Documentary Filmmaker, Air Guitar Legend
Proud to share that Let Me Be Me was nominated for an Emmy! I wrote and co-directed this doc about an autistic boy who undergoes a radical treatment program and grows up to be a fashion designer, and it was nominated for a 2023 Outstanding Arts & Culture Emmy!
An incredible weekend at TriBeCa…the premiere of Rather with a sold-out crowd and the legend himself there in conversation with director Frank Marshall—I was the writer on the film.
Then the premiere of Ron Delsener Presents, for which I was a story consultant.
It was a true honor to write this documentary about legendary newsman Dan Rather, directed by Frank Marshall.
It was also a pleasure to reunite with Wavelength Productions—in particular with the brilliant, talented and beyond dedicated editor Joe Fenstermaker—as well as editor Curtis McConnell (with whom I worked on Fate of a Sport).
The film premieres at Tribeca Film Festival June 9th!
RATHER premiere date to be announced soon!
In 2005, when I officially retired from air guitar competitions, I vowed that if they were STILL going on when I turned 50 (something I thought impossible) I would come out of retirement and compete again. Since then, I have enjoyed my role as the Master of Airemonies for numerous competitions around the globe.
But, a promise is a promise. So last month in Oulu, Finland, I dusted off the invisible axe and competed one last time, performing to a song dedicated to my eldest daughter.
Did I win? No. I barely qualified for the finals, and then didn’t make it to the second round. It’s a young man’s game, let’s face it.
But I did what I came to do, and had a damn good time. And I love everyone that keeps the air guitar community going after all these years, particularly you @nordicthunder. It’s a weird group of weirdos I’m weird to be a part of!
Many thanks to @cranebanjos, @marrrteen and Kurt Brown aka Shred Nugent for their help on the track.
I wrote a documentary that premieres in June at Tribeca. It’s called Fate of a Sport.
Executive Produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, produced by the amazing Matt Tolmach (Spiderman, Jumanji, Venom, etc) and put together by many other incredibly talented folk.
“I thought documentaries were non-fiction, what does it mean to ‘write a documentary’?” you ask? Well, it sort of depends on the project. But in this case, there was a version of the film and it needed restructuring, and a lot of additional interviews. So as the writer, I wrote an outline that detailed the scenes and overall structure, interviewed a bunch of people, and helped oversee the editing to make the finished film.
It’s a great story about an incredible athlete:
After enduring eleven years as one of the most dominant and controversial players in a professional lacrosse league that was anything but professional, Paul Rabil decides to take the game into his own hands. Partnering with his brother Mike Rabil, the Rabil brothers attempt to raise the capital, poach the top players, fight off lawsuits, and persevere through a global pandemic to change the trajectory of professional sports by launching the Premier Lacrosse League. To complicate matters, Paul must navigate the politics of playing in the league that he also runs.
Tickets available here.
Let Me Be Me, a documentary I wrote and co-directed, premiered at DOCNYC last week and will be distributed in North America by Greenwich Entertainment. Produced by Wavelength Productions.
This coming-of-age story focuses on Kyle Westphal, an isolated autistic boy who’s fascinated by fabric and emerges from an experimental autism treatment program to become a fashion designer. Westphal’s family looks back on twenty years of his development with candor and humor. The film combines observational footage, archival material, and animation to chronicle how a passion for fashion transformed Kyle and his family. – Thom Powers
What do Joan Didion and Jeff Goldblum have in common? Find out in this book of essays, to which I happily contributed my sentence assembling abilities! Edited by the great @steffienelson. Reading @skylightbooks on March 6, 2020.
Last Sunday on The Simpsons, Homer called me out. I may have to finally come out of retirement*.
*Björn Türoque officially retired in 2005, but vowed that if the US and World Air Guitar Championships were still going on when he turned 50, (he was certain they would not be) he would dust off his air guitar and give it one last go. Now that Homer has called him out, it seems the deal is sealed. Or is it…?
Stay tuned, people.
In this Wall Street Journal Travel article I write about the best vacation I can recall since my parents took me to Hawaii when I was 4. And actually, now that I think about it, that trip wasn’t so great…
Here’s a link to the story (requires a WSJ subscription) or view a PDF.
Soil is at the center of many of the most important stories of our time. It’s where we grow our food. It’s where we find our medicines. The microbes in soil outnumber the stars in the galaxy, and without them life above ground would be impossible. Climate change, desertification, colonizing Mars, the biggest pandemic you’ve never heard of—soil’s the unsung hero, or the villain hiding in plain sight.
There’s a saying: “Man has only a thin layer between himself and starvation.” It’s true, and it’s also about much more than that. Let us guide you on this journey through dirt.
Yes, I’m digging deep and scratching the surface on my next podcast. It’s about soil. There will be puns. But there will also be cool science-y stuff about all the crazy things going on in that thin layer of dirt that separates us from life and death: soil.
Like, did you know that there are more microbes living in a hand full of soil than there are stars in the galaxy? Pretty much every antibiotic we’ve ever found was first discovered in soil. And one-fifth of the world’s population is infected with a soil-borne parasitic worms. ONE-FIFTH!
More info about The Thin Layer, here.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Scottish actress Karen Gillan (Avengers: Infinity War, Jumanji, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Who) for American Way, the American Airlines in-flight magazine, and she had the pleasure of watching me nearly choke to death on horseradish… Click here for a PDF.