63 BR: Sealing in the Alamo, blocking out 6th street

As far as general progress at the Ritz is concerned, we're seeing lots of different stuff. The mezzanine level is getting some much needed attention as framing is going up for the back wall of Theater 1, the office, and the runner's station. Lots of drywall has gone up all over the theater, with theater walls getting double treatment. The kitchen/server/runner area downstairs and the service stairway have also seen a fair amount of drywall work. Also, there's been LOTS of cable and electrical work done. In fact, if you look closely at the theater walls in some of those photos, you can see where light fixtures will be installed.


Framing for the Theater 2 screen wall is almost complete. And the speed at which these drywall guys work, it will probably be completed by the end of the week. In fact, the next big deal in terms of construction will be the attention paid to that screen wall which will back up against Sixth street. Anyone who attended a late night screening at our old Downtown location is surely aware of the terrible bleedthrough problems we had with sound from both Cuba Libre and Speakeasy across the back alley. About this situation, Tim said "I'm simply not going to allow that to be an issue at the Ritz."

Since we are working with a building that was originally a theater as opposed to a parking lot (409B used to be a parking lot - in fact, if you looked closely on the floor of the entrance to the theater you could still see the parking stripes), the building itself is a lot more strong and thick. According to Tim, "What stops sound is heavy walls then air gaps and then more heavy walls." So the plan is to build a succession of walls so that sound insulation in theater 2 looks something like this:





A strong outside wall:
1. Air gap
2. Floor to ceiling triple layer sheetrock wall. "Each layer of the sheetrock is taped and floated," Tim explains, "and then the perimeter of the wall is filled with acoustic, sound blocking caulk."
A thick roof:
1. 12 inches of sound blocking insulation
2. Air cavity.
3. Thick, old stucco ceiling.



"We are going to get all of our heavy walls built, taped, floated and caulked," Tim told me, "and then we are going to go in on a busy Saturday 6th street night and listen. If we don't hear silence, we're going to build more walls."

New photos in the Flickr set.

An historic day at the Ritz: May 8, 1982

Every once in a while, I'll let my fingers do the walking and do a few random Google searches: my name, the Alamo Drafthouse, whatever. Last night I happened to let my attention drift and embarked on a Google search for the Ritz. I stumbled upon an incredible account on leftofthedialmag.com documenting May 8, 1982. That was the day that Randy Biscuit Turner booked the very first punk show at the Ritz, unknowingly ushering in the golden age of hardcore in Austin.

I'm more acquainted with the Jim Franklin days of 1974-1975 than I was with the brief but apparently white hot year of 1982 when punk exploded at the Ritz, so I devoured this article quickly. Before May 8, 1982, no sizeable venue was booking hardcore shows in Austin. Once the floodgates were open though, the Ritz hosted all of the legendary hardcore bands of the day: Minor Threat, Husker Du, the Misfits, the Circle Jerks and of course, Black Flag, until the police ended up shutting things down later that year.

The more I read about the Ritz, the more I get excited about our new home and the amazing, unique and varied history it's had. Once we open up, we'll be decorating select spots in the new space with photos of all the amazing eras of the Ritz, from the beginning days, the Jim Franklin years, 1982 and of course the post-punk metal years. I for one, can wait to get the doors open again to hopefully continue the story.


Read the complete article on Left of the Dial

70 BR - Concrete is in

Remember when I said "concrete is imminent"? Well, I neglected to say how imminent because I didn't know. Then I got an email from Tim last night, telling me that concrete would be pouring at 9 am today. "Daniel and I have been really killing it this week keeping the progress rolling at the Ritz," he wrote, and he wasn't kidding. When I was there on Tuesday they hadn't even put rebar down anywhere in Theater 1. When I walk in two days later, everything is covered in concrete and there are guys crawling over the wet cement, troweling away.




This is a big day for the Ritz. With concrete done, the rest of the major structural work can be finished. And Daniel tells me that they can start working on the cement as early as tomorrow.

72 BR - Concrete is imminent

Really, the next big step is getting concrete poured in Theater 1, the mezzanine, and the entrance to Theater 2. Once that is done, walls can be built in Theater 1, the stairs to both theaters can be built, and Theater 2's screen wall can be finished. When I was there, lips were being installed to the risers in Theater 1. Next the rebar will come in, then the concrete. After that, the rest is icing. Well, maybe a little more complicated than icing.



As for this past week, a bunch of foam insulation was sprayed into the theater. It is in all the important places to insulate against sound - roof, ceiling of kitchen and lobby (under Theater 2), and bathrooms (under Theater 1).Also, construction of the kitchen walls looks almost complete.


Workers were also finishing up the screen wall in Theater 1. It has holes in it for the speakers while the booth has its portholes in place as well. If you look at those portholes, is it definite there will only be two projectors in Theater 1. I know our collective fingers are crossed. In fact, yesterday I told Andrew that I had heard from a friend who works at an archive in San Francisco. I mentioned that she was rooting for changeover. His response was unmistakably nonplussed.

More info in the Flickr set.
Update: I have added an "alamoritz" tag to all Ritz photos.

Austin's King of Kong: Night 1

Wow. I just got out of the hosting the first two KING OF KONG Donkey Kong competitions, and all I can say is, "Dang!" Austin has some GOOD Donkey Kong players. How did this happen? Why Donkey Kong? For some reason, I can understand when people are masters of Ms. Pacman; I think it's just because I still see that game in the arcade.

Wait. Are there arcades anymore? I saw it in the arcades 5 years ago, anyway.

But Donkey Kong I haven't seen in decades. Personally, I forgot about just the second screen, when you have to make Donkey Kong fall on his head. Not these players, though, no way.

Bringing people up at random was pretty fun, and it let us watch a little kid play, who after successfully jumping two barrels and hearing the audience clap told us, "I'm really good because I have this game. I have it at home." That was nice.

Some of the Big Kong Champs couldn't handle the suspense of waiting to find out if their raffle ticket would get called out, though, so they started PAYING people for their winning ticket. One guy at the 7pm show paid $20 to play Donkey Kong. That's why I love this city: We take our classic arcade games SERIOUSLY.

The 9:45 show only had one guy who was able to make it past the 5 minute mark necessary to qualify for the finals on Sunday, but he was GOOD. He was the last one to play so I let him go for an extra few minutes, and I have a feeling that I'd still be down there watching him play now if we hadn't needed to start the movie. We'll see how it shakes down on Sunday afternoon...

Trapped in the Closet DVD Release Party!

Hey, check it out, I totally got quoted in the New York Times! Hollah!

Seeing as how the Times is the paper of record and I was quoted in their story on Trapped in the Closet, I like to think that that makes me an official piece of the R. Kelly story and a true Trapped scholar. And from this lofty, breezy perch I feel that I have the authority to tell you that YOU HAVE TO COME OUT TO OUR DVD RELEASE PARTY FOR THE NEW CHAPTERS!!!

Because... seriously - there are now 22 chapters of this insanity and (not realy a spoiler but an alert nonetheless) it still doesn't end!!!!!

If you want to ruin the screening for yourself, you can watch some of the chapters online at IFC.com, but personally, I'm remaining a Chapter 13 virgin until midnight on Monday night when I can see it in all its glory on the big screen at the South Lamar theater.

Wanna join me? Tickets are totally free, but you can reserve yours by prepurchasing a DVD of the new chapters from Waterloo Video on our website at this link. If there are any seats left on the day of the show, we'll be letting them go on a first come, first served basis. DO NOT MISS OUT. This is the party of the month no doubt.

Hot mess! Remind yourself where we left out by rewatching Chapter 12 now:

Hey Jonah Hill - that shirt is SUPERBAD!

Both our South Lamar and Village theaters are getting ready for SUPERBAD, which opens this weekend. As I was watching some of the youtube interview clips from the stars' press junket I noticed that Jonah Hill wore an Alamo Drafthouse Badass Cinema T-shirt all damn day long! Thanks Jonah. We'll give you a free pizza the next time you stop by. The last time he stopped by, he and costar Michael Sera recorded a foul mouthed "Don't talk during the movie" clip that you'll just have to come to the Alamo to see.

Here's Jonah and Michael being interviewed by HOT FUZZ director Edgar Wright who, come to think of it, has been to the Alamo a couple of times himself.

More Fantastic Fest titles announced!

The 2007 roster is starting to really take shape. Below is a list of another 14 features, 11 new shorts and a bunch of confirmed special guests. We'll have the complete roster up online by September 1 and there are still lots of titles yet to come.

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS
1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA Retrospective
The label said it all: Nikkatsu akushon. Nikkatsu was a studio that had been around since the silent days and akushon was "action," written in the katakana alphabet for foreign words. During their peak, from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Nikkatsu action films evoked a cinematic world neither foreign nor Japanese. It was a mix of the two, where Japanese tough guys had the swagger, moves, and even the long legs of Hollywood movie heroes. It was a place where the Tokyo streets, Yokohama docks, and Hokkaido hills took on an exciting, exotic aura, as though they were stand-ins for Manhattan, Marseilles, or the American West.

The aim of this retrospective series, first presented at the 2005 Udine Far East Film Festival, is not to challenge the critical consensus, but rather to broaden the discussion by presenting a representative non-Suzuki selection from all periods of Nikkatsu Action. And by doing so, we hope to provide an opportunity for Western audiences to discover some surprising new classics of Japanese genre cinema, and hope that these dramatic, stylish, and entertaining films might some day stand alongside those already enshrined in the critical canon and eventually be made available on home video for a new generation of enthusiastic fans.

With NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA author Mark Schilling live in person to introduce each film.

1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA Retrospective
A Colt Is My Passport (Colt wa ore no passport)
Vicious Japanoir that cuts like a samurai sword dipped in gunpowder. When the most badass hired killer in Japan (genre icon Jo Shishido) takes down a rival boss, you better believe there's going to be a showdown - yakuza style. A hyper-stylish existential parable with an explosive climax on the beach as Shishido faces off against a bulletproof limo full of gangsters. This is Japanese crime at its most hardcore - lean, sparse and merciless. (Lars)

1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA Retrospective
Velvet Hustler (Kurenai no nagareboshi)
One of the reasons I watch gangster movies is to become cooler. And Tetsuya Watari's performance in the lead is like a master class on how to look totally unconcerned until it's time to take care of business. He's probably the laziest protaganist I can think of in any Yakuza movie. He takes frequent naps, with his slouch hat pulled over his eyes and a cigarette burning away on his lip. And when he hits the dance floor - you won't believe it. But when the fiancee of a missing millionaire (played by the
supernaturally ravishing actress Ruriko Asaoka) shows up playing detective, he totally loses his cool over her. This movie combines gorgeous new wave editing and cinematography with an unhurried, character-driven approach that's thoroughly appealing. (Lars)

1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA Retrospective
Warped Ones (Kyonetsu no kisetsu)
"An important rediscovery on many fronts." - Tim Lucas, VIDEO WATCHDOG.
This may be the first Japanese punk film. The aesthetic reflects the new freedom felt by many world film makers when the import of Godard's early films asserted itself. So you'll see a much more wide open approach to composition and editing, as classical modes are trampled. And onscreen, traditional relationships and social contracts are ripped apart and tossed to the wind. The story of three juvenile delinquents who transgress all legal moral and sexual codes jumps like the jazz beat that propels it. Released in the U.S. as WEIRD LOVEMAKERS! (Lars)

Death Note
Based on the wildly popular Manga, DEATH NOTE's plot is formulated on the somewhat dubious premise of a magical book that has the power to kill anyone who's name is written inside. The premise however merely serves to set up the tense psychological battle between Light, the owner of the book who has decided to use the strange power as a vigilante executioner; and "L," the enigmatic, incognito mastermind of the police dragnet. A smash hit in Japan, DEATH NOTE was quickly followed up with the continuation "DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME." Additional sequels are in the works.

Death Note: The Last Name
Without missing a beat, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME picks up where its predecessor left off. Tatsuya Fujiwara, who splashed onto the Japanese genre-cinema map with his turns in the two BATTLE ROYALE movies, returns as the brainy but possibly power-mad Light Yagami. His campaign of extermination against the wicked has not been without consequences, and the careful game of cat-and-mouse using human lives as decoys has become increasingly complicated. Light recognizes that hiding in plain sight is the best tactic.

The Devil's Chair
From Adam Mason and Simon Boyes, creators of the 2006 Fantastic Fest fave BROKEN, comes a wildly inventive psychological horror/thriller that keeps you in suspense until the final turn. Nick West (Andrew Howard) has been imprisoned for the brutal murder of his girlfriend, despite his contention that there were supernatural factors at play. Released to the care of a research psychologist, Nick is taken back to the scene of the incident to face his demons, perhaps literally, perhaps figuratively. Is he a cold blooded killer or is does this location hold a phantasmagorical portal to an alternate universe? (Tim)

Dog Bite Dog
I first saw this film at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film this year and it struck me like a bludgeon to the face. THIS is the kind of action I wanted to see in Jet Li's UNLEASHED: white-hot, gruesome, bone-crunching animalistic fury. DOG BITE DOG delivers just that, and as a bonus, there's none of the Morgan Freeman sappy sentimental crap to temper it. From its beginning to the rIdiculously over-the-top finale, DOG BITE DOG plays it mean and strong. Fans of Hong Kong action will hardly recognize Edison Chan (GEN-Y COPS) as the feral killing machine; a far cry from the airbrushed teen-idol persona he's known for. (Tim)

The Girl Next Door
Summer, 1958. David, a 12-year-old boy living in the American suburbs, occupies his free time hanging around with three brothers living in a neighbouring house. When the trio of brothers learn that their recently orphaned cousins will be coming to live with them, they secretly hope that the prettier of the two girls will enlighten them about the mysteries of the human female. Her aunt Ruth seems to take perverse pleasure in humiliating the pretty teenager she has adopted, in full view of her three sons and of course David. But what begins as conventional if rather excessive domestic discipline rapidly becomes monstrous and sadistic torture. Discovering that his three friends have begun participating in the horrific acts of their mother, David comes to the realization that only he is in a position to save the poor girl from the clutches of her family.

À l'intérieur (Inside)
Hailed by Fangoria horror film critic Alan Jones as “the goriest film since Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive,” À l'intérieur is a fresh work of Caesarean terror that reaches beyond the current American horror trend of Saw or Hostel. Maury and Bustillo, like Haute Tension’s director/writer team of Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, are die-hard genre fans – and their passion shows. À l'intérieur also shares Haute Tension’s editor Baxter and composer François-Eudes Chanfrault, responsible respectively for jackknife edits and a pulsating score that hits nerve-shattering notes. Dalle’s insane menace and Paradis’s determined survival involve highly physical and exhausting performances. They drive the narrative forward with gut-wrenching force, tapping into a primal fright factor. (Colin Geddes, Toronto International Film Festival)

Maiko Haaaan!
From the screenwriter of Yaji and Kita and the absolutely sublime Ping Pong comes a manic, unhinged saga with enough plot twists and turns to fill out 3 or 4 Hollywood films. Maiko Haaaan manages to pack it all in by running at a manic, coke-fueled 78 rpm pace. Silly, electrifyingly, vibrant , manic and VERY Japanese, Maiko Haaaan! follows salaryman Kimihiko Onizuka (veteran comedian Sadao Abe) on his single-minded quest to experience the ultimate Maiko (apprentice Geisha) experience. (Tim)

Never Belong To Me
Here's a weird one for you. And with the vogue for Korean genre film at its apex it should be just a matter of time before we get an official Hollywood remake. It has all the elements that American mallgoers love: a woman getting raped by a tiger (and a dog for good measure), a sex-maniac murderous feral helf man/half tiger who spouts philosophical nonsense, a foxy reanimated cyborg streetwalker who's just out for a good time and a guy who shoots bullets out uf his robotic penis when he comes - which is pretty much whenever he sees a picture of a ballerina. There's not a major committment to realism at work here - but that's good. This violent, transgressive imaginary world is much better than the real world, if considerably more dangerous, particularly for anyone who has sex with Mr. Penis-gun, and he just gets hornier and hornier... (Lars)

Rug Cop
Director Minoru Kawasaki is no stranger to the absurd. His earlier comedies CALAMARI WRESTLER and EXECUTIVE KOALA both featured giant anthropomorphic creatures injected into straight-faced, real-world situations with a knowing wink to the audience. Tackling fresh territory, the Japanese director's latest oddball effort, THE RUG COP (Japanese title: Zura Deka), features a crack police detective who has harnessed the crime-fighting power of his ill-fitting toupee by using it as a projectile weapon. THE RUG COP is further proof that Kawasaki is one of the brightest comic filmmaking talents in Japanese cinema today.

Weirdsville
Directed by Alan Moyle (Pump up the Volume), Weirdsville is set in the small prairie-town of Weedsville, crammed with freaky oddballs, strange occurrences, and not a lot of ambition. Dexter and Royce are your typical disaffected slackers. Chances are they would have continued to drift through life in a dope-filled haze if Matilda, Royce's girlfriend, hadn't O.D.'d on their stash. Knowing that calling the police will only land them in jail, Dexter and Royce decide the only thing to do is bury her in the basement of the drive-in theater that's closed for the winter. Their plan would have worked too, if they didn't happen to stumble upon a Satanic cult performing a ritual sacrifice and an angry mob of mace-wielding dwarves.

Confirmed Shorts:
Apnee
Demonology of Desire
Gary's Touch
King in the Box
Monster Job Hunter
Mebana
Postman
Raymond
Tale of How
Tyger
Xpression

Confirmed Guests
Maurice Devereaux (End of the Line)
Damon Vignalle (The Entrance)
Phil Mucci (Far Out)
Greg Swinson (Five Across the Eyes)
Ryan Thiessen (Five Across the Eyes)
Sandra Paduch (Five Across the Eyes)
Mark Eberle (Flight of the Living Dead)
Gregory Wilson (Girl Next Door)
Mike Williamson (In the Wall)
Ryan Shifrin (King in the Box)
Karim Hussain (La Belle Bete)
Yehudi Mercado (Monster Job Hunter)
Uwe Boll (Postal)
Zack Ward (Postal)
Adam Green (Spiral)
Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2)
Mark Schilling (Author: No Borders; No Limits)
Harvey Fenton (founder Fab Press)
Todd Brown (founder, Twitchfilm)

Dorkbot Opening Party
We are also proud to announce that the opening night party will feature an electronic onslaught by Dorkbot Austin. This town is a hotbed for the crossover intersection of creativity and electronics/engineering professionals. What that means for us is a chance to sip cocktails while cheering on the loud, crazed and potentially dangerous robotic shenanigans of Austin's nerdcore elite. Tesla coil in attendance, no pacemakers allowed.

We've got LOTS more movies, special guests, parties and special events yet to confirm, so check back here often. Fantastic Fest will be here before you know it, and we'll be posting updates to this website with much greater regularity in the weeks to come.

We hope to see you in Austin on September 20!

79 BR - Drywall is the word of the day

Maybe weekly visits will be more exciting than going three days a week. When I walked into the Ritz today I saw a lot had been done. That doesn't mean that a lot isn't being done normally. But when you've been away for a week, more bigger, noticeable stuff is done. I'm positive that a lot of electrical work has been done, but except for some wires sticking out in various places, you can't really see that. And it doesn't photograph very well, either.






The big stuff that's been done over the past week: Theater 1 is almost ready for concrete. Daniel says the hope is to get it poured by next week. This includes the last portion of Theater 2. After that, the stairs to both theaters can be built. But drywall is already going up in various parts around the theater. There's drywall going up in theater 1 and in the theater stairwell. Insulation is being put into the kitchen, so plumbing and electrical work must be done in there.

You may have noticed that the countdown has changed. Keeping up with my previous countdown would have had us at 10 BR, and there's just no excuse big enough for that kind of delusion. So I, again arbitrarily, chose a date in late September and ratcheted up the countdown to reflect that. And just like last time, this is not a countdown to an official opening date. One has not been set. A little blurb about the Ritz in the latest Alamo calendar said it would open "late September, early October." It sucks that I have to use the calendar as a source, but that's really as close as anyone can tell me about opening the Ritz.

New Flickr pics exist.

Behind the scenes: KING OF KONG Tournament

People often ask what it's like to work for the Alamo and do all this crazy stuff that we do. Well, with KING OF KONG opening next week, it's probably a good opportunity to give you some insight into the way our crazy gonzo promotions work. It's much more of a flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants thing than you might expect. But we're strangely proud of our staff's ability to do this kind of thing. So here's the story of KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS and our quest for a working Donkey Kong machine to give away at our Sunday, August 19th screening.

This last year at SXSW, the big buzz movie was KING OF KONG, a documentary about a couple of guys who are really, really good at playing Donkey Kong. It's actually a movie of rare power and a bigtime stunner. And we knew we had to have it. So, thanks to our friends at SXSW and Picturehouse we have the film for a full-on run at South Lamar, starting August 17. And it stands to reason that since we love it so much, we must do something special around this film. Something like a Donkey Kong tournament, with the champion taking home a vintage Donkey Kong arcade machine.

First things first, find a Donkey Kong machine. Easy, right? First we looked around the Central Texas area for vintage DK machines in good working order.

Nope. Closest one was Tulsa and it was outrageously expensive. Since it seemed like that trail might be cold, we started a parallel project of repurposing an old Yie-Ar Kung Fu machine we've had sitting around the office for years. But then our tech guru Andrew cracked it open and discovered that inside was just an old PC and the thing was doghouse engineered together with duct tape and thumbtacks. Not much of a prize. Uh-oh.

So the search continued for a passable machine in the Austin area, with jack-of-all-trades Thomas Hanawa doing most of the legwork. Still no luck in the Austin area. But then general manager Mike Sherrill had an idea to look along the route of our Rolling Roadshow tour. Possibly something could be located in a city that the roadshow is passing through. Sure enough, in Baltimore a beautiful machine was located. And the Roadshow just happens to be in Baltimore prepping for the John Waters marathon. So arrangements have been made for the tour folks to wrangle the Donkey Kong machine out of a suburban Baltimore home and cart it across the country to be awarded to the Austin Kong champ.

But that's not the end. According to Andrew, it turns out that we won't be able to patch a video signal from the Donkey Kong console machine to the big screen for our tourney. Fortunately we still have the Yie-Ar Kung Fu machine, which we can put a video-out card into. So while Andrew finds and downloads the ROM-ware, Thomas furiously rebuilds the interface and redoes the cosmetic details on the outside of the box. So, in a few days we will have not one but two Donkey Kong machines. We'll be giving away the nice one to one lucky (and highly skilled) fan. Best of all, real deal King Of Kong Steve Wiebe will be here on Sunday night to give the bad boy away.

Aha! Looks like we've yoinked victory right out of defeat's choppers! Take that, adversity!

And the best thing is: the other one will live right here. In our office. Forever and ever. Amen.

Oh and speaking of the KONG, awesomeness lives HERE.

86 BR - Theater 1 is looking like a theater!

It seems my last post caused a controversy. Not only are there some very impassioned comments posted to 31BR about the lack of changeover in theater 1, but when I showed up to work yesterday Andrew greeted me with a very dry, "It's Afsheen, the blogger." He said that since I wrote about changeover at the Ritz, he's been getting phone calls from "everyone." Andrew wanted to clarify that he is "open" to the idea of having changeover, it just depends on many factors, the main one being space.

I brought up the issue when I saw Tim in Santa Cruz and he told me that the Alamo Drafthouse has signed contracts to go digital in 2008. I should have pressed the matter about losing changeover in the big house, but failed on that account. I think I got sidetracked raising a screen or something. I have since asked if he had any comment on this and he said "not yet." Both Tim and Andrew seem to have a "wait and see" attitude about this as Tim also gave me the impression that changeover in theater 1 is not ruled out. More on this as it develops.

As for what's going on at the Ritz right now: Pretty much all of the framing for theater 1 is done. The theater's side walls have to wait until concrete is poured, but the entire screen wall, stage and risers for the seating are done. And theater 2 needs its screen wall, also waiting for a last concrete pour in there. Plumbing work is coming along and it looks like almost all of the water lines are in. We're still waiting to tie into the water mains, but Daniel assured me that progress is being made on that front. Air conditioning work continues, and guys were climbing around in the attic doing who knows what kind of duct work up there.


In the lobby, you can see where the bar is going to be. Mike Lucas, who you may know from our downtown kitchen, will be our head bartender. He's going to be meeting with Mike Sherril at the Ritz this week to go over bar design, so things in that area should be shaping up pretty darn quick, too.


More details accompany the Flickr pics.

Rolling Roadshow Tour 2007: third dispatch

There are few pleasures in life more complete than sitting in a hotel room on a sweltering Kentucky night, watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS on Lifetime Network and nursing the bruises and damage of the Roadshow Tour. Our most damaged soldier is likely Tim League, whose fearless pie-eating prowess at STAND BY ME stretched him to the literal limits and left the Oregon blueberry industry in a serious slump. The entire town of Brownsville brought out an unimaginable level of hospitality and energy to the show, resulting in an event that managed to warm even the ice-cold hearts of the Alamo staff. Every citizen of that place is a damned superhero. And our own Tim Doyle charmed a large portion of the local female populace.

Next, we were off to pick up comrades Justin and Christi and scoot up to none other than Mt. Rushmore to present NORTH BY NORTHWEST in front of a few stony presidential faces. The amphitheater there was impressive and completely inaccessible to our standard projection set-up, but things were made good and the screening was miraculously pulled off with all the proper Roadshow panache. And a few long-distance Alamo pals crossed state lines to be there for the show, along with a few hundred red-blooded Americans. The after-party was at an old-timey ragtime bar where the musical entertainment told foulmouthed jokes and covered Neil Diamond jams on a Casio keyboard. If this doesn't sound like fun to you, get out of our house.

Now we're one day away from our most high-security presentation, GOLDFINGER at Fort Knox! We're preparing in Elizabethtown, and making sure that we're all gonna be able to clear the security checkpoint. Wish us luck.

Patriotically,
The Alamo Rolling Roadshow Tour 2007 crew

2007 Rolling Roadshow Tour: Stand By Me

I must say, Stand By Me has been the highlight of the tour so far. In the history of the Rolling Roadshow, never before had we teamed up with such an enthusiastic, like-minded bunch as the Stand By Me committee of Brownsville.

We rolled into Brownsville the night before the show, and the excitement was palpable. There's only 1400 presidents of Brownsville, and every last citizen seemed to be involved in some way. Normally, we roll into a town and we're lucky if the local hipsters have caught wind of the event. The Brownsville posse seemed to have every man, woman and child within a 30 mile radius not just informed, but actively engaged in the event. Every storefront was decked out with Stand Be Me memorabilia and window displays, there were markers for photo-ops to recreate specific scenes from the film and signs posted for the various special events planned for the following day.

The rest of the crew sat down for a meal at the one restaurant on the main street in Brownsville, but at that point, I had been fasting for 24 hours in preparation for the IFOCE sanctioned world Blueberry Pie eating contest (more on that later) and ate just a side salad.

We set up our rig in the park and made it back to the Brownsville Saloon for our ritual post-set-up round or two of cocktails before calling it a night (my fasting technique allows for unlimited liquids).

The next day was a whirlwind: scavenger hunts, sock hops, hot wheel races, cast and crew reunions, classic car cruise-ins, and then the double feature of main events. First, at 6:00 PM, the IFOCE-sanctioned World Blueberry Pie Eating competition. This is the first (and maybe the last) hands-free event in the history of the federation. The field was comprised of 14 professional eaters, featuring some very strong regional professionals as well as veterans Crazy Legs Conti and Pat Bartoletti (#3 eater in the world, a dessert specialist and the odds-on favorite to take the event). In addition to these athletes, I also decided to enter my first professional contest. Borrowing a singlet from Alamo programmer Zack Carlson (formerly used in his victorious hamburger battle against an actual hog), some spray paint from the Brownsville Hardware Store and a completely inappropriate haircut for a 37 year-old man, the Glory Chomper was born. Every IFOCE eating competition begins with the crowd standing for the Star Spangled Banner. As there was no other flag, my pasty torso and skin-tight star-spangled singlet served as the American flag for the crowd of nearly 700 spectators. Every man, woman, child and competitive eater saluted my crotch for the duration of the anthem. This may have been the single greatest moment of my life.

I was totally psyched and ready: I had followed the "Joey Chestnut-approved" fasting method, I had my beverages ready and my swimming goggles on to protect against pie-splatter. What I wasn't prepared for was just how damn sweet blueberry pie is. I held my own for the first pie, the first "slice" was delicious, the second, very tasty, but as I licked the first tin clean, I had eaten all the pie I wanted to eat, and there was 6.5 minutes left in the 8 minute contest. Bartoetti was nearly finishing his second pie when I finished my first and my pace was slowing fast. Clearly, I am not a competitor in the professional eating arena and I am certainly not a dessert specialist. In the middle of the second pie, I was laboring. I was not full in the least but was 100% sick and tired of blueberries. The pros would only stop for liquids after finishing a complete pie. I needed to take the equivalent of a smoke break every 3-4 bites to drink enough skim milk to wash the taste of pie from my system. I finished the contest with 2.5 pies down my throat, about 3 pounds of pie consumed.

Pat Bartoletti took home the gold with a staggering 9.2 pounds of pie in 8 minutes, this after stopping earlier that day at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland for a morning pastry binge. I think I will stick to the savory arena for my next eating challenge.

Following the eating contest, we all headed over to the screening location for the movie and watched Stand By Me and then back to the Brownsville Saloon for the Dewar's after-party. Sometimes the show days are so stressful and intense that the crew can only enjoy them after the fact, but this one I savored from beginning to end. Thanks to everyone who came out and especially thanks to Brownsville for partnering with us on the event. I cannot imagine another show on this tour being better than Stand By Me.

Photos from Stand By Me