It’s official. Holly Dazed won first prize in AFCOOP’s Super 8 Holiday Party and Screening at the Seahorse tonight! More importantly, it was magically in focus. There was tough competition from filmmakers Megan Wennberg (“Tis The Season”), Cam Erais (“A Shitty Christmas”), Jamieson (“Agoraphobia”), Joel MacGregor (“Fortune Cookie”), Steven James May (“Memoria”), Josh Edmonds (“How To Make a Halfassed Super 8 Christmas Film”) and Ron McDougall (“Duet”), but we pulled ahead of the pack and got to take home an autographed copy of Mr. December from the AFCOOP nudie calendar. Plus, we didn’t even stack the audience. Now, to find the best (cheapest?) way to get the film onto DVD for future generations.

Update: Scott taped the screening on video last night and added the chipmunk effect. Holly Dazed is now available in QuickTime format. Here is a bit of publicity from The Coast.

Production wrapped on the no-budget, 3 minute short Super 8 film Holly Dazed. As co-producer, camera-person, light supplier and part of the creative team, I would like to thank the rest of the cast (Sam, Scott, Amanda and Markus) and crew (Lynn, Steve and Glen’s mom’s sweater) for all their hard work and dedication on the project. Also the various locations (Alantic Film Festival, Profac, CBC Radio Canada, Chadwick Foods, Kick Ass Shoes, Nubody’s and the Park Lane Parking Garage) that put up with our shenanigans. A big fat “no thank you” to Alexandra’s Pizza for taking about two hours to deliver two medium pizzas. Another shout out to Amy at The Maxwell’s Plum for serving us during our impromptu wrap party event, about 5 hours after we began shooting. The film was produced for the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative’s annual Super 8 Holiday Party and Screening taking place on December 15, 2005 at the Seahorse Tavern (9 PM). Fingers crossed…I just hope it is in focus. And there was enough light. And it is funny. And why didn’t I take any pictures? Damn.

Atlantic News Perspective #156 (Nov 1, 2005)
Immoral theatrical performances, tomato fights and churches for sale.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

“The odds of hitting the Lotto 6/49 jackpot by plunking down a toonie and picking all six numbers are one in 13.98 million.

To put that in perspective, math gurus say those odds are roughly equal to your chance of dying within 15 minutes of buying your lottery ticket – or flipping a coin and getting 24 tails in a row.

You are also somewhere between 14 and 50 times more likely to get struck by lightning, depending on who’s doing the calculations, they say.” – Macleans.ca

Atlantic News Perspective #155 (Oct 24, 2005)
Enormous eggbeater, family feuds and the drinking olympics.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

Why Do-It-Yourself Photo Printing Doesn’t Add Up | NY Times

60 Minute’s Andy Rooney and Robert Smigel’s TV Fun House.

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

A weeklong journal from a writer and director. By Judd Apatow

Awesome Town

From Fat Possum Records:

R. L. Burnside

November 21, 1926 – September 1, 2005

We at Fat Possum are sad to announce that R.L. Burnside died today at his hospital room in Memphis.

Blues artist R.L. Burnside, who redefined the blues genre by incorporating indie rock acts and hip-hop production, died September 1, 2005, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Burnside was born November 21, 1926, in Harmontown, Mississippi, and spent most of his life in the north Mississippi hill country, where he worked as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman and played guitar at weekend house parties. In 1968, noted folklorist George Mitchell recorded Burnside for the first time. In 1991 Burnside was the first artist signed to then-fledgling Fat Possum Records in Oxford, Mississippi. His debut, “Too Bad Jim,” was produced by former New York Times pop critic Robert Palmer. Along with his friend, neighbor, and label-mate Junior Kimbrough, Burnside was one of the most popular and important blues musicians to emerge in the last two decades. He recorded the crossover collaboration “A Ass Pocket of Whiskey” with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 1996 and became a cult hero. In 1998, music from “Come On In” was featured in several movies and television shows, including The Sopranos. Burnside sold hundreds of thousands of records in his lifetime. He is survived by his wife Alice Mae, twelve children, and numerous grandchildren.

Those wishing to help should send donations to:

Freeland & Freeland Trust Account

Burnside Memorial

P. O. Box 269

Oxford, MS 38655

(662)234-3414

All proceeds will go directly to RL’s widow, Alice Mae.

Directors Label Volumes 4-7 f/ Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek & Stephane Sednaoui released on September 13th

Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en? from the North American Hallowe’en Prevention, Inc. (NAHPI) (courtesy of The A.V. Club)

Atlantic News Perspective #154 (Aug 15, 2005)
The “Racino” opens in Charlottetown, students build a house using phonebooks and the Canso Causeway turns 50.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

Atlantic News Perspective #153 (Aug 8, 2005)
Beer Bandit on stage, a horse named Drop Off dies and breaking accordion records.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

“After the film debuted on January 24, 2005 at Sundance it was picked up by Warner Independent Pictures for distribution. The Warner Independent website had shown that the limited Fall release (I didn’t say ‘full release’) was scheduled for October 21st-with a wider release planned for the following weeks-but their Strangers With Candy page has since been removed. One of my contacts has informed me that his inside source at Warner Independent told him that Strangers With Candy ‘is no longer on our slate’. If you want to help, you and your friends can send email to press@warnerindependent.com to tell them that you want Candy!!!” – from jerriblank.com

Atlantic News Perspective #152 (August 2, 2005)
Emergency bikes, voting my mail and Chapel Island goes national.

By: Iain K. MacLeod

“In terms of who I channel, my natural inclination was Stone Phillips, who has the greatest neck in journalism…and then I also used Geraldo Rivera, because he’s got this great sense of mission. He just thinks he’s gonna change the world with this report. He’s got that early-’70s hip trench coat “busting this thing wide open” look going on. So those two guys. And Peter Mansbridge, obviously.” – Stephen Colbert (A Super Straight Guy | AlterNet WireTap)

Oct-olbert: “Strangers With Candy” will be released on October 21 and Colbert Report debuts on October 17.

“I’m so pleased to be coming to Halifax. I should be in Bermuda. But who cares? I’m home,” said Nancy Shakleton (CBC Nova Scotia)

Atlantic News Perspective #151 (July 25, 2005)
Playing chicken with chickens, knifed in church and lending a harp.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

Atlantic News Perspective #150 (July 18, 2005)
Salmon cams, backyard wrestling and the gay market.
By: Iain K. MacLeod

“If you are a lonely sort, as internet folks occasionally are, you will be relieved to know that, as always, there is someone on the internet a hundred times worse off than you are.” – Drew on the Insane Clown Posse Personal Ad Site (Klepto Pepto | .net)

“Some choice is better than none, but more choices don’t make things better,” – Carl Honoré (Time to switch off and slow down | BBC News)

GTD: A New Cult for the Info Age | Wired

A Guide To Getting Things Done | Wired

The Sources: David, Merlin and Marc.