On writer (and current Memphian) C. Bard Cole’s latest book, the experimental This Is Where My Life Went Wrong (BLATT Books): a [Q]&A.
[Memphis. Disaster #2.]
The short explanation, why I’m living in Memphis … I’d just finished Alabama grad school, an MFA in creative writing, in the summer of 2005 and moved to New Orleans. I was going to be an instructor at Tulane. I house-sat for the summer and finally found an apartment … two weeks before Katrina hit. With two friends with me, we packed into my car and went on a cross-country jaunt across the South. We just assumed that in a few days we’d get to go back to New Orleans. But as the days wore on, it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to go back.
My friend in Memphis, Brian Pera … I’ve known him since the late 1990s. I’d met him in New York City. We had the same editor at St. Martin’s for our first books.
Brian was planning to start shooting his first movie, The Way I See Things. He had one position he could pay for and that he hadn’t filled. It was boom operator. Brian said, “Do you want to work on my movie? You can forget about New Orleans for the month or so it’ll take to shoot.” I said okay. The cinematographer on that movie, Ryan Parker, trained me to operate the boom. I had a great time.
Then I went home to Maryland to figure out what I was going to do … hoard some money. Tulane had canceled the semester. It had fired the instructors in my position … first-year writing instructor. So I worked at a commercial greenhouse in Maryland.
Then Ryan helped me get a job at WKNO in Memphis, and that’s where I’ve been ever since. I started as a production assistant doing all sorts of stuff — from manual labor to working on sets to learning about editing. Now I’m in promotions and the public information department.
There’s another movie with Brian and Ryan coming up. I’m the production designer, and this time, we’re trying to be a bit more “Hollywood.” Ann Magnuson is gonna be one of our stars. I’m excited to meet her. When I was a little kid, well, not a little kid, a teenager, I used to look at Interview magazine and things I thought were cool, urban … New York. Ann was there, right in there.
