Little Red Riding Hood

Next Friday, May 11, Anna Trodglen, creator of the online comic strip Biscuits & Bellyrubs, will unveil her translation and illustration of Little Red Riding Hood, the classic children’s story, from the original German. The book celebration is set to be held at the Young Blood Gallery (636 N Highland Ave. Atlanta, GA 30306/404-254-4127), from 6 to 9 PM. As befits a children’s book, kids are encouraged to attend (bring the parents of course) the gathering, where snacks and sodas will be served. As an added bonus, Anna’s musical collaboration with husband Dugan Trodglen and John Armstrong (aka the legendary band, DQE) will perform a set. In anticipation of the event, Anna and the book’s designer/letterer Anthony Owsley allowed me to email interview them. (Eagle eye readers will note this marks the second time I have gotten to interview Anna [the first time being in 2010]) My thanks to Trodglen & Owsley for the interview.

Tim O’Shea: What inspired you to tackle Little Red Riding Hood, rather than translating one of the myriad other German folklore tales?

Anna Trodglen: I wanted to do Little Red Riding Hood because I was really drawn to the Wolf. He seemed very interesting and as a dog relative he was appealing to me. I also liked the limited number of cast in the story and that there were three distinct female characters.

O’Shea: Was there any aspect of the translation that proved more daunting than expected?

Trodglen: For the most part the translation went well but there were a couple sentences that had so many pronouns in them that I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I just let those sentences go.

O’Shea: In translating the story, were there nuances you learned that you had not heard in previous versions of the tale?

Trodglen: There’s a postlog that’s a little different and surprising.

O’Shea:  How did you and designer/letterer Anthony Owsley decide upon a design for the book? Were several fonts considered before you settled on the final one?

Anthony Owsley: When Anna showed me the drawings she was working on, and explained how she wanted a completely traditional approach to the storytelling, I immediately got the idea of an old letterpress edition storybook. Anna and I are both big fans of late 19th Century/early 20th Century storybooks and often give each other old picture books as gifts, so that was an approach we both readily agreed on.

I wanted to color it in a way that would not distract from, or obscure Anna’s line work, which is often uniform width and highly detailed. I decided to use a limited color palette with large areas of broad flat colors which, again, would harken back to turn-of-the-Century letterpress drawings and early comic strips.

Font selection was pretty easy and I got it right the first time. I wanted something that looked antique, traditional and slightly fairytale without looking too Ren-fair. Thomas Paine has always been one of my favorite fonts and it fit the bill perfectly. It’s rustic and earthy, with enough flourish to fit into a fantasy settting. It also looks good in the 12-16 point range needed for young childrens’ storybooks. Anna loved it immediately.

O’Shea: How did getting Anthony involved make the book a stronger project?

Trodglen: Anthony has lots of experience making books and doing design so I knew I wanted to get him on board. Also Anthony is very meticulous and precise, where I am more slapdash; and he’s a lot more laid back than I am, which is an asset in working with a terrier like me. I knew Anthony could do a great job, and he did.

O’Shea: Anthony, what is it about Anna’s work that made you want to be involved in the project?

Owsley: Anna and I have been friends for many years and always wanted to collaborate on something, but nothing suitable ever came up. This was a chance to finally do something together. Also, when I learned that she was going to produce this through CreateSpace, I saw it as an opportunity to learn a few new technological skills that could help me on later freelance jobs.

O’Shea: The book will be officially launched at Young Blood Gallery in Virginia Highlands on May 11, what makes that gallery an ideal place for the launch?

Trodglen: Young Blood is a really classy place and has tons of nice looking, solid art, so it’s exciting to get to work with them. It has a gallery and boutique. The book will be on sale at the gallery at the opening and into the future. I will have greeting cards and prints as well and I think Anthony will have stuff for sale too.

Owsley: I used to have a studio space near Young Blood’s original Grant Park location so I would often drop in and look around. I always liked their DIY attitude. When I finally caught up with them in their new space, I was impressed. They had a nice boutique in the front part to sell artwork, and a huge open space in the back suitable for a live band to play. I thought it was perfect.

O’Shea: Given your many talents, am I correct in assuming there might be some live music at the book launch?

Trodglen: Dugan and John (Armstrong) and I will play a honky tonk acoustic set at 7 pm. The opening is from 6 to 9.

O’Shea: How satisfying was it to get to the finish line with this book, and to hold the finished product in your hands?

Trodglen: It’s a little scary to get to the finish line with a project, because that means it’s over, but I think we’re both pretty happy with it. The fi al stretch with multiple proofs and problems was so stressful too that when it finally got cleared up it was really a relief. All of that last bit of design and proofing fell to Anthony and he was really patient about it, which I appreciate.

Owsley: There were a few frustrating periods in the production of the book. There was a bit of a learning curve with formatting the book to CreateSpace’s template. We had to go through several proofs before getting it the way we both liked it. But the hard work paid off. I think it looks great!

The Rainmakers
Let My People Go Go

Flags will be lowered across the state Friday in honor of Arkansas native and celebrated musician Levon Helm…

Then there’s the A.P. reporter Mary Esch covered the wake, which included the following quote from Al Caron:

He was an icon, but also the guy next door…

Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell

When a mutual friend told me about Young Adult novelist Crickett Rumley‘s 2011 book, Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell, I immediately decided I had to email interview the author. Here’s the official scoop on the book: “Expelled from thirteen boarding schools in the past five years, seventeen-year-old Jane Fontaine Ventouras is returning to her Southern roots, and the small town of Bienville, Alabama, where ladies always wear pearls, nothing says hospitality like sweet tea and pimento cheese sandwiches, and competing in the annual Magnolia Maid Pageant is every girl’s dream.

“But Jane is what you might call an anti-belle, more fishnets and tattoos than sugar and spice. The last thing on her mind is joining the Magnolia Maid brigade and parading around town in a dress so big she can’t fit through a door. So when she finds herself up to her ears in ruffles and etiquette lessons, she’s got one mission: ESCAPE.”

This interview was conducted in late 2011. My thanks to Rumley for her time and humor.

Tim O’Shea: When did you first realize you derived creative satisfaction from writing teen comedy?

Crickett Rumley: Being a teenager is one of the most terrifying states of existence on earth. At least it was for me. On some level, everybody feels awkward and is searching for who they are, whether they are the most popular girl in school or the computer geek who hides in the corner and only comes out to answer calculus questions. Under those conditions, emotions run at full velocity – the highs are stratospheric, the lows are deeper than the sea. Everything means everything. So I’ve always felt that period in a character’s life is ripe for story-picking.

But discovering that I could write comedy? That’s a funny story! It was my third year of film school (I got my MFA in Film from Columbia University), and I was taking a class in writing television movies. At that point, I was known for writing earnest, angst-filled, twenty-something dramas, but I was not truly satisfied with anything I had written. It didn’t feel right. So we had this assignment to write ten pages of scenes based on a newspaper article. I chose a piece about a family of women who married old men and killed them for money. I thought I had written another earnest, angst-ridden drama, but when we read the scenes out loud in class, people were laughing. I don’t mean a little chuckle here and there. I mean, full-on, falling on the floor, can’t-catch-your-breath-laughing.

Cut to me, petrified. Eyes wider than the Grand Canyon. Turning redder than Rudolph the Reindeer’s nose. I couldn’t believe what was happening! My words had had that effect on my fellow classmates? What!? I started giggling, too, but not a charming, amused little laugh, noooooooo. Mine was a very high-pitched squeal of a giggle. Kinda like a pig. A stuck pig. A very nervous, freaked out stuck pig. But when the reading was over and the laughing died down, and all the tears had been wiped away, I felt amazing. I knew I had found my writing home, my writer’s voice, and I have never turned back.

O’Shea: Were you involved with the development of the trailer for the book? How enjoyable was that to develop?

Rumley: Yes, indeed! I wrote, co-directed and produced it. With my background in film, making a trailer was a natural extension of the book. Matt Kohnen and Nick Sivakumaran, my fellow instructors at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, got on board early to co-direct and shoot it for me. They were such a joy to work with. Lake Sharp, who played the Belle, is a dancer as well as an actress, and such a funny woman, that I knew that she would be able to rock that hoopskirt. And boy, did she! We laughed our butts off watching Lake move around in that dress, and the expressions on her face, well, I could never KEEP a straight face during filming! I would have to shove my hand in my mouth so that I didn’t laugh and ruin the moment. I especially love when she tries to play soccer in the dress. The kids in the trailer, my young friends Ruby and Hart, had a blast chasing each other around the dress. And Marcello, my dashingly handsome actor, was totally game for anything. He actually fell out of that tree again and again trying to kiss Lake!

Everyone on the shoot was a superstar, and I am very grateful that they shared their talents with me.

O’Shea: What was the biggest challenge in terms of writing Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt?

Rumley: Learning to write prose. After so many years of focusing on screenplays, I was accustomed to writing short bursts of dialogue and very sparse paragraphs of scene description. Everything has to be externalized in film, but in prose, there is a tremendous amount of internal monologue. It was quite challenging – overwhelming, in fact – to shift gears. I had to convince myself to just get it in on the page, that no matter how bad it was, I could fix it later. The first draft was over 450 pages long. 450 messy, disorganized pages. It took me a long time to figure out how to construct a chapter that was entertaining and funny. But I really felt like I had something, and I am a big fan of the revision process, so I just kept chipping away at it until I was happy.

O’Shea: In addition to writing, you also teach screenwriting. What’s the most enjoyable aspect of teaching for you?

Rumley: Getting to hear stories from my students! I have a very interactive teaching style, and I encourage writers to draw from their personal experiences to create characters and dramatic conflict. Because our students range in age (18-80) and nationality (often there are only two or three Americans in a class of 12), the stories they tell, the characters they talk about in class, are incredibly diverse. Yet we are all humans traveling under the sun, and emotions are powerfully universal, even if culture isn’t. Every day in the classroom, I find myself inspired, whether it’s a story that a South African television presenter tells us about a surprise birthday party that her family threw her at dawn in the African bush, or it’s a character portrait that an American vet creates based on an insurgent he shot in Iraq. Never a dull moment, believe me.

O’Shea: How important/beneficial was social media (such as FB) in terms of marketing the book?

Rumley: I am not quite sure yet, Tim. Of course I developed a website and a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account and I try to keep up with them on a regular basis. To be honest, though, I think my live, in-person interactions with people have had a lot of impact, as well. I LOVE talking to people!

That being said, look for more action on my website come the new year [2012]. I’m excited about upcoming blog posts, including interviews with bona fide Southern belles and anti-belles, and some contests featuring Smashbox Cosmetics as prizes!

O’Shea: Who was your favorite character to write in the book?

Rumley: That’s like asking who is my favorite child! Heehee, luckily, I have no children. I love all my characters, but Brandi Lyn was the most fun to write. She is incredibly thoughtful and sweet, yet she has strong beliefs and is not afraid to express them. She comes from a modest background, yet has a work ethic that would blow many of us out of the sky. She’s a fish out of water, but she doesn’t let that stop her from pursuing lofty dreams. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when she lovingly gives her daddy a hard time for using the Lord’s name in vain, and he responds by saying “Sorry, baby” and tossing a quarter into an overflowing jar. Brandi Lyn’s so sweet, everybody just wants to love her and make her happy! Talk about catching more flies with honey…

O’Shea: In terms of the book reviews, were you pleasantly surprised that the Booklist reviewer noticed that you worked “in nice points about shaking up the status quo while still keeping things light and bright”? 

Rumley: Thrilled, actually. In fact, I am still grinning from ear to ear. In all seriousness, the fact that readers can laugh and have fun with the characters, yet still respond to the serious points that matter the most to me as a storyteller, well, that is exactly what’s it’s all about for me.

O’Shea: Is it hard for you to read reviews, or do you enjoy reading them?

Rumley: I count myself lucky that most of my reviews have been good, so I’ve been enjoying them!

O’Shea: In doing book signings, did you ever have some fun encounters with recovering and/or active Southern Belles?

Rumley: Women of a certain age LOVE telling me about their hoopskirt stories from back in the days when hoopskirts were commonly worn to proms, debutante balls, cotillions, et.al. And the stories ALWAYS involve the skirt flying over their heads, often with a cute date present, which always leads to maximum awkwardness! I love it!

The truth of the matter is, though, people have strong reactions to the “Southern Belle Hell” part of the title. They either love it and immediately start telling me about the time they committed (or had to suffer through) some horrible Southern belle faux pas, or they hate it and think I am going straight to hell. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but the head of the Historic Mobile Preservation Society did write me that as a bona fide Southern belle, she took issue with my title. Being the cheeky gal that I am, I immediately sent her a copy of the book. That was in May. Wonder if she’s read it yet?

O’Shea: Sorry, but I would kick myself if I did not ask–what was it like to work for John Sayles? Did working for him have some influence on your approach to writing?

Rumley: Working for John Sayles and his producer/partner Maggie Renzi was the best gig ever! They were incredibly supportive of their assistants and interns, and I learned a tremendous amount about how a film is made when I worked as their post-production assistant on the Secret of Roan Inish.

In terms of lasting influence, that would have to be in the realm of social commentary. This touches back on that question you asked about the review in Booklist. John’s work always contains an element of social commentary, and I also believe that it’s important that artists and writers not only express themselves, but express something of value to society. Of course, my take on life is a lot more comedic than John’s, but his influence is definitely present in my core belief system.

O’Shea: As writers go, you’re nothing if not ambitious. When most folks mention their next project, they have one or two items in the hopper. You had a list, that included:
— a TV pilot called Irreverent
— a screenplay about a bunch of crazy Southern women titled Fruitcake
– the stirrings of an idea for a musical for which I have named my father Head of Music Research
— And of course, I would love to write another Southern Belle Hell book!

Which of these on your list is closest to completion?

Rumley: You’re talking about a curse of blessings here, Tim! I always have a lot going on, but I don’t have a lot of time to devote to my own projects since I teach full-time. The good news is that I have drafts of the pilot and the screenplay written. They just need to be fixed. I am tossing around various ideas for my next novel, and I think I am going to draft a TV series version of Hoopskirt for my film and TV agent to shop around. I am SO looking forward to winter break – I am going to check myself into a hotel in Palm Springs (two hours east of my home in LA) for a few days and write me up a storm!

O’Shea: Is there anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Rumley: I am thrilled that this book got published and that people are responding warmly to it. Hands down, the best thing about publishing a novel, though, has been that I’ve had the chance to reconnect with people from all stages of my life! Friends from college, high school, of my mother, of my father, of my sister, long-lost relatives – they have come out of the woodwork with a tremendous amount of support and interest. I am so grateful! It’s been such a fun year and I can’t wait to get the next book out into the world!

Dear Friends,
Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.

Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration… he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage…

We appreciate all the love and support and concern.

To celebrate him as he is still with us, I share a couple of things.

This February 2012 interview was held after he’d spent two hours of playing drums. I loved around the six-minute mark when Helm said: “I am not the poster boy for good health, but I am not doing too bad.” That man has always possessed a great smile, throughout all his adversity/triumph in recent years.

Watch Quick Hits: An Interview with Levon Helm on PBS. See more from Sound Tracks.

Also, from 2009 at the Ryman, Helm singing The Weight with John Hiatt (and Buddy Miller playing with them along with many, many others).

I am more intrigued by the potential for generic, non-celebrity research:

“Kate Stober at the NYPL tells us it’s ‘more than just a research tool, we’ll be helping New Yorkers create a social history map of buildings and neighborhoods in the five boroughs. When you find an address, the tool pins it to both a 1940 map and a contemporary map, so you can see how the area has changed.’ “

When I found out that the folks over at Ironbound Films had made Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, a documentary about one of the most unique television hosts from the 1980s, I was intrigued. Then when I learned the documentary was going to have its world premiere this month at the Tribeca Film Festival, I was fortunate enough to email interview one of the three creative forces (and directors) from Ironbound, Jeremy Newberger.

Tim O’Shea: Was it hard to track down folks that had worked on the production of his show, or are many of them still active in the industry today?

Jeremy Newberger: Finding the producers of “The Morton Downey Jr. Show” was easy. Getting them to overlook twenty years of repressed rage and therapy bills was a little trickier. Most of them are still in production on everything from theSPEED Network to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Show creator Bob Pittman is now CEO of a little company called Clear Channel.

O’Shea: Much has been made of the bigoted/anti-gay slur that Rev. Al Sharpton uttered (and was the subject of some coverage for the documentary last year). While I know Sharpton declined to be interviewed, were there other reluctant interview subjects that you were able to convince to participate? Don’t you expect once the film premieres at Tribeca and gains wider attention that Sharpton will have to comment on the clip in some regard?

Newberger: Often with documentaries, potential interviewees decline. Most people we approached were ready and willing to participate. In some cases, it seemed as if they were waiting for our call. Reverend Al Sharpton will speak volumes about our project, with either his words or silence.

O’Shea: I had long forgotten that present day presidential hopeful Ron Paul was on Downey’s show. What other present day movers and shakers were you able to feature from Downey’s shows?

Newberger: We have often referred to “The Morton Downey Jr. Show” as spring training for today’s pundits. In addition to Ron Paul, we feature Gloria Allred, Pat Buchanan, Stanley Crouch, Alan Dershowitz, and Curtis Sliwa, to name a few.

O’Shea: What did you learn about Downey in the research of the project that genuinely surprised you?

Newberger: One of the biggest surprises was the Downey family’s relationship to the Kennedys. Morton Downey Sr. and Joe Kennedy Sr. were neighbors and best friends. Clearly Morton Downey Jr.’s upbringing helped shape hisworldview.

O’Shea: How early in the project did you realize you wanted to include Chris Elliott among the interviews for the doc (because of his Downey imitation)?

Newberger: In the late ‘80s, all three directors watched “The Morton Downey Jr. Show” and Letterman after. At the time, a 28-year-old Chris Elliott was doing a hilarious Mort impression on Letterman. He loved Mort, and was one of the people I mentioned who was “waiting for our call.” We interview Chris at Manhattan’s Bowery Poetry Club. His performance had us rolling on the floor.

O’Shea: You attended many of the tapings of the show yourself (in fact, as noted here) “Jeremy even played Morton Downey Jr. Show dress-up with his high school friends.”) When the cameras were off, was there a substantial shift in the demeanor of folks involved in the show? What insight did you gain (which helped inform your work on this doc) from attending those tapings?

Newberger: None of the three of us ever actually made it to a taping, either because we weren’t allowed or couldn’t get a ride. We were forced to watch (and imitate) it in our living rooms. Our friends (then heroes) who did attend are featured in our film. We gather them for a therapy session in Downey’s old studio.

O’Shea: In the doc, are you able to draw parallels between some of Downey’s tactics with tactics employed by TV and radio talk show hosts of today?

Newberger: We visit a Tea Party media conference to tap into the latest crop of Morts. The cultural critics in the film detail the anatomy of a populist entertainer. Mort’s producers reveal how one is forged.

O’Shea: How challenging was it to convince Bob Pittman to license the Downey footage to you?

Newberger: The founder of MTV, Bob Pittman we believe was convinced by our creativity. We didn’t just want to make a Morton Downey Jr. documentary, but an in-your-face, take-no-prisoners cult classic. We took a gamble that Bob would share our vision. He rewarded us with the show footage.

O’Shea: Creatively, was there a debate whether or not to include animation in the documentary to recreate moments in Downey’s life that had not been filmed?

Newberger: The three of us were all on board to animate parts of the film. Not necessarily to recreate un-filmed moments of Mort’s life, but to portray his demons. Our South African animator Murray John employs a hand-drawn,“Heavy Metal” style.

O’Shea: Were there other challenges to overcome in getting this documentary made?

Newberger: The biggest challenge we faced was combing through more than 400 tapes of show footage to not necessarily capture the finest moments—as if putting together a “best of” compilation—but to sculpt a narrative and get inside Mort’s mind and motivation.

O’Shea: Anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Newberger: ÉVOCATEUR: THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. MOVIE is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2012. We encourage your readers to attend a screening:

I love photography, I love any examination of it in the mainstream. Woodman was a photographer who happened to take her life at the age of 22. A tragic loss–and a career ended far too young, admittedly.

But I winced when I saw the headline “Is Francesca Woodman the Sylvia Plath of Photography?” I am trying to find another word, but the word that keeps popping in my head is “offended”. Just because you are talented and recognized for a talent in public (two elements which Plath and Woodman share) does not mean that the choice of suicide makes Woodman the Plath of her chosen art. The comparison is not only lazy, it insults both creative talents.