watch | family band

i was up with the truckers and construction roughnecks february 20, buying coffee before the sun came out at a bagel shop with the pickup idling outside. after that we were strangers (and eventually friends) cramped three abreast in the extended cab, everybody with their necks cranked and their mouths open sleeping, and the blue morning running backwards and away from us out the window. it was four hours to bovina, just like that, only slightly oranger as the time passed.

when we got there the snow was thigh high. it was snowman snow and hard to walk through, but inside was lively with quiches and apple cider and everybody was in hand-sewn pilgrim clothes with their faces painted dirty. it was an incredible strangeness to walk into -- a seamless time warp -- and you could tell everybody's heart was going fast at the sight of each other and the thought of what was next. it was ice where we were headed, so much so that the leaf-stripped mountaintop trees had all gone white, but we fought it back with stews and steaming drinks and everybody huddled up together blowing on their hands.

what's up there in bovina, aside from hairy longhorn steer and open space, is the warmest and handsomest creative community you could ever want to find. and the new proof is family band's "children" video, a post-apocalyptic mini-epic about a lost daughter coming home to nothing. aside from the cost of food and a few rentals, "children" runs on little more than the cooperation and imagination of an incredibly talented and dedicated group of friends. the same crew that built the house where the last paragraph took place, right up from nothing.

it was an awe-inspiring thing to watch them all in action, pulling each other along smiling even when their arms were weighed down with axes, movie cameras, giant salads and crying babies. that video up there is a whole lot more than five minutes of narrative. that's important to know. watch it full screen and then have a look at a few of the 5,000 photos i couldn't help but take along the way.

hey also, come out to union pool tomorrow night for family band's record release show.

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