A heady flashback. A falling down. Justin Stone's Rookie Night Radio Show Episode 3 -- The Very Special Rock And Roll Show. A four am walk outside Dead Shirt, Florida.

Justin Stone's Rookie Night Radio Theater, Episode #3

I am happy to announce that I have been accepted by and will be joining the Bilingual MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Texas at El Paso. Additionally, I will be a Teacher Assistant with the English Department in the First-Year Composition Program, a 3-year Teacher Assistantship. I am grateful and honored to be allowed this undertaking in El Paso, Texas, a place I dearly love and am proud to call home. The journey continues.

One may now listen to Justin Stone's Rookie Night Radio Show Episode One forever and forever.

Photograph by Arianna Parsons

This Present Songcraft

Here are easy links to performances of new songs last fall. These bootlegs feature not so great live audio sound but nonetheless I like these videos. Special thanks to Zach Passero for documenting this show. I am looking to play more shows now. These are glimpses of but a few of the songs comprising a kind of body of work that consumed me mid through late last year, and I am proud of the content.

Ambulant's Dream
Houston Zoo >> Earthlodge
Carry Ann
The Night Old Dixie Drove Off The Road

I have other song demos posted at Justin Stone's soundcloud page, and then more (mostly older demos) posted at Justin Stone and the Sea of Tuscumbia's myspace page. Here too is the Earthlodge music video by Burnpile.

In other news, the Dead Shirt city council recently voted to buy new (and much needed!) uniforms for the co-ed softball team Dead Shirt Dusk Devils in the wake of last year's breakout season. Great job, folks. Small ball. Way to put those bunts down and move about the bases. In the same meeting the city council, on a unanimous 5-3 vote, approved the new city motto: "That no one would know." Thanks for the submission, Doug. You have a touch with glyph.

Justin Stone, Kevin Ford, Zach Passero

Photograph Kevin Ford

As Kevin said, "The Boy Band is all grown up now."

LEGS, a film by Kevin Ford

One may see me in this trailer for the upcoming film LEGS:



Director Kevin Ford of Mo-Freek films says, "We are finally getting close to being finished with our latest Mo-Freek movie LEGS and hope to be screening the movie by late 2012."

Written by Chris Sivertson and featuring performances by Eddie Steeples, Angela Bettis, Jesse Hlubik and others, as well as a score by Tim Rutili (Califone, Red Red Meat), LEGS is the latest in an intriguing and dynamic shared body of work between Kevin, Steeples and Angela. I love these friends and am honored to be a part of their lives and art!

Photograph by Walter Royall

Creekbed

Creekbed

Lauren & Kelsey's wedding

Check out the great photographs that Next To Me Studios, based in San Diego, produced at the wedding of Lauren and Kesley Brookes in September of this year, for which I wrote a long new poem and conducted the ceremony. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful moment in this life, and I still ring inside at the very thought of it all.

One may contact or find out more about San Diego's Next To Me Studios here on their Facebook page.

 Photography by Next to Me Studios

Campaign To Re-brand America

Campaign To Re-brand America

Freckle and Sons Media Consultants

Ambulant's Dream

Like a long vowel / you make your own name

Bootleg video of me performing my song 'Ambulant's Dream' at a very recent show. I apologize for the sound quality. 'Tis but a glimpse of the songwork I am presently doing.

I posted a few other of my songs from that night on my youtube page here:

Justin Stone's 1 Easy Pieces

Now,
j

The Night Old Dixie Drove Off The Road

I offer you a little glimpse of me rehearsing among friends for my performance of this Friday evening, 30 September 2011, following a night of heady theatre by The Border Theatre as part of their ongoing series Exhibitions In Dis/Connection 2011. I attended Exhibitions this past weekend and it was really cool! Come to the Glasbox (1500 Texas Ave, El Paso) this Friday night. I will admit that I am prepping a songpoem cycle loosely called 'The Night Old Dixie Drove Off The Road,' or, 'You Look Like You're Losing Weight,' having accidentally deleted the songpoem cycle 'Read These Tits And Weep.' It's confusing, but we're gonna be there hashing things out, making amends, etc. Anything you can bring to prop this long body up, please do so; I'm suddenly very light-headed.

songs

Dear Black Hole,

I am playing a set of mostly new songs tomorrow night, Friday, September 30, following a night of theatrical exhibitions being presented by the Border Theatre. I'm told I will play around 9:00 pm. Come see the plays starting at 7:00 pm. At the Glasbox. Beautiful El Paso, Texas.

I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert. I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Sincerely,
j. stone

Song for Lauren and Kelsey

In what was the most exhilarating and purposeful day of my life thus far, I conducted the wedding ceremony for my dear friends and beloveds Lauren Passero and Kelsey Brookes in San Diego, California in a park between a setting sun and a rising nearly full moon on Saturday, September 10, 2011. An electric evening and weekend, full and alive. Thank you so much, friends. I love you.

A New Theater

I will be playing some of my songs on the evening of Friday, September 30, 2011, as part of El Paso's The Border Theatre's Exhibitions in Dis/Connection 2011. The Exhibitions run the last two weekends of September and promise to contain some compelling, vibrant theatre.

Myself, I will be performing songs on the second Friday, September 30, following the night's theatre. It will be wild, weird. Fun. Funny. Good. Come out and support! Tickets are very reasonably priced.

To get more information and/or purchase advance tickets you may click here! Thank you!

Things are building. Growing. Gathering strength and purpose.

Preston School of Industry's "Caught In The Rain" music video

Another era's delight -- here is the music video for the song "Caught In The Rain" by Preston School of Industry (aka Spiral Stairs) that Zach Passero, Chris Heinrich and I made a few years ago in the township of El Paso, Texas. This is a higher quality version of the video than has been on the Interbytes. The song is a great song and this video makes me happy.

Go rapture all the time.



I have gone again to sea

New song by Burnpile -- 'Coming In'

Coming In (by Burnpile) by justin stone

New song by our band Burnpile -- 'Coming In' -- featuring good friends Keith Kofoed on charango and Caroline Conroy on cello. More soon! Light a pile.

Another one of your Easter miracles....

Cousin Joey Wales, The Bunny, and Benmont Jefferson



...a glimpse of things to come...

Motel, Glimpse Special Edition DVD

A small reminder that one may purchase the Motel, Glimpse Special Edition DVD over at Tembloroso Creative Lab -- a very cool website/collective started by good friends of mine here in El Paso, Texas, truly one of the great cities of the United States. I kid you not. 'Tis a land of vibration.

Click here to go to Tembloroso's Motel, Glimpse page, where you may also glimpse the latest trailer for the movie. Over the years, there have been roughly five different versions of Motel, Glimpse, and while I miss things from each of them, the final final (for now) version on the Special Edition DVD I am quite happy with. The movie was scored by Jim Ward of the bands At The Drive-In, Sparta, and Sleepercar. As well, the Special Edition DVD features a quite long, fun outtake reel that contains a great many of the scenes that did not make the final version of the film. That reel, something we call Leftover Voodoo, offers a ride in and of itself. Also on the DVD is Episode One of Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theatre. The DVD is only $10 and you cannot much go wrong with that. More, there will only ever be a finite number of this particular DVD edition.

As well, one may download and watch Motel, Glimpse online via Amazon's Instant Video. Click here to do just that!

So please, check it out. And if you care in the least, pass the word along to a friend. Mention the movie somewhere. Zach and I are developing a new film at this very moment, to be shot in the fall, and I think it is going to a fine surprise.

Love
Justin

'Earthlodge' music video by Burnpile

With the eyes and help of the incomparable Zeque Penya and Julian Quiamboa, Zach Passero and I just shot this music video for the song 'Earthlodge' by our band Burnpile. The 'Pile's heating up.

Burn a pile.

My Jersualem -- 'Sleepwalking' video

My Jerusalem - Sleepwalking (Official Video) from My Jerusalem on Vimeo.

I appear in this video for the song 'Sleepwalking' by the band My Jerusalem. The music video was directed by Jess Carfield and shot by Chris Heinrich, the duo with whom I made the Spiral Stairs 'Cold Change' video.

More soon!

Return of Burnpile

Listen to a new song....

Earthlodge v2.1 by justin stone

"Earthlodge," written by Justin Stone, was recently recorded and produced by Zach Passero in El Paso, Texas. It is the first of a big batch of songs that will exist under the band name Burnpile.

These songs are gonna get walked around.

Motel, Glimpse

"Motel, Glimpse" Trailer from Zaebo Pasca on Vimeo.

You may now order the Special Edition DVD of Motel, Glimpse by Justin Stone and Zach Passero over here at the new and spiffy online collective that is Tembloroso Creative Lab.

Tembloroso Creative Lab

"Tembloroso Creative Lab is a collaboration between Jim Ward, Kristine Ward, Armando Alvarez, and Brandon Silverstein. Our goal is to provide a worldwide voice for El Paso’s artists and musicians.

We started Tembloroso Creative Lab on May 1, 2009 with the release of Jim Ward’s “In The Valley, On The Shores”, which quickly sold thousands of copies around the world. In addition to music, we now sell posters, t-shirts, shoes, and other pieces of unique art."


Neat stuff! And a new place to order the Special Edition DVD of my movie Motel, Glimpse!

Karst Topography

I have begun newly posting some old art over at Karst Topography! I like the way it looks over there.


"I was bald, naked....
Quite lucky to be alive though"
--Bob Dylan, "Talkin Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues"

photography/design by Marlena G. Miller

Moving picture coming soon.

Dispatches from the Sand Crab Independent League

A new screenplay is ready. Something that we think may be good.

Home there in your warm guts.

Doobie & Zig Zag, in what was a very long journey across the room.

Half in, half out of the water, your eyes were rafts.

A new screenplay is ready.

Everyone Is On The Moon

Produced circa 2002, this rustic video documents the recording of "Everyone Is On The Moon," a song by Clint Myers and Chris Heinrich. The setting is Justin Stone's Ozark compound, in low light. Song is produced by Zach Passero. Clint, Chris and Zach would go on to form the El Paso-based band Starbag. Later, Clint started the band Youngmond Grand in Austin, Texas. He can still be heard singing songs in the desert. Way out there. Heinrich has appeared on stage with countless bands and has cut a path that can probably be seen from outer space. Zach is still perched over glowing machines making stuff. The Ozark compound is.

I love this video.

Rookie Night radio theater episodes now available as downloadable podcasts

You may now download and listen to podcasts of the first six episodes of Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theater via Freekradio Podcast. Click here to access the Freekradio Podcast Archive and listen to back episodes of Rookie Night. Miss not an hijink, huzzah nor exhalation of this auditory experiment in gut comedy.

Limber up, lumber yard!

UPDATE: Freekradio's got her a warm, well-lit, and velvety new media room over here. Go have a look-see. A listen-see. You will find episodes of Rookie Night for easy listen under the "talk" section of the media room. A lot of neat stuff over there. Kinda like an Atlantis bath-house, if you know what I mean.

Motel, Glimpse available via Amazon's Video On Demand

Our movie Motel, Glimpse is now available to watch by way of Amazon's video on demand service. Click here to instant watch Motel, Glimpse right now!

Of course you may still purchase the Special Edition DVD from the Motel, Glimpse website by clicking here. The Special Edition DVD comes with numerous bonus features, including a 30-minute outtake reel, the USC student short upon which Motel, Glimpse was based, and the inaugural episode of Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theater.

You never know.

"Long" -- a song collaboration with Ben Boyer

I've posted the demo of a song called "Long" over at Justin Stone and the Sea of Tuscumbia. "Long" started life as a lovely, urgent instrumental by Ben Boyer, who is one of good taste's last great hopes. As well, Ben is one of my primary spiritual benefactors; he sent the instrumental my way, asking if I might write and sing a song over it. What a gift! A story was composed.

I'd been holding back this admittedly lo-fi demo for a little while, but I've decided now to post it up. Too many good things get lost. What is a museum unused? And all I am is lo-fi. Find your headphones, headspace.

As an added bonus at the Sea of Tuscumbia I've also posted a cover my song "Ketchikan" by Ben. When I heard his version of "Ketchikan" I wept. No finer compliment than to have the work re-imagined by a good soul. I want folks to hear this song.

I highly recommend listening to more of Ben Boyer's music over here. He is one of my favorite voices, be it in song, literature or person.

Happy Birthday, lovely

I wish you all the best in your life
I wish you





...

Motel, Glimpse Special Edition DVD available now -- like yage, but safe

A grass-stained comic odyssey for the mind in yr guts. If you like On The Road, Two-Lane Blacktop, Bottle Rocket, Dazed & Confused, The Last Picture Show, The Whole Shootin' Match and/or David Lynch's work, you might hold close this little work of independent folk-punk cinema.

 

Get yr hot hands on Motel, Glimpse today.

Motel, Glimpse Special Edition DVD Available July 27

Cover artwork by Zeque Peñya

Cows sailing over the moon and needles diving up out of haystacks. The Motel, Glimpse Special Edition DVD will be available on Tuesday, July 27 from motelglimpse.com! The long-awaited is now. You may at this very moment go to the website and pre-order the DVD. Zach and I have put together a rather delicious little package for our mothers. Maybe for you too? Motel, Glimpse will also be available on Amazon, but that version will only be a bare-bones DVD package. To get your mitts on the Special Edition DVD, you may order straight from us. It comes in a purty little digipack, packaged in purty art by Zeque Peñya. Moreover, the Special Edition DVD contains some cool bonus features: a 30 minute deleted scene reel; the original 1996 Motel, Glimpse USC student film short written by me, featuring me and Zach, and shot by friend and filmmaker Chris Sivertson; and the first episode of Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theater. The DVD will cost you $15, but that also includes shipping and handling. What a deal. The deals are hot this summer at Goongoon Chevrolet. All of you Justin Stone completists are going to want to come by some cash soon. Best pick up an extra weed-whacking gig this week; best start counting out the change you have stored in that giant Captain Morgan's bottle.

In all seriousness, Zach and I are thrilled that this years-in-the-work dreamtime movy is finally packaged up sweet and tidy, mixed and mastered, trim and beefy, surreal and real. Some of you may enjoy it. Some of you might like the ride. Some of you may in fact laugh your asses off. Believe you me, I'm long on to other stories, working on new movies, but to have this first one, this wild baby up and walking around on its own...it's a personal landmark. If it seems like I've been talking about this movie for 10,000 years it is because I have. Some of you have seen various early versions of the movie, but you haven't seen it finished. 

Befriend Motel, Glimpse on Facebook and/or Myspace. If it is of interest to you, please help us spread the word about the movie. 

Place an order for the Special Edition DVD and watch the Motel, Glimpse trailer at motelglimpse.com. 

The next leap is to be longer, higher. We have been working out, we have been meditating. Did you ever go clear? 

sincerely
j stone

Download the first three episodes of Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theater

Artwork by Zeque Peñya

I am going to make Episodes One, Two, and Three of Rookie Night radio theater available one week for download. Make the journey to Dead Shirt. These shows are best listened to late at night, at a remove of some sort.

Click here to download Rookie Night, Episode One. This show is approximately 52 minutes in length. May cause dizziness.

Click here to download Rookie Night, Episode Two.This show is approximately 43 minutes in length. May induce a sense of floating.

Click here to download Rookie Night, Episode Three -- "The Very Special Rock 'n' Roll Show". This show is approximately 58 minutes in length. May cause you to believe your hair is growing.

Rookie Night, Episode Four is currently airing on Freekradio.com in the usual Wednesday and Sunday night time slots. Visit us at RookieNight.com.

Justin Stone's Rookie Night Radio Theater

Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio theatrical experiment continues unabated over at freekradio.com. Tonight, Sunday June 13th, sees the debut of Episode Three, the Very Special Rock & Roll Show. Wear your finest ears. Muss up your hair and jawline. Stop talking at yourself and changing the channels on every available surface in the known world for one little hour. Let us polish your expectant brain.

Following the Sunday night premiere, Episode Three will then re-run on Wednesday night. Every week this happens. Although I am trying to get a new episode out every Sunday, it is playing out to be more like every other Sunday. This experiment requires a goodly amount of detail and attention. But we are getting better. We are lighting candles, burning off the smell. The lights are appropriately low. Tune in tonight, see what you have been missing.

Rookie Night -- for what most things are not.

The Rookie Night radio theater broadcast schedule, this and every week:

Sunday
8 pm pacific
9 pm mountain
10 pm central
11 pm eastern

Wednesday
10 pm pacific
11 pm mountain
Midnight central
1 am eastern

You may find details, contact information and more at rookienight.com.

LEGS -- a new movie from Kevin Ford & Eddie Steeples

Mo-Freek’s new feature - LEGS - is about a rock star in peril. This movie by Kevin Ford is now in the works and features Eddie Steeples, Angela Bettis, Tasha Guevara, Justin Stone, Jesse Hlubik, Tim Rutili, and many more…

Kevin Ford is one of my favorite people, a wonderful person and artist, and it is a blast to work with him and a great crew of individuals. This is going to be a fun flick. Check out the numerous projects at Mo-Freek and Freek Speek.

Justin Stone's Rookie Night radio show roll-out...

A new radio show. For the mid-night denizen, the peaked owls, the lost, the hopeful, the crooked of tooth. The voice of Dead Shirt, Florida.

Rookie Night world premiere takes place Sunday night, May 16, 2010. Get bruised.

You may tune in to the always interesting Freekradio at freekradio.com, where you may find numerous ways to listen, via app, iTunes, streaming, etc.

Justin Stone's Rookie Night broadcast schedule:

Sunday
8 pm pacific
9 pm mountain
10 pm central
11 pm eastern

Wednesday
10 pm pacific
11 pm mountain
Midnight central
1 am eastern

Rookie Night, Episode One is now playing.

What we would like to have happen is new episodes play every Sunday, and then re-run on Wednesday. But it is difficult to know what exactly is coming out of Dead Shirt. Something will air every Sunday and Wednesday at Freekradio.

Eventually every episode will also be available as downloadable podcast. Stay tuned.

Come on down to the county fair at rookienight.com

Froggy Goes A'Courtin'...

Details of how it all went down are almost impossible to ascertain. Mass media paid the event no attention. Messageboard poets of idle, narcotized disbelief and decelerated-learning were caught with their pants on the keyboard. December 2012 is still too far away for the liking of some. An anonymous cinephile reputed to be one of the top research biologists presently stationed in Antarctica demanded it and now it has happened: Zach Passero, enigmatic tight-rope balletist, stained glass artisan, and medieval gamesman, has had a gonzo grindhouse feverdream one protean thinktank is calling Wicked, Wicked Lake.

"But to find religion is only one out of many ways of reaching unity; and the process of remedying inner incompleteness and reducing inner discord is a general psychological process, which may take place with any sort of mental material, and need not necessarily assume the religious form... For example, the new birth may be away from religion into incredulity; or it may be from moral scrupulosity into freedom and license; or it may be produced by the irruption into the individual's life of some new stimulus or passion, such as love, ambition, cupidity, revenge, or patriotic devotion. In all these instances we have precisely the same psychological form of event,--a firmness, stability, and equilibrium succeeding a period of storm and stress and inconsistency. In these non-religious cases the new man may also be born either gradually or suddenly." -- William James

"From out of the rabble and into a quiet expanse we had emerged. My friend was wearing some kind of suddenly-hewn loin cloth. Me, I had lightning in my hand." -- The Unexpurgated Journals of Honourable Captain Jeremiah Headframe

"In the end, life is a private act." -- Lola Scobey

Updates from a Screamfest mixer...

"In attendance for the industry mixer (which was sponsored by Rachel Belofsky’s horror film festival Screamfest LA, which runs this year October 8 through 17 at Manns 6 at Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood, CA) were...Wicked Lake alumni Zach Passero, Justin Stone and Luke Thompson..."

As for Zach Passero, the director of the 2008 Fever Dreams/Media Blasters release Wicked Lake, he had some interesting news. It seems the filmmaker was given the opportunity to re-cut the entire flick, and he handed me off a copy of the director’s cut, which in the interim I’ve screened. Passero’s take is a completely different animal and realizes great steps in humanizing the film’s characters by eschewing much of the original cut’s exploitative elements for a more artistic and thoughtful approach. This edit is markedly more coherent and grittier than the original release and features improved pacing and a score which is complimentary to the narrative.

There is no word yet, however, on when we’ll see a DVD or Blu-Ray release of what is being titled Wicked, Wicked Lake, and the call I put in to one of the film’s producers this morning only yielded news of shifting release schedules. April is a possibility, I was told, and one can only hope as Passero’s Wicked, Wicked Lake is a welcome thing and suggests his talent for greater work."

Justin Stone, Zach Passero and Luke Y. Thompson inspire dread...

*****

In other news, motel, glimpse, the Ozark gut-comedy dreamtime movy Zach and I created, ought to soon be available for purchase, rent or download. Stay tuned, nobody. You are alone, you are surrounded by a world. You are hairy, prone to laugh.

I been keeping me at arm's length. Making what might be called the opposite of a name for myself in TV. Completing my "bible of one-liners for awkward situations." Like a cross between Twitter and the Dark Ages. Like a cross between Facebook and a Russian penitentiary. Phone call from a solar storm. Maybe a podcast. Somebody keeps saying "franchise" and I'm hopeful but also nervously unsettled. Like my mom always says:

"Take a shower, try again."

Or...

"There's only so many knocks against you."

First day of spring, Chicken! Get some swings in. Throw the ball around. Certain injuries may make a spot available for you up in Double-A.

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