The final word about TC notebooks and tapes

I write to update you about Tokyo Cowboys. The original tapes are still in the attic of the Flying Dutchman in London. Yes, that Flying Dutchman. It is owned by our brother-in-law Antonio, and he spent blood and sweat getting them to his place. I do not know what condition those tapes are in. What can the temp be like in London in the different seasons? All of the paper documents may be with those tapes.  I hope they are with those tapes. As you may know, all of our paper records: our journals, art journals, notebooks, notes from LFS days, notebooks from my end days in Tokyo. All paper records from 1998 - 2008 were destroyed in an asbestos sweep at the LFS bunker. We had stored several boxes of notebooks thinking they would surely be safe in the LFS bunker. It's meant to withstand nuclear war. But not asbestos. All of the film survived. It was the paper that needed to be destroyed. I don't think I can recover from this. Ten years of notebooks. But, I digress.

Tapes at Flying Dutchman

Jeremy, keeper of the Tokyo Cowboys tapes for the past 4 years, has sailed out of London. All 500 tapes now reside in the attic of the Flying Dutchman pub in South London. Our relative, Antonio, owner of the pub, will keep them safely there until we can retrieve them.

I have this bizarre idea that something useful resides on those tapes. Some story can be told from the 100+ interviews we conducted...from the b-roll.

But mostly, people tell me to move on. One day I will be settled near those tapes. It will be my hobby to look at the tapes endlessly. Looking for something. So that this piece doesn't become nothing.

My good friend Jeremy

is holding the Tokyo Cowboys tapes for us.
All 500+ of them.
He is storing them somewhere.
He is our good friend.

I need those tapes.

If you are flying from London to the States,
let me know.
Perhaps you can take twenty or so tapes.
In this way,
perhaps it will take a year,
perhaps two,
but, in this way,
I can get the tapes back.

Hugs,

Daneeta

The Modern Day Samurai

Tokyo Cowboys in Saiyouken Video

Does Tokyo Cowboys have Legs?

"Tokyo Cowboys" has been haunting me these days. Maybe it is finished, but I don't think so. Maybe I'm crazy and just can't let it go at that.

Paul hooked me up with a producer turned distributor out in La La Land. He said TC could have legs. Cut everyone out except Ken, he says. I like the idea. Ken likes the idea. There is good YouTube footage, and I want to do another trip.

Everybody thinks I'm crazy. Including my business partner.

Robert thinks I should break it into Webisodes. I'm not a hundred percent sure what that is, but it sounds good. We shot over 500 hours of footage. A lot of interviews with a lot of guys. We shot some Japanese people. Lots and lots of people.

Anyway...

Where to go from here?

Tokyo Cowboys at Lusher Charter School

Tokyo Cowboys had its New Orleans premiere yesterday at Lusher Charter School Uptown. Head of Media Studies and fellow Loyola Alumnus, Christopher Jeansonne invited me to speak about Elektrik Zoo's debut feature documentary, working as an independent filmmaker and how I got from Big Branch to Tokyo to London and back home again.

I was quite impressed with the students. They were engaged and informed, aware of the world around them, not afraid to formulate their own opinions and not afraid to call each other on faulty logic. I was also impressed with Christopher's curriculum. This term he is screening Ozu, Kurosawa, Kitano, Lynch, and Wenders among others. I was quite proud to have TC screen along side films by these great filmmakers.