26. SPINDLETOP! . Epic, Texas History. Jan. 10, 1901 Curt, his brother Al Hamill, and Peck Byrd strike oil near Beaumont Texas on a hill called Spindletop. By the end of 1902 there are 440 oil derricks plus hordes of shop owners, bartenders, bankers, gamblers, prostitutes, lawman and thousands of stories to go with all of them. The oil petered out by 1904, but then - in the last scene- in 1925 another wildcatter strikes oil and the whole cycle repeats itself. Inspired by Spindletop by Howard Peacock.
27. The ANATOL PLAYS. Seven - 1 act plays. Short, bittersweet and highly romantic 2 or 3 character plays by the turn of the century Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler; all starring the romantic rogue Anatol. "When I turn over these notes, these flowers and these curls... then I am with them all again, they are all alive, and I adore them as before".
28. FLAME vs. CANDLE (Romantic vs. Classical) Philosophical film. The world is divided into two camps, romantic or classical. Through excerpts of all kinds of art, science, and history; this film shows the endless tug of war between the two.
29. SUNDIATA. Epic of Mali. A film that's an epic mix of adventure magic, history and more - sort of an African Beowulf or Odyssey. It's based on the book Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali by D.T. Niane, trans. G.D. Pickett. Hear the 'Griot' speak!
30. TEN QUESTION MARKS. Sci-fi, Science. Time traveler pops up in a seance at a lab in Victorian England in 1900. He says he's from the year 2000. After he's bombarded with numerous questions about the future, he says, "Let's look around your lab and I'll tell you 10 new discoveries." Ex. He points to a grandfather clock and tries to explain about Einstein's E=MC2 and how time and space are related, then he looks at a globe and shows that plate tectonics have separated the continents, then at a fossil bone and tells about the iridium found at the K-T boundary, then at a telescope and talks about the moon landing, a phone - the Internet, etc. Then the scene changes and that time traveler wakes from what turns out to have been just a dream. But then popping up in front of him is a time traveler from 2100 AD. And he says," I'm from a hundred years in the future, Let's look around your lab and I'll tell you 10 new discoveries..."
31. MONOLOGUES Anthology. This is an anthology film of numerous monologues : play excerpts, songs, poems, essay excerpts, speeches, letters, etc. Each scene is one actor doing a monologue
32. DUETS
33. TRIOS
34. QUARTETS. 3 anthology films. Just as Monologues was a film of one-person parts. Duets, Trios, Quartets are for 2, 3, and 4 actor parts. Each explores the best of that type of theater piece.
35. HARSH AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT. Film lite. Hated CEO embezzler gets caught. Black judge devises this punishment for the remorseless heel. "Spend 1 year working at and living on, minimum wage. All assets frozen etc." As the reality of poverty wares him down, a subplot tells of how his Ivy league lawyers are trying to free him, contending that this is 'cruel and unusual punishment' - which no Government wage earners are buying for a second.
[Also in this genre these two: Raising a White Kid on 10 Dollars a Day. Millionaire throws troubled teen out of his W.A.S.P. house. African American maid takes him in but he must adjust to their more down to earth, middle class life style. Comedy ensues. The Diet Pill. Male scientist devises a new diet pill with a weird side effect. The pill re directs all women's desire for food into sexual desire! Comedy ensues.]
Random fun: If you ever see the film, Barton Fink be sure to note the scenes in the movie mogul's office - classic film industry satire and a classic moment in cinema. * Bring back cool film posters - not photos but paintings with that pulp fiction look - and multi versions for each film too.
* Fi-L-M = the word film, but it is also a studio bosses way of dealing with film scripts and finished films (if you are the one that decides whether to distribute them or not). Like a triage unit, you have 3 choices. Fi = fix up a weak but potentially good film. L = leave it - its a looser. M = make it as is- it's marvey! Don't change a hair for me. * Best film title with no script - Shoplifting Zombies. Now back to our regularly scheduled program...
36. MURDER ON A SPACESHIP. Sci-fi, mystery. Man dies under suspicious circumstances on a space liner (or ocean liner will work too). Police arrive to investigate. I n isolated outer space, 1 by 1 the murders keep happening. Turns out that the first murder was an accident, and all the rest were done by the Police Chief that's inspecting the murders. But how? Why?
[ Also in this category: Duchamp's Big Glass. Duchamp's art masterwork contains all the clues to solving the murder . Look closely! * Also do a man/wife detective series of films like Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man series, but this time both do the sleuthing and solve the murders.]
37. RED HOT / COOL.. 2-Part TV musical special, b/w. "Red Hot": 30 minute TV special and soundtrack of a live concert of 'Tommy and the Moderns' doing some of the best fast dance music from the 50's and 60's. "Cool": 30 minute TV special and soundtrack is set in a recording studio. Tom sings 50's and 60's slow dancing songs over pre-recorded tracks.
38. MANLEY (SONGS, SONGS, SONGS) .. Retro concert film, b/w. Manley (Tom) in a tux, sings lots of big band standards in a set that looks like a 1930's Art Deco night club.
39. MONDO TOM.. Groundbreaker. This is a new type of film, for lack of a better word - a sampler, or one-man -show of all my works in all categories: music, painting, writing, performing, zine-ing, singing, dancing, architecture, comedy, mail art, etc. A BIG show that starts a new genre in film.
40. MR. & MRS. (The Courtship) .. Romance. He's a piano teacher - she's a star on a soap opera. She comes to take lessons and the they fall in love and marry at the end. The final scene is them sailing off on an ocean cruise for their honeymoon. But unlike other romances, boy never looses girl in the 2nd act. Instead this loooong movie (6 hours?) shows them slowly adjusting to each other as they fall more and more in love. It's an easy relationship and a very romantic film.
41. HOTEL WALDO.. Comedy. A family (father, mother and little girl) inherit a hotel. It's not the show place that they're expecting. It's a dump in a run down side of town! But they make the most of it, and grow quite fond of it in the end. In between, all the trials and tribulations of daily dealing with the tenants and the hotel upkeep - make for lots of slapstick fun (like in the golden age of comedy - shorts).
Sequel: . HOTEL WALDO - A Screw Loose.. Father sees a screw loose on the cover to an electrical outlet. He decides to fix it. One thing leads to another - bad goes to worse, and before the day is out he and his 'helpers' have destroyed the entire hotel in an explosion and fire. But where's our insurance policy? Only the little girl knows for sure.
42. TWO MEN WHO LOVED WOMEN (And the Women They Loved) - Romantic comedy. Back drop - the fashion industry. A clothes designer and his friend a male model, go to Dallas to put on his fall fashion show (with lots of TH designs) Beautiful models everywhere and both guys are single and ready for romance. Two girls see them get off the plane. One warns the other. "See those two? Those 2 are dangerous - very dangerous! Don't ever have anything to do with them! I know!" / "Why? Wife beaters? Kinky sex?"/ "No its worse than that. They're playful, sweet, sexy, cool, loads of fun, single, rich, and good looking!" //What's wrong with that?" // "Look at the line ahead of us."
42. DANCE PARTY @ 500X.. Party, event. This is a live dance party filmed in the Dallas 2 story gallery space, called 500X. Includes new dances, great mix of tunes old and new, and great mix of old and new dance styles. Fun on feet.
44. BLOCKS. Architecture.. This film spotlights numerous buildings I've designed showing preparatory drawings, blueprints, virtual tours, and more. Ex. Musea Ship, the Art Museum, Book Rocket, Art De Triumph, Musea garden complex, even my idea for kids blocks.
45. TERPSICHORE.. Dance film. Anthology of story dances - each set to classical music pieces. Story dances are those that tell a story without words.
46. TOMMY SHORTS.. Series of comedy shorts. Short comedy films starring the seriously quirky gadfly "Tommy". Ex. "Tommy Sweeps Up,", "Pops Soda, My Favorite," "Lifeguard Tommy," "My Last Name is not Banana," "Tommy Sells a Ticket," "Bachelor Pad Tommy" - about 30 in all.
46. CLIMB.. Quest, philosophy, poetry. Pilgrims are crossing the Palouse (beautiful fields of green grain in the western rolling hills of Washington State and eastern Idaho) to get to the shrine/mountain, Blue Mountain. Along the way they trade stories about the Mountain that are based on my series of poems called , Blue Mountain: 'Blue Mountain/half way to the Moon/ climb it twice/and you are there'
48. PLAYS. Five film series. Each of the five is a film version of one of my plays: 1. The Wandering Students, 2. Medusa 3. William Tell - The Play 4. Daedalus. 5. Mannikin & Minnikin.
49. HUNK & P.D. Live, Under Glass Tour. - film. This is a concert film of Hunkasaurus and His Pet Dog Guitar giving one of their Box Office Concerts in the Inwood Theater Box Office, in Dallas, TX.
50. HHT.. Science, documentary. This film tells the background, the development of, the basic hypothesis of, the support documents for, and reaction from others about - my evolutionary hypothesis - Hendricks Health Theory ( life as energy moderation with modification through descent)
INTERMISSION
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