Short Cuts

What About Bob? Dept: So I was sitting at my computer the other afternoon, on hold, as always, with my good friends at Southwestern Bell DSL Services, and I got to thinking, as I so often do when I'm forced to listen to Muzak for more than 15 minutes: Whatever happened to Austin indie filmmaker Bob Ray and his "punk rock stoner caper comedy" Rock Opera? Longtime readers of "Shortcuts" will recall a time, maybe a year or so back, when you couldn't get past the column header without tripping over some new outrageous Ray tidbit (we hold particularly fond memories of the Cannes knife-fight saga). Checking my e-mail later that day, I found, oddly enough, a serendipitous (and lengthy) update from the man himself. Ray and Rock Opera star Jerry Don "Toe" Clark are gearing up to take the film on the road -- literally. Beginning in mid-September the pair will embark on a tour of the western U.S. and Canada in Clark's old home, a "functional" Toyota RV, stopping at roughly 18 cities to screen the film, do Q&A sessions, and generally stir up trouble. According to Ray, the tour is being sponsored by California DVD, the company behind the film's recent DVD release, and the fine folks at NORML (that's the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, for all you squares out there). Not surprisingly, NORML seems to have taken a shine to Rock Opera's saga of wretched excess and bong-foolery. Among the scheduled dates are one at legendary Silverlake club Spaceland, Los Angeles' Cal Arts, and the equally legendary Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatre in West Hollywood, and Portland's ultra-hip Cinema 21. Not too shabby for a film with as much Rohypnol usage in it as this one. Making this even more of a stonerific event will be Ray's upcoming tour diary, which will be published online by -- you guessed it --High Times magazine, on their site at www.hightimes.com. "I think it's a little ironic," says Ray, "that the movie is about a guy trying to get his band on the road, and then we end up on the road ourselves, with the guy who plays the guy in the movie in tow." That's "Toe," right? Whew -- contact high. As if organizing a massive "I promise this isn't going to be anything like The Hills Have Eyes even though we're in an RV" roadtrip like this weren't enough, Ray has been keeping busy himself. He's overoccupied as one of six local filmmakers involved in the upcoming AFS-sponsored Six in Austin film compilation (a project which is based on 1965's Six in Paris, a collection of vignettes written and directed by French New Wave masters like Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer). He also recently "cut 'n' pasted" together a video for Rock Opera soundtrackers Nashville Pussy for the sleaze-core band's current album High as Hell. "We just mastered that and haven't sent it to MTV yet," says Ray, "but Much Music is already playing it." On top of that, Ray and Clark found time to shoot a new short film called "Hillbilly Doomsday," which, as Ray says, explores the filmmaker's always interesting themes of dark, darker, darkest comedy. Commenting on his preoccupation with, uh, darkness, Ray says, "Sometimes they get so dark I don't know if other people think it's a comedy, or if it's all me." Ray's Six in Austin piece promises to mine similar terror-tory as well: "It's your typical 'kill your boss' murder fantasy," he says. Well ok-aay, then. Look for more Ray 'n' Toe On the Road updates soon… Also in the news, the rapidly approaching CinemaTexas Short Film + Video Festival (Sept. 14-23) is in need of couch space for incoming attendees. If you've got a spare vestibule, crawlspace, or "mattress on the floor" to offer, give Hospitality Coordinator Elizabeth Skadden a call at 471-6497.