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2002-02-22 | 7:56 p.m.

corduroy licorice had feet of clay. 10 feet to be exact. he had big plans for prolific pottery production.

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how's your news?

whaa-?

yeah, you heard me. how's your news?

my friend k-girl took me to a cool documentary this week. we didn't know too much about it, but it took us by surprise in a delightful way. its title is how's your news? and it traces the U.S. "cross-country voyage" of a group of disabled adults and their summer camp counselors. during the voyage via RV, the campers interview people on the street about all kinds of things...and sometimes nothing.

the project sprung from a video project at the camp. the counselors decided to have the campers interview each other and one of them, sean costello, would interview his fellow campers who were playing sports with the question, "how's your sports?" that inspired the "how's your news?" handle. once the film was completed, a video copy was passed from friend to friend and ended up in the hands of the south park guys, trey and matt, who helped get the film shown on cinemax.

k-girl teaches a special ed elementary school class, so she was a bit uncomfortable at the laughter the film elicited from the audience. i was, too, but soon we both realized that the laughter was that of appreciation versus mocking. the laughter came from the hilarious, clever, charming, guileless way that these people see the world and respond to it, despite the daunting obstacles their minds and bodies present to them.

the two most verbal members of the group were quite amazing to watch. susan harrington was a well-spoken whirlwind of a woman who brought the house down with this exchange where she was interviewing a cowpoke at a cattle auction:

susan: so, can you recommend any good books or movies to us?

cowpoke: well, i don't read too many books, but i just saw a dadgum good movie.

susan: oh really, what was that?

cowpoke: "message in a bottle." i really enjoyed that.

susan: interesting. that's the first positive review i've heard for that one.

ronnie was a celebrity-loving charmer who is actor chad everett's biggest fan. he asked almost everyone he interviewed if they'd ever met chad everett. one women who had met "the man" became a goddess to ronnie. he even wrote a song tribute to her. ronnie would also want to act out scenes from his favorite soap opera and to do impressions of chad and others. when the "how's your news?" team arrived in l.a., they went to venice beach and ronnie spotted actor vince van patten on the boardwalk.

"oh my god!" screamed ronnie, "you played a junkie on chad everett's show medical center!" while ronnie hasn't met chad yet, he did get to kiss his star on the hollywood walk of fame. (germaphobic me sure hopes he washed afterwards.)

after the film's showing and a great Q&A session with the cast members and crew, k-girl and i followed the audience to the "after party" music show at a nearby club. the "how's your news?" team is as wonderfully musical as they are journalistic. you can check out samples of their catchy tunes on their site.

as the stars from the film filed in the bar to take their place on stage, ronnie passed me and grabbed my hand to shake it.

"what's your name?" he asked.

"nictate."

"do you work in the movie business?"

"no."

"oh," he replied, clearly disappointed. k-girl's response of "teacher" didn't thrill him too much either.

"he's looking for an agent," i joked with k-girl. even camp jabberwocky, NH isn't safe from the seductive lure of hollywood, but we didn't take offense at ronnie's brush-off. now, if only we'd known chad everett...we would've been given sainthood! or at least a song tribute.

"how's your news?" is going to played on cinemax on monday, february 25, at 3 p.m. eastern time and 6 p.m. pacific time. hopefully it will start to get more attention and more air time, so that more people can enjoy it. it's an eye-opener of inspiration and a knee-slapper of a good time.

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take a peek at these - (c) 2000-2003 nictate:

health tip
2005-03-16

health tip
2005-03-16

moving house
2004-11-19

quibbling with quitherfeather
2004-11-17

catcher in the wry
2004-11-16