I watched The Devil and Daniel Johnston a couple of nights ago, a documentary about the crux of genius and mental illness, outsider art, and the indie music scene. It’s truly a gorgeous movie and sits solidly beside other comparable documentaries like The Daddy of Rock ‘N’ Roll and New York Doll. I’m willing to bet you know of Johnston even if you aren’t an Austinite, a cover song snob, or a scenester, merely because of a t-shirt. Johnston drew it, Kurt Cobain lived in it:
Anyway, highly recommended. See it now.
All the way through the movie I was thinking of a particular blogger who I knew was part of the Austin, Texas, music scene in the mid-80s and I wondered if she’d had any brushes with Johnston, who was also very active in said scene at the time. And then this woman showed up on the screen and I thought, “Damn, she looks familiar but I don’t have any idea why.” And later, “Love her glasses, no wonder they made it into all of Johnston’s art.” And lo and behold they dropped her name, this woman I was thinking of. She had dated Daniel Johnston. And holy shit, she married his best friend! And holy shit, I walked her through her own blog installation! AND THERE SHE WAS ON THE SCREEN! MAJOR PART OF THE MOVIE!
Our very own Kathy McCarty, people, blogger and commenter extraordinaire. It made this girl’s Monday night.
And now I have to buy this album.
Kathy also does the most lovely cover of “Walking the Cow” I’ve ever heard. I think, THINK, I sent you some Johnston MP3s, but if I was remiss, I apologize.
Remiss! REMISS!
I loved the portrayal of the Wild West Austin days of the mid-80s, about a half-decade before I showed up on the scene and brought everybody down. You can also see a small representation in the bonus material for the Criterion Collection edition of Slacker, which has a 15-minute movie on Woodshock (a small rural music festival) filmed by Richard Linklater in 1985. I have a small capsule review of Devil/Daniel Johnston here (#2).
I too was surprised by the marriage twist at the end; at least I now understand her comment name.
Did I mention I saw the opening of this film at SXSW in 2005? It was awesome. Daniel was there, and he had a freakout when they brought his long lost crush up on stage. I did see him play that night at Maggie May’s though. It was great.
I just watched this movie earlier this week. I’m wondering why the hell I didn’t know he was from West Virginia until I saw the movie. (I grew up in WV.) It’s probably because we’re such a cultural backwater that unless you’ve appeared in a blockbuster or on the teevee, you may as well not exist (celebrity-wise). The local paper kept us in-the-know about Jennifer Garner’s marital status and baby bump, but I had no idea the dude from that Kurt Cobain t-shirt was a West Virginian. I’ve seen that mental hospital he stayed in in Weston, WV, which is now a National Historic Landmark, and it’s a beautiful building. Anyway, loved the movie and I plan to buy the DVD.
Kathy McCarty is my hero too. Check out some Glass Eye music from the late 80s/90s as well as her solo work that Amanda refers to.
I haven’t seen the Devil and Daniel Johnson movie yet, but I’m glad it doesn’t suck.