Film project aims to relate Fort WorthÂ’s rock-band history
While the Dallas Film Commission wallows in the qualified triumph of having persuaded corporate Hollywood to shoot a hunk of its big-screen soap-opera sleaze-fest Dallas in Dallas, a free-agent filmmaking team in Fort Worth is proceeding without any such bureaucratic boosterism to relate a story that packs a deeper cultural resonance.
Reckon how much help and/or encouragement Mark NoblesÂ’ Teen-A-Go-Go project is garnering from the Dallas Film Commission? Exactly none, thatÂ’s how much. And never mind that the agency purports to nurture indigenous filmmaking efforts throughout North Texas. Big-studio glamour and purchased loyalties take prior claim.
Well, of course, Dallas (the city) is welcome to Dallas (the movie) and all its pop-culture trend-monster baggage. Fort Worth has classier, more modestly conceived projects to attend to.
“It’s pure grassroots,” producer-writer Nobles says of his venture, which is in the prospecting stages for investors and sources of firsthand information. “The documentary, as we envision it, will concern itself strictly with rock ’n’ roll as it developed in Fort Worth during the middle 1960s — and yet in its localized focus, the film will present a microcosm of rock music as it evolved nationwide.
“After all,” Nobles adds, “any meaningful change that rock ever has gone through has come from some teenager, alone in the folks’ garage, banging away at three chords.”
Teen-A-Go-Go promises to examine the effects of the so-called British invasion upon provincial Texas rock ’n’ roll, with nationwide repercussions and mirroring effects, during the mid-1960s. Nobles is drawing the musical accompaniment from a CD compilation called Fort Worth Teen Scene, issued two years ago. The influence of the Beatles et al. upon Texas’ pop-rock scene was profound — and fittingly so, inasmuch as the U.K. artists had drawn a primary inspiration from first-generation Southern rock. The Business Press told a version of the story in its Feb. 6, 2004, issue, marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to Texas.
“We are attempting to add to our collection of music, memorabilia, home movies and photos,” writes Nobles, who has aligned himself with the credentialed filmmakers Jon Keeyes and Melissa Kirkendall as co-producer and director. Anyone in possession of pertinent effects can contact Nobles at 817-504-1373, or via e-mail at left_handed@sbcglobal.net.
SceneShop anniversary
Ten years ago come August, Friday-night diners at a West Side restaurant looked up from their entrées and took in a curious sight: Three actors, with simple costuming and bare-bones props, bearing 90 minutes’ worth of new theatrical material, slice-of-life vignettes and monologues. The débuting troupe was SceneShop.
SceneShop has since presented some 80 new works in many venues, becoming in the process a key component of the cityÂ’s indigenous arts scene.
On Aug. 5, 11 and 12, Arts Fifth Avenue will host ten candles, a SceneShop anniversary revue comprising favorites from over the long term. Selections seem likely to include Grayson Harper’s raucous “Lucky” (1996), Chris Gepp’s “The Traveling Set” (2005) and an enactment by SceneShop co-founder Les Cargot of Robert Francis’ (yes, the Business Press mainstay) “The Man from Presidio,” dating from 1997.
The tariff for Aug. 5 (a gala benefit for the Neighborhood Arts Scholarship Fund) is $20. Admission for Aug. 11 and 12 is $10. All shows will go on stage at 8 p.m., following musical preludes at 7:30 p.m. Reservations: 817-923-9500.
Katz cooking
at Central Market
Dr. David L. Katz, originator of the Flavor Point Diet, will offer practical knowledge in a 6:30 p.m. session July 20 at Central Market Cooking School, Hulen at Interstate 30. The nutrition columnist and co-founder of YaleÂ’s Prevention Research Center bases his weight-loss strategy upon the avoidance of an imbalance of appetite-stimulating flavors.
The menu for the $70-a-seat class will cover such terrain as walnut-stuffed mushrooms, roasted chicken and Mexican-stuffed bell peppers. Reservations: 817-989-4700.
Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net.
