Live Life Unfiltered

I love getting up early and walking the streets of a city; any city.

The sights you see and the sounds you hear are unique only to that time of day.

This morning, camera in hand, I headed up South Congress rather than

toward downtown and took some “people less” shots, which after 72 hours of people-filled lobbies, workshops and bars, is quite welcoming.

Speaking of bars, I wandered into Friends yesterday afternoon when, from across the street, 

I heard a woman belting out Give Me One Reason To Stay Here by the one and only Tracy Chapman.  There were no chairs, so I pulled up to the bar, and took my place standing with the others who were already way ahead of me in the drinking competition. This band, consisting of 3 guys and their lead singer, could rock the house like nobody’s business; everything from 

Sam Cooke, Tracy, Aretha Franklin but also, originals that made us all hoot and holler 

and take to the saloon-type dance floor.  They had no “shtick”, no cd and no sideshow.  They took no breaks.  They just kept on doing what they passionately love and doing such a damn good job of it, I almost missed the independent film next door at The Alamo; my main reason for venturing down this street in the first place.

Austin is bursting at the seams with live music.  It’s that and the large, overly decorated longhorn statues on every corner that will keep me coming back.  Seriously, I’ve heard some kick-ass jazz, blues, bluegrass and country. That’s right, country!  Y’all know it’s in me, right?  

I attended only one panel yesterday and after listening to such dynamic women as Elizabeth Hunter (Charmed, L Word, Jumping the Broom, Beauty Shop…) and Pamela Gray (Conviction, Music of the Heart, A Walk on the Moon…) I knew no one could follow in their shoes.  

The topic?   The Heroine’s Journey.  In a realistic, approachable and funny way, these two women discussed both the creative side of writing female main characters and the business-related challenges of working in the male-dominated film industry.

Ironically, I attended a panel the day before which included Pamela, Scott Silver (The Fighter) and Nicholas Kazen (Reversal of Fortune) in which the flavor was totally different from her panel with Elizabeth.  Duh. 

Those two dudes dominated that panel as if the moderator’s questions were specifically directed at only the two of them.  Thank God Pamela had not an ounce of trouble holding her own, and thank God it was on the largest stage, because there needed to be ample room for these guys’ egos and genitalia.

So the good news? Women understand women.  Plain and simple. 

And we are the most capable, driving force to write about a female character’s journey.  

End of story.   Or beginning because these two women, and another by the name of Joyce San Pedro, Creative Executive for Zhiv Media Studios, all gave of themselves, their knowledge and their advice freely and selflessly and that is refreshing.  And that fills me with some kind of childlike hope.   I’ll leave it at that.

So the other cool, highly beneficial thing I’ve attended, as a fly on the wall, are the Pitch Sessions.  Each writer has 90 seconds to pitch their screenplay to a panel of producers, directors and other industry professionals.  Holy Shit!  Now this takes some you know what.  

It was a really great experience to listen, not only to the pitches, but also to the feedback given by these pros to each and every brave soul that got up and pitched.    Next year, babies! 

There are so many festivals happening in Austin!  Just this weekend alone, along with the film festival, there is The Texas Book Festival, The Day of the Dead Festival and The Gypsies Picnic that includes block after block of food trucks, dancing, and little children running around in diapers.

I roamed through all these events and more yesterday.  I cheered with the protesters of 

Occupy Austin, marched two blocks with the opponents of the death penalty; specifically, another upcoming Texas execution awaiting Rick Perry's signature... I walked around the state’s capitol and The University of Texas campus.  I even bought some Longhorn gear and 

I hadn’t even had a cocktail.  

I did make it to The Alamo to see the film, Fred and Vinnie; a low budget ($50,000) film about an unlikely friendship between two middle-age guys that was laugh out loud funny and also charmingly poignant, then I headed back over the bridge to my cave.

(Which, btw, I am growing accustomed to, but because I did work for 8 hellish weeks at a hotel…and was forced to watch the Bedbug Video…I’m just sayin.)

While walking back, I looked up and saw this brightly lit billboard for some unTexas type beer that read simply:

Live Life Unfiltered.

And that, my favorite people, is my message to you today.

~tpg

Taking It To Austin

     I’ve always been frightened by “the south.”  Even when I was a little girl, and we drove for hours on some hellacious back road from Southern California to Oklahoma;

my dad smoking cigarette after cigarette and driving like a bat out of a flame and my mom, turning around every 2 minutes to tell my brother and I “to knock it off” and enjoy the scenery or she’d “draw a line on the seat between us and then it would be all over for the one who crossed it.”  Well, the scenery was miles and miles of f@*#ing cows and rundown barns and “fillin stations” where the guy would mosey on out in his bibbed coveralls and pump your gas for you at a snail’s pace, all the while speaking in some kind of language that me and my bro were weirded out by.  

     We had relatives in both Texas and Oklahoma and all were bigger than life in ever way you could imagine.  Hell, one glass of ice tea took me 3 days to finish.  I have never seen people eat so much.  Pie was the food of choice and the “N” word was thrown around as casually as a football.  But that was then and this is now and I’m headed back to The Lone Star State manana; to the bright lights and big city of Austin where I have never been.  From what I’ve read about Austin, my daddy wouldn’t have tread there if it were the last place left standing on the planet. 

Destination: The Austin Film Festival

http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/new/

     

     The Driskill Hotel seems to be the center spot, the hub,  for all the action that will take place in the upcoming week at The Austin Film Festival.  It’s swanky and full of ritzy, pretty people with lots of “moola” to burn, and to be quite honest; I’m scared to the bone. 

That kind of ostentatious glamour and luxury, equivalent to the night on the red carpet, is what girls from trailer parks watch from their sofas with a bag of Dollar Tree popcorn and a Bud-Light.  Of course,  I’m nervous as hell!  But gals from a park can also fake it until they make it and I’ve packed cool (worn) cowgirl boots, ($7.50), a cocktail dress from Banana Republic ($2.00), black footless tights (a buck) and a suitcase full of other yard sale scores.  The girl’s got game and she better because the reason she’s heading to

a state that has towns called Looneyville and Buffalo Mop is to hobnob with some big boys and girls in the film industry, attend workshops and panels and hopefully pitch her screenplay, 27 Angels, to a couple people who might be willing to give her the time of day.

     I’ve spent the last two years co-writing a screenplay that’s fairly good and I’m packing my bags tonight and taking it on the road.  Actually Austin itself, from what I’ve read, sounds anything but ostentatious and it certainly doesn’t sound like I’ll need a gun. And the AFF sounds like it’s hip, yet casual and jam-packed with big names that are approachable. 

     And though I am very proud of my trailer roots, I didn’t list trailer park manager on my business card.  But 27 Angels might tell it all and perhaps it should.  My dark comedy takes place in a park and opens a window on a world that most people would simply drive on by… a world of misfits; the disenfranchised, the low-income welfare recipients who pay for their groceries with food stamps and wait in line for slabs of free butter and cheese. 

There’s a story or two there. 

Perhaps we look away because we feel they arrived at this place in life due to their own doing.  I recall this saying my grandmother used frequently, “They made their bed, now they have to lay in it.” I think that mentality has falsely guided an entire generation of Americans; that and this one which goes hand-in-hand, “First of all, I don’t see America having problems.” a direct quote of George W. Bush when being interviewed by Bob Costas at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 

     According to the Reuters report, nearly 40 million Americans receive food stamps; that’s 1 out of 8.  This has increased by 260,000 since the economic recession of 2008.  Hmm…an increase in people who can’t buy food and at the same time, an increase of profits for CEOs and companies like Chevron.  Hey, did you know that health insurance companies found increased profits of 56 percent in 2009?  No wonder Republicans don’t want Universal Health Care.  Their sugar daddies in the health insurance ‘bank’ wouldn’t be able to buy them as many treats.  I believe we look away, not because we necessarily think like my grandmother or like George, but because if we look too long, then, in turn, we must take a hard look at our own lives and ourselves.

     I hope I’ve got what it takes to not only wear my yard sale rags with confidence, but hold my head high and talk about my project, 27 Angels, like I talk about anything that is near and dear to my heart.  It will take guts, but not balls.

I agree wholeheartedly.  I’ve got mine packed, Betty, and I'll be taking it to Austin.

And unlike Vegas, what happens in Austin won’t stay in Austin.  I’ll be reporting the good, the bad, the ugly, to you all.   

Believe me, if Austin feels the least bit chilled or unwelcoming, I can always hitch a ride to

Crume Gin, Moonshine Hill, or Chocolate Bayou; all towns somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.

See y’all in Austin!

~tpg