Live from Blue Whiskey

My brother Eric and I making another journey to beloved Palatine Illinois, this time for the first Blue Whiskey Independent Film Fest.  Lots of good films in store.

Filmmakers' Breakfast at the BWIFF

Billy's Pancake House and the Filmmaker's Breakfast, a great tradition reignited in Palatine.  The legendary Meat Lovers Skillet is always offered up as a challenge, and has over the years broken many a strong man and woman.  This year a young couple took it on together and are splitting a double bypass later.

Dinner Bell at the BWIFF

Dinner break at the Blue Whiskey Film Festival at a local microbrewery.  I have said before, you'll never go hungry in Palatine.

Live from BWIFF

Super-talented young filmmaker Matt Meindl and I got to meet up again at the BWIFF.  He always hunches over a little so I don't look so short.

Getting Spunky at the BWIFF

No trip to Palatine is complete without taking the uninitiated to Spunky Dunkers, a legendary 24-hour donut place where you can meet a lot of interesting people in the middle of the night (some pictured here).

Awards at the BWIFF

I saw a lot of top-shelf work at the Blue Whiskey Film Festival, so it was a tough night of judging after a twelve-hour day of screening Saturday.  Best of Fest went to a really crazy neo-noir called The Scenesters but Annabelle and Bear and Driver's Ed Mutiny also grabbed multiple awards.  Above is a guy who drove all the way from Detroit and, not knowing better, wanted me in his picture.

SPACE Men

Finally got done reading a great, and great big, stash of stuff I picked up at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo a while back.  I went with my trusty sidekick and actual cartoonist Tom Cherry for the second time together, my third overall. 

I would have to say I like the new venue even better, and the show has continued to grow.  I talked to several artists whose work is breaking into the mainstream but continue to return to SPACE as it is where they got started.  It's a good sign.  And there are plenty of young guns still coming up through the ranks.

I'm a longtime fan of John Porcellino's King Cat, and was glad to pick up new stuff from him there.  I have been a fan of Indiana cartoonist Pam Bliss for many years and enjoy talking to her and seeing her work.  Some new stuff I enjoyed--for art or storytelling or both--included Blue Wraith, Silver Comics, Imitari Project, Haunted House Heroes, Ten Gallon Tomb Raiders, Cragmore, and Gulatta.

Far and away the find of the show was Jim Rugg's lunatic Afrodisiac, a pitch-perfect send-up of 70s comics of all stripes.  Tom picked this up for me and is now my new BFF.

Next year I think Tom and I are going to try to have our own table there, where I will attempt to draw another 24 Hour Comic, I think. 

Even sooner you can catch me at the Blue Whiskey Film Festival in beloved Palatine, Illinois, where I will be a festival judge.  I always enjoyed visiting during Microcinema Fest there and shockingly haven't seemed to wear out my welcome yet.

Until later I am at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Ruff and Reddy

I wish I could say this was a fake picture, but I was taking a little nap on the floor on Father's Day and Bonnie sidled up next to me for some snoozing as well.  My wife was responsible for this blackmail photo.  Sweet Dreams and Happy Father's Day!

You Are Number Six

Two labyrinths in New Harmony, Indiana.  Spookiest place I have been in since I visited Salem Massachusetts a few summers ago.  I really can't put my finger on it except to say that the whole place kind of reminds me The Village from the classic show "The Prisoner," although I think the food and coffee is better here.

The Road to Utopia

Twilight at the Roofless Church in New Harmony, Indiana, the former site of a Utopian colony way down in the toe of the state.  My fear of getting hit by lightning entering a church greatly increased here.

The House the Otters Built

Checking out the Evansville Otters at Bosse Field, the third oldest ballpark in America (after Fenway and Wrigley).  Otters lose a heartbreaker but I make my second stop on my quest to break my former record and visit six ballparks this summer.

Live from the Queen City

Taking a break from a weekend trip to Cincinnati to read along with my daughter's college Young Adult Lit class.  Stayed in a cabin, boated, camped, ate ribs, went to Jungle Jim's and Ikea.  Feeding my head.

A Boy and His Dog

Reading "When Zachary Beaver Came To Town" at Whitewater Memorial State Park over Memorial Day.  Wife and daughter swimming down the beach, dog contemplating the mysteries of life.  I am reading "Zachary Beaver" and the rest of the syllabus alongside my daughter who is taking a Young Adult Lit class in college this summer.

The Man in the High Castle

Our annual Thanksgiving Axis and Allies game, a few months late as my brother couldn't make it this year.  My butt-whipping forestalled.  My brother and son teamed up to knock out the Axis on their second try at a D-Day invasion.  Always fun even when I go down in flames.

The Pacific, Hoosier Style

My brother and I tried the "Axis and Allies: Guadalcanal" game for the first time.  My Japanese air force got wiped out early on but held strong for a while; eventually, it ended up pretty much like you see on HBO's "The Pacific."  I don't mind losing when I'm the bad guys, though.

Live from SPACE #1

The dudes from Mean Goat Comics giving my 24 Hour Comic The Liberator some props at the Small Press and Comics Expo in Columbus Ohio.  See their own stuff right here.

Live from SPACE #2

Me and Pat Lewis, whose minicomic Thankless Job I've admired for a long time.  His other stuff is pretty good, too.  More of him here.

Live from SPACE #3

I've followed Indiana cartoonist Pam Bliss for a long time.  She told me when she googles her name, the last picture I took of she and I always comes up first.  Here's a fresh pic for her and me from the Small Press and Comics Expo in Columbus Ohio.

Live from SPACE #4

Me and Tom Scioli, whose The Myth of 8-Opus burned my brain about ten years ago, at the Small Press and Comics Expo in Columbus Ohio. Check him out here.

David Letterman and Me

I was asked by the Department of Telecommunications at Ball State to write an essay about my experience as a Letterman Scholar.  This is what I sent them.

1987 was a great year of my life.  In January I would go on a blind date with a young woman who had read my columns in the Ball State Daily News.  That summer I went on the Far East Exchange with Ball State and stood in Tian'anmen Square, a year before the tanks rolled in.  That October I married the girl I went on the blind date with, and we are still married today.

And one fateful Spring day I won a Letterman Scholarship.

I was an aspiring scriptwriter who was a fan of the radio dramas NPR was running at the time:  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars.  So I sat down and began writing West Coast Campus, a radio drama featuring a college newspaper reporter who was a smarter, funnier, and better-looking version of me.  I wrote it in longhand, then rewrote it while typing it up.  I wrote several episodes and ended up with about 100 pages.  Then I wrote a detailed synopsis of several more.  

But the day before the project was due I was afraid I didn't have enough heft in the submission so I wrote one more episode straight into the typewriter.  About 4:45 p.m. the day it was due I called the TCOM office and let the department secretary, Pat Hensley, know I was on my way.  She was willing to wait until I got there.  Then I jumped on my bicycle and raced to campus, delivering the 135-page project just in time, in true Hollywood style.

Fast forward to the Scholarship announcement.  Back then there were still faculty around who had known Letterman, like the formidable Dr. Darrell Wible.  He was in charge of the scholarship and was hosting. All the entrants had clips from their projects shown.  As I was the only script project, Dr. Wible lifted up my project in one hand and said "and here is a script project, West Coast Campus, by John Dalton," and dropped it on the podium with a flat, deflating slap.  I felt myself shrinking.  The common belief at the time was that video or film projects were going to win the scholarships.  I was the first person to submit only a script.

Back then you actually got a check for the scholarship, distributed each quarter.  Mine was $3,005.  With the first $1,000 check  I bought a 1980 Mercury Monarch.  With the second I paid for my own wedding.  With the third I actually paid for school.  With the leftover $5 I bought a pizza.

I also got a nice letter from David Letterman, with a collapsible cup, a sponge, and a cap.  I gave those things to my new brother-in-law, a big fan of the Letterman show.  But I kept the letter and the offer for tickets to the show.

 I was  given the number to the show's office and just called ahead for tickets.  I doubt they just give out that number today, but it was a different world then.  My new wife and I drove to New York for the first time over Spring Break 1988, with my younger brother and his friend in tow to split expenses.  We stayed in New Jersey and took the PATH train to Manhattan, getting off at the World Trade Center.  We went to the Statue of Liberty, looked for Woody Allen at the Carnegie Deli, took a trip by carriage through Central Park.  We were too afraid to hang around Times Square too long, a much different place then.

Late that afternoon we went to the show.  There was a long line to get into the little studio.  We strolled right to the front and told the guy we wanted the VIP line.  In world-weary New York fashion, the guy said "That IS the VIP line." 

We just scraped in.  We saw Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons.  Terrence Trent D'Arby sang a song.  Larry "Bud" Melman was there.  Chris Elliot popped out of a hatch in the floor.

My time as a Letterman Scholar did not end there.  As a conversation piece, I believe it gave me entry into my first job at WXOW in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  Having later worked at Ball State for sixteen years, I got to know and befriend other Letterman Scholars, an elite group. I have always been proud of the fact that I was the first person to win with a writing project, opening the door for others to feel they could win on merely writing alone.   I have gone into two colleagues' offices and seen similar letters from David Letterman hanging on their office walls.  It is something I still talk about with people today, even though it happened over twenty years ago now.

I sold my first screenplay in 1999.  Since then, I have been hired to write numerous Direct-to-DVD movies, available on Netflix, Amazon, video store shelves, film festival screens, and in dollar bins across America.  But I always say that David Letterman gave me my first paycheck, and the confidence to continue to work on my creative writing.

But As If To Knock Me Down, Reality Came Around

Knocked out by a sinus infection as winter slowly releases its grip on the Heartland of America.  Dwelling on happier days seems to help.  And, despite what was said on a recent episode of "Parks and Recreation" about time-shares in Muncie (yes, I am still vigilantly watching for slights against my hometown, Amy Poehler, and I died a little inside) we are hoping for sunshine soon.

A recent search on Bing, neighbor's daughter shows up at my door with debris from oak trees screaming, has to be an all-time classic and I'm sure has a complicated story all its own.  But sometimes people come here with questions about other John Daltons who have done much better than me in life.  But, as a public service, I will try to answer these questions as best I know how.

how tough is a hickory stump?
 I've had to pull a few stumps in my day, and there's no such thing as an easy stump.

 great criminal detective books?
So many, but here's five off of the top of my head:  The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler, The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich, The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett, The Heat's On by Chester Himes, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block.


unusual or whacky eating establishments in indiana?
I've tried many, but what comes to mind right away is Maid Rites just across the border in Greenville Ohio.

what other accompelments did john dalton have in his career?
Well, in addition to my sordid life in b-movies, I also like to draw comics.


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

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.

Some Stars That Fell From The Sky, Living Up On The Hill

Loyal readers of my blog know that I spent a few summer vacations working at the Microcinema Film Festival in Rapid City SD and later in Palatine IL; now that beloved Palatine crew have launched their own festival right here. These folks ran a nice fest, and I always enjoyed my visits to this lovely Chicago burb, so any of my filmmaking peeps reading, submit away.

We are finally coming out of a long cold sucko winter. It was so bad I actually felt better after watching The Seventh Seal on cable. I think I put a nail in winter's coffin after coming back from Fort Myers Florida yesterday, visiting my in-laws in a retirement community there. Feeling the sun on my face meant so much it doesn't even bother me that I got food poisoning and vomited one night.

I don't have a lot of wisdom to offer, but one thing I know is that you have to keep your mouth closed when you fill the water softener and change the cat litter. To this list I can also add that you should never eat at a seafood place that is adjacent to a flea market.

Speaking of microcinema, an old pal, Canadian filmmaker Jon Ashby, answers some of my earlier philosophical rants here (at least I think he wrote this after reading my blog).

I too hope I am coming out of a long hibernation. For the second time in the last five years I made monumental changes in my day job and took a year off from the freelancing world. Somehow, the direct-to-DVD market and Fangoria Magazine survived my absence. But that year is almost up, marking a triumphant return to a world that didn't notice I was gone.

More later; until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Canned Heat

Edison-Ford Winter Estates, Spring Break 2010. Who knew Henry Ford liked square dancing so much?

Book Beat

My latest column for POMP AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, the magazine for the Magna Cum Murder Mystery Conference:

LONDON BOULEVARD by Ken Bruen
Low-level thug fresh from jail lands a handyman job (of sorts) with a fading stage actress and her mysterious butler in Ken Bruen's London Boulevard.
Ken Bruen is a hard-boiled Irish crime writer whose novels about quasi-detective Jack Taylor I have enjoyed for a while; but they are so relentlessly cold-blooded I usually like to leave a little space between reading them.
In perhaps Bruen's only nod to whimsy (that I'm aware of), this stand-alone novel is based on one of my favorite films, Sunset Boulevard, recast for the hard-bitten underworld.
Strange as it sounds, it works, and allows Bruen to riff on other pop culture references from books, movies, and music, giving this noir a looser feel.
A good entry point to Ken Bruen and an enjoyable read overall.

9 DRAGONS by Michael Connelly
L.A. police detective Harry Bosch investigates a convenience store robbery that seems to have triad connections in Michael Connelly's latest thriller 9 Dragons.
I have been a longtime Connelly fan and find his Harry Bosch series one of the best contemporary mystery series (along with Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins stories). After a bit of a lull, his last several novels have come back strong.
This one is a real change of pace, as Bosch's ex-wife and daughter, now living in Hong Kong, get caught up in the action when the daughter goes missing. Bosch immediately takes off for Hong Kong and ends up on a nightmarish journey as the clock ticks and the bodies pile up.
9 Dragons is especially high octane, and I have always enjoyed Connelly's clipped journalistic prose. A good jumping on point for thriller readers, but more rewarding for longtime fans.

THE LONG FALL by Walter Mosley
Extremely tarnished P.I. Leonid McGill tries to go straight (or at least less crooked) when he gets wrapped up in multiple revenge plots in Walter Mosley's The Long Fall.
Mosley is one of my favorite contemporary mystery authors, and I have found his Easy Rawlins novels consistently good. In that series, Mosley traces the adventures of an L.A.-based quasi-detective from the end of World War II through the Red Scare and to the Watts riots and beyond. The political and social milieu of the Rawlins series adds much to the storytelling.
Here McGill is a contemporary detective, on the other side of the country in New York. And where the Rawlins series is shot through with hints of Chester Himes and Ross Macdonald McGill is much more Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Mosley's writing is equally admirable here and I thought this was a great start for what I hope is a new series.

NEMESIS by Jo Nesbo
Oslo's crumpled cop Harry Hole is back in Jo Nesbo's Nemesis, in which our troubled hero tries to get out of the frame for an ex-girlfriend's murder while tracking a murderous serial bank robber.
Nesbo's first Scandinavian thriller translated into English, The Redbreast, was one of my favorite books of the last year or so. The Redbreast dealt with the emotional and political repercussions of Norway's Nazi involvement in World War II. This new one picks up a lot of themes and characters from his previous novel but, lacking the historical context, doesn't have quite the dramatic resonance of the prior outing.
That being said, Nemesis is a crackling good thriller with a great protagonist that reminds me favorably of Michael Connelly's notable series detective Harry Bosch. I like moody Scandinavian thrillers as a change of pace from American writers, but find that Nesbo has more the stylings of his U.S. counterparts with breakneck storytelling, linear action, and sardonic humor.
Recommended, with the caveat that you should read The Redbreast first. I am looking forward to Harry Hole's next adventure.

ROAD DOGS by Elmore Leonard
A paroled bank robber readily slips into his old life with a fake psychic and her crime lord boyfriend even as the police have him in their sights in Elmore Leonard's easygoing crime novel Road Dogs.
I have been a longtime fan of Leonard, but in the latter part of his career he has been a bit hit and miss. This is a good novel for longtime fans, though, as it features a handful of characters from previous novels (including the George Clooney character from Out of Sight). However, for three quarters of the novel they stand around and assess each other's coolness and tell stories; only during the last bit of the novel does the story come to life with double and triple crosses and bursts of violence.
Overall an enjoyable tale, though again not at the top of Leonard's admirable bibliography.

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem
Frank Minna is a former minor criminal trying to become a major private eye in Jonathan Lethem's detective novel Motherless Brooklyn. But Lethem always bends genres and upends expectations, so Minna is dispatched in the early going, leaving his sidekick, an orphan suffering from Tourette's Syndrome, to find Minna's killer.
Very fine, offbeat novel from Lethem, paying homage to Raymond Chandler the way some of his other novels are nods to greats like Philip Dick (Gun, with Occasional Music), Steve Gerber (Fortress of Solitude), and so on. I enjoy how Lethem always writes a fully-realized worldview featuring Brooklyn past and present, which adds a lot to his work.
I am a big fan of Lethem and liked this novel about as well as I thought I would. Recommended.

CITIZEN VINCE by Jess Walter
On the eve of the 1980 presidential election, a semi-reformed criminal in the Witness Protection Program makes one last attempt to bury his past in Jess Walter's darkly comic crime novel Citizen Vince.
With its engaging characters, spot-on dialogue, and sense of time and place (early 80s Spokane) Walter brings to mind some of the best work of Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Ed McBain.
Really fine writing--especially in creating a parallel story between our protagonist's troubles and the Reagan/Carter race--gives Citizen Vince a more literary bent.

FOUR KINDS OF RAIN by Robert Ward
A broke but noble activist and therapist decides he's sick of both titles when he sees a chance to steal a priceless work of art from an unstable patient in Robert Ward's riveting modern noir Four Kinds of Rain.
I haven't found a lot of noir that I liked since the great Gold Medal era of pulp writing, but Ward's novel belongs on the list of contemporary classics. It compares favorably to another modern favorite of mine, Scott Smith's A Simple Plan, which features literary writing with genre trappings.
And Jim Thompson himself couldn't frown upon the unreliable narrator depicted here, whose vast narcissism and cold rationalization of his actions cause the events to unravel in the bloody final chapters.

HOUSE DICK by E. Howard Hunt
The house detective in a big Washington hotel helps a damsel in distress and ends up in the middle of robbery, extortion, and murder in E. Howard Hunt's muscular noir House Dick.
I am a fan of the Hard Case Crime line, which brings back forgotten pulps with lurid new covers, the perfect place for this story of the lost world of house detectives, hat-check girls, newsies, and lunch counter short-order cooks.
In the stranger than fiction category, this one comes from the pen of E. Howard Hunt, Watergate conspirator and very competent and prolific genre writer (under a number of pseudonyms). I have picked him up wherever I come across him and have always found his writing solid.