Beefamato / Theater Fire House Party

It's beefy! It's tomatoey! It's BEEF-A-MATO!
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The Theater Fire Live at a Swiss Ave House Party!



After hanging out and playing a bit of Guitar Hero at Bill Sebastian's birthday party, I hurried over to some house party on Swiss Ave to check out the last half of The Theater Fire. I like The Theater Fire.

After the set, when all the kegs were spent, I went over to the freezer to grab a beer for me and Nick (of TTF) and was promptly shot down. With a stern shake of the head, a confident college student bluntly stated, "I don't think so." For some reason I immediately started chuckling and retorted: "But it's for the band. The Theater Fire." And with the same stern look came the coup de grâce: "They've already been paid."

I'm glad I'm not twenty-one any more; otherwise, my feelings might have been hurt.

LSIFF.07 Day Five: Awards Brunch, Badlands, Low and Behold, and The Theater Fire Live!

The awards brunch at the Worthington Renaissance honored a number of filmmakers and festival films, including my friend, Bryan Poyser (pictured above left with his girlfriend--the other picture's a guy named Martin Sheen).

This has been quite a week for Bryan; for, along with his "Up and Comer" award at the Lone Star International Festival and his birthday, his intensely provocative and personal look at pornography, Dear Pillow has been officially released on DVD as of yesterday. What I really liked about Dear Pillow is Bryan's sincere look at the dirty, perverse aspect of it that we like to hide underneath our beds. Where do we draw the line between the sensual and the perverse? Is there a point at which we've become far too enthralled with the process of pornography itself and not so much with sexuality? I really think Bryan's film is especially important currently, due to all the sexual outlets currently available. Like a voyeur, Dear Pillow peeps into that seedy world we'd all just as soon leave in the closet or under the mattress.

Dear Pillow also features Bryan's shorts, Grammy's and Pleasureland.

Buy Dear Pillow here: http://hereticfilms.com/indie/films/dp/index.html

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I vaguely remember watching Badlands on television when I was a kid. I don't remember my reaction much, but I'm quite sure I wouldn't have liked it back then. Of course, anything formatted for my TV, edited and chock full of commercials isn't really worth seeing anyway. What really impressed me was Martin Sheen's brief speech before the film where he mentioned he was most proud of his work in this film, above all, including Apocalypse Now. Although, the only copy available was on DVD (Sheen wasn't too happy about this), I'm really glad I caught it on the big screen. It's really one of those films that needs to be seen, so if you haven't seen it, go rent it. After seeing the film as an adult, I suddenly found myself wondering what all the fuss was about with Natural Born Killers, for after viewing this film, you just don't need the Oliver Stone film. It's entirely unnecessary and arbitrary by comparison.

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I was really excited about finally seeing Barlow Jacob's Low and Behold, given its subject matter. Barlow plays a confused young man, Turner Stull, who travels to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to help his uncle adjusting hurricane claims. Working as an independent adjuster, Stull finds himself in a foreign, tragic environment full of hostile individuals who have lost all of their worldly possessions and homes, and some, even their families due to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.

Apparently, Barlow actually worked in Florida--not New Orleans--as an adjuster; and I've been told he really didn't like it. Due to the nature of my business--I'm in storm restoration--I quite related with the film, and although Barlow takes comedic license with his portrayal of adjusters and their practices, the responses met are probably quite true. I actually worked in Florida as well, although, I did not work in flood areas and my customer's were far better off than the ones portrayed in this film.

I'll actually be working with Barlow, who will star in an upcoming music video this weekend in Dallas. David Lowery is producing the project and I'm helping out. More details on that later.

For more information on this film, go to: http://www.lowandbeholdmovie.com/

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After the film, we all headed over to The Flying Saucer for the closing night party, featuring The Theater Fire! Everything I said about them before, still applies. They are absolutely the best thing going in Fort Worth right now. Each of the seven members are so talented when it comes to instrumentation. Most of them can--and do--play multiple instruments and a lot of times, uncommon and interesting ones. The melodic mixture of sound, coupled with the folksy vocals and daring lyrics, is really quite jaw-dropping. Many of the filmmakers and several of the celebrities I spoke to were going on and on about them. I really hope to see these guys succeed! Shout outs especially to Curtis and Jesse, my friends from way back (Jesse way, way back)!

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Fort Worth really needs this event. The Lone Star International Festival proved to be a success, according to all the filmmakers I spoke to, the sponsors, the celebrities and the hard-working volunteers who made sure the festival went off with a bang. There really weren't too many flaws or late-starting films. In fact, the worst I heard was a print for Da was lost and, oddly enough, Barak Epstein (who also worked on The Stranger and is currently in post for his feature, Blood on the Highway) ended up picking up a, get this, VHS copy at Premiere Video in Dallas. Other than that, the festival really seemed to take off without a hitch, and I'm really looking forward to it next year!

Lone Star International Film Festival

Fort Worth has brought back it's film festival! Now, instead of the Fort Worth Film Festival, it's changed its title to the Lone Star International Film Festival. It's next week--November 7th thru 11th--and should be a lot of fun.

A short film I helped produce is in the Texas DIY Shorts program, along with a whole slew of local filmmaker friends. Some other great films from talented individuals are also featured at the festival.

I'm looking forward to it and I hope to see some of you out there! Go support art, you bastards! There will be drink and merriness and festival parties as well!

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Come check out The Theater Fire at the Lone Star International Film Festival Closing Party, this Sunday, November 11th at The Flying Saucer in Fort Worth at 8pm.

Not only should it be an amazing concert, but you'll get to mingle with filmmakers and celebrities! Woo hoo!

The Theater Fire is best described as an alt country musical group; however, with a multitude of instruments and it's folksy, melodic tone, The Theater Fire packs a pure Texas country punch that's really undefined in any specific genre. They really are quite a treat and well worth checking out!

If you can't see them on Sunday in Fort Worth (or you just don't want to make the drive if you're in Dallas); well, you're in luck! They're also playing at world famous (okay, maybe not "world famous"--but it should be!) Lee Harvey's on Saturday, November 10th at 9pm.