Status reports

Since I just got the main site blog up and running I'll start by copying the past few entries from the Myspace blog. From now on they'll be one and the same.

Thursday, April 12, 2007


Comings, Goings, reviews

We've got a couple days before our next round of interviews, so my body decided that its a great time to catch a nagging cold. Nevertheless, its provided me with a great excuse to catch up on some old film's I've never seen and to brush up on some theory.
Finally got around to "Rio Lobo", which I have to say has to be the worst John Wayne/Howard Hawks collaboration. Perhaps I'm missing something, but compared to "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado" this one just seems flat out stale. Which is really REALLY hard for me to say about a Howard Hawks film (I feel the same way about Ford's "Three Godfather's" which I also saw recently, though that film is just plain WEIRD!).
By far the highlight of my recent rentals was the fact that I finally got around to watching Preston Sturges' "Unfaithfully Yours". Another highlight came in the form of the Joel McCrea/Jean Arthur comedy, "The More the Merrier". I have to say Jean Arthur is fast becoming one of my favorite leading ladies. Still nothing beats Arthur and Jimmy Stewart in "You Can't Take It With You".



Ingrid Bergman in "Gaslight" haunted me so as to tax me precious hours of sleep. Themes of gender and hysteria in the 19th century, forced me to dig through some of my previous studies into the gendered architecture of the interior via Elizabeth Grosz (Architecture From the Outside) as well as the social function of gaslight itself (Disenchanted Night by Wolfgang Schivelbusch).

I've also taken some time to brush up on some ethnographic theory/cultural studies. For the most part I've been using Aaron Fox's "Real Country" as my touchstone for ethnographic theory, but I've also been re-exploring themes of rural/urban identification in a cultural studies format as well. "Knowing Your Place: Rural Identity and Cultural Heirarchy" (Ching and Creed 1997) has been a great read as well as , "A Place to Stand: Politics and Persuasion in a Working Class Bar" by Julie Lindquist (2002). Both works come recommended by, and are closely related to Aaron Fox.
Whoops, gotta get to the bank.... more later

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Sunday, April 01, 2007


Gettin r Done part Deux

So I'll try to squeeze as much in here as Curt Schilling does in his blog...

Some Production updates-
We met with Ken Wentworth for some contact info. and general info. Scheduled a few interviews for the next two weeks. And developed an obsession with some underated New England country musicians from the 1950s.
Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody were from Auburn, Maine and became relatively successful as a honky tonk act in the early 1950s. The act broke up in the mid 50s and Betty returned to Maine where she remains today (and where we hope to interview her soon).
Clifford Murphy wrote a great article on them for "Wire" magazine at-
www.wirenh.com/Music/Music_-_general/I_Love_L-A_200607121276.html

and he explains things much better than I can. I've been trying to upload their music to this site but for some reason Myspace won't let me do it. Its on my personal site in any case.

More soon...

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Sunday, March 25, 2007


Gettin r Done

Gettin r Done
Grand Opening?So hopefully this blog will be able to link directly to the blog on the main RMP webpage but there's a few problems that need to get ironed out. The Main blog should be the exact same thing except with more audio/ video capabilities.??For the most part I think I'll devote this space to discussion about Dick Curless and New england Country music in general as well as production updates and maybe some of our own film reviews as we become more and more aqcuainted with the art of filmmaking. ??A short explanation of our involvement with the Dick Curless Documentary-?"We" are Timothy Findlen and Andrew Jawitz. Tim grew up in Fort Fairfield, Maine (which was incindentally the same birthplace of Dick Curless) and Andrew grew up in Freedom N.H. Both recieved their B.As from Goddard College. Andrew's study traced the effects of modernity in the early 20th century South though the music of The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, while Timm's study traced the history of Yankee humor from the colonial era to modern times. Andrew went on to his M.A in American Studies from Columbia in 2005. While his focus of study remained American Folk Music, he also inlcuded Oral History, documentary film and archival science as elements in his thesis (which can be found on the main RMP site). While presenting his thesis at the American Folklore Society conference in Atlanta mentor/friend Aaron Fox suggested looking into the career of Dick Curless.?Andrew and Tim had been discussing working together on a documentary film for some time, and the Curless idea seemed ideally suited to their expertise.??So here we are. We're only at the very begininng stages of the interviewing process and so far have heard nothing but overwhelming support for our project. To most people we've spoken to, Curless seems to be spoken of as fondly as a beloved relative. Finding enough interviews to fit the format of a documentary doesn't seem like its going to be a problem.?Some have inquired (rightfully so) as to the angle we're going to take when presenting Curless. This is where our archival science/ethnographic background should come into play. While we have our ideas as to where a theme may be headed, we're going to let he interviews set the theme. Our main influences are filmakers like?The Maysles Brothers or Barbara Koppel, where the text and narration of the film is read through the interviewees/subjects themselves rather than through an overdubbed narrator (ala Ken Burns). Eventually the story will reveal itself, and as long as we stay true to it it'll be enough to both entertain and enlighten.?Many of the interviewees should and can have whole movies made strictly about them. It is for this reason that we plan to interview as if we ARE concentrating speciifically on them, that way we can either donate the excess footage to another repository or keep for further usage. One example of a woman we hope to interview for the Curless documentary but could have a show all to herself is Betty Cody. Our friend/ New England Country expert, Clifford Murphy recently wrote an article on Betty in "Wire" magazine. So now that we've got all that out of the way we can get to the fun stuff... From now on this'll be the place to go for production updates, film reviews, links to relevant articles and websites, recent footage and contributions from other artists, musicians, filmakers and friends

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