Live from Phantoscope!

Me with Henrique Couto at the Phantoscope High School Film Festival in Richmond, Indiana.  I was there as a festival judge and Henrique was there as a speaker to mold young minds.  I have known him since he was an impressionable high school kid in Dayton, Ohio and he has had an interesting and eclectic body of work since then.

Life In A High-Rise Can Make You Hungry

We keep hearing that the Arts in Indiana are in trouble, and perhaps the evidence is finally here; I have been asked to serve again on the Media Panel of the Indiana Arts Commission and will be once more judging the Phantoscope Film Festival.

I enjoy judging Phantoscope. It is a regional high school film festival hosted in the town where I work It's great to meet the future filmmakers who are going to kick me off of the narrow precipice I stand on.

Since judging this Fest, I have seriously met one pretty talented young filmmaker and one insanely talented young filmmaker. And loyal readers know I was talking up this dude about five years ago (now he's in Sundance) and gave this young lady her first chance at play-by-play announcing (now she works for Fox Sports). So despite my other shortcomings and failings, I do have a good eye for talent.

I'm not sure you can say the same for Knopf Publishing, who apparently think I am a great and powerful blogger of note. They sent me a nice proof of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest as a thank you for hosting a contest for his last book. I am not normally one of those bloggers who try to grab freebies with both hands (which are plentiful in the blogosphere) so the only thing I can figure is Knopf knows how much I loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and that have told many people that with no hope for reward. Strangely, I was just finishing up Arnaldur Indridason's The Draining Lake when this showed up in the mail and I have jumped right into it. Thanks to Knopf for bringing great Scandinavian mysteries to these shores and cheering up my long winter nights.

Until later, I am at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

The Bright Elusive Butterfly of Love

I think I am officially the last comic-book nerd in America who hasn't seen Watchmen, a condition I hope to correct tomorrow when my son and I take a third stab at going.

In the meantime, I am off to the Phantoscope Film Festival today, in its third great year with perhaps the strongest lineup yet. If that is because I was not invited back to the roundtable discussion and in fact will spend most of the time either behind the projector or behind a camera taping the event is for the reader to decide.

See you at the Fest, or you can always catch me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

The Pounding of the Drums, the Pride and Disgrace

Thanks to the folks at HorrorBlips, who dubbed me one of "the Web's most popular horror news, videos, and blogs," even though I think this is the longest I have gone without posting since I started five years ago.

So I broke out a filling and had to get a root canal and then, while enjoying a nice meal at this restaurant in Ohio, broke my root canal and then had to go get a crown put on. Some script money I just made went right into my mouth instead of up my nose like my Hollywood brethren. Went through Cincinnati in a Vicodin haze but enjoyed a visit to Jungle Jim's. Cars breaking down, puppies vomiting up, FAFSAs and taxes, drama all around, a rain of frogs. A trip to Memphis for Spring Break drizzled down to a good piece of pie at a diner yesterday in Centerville, Indiana. Now here I am enjoying some nice fresh scones my wife baked this morning and getting back on the beam.

On my "Nerd Bucket List" for 2009 I have been doing alright amidst the chaos. I bumped into filmmaker Zack Parker, both of us getting an oil change at WalMart in Richmond Indiana, and gave him that script coverage I promised; I supposed that's what living in L.A. must be like. I am getting caught up on emails and am catching up on writing recommendations on LinkedIn like I promised. I still have more to do but am doing better than I was.

I have been foiled twice in going to see Watchmen with my son, but we are going to try again next Sunday. I loaned him the graphic novel to read and he, like legions of comic book fans before him, got blown away. But probably not as much as we did way back in the day.

It's hard to describe to somebody today what it was like when we saw it on the shelves. Back then in the 80s you might get a Hawkman and Atom team-up where they fight a gorilla with a robot brain. Then all of a suddent there's this dark, apocalyptic story like nothing we'd ever seen (of course, we had not seen 2000 A.D. yet where all of this was going on prior).

The first time I saw a Watchmen comic it was lying on a table at my old pal Eric Mayse's house, who later went to work for Todd McFarlane (curiously, the toy figure Cornboy was based on him). It was the final, death-dealing issue (which was fine, as I always like to read the endings first in books) and I could not fathom some of the last few pages in the context of what I was reading at the time. Suddenly it seemed okay to read comics again and I didn't have to pretend I was buying them for my son.

I think it's interesting how Alan Moore has become more sunny since then, especially his milestone Silver-Age musings in Supreme (which I think deserves wider mainstream recognition). Moore, like the rest of us, got milder and more philosophical over time; though he spawned a decade of darker and more violent comics, and I wonder what he thinks about that overall today.

Last week I finished judging the Phantoscope Film Festival, and think we will have a good lineup this year. If I don't see you at the Fest this Saturday, you can always catch me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Bound For A Star With Fiery Oceans

Christopher Sharpe has posted a behind the scenes look at SEX MACHINE online here. I wish I had gotten to meet some of those hipsters.

Tomorrow night I will be at the Phantoscope Film Festival, which I helped judge, so if you are in east central Indiana give me a shout. Really solid lineup this year from emerging high school filmmakers.

This guy will get you to thinking. (Link courtesy the always provocative Bill Cunningham).

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Real To Reel

Thanks to everybody who came out to the Phantoscope High School Film Festival in Richmond, Indiana Saturday night to hear me talk on a panel, and stayed for the fest. We had fifty-plus people crowded into the room and spilling out into the hallway for the talk and more than 100 for the screening of regional high school kids' short films. Afterwards a mother came up and thanked me for telling the kids not to do anything they weren't proud of. I'm sure she was picturing her son in my place in twenty-five years and was glad that I warned him off the path.

Working away at NJTTCOTE. Until then, give me a holler at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Joy (Astro 100)

I was asked to judge, and participate in a panel, at the Phantoscope Film Festival for high school students in eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Obviously, I am there to serve as a dire warning. But if you are in the neighborhood, say howdy.

You know, the new Ghost Rider movie wasn't half bad. Props for using Karen Carpenter in the soundtrack.

Yesterday was a record-setting 80 degrees here. A week or so ago, my pipes froze. Paging Al Gore.

Stand by for new project news. In the meantime, I'll get busy scanning the rest of The Liberator.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.