Journal Notes from the Summer of '93

In early 1993, I pitched a book idea to Thomas Nelson Publishing and a movie concept to a producer on the set of Iron Will, and within a month both offered me opportunities to move forward.

While working full-time, I created a tight eight-month plan with two critical deadlines: August 1 for the book and October 1 the screenplay. But then my wife Susie threw me a curveball. She'd had enough of living in town and wanted us to go house-hunting so we could move to the country that year. To do all three felt like more than I could handle. I countered with this: she could go house hunting with a friend and after August 1 I would go see what they found. 

Sure enough, she brought me to look at a house on August 2, and by the end of the week we were owners of 8+ acres, a house and two garages--his and hers. By October we moved in and the screenplay was completed as well. 

Here are a few select entries from my journal that summer.

Seeds / Journal Notes

Proverbs 17:3

The crucible is for silver,

the furnace for gold.

The Lord tries hearts.

 

D.H. writes of our tendency as grapes to complain about the instruments God chooses when crushing us to produce holy wine.

June 23, 1993

 

Monday Ralph had a dream that I brought him two Bibles. Afterwards he said, “Who gave me this dream?”  I suggested that when he reads the Bibles, he’ll find out.

June 30, 1993

 

We remember our dreams to our own peril.    
June 30, 1993

 

At root I am depressed by the thought that I am not going to “make it” as a writer. That is, that I do not have the drive, the “neurotic passion” that is sufficient to make it.  That is, I allow other things to distract me, diffuse my energy, divert me from my course. I am not writing every day, every night.  And even though I am far more productive than my peers, it seems that I create illusions that give the impression that I am much more than I am. Do I have what it takes? Or am I just a small peeper making big noises that carry with the wind?

July 2, 1993

 

Our lives are written in time like words upon a scroll, with none of it to be erased.

July 3, 1993

 

I have labored these many years to produce a body of work. Today it seems so small… with so many stories yet to tell.  
July 5, 1993

  

There were four of us, brothers… till the four winds scattered us ‘cross the wild unwatered plains while the seeds of future dreams are nourished by private wells.

July 17, 1997

Iron Will Extras Gather Today For 20 Year Reunion

The original screenplay for Iron Will

Where are they now? Where are the men, women and children who assembled here 20 years ago to re-create a World War I era sled dog race from Winnepeg to St. Paul? The film I'm referring to is Iron Will. 

I know where a few of them are. McKenzie Astin, the boy-hero of the film, will be arriving on a train late this afternoon to join a reunion celebration of the film in a culmination of the Fourth Annual Duluth Superior Film Festival.

Kevin Spacey, the cynical reporter, became the surprising superstar of the pack, rising to win Oscar gold for his roles in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. Currently he is Francis Underwood in the TV series House of Cards.

Riki McManus, who headed up the local casting for the film's extras and bit parts, is still active in the film business, using her connections to attract films here by making film makers aware of our abundant natural beauty.

And Chuck Frederick is the Opinion page editor for the Duluth News Tribune who wrote a fun editorial yesterday inviting the public to welcome Astin back to our Northland home for a special airing of Iron Will at the Depot's Underground. Astin will arrive at 5:30, Mayor Ness makes a proclamation at 6:00 and after the film we're all invited to a reception in which two of the train cars used in the film will be open for mini-tours.  

Frederick's piece, titled Film fulfills dreams, and not just those of the extras, pretty much summed it up. 

"For a taste — even for just a small taste — of fame, of stardom, of being discovered by Hollywood, we took time off from work and from family, we stuffed ourselves into antique clothing, and we waited hour after long grueling hour, sometimes in frigid cold."

As for me, I got so mesmerized by this experience that I seriously imagined a future in screenwriting. I'd been an extra in The Ballroom Scene, which meant three days of dressing up and dressing down and waiting and killing time in order to obtain fifteen-tenths of a second of fame on the silver screen. I'm a featured silhouette at a table with John Heino, if you know where to look.

This shared experience of being herded like cattle put us in contact with a lot of new and interesting people and many new friendships were formed. I know today precisely how long John and I have been friends. We met there in the holding area. He told stories about his life and dreams, as did many others in that space.

On the third and final day of shooting The Ballroom Scene I met one of the producers of the film, Robert Schwartz, who was formerly from the Twin Cities before breaking for Hollywood. The experience of being in and behind the scenes of a Hollywood films generated an idea for a film, which I pitched to Mr. Schwartz right there on the set.

He and the two men he was standing with laughed, poked fun at me because since I am a nobody it is hard for producers to take any idea serious, but if I were Spielberg the same producers would be all over the idea. I told him my idea of how a Hollywood film in a small town changes the lives of everyone... the title being "The Extras." He said he would read my treatment if I put something together.

Two days after the filming was wrapped, he went back to Hollywood while catching up on two months of mail he called me at my home and told me he'd be interested in seeing the screnplay if I wrote it. He suggested Syd Field's book Screenplay to learn how to write in the screenplay format... and how to think in terms of scenes, etc. (Hot Tip: You want to write a great screenplay? Study Chinatown.)

Long story short, my brother was a film major in college and he agreed to join me in a collaboration. All of his ideas were improvements on my original storyline, and had I listened to him more it would have been a better product in the end, I am certain.

We finished the manuscript by October 1, my deadline, and Mr. Schwartz called me a couple days later. Said it was a very good first effort. Said he wanted me to write a second screenplay but in a different genre this time. I wrote a movie script about a crippled man from Estonia during WW2, a drama with close calls, and lots of nail-biting for the audience. Within a week of submitting this second screenplay Mr. Schwartz called me on the phone, read various passages from my manuscript and said it was quite good, that if I went to Hollywood he would introduce me to people.

The Duluthian piece addressed film's local economic impact.

I've never been that kind of risk taker, had a job here and a family, and reluctantly let go of this role I was aiming for, allowing the pages of my inner script to fly off with the wind. 

I also appeared in the start of the race scene, which was shot on a crisp sunny day while it was twenty degrees below zero. Those kilted bagpipers were quite red-faced after seven takes to "get it right."

Here's a thought I had afterwards. Next time you see a Hollywood film, pay attention to the people who are not the stars. Have you ever noticed them? Not usually, but after being an extra myself, I am always noticing.  Without these "extras" it would be impossible to make most of the movies we see and enjoy.

Extras don¹t have any spoken lines. They simply fill up the set and give the Stars a context. Yet they are indispensable and without them you certainly couldn't have a crowd scene.

One payoff in being part of the film was that for a brief space of time we were all part of something that felt bigger than ourselves. There's a sense in which one extra's presence or absence might appear to make little difference in a film, but we all know the cumulative impact if all the extras were suddenly missing in action.

This feeling of being part of something bigger doesn't have to end when the film is a wrap. We live in the context of a community that has needs and our part is to "show up" and do our part to help make this a better place. We don't have to be stars. From battered women's shelters to food shelves, the need for "extras" is greater than ever. Your role is important, even if you don't have any lines.

Forgive me for moralizing at the end, but this was a Disney film. Maybe I'll see you at the reunion.

NxN Finishes Up with DuSu Film Fest IV

It hasn't been much of a month weather-wise but NxN, our regional month-long celebration of the arts, has provided us with an excellent basketful of activities to explore. Despite the late spring, there was plenty of music, art, theater and more. This week is the fourth annual Duluth-Superior Film Festival, which kicked off last night at the Clyde Iron Works with The Last Gladiators, and an opening night reception with numerous former NHL hockey players on hand.

For a full listing of films that will be featured this year visit this DuSu Film Fest page. Be sure to scroll all the way down... There is a lot to see.

McKenzie Astin as Iron Will

One highlight will be a special "Iron Will" Reunion Screening and Reception. In 1993, when Disney & company arrived in Duluth to film this winter saga of a legendary dogsled race the whole process made quite an impact on the local community. Hollywood does have a "power" that mesmerizes, and the production put thousands of us in contact with this power in various ways, from building sets to dressing up as extras. (Trivia: My friendship with John Heino began in the holding area for extras in the Ballroom Scene which was shot downtown, next door to where you can catch his vibe on the piano every Thursday evening accompanying the Maxi Childs Trio. That's tonight, fwiw.)

This will be a FREE community event, held at The Underground in the Historic Duluth Depot and Arts Center, 5:30 p.m. Sunday. McKenzie Astin, one of the film's stars, will be present. You may recall the pivotal role Kevin Spacey played in this film before emerging as an Oscar-winning superstar.

There's plenty more going on, but I have a day ahead of me and it's time to slip into my uniform. To see what else is happening, catch the Wave.

Oh, and if you still can't decide, there's an end of the season Roller Dames event at the DECC with our home town favorites in action, including Killah Cletah and Jilly Nilly. Go team!

10 Minutes With John Heino: Not Dead Yet

I met John Heino on the set of Iron Will, a Disney film set here in the Northland. We were extras in the ballroom scene and spent quite a bit of time in the holding area for extras. We had shared just enough that he made a memorable impression and when our paths crossed again through another association, a friendship grew.

By day he is a respected professional, serving as president and CEO of Como Oil & Propane, an energy supplier to this area. But many know him primarily as the keyboardist for one of the region’s most popular rock ‘n roll blues bands, the Centerville All Stars. The more you get to know John the more you discover. His creative spirit and energy crosses into many disciplines, both in the arts and in public service.

He agreed to let me pick his brain last week… or maybe attempt to reflect some of his soul. This interview took place on Friday the 13th, hence the first question.

Ennyman: Is it better to be good or lucky?
JH: Well, I think from a personal fulfillment standpoint, it’s better to be good. If you measure your success by financial or materialistic things, it’s better to be lucky. If you don’t need external validation it’s better to be good.

Ennyman: How did you get into music?
JH: My mother had me take piano lessons when I was about seven years old. I quit when I was ten. I had no appreciation for classical music at that time. What really got me into music was the British Invasion. All of a sudden everyone was listening to music. Everybody was starting bands, combos… The good news for me was that everybody wanted to be a guitar player, so if you could scrape up the money for a keyboard and an amplifier, you could probably get a job with a band.

It wasn’t music theory or creative impulses, but the excitement of the scene, and maybe the girls.

Ennyman: What was it like recording music in the same studio where The Doors recorded?
JH: Our band spent seven years on the road. About a year and a half after high school we were in L.A. after getting comfortable as a group in Seattle. We were actually renting a house, and had soundproofed the garage – in Canoga Park. Kurt, a friend of the guitar player’s who was trying to help us get things going was road manager for the Butts Band… which consisted of drummer John Densmore and (guitarist) Robby Krieger (This was after Jim Morrison had passed.) The Butts Band.. they were rehearsing in our garage… Ray Manzarek came by once or twice.

Ennyman: Didn't you tell me that you saw ZZ Top’s first major performance? How did it feel to see their name in lights when your group had been working so hard to get its name in lights?
JH: ZZ Top was at a place called Starwood… down from the Whiskey A-Go-Go. ZZ Top was just coming out, doing a club show in L.A. … I remember being amazed that three people could have such a full sound.

Ennyman: You once wrote a song about passion. What are you doing these days to keep your creative passion alive?
JH: I still regularly write music. I put out a couple CDs in the past couple years. Photography… I am in the process of printing, mounting and framing photography for a November show at the Red Mug in Superior. I don’t have enough time… I could spend all my waking hours doing either photography or music. Time is limited. I am torn when I have time on a weekend to indulge. Should I write music or go out and shoot photographs. I just spent a weekend up the shore doing pictures of what happens when ice gets blown in.

The conventional wisdom is that you only have one life. But I have been trying to overcome that by living three lives at once. If I could just figure out a way to get rid of sleep. It takes up so much of your time.

Ennyman: You have a Facebook site where you’ve been showing your photography. What is it about photography that gets you so jazzed?
JH: As long as I can remember, I enjoyed looking at photography... When I did finally go to college, I started as an art major and quickly got into photography. Like a lot of people I would have great memories of the great Ansel Adams images, so I would go out with a camera looking for that image.

What broke things open for me was my photography instructor. You have it backwards. Don’t look for the picture… let the picture take you. Don’t think in advance what you are looking for. Get relaxed and just look… and at a certain point you won’t be able to stop reaching for your camera.

On the North Shore, all it takes is a camera and time… God or nature is sending us an infinite stream of images, and if you are just open to actually see…

What excites me, and what I shoot the most, are images you’ll never see again. The one-word short answer for me is “fleeting.” I’ve got thousands of pictures that no one would see if I had not taken them.

There’s something exciting about knowing other people have seen something they would not have seen otherwise.

I’ve only recently realized that a lot of my imagery is related to fractals… each an excerpt from infinity.

There are so many things wrapped up in this [process of making pictures]. The pure aesthetic of reveling in the imagery, the beauty that is there. And there is the anticipation of what you are going to see before you take the pictures. Then there is the aspect of capturing that… And then there’s what happens when people see the work… And then there’s the connection when someone appreciates your work.

I recently went with my son… not talking, but just shooting, then discovering only afterwards what he had shot and I’d shot. Every time there are individualized images and choices with different results.

Ennyman: Perhaps the same can be said with these interviews… each involves choices in regard to questions, focusing the lens at different angles, usually with unexpected and wonderful results. Thanks, John, for sitting still long enough to make this snapshot.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge. With the exception of my portrait of John, the photos on this page were borrowed with permission from John’s Facebook albums.

Morrison

“Then I saw things as they really are, that I am, to a degree, just a puppet controlled by forces I understand only vaguely.” ~ Jim Morrison

He became a rock star, a megastar actually, a burning asteroid leaving a luminous trail of disintegration from horizon to horizon. He died, but traces live on. Many called him heroic, but in the end he died pathetic… a tragic symbol of drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll gone wrong.

This is a brief review of two books: Stephen Davis’ Jim Morrison / Life, Death, Legend, and Morrison’s own posthumously collected poems called Wilderness, Volume 1.

I was a Doors fan. I owned their albums, listened to them such an extent that I must have known all the lyrics. I had a vocal range like Morrison’s as well, performing "When the Music’s Over" with a band in the courtyard of Scott Quad at Ohio U my freshman year. Yes, for fifteen minutes or so I became Morrison, possibly a highlight of my singing career.

After his death, I found an emptiness in the efforts of his band to create anything significant after Morrison had departed. Their efforts to milk the fame they’d garnered proved futile.

In 1993 my impressions of the band were confirmed by an extra on the set of Iron Will where I spent near three days in a holding area with 250 extras. While sharing our personal life journeys John Heino, a keyboardist with Minnesota’s Centerville All Stars, told how his band had spent seven years on the road trying to “make it” in the music industry. For a season they recorded in the same studio where The Doors, Post Morrison, were recording. It was evident the trio just didn’t have it.

Davis obviously invested a lot of time researching his book. It details Morrison’s childhood and every significant event along the way to his departure from this world in Paris where he finally broke on through to the other side.

Davis details Morrison’s initial self-consciousness, his explorations with hallucinogens, his self-destruction… and motivations, ultimately calling him a misunderstood genius. Unfortunately, the tone of the book feels off to me. The author appears to almost take glee in sharing the ugliest stories, publishing rumors that have no collaborating evidence that serve no purpose other than to make Morrison look bad. Genius or monster? Davis is too often unkind.

The fact is, it does not require rumor and innuendo to make Morrison look bad. The facts speak for themselves. Despite Oliver Stone’s efforts to whitewash the Miami performance where Morrison exposed himself onstage, revising history in his ’91 celluloid tribute starring Val Kilmer (who was remarkable), Morrison himself crossed all the boundaries and paid the price.

The second book is a collection of poems called The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, or Wilderness, Volume 1. I suppose it is one of those “gotta have it” books if you are a Morrison fan, and I did succumb to purchasing the book based on how the following poem touched me.

A man rakes leaves into
a heap in his yard, a pile,
& leans on his rake &
burns them utterly.
The fragrance fills the forest
children pause & heed the
smell, which will become
nostalgia in several years.

I thought this was a pretty powerful image, and I liked it. Truth is, this was the only quality poem in the book. It’s a rambling mess of notes of uneven quality, deep thoughts that are probably deep only when you are profoundly stoned.

Maybe I am being too harsh. There are some interesting observations, couplets, insights. But it’s mostly… well, my guess is he’d be embarrassed that these notes have appeared in print.

Alas, life goes on. Or as Morrison wrote in his wilderness, “Each day is a drive through history.”