March 2000

Heartbreak Ôpital

The Liar’s Nose

Horny

Our Manifesto: Enivrez-Vous(Get Drunk) 

Who We Are

Welcome to the

N E W S

00/03/16

ROUGH CUT “DEUX”

Neil put together a second rough cut with the suggested edits from Tuesday’s meeting, and the reworked audio. We showed it on the Big Screen at the Big Secret Theatre and the technician, Chris, laughed out loud. This without the blue screen work! So we know it works -- the strength of good writing! (Are you paying attention, Hollywood? A good script is worth everything. Without it all you have is movie masturbation.) This time Kirk was able to attend the screening. Between him, Neil, Ken and myself we had a few final tweaks to the audio and the edits. Neil is going to do those and the (final?) rough cut before he does the chroma-key work. Rough cut “deux” is scheduled for viewing Saturday evening (the 18th). Neil will have rough placeholder chroma-key effects inserted for “feel.”
     For those of you harbouring worries from last year's Eddy submission, where I said “Yep, the word on the floor was that we made a smokin’ video, but it wasn’t lowbrow enough to place,” don’t worry: this one retains the high production quality that we brought to the Eddies last year, while stooping to the low, crass humour that appears to be necessary to appeal to the beer-swilling masses. Come by and enjoy...

00/03/14

SHOTS ’R PICKED

Ken and Neil came over and we picked the shots we wanted. Only one setup failed entirely due to a technical oversight on our part. Fortunately, it’s not a deal breaker and does not require any pickup shots. Out of the approximately 30 minutes of footage we picked 26 shots - not bad for something we intend to shoehorn into a 60-second spot, eh?

00/03/08

SHOOT’S DONE

The shoot went well: two of the Beautiful Women™ couldn’t make it, but we got a last-minute replacement in the person of Mona and I hadn’t known Tanya was coming, so our complement of seven was maintained. The Lunchbox back wall was painted blue, so with some careful lighting we didn’t need the blue screen after all.
      We ran over our original estimate of 6:30 to 8:30 by an hour and fifteen. I had known we wouldn’t be able to finish the shoot in two hours, so Ken had upped our reservation to 9 PM: had I known I would have told him 9:30 would have been more realistic. Many thanks to Laura Lee, Stage Manager of the Lunchbox Theatre, for her patience with us. Many thanks also to the Lunchbox for allowing us to use their venue.

The Beautiful Women™ did a spectacularly fabulous job. They showed up on time, they looked beautiful, they acted well, and they added mightily to the event. We couldn’t have done it without them. Eternal joy and respect to Toni, Carrie, Dawn, George, Tanya, Mona and Rhonda. No two looked alike and they were all beautiful.
     Kinga did a great job on Scabz makeup: we finally settled on a "look," and Kinga came up with it like it was no big thing. Kudos on the makeup, Kinga!

Finally, we are beating last years budget! Last year we came in under $200, this year it’s under $150. Only having one location helped a lot: last year’s four locations added up pretty quickly.
      Stay tuned for the results! Editing is up next, and the submission deadline is April 4th.
      Left to do: foley, music, compositing, chroma-key, editing, printing, compressing to QuickTime, posting here, submitting to Big Rock, getting accepted, winning, drinking, partying, laughing and planning for next year.

00/03/06

PRODUCTION IS IN PROGRESS

It’s all about Kirk! Yes, once again our grey-haired elder is going to be the star in the upcoming Eddy submission we have to have ready for April 4th. The working title is "Big Rock Beer Gets You The Girls" and is scheduled to be shot on Tuesday March 4th. That should give us enough time to do post-production before April 4th.

So far the cast and crew are:

CREW

• Producer: Fred Holliss
• Director: Ken Cameron
• Camera/Editing: Neil Evenson
• Script: Fred, Ken, Neil & Kirk Miles
• Makeup/Hair: Kinga Farkas
• House Tech: Laura Lee

CAST

• Clown: Kirk Miles
• Beautiful Women: Toni Swickis, Carrie Schiffler, Dawn Farkas, Georgelaine Milos, Sheri-D Wilson, Tanya Sablatatash, Kira Bradley, Mona Dallman & Rhonda Fisekci

THANKS TO:

• Lunchbox Theatre for the venue & tech
• Whoever loaned us the blue screen
• NUTV for the portable lights

00/02/26

HERE COME THE EDDIES!!

It’s time once again. And this time we’re going to be putting Scabz into the Eddie ad. Watch for more details coming up.

00/02/02

DRUNKEN POETS WILL BE PERFORMING!

Various members of the Drunken Poets are going to be performing in March at the inaugural event of Single Onion. Kirk Miles and Fred Holliss are two of the regulars, and Irregulars Sheri-D Wilson and T. Crane will be joining us at the Crump Manor on Saturday, March 4th, 2000. Come on down.

99/12/11

NEXT BIG THING!

Yep, the DPS is moving beyond making mere drinking videos and making what are known in the outside world as “Moving Pictures.” Our Grey-Haired Founding Father Kirk “Aloysius” Miles is featured as the central character in the upcoming short “Scabz: In Hot Water.”
The screenplay will be made available to those of you owning Scriptware by mailing co-screenwriter Neil with a polite request for a copy.
In the meantime, the pirated overdub “Picking Scabs” can be downloaded here and enjoyed by those of you with Quicktime installed (or other AIF-capable players). We highly recommend you consider this to have a 14+ rating for “Strong Scottish Language.”

99/11/15

Field Trips are Over!

(For now.) Yes, it’s true. After being wooed away from the Ship by the blandishments of the hungry upstart “Rendezvous” (formerly “The Koop” for you old skool kidz), we’ve been reeled back in by the Ship.
Solange, upon hearing we were about to jump “ship” to the Rendezvous took matters in hand and approached über-manager Jean. She authorized Solange’s heart-felt plea, and we, The Drunken Poets Society, now get Happy Hour pricing from 9:30 PM to closing. That means Can$3.25 on 20oz.pints of Big Rock, Wild Rose or whatever all night. Cheaper if you are a Bud luzR. A little more if you are a Guinesseer.

The Drunken Poets made a video... 

  <--Click there to view, eh?

99/05/20

It’s an honour just to be nominated.

Isn’t that what they generally say? Yep, the word on the floor was that we made a smokin’ video, but it wasn’t lowbrow enough to place, and it especially wasn’t lowbrow enough to make the People’s Choice. However, that’s not going to stop us! Look out next year when we come back with another fabulous high-quality high-brow low-budget production.

99/04/24

The submission has been accepted!

Our little ad beat out 100 other submissions to become one of the 20 chosen to be shown at the Eddies. We still have no idea if it’s won anything, but this is where I encourage you to attend the Eddies and scream really loud for "pure poetry." That way we have a chance to win the "People’s Choice" award - which, if I recall correctly, doesn’t involve any money, but does involve a large, ugly statue of Ed McNally, and endless bragging rights.

We have a QuickTime movie of the final product. It’s 5.1 MB and available right here. Enjoy. We did.

The video has been delivered... 

It came in at exctly 60 seconds and was delivered to Big Rock on Friday, April 9th, 1999 at 4:50 PM by Neil. 
The viewing party ("Pre-Eddie Pre-View Hot-Tub Pah-Tee") was held at Kirk Miles’ house starting at 9 PM on Saturday, April 10th. Turnout was good, and Nicole Mion brought her video starring Robert Duke, so we got to view multiple videos, not just ours.
Left to do: make a QuickTime movie of the final video and post it here. 
 

More people that helped... 

     Ravi Poliah of Flood Records helped with recording the sound & playing the drum. 
     Reginald R.W. Hamilton and Frederick Wesley Youck were technology advisors. 
      Ralph Christofferson provided the drum. 

99/04/01

Just in case you want to know who is involved... 

     Neil Evenson (Member in Good Standing) is Cinematographer and Editor. 
     Fred Holliss (Member in Good Standing) is Producer/Director, as well as Dresser, Choreographer, Driver, Baby Sitter, Window Washer and Office Manager. 
     Kinga Farkas is Hair Stylist/Makeup. 
     Kirk Miles (Member in Good Standing) is Scriptwiter and Actor (Drunken Poet). 
     Alan Kolodziejzyk, Actor (Young Lover). 
     Anita Miotta, Actor (Young Lover). 

Never wanting to be seen to be holding still (Whew! Shades of my studies of the Classics in school - translating sentences like "Caesar, having conquered the Gauls, and while travelling through the land of the Goths, became ill from eating snails." Ow, where was I? Oh, yes...) the Drunken Poets Society has embarked  on a new endeavour, namely that of the most modern of High Culture, the making of A Video Advertisement. We are submitting an entry to Big Rock Beer’s 1999 Eddies Competition. Briefly, people make spoof ads for the beer, submit them, a jury picks the top 20 and they are screened at an event which is a spoof of the Academy Awards. Proceeds go to charity.

Our submission, of course, is called Beer and Poetry, although an alternate title of It’s All About Me has been suggested. I will post a QuickTime version of it here when it is done. The text of the ad is a poem that Kirk Miles, member in good standing wrote. Here it is: 

 
Buffalo Roaming

are herded over a cliff
& in that bubble of time their eyes

see the grassy plain coming up
to crush their black horned bodies.

We call that tug of seconds
first time. Like coffee shop

meetings of lovers on a precipice.
Some fall in slow motion or fall

for years before they say
hello to the concrete.

Lovers, like buffalo,
do not know

when they hit the ground;
& the tearing stone hands,

like devouring of heart, liver & tongue,
like the drop, comes as one, 

then passes on to celebration.
Thick warm bellies dance around a fire.

We all graze & ramble looking
for some sort of ledge to leap from.
 

Check back here during April of 1999 for more information.

And here’s some of our drunken poetry, which conclusively proves that poetry by committee is a bad idea. The first one was written by Fred, George  Kirk on a night long, long ago... 
 
 

Here’s another one. Can you tell we were bitter that night? Nawww, yer kiddin’...

This poem by committee probably gives away how we felt that night... 

And finally, no Society is complete without a manifesto. This is ours. It was written by Baudelaire and translated (I think) by Kelly, who left the Society for Nelson B.C. 

Enivrez-Vous

 Il faut tre toujours ivre. Tout est l : c’est l’unique question. Pour ne pas sentire l’horrible fardeau du Temps quibrise vos paules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans tr ve.

 Mais de quoi? De vin, de po sie, ou de vertu,  votre guise. Mais enivrez-vous.

 Et si quelquefois, sur les marches d’un palais, sur l’herbe verte d’un foss , dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, vous vous r veillez, l’ivresse d j  diminu e ou disparue, demandez au vent,  la vague,  l’ toile,  l’oiseau,  l’horloge,  tout ce qui fuit, tout ce qui g mit,  tout ce qui roule,  tout ce qui chante,  tout ce qui parle, demandez quelle heure il est; et le vent, la vague, l’ toile, l’oiseau, l’horloge, vous r pondront: Il est l’heure de s’enivrer! Pour n’ tre pas les esclaves martyris s du Temps, enivrez-vous; enivrez-vous sans cesse! De vin, de po sie ou de vertu,  votre guise.

 - Charles Baudelaire
 
 

Get Drunk

Always be drunk. That’s it! The great imperative! In order not to feel Time’s horrid fardel bruise your shoulders, grinding you into the earth, get drunk and stay that way.

 On what? On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever. But get drunk.

 And if you sometimes happen to wake up on the porches of a palace, in the green grass of a ditch, in the dismal loneliness of your own room, your drunkenness gone or disappearing, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, ask everything that flees, everything that groans or rolls or sings, everything that speaks, ask what time it is; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock will answer you: Time to get drunk! Don’t be martyred slaves of Time, get drunk forever! Get drunk! Stay drunk! On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!

 - Charles Baudelaire

Who we are :

 The Drunken Poets Society is an unstructured group of people that meet every Monday night between 9-9:30 pm and stay until Midnight or later at the southeast corner of the Ship and Anchor Pub, 17th Avenue & 5th Street S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We bring and read original material as well as works that we have been reading or that have influenced us. We also drink (of course) and lie about how well our careers are doing. Kirk has established the routine of bringing The Year In Poetry so we get to read the poem of the day. It seems that November really sucks but December is a good month for poetry. 

The regulars (lately) have been me (Fred Holliss) [e-mail], Kirk Miles [e-mail], and Jeff Godin with spotty attendance by Marilyn Brown (nee Heinin), George McFaul [e-mail] Sheri-D Wilson, Murdoch Burnett, T. Crane, Neil Evenson and others.

Membership is open and dues are simply to show up. Drinking beer is usual but not mandatory, bringing poetry is common but not mandatory, reading poetry is expected but not mandatory; indulging in conversation is pretty much mandatory. You are hereby invited to become one of the Irregulars of the Drunken Poetry Society just by showing up. 

 - Fred Holliss, Regular

 This page built to the sounds of LPs by k.d.lang,Tanita Tikaram and Rebel Soca.