Brian Fuente is one of Jackson's most talented young musicians. I knew nothing about him before going to listen to him for a writing assignment. I liked him, then became a fan. I wish someone in the business would give him a fair shake. He's really, really good.
Brian Fuente is a happy man. On Friday, January 9th, Hal and Mal’s is hosting his CD release party. Fuente has released his first solo CD independently. The disc, entitled Sky Down Here, is a collection of pop songs that shows off his strong singer/songwriter chops. Backed by Don Morrison on guitar, Joe Partridge on drums, Gabriel Golden on bass, and with an appearance by Rufus Mapp on percussion, Fuente officially puts in a bid to join the recent musical scene dominated by John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and others of the same style.
Sky Down Here is a strong opening bid, with a few songs – “Temporary Sugar,” “Everyday,” “Against Me” – that would not be out of place on any mainstream pop radio station, and with several of a more melancholy, introspective nature – the kinds of songs appreciated both by critics and by fellow musicians. It was recorded at Terminal Recording Studio in Ridgeland and produced by both Fuente and by well-known producer Randy Everett.
Sky Down Here has already been released to the college radio stations in Mississippi. Clinton Kirby, the program manager at WUSM 88.5 in Hattiesburg, says that Fuente is receiving regular airplay on the station and requests for his music come in fairly frequently. He believes Fuente has a future in the business.
“He has the sound to go places. He has the look to go places. He has that whole John Mayer/Jeff Buckley sort of vibe,” Kirby says. “This guy’s good.”
Kirby isn’t the only one who feels that way. “We think Brian is one of the most talented young musicians around,” says Charly Abraham, the manager of Hal and Mal’s. “We’ve had a good history with him and we’re tickled that he chose to do his release party here.”
Fuente is excited about the party. “We’ll be playing live Friday with a full band: Don Morrison, Joe Partridge, Gabriel Golden, and myself. I haven’t always done that. I’m looking forward to doing it with these guys.”
He also is excited about his future plans. He has put together a touring band and is currently working on the songs for the show. He wants to start doing small tours in late February.
“I’d like to do more weekend shows, try to get a booking every weekend out of town, and just do as much as possible to get the name out,” he says. “There’s a lot of work ahead of us. You don’t just go to Seattle and sell out a house. You have to work at it.” He even knows what he wants to see happen in the near future.
“What I’d like to do is to get on as an opening act for a touring band. Everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s where I’d like to start.” Until then, they need to make a name for themselves.
“If we can prove we can fill a room, then we shouldn’t have a problem,” he says.
On Friday night, Brian and his band will attempt to do just that at Hal and Mal’s. The Sky Down Here CD will be sold onsite for $8. If you prefer to wait to buy the CD later, it will be sold at Be-Bop Records around the state, and should be in most locally owned shops in Hattiesburg, Oxford, Starkville, and Jackson within a week. It’ll also be sold online at CDBaby.com.
Brian Fuente plays Friday night. Opening for him will be Todd Rowan, who will be touring with Fuente. Performances start at 9 pm. More information can be found at www.brianfuente.com.
Abraham offers a bit of good advice: “If you haven’t heard him, you need to catch him.”
Showing posts with label news story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news story. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The American Astronaut
This is one of the strangest indie movies ever made - and one of my favorites. I was sent a copy to watch before calling and speaking to the filmmaker. It was one of my favorite pieces. He was astonished at how warmly Jackson reacted to his very bizarre movie.
“I wanted to create a movie that people would like more and more every time they watched it,” says Cory McAbee, about The American Astronaut, the full-length movie he wrote and directed.
Six years from script to screen, released and distributed by McAbee and the film’s producers, Bobby Lurie and Joshua Taylor, The American Astronaut is a combination low budget science fiction movie, punk musical, snarky comedy, and a literate commentary on mankind’s base desires. Filmed on lush 35 mm black-and-white film, it looks like a blend of old “Flash Gordon” serials, Joss Whedon’s Firefly, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and an indie graphic novel. In The American Astronaut, the look and feel of the film itself is more important than the look of the effects, an almost incomprehensible notion for a film that is, basically, science fiction.
"When I was writing and storyboarding it, I knew I may never have much money to make it,” says McAbee. “So I came up with special effects that could be done in my room, all done in-camera. I felt that using black-and-white would not mask how simple the effects are, but would actually enhance them.”
With the lack of gee-whiz-ain’t-that-cool effects, viewers are allowed to enjoy the film’s visual style, which resembles a series of pen-and-ink drawings. This is no accident. McAbee’s cinematographer, W. Mott Hupfel III – who was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for it – created numerous high-contrast camera shots to mirror McAbee’s original storyboards as much as possible. The result is striking.
“I love black and white,” says McAbee. “I think it’s beautiful.” A self-taught pen-and-ink artist and painter, he drew extremely detailed storyboards to work from. McAbee treats both the storyboard and the script as complete works of art, believing that both form the foundation of the film, but also complement it.
The innate artistic nature of the film, the look, the music, and the quirky characters that populate his version of the solar system have caused The American Astronaut to occasionally be dismissed as a cult movie.
“That’s a small genre,” he says. “My main intention was that people who like it, can see it. I knew it wouldn’t be a mainstream, blockbuster Hollywood film. It’s one reason we self-distributed it. This way we can keep it out there long enough for people to find it.”
But like a cult movie, it has developed a fervent group of followers.
"The audience ranges,” he says. “Not one particular group likes it more than others. Colleges still play it. Retired people come to me and tell me how much they liked it. It still plays in San Francisco and it still sells out theaters. In Boulder, Colorado, theaters there still play the movie and have dance contests before the show.”
"As might be guessed, a dance contest is one of the key scenes in the film. The contest simply happens to be an all-male event, held in a seedy bar on the Texas-sized asteroid, Ceres, with a live punk band performing.
Which brings us to the music. McAbee is the lead singer and co-founder of The Billy Nayer Show (along with producer Lurie), a New York-based band that plays an intelligent, catchy style of music perhaps best described as cabaret punk. The Billy Nayer Show provides the soundtrack to The American Astronaut, with McAbee’s vocals on about half the songs, and actors providing the rest. McAbee says of the music:
“It fits organically into the film. The music is a piece of the movie within itself. One thing about being able to write the movie and the music both is that the two can work together. This is not a group of songs strung together; it is music for the movie.”
In case you were counting, McAbee is the writer, director, and storyboard artist. He created artwork for the set. He performs on the soundtrack, co-composed the music, and wrote the songs. He also acts.
In the film, he plays the protagonist, Sam Curtis, an interplanetary trader who finds himself being stalked by an old friend. Curtis trades a cat to the bartender of the Ceres Bar for a “real, live girl,” which is actually cloned cells to be grown into a woman. After the trade – and the dance contest – Curtis takes the “real, live girl” and heads for Jupiter, where he plans on trading her for…
It doesn’t matter. The plot of The American Astronaut becomes secondary to the images on the screen, the music, and the characters. People like The Blueberry Pirate, a space-traveling fruit thief and dance contestant; The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast, whose existence alone turns the horny all-male miners of Jupiter into more efficient workers; and Bodysuit, the offspring of two lonely cowboys, fill the screen. McAbee says the characters are all inspired by people he knew; all, that is, but one.
The narrator – and oddly enough, the villain of the piece – Professor Hess, was a creation of McAbee’s imagination.
“He’s completely fictitious. He was based on ideas, not people. At the very beginning, when he narrates, he brings you into the world and you become his confidant. But then quickly you realize that the first friend you made at camp is the biggest loser there. That’s Professor Hess.”
Strangely, the movie is also somewhat autobiographical.
“It was inspired by a period when I wasn’t living anywhere,” he says. “I was working bars, doing security for a few years. I had it with spending the bulk of my waking hours paying rent and still always being broke. I decided not to live anywhere. I started staying in friends’ carports and places like that.”
When the movie was finally completed, The American Astronaut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The screenplay was also accepted at Sundance’s screenwriters’ workshop.
“They treat you well,” McAbee says. “They bring you in and famous screenwriters read your screenplay. It was the first time I had professionals tell me what they thought about it. Stewart Stern [Rebel Without a Cause] was one of my advisors. He loved the Professor and he loved the screenplay.” It helped him see the film a little differently.
“Films have formulas. The highs and lows are calculated. I’m a musician, so I was trying to make this feel more like an album. Some albums are just collections of songs, but some have an identity. I wanted the idea of this album to be the dynamics of an evening. You start off by going to a club, there’s an M.C. who’s not very good, you’re uncomfortable, he does his bit, the band starts…”
As a result, the individual scenes tend to have a feel and a rhythm of their own. The dance contest, the henchmen in the bathroom, and the Professor’s dance in the sand on Jupiter will remain in your mind long after the movie is finished.
The American Astronaut will certainly not be to everybody’s taste, but for those who enjoy unusual, experimental, or avant-garde films, or those who simply like their movies a bit off center, it will likely be a rewarding experience.
The American Astronaut plays at the Crossroads Film Festival, at 7 p.m., Saturday, with the short films, Run! and Tom Hits His Head. Cory McAbee will take part in a Q&A session after the movie. He will perform solo later that night at Hal and Mal’s with antler and Questions in Dialect.
“I wanted to create a movie that people would like more and more every time they watched it,” says Cory McAbee, about The American Astronaut, the full-length movie he wrote and directed.
Six years from script to screen, released and distributed by McAbee and the film’s producers, Bobby Lurie and Joshua Taylor, The American Astronaut is a combination low budget science fiction movie, punk musical, snarky comedy, and a literate commentary on mankind’s base desires. Filmed on lush 35 mm black-and-white film, it looks like a blend of old “Flash Gordon” serials, Joss Whedon’s Firefly, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and an indie graphic novel. In The American Astronaut, the look and feel of the film itself is more important than the look of the effects, an almost incomprehensible notion for a film that is, basically, science fiction.
"When I was writing and storyboarding it, I knew I may never have much money to make it,” says McAbee. “So I came up with special effects that could be done in my room, all done in-camera. I felt that using black-and-white would not mask how simple the effects are, but would actually enhance them.”
With the lack of gee-whiz-ain’t-that-cool effects, viewers are allowed to enjoy the film’s visual style, which resembles a series of pen-and-ink drawings. This is no accident. McAbee’s cinematographer, W. Mott Hupfel III – who was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for it – created numerous high-contrast camera shots to mirror McAbee’s original storyboards as much as possible. The result is striking.
“I love black and white,” says McAbee. “I think it’s beautiful.” A self-taught pen-and-ink artist and painter, he drew extremely detailed storyboards to work from. McAbee treats both the storyboard and the script as complete works of art, believing that both form the foundation of the film, but also complement it.
The innate artistic nature of the film, the look, the music, and the quirky characters that populate his version of the solar system have caused The American Astronaut to occasionally be dismissed as a cult movie.
“That’s a small genre,” he says. “My main intention was that people who like it, can see it. I knew it wouldn’t be a mainstream, blockbuster Hollywood film. It’s one reason we self-distributed it. This way we can keep it out there long enough for people to find it.”
But like a cult movie, it has developed a fervent group of followers.
"The audience ranges,” he says. “Not one particular group likes it more than others. Colleges still play it. Retired people come to me and tell me how much they liked it. It still plays in San Francisco and it still sells out theaters. In Boulder, Colorado, theaters there still play the movie and have dance contests before the show.”
"As might be guessed, a dance contest is one of the key scenes in the film. The contest simply happens to be an all-male event, held in a seedy bar on the Texas-sized asteroid, Ceres, with a live punk band performing.
Which brings us to the music. McAbee is the lead singer and co-founder of The Billy Nayer Show (along with producer Lurie), a New York-based band that plays an intelligent, catchy style of music perhaps best described as cabaret punk. The Billy Nayer Show provides the soundtrack to The American Astronaut, with McAbee’s vocals on about half the songs, and actors providing the rest. McAbee says of the music:
“It fits organically into the film. The music is a piece of the movie within itself. One thing about being able to write the movie and the music both is that the two can work together. This is not a group of songs strung together; it is music for the movie.”
In case you were counting, McAbee is the writer, director, and storyboard artist. He created artwork for the set. He performs on the soundtrack, co-composed the music, and wrote the songs. He also acts.
In the film, he plays the protagonist, Sam Curtis, an interplanetary trader who finds himself being stalked by an old friend. Curtis trades a cat to the bartender of the Ceres Bar for a “real, live girl,” which is actually cloned cells to be grown into a woman. After the trade – and the dance contest – Curtis takes the “real, live girl” and heads for Jupiter, where he plans on trading her for…
It doesn’t matter. The plot of The American Astronaut becomes secondary to the images on the screen, the music, and the characters. People like The Blueberry Pirate, a space-traveling fruit thief and dance contestant; The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast, whose existence alone turns the horny all-male miners of Jupiter into more efficient workers; and Bodysuit, the offspring of two lonely cowboys, fill the screen. McAbee says the characters are all inspired by people he knew; all, that is, but one.
The narrator – and oddly enough, the villain of the piece – Professor Hess, was a creation of McAbee’s imagination.
“He’s completely fictitious. He was based on ideas, not people. At the very beginning, when he narrates, he brings you into the world and you become his confidant. But then quickly you realize that the first friend you made at camp is the biggest loser there. That’s Professor Hess.”
Strangely, the movie is also somewhat autobiographical.
“It was inspired by a period when I wasn’t living anywhere,” he says. “I was working bars, doing security for a few years. I had it with spending the bulk of my waking hours paying rent and still always being broke. I decided not to live anywhere. I started staying in friends’ carports and places like that.”
When the movie was finally completed, The American Astronaut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The screenplay was also accepted at Sundance’s screenwriters’ workshop.
“They treat you well,” McAbee says. “They bring you in and famous screenwriters read your screenplay. It was the first time I had professionals tell me what they thought about it. Stewart Stern [Rebel Without a Cause] was one of my advisors. He loved the Professor and he loved the screenplay.” It helped him see the film a little differently.
“Films have formulas. The highs and lows are calculated. I’m a musician, so I was trying to make this feel more like an album. Some albums are just collections of songs, but some have an identity. I wanted the idea of this album to be the dynamics of an evening. You start off by going to a club, there’s an M.C. who’s not very good, you’re uncomfortable, he does his bit, the band starts…”
As a result, the individual scenes tend to have a feel and a rhythm of their own. The dance contest, the henchmen in the bathroom, and the Professor’s dance in the sand on Jupiter will remain in your mind long after the movie is finished.
The American Astronaut will certainly not be to everybody’s taste, but for those who enjoy unusual, experimental, or avant-garde films, or those who simply like their movies a bit off center, it will likely be a rewarding experience.
The American Astronaut plays at the Crossroads Film Festival, at 7 p.m., Saturday, with the short films, Run! and Tom Hits His Head. Cory McAbee will take part in a Q&A session after the movie. He will perform solo later that night at Hal and Mal’s with antler and Questions in Dialect.
2004 JSU Juried Student Exhibition Competition
This small piece is one of the most formative of my career so far - if not for anyone else, than for me. My friend and colleague at Planet, Talamieka McNeil, gave us the heads-up on this arts competition at JSU, where she attended school. As a fan of the arts, I decided to cover it with her. However, as someone who had been to all the other student museums in the area, I was ready to be disappointed. (Sorry if this upsets people from the other schools, but it's true.) I was blown away by the quality of art from Jackson State, and I believed then what I believe now: the best arts program in that part of Mississippi is there. I was also blessed to meet Lorenzo Gayden, a young man whose talent comes as an embarrassment of riches. I've given him press several times - and he's deserved it each time.
Many art aficionados appreciate a chance to see art from young, raw talents. A good place to do that now is at Jackson State University. The 2004 JSU Juried Student Exhibition Competition is over, the winners have been selected, and their works are on display on the campus. The competition gives the students a chance to have their work appreciated by the judges, the university administration, other students, and by the public.
Sponsoring the competition are JSU’s own Clay Club and James Allen Antiques of Atlanta. Allen is the owner of the controversial “Without Sanctuary” exhibit of lynching photos, currently on display at the university.
Several different awards are given, including Best 2-D Work, Best 3-D Work, and Merit Awards. In addition, members of the administration give five Purchase Awards to the students.
“After we hang the show, they come and select their pieces,” says Hyun C. Kim, about the Purchase Awards. Kim is an associate professor in the art department and the faculty sponsor of the event.
“Two hundred dollars is given to the student by the judge who selects the work. After the exhibit, the art is taken to them. It is kept on the campus, in an office area. Some offices have several years of winners in them.”
Geoffrey Edwards, a senior from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, competed for the first time this year. One of his pieces, “Tiles 101,” a colorful, heavily textured ceramics piece, won the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts College Purchase Award. Edwards was surprised.
“I put two pieces in. The other piece is what I expected that might get some type of recognition. But this was the piece that ended up getting the award.” It was his first award. It seems to have had an affect.
Edwards, a psychology major, has decided a change of plans may be in order. “I’m sticking with art,” he says. “I like it. I’m going to see what the next few months bring as I try to develop a style, but I’m definitely going to stick to ceramics.”
Candice Catchings also won awards for her first competition. A sophomore studio arts major from Jackson, she won the Vice President Purchase Award for her mixed media self-portrait, “Visage,” and a Merit Award for her sculpture, “Message From God,” an angelic figure with a defiantly female form.
“I chose to do that because all the angels they talk about in the Bible are male,” she says. “This one just happens to be female.”
Catchings, a former biology major, is another convert to JSU’s arts program. She says she prefers the hands-on work of sculpture.
“I like working with the clay. I like that feeling of it in my hands. It makes me feel like I’m actually doing something.”
Lorenzo D. Gayden is a senior studio arts major from Jackson. This was his second year in competition. His “Divine Vessel” sculpture won a Merit Award and was judged the Best 3-D Work. The sculpture, a vessel in the shape of an abstract pregnant woman, is ceramic glazed to a brass finish.
“A lot of my pieces have a double entendre effect. Since in Ceramics we make a lot of vessels, and since I figured that a pregnant woman was a vessel, I’d combine those two.” Gayden says the form is one that inspires him.
“I was in the process of building a portfolio of three-dimensional pieces and I like the human form, particularly the female form, particularly the pregnant female form. It’s really organic. When a woman is almost at full term, her stomach is a perfect arc. That is the most amazing thing to me. This is an homage to that.”
The student artwork will on display at the Art Gallery in the College of Liberal Arts building at Jackson State University until March 24th. The public is encouraged to attend. For more information, call xxx-xxxx.
Many art aficionados appreciate a chance to see art from young, raw talents. A good place to do that now is at Jackson State University. The 2004 JSU Juried Student Exhibition Competition is over, the winners have been selected, and their works are on display on the campus. The competition gives the students a chance to have their work appreciated by the judges, the university administration, other students, and by the public.
Sponsoring the competition are JSU’s own Clay Club and James Allen Antiques of Atlanta. Allen is the owner of the controversial “Without Sanctuary” exhibit of lynching photos, currently on display at the university.
Several different awards are given, including Best 2-D Work, Best 3-D Work, and Merit Awards. In addition, members of the administration give five Purchase Awards to the students.
“After we hang the show, they come and select their pieces,” says Hyun C. Kim, about the Purchase Awards. Kim is an associate professor in the art department and the faculty sponsor of the event.
“Two hundred dollars is given to the student by the judge who selects the work. After the exhibit, the art is taken to them. It is kept on the campus, in an office area. Some offices have several years of winners in them.”
Geoffrey Edwards, a senior from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, competed for the first time this year. One of his pieces, “Tiles 101,” a colorful, heavily textured ceramics piece, won the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts College Purchase Award. Edwards was surprised.
“I put two pieces in. The other piece is what I expected that might get some type of recognition. But this was the piece that ended up getting the award.” It was his first award. It seems to have had an affect.
Edwards, a psychology major, has decided a change of plans may be in order. “I’m sticking with art,” he says. “I like it. I’m going to see what the next few months bring as I try to develop a style, but I’m definitely going to stick to ceramics.”
Candice Catchings also won awards for her first competition. A sophomore studio arts major from Jackson, she won the Vice President Purchase Award for her mixed media self-portrait, “Visage,” and a Merit Award for her sculpture, “Message From God,” an angelic figure with a defiantly female form.
“I chose to do that because all the angels they talk about in the Bible are male,” she says. “This one just happens to be female.”
Catchings, a former biology major, is another convert to JSU’s arts program. She says she prefers the hands-on work of sculpture.
“I like working with the clay. I like that feeling of it in my hands. It makes me feel like I’m actually doing something.”
Lorenzo D. Gayden is a senior studio arts major from Jackson. This was his second year in competition. His “Divine Vessel” sculpture won a Merit Award and was judged the Best 3-D Work. The sculpture, a vessel in the shape of an abstract pregnant woman, is ceramic glazed to a brass finish.
“A lot of my pieces have a double entendre effect. Since in Ceramics we make a lot of vessels, and since I figured that a pregnant woman was a vessel, I’d combine those two.” Gayden says the form is one that inspires him.
“I was in the process of building a portfolio of three-dimensional pieces and I like the human form, particularly the female form, particularly the pregnant female form. It’s really organic. When a woman is almost at full term, her stomach is a perfect arc. That is the most amazing thing to me. This is an homage to that.”
The student artwork will on display at the Art Gallery in the College of Liberal Arts building at Jackson State University until March 24th. The public is encouraged to attend. For more information, call xxx-xxxx.
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