Golden Blade 3

TJ Wiedow's Golden Blade 3 is the third part (of course) to his fantastically entertaining Golden Blade series. TJ, who lives in Asheville, is for my money the most talented filmmaker in the region. As a director he is amazingly dynamic ... and the fact that he does it all with very little budget to speak of makes his achievement all that much more incredible.

Full disclosure: I'm TJ's buddy, and helped him with his movie. But he's helped me with mine, too ...

Filmed in the highlands of North Carolina, Golden Blade 3 showcases some of the most amazing locations from this area ever put on tape. The movie occasionally shows its low budget, but the ingenuity and raw imagination far outweighs any money issues.

Even better, the movie is just smart.  Written by Wiedow and  Jason Greenalch, the script takes surprising turns, and comments wryly on everything from familial relationships to romance.

Showing soon at the Action on Film Festival in Los Angeles in July, Golden Blade 3 is the purposefully whacked tale of a man, a sword, a girl, and a gorllia. Or something. But that's the fun: it's a spoof. Or is it?

Brilliantly, TJ gets to have it both ways. A goofy action flick, a kung fu spoof, or an incredible independent film? All of the above.  Somebody give that boy a budget! And get the movie from WWW.GOLDENBLADE3.COM

A Seminal Rock Critic Needs Help

Like film criticism, serious rock music criticism has fallen away in recent years. With Roger Ebert the only serious (to my mind) film critic still around, the art of true journalistic rock criticism seems to be a thing of the past as well. Now, one of rock music's seminal pro's needs your help: Paul Williams, the founder of Crawdaddy! magazine is in ill health.

Most often associated with it's early championship of Bruce Springsteen and Phillip K. Dick, Paul's magazine was a counter-cultural rag much like the young Rolling Stone; back when Lester Bangs was a regular contributor, and Dave Marsh was still listening to the MC5, and Iggy Pop was still rolling around onstage in broken glass, Paul was more than a rock critic -- he was a cultural signifier.

In the words of journalist Bob Hill, "Paul Williams’ pieces weren’t just about music. They were about faith and struggle, religion and redemption, life and death, love and loss. They were about all the major themes that great songwriting is about. But Paul had the space and the freedom to go even deeper; to explore what exactly was at stake in every song and how—on any given night—rock ‘n’ roll had the power to break down the walls that kept people boxed in; to show us the edge without pushing us over."

Due to a head injury suffered in the late '90's, Paul now needs constant, round-the-clock care. As a writer, he never made much money, and now his medical bills are mounting. Please take a look at the following links, and maybe think about writing a check to help out one of music criticism's greatest.

Go to HERE to read more, or take a look at PAULWILLIAMS.COM to help out the man himself.

Facebook Phobia

I don't know about you, but is there something icky about the plethora of all the social networking sites and their recent extreme popularity? I mean, we all love our friends -- they're our guides, our mentors, our compatriots. But do we really want to know what they had for breakfast? (If I ask -- absolutely, I do want to know. But please don't volunteer that info, and don't send it to a hundred of your buddies.)

Of course, this message is being written on a so-called social networking site, so there is some irony here, but the narcissism of lists like 25 Things You Didn't Know About Me and other minutae seems a little excessive. And that's not including the little fingernail parings of 'communication' called Twitter.

We all like to be noticed and we all want to have a public face, but in my estimation, there's a cost; it seems to cheapen the real, authentic communication going on around us. Phone calls, personal emails, a real conversation between real people -- that's the goal, that's the good stuff. A contentless post going out to all our 'friends' just seems to be a waste of my, yours, and everyone else's hard won time and concentration.

Of course, like a good friend told me last night, "For better or for worse, it's the way things are done now." So I'll reluctantly join Facebook (but not Twitter; hell no.) I'll reconnect with some old friends I should have connected with already. But to me words and feelings are precious; communication is vital. I don't want to cheapen my real emotion for my friends with faux information and idle chatter. And no, I don't want to know what you had for breakfast.

But maybe that's just me.

Hatchfest Asheville

So, the weekend of 4/17/09 in Asheville was pretty much all Hatchfest, all the time. If you don't know, Hatchfest was started by local artist and businessman Sean O'Connell to highlight the interdisciplinary coolness of film, dance, fashion, music, architecture and so on. Of course I spent all my time with the filmmakers -- mostly a bunch of Sundance vets who brought their fabulous films (and even more fabulous approaches and inspirational stories) to our fair city.

Adrian Belic, who masterminded the incredible Genghis Blues, Marianna Palka, with her wonderful film Good Dick, Talmage Cooley (who's about to hit it big with Patriotville) -- these filmmakers showed us local rubes how do do it with style and panache.

Perhaps the best thing I learned was how to keep from being a jaded, 'been there done that' type, and re-engage in the wonder of sharing film festival horror stories, trade secrets and just stupid jokes with my fellow storytellers. And to see some cool movies.

Being an artist is hard enough, of course, without feeling like you're completely alone. It was a very inspiring time to be with these intelligent, faith-affirming artists, and to re-learn the joy of sharing. It's easy to succumb to being jaded and cynical, so it was really good to reconnect with the simple pleasures of being with someone who has walked some of the same paths that I have.

Thanks to all the Hatchfest guys for making it happen. You made a difference!