I'm Naked!

 I'm naked in this video!

Yep. That's how enthusiastic I am about asking for your help on the next stage of my documentary called "INTERcoNEcTed." Okay, I'm naked in a bath towel. But still naked.

Thank you to those souls who have already donated!!! Whoo HOOOO!!!

Getting ready to get Greyhound to Asheville...an almost typical day in my life...of making a documentary. Documentaries are often multi-year projects but even I have to admit this is taking way longer than I thought it would to feel ready to complete.

Behind the scenes can be pretty mundane in film making and in this video it's a lot of bus riding. It's also a lot of time of me spending by myself just walking around in an unfamiliar place. Although most of what you will see in this video would not make it to a final product I thought it would be interesting to show the reverse of dvd "extras"...the out-takes before the film is even finished.

I have flown, taken buses and taxis, trains and cars to meet people I know from online. On this trip I was heading to Asheville for a meet up with people who had discussed dozens of novels together online. Moby Dick. Wings Of A Dove. Disgrace. The Boy Who LOved Anne Frank.

These discussions provided a rich arena for discussing ideas, ethics, and topics outside daily chit chat and into a dream-like experience of sharing intimate conversations with people who really didn't know each other in their "real life". I did toy with calling this documentary "M.I.R.L" (meeting in real life)at first but its working title at the moment is "INTERcoNnEcTed."

I am looking for support to complete this documentary. If you would like to help with the following items you can donate at

Candy's Documentary Completion

Crowd Fund To Get MY Documentary Completed

 Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you will watch my video promo for a documentary I've been working on. It's not unusual for a doc to be a multi-year effort. I need a kick in the butt to get this thing moving forward and wrapped up. I hope you will consider donating Go Fund Me. Every little bit helps!

Here is my YouTube video too. You can find the link on the blurb below the video as well as going directly to my campaign.

More Monument

 

Tom's Beach

 

I ama  beach bum and I almost jumped into Lake Michigan today...can't wait to swim. Our friend Tom showed us where he swims in the summer..his condo has it's own beach and breakwaters. 

William Shakespeare Monument

Four of us met at the William shakespeare Monument on Lake Michigan in the Chicago Park District this morning. After our cold walk around the area we went for breakfast and lots of cups of coffee.

We enjoyed this park bench dedication.

When Samuel Johnston, a successful north side businessman, died in 1886, he left a sizeable gift in his will for several charities as well as money for a memorial to William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park. A competition was held to select a sculptor. The winner was a Columbia University graduate, William Ordway Partridge (1861–1930), who had studied sculpture in France and Italy after a short stint as an actor.

This commission presented a unique challenge for Partridge since the only known portraits of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) had been done after the death of the famous English playwright and poet. Partridge made an intensive study of Shakespeare and life in Elizabethan England. He visited Stratford and London, reviewed dozens of existing artworks, and examined a death mask that was then believed to have been authentic. Partridge also consulted with Shakespearean actors including Henry Irving and his costumer, Seymour Lucas, who helped him portray the world-renowned literary figure in authentic period clothing.

Partridge displayed a plaster model of the William Shakespeare Monument at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. He had the work cast in bronze in Paris and shipped to Chicago. The donor’s grandniece, Miss Cornelia Williams, unveiled the sculpture on April 23, 1894, the supposed anniversary of both Shakespeare’s birth and death.

At the dedication ceremony, Partridge said: “Shakespeare needs nothing of bronze. His monument is England, America, and the whole of Saxondom. He placed us upon a pedestal, but one cannot place him on one, for he belongs among the people whom he so dearly loved.” The artist’s remarks offer insight into the sculpture’s unusually low pedestal, which provides exceptional visual and physical access to the artwork. From HERE

 Stagg, Tom and Jim.

Musical Guest On Podcast

 We spend some time with Jin J. X this week on our podcast. Here is Jin playing one of his songs from his album SONGS FOR LIZ. 

Disaster Movie!

Eugene and I talk to Arnab Chakraborty this week about disaster movies. Why do we watch them? What do they mean to us or for our cultures? Thanks for listening!

The Agency Reading List

 

Eugene has been keeping a tally of the books we mention in our podcast. Go to his blog to see it 27th Street Blog

Family Mystery

 Yep we talk about a family mystery. No nt the royal family. Oh wait we do talk about that...but we interview two Canadian filmmakers about their new true crime documentaries-series. You can watch the first episode here and the rest on CBCgem or Paramount Plus....

Our interview with Mike Mildon and Jackson Rowe is here...

Get Involved And Support Art!

 Hi and thanks for visiting my bog! I am hoping to get some people interested ina long term documentary I've been making. I'd like to get it wrapped up now that the pandemic might be waning...and vaccines might make it possible for us to travel again. I have been visiting people I've met on the internet either in online bookclubs and blogs. I still want to meet some of my online friends in Texas, Florida and the UK. Please watch the promo my friend Matt Spain made for me to get interest in this project. It's only five minutes but its a lot of fun. You can pledge $50 and I will add your name to the credits in the finished documentary series! You can pledge right here at the button to your right if you scroll down...the :paypal DONATION" button 

Here is a little promo for your consideration...(and a little more blurb below)

Connecting to others on the internet makes you feel more connected.     After ten years of full time participation in two literary web boards where the participants discussed, often passionately arguing, the nature of reality, the meaning of storytelling and the intent of various authors, film makers, or poets and how to cook the perfect dinner I decided to meet the characters on the other side of my computer screen. For real.   I set out to cross North America, half a dozen cities in Europe and track down one photographer in India to match the faces to the opinions of the feisty forum participants of the official Cormac McCarthy Society, the web board called "Constant Reader" and a dozen bloggers I had spent innumerable hours with online. Who were these thoughtful, contraire opinionated people and why did we find so much to talk about? Who were they in real life and how had the internet affected their lives?   Social and moral critics often predicted negative and unsavoury effects due to the mass adoption of the internet with fears of stalkers to dulled brains to conspiracy theorists and fake news and I have found some of those things but I’ve also found some great cerebral companions.   To date I have met and interviewed almost 40 people, including anthropologist Grant McCracken (who I met blogging) cultural theorist John Vanderheide (who I met on McCarthy forum) survived a stalker, and have travelled 7,000 miles, 5200 by land, 14 cities, and have collected about 17 hours of tape.

Exotic Birds

 

A Promo

 I mentioned on a recent episode that I had a documentary I have been working on for 10 years...and I said I would share it...so here it is...

Connecting to others on the internet makes you feel more connected.     After ten years of full time participation in two literary web boards where the participants discussed, often passionately arguing, the nature of reality, the meaning of storytelling and the intent of various authors, film makers, or poets and how to cook the perfect dinner I decided to meet the characters on the other side of my computer screen. For real.   I set out to cross North America, half a dozen cities in Europe and track down one photographer in India to match the faces to the opinions of the feisty forum participants of the official Cormac McCarthy Society, the web board called "Constant Reader" and a dozen bloggers I had spent innumerable hours with online. Who were these thoughtful, contraire opinionated people and why did we find so much to talk about? Who were they in real life and how had the internet affected their lives?   Social and moral critics often predicted negative and unsavoury effects due to the mass adoption of the internet with fears of stalkers to dulled brains to conspiracy theorists and fake news and I have found some of those things but I’ve also found some great cerebral companions.   To date I have met and interviewed almost 40 people, including anthropologist Grant McCracken (who I met blogging) cultural theorist John Vanderheide (who I met on McCarthy forum) survived a stalker, and have travelled 7,000 miles, 5200 by land, 14 cities, and have collected about 17 hours of tape. If you would like to contribute to my production please visit my Patreon page. And thank you for your interest.

My Patreon page to donate, click here

Oscar Winner Interview

I share a brief conversation I had with Oscar winning costume designer Jaunty Yates this week. Ms. Yates won an Oscar for GLADIATOR and she mtalked to me from Rome about the wardrobe in THE COUNSELOR. Listen to this week's episode here at THE AGENCY podcast

Deep Dive About CBGB Sound System

This week we feature Irish scholar and musician, Richard Duckworth. Richard is a friend of ours from the pop culture convention. He talks to us about working at the legendary New York City club CBGB. He was a sound engineer theere and then he shares his recent paper about the sound system.

Here is website for  his band Analog On

And if that's not exciting enough...I share a bit of conversation I had with Jaunty Yates, Oscar winning costume designer for GLADIATOR. She talks to me about the wardrobe in THE COUNSELOR.