I’ve got the blues today. Take a moment of silence and remember the first Robert Altman movie you saw. Hopefully it wasn’t Ready to Wear.

Just two short days ago I finished the chapter in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that profiled Altman’s rise to fame/River Boat Gambler. Chad beat me to the punch and rented McCabe and Mrs. Miller from Vulcan. I watched M*A*S*H*.

The Long Goodbye, Brewster McCloud, The Player, Short Cuts, Secret Honor, Kansas City…

There was this Friday I remember in the fall of ‘93. I went to a great keg party thrown by fellow J.Dubs Drew, J-Ferg, and Crazy Kev. Day-Glo Orange played in the living room while the cops were arresting Drew out back. I left the party with my recent ex-girlfriends best friend. I tried really hard not to have a one night stand with her because I respected her boyfriend.

Late Saturday afternoon my dad called. He was on his way to pick me up to drive me to Ann Arbor. At this point in time my dad and I went to a lot of movies. Sometimes two or three a weekend. I was really hung over this particular Saturday because one of the kegs was rescued from the cops and brought into the house. The keg was sat down between myself and the band. I had to get up. My Dad and I were driving to Ann Arbor to see an advanced screening of Short Cuts at the Michigan Theater. I had no idea what to expect. The first Altman film I had seen was also the first film I ever saw melt on the screen because I f*#ked up the projection, The Player.

The 2nd Altman film I saw was Short Cuts. This film had a wonderful cast. Fred Ward, Buck Henry, and Heuy Lewis together again for the first time & Heuy Lewis pisses on a corpse! Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was also in Kansas City, Chris Penn, Fred “Tremors” Ward, Roberty Downey Junior Jr., Jack Lemmon, Lori Singer, Tom Waits, Lily Tomlin. “The only thing I like more than being mean is being SNEAKY…Ha, ha.”

Was listening to Parker Posey on Fresh Air and laughing one minute, shocked the next. I don’t like being stuck in traffic with bad news. 5 o’clock on S.Lamar stuck under the bridge and thinking about how there aren’t going to be any more Robert Altman films will make you say Shit.

We didn’t win, but we had fun doing the Bloodshots 48 hour film challenge. We may not have won any fancy awards. Hell, we didn’t even make the “Best Of” screening last night. But our film was viewed 400 times more than the others in competition. Our film is like ID4 or Con Air. Our job isn’t to win the awards, we pack the seats. So thanks to all of you out there for watching.

I got a phone call today from a friend of mine I haven’t talked to in 10 years. I also found his page on YouTube. It’s good to see he’s still up to his old antics.

Looks like the “Iron-Man” finally got the sequel to Dungeons and Dragons made. Godspeed ol’ boy, Godspeed.

Last night I met the great animator Bill Plympton. He swung by the Alamo to show his newest completed feature Hair High. Mr. Plympton was low-key, humble, and just cool as hell. During his Q&A he talked about working with Kanye West, who has called Bill the Michael Jordan of animation, and about being independent. Here’s a guy that people have thrown lots of money at and he said…No, I’m gonna do it my own way. I made him a salad and bought a DVD. It was the least I could do. I talked at him briefly about where I had first seen his work and the impact that Flooby Nooby has had on my life. He smiled and seemed glad that I was amused by his hijinks.

When I got home from work I popped in The Tune and laughed pleasantly for about two hours. I spent today trying desparetely to remove puffery from my life.

Watch?