THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
May 14th - Sunday - 2 & 4 pm
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
"Jeff Feuerzeig won Best Director at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for this documentary portrait of manic-depressive genius singer–songwriter–artist Daniel Johnston."
I checked this out on Friday night and it made me: sad, nostalgic, laugh, uncomfortable, and empathetic. I also think i spotted myself in one of the historical footage sequences (of the bygone summer outdoor fest called WOODSHOCK), in my black-and-red lace top, and with really short hair...! You see, i was living in Austin during those early years of Daniel Johnston's musical emergence--when he worked at McDonald's on the Drag and showed up at clubs with copies of his individually-created audiocassettes. I remember when he gave one to Debbie at The Beach; i had to buy mine from him for a coupla bucks. It was YIP JUMP! and i still have it, gathering dust somewhere around here. But seeing the documentary brought back so many memories of that heady time that was the mid-to-late 1980s in Austin. With the Austin music scene teeming with New Sincerity acts like Zeitgeist and garage rock (pre-alternative) like Doctor's Mob and the Dharma Bums. And art rockers-cum-freaks like Glass Eye and the Butthole Surfers. It was certainly a special time--though i had no pretensions then that what was happening and what we were doing was creating legends. But so it--apparently--was.
Go see this flick. Sing along to "Speeding Motorcycle" and "Casper the Friendly Ghost". Be thankful that you averted or avoided an hallucinogenic meltdown in your youthful past, and see how brilliantly Feuerzeig cinematically depicts the redemption of a freakishly-talented mind.
Special memory that comes to mind: My favorite Austin New Year's Eve moment: standing in a packed CONTINENTAL CLUB watching Glass Eye deliver a most gorgeous and liquidy version of "Tomorrow Never Knows." It'll never happen like that, ever again.
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3 comments:
I love to revel in nostalgic memories like this of my younger years. I love to think of really sad times and to feel like crying and to think of really good times that make me laugh. It feels good!
zeitgeist: hahahaha. i remember when they were still called the standing waves.
my fave austin punkeroos were the explosives, whose dirty li'l secret was that two of 'em were in jerry jeff walker's band.
altho i do appreciate the, um, _art_ of phil tolbert from the huns basically putting the scene on the map by wearing assless chaps (and getting arrested every time they performed).
shoegirl: i wish i'd been smart enough to write down more of these "memories" back when the details were stronger, their colors fresher.
stash dauber: Zeitgeist ws sued by a band up north, so they became "The Reivers". Title of a William Faulkner novel.
no kidding! i also played in Jerry Jeff Walker's band---shhhhsh, it's a secret. hehe
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