Harry Shearer Swings By the Texas Theatre

By Robert Wilonsky Thu., Feb. 17 2011 at 2:16 PM

If you'd driven by the Texas Theatre oh, 'bout an hour ago, you'd have seen this scene -- the great Harry Shearer standing out on W. Jefferson, bracketed by Jason Reimer on the left and Barak Epstein. Random, right? Not really: Shearer was at The Thin Line Film Fest in Denton last night for a rare local screening of his post-Katrina New Orleans doc The Big Uneasy. Turns out, it's opening in Dallas on March 11 -- at, where else, the Texas Theatre.

Epstein tells Unfair Park he and Reimer asked Derek Smalls to stop by the theater to film some promos in advance of the opening; clearly, he was only too happy to oblige. Shearer's on his way to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at this moment -- London's calling. He may phone in shortly. Depends how airport security goes. If memory serves, he's had issues in the past.

Update at 3:35 p.m.: Shearer just called -- while he was driving past the Observer building, no less. And, indeed, he says visiting the Texas was a real thrill: "I loved sitting in Lee Harvey Oswald's seat. I sent a photo of me in that seat to a friend who's a Kennedy assassination buff, and he sent me back a note that said, 'I've got an erection.'"

We're scheduled to speak again closer to the opening of The Big Uneasy, but he did say last night's screening went very well -- for one reason in particular. "I got to meet a few folks from Dallas involved in issues related to the [Trinity River] levees and the idea of building a toll road in the floodway," he says. "One of the points of the movie is that it's not just New Orleans that has issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- this isn't a local issue, but a national one."

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space2k

Love this guy. And there goes my day, catching up with "Le Show" podcasts.

Jon Daniel

Jim Shutze just got an erection

Barak

one of the promo's we did today:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Levees.org

The more people who see The Big Uneasy, the better. The majority of the American population lives in counties protected by levees, and the most important ones are built by the Army Corps of Engineers.

J Michael Daniel Jr

Being the history and statistics buff that I am.... I request one single fact to show me that the majority of The American population live in population counties that are protected by levees. I have lived in density population areas(socal and NY) and toured the midwest extensively during the 90's midwest floods and your logic is flawed. Example...San Diego county has a pop. about 4 mil. The river channel covers about 4 miles of the county extracting into the pacific with little or no residence population. The floods experienced recently have nothing to do with levees, as bad planning. the same floods happened in the 80's. I lived there then and never has it been mentioned levee management as it was poor management as it tore throught the main tourist district.

The COE in New Orleans and the Trinity plan is a pure fail but keep the facts stright.

ChrisU

thanks. I was just making a joke. sometimes it works, most times it doesn't.

ChrisU

nice title. or how about 'Katrina: A Mighty Wind'

Levees.org

Katrina missed New Orleans, and the wind damage was relatively minor. Had the levees not broken, New Orleans would have suffered just some lost shingles and some wet carpets.

Marvin

Are you saying that Katrina missed New Orleans, and the levees just happened to break the same day, or do you not include the storm surge as part of Katrina.

scottindallas

The surge and storm that passed over NO was a class one hurricane only. The levees were spec'd to hold a class three

Heywood U Buzzoff

Yes, but what is his view on the Solar Powered Water Taxis?

G_David

Coincidentally, I was helping clean out a former co-worker's desk this morning and found the Spinal Tap DVD I had loaned him about 2 years ago. Which automatically made it a great day. Hard to top Derek Smalls, but Mark Shubb's neck-beard was a character unto itself.