I Dig

Wow. If there's one thing you do with your life, see the film DIG!.

I don't know really what to say except for the fact that I am completely blown away and inspired at the same time. This does happen a lot for me. I'm a big picture person, and when I see creative things done I am put on this other planet where I can see how everything falls into place. I'm beginning to get prolific, let me start from the beginning.

I received the advance copy of the DVD yesterday from one of the few publicists that I can stand. Kip from Magnum PR is a doll. Anyways, I left class early, watched the episode of Lost (even though I'm still weeks behind), and after reading over Liz's latest profile, popped in the DVD.

From the first few minutes I knew this was going to be great. Okay, so I knew it was going to be great months ago when I heard all the buzz. Why I hadn't gone to see this film in the theaters is beyond me. It's funny because the same thing happened with Almost Famous. No one would go see it with me, so when the DVD came out I immediately bought it, knowing it would be fantastic. And it was. And I got that same warm fuzzy feeling inside watching DIG!.

If you haven't seen the film, I won't give it all away but the premise is two bands, friends from the beginning, one takes the big record deal, the other tries to do it themselves. It's a story seven years in the making but the wonderful director Ondi Timoner, who I just have the utmost respect for. But we'll get to that later.

So I'm watching the film, and all of a sudden I see something scrambling on the floor in my kitchen. A mouse. I closed my eyes for a minute and cringed, turned off the film (regrettably), grabbed my keys, and was out of there. My mission: get drunk enough that I don't remember that I have an extra friend staying for the night.

Mission accomplished.

Yet as soon as I got home, I wanted to watch the rest. It's like a drug, this film, you can't stop watching it through all the misery and fighting. So I sat back down on my couch, pressed play, and before I knew it was 5:30 in the morning, I was awake (fully dressed and with contacts still in) on the couch. The movie was over! I definitely had missed a good portion.

So at 6 AM, I started it over. at 10 AM, I watched it again. In my drunken stupor last night I remember telling Liz about how much I respected this director, and how I could relate to her vision. Her quest was to show art vs. commerce from the story of these two but through her eyes. God, I cannot wait to meet her and shake her hand. Sometimes I need things like this, people like her, to remind me and show me the way. Everyday I feel like I'm getting closer to my big picture.

So in light of this new inspiration, I've got it. I want to be a rock documentarian with a pen. I want to write in a way that I show who these people are, and in doing so, comment on musical history. Journalists, critics: stop judging the music. You are missing out on what's really going on. There are these people out there that are trying to do something different, change the world, one note at a time. I don't want to sit in my room and just listen to records all day and try to convince you that I'm some expert. No way man. I'm going to go out there and tell you who these people are.

No, I'm not like Anton Newcombe, I don't think I'm God. But I am on a journey, and with films like this, I feel like there is a way.

Watch the DIG! preview here. DVD is released 4/12/05.