Nathaniel in Nashville Pt. 1
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 5:30PM I thought I'd share a few of my adventures at the Nashville Film Festival whilst practicing on my wacom tablet -- so hard to get the hang of this, the wacom not the Nashville. (I've been to the Nashville Festival a couple of times so I think I have the hang of it now.) I arrived in my Herzog tee -- I always live in mortal fear that some Herzog freak will grill me about good ol' Werner since I probably don't know as much about him as I should given the human advertisement aspects of t-shirt wearing. My favorites are Grizzly Man and Aguirre the Wrath of God and Nosferatu but Werner is prolific so I can't say I've seen everything.
The jurors and guests of the festival stay in downtown Nashville where you can get to the touristy parts quick but the festival is actually at a multiplex called Regal Green Hill...(update: but I'm hearing from Mark in the comments that this is not the same thing as Green Hills. What do I know? I live in NYC and never drive and am losing my spatial relations skills) Nice theater with lots of screens. They shuttle you back and forth so as I'm waiting for the morning shuttle I am scribbling away at you.
Last night riding from hotel to festival I ended up in a van of fellow jurors, though none from my category. I was happily chatting away with the guy in front of me when I suddenly realized Who He Was. It was Jamie Travis, a filmmaker I am so enthralled by -- the Patterns trilogy is genius --that I'm just grateful his back was turned and he didn't see my insta-tranformation into scary obsessive superfan.
It reminded me of my very first Life Drawing class in college where I was just randomly talking to the new kid in class. We're chatting for like 5 minutes and then the teacher walks in and new kid just stands up and starts taking his clothes off. (Was it something I said?) Turns out new kid was the nude model and suddenly I went from gregarious to totally awkward / speechless. It was kinda like that except for that nobody got naked.
In reality I'm sure I kept babbling but my sentences probably made less sense.
Celebrity Sightings
Some country music stars were doing the carpet but I never know who they are. I did gaze at Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris chatting up TV crews on the red carpet for awhile though. The carpet had been mostly shoved into the VIP tent instead of outside where it usually is (very stormy and wet night).
Kristofferson had just received a career prize at the screening of his new movie Bloodworth. I arrived too late to see it but I heard from my driver Elaine -- a lovely retired woman volunteering at the fest -- that it was good and she was just raving about W. Earl Brown, who plays one of his sons in the movie.
I give it a 4.3 out of 5. "Brady" is Academy Award material!
Val Kilmer and Dwight Yoakam are also in the movie but it turns out that this W Earl Brown also wrote the movie and was smart enough to give himself a great part.
I couldn't quite make out why Emmylou was with Kristofferson (she's not in the cast list of the movie) but she looked eerily ageless. She just turned 64 and her silver locks -- clearly not a wig -- are so thick and lustrous you'd think she was 30 or 40 but for the silver.
Okay, back to the festival with me. Ciao.
Reader Comments (9)
not a big deal, but that "Green Hill" under the circle is not "Green Hills" where the festival is. The festival is just south of the 440 loop very close to central Nashville.
Heh I LOVE that drawing of your insta-transformation. Hilarious!
Nathaniel, I'm assuming that the multiplex you were at is the same Green Hills Nicole Kidman and Keith go to to see alot of movies. Regal 16?
Your art class story sounds like something out of a movie. There is a scene pretty similar in "Post Grad" except the guy does get naked.
Whatever your opinion of Bloodworth is, it's got to be light years better than the last movie I saw Kristofferson in, Last Rites of Ransom Pride
Make this kind of drawing a tradition! It rocks!
OK, it probably requires too much time to do it very often but at least once a month...
I can't get enough of that picture of you as the superfan.
I want a Herzog tee! We watched Grizzly Man in my cinema studies course, and our lecturer enjoys putting on the accent when reading his quotes. Sadly, I barely know anything about him still, except his strong views on what a doco should be!
Nat is that your artwork? (I assume it is.) I LOVE it. Adds so much to the post - I agree with James T., it's probably too much work (like you don't do enough already?) but more would not go unappreciated.
Oh, and I assume btw that Harris (love her) is there as a friend of Kristofferson's.
LOVE the drawings. You're a talented illustrator, my friend :)