Mystery Train & Engagement

Close enough to nuzzle!

New movie soon. Zach Passero and I. People. An original story. Blinking, delicious things. Belly rolls. Lightfacing windows. Mornings, Days and Nights of the Squirrel.

Spiral Stairs & Benmont Jefferson kiss with tongue -- the "Cold Change" music video

I appear as Benmont Jefferson in the music video for "Cold Change," a good new song by Spiral Stairs. The video, directed by Jess Carfield and shot by Chris Heinrich, is the second music video for a Spiral Stairs song in which I appear. You might remember the "Caught In The Rain" music video? No? Really? You don't remember Doug Doug? No? Nothing?? That's okay. Those were strange times. I'm not sure it actually happened. But you may find a link in this very blog, I think, and take a fresh look, and it might happen all over again, new-like, special.

Spiral is otherwise known as Scott Kannberg, and is also known as Preston School of Industry, and is also also known as a charter member of the recently reunited iconic rock n' roll band Pavement.

Benmont Jefferson is otherwise known as that guy who sleeps down there at the creek.



Update: if you prefer, you may now watch Spiral Stairs' "Cold Change" video on youtube.

Featured in the video are numerous photographs and album designs you've seen here before -- the results of my ongoing collaboration with the fine Marlena Miller.

You will also catch a nice glimpse of one of Benmont's records in the Spiral Stairs "Stolen Pills" video directed by Jess Carfield and shot by Chris Heinrich.

You may find more Benmont Jefferson over at benmontjefferson.com.

I am working on a number of other things over here. Life-sized models of lost civilizations, Kachina dolls, book-length prose poems. Nothing you'd care much about, I'm afraid. My back is getting worse and I'm having trouble sleeping (blog!) but most other things are doing alright. I'm trying to do good.


My apologies, Love....

wide-eyed & yonder

Excerpts from a piece by writer Doug Pullen of the El Paso Times:

“Motel, Glimpse” is a surprisingly powerful, often poignant look at two Missouri brothers…

It’s a smart movie, a deceptive movie that charms you in the beginning with Lee’s pained eyes and muted emotions and Ready’s pipe dreams, but slowly sucks you into their downward spiral, a tonal change that works because of how gradual it is.

…the performances by Passero and Stone are so convincing and so compelling you totally buy into these characters.

“Motel, Glimpse” is worth a serious look.

You may read the entire thing here.

rare beasts and you... glimpses afforded in motel rooms... folk punk mornings

I am proud to announce that the Plaza Classic Film Festival, a special project of the El Paso Community Foundation, will present a premiere screening of my film motel, glimpse on Saturday, August 8, at 10 pm.

This should be a lot of fun. Co-director/co-writer Zach Passero and I plan to be in attendance. It promises to be some kind of outlandish to-do. The protagonists gussied up and elevated in strange standstill dance. Miscreants and wanderers connected literally and/or figuratively to the making of motel, glimpse, as well as the lives therein lived. Perhaps you might be in attendance too? motel, glimpse will be part of very unique double feature. At 7:30 this same night, Zach curates a screening of one of our very favorite films. The film in question is a secret, but I’ll say that it was released in 1971 and is very much a kind of spiritual and aesthetic predecessor to motel, glimpse. A certain existential art-house dramic odyssey for the drive-in movie theaters.

[Update: the other half of this double-feature is Two Lane Blacktop, directed by Monte Hellman. Two Lane Blacktop is an evocative, surreal little classic, featuring genuinely weird performances by a young, brooding James Taylor and the enigmatic Dennis Wilson. The highlight performance is an amped up and gonzo-minded thing by legend Warren Oates, one of my favorite actors.]

Check out the festival website page for motel, glimpse. There will be great classic flicks throughout the 10-day festival. Check out the Plaza Classic Film Festival website for information on film titles, schedule, tickets and directions.

There are very few finer road trips than the ones into El Paso. Land vibrations. Outlaws. Unidentified flying objects that may or may not be eyes coming in out of the desert and sky. Make an adventure of it. El Paso is a beautiful city, artful and storied, very dear to my heart. As such, I am delighted to screen our fresh baked movie there.

other links:
Official motel, glimpse website (with trailer)
motel, glimpse on myspace

motel, glimpse on facebook

We Were Wet When

“The mystery—as mysteries do—deepens. The mystery takes on a strange, persistent odor. The mystery abruptly stands, paces the room. Makes you nervous. Then it grows on you. Grows all over you. Makes you expectant. Ready, anxious. You can’t tell. Hungry, confused.

First, this press release last week:

Skip Lotem disappeared from El Paso, Texas in June 2009. He was scheduled to visit the studio with his longtime recording partner Doug Doug, but when the time came for the two to hit the studio Skip Lotem never showed up.

“skip never showed up to those final sessions. either way, we do know that skip was in or around the el paso, texas area the last time he was spotted. that was at the end of 2008. i don’t know what happened to him. i was looking forward to a sequel version to our hit ‘rub the pug’. we joked about it. i miss skip.” -doug doug

But if there’s one thing we know about Skip & Doug it is that you cannot trust press releases from either camp. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say it—you can’t trust Skip or Doug period. I wouldn’t leave a pug alone with either one of them. I wouldn’t give them a key to my house or whisper them a secret. But man oh man-o what I would do is anything that might make them get the hell back in the studio. I can still remember where I was when I first heard “Rub the Pug”—how my toes felt like they were on fire. How my eyes watered, and I was transported another place, a place almost like childhood or a perfect dreamlike memory of connectivity but not quite like either of those things. Shinier than those things, more glistening. And then “Suck My Face.” There are on dance floors across this globe many skins of mine shed and likely still animated by and bumping to that infectious groove, mouthing those delirious, almost dangerous lyrics. And then “Suck My Face Part Two.” Let’s just say I have been made wet. The whole world is wet. Song-wise, the growers were their acoustic ventures—an almost disarming amount of—what can I call it??—soul? Insight into the origin of the species, human consciousness?? Something. Really something.

And that’s why there is so much “buzz” concerning persistent rumors that Skip Lotem and Doug Doug are indeed, at this moment, en collabo flagrante. Can it be true?? And if—the Groove willing—they are working on a new project—(the mind spasms) what the heck could it be??? What new music, new tricks, new purpose might be wrapped around their toned forearms, up under designer sleeves????? But as these questions escalate toward inner hysteria, another voice comes out of the blue to calm the perturbations. Two voices in fact. Melodious, dulcet calls. Very familiar. Reminding. To be. To know. To let. To groove. All the things Skip and Doug have been saying all along, the mountaintop coming into view.

Skip and Doug are right there. Here. Where they’ve always been.”

—Gannymede Stalwart, New Music Express

motel, glimpse

“Before there were dream-catchers there were dream-catchers.”

crawldad/crawdead

Previously unseen Benmont Jefferson archival photographs have been unearthed over at Marlena Miller Photography. Included are portraits from Mayan Chocolate and Chickenshit Blues-era photo shoots.

Sea of Tuscumbia

I have posted the demo of a new song, Ketchikan, over at the Sea of Tuscumbia. An hymn.

I hope you find work. I hope you make your shots. I hope you hit one out of the park. I hope you stick your landing. I hope you paint your moving book.

I hope you find work.

motel, glimpse

art by zeque peña

motel, glimpse
justin stone & zach passero
movie coming in 2009

Zach and I recently finished audio post-production work on motel, glimpse and now look to distribute the movie. Jim Ward – of the great bands At The Drive-In, Sparta and Sleepercar – has created an original score for the movie and has supervised the final soundtrack. Christopher Robleto created a compelling sound design. Zeque Pena has made some great new artwork for the film. Garard Whatley of Rocketwerks supervised the final sound engineering and mix.

We are very happy with what this movie has become and we look forward to folks having an opportunity to see it.

motel, glimpse official website and trailer

motel, glimpse on myspace

motel, glimpse on facebook

Blackberry County Line live album + book

“And when it was all done, when the show was all over -- that last night that The Line got it together there at Leeds -- I came upon Benmont and he was just lying there on the ground, in the staging area, and he was crying. No, weeping is the better word; he was weeping. And I said to him -- I’ll never forget this -- I said to him, “What is it, Jefferson?” And he just kinda looked up at me, everything pouring out of his eyes, and he says, “It’s the music.” – Gussy Ferguson, in an excerpt from The Blacker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice: An Oral History of Blackberry County Line (Kangaroo Court, 2009)

photography/design by Marlena Miller

Benmont Jefferson ~ Skinny Brown Creek

“Those were simpler, more complicated times.”
Benmont Jefferson's final, unreleased solo album

photography/design by Marlena Miller

Summer of Dog Days

This week on Fangoria.com.....
(italics & bold mine)

July 31: WICKED LAKE director talks next features & more

Director Zach Passero, of the new gonzo shocker WICKED LAKE (pictured, and hitting DVD October 7 from Media Blasters), got in touch with Fango to give us the lowdown on what he’s currently cooking up. “I have two genre scripts that I’m trying to get moving,” he tells us. “One is a psychedelic biker flick—a strange genre-bender with some horror elements. The other one is just weird, heartfelt fun—something special that [LAKE and THE LOST actor] Justin Stone and I are working on.” In addition, the El Paso, TX-based filmmaker reveals, “By the time WICKED LAKE hits DVD, my other feature film MOTEL, GLIMPSE, which I co-directed with Stone [before WICKED rolled], should be completed. I’m finishing up postproduction on it.”

WICKED LAKE co-producer/co-scripter Chris Sivertson, who employed Passero as an assistant cameraman on THE LOST, also threw his hat into the MOTEL, GLIMPSE ring, lensing the last half of the film, in which Passero and Stone also star. The former describes the flick as “a ’70s-throwback, drug-freakout road movie with some healthy psychedelia thrown in. It’s a man-child waiting to hit the eyes of the masses. I’m ready to make another movie, though. I’ve learned my lessons [from WICKED LAKE] and now I’m itching to take things further. I’ve got big plans.” You can check out LAKE’s official website here and see our set-visit story in Fango #277, on sale in September. —Sean Decker

Caught In The Rain

Caught In The Rain
Preston School of Industry

This video was conceived and directed by Justin Stone, Chris Heinrich & Zach Passero in El Paso on New Year's Day 2004. It is notable now, among many other things, for featuring the first appearance of Doug Doug. The song is a pretty one by Preston School of Industry -- Scott 'Spiral Stairs' Kannberg's (Pavement) good band.

I love this video.

Benmont Jefferson ~ still life study

(click on images for larger view)

“Sunday Morning With Benmont Jefferson”
Southern Relic magazine

Benmont's first solo record Mayan Chocolate

vintage Benmont pin-up, circa "Chickenshit Blues"
(all photography & design by Marlena Miller)

WICKED LAKE movie updates

The WICKED LAKE world premiere is fast approaching! This movie is directed by Zach Passero. I play the featured role of Fred. Score and songs by big-hearted Al Jourgenson of Ministry. The premiere will be at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on April 26 at midnight! Come on out and join us for what will be a wild, fun screening.

Earlier that same Saturday, there will be a boisterous WICKED LAKE Panel at the Fangoria Weekend Of Horrors Convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We'll all be there.

Click here to check out the official WICKED LAKE website. (Adult Content -- Not Safe For Work.)

Click here to watch the WICKED LAKE trailer on YouTube. (Adult Content)

THE LOST by Chris Sivertson

Chris Sivertson’s movie THE LOST is available on DVD as of today, March 18. I play the role of Ken Wellman, and am featured in the film’s final act. If you like your psychological thrillers surreal & intense & unsettlingly funny, this one’s for you. Everything about the movie (based on the novel by Jack Ketchum) -- the performances, narrative, photography, music -- is way out there. But let me stress that it is directed with precision. There’s a method at work. There’s not a movie quite like it. Anchor Bay is releasing the movie "not rated" (NR). So. Not for the faint. (Like myself!)

Good performances in THE LOST include Marc Senter (who will be long remembered for this break-out lead role of Ray Pye), Shay Astar (3RD ROCK), Robyn Sydney (EVIL BONG), Megan Henning (7TH HEAVEN), Alex Frost (ELEPHANT, DRILLBIT TAYLOR), Michael Bowen (KILL BILL, JACKIE BROWN), Dee Wallace-Stone (E.T., CUJO), Jesse Hlubik (SICK GIRL, MAY), Katie Cassidy (BLACK CHRISTMAS, DALLAS), Shelli Merrill (SATURN RETURNS), Erin Brown (SICK GIRL), Ed Lauter (CUJO), Richard Riehle (PALINDROMES, HATCHET) and kick-ass Eddie Steeples (MY NAME IS EARL). A highlight performance is that by an up-and-comer named Tess Passero.

Another highlight of this movie is the music work done by Tim Rutilli. Tim’s band CALIFONE is one of my favorite bands, and he brings a soul to this picture that is so fine. This is a guy I’d be happy to have work on my movies from now til the end of time.

Click here to watch The Lost international trailer on youtube. (warning: Adult Content)

You might get more info at THE LOST myspace page here.

You might check out the Amazon page here. The DVD ought to be available at most buying/renting outfits.

motel, glimpse ~ my cinema

Old Tyme Zach Passero is doing some sweet work on the official motel, glimpse website. New sequences, dreamscapes. You are due a visit. Go check it out: motel, glimpse website. We also have a motel, glimpse myspace page. Make friends, keep updated. If'n you like.

We are digging through the 50 hours of footage we amassed while shooting this movie, creating something new. Apocalypse Cow. We are re-imagining. I will gladly send you a DVD of the original cut (while supplies and money last) if you write me. One day, this movie will be seen in its true light. Once we see it! I am distinctly proud of it. It is something new. It seems that those who love it love it alot. And this is the finest dialogue. This flicker isn't taking so long because it is problematic, or difficult. It is not even really a movie. It is life, dream. An exploration. It takes long walks, thinks. Cracks itself up. But it comes home.

motel, glimpse will be available on DVD one day. Maybe this year. It will also be available at the ghost drive-in on the edge of that ghost town some few counties over here you heard whispers about when you were growing up from your dad's friend Mike Antonioni.

Peek a glimpse of a sequence I call "get the monkey off my back". I am playing Ready and Zach plays brother Lee. This little sequence also features great performances by Kathy Tennison, Richard Brown and Brad Allen. Many thanks to the awesome Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri shop Richard's Relic Shack for allowing us to shoot there.


On that same note, I now have a YouTube Channel. Please go and check out 1 Easy Pieces.

Creek Lullaby ~ my new book

I recently finished another book of stories, poetry and humor. I am calling this one Creek Lullaby. (blink, blink) I still don't know what it is I am doing with these books, but there are now many of them. It is work always in progress. Some of it good, some of it less so. It is a life time. A life. I will get them out soon. No need to rush these. They just are. With Lullaby I am happy. If you wish to read a copy of Creek Lullaby, write to me and I will gladly send you a pdf file of the book. The words are meant to be read. Simple.

One Of Missouri's Minor Poets
photograph by Arianna Parsons

Skip Lotem & Doug Doug

I am Doug Doug in the musical/improv/comedy duo Skip Lotem and Doug Doug. Click here to go to the Skip & Doug myspace page and listen to songs, watch videos, read press releases, make friends, make out, and make the spiritual equivalent of a million bucks! Wear sunglasses that you might protect your eyes. I am very pleased to deliver this stuff. It is nothing short of giddy joy to produce this work alongside longtime friend and collaborator Kevin Ford. Skip Lotem & Doug Doug have a seven song EP called "No Why's, No What's" that is rocketing to the top of international album charts faster than I can type this. Check out our new music videos:

Rub The Pug

Suck My Face

press release by Freckle & Sons Media Consultants

wind figures, wind ships

I do not do this enough, but I need to say these things, put the word out. And so . . .

Soon I will act in INHERIDANCE, the new film by Kevin Ford of Mo-Freek Productions. Can't wait for this. It is a charming, funny, love & friend movie. I will work alongside great actors Jesse Hlubik, Angela Bettis, Lucky McKee and my sister Lindsay Stone, among others.

I have a small, funny role in a very funny movie that is nearing completion, titled (last I heard) HOMECOMING: THE MOVIE. The movie is directed by a cool, talented fella named Ben Lamb, who also happens to be from Missouri. There seems to be a number of us out here! You will laugh heartily at Ben's movie. I expect it to play festivals next year, and it will certainly get distributed.

I will direct another film soon. It is called TURTLE. My good friend and fellow mid-Missourian/School of the Osage Indian James (Jim) Brown wrote this epic story, based very much on his own life, and I had the pleasure of crafting the screenplay with him. It is an amazing piece of work. Honest. Funny. Real. The likes of this movie ain't nobody seen. James and my sister, Lindsay Stone, will play the leads.

Numerous screenplays are written and are writing. Some good stuff. Some surprises just for you. New cinema.

As well I have recently written a bunch of new songs. I have not recorded them, and am still refining the lot of them, but I'm very happy with these. I've gotten to a more lyrical, less edge-of-the-nerves place with the songs. Slowly finding a unique voice. This one's labor intensive! I look forward to them being heard. On this same front, my good friend Johnny Pfirman, currently of the band RADAR RADAR in Austin, Texas, recently recorded a song that he and I wrote together many years ago called DROPSY. To hear this song come around, cross the years, and find home recently in my ears was a revelation. A validation. The poetry come to fruition, life, in a way I have not often seen with my work. It is a love story. One song, sure, but it is something else. An epic 8 minutes, a few hundred years. Thank you, Johnny.

I am working on it, friends. It took me a while to come around, to get back here, but the distance traveled was valuable. Hand to mouth on a long arm. There is momentum. I feel blessed, eager. I thank you for your support.

faith, hope & love,
justin david stone

Justin David Stone in photograph

(click on image for larger view)

Justin and Lindsay Stone
Yesteryear Images, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, 2005
photograph by Don Roelofs