Do It Again

The latest Dave interview tells us that there could be a reunion, provided it only requires Ray and Dave to hang out for an hour. In other words, don’t count on it. I know these stories periodically emerge and I try to ignore most of them. But why not float Dave’s quote out there: “I love my brother, I just can’t stand to be with him.”

I don’t know why some songs spark an intense, emotion connection while others leave us cold.

For me, I can’t listen to Kathy McCarthy’s version of “Living Life,” Zevon’s “Desperados Under the Eaves” or the Kinks’ “Some Mother’s Son” without actually choking up. How to explain? I can’t. It’s not just the subject matter. I don’t feel teary when “Brick” or “Wish You Were Here” play. It’s the chemical, cosmic beauty of how our brains respond emotionally to art.

Which brings me to the new Warren Zanes record, “I Want to Move Out in the Daylight.” I remember the first time I heard it. April 25, 2010. At the time, it had no name. Warren handed me a burnable CD the night of our Boston screening of DO IT AGAIN. I remember an evasiveness when I asked him of his plans for the songs. He told me that he wasn’t sure when it would come out or if it was going to come out in this form.

And I remember that next day, after the insanity of the sold-out Boston screening and the knowledge that our young son would be born three days later, having “Daylight” on as I drove around doing errands. I listened straight through until I got to “That’s All There Is,” and had to listen to that particular song again.

“That’s All There Is,” to me, summed up why this record had to come out. Like much of “Daylight,” I assumed it was about Warren’s dissolving marriage. The breakup had hit Warren hard and I assume he was unsure of how to deal with the art that came out of it. Because while Warren is a musician and deep thinker, he’s also – and pardon me for sounding like a cliché, but it’s true – a father first. He’s also a student of family dynamics. (You saw DO IT AGAIN, right?) He’s spent a lifetime contemplating his own upbringing – the Zanes clan has never been mistaken for the Cleavers – and I know his desire was never to drop an emotional music bomb on his boys.

That’s what’s so perfect about “That’s All There Is” and so many of the so-called breakup songs on this record. There is the “Here, My Dear” school of breakup records and then there’s “Daylight.” What Warren does is chronicle a universal experience (breakup, midlife crisis) without naming names. It never feels mean or petty. I assume with a little distance, Warren realized that these songs were too good to keep to himself and they also were not damaging to his kids. That’s why you can now buy a copy of “Daylight.”

What does the album sound like? Those of you who saw DO IT AGAIN know that we featured several songs from Warren’s previous solo albums in the film. He’s one of those rare people (along with Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan) who thrives as both an historian/critic and a musician. He has a great pop sensibility and understands the importance of a juicy hook. That’s evident on songs like “Would it Be Wrong to Love You” and “Nothing to Do Now.” In other places, Warren has stripped down his sound, emphasizing his voice and acoustic-instruments to make the record feel more intimate than his previous albums.

So go buy “Daylight.” Warren barely plays out. He’s a grown man with children and he’s never going to be a rock star. (Despite getting blurbs from Tom Petty and Cameron Crowe on this disc.) But he deserves to be heard. And he deserves our support as a member of the DO IT AGAIN family.

Sometime this fall, a group of PBS stations will roll out our 60-minute version of DO IT AGAIN. Here’s the tease that will be used to plug the program.

No need to bury the lead here. We’ve received our first wave of commitments for the one-hour, Public Broadcasting Service version of DO IT AGAIN. It’s an exciting group of stations in eight markets: Boston, Austin, Atlanta, Connecticut, Wichita, Oregon, Louisiana and Hawaii. I expect it’ll be shown sometime in the fall. We’d love to add more stations. The challenge, for affiliates, is paying the syndication fee to show DO IT AGAIN. A bunch of programmers let us know they’d love to buy in, but there simply isn’t money available for syndication. That means you should continue writing, begging, and pleading for DO IT AGAIN. And here’s an idea: Make a pledge promise contingent on their picking up the program. In some cases, their broadcast fee is as little as $500.

I’d also suggest that fans of the film let Ray Davies know they would love to be able to buy a DVD or see the longer version of the film on European, commercial cable or in movie theaters. Ray is an immensely busy guy. He’s programming festivals, overseeing reissue campaigns, executive producing films, teaching and writing his own music. As far as we know, he hasn’t watched DO IT AGAIN yet, as much as I’ve been begging and nagging him to. For us to move forward on anything beyond public television, we need his thumbs up.

But even if we don’t get it, we’re so thrilled to be coming to these PBS markets. It’s now been just over three years since Rob and I started filming with a couple of college kids, a single camera and not a single person committed to appearing in our doc. So much has happened. And I, for one, could never have imagined we would end up with a nationally broadcast fim.

And as I’ve said so many times, there is no way we could have made it without your support. Through Kickstarter, through poster and t-shirt donations, through private parties held to raise money, through an unexpected check slipped to me at a party or after a festival screening… That cash made DO IT AGAIN possible. Many of you will realize how much we remember your help when the credits roll sometime this fall and you see your name flash across the tv screen.

It’s a thrilling time to be a Kinks fan. Fantastic reissues. Meltdown. And a few weeks of a truce – or at least silence – from Ray and Dave, raising at least the specter of two brothers reuniting in one way or another to celebrate the brilliant music they created together.

For those of you eager to see “Do It Again” now that our film festival run is over, there is good news. American Public Television, which distributes programming to PBS station across the country, has agreed to take us on. That’s why we’ve been so busy. Rob and assistant editor Missy turned our 85-minute festival into a (cuss-free) hour-long version. We did this in anticipation of our big day. That day has arrived.

Later today, APT hosts its closed-circuit “offer” broadcast for the roughly 175 public stations in the world. Some programmers will watch this teleconference live. Others will tape and watch it later.

What hangs in the balance? For “Do It Again,” it’s the very chance to be seen on TV. We’re no lock. We have to get a number of PBS stations to sign on for the terms of our APT deal to kick in. How many? It’s hard to tell. Bigger stations are weighed more, money-wise, than smaller ones. But everybody counts.

Our hero, as of now, is a man named Eric Luskin. He’s the vice president of syndication and premium service for APT and the guy making our pitch. Eric has decades of experience in public television, several Emmys to his name and knows how to make a sale. For our purposes, we’re pleased to know he plays bass and saw the Kinks in Philadelphia in the ‘90s.

So what can you do to help? We’re told that a respectful note to your local public television station can make a difference. Tell them you heard that “Do It Again” is available and, as a fan of that era of music, the Kinks, and the film if you’ve seen it, you would love to see it shown locally. Most of these stations have a viewer services department that can be called or e-mailed. Sending a personal letter, not an e-mail, to a programmer might also be a cool idea. So few people take the time to actually send letters these days.

We should know by early May whether we’ve been successful. And “Do It Again” could be shown on TV as early as July. Sitting here tonight, a good part of me has no idea whether we’ll be successful and reach the right folks at PBS. But I also can’t help but think of just how lucky we’ve been so far, how resourceful and passionate our fans have been, and how impossible it is to imagine this train grounding to a halt when we’re so close to being seen by a wider audience.

It’s hard to know where to start our thank you. I came to Wichita for the first time in October. I found a small but growing film festival run by passionate, organized, fun people. I found a city that’s not so sure of itself but, if it were to step back, might find it has quite a bit going on. And I found an audience that loved our film, laughed at the right parts and gave us the kind of feedback we needed to realize that “Do It Again” would play well outside London, New York and Boston.

And that was before Tallgrass and Go Wichita!, sparked in part by the viral spread of my travel story, cooked up an innovative and inspiring plan to bring us back. That return came last week, as my family and I were flown to town, put up at the Courtyard Marriott Old Town, treated to the most delicious doughnuts we’ve ever had, bundt cakes, a special dinner, and a glorious, post-screening breakfast (and daily root beers) at the Tasty. Friday night, we showed “Do It Again” at the Orpheum, raising enough money to pay a chunk of our TV cut budget.

So today, when editor Missy called to ask about credits as she was making a final pass, I told her of a few folks to slice off the list and a couple of important entries to add. We’re going to thank the “Community of Wichita” and the Tallgrass Film Festival in those credits. And if I had more space, I’d thank, by name, Ann Keefer, Lela Meadow-Conner, Nick “Help!” Pope, Arietta Austin, Gretchen Mitchell, Mike Marlett, Shan Jabara, Marta McKim, Stephanie Galicia, Kathy Schlegel Deane, Jedd Beaudoin, Kari Schmidt, Marcia Scurfield, Jeff Emerson, Francine Fairweather…. I could go on. Wait. I will. I should thank Mary Turner for finding us Saturday night at Watermark Books without a ride and promptly popping us into her Scion for a return to the Doughnut Whole. Or Mark, in town visiting his cardiologist, who met us at the screening, took us to the zoo the next morning and hung with us all day. I could go on and on and on.

But I better stop. Because we’ve got an edit to finish. Rob tells me I’ve got to watch the 57-minute cut he’s created and, that, of course, we can’t add anything in. I’ve got to negotiate with National for a reasonable sound mix fee. And I’ve got to pop a couple of envelopes in the mail to the E & O dudes to make sure we can get our insurance policy in place before long. That’s the business side. I can’t imagine Carlene, Lila and I (Calvin gets a pass, he probably won’t remember much about the week) will ever forget the warmth and hospitality and just the chance to watch “Do It Again” one more time on that big screen. We may not be back for a while, but I’d like to think we’ve taken a bit of Wichita back home to Boston.

So with love and continued admiration, I say…

Thank you Wichita and if you visit Boston and need a place to stay, we’ve got a full second bathroom, and a futon on the third floor…

Geoff

Good news. We’ve been offered a chance to create a 57-minute version of the film for a nationally syndicated series of broadcasts. But there is a downside. This is for public television, which doesn’t pay very much. (But does offer us a chance to show the film to lots and lot of folks.)

Cutting an 85 minute documentary to 57 minutes will take some work. We anticipate two, very intense weeks of 20 hour days in the editing chamber. To broadcast, we also have to get something called error and omissions insurance and pay to lay our new cut onto an HDCam tape.

I estimate the whole thing will cost between $7,000 and $10,000.

I’m not going to create a Kickstarter campaign for this sum because I want to reserve that idea for a larger need. What’s that? Our major hope is to get approval from the record companies to license “Do It Again” for DVD/download and wider broadcast. We’re waiting on our request.

In the meantime, we want to create this shorter cut.

Can you help? If so, I’m going to accept paypal contributions at gedgers@mac.com or checks at my home address. (Write me at gedgers@mac.com for that.)

What can you gain? We’re going to offer a few of our collectibles and, much in the spirit of Kickstarter, an awards system.

$50 gets you a signed, 12-by-18 “Do It Again” poster OR a limited edition, signed 45 record (it plays!) of “Victoria/Big Sky” recorded by Figgs leader Mike Gent. The record also includes original art by our poster man Dave Plunkert.

$50 also gets you a signed DVD if “Do It Again” is released on DVD. I don’t want to mislead anybody. There is a chance it’ll come out on DVD. There’s a chance it won’t. If you contribute to this, you’ll have to accept there’s a chance we don’t get released. (And you can always turn your reward in for another gift.)

For $75, you get a signed copy of my Beatles or Elvis children’s books for kids, ages 8 to 12.

For $90, one of our remaining “Do It Again” t-shirts. I only have about three medium and two large left.

For $200, I’ll add your name to the credits for “Do It Again.” Just beware… we may not get long credits for our TV cut. If that’s the case, I’ll add you to our IMDB listing.

For $300, you get one of our 10 remaining, full-size “Do It Again” posters. I’ll sign it or I won’t. You decide.

For $1,000 – and airfare, lodging – I will bring “Do It Again” and outtakes from the film to your home for a private screening. We did this in Los Angeles earlier this year and it was great fun. I’ll even put you in touch with Steve, who hosted us, to give a full accounting of the experience.

For $1,000, you can get a one-of-a-kind, full size “Do It Again” poster signed by Sting and Zooey Deschanel.

For $1,500, you get the acoustic guitar that Dave Davies plays in “Do It Again.”

For whatever you can give – $1, $10, $100 – we remain eternally grateful.

This weekend, “Do It Again” plays six times at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square. But if you have a choice, come to the Friday night, 7 p.m. show. Director Rob and I will be there to introduce the movie, conduct a post-screening Q & A and then I’ll be hanging around for what the Brattle is calling a Kinks party. It’s really a two-hour disc of super-hot Kinks clips as curated by St. Louis master collector Jim Napoli. The performances take us from the Cavern Club in the early ’60s to the video for “Do It Again,” one of my MTV-favorites.

I can’t say we’re going to sell out, but you never know. So go here to purchase tickets ahead of time.

It is the million dollar question, or perhaps the $45,000 question. What is to become of “Do It Again?” The film has been on the festival circuit since late January. We’ve played about 50 cities and received some excellent reviews. But as you probably noticed, there’s no DVD, no broadcast deal, no theatrical release. First, let me assure you. We are working hard. We’ve had some bites and offers but we’re not yet ready to move forward. One major issue is licensing. If there were no Kinks songs in this film, we would have likely already released it. But when you use other people’s music, you need to pay for it. In our case, that’s complicated by the low budget of our film and the general risk that comes with an independent release. In brief, we ain’t “Juno,” capable of slapping down $10,000 for “Well Respected Man” or some other classic ditty.

After much wrangling and attempts at creative deals, we finally submitted our formal request to the record companies. They were kind enough to give us a deal which, if it goes through, will allow us worldwide licensing for around $40,000 to $50,000. But that’s a big if. First, the artist – and that’s Ray – has to allow us to spend that money. At the moment, a DVD and press packet (and button) is in his hands. We’re waiting for Ray.

If Ray says yes… then we’ve got to sell the film for enough to allow us to pay for the licensing. We’re grown men with families. We’re hesitant to go broker for this movie.

What can you do? Sit tight. Tell people how much you love our movie. Go to the IMDB website and post a few positive comments on there to make up for the cranky dude who said he didn’t like the film six times. And keep following. Because this process is pretty much like everything connected to “Do It Again.” We have no idea where we’ll end up, how we’ll do it and what it might mean. But we’re refusing to stop for any reason, be it financial, psychological, logistical. We are going to do everything within our means to get this film to a wider audience.

God Save the Kinks…

We’ve got very little time left and we’re oh-so-close to meeting our goal. So I approach you, the Kinksian public, with a simple offer.

You give, you get.

T-shirts – we’ve got small, medium and a few large left – are available as an award. They are supremely rare and very cool.

Posters are dropping in price as we head to the finish line, either $60 (12 by 18) or full-size for $180.

We’ve also got the Mike Gent record, which you can listen to, in part, below. If you buy the record but don’t want to play it – the 45 is collectible, after all – I’ll zap you the MP3’s so you can load Victoria and Big Sky onto your iTunes.

To those who have given, thank you. It makes a huge difference. To those who can spare $5, $10, $7,849… We appreciate even the smallest donation to our noble quest.

And I promise: No more begging after this!