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Don’t Eat Discounted Fiber Pills While at a Film Festival

Last weekend, we were fortunate enough to screen our film Loves Her Gun at the Oak Cliff Film Festival.

Oak Cliff is a vibrant neighborhood in Downtown Dallas, bubbling with creativity and conversation (i.e. Hipster Central).

Of course, I fell in love with it.

What makes Oak Cliff appealing is that it still appears to be a harmonious marriage of old and new. An explosion of expensive restaurants and condos has yet to happen, and the creative folks that are coming into the neighborhood are adapting old, historic buildings into innovative community spaces. We spent the majority of our stay at the historic Texas Theatre, where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended, and is now owned by four young men who offer themed screenings and blockbuster events much like the Alamo Drafthouse.

Our carload to Dallas from Austin included me (the writer), Geoff (the director), Amy (the DP) and Jennymarie (the actress). On our way out of town, we stopped at Walgreens to pick up Geoff’s ‘roids (he (more…)

June 17, 2013 by hipstercrite

Hipstercrite Life, Pop Culture

Evidence That I Was an Insanely Nerdy 13 Year-Old

Have you ever come across a list of future goals you created as a child and realize that you’ve failed miserably at life? I’m back home visiting in Central New York and discovered that my Mom framed my life failings in a scrapbook. The goal list below I created at 13 years of age as I was going through a painfully embarrassing X-files and Elton John obsession (painful = alienated friends and loved ones).

Sadly, I can only say that I’ve succeed in accomplishing goals #1 (David Duchovny), #2 (emails count, right?), #3 (Loves Her Gun), #9 (can I swap this out for the SAG Awards?) and #10 (Vancouver).

I’ve written out my goals below in case you get lost once my ADD kicked in and I got bored in filling in the rest of the list with color. I’ve also left my typos and punctuations errors in all their teenage glory.

What were your prepubescent goals?

1.) Meet Elton, David (Duchovny), Gillian (Anderson), Chris (Carter) Etc.

2.) Write letters to over 700 people.

3.) Make a movie.

4.) (more…)

May 29, 2013 by hipstercrite

20-Something, Austin, Pop Culture

The Night I Played Bingo For the First Time and Realized I Was a Giant Pussy

Guys, I played grownup bingo for the first time yesterday and it hurt.

Grownup bingo is not for pussies, but as I learned yesterday, I’m one giant pussy.

It takes a brave man or woman to sit in such a high-stress environment surrounded by dialogue boxes of smoke and florescent lights loaned from UT’s football stadium.

If you’re unfamiliar with how grownup bingo works, I will give you the lowdown. I’m going to give you the lowdown through the eyes of a 7 year-old because that’s how I felt yesterday (and I’m feeling lazy today): we were in this BIG pink room in parking lot near the highway and there were all these tables filled with people smoking cigarettes with these big, metal balloons next to them (the 29 year-old in me will translate that to “oxygen tanks”). We bought bingo sheets and some of us even bought these little computer thingies that help you mark your bingo cards. I bought a bingo marker with a shiny blue top! I also bought two bingo sheets which meant I had to (more…)

May 17, 2013 by hipstercrite

Music, Pop Culture

Who is Your Creative Idol?

I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to my creative idol.

Since I was sixteen years old, David Byrne has been my guiding light for creativity.

I first fell in awe when I watched the 15th anniversary DVD release of Stop Making Sense. Seeing him choreographically stumble at the end of “Psycho Killer” absolutely blew my teenage mind. I had never seen anything like it and I vowed that I would always approach art with such fearlessness (I haven’t always succeeded, but I continue to use this day as inspiration). Whether it’s music, film, art or literature, Byrne can’t stop creating, and the beauty of his work is that it’s not always great. Regardless of the hits or misses, Byrne will never give up. A rule that every artist should live by.

Like many wistful children from small towns, I often dreamt about a life in 70s and 80s East Village, New York City. I became enamored with the musicians and artists that came out of the scene: Talking Heads, Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Basquiat, (more…)

May 14, 2013 by hipstercrite

Pop Culture

Want to Snuggle With All Eleven Doctors? Check Out These Adorable Doctor Who Dolls!

I never would have imagined in a million years that I would become a Doctor Who fan, but here I am, sitting here like a friggin’ monkey banging on my phone, attempting to figure out how to change my cellphone ringer to the TARDIS landing/taking off whoosh noise (update: I successfully figured it out AND added a Baker-era and Tennant-era theme ringtone as well- don’t ask me how I did, I have no idea) .

I’ll be honest- I’m a newbie fan. I recall reading about Doctor Who in the nerdy sci-fi magazines I purchased in the 90s due to my love for The X-files, but I have little experience with the series from 1963-2005 and have only watched the the series pertaining to the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant). And up until last week, I enjoyed Eccleston more than Tennant (which lead to a public shaming from many of my Doctor Who-loving friends). Now that I’ve completed the end of Tennant’s second season, I’ll admit that he appeals to my feminine senses. When Tennant (more…)

May 1, 2013 by hipstercrite

20-Something, Fashion/Design, Pop Culture

Urban Outfitters vs. American Apparel: Which Hipster Brand Is Most Ethical?

I’ve had this blog for years and every month I get an itch to make it more streamlined. Thoughts of starting an editorial calendar dance in my head, but who am I kidding? My brain is about as organized as the basement of some sad sack on A&E’s Hoarders.

If I was more organized, I would make Friday my designated fashion and design day. In an attempt to accomplish that goal, I’m going to write about the most ridiculously hipster fashion topic I can think of:

Urban Outfitters

and

American Apparel.

Two clothing companies that the hip teen-through-thirty-somethings who think they are still teens love to shop at.

Full disclosure: I used to shop at both AND off and on worked at the latter (judge away!)

I no longer shop at Urban Outfitters for ethical reasons, however, I continue to support American Apparel, not because of some Kool-Aid allegiance I formed while working there (believe me, it’s NOT a perfect company), but because side-by-side, American Apparel is a more (more…)

April 12, 2013 by hipstercrite

Austin, Music, Pop Culture

If You Love Depeche Mode and Joy Division, You’ll Love Austin-Based Band Knifight

You know that special moment when you randomly walk into a bar, completely unaware of what musical act is playing there that night, and as you’re ordering your drink, you hear the most transfixing music pouring in from the back? You make your way through the crowd and find yourself planted in front of a five-piece band creating a sound conglomeration of your favorite musicians: m83, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, INXS, any wonderfully moody synth music over the past three decades…

I’ll never forget that night at Cheer Up Charlie’s when I first saw the Austin-based Knifight.

We were scouting locations for our film Loves Her Gun (Cheer Up Charlie’s makes an appearance in it!), and we fell so in love with Knifight’s music, that we asked if we could use one of their songs in our movie. The song we used is one of my all-time favorite songs by anyone: “Girls Don’t Get Crushes”.

If you don’t fall in love with Knifight after listening to that song (and the others listed below from their (more…)

April 4, 2013 by hipstercrite

Film, Pop Culture

The Many Faces of Chevy Chase (pictures)

Well, yesterday’s post provoked the wrath of Khan, so I’m going to write about something warm and fuzzy today… like Chevy Chase’s face!

I had no clue what to write about earlier, so I sought inspiration from my friend Mike who has been on a Fletch kick lately.

“What should I write about today, Mike?”

“The many faces of Chevy Chase!!!!” he said to me.

I snickered to myself. Surely Chevy Chase only has a few faces!

I did a Google search and was surprised to discover that Chevy Chase does indeed make many faces.

Now, I think Mike was implying the wonderful faces that Chevy Chase made during the Fletch era, when Chevy was a stud muffin, like this endearing photo here:

And here:

But what I discovered is that the double and triple-chin modern day Chevy Chase makes waaaay more interesting faces, like:

The Val Kilmer Meme Face

The Farting With Each Step I Take Face

The Recalling Seeing Beverly D’Angelo’s Boobies Face

The Trololo Face

The Cerebral Masturbating (more…)

April 1, 2013 by hipstercrite

Music, Pop Culture

Lady Crush of the Day: Nicole Atkins

Sad fact: I typically don’t gravitate towards female singers. Their voices often sound too perfect- too clean– and in the great words of David Byrne, “The better the singer’s voice is, the harder it is to believe what they’re saying.”

Only the ladies with stories to tell in their voice and lyrics such as Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks, or the ones who challenge gender norms such as Annie Lennox and Patti Smith, or the ones who are just as gritty as they are beautiful such as Deborah Harry and Chrissie Hynde are of interest to me. As for the the Gwen Stefanis, the Beyonces and the Taylor Swifts: I will not argue their talent, but their music does absolutely nothing for me.

To me it is all pop drivel.

It has been a very long time since I had a contemporary female music idol.

I wasn’t very familiar with Nicole Atkins’s music until recently. Why? I’m not sure, other than that I’m really bad at checking out new music (side note: Nicole Atkins is not new new; her first full-length (more…)

March 19, 2013 by hipstercrite

Austin, Film, Music, Pop Culture, Writing

Has SXSW Music Gotten Too Big For Its Britches?

via www.lauragibsonmusic.com

Well, SXSW is over.

We all survived.

We had a busy week with our film, Loves Her Gun. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re interested in reading reviews, awards etc. that the film received, check out our Facebook page.

Participating in the film portion of the festival spoils you. It’s contained and organized, no unofficial events surround it and you casually run into peers and friends within the Austin film community and beyond. It is always a pleasure and a treat to experience this part of the festival.

I could tell the second that SXSW Film and Interactive had ended and Music began when we tried driving out of our neighborhood. Living on the eastside now means you co-exist with official and unofficial music events. No longer do you have to live a couple of blocks east of downtown to experience this; you can live as far as a few miles away to feel the effect. The story I’m about to tell you I already shared on my Facebook (more…)

March 18, 2013 by hipstercrite

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