L.M. Kit Carson in David Holzman's Diary

​From time to time we'll name-drop L.M. Kit Carson, perhaps the most influential local-born filmmaker, with good reason: The Irving-born actor (Running on Empty, great on Miami Vice) and writer (Paris, Texas with Sam Shepard; that Breathless remake) was co-founder of the USA Film Festival, feted at the first Deep Ellum Film Festival in 1999, mentor to Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson and co-conspirator with Jim McBride on the 1967 mockumentary David Holzman's Diary, which was hatched on the University of Dallas campus and sits between Daughters of the Dust and The Day the Earth Stood Still on the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, where it's been for 20 years. For starters.

He remains active, of course: Carson's looooong-in-the-making Africa Diary, made with wife Cynthia Hargrave, will finally premiere on the Sundance Channel in the fall; here he is talking about it -- and everything else mentioned above -- with Gadi Elkon at the Dallas International Film Festival a couple of months back.

But tomorrow, for the first time in decades, David Holzman's Diary makes its full-on re-premiere on Fandor.com, where, in advance of the occasion, you'll find Kevin B. Lee's two-part video essay series on the influence of the film -- "one of the first films to use the first-person approach to documentary filmmaking," Lee writes, a technique we now take for granted in the era of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock." Only, of course, it was all made-up. Straight-up fiction. That's but one of myriad looks-at Holzman on the Fandor blog; it's hardly a "best-kept secret" over there.More >>

From the back cover of An Epic Swindle

​Took a couple of weeks, but I just received my copy of  An Epic Swindle: 44 Months With a Pair of Cowboys, Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade's just-published-in-the-U.K. 338-page recap of Tom Hicks' disastrous run as co-owner of Liverpool FC. So far, so good, though I feel like I've already lived this story. And only yesterday, at the Half-Price mothership, I found Into The Red: Liverpool FC And The Changing Face Of English Football. Think I'll begin at the end.

But here's the thing. Amazon UK sent two copies -- billed me for two, too. No big. We're happy to provide one Reds-loving, or Hicks-hating, Friend of Unfair Park with a tome. First one to complete this sentence in the comments wins the book: "Blow me _________."

But you gotta come up to Unfair Park HQ by noon tomorrow to collect. Otherwise, next person down gets it, and so on and so forth. And...go.

​This morning I was talking to Kourtny Garrett, senior veep of marketing for the DSpotters, about something kinda-sorta related, fingers crossed, when she mentioned that Downtown Dallas Inc. is once again planning to screen movies at Main Street Garden. It's a reprise of last fall's successful series, wherein online voters set the schedule; Garrett says they got 'round 200 to 500 for each film, one of which was replaced by some Rangers post-season big-screening.

The "Moonlight Movie Series" kicks off June 11 with Inception , followed on June 18 by The Dark Knight, and wraps June 25 with Manhattan. And, no, it's not a Chris Nolan mini-retrospective with some Woody Allen thrown in. Says Garrett, "We chose movies that feature great cityscapes in an urban setting." Showtimes are 8:30 p.m. Lawn chairs and picnic baskets welcome. And, yes, of course it's gratis.

​While awaiting several calls back about items forthcoming, allow me to dispense with these four VIP ducets to Wednesday's Iron Fork event at the Fashion Industry Gallery, where chefs John Tesar and Scott Romano will square off whilst attendees dine on samplings from the likes of Il Cane Rosso and Nana, amongst others, while shooting back Turtle's tequila. Kent Rathbun's also involved; so too March of Dimes, recipients of some of the evening's proceeds.

I have here four VIP tix, which get you in the door an hour earlier -- lucky you. I'll chop 'em up: Two tickets will go to the first two winners in this morning's giveaway, which is a simple one. Just hop in the comments and tell me what the following songs have in common. First two to do so win. Simple.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Are You Experienced?"
The James Gang, "Funk #49"
The Rolling Stones, "Start Me Up"
Steely Dan, "Aja"
The Animals, "The House Of The Rising Sun"
Queen and David Bowie, "Under Pressure"
The Eagles, "The Best Of My Love"
ZZ Top, "La Grange"
The Moody Blues, "Question"
Chris Isaak, "Wicked Game"
Peter Frampton, "Do You Feel Like We Do"
Jefferson Starship, "Miracles"
Led Zeppelin, "Houses Of The Holy"
The Alan Parsons Project, "Eye In The Sky"
Golden Earring, "Radar Love"

And .... go.

Update at 9:34 a.m.: Congratulations to our winners.

Bobbie Wygant's 2011 Coming Soon Film Reel from Atombomb.tv on Vimeo.

Our pal Erik Clapp, keeper of the Bobbie Wygant Archive, just sent this most watchable teaser featuring little look-sees at classic interviews he's in the process of restoring before posting to the site. Good Lord, that's an estimable roster of talent -- from the-good-stuff-era Woody Allen to Cheech and Chong back when they looked like they'd just taken a shower in bongwater. But where's the DVD?

Robert Duvall will introduce Get Low at a screening at the Cinemark 17 Saturday morning.

​Last month we mentioned: Robert Duvall's in town Friday night for a Dallas Film Society fund-raiser at the Hall of State, during which he'll be Q&A'd by Elvis Mitchell. But say you didn't have the $250 to $25,000 necessary to make the up-close-and-personal. No sweat: The DFS has added to Duvall's to-do list an appearance at the Cinemark 17 on Webb Chapel Road and LBJ Freeway on Saturday morning, where, at 11, he'll intro the terrific Get Low, which also stars Bill Murray. Also on the schedule for Saturday: screenings of Secondhand Lions and The Godfather Part II.

But here's the deal: Till today those events cost a few coins. Then the DFS decided to make 'em absolutely, positively gratis. (Fret not: Organizers say refunds will be offered to those who done paid up already.) You've got till 5 p.m. Friday to RSVP for the Get Low screening. Instructions are here. And ... go.

​It wasn't Kevin Smith's proudly rude series of films-as-dick-jokes that brought him fame among the masses. It was a bad customer service experience. You remember: Southwest Airlines designated him a "passenger of size" and kicked him off an Oakland-to-Burbank flight. One assumes the Southwest staff had not seen much of Smith's oeuvre-demonstrated ability to create monstrously whiny rage over something as small-potatoes as escalator safety, and were thus unaware that pissing off a man who's made a living of offending lots of folks (and garnering the love of many for same) might result in a PR nightmare.

So if you're the lucky winner of the two tickets we're giving away to Smith's live "Smodcast" tomorrow (he's appearing with buddy Scott Mosier) at the Granada Theater, see if you can't get him to talk about his feelings per this recent update: Southwest Airlines recently ousted a standby passenger of not-size to allow a non-standby passenger of size room to sit. Or maybe he'll solve the biggest mystery of all: how he's managed to make a love of farts, splooges and tits (and all combinations thereof) into an actual career. We here at the Observer are interested. And fascinated.

E-mail me with the correct number of gentlemen who've been on the receiving end of Dante's girlfriend's oral skills in the subject line, and first one there gets the tix.

Contest's over! The correct answer was, of course, 37.

​Hello, Unfair Park. It's nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Sorry to say, though, it's just a short stay--a follow-through on a promise I made yesterday to Robert, y'know. That promise? That I'd roll on through to this side of the fence for a moment to tell you a little "something-something" on this year's Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase in Deep Ellum, and that, just maybe, I'd give away some free wristbands to Saturday's 10-hour, 46-band affair.

Well, fine. I'll do just that. But, first, those added details on the DOMAXXII Showcase. For instance: Doors to the outdoor stage open at 4 p.m., with Lucero kicking things off at 4:30, followed shortly thereafter by sets from Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights (performing as an 11-piece for, I think, the very first time), The Secret Machines and The Cool Kids. Those outdoor stage events should be over by 10 o'clock, but, by that point, performances in the six indoor venues (The Door, The Prophet Bar, La Grange, Trees, The Bone and Reno's Chop Shop Saloon) will be well underway, having started at 7. The performances at the indoor venues, all of which come from bands nominated in this, our 22nd music awards, will go right up until closing time at 2 a.m.

Should be a blast. A steal, too. Nerd that I am, I did the math: The $10 wristband (available for purchase here), gets you an hour of music per dollar spent. Also: It works out to one performance for every 22 cents spent. And, oh! There's also the DOMA Download Card (see insert), which serves as a compilation of 25-plus songs from this year's nominated acts (we'll have the full list of songs up for you in a few minutes on DC9). We've only made 500 of these suckers, the first half of which will be available free-of-charge to the first 250 people to show to the outdoor stage. The rest will be available for purchase as part of a $5 bundle that also gets you a sweet DOMAXXII T-shirt.

And, fine, email me right now if you wanna get a free pair of wristbands to Saturday's affair. Just be sure to include the words "Deep Ellum Lives" in the subject line. First five people to do so win. (Update: Contest is over. Congrats to our winners.)

In return, I simply ask that, maybe once in a while, you come check in with things on my side of the fence. There's usually some exciting things happening--like, today, there are free concert tickets, free mp3s and news that one act with local ties had a song named as NPR's tops for the day. It's not, say, on the same level as the news that you could maybe be in a movie with Buster Bluth, but, hey, it's something.

Anyway, thanks for your time, Friends. See you Saturday?

​Maybe this slipped your schedule: They're taping America's Got Talent at the Music Hall at Fair Park this week -- tomorrow and Friday, twice daily. I only remembered because I happened to see Nick Cannon's tweet of moments ago ("Catch me spinning tonight in Dallas at the Aura Lounge! It's bout to Happen!!"), and then it hit me -- oh, right, he's the host of that NBC show. And, turns out, tickets remain for the 1 p.m. tapings tomorrow and Friday, though the 6 p.m. rounds are full up. You wanna go, it's as easy as clicking here. Because who wouldn't want to be that close to Howie Mandel?

​Good Lord. Was it only last week that Conan O'Brien announced he was coming to McFarlin Memorial Auditorium on May 13? Feels like four years ago. Anyway. Didn't take long for the 2,386-seat venue to sell out -- a few hours, tops. Which doesn't mean you can't catch Coco at SMU. (And, no, I'm not referring to the ducats for sale on eBay, though ...) No, I mean this: American Express is using Twitter to give away a pair of VIP tix in Dallas (and the four other sold-out cities on the "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television" tour). Deadline to enter's Monday morning; winner's announced Tuesday. I'll pray for you.

In semi-related news: I see Kenneth Cole's Tate Lecture at McFarlin isn't sold out. But Diane Keaton's is. Oh, and look there: On April 21, George and Laura Bush will be at McFarlin. Fingers crossed they perform their classic "Mother and Son" sketch.