A Scanner, like, Darkly

What up?

Ok, so,

Lets talk about Scanner Darkly. My pal Chris Rubin de la Borbolla seems to be smitten with it according to some Myspace messages he left me. However, Matt and I were talking the other night and it occurred to me that I like the movie because I really want to like it - and there is much to like - but it is ultimately a disappointment. Fans are hyping the film as the most faithful adaptation of Dick's work to film and that is true...too true. The movie is so preoccupied with being faithful to its source that it fails as cinema. The result is that, while Linklater captured nearly all of the text, he missed most of the heart. No one is more upset about this than I am.



Ok,

Speaking of movies,my pals and I made another 48 hour film this year. For those of you in Nashville, the films are showing Saturday through Wednesday at the Belcourt. Here is our info:

Group B
Mockumentary
"Uncovered Wagon: True Life on the Trail"

If you've never been check it out. These movies can be shockingly bad and amazingly great. Our group made a film 2 years ago and we won the award for best acting by a cast. Our approach is a loosely outlined plot with specific characters interacting in improvosational performances. I think the acting in our new film is as good if not better than in our last movie, "Super," which was about a group of superhero sidekicks on a weekend, new age, group therapy retreat.

Please go see our movie and vote us in for audience awards if you deem us worthy.

Also if any of you are on myspace, be my friend!
www.myspace.com/mightyjoenolan

The new issue of Nashville Arts mag comes out next week. I reviewed the "Found" show at Belmont and interviewed Bryce McCloud for the "In the Studio" section.

Also keep your eyes peeled for a Knoxville gallery roundup I just handed in for the new issue of Number.

I am watching "Pull My Daisy" right now. "Daisy" is an experimental film that documents a lot of random interaction by Beat Generation fixtures while Kerouac provides a loopy, sweet narrative voice over. I am also reading Beat Hotel, a great book about the Beats in Paris by Barry Miles who wrote the Burroughs bio "L'Hombre Invisible."




Be humble in your sleepy hands on this world.
Be a killer in Heaven.

Love, Joe Nolan

Who Watches the Watchmen?

What up?

Ok, so,

I went to Mama Mia for L-Ray's B-Day and had such a fun time with D and Jeff and Parker and Pip and Dan and Daniel. Only D and I had been before so everyone was really diggin on their first taste of that great grub. After, I promptly came home and fell asleep on the couch listening to some of the latest mixes of my new recordings.

Jerry had emailed me some links and they sounded great. Since I slept so long and started so early I was up at 6:30 today and listening to Brother Stair's Overcomer Ministry on the radio. I fell asleep listening to Coast to Coast (when I woke up at 3 and promptly dragged myself off to bed like a proper individual), but can't recall what they were talking about last night.

Brother Stair is an evangelist out of NC and he is really spooky. When I was writing for Black and White music in the early '90's I was pretty much a night owl and I would stay up late and listen to this guy talking about the end of the world and get all freaked out.

Speaking of night owls, I have just started reading The Watchmen. This graphic novel originally came out in the '80's and it is known as the first one to really break ground and be considered seriously as literature. This is also by Alan Moore who wrote From Hell, V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which are all amazing - especially From Hell - although the films of these books are hit and miss...



Be on the lookout for several doodlings I have floating around on the writing front.
I have 3 pieces coming out in the August issue of Nashville Arts Magazine and a piece about the 100 Artists See God show in the new Number. Download a .pdf here. For those of you into weirdness, I have a story on the history of the legendary New York Sqrat in the new edition Fortean Times. I think FT is available at Davis Kidd, I am still waiting on my copies to arrive from across the pond...

Anyway, I know that I threatened to have a bunch of "in progress" mixes etc. up here from the upcoming CD. But as of right now I have re-thought that idea and am probably going to wait 'til it's done.

As always, happy reading and don't be shy about leaving a comment.

Also, I saw Scanner Darkly this weekend. I love Linklater and Philip K. Dick. Many of you know that me and PKD go way back and I have collected several of his first editions. Scanner is one of his best and is THE BEST DRUG BOOK EVER WRITTEN. Right up there with Burroughs and Selby and Cocteau.



The film is hard to pin down. Some of the acting is pretty bad and the whole thing takes a while to get off the ground. The rotoscoping is sweet though and much of it is worthwhile. I definitely want to (and need to) see it again. Winona and Robert Downey Jr. are both really good and Keanu holds the center.

Be humble in your sleepy hands on this world.
Be a killer in Heaven.

Love, Joe Nolan

The Dissent of a Woman

What up yo?

Here we are again.

I am just dropping in to drop this text on y'all like a little joy grenade in the midst of your weekending.

It is beautiful here in Nashville today. I may be going to see the doc "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" later at the Belcourt. Harvey was going on about it at the party last night.

A bunch of us met for a bar b que at Doug's for Shane and Tony's Mom who has been up visiting from Baton Rouge. She looks a lot like Shane and it is interesting to get her up close reporting regarding Baton Rouge's populatiion explosion after Katrina.

Anyone interested in our new zine "Radically Shifted" should pick it up in the magazine rack at Davis Kidd, near all the other lit journals. The new edition comes out in August and will be written around the theme of "Desire".

Again if you are reading this, drop me a comment already, man.



I'm in the dark over here!!!!!

Be humble in your sleepy hands on this world.
Be a killer in Heaven.

Love, Joe Nolan