FUDGE

Hello again everyone,

I sit now in Phoenix, Arizona.  Trying to avoid the brutal brutal brutal blizzards of Omaha, NE.  I have never seen so much snow in my life.   I’m hear visiting friends and am going to see Sonic Youth this Tuesday.  YES! Speaking of Yes – They are on tour!  Maybe I should talk about my recent love for prog rock.  My great friend and mentor Dereck Higgins began introducing me to Genesis, Yes and King Crimson about two years ago.  I was completely hooked.  Something about it entirely captivated me.  The only problem I have now is that nobody else I play it for likes it.  It really turns people off unforunately.  So many times I have found the perfect moment with a friend.  I say “here, let me show you something really special… Listen to this.”  I put it on and the fucking hate it!  Absolutely hate it!

So I have decided I must spread the love to all of you – My blog kingdom.  Listen to some early Genesis – Listen to some Yes – Listen to some King Crimson.  TAKE THESE STEPS:

1. Make a fort in your room like this:

2. Smoke or do not smoke pot (This is optional)

3. Listen to one of the record all the way through, completely giving yourself to it’s story and dynamic. Try out Yes’s Close to the Edge, King Crimson’s Court of the Crimson King or Genesis’s Lamb lies down on Broadway.

ENJOY – tell me what you experience.  For nothing is more valuable then surrendering your time for an hour an dedicating it to something you had no part in creating.

As I have grown in age and knowledge, holidays have begun to mean less and less to me.  Christmas was my favorite holiday as a child.  I have so many amazing and magical memories.  The reason Lovely, Still takes place during Christmas was for that reason.  But now, as an adult, Christmas has its supreme bummer qualities.  The whole consumerism thing is ridiculous and I don’t really think people should be kind and jolly to each other only one time during a year.  You should always be a good person right?  Right.

Getting presents for people has become the most difficult.  As I don’t want to give some standard consumer gift that means nothing (Like a candle or coffee maker or something).  I have to spend a lot of time figuring out the best, personal gifts for my parents of significant other.  But I suppose it’s a good way to keep you focused on the people you love and the things they care about.

I’m also starting to understand the “Time of year for peace and love and being jolly” thing.  Maybe the reason this was created is because the winter time is so freaking miserable.  Omaha has been in the middle of a horrible snow storm for a week now.  But everyone still tries to be jolly.  They help each other push cars and always smile when you walk by them with your face freezing.  It’s pretty rad and, as a cherry on top, people make their houses really pretty and covered in light.  A big beautiful distraction for this horrible winter weather.

Anway, this entire post was just me procrastinating and distracting myself from actually thinking of honest “real” gifts to give the people I love.  I also don’t have money so I have to be really creative.

Someone just informed me my comments were turned to off.  Now they are on.  Feel free to comment whoever comes to this lonely site.

Nik

Hey everyone.  HERE IS A TRAILER for a new doc my friend Robb directed.  I went on tour with them and was a CAMERAMAN.

Reserve it, check it out, feel it.  CSS and TILLY both are the kindest, most inspiring bands I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.  And we all are really great at freaking out together.

Just saw Melt Banana again.  Truly one of the funnest bands to see live.  They are from Japan.  Really really amazing and loud and mind blowing. I can’t stop thinking about the show.  The first 1/2 hour they played in complete darkness with flashlights on their heads.  RAD!

Check out the live video Higgins took.

MELT BANANA LIVE IN OMAHA VIDEO

UPDATE:  I have two music videos planned to shoot in the next month, more info to come soon.  Really excited to be working with the bands I’m going to be working with.

Lovely, Still has a spring release in the US.

Finished the final touches on my Tony Millionaire script.  hope to be shooting a new feature soon.

Man, it has come to my attention that I am horrible at having a blog.  I just can’t seem to pry myself away from real life to do things in the digital world.  I spend a lot of time in front of the computer writing and working on the next projects.  So after that I really have no other desire than to go outside.

I’m really sorry for this lack of blog responsibility.  I will work harder.  Or I may just give up.  My original intent was to really give everyone an insiders look at the first time filmmaker world.  But the most I can say is that it is really hard and a huge struggle.  You fight and fight and have fun and you drink and you try to make the best film possible.  But then youre not really aloud to talk about it do to legal issues and what not.

I can say this.  Finishing your first film is really depressing.  I spent 8 years of my life dedicating every moment to making my first film.  Every new person or artist I met, every opportunity was somehow channeled into helping me create this film.  Now that it is over, I do not have that passion.  The lack of this passion can really bring you into a depressed state of most mortem.  So now I strive to find a new passion.  I believe at the moment it is Sock Monkey.  Either way the lesson I have learned is this:  With passion in your life, you feel fulfilled, content, happy.  A goal keeps you moving.  Positive intention makes it happen.  Without these things you can find yourself wandering around the mind maze… Lost – trying to find your way out of yourself.

OK – hopefully I knew update will come to.  LOVELY, STILL releases in the spring.  It played for a week in OMAMA and people DUG IT!!!

Nik

HELLO!!!  I just returned from a grand adventure in Brazil.  I post some pictures very soon.  I was attending the Sao Paulo Film Festival.  It was the first time I was able to watch the film with a foreign audience.  It was really great.  It was almost like watching the film for the first time.

I returned after 8 days to Omaha where Lovely, Still is now playing for a week long run in Marcus Theaters at Midtown Crossing.

It opened yesterday and plays until next Thursday.    It’s play times are 12:15  3:00  6:15  9:15pm

Please come and see it!  The more seats we sell the more support we will gain when the film officially releases nationally this spring.

Again we had a full crowd and many good things were asked and said at the festival.  I had a really wonderful experience with a woman who said the film helped her through some troubles she was going through in her own life.  Then we both hugged.

I feel really honored that the film pushed things forward and helped people in a positive way, rather than bring them down vibrationally.  It is common and almost expected to relate any artwork, film or otherwise, with ones own life.   So it’s important you push people forward rather than hold them back with anything you create.

The festival itself was great. Anytime you needed a ride they had a car service that would drive you around.  This was so much help.  The last evening I stayed I found out that people puke in the cars late night when they’re wasted.  Those drivers had to put with a lot.  So good job you guys!  BARF!

HEY EVERYONE!!!

I’m happy to announce Lovely, Still will be playing this Saturday at the Chicago film festival.

Saturday – October 17th – 5:00 PM

Martin and I will both be in attendance.  Martin is receiving a lifetime achievement.  Both my film, as well as North by Northwest (By Hitchcock!!) on Sunday the 17th, will be played.  What an honor!

What are we gonna do with all the undistributed films?  More and more I get articles and stories sent to me about the state of independent films and how none can attain distribution.  Good, interesting, unique and inspiring works are being disregarded.  Why?  It’s easy – Nobody goes and sees them.  They aren’t a good investment and the people who run distribution companies don’t love films.  They are businessmen.  So what do we do now?  What do the people who strive to push this medium in a new direction do?  The people who want this art form to not disappear and become TV.  It is hard.  But the truth is – We can’t blame the business.  We have to blame the people who are not interested in having a new filmatic experience.

I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 15 for one reason.  When I left the theater, after watching a powerful film (New or Old), I felt completely different than the way I walked in.  If the movie made me sad, happy, confused, anything I felt satisfied.  To feel a new feeling is more valuable then all the money in the world.  I worry that not enough people strive for this.  I feel nothing when leaving the theater after watching a mainstream film.

So here we are now.  On the brink of something new.  As more studios shut down the independent/artistic arms of their businesses and distributors stop buying more and more films we step closer to change.  What will the new movement be?  What will be the next change?  The next creative new?  It is up to us to answer this question.  I’m just putting the questions out there.  The sooner we figure it out – The sooner it begins and I promise you – the feelings it will bring will be priceless.  Prepare.  Think.  Create.