TFPF Tour '08: Marfa & El Paso

So, I've been more than a little remiss in posting this penultimate TFPF tour entry, perhaps because so much happened on the West Texas leg of my trip and I was avoiding the task of trying to condense it all into one blog-post. But, before I head down to the Rio Grande Valley for my final workshop on Thursday I figure I should get this done.

I brought my girlfriend Rebecca along so we kind of turned it into a mini-vacation, stopping wherever the mood struck us, frequently for historical markers (we both share the same nerdy appreciation for roadside factoids). Many of the markers we stopped by made reference to the San Antonio & San Diego Overland Mail Route, later the Butterfield Stage Line, which ran through Texas on its way out to California in the middle 1800's. The US government set up forts along the cross-country trail to protect the stages from Indian raids, and one of the places we stopped was at the ruins of Fort Lancaster, now a State Park. In addition to strolling around the rubble of the laundry building, the mess hall and the officers' quarters, you could also check out an exhaustive indoor exhibit with artifacts, photographs and drawings of daily life at the Fort. The final panel of the exhibit was a strikingly homoerotic/S&M-flavored "punishment" scene. Apparently, the penalty for desertion was to be flogged, your head shaved and your ass branded with a big D for "deserter." The drawings left little to the imagination.

We got to Fort Davis, also a protected stop along the SA&SD Mail Route, with enough time to eat dinner before heading down to Marfa for the second night of the Marfa Film Festival. This was the first year for the festival in this remarkable little town, and I can definitively say that I can't wait for next year. It's really a perfect place for an event like this, a very walkable, bike-able, art-centric town that you can pass through with seeing nary a McDonald's sign, Walmart Supercenter or any other corporate presence to speak of (so far). The Goode-Crowley Theater served as the main screening venue, a former feed-store lovingly converted into a charming, classy and comfortable community theater. But, each night of the festival saw an outdoor screening, courtesy of the Alamo Rolling Roadshow. The opening night, which we unfortunately missed, had THERE WILL BE BLOOD screened on the set of "Little Boston" on a ranch a few miles outside of town. The second night, though, brought the Alamo's inflatable screen to the Marfa Golf Course for a screening of Charles Laughton's bizarre, beautiful and disturbing NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. I remember being terrified by Robert Mitchum's oily, seething performance when I saw the movie as a kid and no wonder - he spends a lot of the movie menacing two little kids with a switch-blade. Despite the powerful chill in the nighttime Marfa air, we had great fun seeing the film under the stars.

The next morning, it was work-time. I did my workshop in the community room of the recently launched Marfa Public Radio, the newest NPR affiliate in the country. The station was brought into being by the tireless efforts of many people, including a former AFS board member, the documentary producer Karen Bernstein. The workshop was somewhat lightly attended, but I didn't expect a whole lot of people to get up at 10am on a Saturday in the midst of a festival. But, that really just gave me a chance to give a more focused presentation.

While I was doing my workshop, the radio station was live broadcasting a symposium on the writing of Donald Judd, the minimalist artist who pretty much single-handedly turned Marfa into an art center when he moved there in the '70s. So, for two days, dense academic discussions of conceptual art was being broadcast across West Texas desert (on Sunday, we could still get a signal in Sierra Blanca, about 100 miles away). That's Marfa for you.

Once we wrapped up at Marfa Public Radio, we headed over to the Goode-Crowley to see a couple films - first up was JACK SMITH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS, a fascinating documentary about the man behind FLAMING CREATURES, the landmark 1963 underground film that inspired everyone from Andy Warhol to John Waters while being banned across the country for its graphic nudity and torrid, gender-bending sexuality. One of the last times I was in New York, I actually got to see the film at the Anthology Film Archives and was surprised at its continuing power to shock and dazzle. The documentary fortunately contains a lot of footage from his other wild and provocative films, none of which he ever "finished," so burned was he by the controversy over FLAMING CREATURES.

After catching up with fellow AFS staffers Adam, Kim & Kelly, who also came out to Marfa for the weekend, we all went to see the world premiere of Bradley Beesley's OKIE NOODLING 2. It's a sequel to his 2001 documentary OKIE NOODLING, which essentially introduced the world to the storied art of "noodling" - basically sticking your hand (or your feet) into the mud-holes where catfish live, and getting them to bite you so you can yank them out. The sequel revisits some of the subjects of the first doc, catching up with them as they compete in a new noodling competition, one that probably wouldn't have existed without the original documentary.

The open-air screening that night was David Byrne's TRUE STORIES, but my girlfriend & I had already made other plans - a visit to the McDonald Observatory. This was going to be my third trip to the Observatory, but this time instead of just doing a regular Star Party, we got to peep through one of their large telescopes, a 36-incher right at the top of Mt. Locke. Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy that night, but we still got a chance to check out Saturn, a couple galaxies and planetary nebulae. Amazing stuff.

We spent that night at a charming motel right in the middle of Balmorhea State Park, about 30 miles north of the Observatory. We unfortunately didn't get a chance to enjoy their beautiful spring-fed swimming pool, but we did get to use our binoculars to check out some of the amazing birds that gather at the park (and the avid birders who come to see them).

Then it was off to El Paso for my second workshop. Again, I organized this one with Gilbert Chavarria of El Paso Filmmakers and we got a decent crowd for a Sunday afternoon, even a couple repeat customers from last year. We were in & out, though, heading out of El Paso right after the workshop. I wanted to try to make it to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park before it got dark. I had read about and seen pictures of "El Capitan," a giant limestone mountain that dramatically rises out of the surrounding flat landscape, but wanted to see it in person finally.

On the way there, we came to a Border Patrol traffic stop and one of the officers asked us where we were going. I told him we were going to see "El Capitan." He gave me a weird look and I clarified we were going to the National Park. It was only after he waved us on that I realized that maybe he thought "El Capitan" was the major drug dealer on the El Paso-to-Carlsbad corridor.

It is an amazingly lonely stretch of land, so probably would be a great place for a meth lab. We stopped at what might have been the only gas station on the way, an ancient shack that had turkeys, cats and roosters milling outside and one of the old dial gas pumps.

Only a couple miles past the gas station, suddenly El Capitan came into view. At first, the whiteness of the limestone looked like clouds. But, there were plenty of dark stormclouds building on the horizon to clarify things. Then, a few miles after that, the rainbow appeared just to the right of El Capitan. It could not have been more spectacular. We stopped and Rebecca took a couple shots from her camera phone.

The picture doesn't do it justice so you'll have to just trust me, it was amazing. The views just got more amazing as we got into the park. The visitor center was closed, but we still were able to stroll up to the main campsite, which is the starting-off place for about 80 miles of trails, one of which will take you to the top of the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, a 8749-foot mountain just behind El Capitan.

It was really the first place I've visited in Texas that reminded me of the amazing hiking available in Colorado, where I lived briefly about 6 years ago. So, as the sun went down, we vowed to come back here and camp and do the big hike up to Guadalupe Peak.

On the drive out, we had a few wildlife near-misses. Jackrabbits, javelina and deer all seemed to be feeling suicidal that night, but fortunately, we avoided them all. We spent the night in Pecos, about 80 miles to the southeast. Based on the flooded streets we drove through, the thunderstorm that yielded us a rainbow must have yielded Pecos buckets of rain, probably well-needed.

We only made one significant stop on the way back to Austin - Pepe's Cafe in Ozona. We just came upon it randomly in our search to avoid fast-food and we were pleasantly surprised by its idosyncratic decor and tasty Mexican food. The owner is clearly a serious rock-and-roll fan. There were framed ticket stubs from Stones shows, White Stripes posters and even some ancient flyers from shows at Antone's. Randomly, there was also a copy of The Incredible Hulk #181 in the glass case underneath the register. Comic book nerds will recognize that as the very first appearance of Wolverine, quite a valuable little item to see randomly in a Mexican food place in a tiny Texas town.

So, we made it back to Austin in one piece, invigorated by the experience and ready to head out into West Texas again at the nearest opportunity.

On to South Texas!