like monopolies — like a cable company or the Department of Motor Vehicles — because they resemble monopolies. Consumers, instead of being able to choose freely among insurers, are restricted to the plans their employer offers. So insurers are spared the rigors of true competition, and they end up with high costs and spotty service.
Americans give lower marks to their health insurer than they do to their life insurer, their auto insurer or their bank, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Even the Postal Service gets better marks. (Cable companies, however, get worse ones.) No wonder President Obama’s favorite villain is health insurers.
You might think, then, that a central goal of health reform would be to offer people more choice. But it isn’t.
Real choice is not part of the bills moving through the Democratic-led Congress; even if the much-debated government-run insurance plan was created, it would not be available to most people who already have coverage. Republicans, meanwhile, have shown no interest in making insurance choice part of a compromise they could accept. Both parties are protecting the insurers.
That’s a reflection of the thorny politics of health care. On one hand, big interest groups are lobbying hard to keep some form of the status quo. Insurers don’t want people to have more choice. Neither do employers and labor unions, which now control huge piles of money spent on health care. Nor do hospitals and drug makers, which benefit from all the waste now in the system.
On the other hand, the people who stand to benefit most from having more choice — all of us — are not agitating for change, because the costs of the system are hidden from us. A typical household spends $15,000 each year on health care. But most of it comes in the form of taxes or employer deductions from paychecks, which means insurance can seem practically free.
As a result, people may not like their insurer, but they don’t hate it, either. If anything, they are more anxious about losing their insurance than they are eager to be given more choice. And that anxiety has driven the White House’s decision to pursue a fairly conservative form of health reform.
To be clear, the versions of reform now floating around Congress would do a lot of good. They would make it far easier for people without an employer plan to get health insurance and would make some modest attempts to nudge the health system away from its perverse fee-for-service model.
Yet they would not improve most people’s health care anytime soon. Giving people more control over their own care would. White House advisers, however, decided against that option long ago. They worried that opening up the insurance market would destabilize employer-provided insurance and make Mr. Obama’s plan vulnerable to the same criticism that undid Bill Clinton’s: that it was too radical.
They may well have been right. Then again, given all the flak they have been taking anyway, they may have been wrong.
•
The best-known proposal for giving people more choice is the Wyden-Bennett bill, named for Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, who introduced it in the Senate in 2007. There are other broadly similar versions of the idea, too. One comes from Victor Fuchs, a Stanford professor sometimes called the dean of health economists, and Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and an Obama health-policy adviser.
In the simplest version, families would receive a voucher worth as much as their employer spends on their health insurance. They would then buy an insurance plan on an “exchange” where insurers would compete for their business. The government would regulate this exchange. Insurers would be required to offer basic benefits, and insurers that attracted a sicker group of patients would be subsidized by those that attracted a healthier group.
The immediate advantage would be that people could choose a plan that fit their own preferences, rather than having to accept a plan chosen by human resources. You would be able to carry your plan from one job to the next — or hold onto it if you found yourself unemployed. You would never have to switch doctors because your employer switched insurance plans.
The longer-term advantage would be that health insurance would become fully subject to the brutal and wonderful forces of the market. Insurers that offered better plans — plans that drew on places like the Mayo Clinic to offer good, lower-cost care — would win more customers.
“That’s the way the rest of the economy works,” says William Lewis, former director of the McKinsey Global Institute.
Politically, though, the full voucher plan is still too radical, which is why the Wyden-Bennett bill has attracted support from only 13 other senators — four Republicans, eight Democrats and Joe Lieberman. So Mr. Wyden has come up with a narrower version.
It expands the exchange that Democratic leaders are already planning to create for the uninsured so that many more people would be allowed to use it. (If the exchange were limited to the uninsured, any government-run insurance plan, a crucial part of reform for many liberals, would not be available to most people.) But Mr. Wyden isn’t having much luck with this idea, either. The support for the employer-based system is simply too strong.
And the defenders of the employer system have some legitimate arguments. An insurance exchange may end up having some of the same pitfalls as 401(k) plans, in which some workers make poor choices. Having employers navigate the complex landscape of insurance, the defenders say, may be better for employees.
Here’s what I would ask those defenders, however: Given all the problems with health care — the high costs and decidedly mixed results — how comfortable are you defending the status quo? Why force people into a system you think is better for them?
If people were instead allowed to choose, all but a small percentage might indeed stick with their employer plan. In that case, a Wyden-like proposal wouldn’t amount to much. It certainly would not destabilize the employer-provided insurance system.
Then again, if lots of families did switch to a plan on the exchange, the impact would be quite different. With fewer employees signing up for on-the-job insurance, companies might shrink their benefits departments. The number of companies offering insurance would keep dropping. The employer insurance system could begin to crumble.
But wouldn’t that be precisely the fate that the system deserved?
Monday, August 03, 2009
music video: The Heyday - 'Come In Or Stay Out'
Finally released, the music video I directed for the Heyday in April.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Nice + Monaco + Tour de France Part 2
Shooting the commercial for TREK Bicycles on the Col de la Madone. This ride is a historic ride that Lance Armstrong used to test himself prior to winning each of his 7 Tour de France titles. Its a 1,000 meter ascent that literally rises straight out of Menton France. This was one of the views along the way. Breathtaking.
We needed a rider to appear in the commercial. Seeing as Kelly Magelky is a professional Trek cyclist it was only fitting for him to hop on the 2010 Madone and make it happen.
At the summit. So beautiful.
We needed a rider to appear in the commercial. Seeing as Kelly Magelky is a professional Trek cyclist it was only fitting for him to hop on the 2010 Madone and make it happen.
At the summit. So beautiful.
Friday, July 03, 2009
4 Photos from June
Only have 4. Sorry. Been busy doing lots of other things on tour. You'll like those things too.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Monaco + France + the Tour de France
Shooting a piece for Trek Bicycles in France and Monaco right now. This is the view from our hotel.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
10 Films from Cannes to Look For
1."Un Prophete"
By all accounts — including a recent Indiewire poll of American critics that conspicuously excludes us (therefore it can't be that scientific) — Jacques Audiard's prison drama was the best film of the festival even if it only won the runner-up "Grand Prix" trophy. And with good reason; few modern French filmmakers possess a style as effortlessly elemental as Audiard's. His skillful evocation is evinced in his ability to communicate his deaf heroine's fragile auditory perception in 2002's relentless suspenser, "Read my Lips." And Audiard's sensory filmmaking prowess is even more impressive in his mature character study, 2005's "The Beat That May Heart Skipped" (a remake of James Toback's 1978 feature "Fingers"), in which the filmmaker burrows deep inside the mind of a paranoid con artist and gifted pianist. Audiard's new picture, his third crime drama in a row (and his 5th film overall), is the saga of an illiterate 19-year-old who is jailed and tasked with completing "missions" for the prison's resident gang leader, in hopes to earn the respect of his inmates and gain the experience necessary to survive and escape his hostile environment. It sounds great, everyone loved it and Sony Pictures Classics snatched it up immediately. Sign us up.
2. "Enter The Void"
Gaspar Noé is the French-Argentine provocateur behind the controversial and hard-t0-watch "Irreversible" and "I Stand Alone." His third full-length feature is — depending on who you believe, or where your taste lies — either the worst, self-indulgent piece of garbage to hit Cannes in several years, or a masterpiece of experimental cinema. Truthfully, it sounds amazing, even some of the bad reviews criticism sound like pluses in our book. The divisive film centers on young Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a small time drug dealer who promises to protect his little sister, a nightclub stripper (Paz de la Huerta, the sexy and very-naked temptress of "The Limits of Control"), after the brutal death of their parents. One night, Oscar is caught up in a police bust and shot. Left for dead and remembering his pact to his sibling, he refuses to exit the world of the living. His spirit then wanders the city and begins to grow a distorted, nightmarish vision of a past, present and future milieu that create a hallucinatory and violent pandemonium. One thing's for certain: it's visually stunning (see: all the stills released for the picture). What concerns us is the claim that some of the actors (Brown and a few others) are wooden and stiff. Still, it sounds like an ambitious piece of art and we're certainly intrigued.
3. "The White Ribbon"
It won the Palme d'Or, so of course we have to see it! The Cannes Film Festival organizers love the bleak and finger-wagging moralist Michael Haneke. Dubbed the "minister of fear" by the New York Times last year, the Austrian filmmaker has had a whopping nine of his ten features shown at Cannes, with five of them in direct competition, and obviously this year he finally won the top prize (like we wouldn't have seen it regardless). Set in the early 1900s, just before World War I, 'Ribbon' centers on a German rural school — the children, teachers and families that circle it— and the strange accidents that occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all? Sounding typically Haneke-ian, most critics said the film was severe, indicting, austere and sometimes difficult, but even those who seemed to dislike it generally found something interesting in the film (and many noting the beautiful b&w photography). It wouldn't be Cannes if the top winner wasn't a controversial choice that divided audiences.
4. "A Thorn In The Heart"
Who the hell wants to see a documentary about Michel Gondry’s school teacher Aunt? This was the thought of many who saw the French filmmaker's newest documentary, “Thorn In The Heart” (“L’epine Dans Le Coeur”) — the mere existence of which took us, and pretty much everyone else, by surprise when it was announced as part of the Séances Specials section at Cannes. A doc concerning the filmmaker's Aunt is perhaps not the most tantalizing subject for the typical Gondry audience that expects and obsequiously looks forward to the Gallic director delivering films that hopefully melt vulnerable boy-hearts and dazzle you with absurdist-trickster cinema. Though viewed as a visionary fabulist in some circles, his fairly prolific output hasn’t been entirely successful of late ("Science of Sleep" and "Be Kind Rewind" are far from great), so the idea of something personal and intimate sounds like a good change of pace to us, or at least worth giving a look-see.
5. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
Even thought it was called whimsical to a fault and visually fanciful, but narratively incoherent, it's a Terry Gilliam film with the last appearance of Heath Ledger. Even if we read the clunky script and pretty much knew that the picture wouldn't be perfect — and to anyone that read the screenplay, the criticism of the film sounds very apropos — it's a Terry Gilliam film that also boasts the apperance of Tom Waits as the Devil, Johnny Depp, Christopher Plummer, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. It's likely flawed up the wazoo, but we'll admit we haven't given Gilliam much of a chance in recent years (think we changed the channel midway through the ugh-awful "Brothers Grimm"), so that's perhaps a reason alone to at least give this one our undivided attention. The small hope is that many felt the second half of the film picked up — much like it did with the script and having read the thing, perhaps its even that less confounding.
6. "Dogtooth"
You get to Cannes, you get your guide, there's always more than a handful of films you've never seen. Then you earmark a few of them and then suddenly, one you had interest in that you missed, "Dogtooth," wins the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section fueling your interest even more. Ironic because out of all the films we knew nothing about, this was our #1 must-see. It's basically about three siblings completely sheltered and cut-off from the outside world and forced to play games according to rules created by their overprotective parents. It's by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and it just sounds so strange and potentially thrilling that we were immediately interested. Then it wins a major award? Hell yes, we're curious beyond belief.
7. "Nymph"
Thai New Wave filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's supernatural-sounding drama didn't get fantastic reviews, but it has a beguiling premise: a beautiful young woman is left alone wandering in a forest and she is attacked by two men. However, shortly thereafter their lifeless bodies are found floating downstream. Fast forward to present day where a photographer and his adulterous wife are given an assignment in this same forest. He eventually goes missing which all of a sudden gives meaning to their tired relationship. But the forest has changed him into someone else, perhaps forever… It sounds ghostly like the work of fellow-countryman Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and with an odd romantic quality. Maybe we're just suckers for these types of stylistically abstract stories, but it still sounds pretty fascinating.
9. "Police, Adjective"
Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips calls Corneliu Porumboiu's new film "Police, Adjective" (an Un Certain Regard jury prize winner at Cannes this year) a "Romanian rhapsody." He describes it thusly: "A brilliant black comedy about language, power and law enforcement as deployed by bureaucrats with a totalitarian song in their hearts." Well, we're sold. Porumboiu is at the forefront of the thriving Romanian New Wave, having already given us the excellent deadpan comedy "12:08 East of Bucharest," and we did see one other pretty great Romanian work at the festival, the shorts compendium "Tales from the Golden Age," which only encourages us about the potential of this well-reviewed gem.
9. "Ne Change Rien"
Pedro Costa's 3-hour epic, 2007's "Colossal Youth," is a colossal masterwork. Stark and glacially paced, it stills says more about the human condition than just about any flick you can catch at your local cineplex. "Ne Change Rien" seems to be more documentary than narrative, though with Costa films you really never know: it follows singer Jeanne Balibar during rehearsals and music lessons, on stage at rock concerts and performing at the Tokyo cafe. Sounds like another idiosyncratic Costa film that was relegated to the Director's Fortnight selection. Which means we'll probably need to wait a few years like we did after "Colossal Youth's" 2006 Cannes premiere. Hopefully the wait will be worth it.
10. "Map Of The Sounds of Tokyo"
Ok, reviews of this one were dreadful, but is there a more underrated film from last year than Isabel Coixet's "Elegy"? Probably, but the fact that the critical community at large slept on this rather devastating drama, which boasts strong performances from both Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, is particularly perplexing (ok, it sort of falls apart in the last act, but still). In any case, Coixet has received a fair amount of attention outside of this country, invited to contribute a short to the Cannes-premiering omnibus feature "Paris je T'aime," and now finally making her in-competition debut with Academy Award-nominated Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi in the lead role (Sergi López, the freakshow fascist military Captain from Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," co-stars). With a interlocking narrative plot that centers on frail Ryu (Kikuchi), who leads a double life as a hit-woman, Coixet's awkwardly-titled "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" can be seen as a considerable departure from the filmmaker's recent, low-key dramatic work. And many felt it was an unsuccessful one, but hell, we're still cautiously curious.
By all accounts — including a recent Indiewire poll of American critics that conspicuously excludes us (therefore it can't be that scientific) — Jacques Audiard's prison drama was the best film of the festival even if it only won the runner-up "Grand Prix" trophy. And with good reason; few modern French filmmakers possess a style as effortlessly elemental as Audiard's. His skillful evocation is evinced in his ability to communicate his deaf heroine's fragile auditory perception in 2002's relentless suspenser, "Read my Lips." And Audiard's sensory filmmaking prowess is even more impressive in his mature character study, 2005's "The Beat That May Heart Skipped" (a remake of James Toback's 1978 feature "Fingers"), in which the filmmaker burrows deep inside the mind of a paranoid con artist and gifted pianist. Audiard's new picture, his third crime drama in a row (and his 5th film overall), is the saga of an illiterate 19-year-old who is jailed and tasked with completing "missions" for the prison's resident gang leader, in hopes to earn the respect of his inmates and gain the experience necessary to survive and escape his hostile environment. It sounds great, everyone loved it and Sony Pictures Classics snatched it up immediately. Sign us up.
2. "Enter The Void"
Gaspar Noé is the French-Argentine provocateur behind the controversial and hard-t0-watch "Irreversible" and "I Stand Alone." His third full-length feature is — depending on who you believe, or where your taste lies — either the worst, self-indulgent piece of garbage to hit Cannes in several years, or a masterpiece of experimental cinema. Truthfully, it sounds amazing, even some of the bad reviews criticism sound like pluses in our book. The divisive film centers on young Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a small time drug dealer who promises to protect his little sister, a nightclub stripper (Paz de la Huerta, the sexy and very-naked temptress of "The Limits of Control"), after the brutal death of their parents. One night, Oscar is caught up in a police bust and shot. Left for dead and remembering his pact to his sibling, he refuses to exit the world of the living. His spirit then wanders the city and begins to grow a distorted, nightmarish vision of a past, present and future milieu that create a hallucinatory and violent pandemonium. One thing's for certain: it's visually stunning (see: all the stills released for the picture). What concerns us is the claim that some of the actors (Brown and a few others) are wooden and stiff. Still, it sounds like an ambitious piece of art and we're certainly intrigued.
3. "The White Ribbon"
It won the Palme d'Or, so of course we have to see it! The Cannes Film Festival organizers love the bleak and finger-wagging moralist Michael Haneke. Dubbed the "minister of fear" by the New York Times last year, the Austrian filmmaker has had a whopping nine of his ten features shown at Cannes, with five of them in direct competition, and obviously this year he finally won the top prize (like we wouldn't have seen it regardless). Set in the early 1900s, just before World War I, 'Ribbon' centers on a German rural school — the children, teachers and families that circle it— and the strange accidents that occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all? Sounding typically Haneke-ian, most critics said the film was severe, indicting, austere and sometimes difficult, but even those who seemed to dislike it generally found something interesting in the film (and many noting the beautiful b&w photography). It wouldn't be Cannes if the top winner wasn't a controversial choice that divided audiences.
4. "A Thorn In The Heart"
Who the hell wants to see a documentary about Michel Gondry’s school teacher Aunt? This was the thought of many who saw the French filmmaker's newest documentary, “Thorn In The Heart” (“L’epine Dans Le Coeur”) — the mere existence of which took us, and pretty much everyone else, by surprise when it was announced as part of the Séances Specials section at Cannes. A doc concerning the filmmaker's Aunt is perhaps not the most tantalizing subject for the typical Gondry audience that expects and obsequiously looks forward to the Gallic director delivering films that hopefully melt vulnerable boy-hearts and dazzle you with absurdist-trickster cinema. Though viewed as a visionary fabulist in some circles, his fairly prolific output hasn’t been entirely successful of late ("Science of Sleep" and "Be Kind Rewind" are far from great), so the idea of something personal and intimate sounds like a good change of pace to us, or at least worth giving a look-see.
5. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
Even thought it was called whimsical to a fault and visually fanciful, but narratively incoherent, it's a Terry Gilliam film with the last appearance of Heath Ledger. Even if we read the clunky script and pretty much knew that the picture wouldn't be perfect — and to anyone that read the screenplay, the criticism of the film sounds very apropos — it's a Terry Gilliam film that also boasts the apperance of Tom Waits as the Devil, Johnny Depp, Christopher Plummer, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. It's likely flawed up the wazoo, but we'll admit we haven't given Gilliam much of a chance in recent years (think we changed the channel midway through the ugh-awful "Brothers Grimm"), so that's perhaps a reason alone to at least give this one our undivided attention. The small hope is that many felt the second half of the film picked up — much like it did with the script and having read the thing, perhaps its even that less confounding.
6. "Dogtooth"
You get to Cannes, you get your guide, there's always more than a handful of films you've never seen. Then you earmark a few of them and then suddenly, one you had interest in that you missed, "Dogtooth," wins the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section fueling your interest even more. Ironic because out of all the films we knew nothing about, this was our #1 must-see. It's basically about three siblings completely sheltered and cut-off from the outside world and forced to play games according to rules created by their overprotective parents. It's by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and it just sounds so strange and potentially thrilling that we were immediately interested. Then it wins a major award? Hell yes, we're curious beyond belief.
7. "Nymph"
Thai New Wave filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's supernatural-sounding drama didn't get fantastic reviews, but it has a beguiling premise: a beautiful young woman is left alone wandering in a forest and she is attacked by two men. However, shortly thereafter their lifeless bodies are found floating downstream. Fast forward to present day where a photographer and his adulterous wife are given an assignment in this same forest. He eventually goes missing which all of a sudden gives meaning to their tired relationship. But the forest has changed him into someone else, perhaps forever… It sounds ghostly like the work of fellow-countryman Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and with an odd romantic quality. Maybe we're just suckers for these types of stylistically abstract stories, but it still sounds pretty fascinating.
9. "Police, Adjective"
Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips calls Corneliu Porumboiu's new film "Police, Adjective" (an Un Certain Regard jury prize winner at Cannes this year) a "Romanian rhapsody." He describes it thusly: "A brilliant black comedy about language, power and law enforcement as deployed by bureaucrats with a totalitarian song in their hearts." Well, we're sold. Porumboiu is at the forefront of the thriving Romanian New Wave, having already given us the excellent deadpan comedy "12:08 East of Bucharest," and we did see one other pretty great Romanian work at the festival, the shorts compendium "Tales from the Golden Age," which only encourages us about the potential of this well-reviewed gem.
9. "Ne Change Rien"
Pedro Costa's 3-hour epic, 2007's "Colossal Youth," is a colossal masterwork. Stark and glacially paced, it stills says more about the human condition than just about any flick you can catch at your local cineplex. "Ne Change Rien" seems to be more documentary than narrative, though with Costa films you really never know: it follows singer Jeanne Balibar during rehearsals and music lessons, on stage at rock concerts and performing at the Tokyo cafe. Sounds like another idiosyncratic Costa film that was relegated to the Director's Fortnight selection. Which means we'll probably need to wait a few years like we did after "Colossal Youth's" 2006 Cannes premiere. Hopefully the wait will be worth it.
10. "Map Of The Sounds of Tokyo"
Ok, reviews of this one were dreadful, but is there a more underrated film from last year than Isabel Coixet's "Elegy"? Probably, but the fact that the critical community at large slept on this rather devastating drama, which boasts strong performances from both Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, is particularly perplexing (ok, it sort of falls apart in the last act, but still). In any case, Coixet has received a fair amount of attention outside of this country, invited to contribute a short to the Cannes-premiering omnibus feature "Paris je T'aime," and now finally making her in-competition debut with Academy Award-nominated Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi in the lead role (Sergi López, the freakshow fascist military Captain from Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," co-stars). With a interlocking narrative plot that centers on frail Ryu (Kikuchi), who leads a double life as a hit-woman, Coixet's awkwardly-titled "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" can be seen as a considerable departure from the filmmaker's recent, low-key dramatic work. And many felt it was an unsuccessful one, but hell, we're still cautiously curious.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Canon 20D for sale....my former primary tour camera with the Fray
I'm finally getting around to selling this workhorse. And before I put it on eBay I thought I'd throw it up here and see if any fans out there wanted to pick it up first.
In late December of 2006 I picked up this camera from B+H Photo Video and set about shooting a year's worth of photographs that would become the photo book 'The Fray: There & Back' which was published by Marquand Books in February of this year.
But its time to move on to the Canon 5D Mark II. So I'm going to have to let the camera that started it all go.
The camera will come with the battery, battery charger, instruction manual, and two lenses. In addition to the lens pictured, the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 Image Stabilized USM SLR Lens I'll include the original kit lens the EFS 18-55mm.
The EFS 17-85mm lens is a stand alone $455 lens. Check the AMAZON.com listing.
Brand new I paid $2,500.00 total for the camera kit + lens. I'd like to sell it for $1,000.00. I'll throw in a signed copy of 'The Fray: There & Back', as well as a copy of the new CD from the Fray with the special edition packaging which includes the full 80 minute version of the documentary 'Fair Fight'.
In order to keep this process honest and fair we can deal with the $$ through paypal. Send me an e-mail: rodblackhurst@gmail.com and we'll sort out out shipping and everything else!
In late December of 2006 I picked up this camera from B+H Photo Video and set about shooting a year's worth of photographs that would become the photo book 'The Fray: There & Back' which was published by Marquand Books in February of this year.
But its time to move on to the Canon 5D Mark II. So I'm going to have to let the camera that started it all go.
The camera will come with the battery, battery charger, instruction manual, and two lenses. In addition to the lens pictured, the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 Image Stabilized USM SLR Lens I'll include the original kit lens the EFS 18-55mm.
The EFS 17-85mm lens is a stand alone $455 lens. Check the AMAZON.com listing.
Brand new I paid $2,500.00 total for the camera kit + lens. I'd like to sell it for $1,000.00. I'll throw in a signed copy of 'The Fray: There & Back', as well as a copy of the new CD from the Fray with the special edition packaging which includes the full 80 minute version of the documentary 'Fair Fight'.
In order to keep this process honest and fair we can deal with the $$ through paypal. Send me an e-mail: rodblackhurst@gmail.com and we'll sort out out shipping and everything else!
Monday, May 04, 2009
The Heyday: music video shoot
Just finished directing a music video for the band The Heyday. The video is part live performance (well, music video performance), shot at the Hi-Dive in Denver. The second part is the backdrop locations you see below. Some great folks in town helped make this video a success.
assistant director: Kelly Magelky
production assistants: Nate Meese & Seth Kent
live show lighting designer: Kevin Maas @ The Opera Shop
hi-dive: Ben Desoto
set carpenters: Patrick Marold, Joe Chiarelli & Michael Chiarelli
playback: Joe Richmond
assistant director: Kelly Magelky
production assistants: Nate Meese & Seth Kent
live show lighting designer: Kevin Maas @ The Opera Shop
hi-dive: Ben Desoto
set carpenters: Patrick Marold, Joe Chiarelli & Michael Chiarelli
playback: Joe Richmond
Saturday, April 25, 2009
India - National Geographic, The Delhi Belly, & the Darjeeling Limited
Nine days ago I returned from a 15 day trip to India where I was the Director of Photography on a television pilot for National Geographic that my friend Kelly Magelky, and frequent collaborator, directed.
The show, which is currently untitled (editors note, Kelly mentioned the name 'Soundcheck' the other day and I think this would make a great show name), follows an ethnomusicologist, Jacob Edgar, as he explores the roots of traditional sounds and instruments, and their effects on modern day music, sounds, and culture. If there was anybody you'd want hosting this type of music show it'd be Jacob. For the past 10 years he has been the head of A&R for the world music record label Putumayo World Music, which is the number one seller of world music in the, well, the world. A few years ago Jacob started his own record label, Cumbancha, and for the past two years has had the number one selling world music records in the, well, again, the world. His job has been to roam around the globe, going to all corners of the earth to listen to bad music so you'll never have to.
Two of his biggest artists are Idan Raichel
and Andy Palacio
His 2007 album Watina,” an album made with the Garifuna Collective, was acclaimed as one of the best world music releases of 2007, and the London Sun mentioned it as one of one hundred you needed to own before you die with the likes of every Beatles and Zeppelin record.
Jacob knows his music, he knows his cultures, and he knows travel.
Only Kelly had met Jacob prior to embarking on our adventure, and that was while shooting a screen test with him in early February. We met up with Jacob in New York connecting flights and very quickly realized that he was not only going to be a great host, but was also like your kid brother, the kind that leaves his stuff everywhere, spills things in the car, and leaves cracker crumbs on the seat.
After traveling for 32 hours; two redeyes and one 12 hour layover we arrived in Mumbai. It should be noted that most Indians still refer to Mumbai as Bombay, the name the British gave it. In the mid to late 90's the Indian government, seeking to shed the colonial names, renamed many of the countries major cities. If you've ever ordered Chicken Madras at a restaurant, this dish would technically be now called Chicken Chennai. But for the national attempt to reclaim and Indian identity most Indians still use the English names.
The first thing you notice when you land in Mumbai is the humidity and heat. Your clothes stick to your body, even at 11 o'clock at night. We picked up some rupees and crammed into a cab for the drive to our hotel.
The second thing you notice about Mumbai is the sheer number of people everywhere, even at 11 o'clock at night. And even though it is the middle of the night, this will never change. Roughly 18 million people live in Mumbai. 9 million people live in the greater New York metropolitan area. Just under 4.3 million people live in Colorado. And of those 18 million people, roughly 9 million live in abject poverty, in slums or sleeping on the sidewalks.
One of the underwriters of the show was the luxury hotel line, The Taj Hotel Resorts and Palaces. They aren't kidding about the palaces but more to come on that later.
If you remember in November of 2008 the Taj Mahal in Mumbai was bombed with hundreds wounded and dead.
We didn't stay at this particular Taj, although we did frequent it for some shooting and some eating, instead we stayed at the Taj Land's End which is in North Mumbai right on the Indian Ocean. The only thing standing between 5 star luxury and the sea was the bombed out Sea Rock Hotel. As you well know I hold a particular affinity for buildings like this so the lack of a view didn't bother me in the least bit.
The following morning we immediately got to work shooting the first featured musician. The original idea for the show was to focus on three different musicians, Kalaish Kher, Sona Mohaparta, and Rabbi Shergill. However as shooting progressed it became apparent that we would focus instead on three areas of India, Mumbai, Delhi, and the deserts of Rajahastan and Jodhpur.
Sona would serve as our unofficial guide to Mumbai and we wrapped our first 14 hour day by shooting a rooftop acoustic performance at the Taj. Needless to say we hit the ground runnin' and gunnin'. Grip and rip isn't our favorite style of making film but it soon became obvious that our entire fifteen day trip would be a spray and pray operation, with no down time and lots of late nights.
Sona has been in the spotlight before having sung on an Indian release of INXS' song 'Afterglow', but is also a respected 'independent' artist. Although she is signed to Sony India, Sona has until this point in her career refused to be a part of the Bollywood Machine. Some argued that this has hurt her but for her, being a playback singer (where she writes, records, and sings the songs in a studio, and then an actress lipsyncs her songs in a Bollywood film), was just not in the cards and wanted to make it on her own, being an independent woman.
Since 1920 Bollywood has ruled the film and music industry in India. 99% of films made in India are Bollywood films and 100% of them are musicals. The majority of successful contemporary musicians in India are Bollywood singers, except for the classical musicians such as Ravi Shankar.
The third thing you notice in India is the lack of any traffic laws. The roads are utter chaos, literally the visual example of anarchy.
Rickshaws and Gypsy Cabs rule the roads in India. The company that owns the Taj brand, Tata, recently introduced the Nano, a car that only costs $2,000, in a bid to be able to service more owners in places like China and India. While I'm not an expert on transportation or population I feel safe in saying that the last thing the country of India needs are more vehicles on the road. It once took us 2 hours to drive 5 miles in Mumbai because of the amount of vehicles on the road and the fact that none of them were obeying any traffic laws.
Driving is a 100% free for all. Every driver uses their horn all the time, to announce themselves to other drives, to pass, to drive on the shoulder, to drive in the on-coming lanes, to do anything. And the most confusing thing is that honking is illegal. Yet there is no visible police presence enforcing any traffic laws. Rarely you see policemen, hanging out in the shade at traffic lights. And then when they pull you over you have to bribe them, instead of paying the 100 rupee fine for having your windows tinted too much as our driver had to do one day.
For context, 50 rupees equals roughly $1. Instead of paying the $2 fine, even if our driver wanted to, he had to pay 10 times that in a bribe to avoid going to prison. The amount of corruption and lack of any government presence or infrastructure was not lost upon us while in country. I'm still confused to this day as to how the most densely populated nation in the world can exist in such an archaic manner. In fact you can kill a human being while driving and pay a $1 fine, yet if you kill a goat or a cow you will be killed. Really?
The second artist we worked with was Kalaish Kher.
Kalaish is a celebrity. Everywhere we went he was recognized, after all he is a judge on Indian Idol (the Indian version of American Idol), and a hugely successful playback singer. He is also a super nice humble guy with a laugh like Gargamel.
Kalaish took us to the hills outside Mumbai for a more spiritual look at his music and his background. While he is one of the most popular and recognizable musicians in India, he has a very direct connection to the countryside and even more so to the traditional desert and gypsy sounds of Rajahastan.
Everywhere I went, with my camera rig, blue sling, safari shorts, and my green plaid shirt I attracted attention.
The hardest thing to accept was that the majority of people were just curious as to what I was doing. Most people just wanted to observe and look at the camera's screen. But it is hard to work with 50 people staring at your back. I'll never forget filming inside a mosque in Ajmer, and the man who brought his three little children over to shake my hand and introduce themselves, as if it was out of respect and acknowledgment of me being an American investing myself in being part of their time, space and culture. One the other hand I'll never forget standing in front of the same mosque being surrounded by a mob of people, with some demanding what country I was from. I said I was Canadian, hoping that my choice of Western country would serve as the most diplomatic and least offensive. It seemed to work.
Before leaving Mumbai to fly to Delhi I shaved the beard I'd been working on. It was just too hot and faced with the prospect of heading into the desert I decided it was time for it to go.
Halfway through the trip we caught a JetLite flight up to Delhi.
New Delhi, or Delhi, as the Indians still call it, is the capital of India, and right off the bat we noticed a much newer infrastructure, and a spread out city with distinct neighborhoods and more visible wealth. The original plan was to meet up with Rabbi Shergill.
Fortunately or unfortunately Rabbi turned out to be a dud. His music was just too derivative of bad Western rock and roll. But when Jacob became the first of us to get the Delhi Belly, aka the Curry Creep, aka the Calcutta Croch, Rabbi did take care of him. Most Indian musicians who aren't part of Bollywood tend to want to not be seen as Indian musicians and therefore try to emulate Western sounds and styles in an attempt to seem more 'wordly'. Unfortunately it just doesn't work and instead they just seem like watered down versions of already mediocre Western acts. Rabbi was an intruiging character however, and it became obvious right away why so many people are drawn to him. His larger than life, Lennonesque personality comes through immediately, and he is outspoken on many issues including religion and politics, two issues you almost never speak publicly about.
But in meeting him we stumbled upon two local Delhi bands, Indian Ocean, who are the Indian version of Phish (and their biggest fans, literally) and East India Company.
The people in Delhi were much more aggressive than the people in Mumbai. Kelly, Jacob and I spent a day in Old Delhi shooting some culture and food scenes. By the 10th day in we were hitting our stride.
From Delhi we left on what was supposed to be an eight hour drive into the desert of Rajahastan to a town called Jodhpur. The eight hour drive soon became 14 hours as we stopped along the way to shoot in the town of Jaipur.
This drive through rural India was the most terrifying and exciting night I've ever spent in a car in my entire life. At night Indian roads become even more of a free for all, with cars driving everywhere at full speed, regardless of oncoming traffic. The worst situation was when a bus full of people hanging out the windows, and riding on the roof split our car, on our left, going 40mph, in the dirt and bushes, while large trucks going 60mph flew by us on our right. We were later told that as Americans we should have never driven on Indian roads at night.
We arrived in Jodhpur in the middle of the night and as we opened our weary eyes we saw this:
Turns out that the Taj hotel in Jodhpur is an actual Maharaja's palace. Literally. And we met the Maharaja.
While we were in Jodhpur for only one day and two nights it was here where we all felt the most connected to our adventure and to the country. In one day we managed to shoot all over this beautiful city including from the top of the fort.
Wes Anderson shot most of his film The Darjeeling Limited in Jodhpur and so Kelly and I film geeked out while shooting the blue buildings below the fort knowing that Wes shot from the same footprint.
The last three days of our trip were again spent in Mumbai (am I allowed to say that I've been to Mumbai twice in my life?) where yours truly became the second victim of the Delhi Belly (editors note: all of those instances in this blog where you wished to see some video of what I was talking about exist. someday when I have time I'll be posting all of the video blogs. including the highlight blog of the Calcutta Crouch).
Our return home took 37 hours. It took 5 days to get over the jet lag. India is literally half way around the world from Colorado and going to bed at 8pm and getting up at 3am got old fast. I caught the Delhi Belly Part Deux back home and my girlfriend had to take care of me.
The show is coming together wonderfully right now. Kelly is working overtime to post a rough cut of the first 26 minute episode from Mumbai. The pilot will consist of 3, 26 minute episodes that National Geographic has committed to airing. Based on the performance of these 3 episodes they will decide whether or not to pick up the show. There seems to be a chance that a 60 minute special will also be created and pitched to PBS. Keep your finger crossed.
And remember, if you ever find yourself in India.
1). Don't drink the water. Don't eat uncooked food. Wash your hands, or better yet, use hand sanitizer every time you touch something.
2). Don't try to drive. Hire a driver. Catch a rickshaw or a gypsy cab. Your life will be in jeopardy if you attempt to drive. Your life is already in jeopardy.
3). There are no traffic laws. If you do chose to drive, break every rule you ever wanted to break back home. Blow through red lights, drive on the wrong side of the road when the traffic is bad on your side, etc.
4). Eat up. Indian food in Indian is amazing. Vegetarian food in India is even better. You could go your whole life being a vegetarian in India and never get tired of the endless options and dishes available.
5). Bring pens. Yes, Bic pens. Children will follow you around asking for 'one pen?'. They literally want them to do schoolwork with. Consider how cheap a couple boxes of Bic pens are to you and how much value they'll have for a little Indian child and it'll be worth it.
6). I've been writing this blog for the past 2 hours and I must retire. The sweet sounds of Whiskeytown's deluxe release of 'Strangers Almanac' has kept me company thus far. My CD player has moved on to the Bon Iver record which is my signal that it is time for bed.
The show, which is currently untitled (editors note, Kelly mentioned the name 'Soundcheck' the other day and I think this would make a great show name), follows an ethnomusicologist, Jacob Edgar, as he explores the roots of traditional sounds and instruments, and their effects on modern day music, sounds, and culture. If there was anybody you'd want hosting this type of music show it'd be Jacob. For the past 10 years he has been the head of A&R for the world music record label Putumayo World Music, which is the number one seller of world music in the, well, the world. A few years ago Jacob started his own record label, Cumbancha, and for the past two years has had the number one selling world music records in the, well, again, the world. His job has been to roam around the globe, going to all corners of the earth to listen to bad music so you'll never have to.
Two of his biggest artists are Idan Raichel
and Andy Palacio
His 2007 album Watina,” an album made with the Garifuna Collective, was acclaimed as one of the best world music releases of 2007, and the London Sun mentioned it as one of one hundred you needed to own before you die with the likes of every Beatles and Zeppelin record.
Jacob knows his music, he knows his cultures, and he knows travel.
Only Kelly had met Jacob prior to embarking on our adventure, and that was while shooting a screen test with him in early February. We met up with Jacob in New York connecting flights and very quickly realized that he was not only going to be a great host, but was also like your kid brother, the kind that leaves his stuff everywhere, spills things in the car, and leaves cracker crumbs on the seat.
After traveling for 32 hours; two redeyes and one 12 hour layover we arrived in Mumbai. It should be noted that most Indians still refer to Mumbai as Bombay, the name the British gave it. In the mid to late 90's the Indian government, seeking to shed the colonial names, renamed many of the countries major cities. If you've ever ordered Chicken Madras at a restaurant, this dish would technically be now called Chicken Chennai. But for the national attempt to reclaim and Indian identity most Indians still use the English names.
The first thing you notice when you land in Mumbai is the humidity and heat. Your clothes stick to your body, even at 11 o'clock at night. We picked up some rupees and crammed into a cab for the drive to our hotel.
The second thing you notice about Mumbai is the sheer number of people everywhere, even at 11 o'clock at night. And even though it is the middle of the night, this will never change. Roughly 18 million people live in Mumbai. 9 million people live in the greater New York metropolitan area. Just under 4.3 million people live in Colorado. And of those 18 million people, roughly 9 million live in abject poverty, in slums or sleeping on the sidewalks.
One of the underwriters of the show was the luxury hotel line, The Taj Hotel Resorts and Palaces. They aren't kidding about the palaces but more to come on that later.
If you remember in November of 2008 the Taj Mahal in Mumbai was bombed with hundreds wounded and dead.
We didn't stay at this particular Taj, although we did frequent it for some shooting and some eating, instead we stayed at the Taj Land's End which is in North Mumbai right on the Indian Ocean. The only thing standing between 5 star luxury and the sea was the bombed out Sea Rock Hotel. As you well know I hold a particular affinity for buildings like this so the lack of a view didn't bother me in the least bit.
The following morning we immediately got to work shooting the first featured musician. The original idea for the show was to focus on three different musicians, Kalaish Kher, Sona Mohaparta, and Rabbi Shergill. However as shooting progressed it became apparent that we would focus instead on three areas of India, Mumbai, Delhi, and the deserts of Rajahastan and Jodhpur.
Sona would serve as our unofficial guide to Mumbai and we wrapped our first 14 hour day by shooting a rooftop acoustic performance at the Taj. Needless to say we hit the ground runnin' and gunnin'. Grip and rip isn't our favorite style of making film but it soon became obvious that our entire fifteen day trip would be a spray and pray operation, with no down time and lots of late nights.
Sona has been in the spotlight before having sung on an Indian release of INXS' song 'Afterglow', but is also a respected 'independent' artist. Although she is signed to Sony India, Sona has until this point in her career refused to be a part of the Bollywood Machine. Some argued that this has hurt her but for her, being a playback singer (where she writes, records, and sings the songs in a studio, and then an actress lipsyncs her songs in a Bollywood film), was just not in the cards and wanted to make it on her own, being an independent woman.
Since 1920 Bollywood has ruled the film and music industry in India. 99% of films made in India are Bollywood films and 100% of them are musicals. The majority of successful contemporary musicians in India are Bollywood singers, except for the classical musicians such as Ravi Shankar.
The third thing you notice in India is the lack of any traffic laws. The roads are utter chaos, literally the visual example of anarchy.
Rickshaws and Gypsy Cabs rule the roads in India. The company that owns the Taj brand, Tata, recently introduced the Nano, a car that only costs $2,000, in a bid to be able to service more owners in places like China and India. While I'm not an expert on transportation or population I feel safe in saying that the last thing the country of India needs are more vehicles on the road. It once took us 2 hours to drive 5 miles in Mumbai because of the amount of vehicles on the road and the fact that none of them were obeying any traffic laws.
Driving is a 100% free for all. Every driver uses their horn all the time, to announce themselves to other drives, to pass, to drive on the shoulder, to drive in the on-coming lanes, to do anything. And the most confusing thing is that honking is illegal. Yet there is no visible police presence enforcing any traffic laws. Rarely you see policemen, hanging out in the shade at traffic lights. And then when they pull you over you have to bribe them, instead of paying the 100 rupee fine for having your windows tinted too much as our driver had to do one day.
For context, 50 rupees equals roughly $1. Instead of paying the $2 fine, even if our driver wanted to, he had to pay 10 times that in a bribe to avoid going to prison. The amount of corruption and lack of any government presence or infrastructure was not lost upon us while in country. I'm still confused to this day as to how the most densely populated nation in the world can exist in such an archaic manner. In fact you can kill a human being while driving and pay a $1 fine, yet if you kill a goat or a cow you will be killed. Really?
The second artist we worked with was Kalaish Kher.
Kalaish is a celebrity. Everywhere we went he was recognized, after all he is a judge on Indian Idol (the Indian version of American Idol), and a hugely successful playback singer. He is also a super nice humble guy with a laugh like Gargamel.
Kalaish took us to the hills outside Mumbai for a more spiritual look at his music and his background. While he is one of the most popular and recognizable musicians in India, he has a very direct connection to the countryside and even more so to the traditional desert and gypsy sounds of Rajahastan.
Everywhere I went, with my camera rig, blue sling, safari shorts, and my green plaid shirt I attracted attention.
The hardest thing to accept was that the majority of people were just curious as to what I was doing. Most people just wanted to observe and look at the camera's screen. But it is hard to work with 50 people staring at your back. I'll never forget filming inside a mosque in Ajmer, and the man who brought his three little children over to shake my hand and introduce themselves, as if it was out of respect and acknowledgment of me being an American investing myself in being part of their time, space and culture. One the other hand I'll never forget standing in front of the same mosque being surrounded by a mob of people, with some demanding what country I was from. I said I was Canadian, hoping that my choice of Western country would serve as the most diplomatic and least offensive. It seemed to work.
Before leaving Mumbai to fly to Delhi I shaved the beard I'd been working on. It was just too hot and faced with the prospect of heading into the desert I decided it was time for it to go.
Halfway through the trip we caught a JetLite flight up to Delhi.
New Delhi, or Delhi, as the Indians still call it, is the capital of India, and right off the bat we noticed a much newer infrastructure, and a spread out city with distinct neighborhoods and more visible wealth. The original plan was to meet up with Rabbi Shergill.
Fortunately or unfortunately Rabbi turned out to be a dud. His music was just too derivative of bad Western rock and roll. But when Jacob became the first of us to get the Delhi Belly, aka the Curry Creep, aka the Calcutta Croch, Rabbi did take care of him. Most Indian musicians who aren't part of Bollywood tend to want to not be seen as Indian musicians and therefore try to emulate Western sounds and styles in an attempt to seem more 'wordly'. Unfortunately it just doesn't work and instead they just seem like watered down versions of already mediocre Western acts. Rabbi was an intruiging character however, and it became obvious right away why so many people are drawn to him. His larger than life, Lennonesque personality comes through immediately, and he is outspoken on many issues including religion and politics, two issues you almost never speak publicly about.
But in meeting him we stumbled upon two local Delhi bands, Indian Ocean, who are the Indian version of Phish (and their biggest fans, literally) and East India Company.
The people in Delhi were much more aggressive than the people in Mumbai. Kelly, Jacob and I spent a day in Old Delhi shooting some culture and food scenes. By the 10th day in we were hitting our stride.
From Delhi we left on what was supposed to be an eight hour drive into the desert of Rajahastan to a town called Jodhpur. The eight hour drive soon became 14 hours as we stopped along the way to shoot in the town of Jaipur.
This drive through rural India was the most terrifying and exciting night I've ever spent in a car in my entire life. At night Indian roads become even more of a free for all, with cars driving everywhere at full speed, regardless of oncoming traffic. The worst situation was when a bus full of people hanging out the windows, and riding on the roof split our car, on our left, going 40mph, in the dirt and bushes, while large trucks going 60mph flew by us on our right. We were later told that as Americans we should have never driven on Indian roads at night.
We arrived in Jodhpur in the middle of the night and as we opened our weary eyes we saw this:
Turns out that the Taj hotel in Jodhpur is an actual Maharaja's palace. Literally. And we met the Maharaja.
While we were in Jodhpur for only one day and two nights it was here where we all felt the most connected to our adventure and to the country. In one day we managed to shoot all over this beautiful city including from the top of the fort.
Wes Anderson shot most of his film The Darjeeling Limited in Jodhpur and so Kelly and I film geeked out while shooting the blue buildings below the fort knowing that Wes shot from the same footprint.
The last three days of our trip were again spent in Mumbai (am I allowed to say that I've been to Mumbai twice in my life?) where yours truly became the second victim of the Delhi Belly (editors note: all of those instances in this blog where you wished to see some video of what I was talking about exist. someday when I have time I'll be posting all of the video blogs. including the highlight blog of the Calcutta Crouch).
Our return home took 37 hours. It took 5 days to get over the jet lag. India is literally half way around the world from Colorado and going to bed at 8pm and getting up at 3am got old fast. I caught the Delhi Belly Part Deux back home and my girlfriend had to take care of me.
The show is coming together wonderfully right now. Kelly is working overtime to post a rough cut of the first 26 minute episode from Mumbai. The pilot will consist of 3, 26 minute episodes that National Geographic has committed to airing. Based on the performance of these 3 episodes they will decide whether or not to pick up the show. There seems to be a chance that a 60 minute special will also be created and pitched to PBS. Keep your finger crossed.
And remember, if you ever find yourself in India.
1). Don't drink the water. Don't eat uncooked food. Wash your hands, or better yet, use hand sanitizer every time you touch something.
2). Don't try to drive. Hire a driver. Catch a rickshaw or a gypsy cab. Your life will be in jeopardy if you attempt to drive. Your life is already in jeopardy.
3). There are no traffic laws. If you do chose to drive, break every rule you ever wanted to break back home. Blow through red lights, drive on the wrong side of the road when the traffic is bad on your side, etc.
4). Eat up. Indian food in Indian is amazing. Vegetarian food in India is even better. You could go your whole life being a vegetarian in India and never get tired of the endless options and dishes available.
5). Bring pens. Yes, Bic pens. Children will follow you around asking for 'one pen?'. They literally want them to do schoolwork with. Consider how cheap a couple boxes of Bic pens are to you and how much value they'll have for a little Indian child and it'll be worth it.
6). I've been writing this blog for the past 2 hours and I must retire. The sweet sounds of Whiskeytown's deluxe release of 'Strangers Almanac' has kept me company thus far. My CD player has moved on to the Bon Iver record which is my signal that it is time for bed.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)