Joe M. O'Connell

Friday, March 30, 2012

Houston, we've got a James Franco problem

Actor James Franco won't actually be studying for a Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Houston this fall after all. He does have a book of short stories out. Anyone read it? The Amazon reviews are mixed.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

David Gordon Green moved to Austin?

I'm definitely out of the loop on this development. Director David Gordon Green (George Washington, Pineapple Express) has moved as close as he can to Terrence Malick, which means right here in Austin, Texas. Apparently he loves breakfast tacos. And he's not ruling out shooting a film hereabouts, according to folks who attended Green's talk with John Pierson's University of Texas film students.

And did you know he directed that Clint Eastwood commercial for Chrysler that ran during the Super Bowl?

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Everything's better with bluebonnets

Spring is officially here and the bluebonnets are popping all over central Texas after a particularly rainy winter.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

'Carried Away' and blurbed

That Dallas Morning News blurb you see on the cover of the DVD of Tom Huckabee's film Carried Away is from a column written by yours truly back in 2010.

The last time I was blurbed was long ago for Tim McCanlies' Dancer, Texas.

Here's wishing great success to Huckabee and the film. It's set to come out on DVD, video on demand and television through Vanguard Cinema in June.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The king of SXSW

We were wandering South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, during the final weekend of South by Southwest when this guy loomed above at the Hotel San Jose. I thought it was somehow the perfect shot of SXSW. You can see a lot more SXStrangeness here.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

'John Dies at the End' may be Coscarelli's best film

Don Coscarelli, Bob Ivy (aka Bubba Hotep himself) and stunt guy Gary Kent.

I had the pleasure of seeing John Dies in the End, the long-awaited followup to Don Coscarelli's Bubba Hotep, this week during the South By Southwest Film Festival. Here's my review for The Austin Chronicle and why you should check this flick out.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

100 Strangers completed

For the past seven months I've been taking part in the international 100 Strangers project through Flickr. Last night I shot this photo of actress Fabianne Therese after a South by Southwest Film Festival screening. She was Stranger #100.

It's been a fun project. You can see my full set of photos here: www.flickr.com/photos/joemoconnell/sets/72157627547511612...

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

"Tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.' "
-- Brad Buchholz, Austin American-Statesman

" The chapters about Matt and the short stories demonstrate O’Connell’s ability to develop sympathetic, true-to-life characters using intriguing details and compelling dialogue. The stories remind us of those times when a brief encounter with a stranger left us wondering about that person’s past. In Evacuation Plan, O’Connell satisfies that curiosity. "
-- The Texas Observer

"It was very hard for me to put this book down. It carries us through the deepest meaning in life and most painful, most hopeful memories for a wide range of fascinating characters. Based in a hospice, this book could have easily resorted to cheap sensationalism, or whacked us upside the head with stereotypic melodrama, but instead it was respectful, honest, and tender. The characters will stay with you - you may even recognize some of them within your own life. "
-- Award-winning author Carmen Tafolla

"An excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave, and we highly recommend it to you, the living."
-- Wayne Alan Brenner, The Austin Chronicle

"O’Connell has drawn some colourful and believable characters. The material relating to the hospice and terminal care rings true, all the way to reconciliation and forgiving."
-- Dr. Roger Woodruff, International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care

"The tales are nicely written, and some are quite compelling; “The Male Nurse,” for one, is a dreamlike reverie."
-- Texas Monthly

“Evacuation Plan: A Novel From The Hospice by Joe M. O'Connell is nothing short of remarkable … a novel that walks hand-in-hand with death and yet, somehow, the reader finishes the book feeling inspired to live.”
– The Paisano

"A wonderful blend of lives ordinary but with sometimes extraordinary elements. We all share these stories of life in some way, despite moments of harshness or unforgiving pain. There is always a common thread of humanity and ultimately forgiveness to be found, even if it's in the last moment of life."
-- Elaine Williams, author of A Journey Well Taken

"Reading Evacuation Plan is akin to unwrapping a series of small perfectly-chosen presents. Both human and humane, The book resembles a modern Spoon River Anthology with its vivid, touching glimpses into the lives of those in and around a hospice."
-- Tim McCanlies, screenwriter The Iron Giant, writer/director Secondhand Lions

"In Evacuation Plan Joe O'Connell does for the process of dying what Sherwood Anderson did for middle America in Winesburg, Ohio--he shows us in brief flashes the aching beauty of the grotesque, and shows us how extraordinary small lives and quiet deaths can be."
--John Blair, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning author of American Standard

"Here's a book so rich with stories of the living, so filled with people's bountiful problems, as well as incidents of wry forgiveness, one realizes over and over the circling forces of life's completeness. It's not a sad tale nor a needless feel-good account but a balanced, sometimes comic, affirmation of what is here and what we all know is waiting."
-- Carolyn Osborn, award-winning short story writer

"The broken, the hopeful, the frustrated, the clueless, and the forgiving touch one another with words, remembrances, and hands. Inevitably, readers will quietly wonder about their own evacuation plan."
-- Will's Texana Monthly

O'Connell's protagonist skillfully navigates under the guise of a writer seeking raw materials for his craft in the stories of the dying, but mines and refines instead the stuff we're all made of. In this finely crafted novel, we come away with much more than the astute observation that many of the best stories begin at the end. But, then again, that notion is also worth a lot.
--Jesse Sublett, cancer survivor, rocker and author of Never the Same Again

"Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan--this Decameron of the hospice--encompasses a paradox. Death comes for everyone, but death is the only human universal because everyone dies, and witnesses dying, with private, unspeakable shame. Yet there are a few minutes left to speak. As people die, they tell stories which spawn new stories, which remind us that death is agony, a violent struggle, but so is living."
-- Debra Monroe, Flannery O'Connor Award winning author of Newfangled and Shambles