IOW: Thus spoke Mike Trippiedi
Despite the plethora of open-air festivals and influx of University of Illinois populace that have occupied the attentions of Champaign-Urbana these past few weeks, C-U Blogfidential has been staying the course indoors and incognito to make local movie magic! As the next New Art Film Festival draws ever closer on Sunday, October 4, we need to keep our on-line tidings to the point – well, with exceptions like our ab-Normal exercise in density from last Saturday – so we can handle putting out constant content and not go on Weblog hiatus! Therefore, we’re embracing the “show not tell” conceit behind our “Image of the Week” department more fully than we have in some time, allowing the evidence of our subculture’s productivity to speak for itself. Our offering today revisits the cable access interview program ART NOW!, a collaboration between Urbana Public Television (UPTV 6) and Urbana Public Arts Commission, in which host Virginia Waaler sits down with the one and only Mike Trippiedi to discuss his twin arts career on stage and screen. Topics they touch upon in Episode 58, which first aired a month ago, include Trippiedi’s long-standing association with the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre in Urbana, favorite plays and performers, the making of his Pens to Lens shorts including SUN BLACK AND THE CANNIBAL DWARF, GUYS GO GREEN, and SUPER DUPER LOW, thoughts on choosing film production over theatrical performance in the coming years, and a late left turn into Sam Oldham territory. As the video proves, 25 minutes is not nearly enough time to coherently present the wealth of Trippiedi’s experience and knowledge, but at least it provides newbies a primer on CUBlog’s number one fan!
For an extended ART NOW! experience, flash back to 2013 when the late Gregory Chew held court with Thomas Nicol, Bill Kephart, and Johnny Robinson to examine Champaign Movie Makers and the growing fascination with filmmaking du C-U in Episode 31, as well as lead a line-up featuring Lisa Cerezo, Luke Boyce, and your humble editor in Episode 32 to elucidate profoundly on the Art Theater centenary and the NAFF. Hopefully our movies and movie-makers will be a highlight of future shows!
~ Jason Pankoke
p.s. Maybe this is the impetus we need to continue our Trippiedi epic started here and here, or even launch a Trippipedia if we get ambitious enough…
p.s.2 Maybe our big mouth, combined with the big mouths of others, can be the impetus for UPTV to consider an upgrade from their rinky-dink non-studio to something a bit more useful, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing. It makes our community look unkempt and broke, City of Urbana. Seriously.