DecadesOut News

There are those times in life when you set out to do something with a crystal clear idea, with the attitude that you’ll see exactly what you set out to see. Then the thing happens. The horizon widens, and suddenly you realize that everything was so easy to see because you had blinders on.

We’ve been back one month from our southern excursion to Houston, Galveston, Austin and New Orleans shooting interviews for New Land, and it’s taken me this long to get my brain around enough of it to write this.

First the facts. We’ve got over 40 interviews and 25 hours of footage. We toured every inch of Houston, New Orleans, Galveston, and had a quick jaunt through Austin (too bad, it’s a great city). We  logged a good 2,000 miles in the car. Not bad when you’re spending the majority of your time city driving. We happily got to know more about those cities through their people then we could ever have imagined. By the time we left (fully knowing that we only scratched the surface and had to return), we could attach faces to the Wards of New Orleans (and Houston) as well as Sugar Land, Metarie, New Orleans East, Chalmette, Galleria, Sea Wall Boulevard, Bastrop, Austin…and yes, the French Quarter. (All work and no play….)

We got fed like nobody’s business. Walking into complete strangers’ houses, the greeting often went like this: “Hi. I made jambalaya/gumbo/eggs/pancakes and brownies, and we have plenty of beer. You’re staying to eat, right!?” We stayed and left something richer for the company, and we were definitely no longer complete strangers. Thank you Grenier’s, LaVigne’s and Galatoire’s.

We talked with white collar, blue collar, scholars, sociologists, community activists, enthusiasts, musicians, politicians, painters, poets, priests, parents, and children. The list goes on. No alliterative joke.  These were people who had lost everything and had gotten shaken to their cores. Now they were gracious enough to open themselves up to us, and the strength of this seemingly simple action was not lost. It broadened our vision to encompass the science behind change and the greater meaning that lies in the conflict of sharing.

Now it’s time to regroup, revisit the trip digitally and plan the next leg (probably back down to New Orleans) to follow up.

David Fountain, New Orleans, Musician's Village Enthusiast

Dear Friends,

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank those who came out to the DecadesOut Launch Party on June 3rd and making it such a success! We
were thrilled with the turnout and the overall show of support.

We have posted the documentary teasers we debuted at the event on our website (www.decadesout.org) and have posted fun party pics on our Facebook page!

We look forward to the coming months as we proceed with production on these projects. The proceeds from the launch have allowed us to organize a trip to New Orleans and a few other pertinent cities in the region to conduct follow-up interviews and research. Our team is slated to travel to these locations in late July. A play reading series is also in the works for September. We will surely keep you informed on our progress!

We look forward to your continued support.

All the best,
Frank, Jen & Morgan

The following quote says it so much better than I ever could.

“Science and art are not separate from each other. They assist us in observing nature. With the help of science we can discover the routines of nature. Through art we can describe the emotions of nature.” —Cheng-Dau Lee, Nobel Laureate in Physics

I have always loved both these things, and have always felt the parallels between them. These words, and there are thousands of examples of words like these as well as deeds throughout history. Think of the artists and scientists of the Renaissance. The great ‘A-ha!’ to create a company whose mission is to explore the cultural significance of science through the arts came a few years ago at nothing other than a conference on nanotechnology. An engineer was reveling, (and I mean waving hands, high-pitched voice, bugged out eyes) about the beauty of nanoscale fiber that is the width of a human hair that will change the way buildings are constructed, bridges are built, etc, etc. He was definitely passionate in a way that I’ve seen poets holler.

It is this kind of marriage among the arts and sciences that led to the creation of DecadesOut which takes its name from the John F. Kennedy speech announcing the goal of putting a man on the moon before ‘this decade is out.’

Thanks for checking us out, and we’ll keep you posted as to what going on. In the meantime, if you are an artist (writer, filmmaker, painter, photographer…) or know an artist, we’d love to hear from you and about what you’re working on. Join our mailing list, drop us a comment. Frank