The Shea Butter Irrigation System as shot by Marfalogical Exploration

Marfalogical Exploration — a group “travelling Marfa to learn how to be successful as professional artists” — stopped by Ballroom back in March to take some snapshots of New Growth, and to chat with Rosa and Erin …

“Upon arrival in Marfa at 12:30 PM, we went straight to Ballroom Marfa to see Rashid Johnson’s show, entitled New Growth. Rosa McElheny, the Exhibitions & Programs Coordinator and Erin Kimmel, the Associate Curator at Ballroom were kind enough to to meet with us.

We were really inspired by our meeting with Rosa because she was recently in the same position that we are in now, since she completed her undergraduate degree in 2011. We chatted about reasons for attending graduate school and finding residencies- she recommended searching residencyunlimited.org.

Rosa also answered questions that I had about how they organized Ballroom’s Marfa Dialogues program. I was curious about how they recruited Michael Pollan (one of my heros) and Rebecca Solnit, among others in Marfa. Hamilton Fish, published of the Washington Spectator, co-presented Marfa Dialogues. The upcoming program this fall will be held in NYC.”

Fantastic interview with Eleanor Friedberger over at Rookie, plus they’ve got another song — “She’s a Mirror” — from her forthcoming album available for streaming. An excerpt from the Q&A:

“How does it feel to get attention for making something personal public?

Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s awkward. I like having anonymity, don’t like being the focus of attention.

The good part about attention I think is obvious, but what is the difficult part?

It’s never good to doubt yourself. I mean, for example, I like getting dressed some days, but it’s such fine line of deciding how much time you are going to spend thinking about what you are going to wear when you know people are going to be looking at you. That is something I do think about, but when you think about it a little too much it turns unhealthy. I am conscious of people looking at me, whether it’s in photos or while I’m performing. In those situations I try to be free as possible, because if you overthink it, it does your head in. That’s when people start getting a little goofy. Sometimes I think I should be more diva-ish [laughs], that maybe I am little too normal and balanced to make it in this industry.”

Personal Record is out June 4 on Merge. Can’t wait that long for new Eleanor jams? Check out the 7-inch she recorded during her Ballroom residency here in Marfa, available from the Ballroom store and iTunes.

“Devils at Play” screenwriter James DiLapo in studio at KRTS. Catch the re-broadcast of his “Talk at Ten” interview today at 6:30p (CST). RSVP for tomorrow’s two live performances of “Devils at Play” here.

A few images from the first stage rehearsal of “Devils at Play”, courtesy of Ballroom’s Jennifer Trammell. Click here to RSVP and secure a seat for one of the two free performances this Saturday at the Crowley.

Scott Myers from The Black List talks to James DiLapo, the writer behind this year’s installment of The Reading. An excerpt from their Q&A:

“Scott: Let’s talk about your Nicholl winning script “Devils At Play.” Here’s a logline I found for it:

“In the Soviet Union, 1937, a worker of the People’s Commissariat for internal affairs finds a list of traitors, which he thinks is going to be his way out.”

What was the inspiration for this story?

James: I was cramming for a mid‑term for a Soviet history course at NYU. I was reading a book by Robert Conquest called “The Great Terror”. There is a chapter in there where Conquest breaks down what the arrest process was like. When you’re arrested, how many people could you expect to share your prison cell? What were the strip searches like? When you were interrogated, what were the sort of methods they would use?

Reading that, reading the details, I started to see flashes of the story. It was inspiring, but it was a script that I knew would take a very long time to research. I didn’t have the time to devote to this project until I graduated and received the WGAE Fellowship.

Scott: Putting on a conventional wisdom hat, right? You’ve got a period piece set in the Soviet Union in the 30′s. You got a deeply flawed protagonist. There’s a lot of violence, and torture. There’s no real love interest per say. You used flashbacks, which some people in Hollywood aren’t fond of. The conclusion, which is beautifully realized, is definitely not your typical Hollywood happy ending. Were you aware that this script was cutting against conventional wisdom on so many fronts?

James: To be honest, I didn’t think about that. I just tried to tell a story to the best of my ability. I think it becomes problematic for us as screenwriters to create only what we think is going to sell, or only what we think is going to attract attention. It’s better just to write as well as you can, and hope that it creates opportunities for you afterwards. At the end of the day, you just have to tell the stories you want to see on film. That will be your best writing.”

Read the full interview — in two parts — over at Go Into the Story: The Official Screenwriting Blog of the Black List: Part 1 and Part 2.

The Reading takes place this Saturday, 18 May 2013 at the Crowley Theater here in Marfa. Click here for more information and to RSVP for this free happening.

Doug Pullen of the El Paso Times talks with “Devils at Play” screenwriter James DiLapo. An excerpt …

“Set in 1937, “Devils at Play” revolves around Stepan, a detective with the NKVD, the Soviets’ secret police, whose discovery of a list of traitors could be his way out his morally bankrupt world.

“He struggles with whether he’s on the right track, whether he’s working for an evil faction, and in the course of that he uncovers a mystery,” Dilapo said by phone from Los Angeles.

“Devils” tells the story from the oppressor’s point of view, not the other way around. “When you look at this time period in history, the Soviets or the Nazis, it’s usually about what it’s like for the oppressed, not what it’s like to be on the other side,” the screenwriter explained.

“Devils at Play,” which Dilapo completed after graduation from New York University in 2011, looks at “how moral justification works in our heads, how we lie to ourselves to believe in what we’re doing, that capacity for good and evil,” he explained, adding that he looked to books like Robert Conquest’s “The Great Terror” for information and ideas.”

Keep reading in the El Paso Times.

More info and RSVP for this free event by clicking here.

Getting the word out about this year’s edition of The Reading, featuring “Devils at Play” by James DiLapo. Click here to read more and RSVP!

As I Went Out One Morning at Storm King is “the first large-scale presentation” of Thomas Housesago’s work. As part of the documentation of this monumental undertaking, the Los Angeles-based sculptor took part in a wide-ranging Q&A with Nora Lawrence, including some interesting observations on his time in Marfa as artist-in-residence with Aaron Curry.

“I was included in a residency at the [Marfa] Ballroom. Me and Aaron Curry were doing a show together. Something about being out there in West Texas, and yet you’ve also got this massive figure of [Donald] Judd there. Anyone going to Marfa is either filming a movie or going to see Judd. And me and Aaron were processing a lot of weird stuff. I had met Aaron very early on in my life in L.A. We were removed from our life in L.A., put in this desert with Judd–so that kind of brought out this extreme behavior in both of us that was very, very alcoholic. We were drinking from morning ‘til night and in this weird room in Marfa. I think what I was doing was processing all these pieces that I had kind of hidden. I was making a series of felt works almost as this kind of degenerate behavior, almost like going back to being a kid. We were sort of acting out all these kind of weird arguments like we we’re kids, like getting mad at each other…it was an odd thing. That really was like a long, drawn-out performance. And the “felty”—I was making it with glue, just like when you’re a child you’re doing these crafts. The desire that both me and Aaron had was that we were going to do that show, then destroy a lot of that work—just light it up, boom, move on. You can almost say Judd is the end of something. And we were playing out this thing of being infantile, young artists messing with this whole idea of Judd, this shining example…”

Keep reading at Storm King.

Houseago’s joint residency with Curry took place here at Ballroom Marfa in the spring of 2009. Their time culminated in the Two Face exhibition, and the accompanying limited edition prints.

Images from yesterday’s starscapes and cosmic slop workshop, inspired by Rashid Johnson. The good times were organized by Rosa McElheny, Ballroom’s Exhibition & Programs Coordinator.

Michael Pollan’s new book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, is now available for purchase, and the self-described “nature writer who writes about this particular part of nature that we don’t think of as nature” is popping up all over the place, from The Colbert Report to the Field Lab.

In September of 2012 Pollan joined us here in Far West Texas for the second Marfa Dialogues symposium. He and Hamilton Fish had a sprawling conversation in front of a packed house at the Crowley Theater, the entirety of which is available for your viewing pleasure up above.

The move comes as lawmakers are looking to rein in Medicaid spending

The Wildcats took a 42 38 halftime lead, having held UCLA to just 38.

Zardari is saying do not expose our corruption otherwise we will expose yours.
Cameron also comes with the bonus that he knows new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s scheme because Shanahan was the Browns’ offensive coordinator last year.
Super Bowl XXXVI was the most memorable Super Bowl for Patriots’ fans, and for patriots in general.
8 yards per attempt; passer rating of 106.

Outlook: Third team All Area catcher Christiana Roberts is a big graduation loss, but considering the Spartans return, virtually, all the rest of last year’s squad, things are looking quite promising for Immaculata.