Entertainment
Actor Logan Miller Talks About SXSW
L to R: Logan Miller, Ashley Hinshaw, Rhys Wakefield
Logan Miller started out as a child actor on a few shows like “I’m in the Band” and he voiced the character Nova from the animated series “Ultimate Spider-Man.” Now Miller can be seen portraying a sex crazed maniac in an independent film called “Plus One” that premiered at SXSW this year. Before the party of the century for a group of college freshman, a small meteor hits earth and instead of any physical damage, the meteor causes molecular damage and every person develops a duplicate of themselves. It’s up to ‘Teddy’ to band everyone together and save his friends from the potential threat of the duplicates.
Miller was also on NBC’s “Grimm,” Adult Swim’s “Children’s Hospital” opposite Rob Corddry, Michael Cera and Megan Mullaly, and more. I was able to talk with Logan about his current projects, SXSW, and his career.
Art Eddy: You were at South by Southwest promoting the film you are in “Plus One.” Tell me a bit about the film and your role.
Logan Miller: The film concept is one that you have not heard before. It is a very crazy sci-fi thriller mixed with a teenage party movie. This small, small meteor comes to Earth and is very insignificant and it doesn’t affect anyone physically. It has this electric current that creates a tremor in the time space continuum. This causes everyone to have duplicates of themselves, but it is not just duplicates. It is you but you in an hour from that past. So everything you duplicate does you already have done. Add that with a sex crazed party movie and you have a great time at the movie theater.
AE: How did you get involved into this film?
LM: I auditioned my ass of for it. I started with some tapes and then I flew all the way to New York. I then flew to London to test for it and then went back to L.A. to test for it. I was definitely committed to do this project. It had been something that I had never done before and it was a branch out of my previous work. I think this is as fresh as you can get. I really wanted to grab a hold of this role immediately and it worked out to my benefit. I think we have something here in the film that we can be proud of.
AE: Wow that audition process you did alone should be made into a movie.
LM: (Laughs) Right. Once I flew to London I told myself if I didn’t get this role I would be very upset.
AE: So you were showcasing the film at this year’s South by Southwest festival? Did you get a chance to meet some cool actors or musicians?
LM: Well I was very busy promoting the film so I didn’t have a chance to meet some of the people I wanted to that were there at the fest. It was great and I had a blast. I am actually from Texas so I knew a lot of the cool places to take people when I had down time. The vibe of the fest is great. I love the collection of Indie film makers and great music melded together. It is really a fun, fun town to lose yourself in and I really enjoyed my time there.
AE: Do you have any other projects that you are currently working on?
LM: I have another movie called “Deep Powder” that just got accepted to the Tribeca Film Festival. I also have this movie called “Night Moves” that Kelly Reichardt directed that also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Fanning, and Jesse Eisenberg. That movie is actually coming out in the summer. I am trying to finance my own short film. It is called “Risen.” You can check it out on my indiegogo website.
AE: You also voice the character Nova in the “Ultimate Spider-Man” animated series. For you what are some differences between live acting and voice acting?
LM: Voice acting I wouldn’t say is ten times easier, but I will because it is. It is so much fun. We do the show like an old radio show where we all get together and voice the show. We have such a blast doing the show. You just show up and read your lines and you can be as comfortable as can be and you don’t have to get any makeup on for voice over work. It is great.
AE: Are you a fan of comic books? Did you know a lot about the character of Nova before the series?
LM: Of course. Well I didn’t know too much about Nova, but I read up on him. I know he is part of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I am glad that film is coming along and maybe I can play him in the film. It would be an awesome role to play.
Mar 27th
They Die by Dawn NYC Premiere
From left, artist Jules Arthur, actors Nate Parker, Felicia Pearson and Michael K. Williams and director Jeymes Samuel celebrate during the Bulleit Bourbon presents "They Die By Dawn" film screening, Tuesday, March 19, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Jason DeCrow/Invision for Bulleit Bourbon/AP Images)
On Tuesday night, elite actors including Michael K. Williams, Nate Parker and Felicia Pearson joined Bulleit Bourbon and director Jeymes Samuel for the NYC premiere of his groundbreaking short film, They Die by Dawn. 
Held at Tribeca Cinemas, over 200 guests had the opportunity to screen the film. At the core of this project was Samuel’s desire to bring an untold story to life with an all-star cast, including Giancarlo Esposito, Isaiah Washington, Michael K. Williams, Rosario Dawson and Jessie Williams. Set in Langston, Okla., They Die by Dawn follows four African American outlaws blazing the western frontier to capture the group’s collective bounty.
Bulleit Bourbon’s partnership with Samuel in They Die by Dawn launches an on-going commitment by the brand to collaborate with emerging artists in film, art and music, who similar to its Founder Tom Bulleit, are passionate about making their visions a reality.
Mar 21st
Actor Kevin Conroy Talks Batman, Video Games and More.
Kevin Conroy has a distinct voice. For fans of “Batman: The Animated Series,” Conroy’s voice will forever be the one associated with the Dark Knight. From films to video games Kevin has been working on Batman projects since 1992. Conroy, a student of the famous Juilliard School, was in the same class as Robin Williams and learned from the best teachers imaginable. Conroy has a love for theater and appreciated the lessons he learned on the stage and uses those lessons in his voice acting roles.
I had the great pleasure to chat with Kevin about how he found the voice of Batman, Comic-Cons, video games and working with Mark Hamill. I even learned a thing or two about Batman from Kevin.
Art Eddy: I have to say ever since I watched “Batman: The Animated Series” you will forever be the voice of Batman. Take me back to when you got the role on that show back in 1992 and how you found the voice for not only Batman, but Bruce Wayne as well?
Kevin Conroy: It was one of those very, very lucky moments that just happened. I started working in New York since I was 17 and went to Juilliard and did a lot of theater and did a lot of television after that. I have been supporting myself working as an actor for a long time. I found myself in L.A. doing a TV series.
I had a voice over agent. I had been doing commercial voice overs. He said that they were doing a new show over at Warner Brothers. They were looking for animation voices. I had no background in animation. I didn’t even know that much about the Batman legend. I met Bruce Timm, Andrea Romano, and Paul Dini.
I told them that the only thing that I knew about Batman is from the ’70s TV show with Adam West. They said no, no, no. That is not what we are doing. (Laughs) They were very heavy in the whole Dark Knight ethos. They told me the story of the Bob Kane legend.
It became to have this dark, noir feel to it. They said think of that and I said let me just use my imagination and let me get that into that kind of head. I went in a totally different direction than what I was going in there with. I was almost expecting a Dudley Do-Right voice like very cartoony. I ended up getting into this mysterious, kind of husky, and what I considered a dark sound. I saw them get really excited in the booth. They said that they loved the instinct and the direction that I was going in.
They reacted strongly so I knew it was really right on or I was way off. That was just a lucky hand and glove kind of thing. All my theater training and the background I had made me right for interpreting that character at that moment.
AE: To me I think you and Mark Hamill, who is the voice of The Joker, have the best chemistry with the banter you guys have as Batman and The Joker not only during that series, but in the “Arkham Asylum” and “Arkham City” video games. How is it to work with him?
KC: We work so well together. There again that was just the luck of casting. He is basically a theater actor and so am I. Theater actors a bit different. They like to play the game. Acting is like throwing a ball back and forth. You have to be generous. You have to throw the scene to the other guy and wait for him to throw it back to you. It is all reaction and reaction and like a child being really able to go with the flow. To be silly sometimes and to not necessarily do what you were planning on doing and let yourself be surprised.
Mark has all of that in spades. He has great imagination. He has great vocal range and he has the imagination of a child. So when you throw him the ball he just runs with it. We both that that instinct in us. So we get into the booth together and we go crazy. We have a lot of fun.
AE: Another video game that is due out soon is “Injustice: Gods Among Us” where you do the voice for Batman. Can you tell me a little bit about the game and what is the difference between voice acting for a video game as opposed to an animated series?
KC: You have no idea what you just asked. It is so different. It is like another planet. Acting in the episodes is like doing a play. There are six or eight of you in a booth together and you are interacting and feeding each other energy. Like I said before it is like playing ball. There is a give and take. There is just a lot of energy.
When you do a game you are alone in a booth for four hours at a time. You get an hour for lunch and then another four hour session and that’s a day. That happens the next day and the next day and the day after that. A month later you go back and do another couple of sessions. I have done where it can go on for eight months where every month you are going in for a few days.
The experience is completely different than doing a show because you are alone. You got to be your own source of energy. You have to keep your character alive. Keep him real. Keep to Batman, but I don’t have anyone to reference it to. They want four different readings for each line. Then they will want four or five takes of each reading. It is a different kind of talent. When you see the results like with “Arkham Asylum” it is just incredible. You think wow, it was really worth it.
AE: I heard there were rumors of DC using the “Flashpoint” storyline to make an animated film. Would you be playing the role of Batman?
KC: I can’t talk about upcoming stuff. I’m sorry. They are giving me a really hard time because about a year ago I let it slip about something I was doing. I thought it was the reason that they sent me to Comic-Cons was to promote the product. I said why did you send me if you didn’t want me to talk about the product.
They said don’t say anything until we tell you to say it. We weren’t ready for that release. I said I am giving you free publicity is that why am I there? They say you are there to be Batman to get the audience happy. So all I can tell you is that there are two big things that I am working on that are coming out.
AE: I can’t wait for those. Earlier you said you did not know that much about Batman before you took up the role on the animated series, do you read any Batman comics now?
KC: Oh yea! I have been doing it for 22 years. I have immersed myself in it. Did you know that Bob Kane lived in the Bronx when he wrote Batman? He came up with the idea in Poe Park. He and the other creator of the Batman series were tossing ideas and that is where they came up with the idea.
AE: You went to Juilliard. What were some of the major things you will always remember learning in the years you were there? Did they have any courses on voice acting when you attended school there?
KC: No. I shouldn’t say that now because I was there a long time ago so I don’t know what they do now. Back then it was a really traditional European style acting program. There was dance classes, voice classes, acting classes, fencing and a French mask class. Robin Williams was in my class with me. Robin was a genius at doing mask work. He would create these characters that were just unbelievable. Everyone was very competitive. Then you see Robin and you would think I just give up. It was just an amazing place to be.
AE: You make many appearances at different Comic-Cons around the country. How much fun do you have at the conventions and do have a favorite all time story you would care to share?
KC: I have a blast at those panels. I really do. The amazing thing is some of the stuff that you are asked to sign. Like body parts if you know what I mean. The great thing about Comic-Con is that it a real cross section of the whole culture. It’s the wackos and then it’s the hard core super fans and the serious, serious egghead fans. You get everyone in there. You get intellectuals and you get whack jobs. It is so interesting, especially the big ones like San Diego and New York. It is fascinating. You get a real cross section of the culture. It is really interesting.
To listen to the entire interview and hear Kevin indulge me with saying a few lines as Batman click here.
Mar 21st
SXSW Tips – A Noob’s Guide to SXSW
AUSTIN- At this point, if you haven’t been to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest you’re probably in either two camps. In camp A you have the people who want to get down here so freaking bad they can taste it. Every year that goes by without their presence at this festival fills them with the longing of a child watching recess from detention. If you’re in camp A you’re likely a music enthusiast with some sort of plan to get your ass down here, one day, soon.
If you’re in camp B, you get it. You’re tired of hearing about how great Austin is. You’re tired of seeing #sxsw a thousand times a day. You assume it’s all hype at this point. SXSW is now 26 years old. It’s got to be blown out. Everything great in music dies at 27 anyways. Corporate America has discovered a gold mine for “trend setting young adults with disposable income” and it can’t possibly live up the hype. Right?
It does. Oh it does.
SXSW is a music festival like none I’ve ever seen. There are literally thousands of acts playing nearly 24 hours a day. Trying to sift through where to go, who to see, how to get in, and what to do is enough to turn anyone with a penchant for organization crazy. It’s simply impossible. Just let it go.
Everywhere you look there is a band playing music. Real bands, hometown heroes, up and coming acts, LA, NYC, Nashville, Chicago bands. People you’ve never heard of who might become your new favorite band are playing right next door. Find them.
How do you deal with it all? Here’s a few tips for the man on the move in Austin.
Research
Don’t get too hung up on details but before you arrive I would strongly suggest scanning sxsw.com for the list of announced bands. (Music acts, comedy, etc are listed under “showcase”) Cherry pick some acts you want to see. Follow them on Twitter, like their Facebook page, etc. Don’t try to plan your whole trip. Too many things change, too many things are TBA. You’ll have to change your plan a hundred times and it’ll end up being wasted time. Good immersion therapy for OCD and type A planners. Go with the flow.
RSVP
Pay a couple of bucks to a site like RSVPster.com. They will RSVP you to the dozens of sponsored parties that get a lot of the big name acts. Their site is a gold mine of information for attendees. Use it. If you have the money, buy a badge ahead of time. You’ll skip every line, you’ll get into every official event. You don’t need one to enjoy the festival but if you have the coin it opens doors and keeps you in the clubs and out of line.
Invest Your Time Early
On your first day go wait in line for your wrist bands. You’ll thank yourself later. Just do it. You need them even if you have a badge and you can only pick them up at certain times. I know, you’re finally at South by, I need BBQ and a drink and some tunes, right now. Hurry up and wait, it’ll pay off later.
Start Your SXSW Experience on Twitter
Not on Twitter? Join it, if not just for this. Search for #sxswtips #sxsw #sxsecrets. Save those searches, check them regularly. Nothing on the web can keep up with Twitter. No web site, no schedule, no app. Twitter was made for days like these. Passion Pit goes on in 30 minutes, next door? Find out on Twitter. Rumors of Justin Timberlake and Daft Punk being deposited in a field by an alien spaceship? Find out on Twitter. Nearly every venue has an associated hashtag. Half the time I’m just using it to find out the name of the band on stage, who’s up next, who plays here tomorrow. Find it all on Twitter. It’s the internet’s whisper chamber, embrace it.
Continue It on Instagram
Best for use while on the ground in Austin, searching Instagram’s hashtags and nearby photos will give you approximately 860 words more per look than twitter. Searching nearby might tell you that John Wayne Bro is absolutely killing the club two doors down while you can’t get a drink for some act you’re not even into. There is a party happening everywhere. Find the one you want.
Download The Official SXSW App
The sheer volume of acts in town take away from this app’s usefulness. It’s not their fault, it’s just nearly impossible to sift through and organize everything they have happening. You set a few search parameters, a search area, a time frame and get moving. You scroll for 3 minutes and realize you’re still searching 10pm in a .2 mile radius. It has purpose and value but don’t rely on it exclusively.
Go Straight to 6th Street
There are other pockets of activity but 6th street is the beaten path for a reason. Get in a taxi and say, “6th and Congress please.” That’ll drop you right where you need to start. Google maps is your friend. Get your bearings. That big lit building that looks like an angry owl is at 4th and Congress. If you’re looking at it the numbered streets decrease. (3rd, 2nd…) If it’s at your back the numbers go up (6th, 7th, 8th). Know where you are, it’ll help later. Walk down 6th, take it all in.
Don’t Get Bogged Down With Information
When in doubt, walk into your closest bar and order a drink. Regroup, watch a band, have a drink. Plan your next assault. Most shows seem to start on the hour so if it’s quarter past go catch one in progress and start checking your area.
Drink Water
I know. Boring. But do it anyway. You need to hydrate, it’s hot, you’re walking everywhere, you’re probably having too much to drink. Know your limits. Don’t be that guy.
Pick a Liquor, Drink It on The Rocks
Beer will slow you down and make you wait in line for bathrooms. I prefer whiskey. Get a drink, sip it. Maintain the buzz without getting sloppy.
Charge Your Phone
Seriously consider buying one of those backup battery packs that hold an extra charge. Turn your screen brightness down, charge your phone whenever and where ever you can. Bring your charger out with you.
Document
Mayhem rules. You will see so many bands your head will spin. Taking notes is boring, take a picture of the band, post it online with their name. When you get home check ‘em out and buy some of their music. That’s right, I said buy music. It’s fun, try it.
“Stay out late, sleep in… Do not take a night off” -Robin, Los Angeles, CA
You’re only here for a few days. Get your rest but don’t bone out of the nights, that’s where it’s at. Don’t push so hard during the day that you miss the best part.
Talk to Strangers
Don’t just stare at your phone all night making video recordings you’ll never watch. Talk to the people around you, make a friend for the night or life. Find out who The Airborne Toxic Event is and that they are about to rock Buffalo Billiards, connect with your fellow humans. It feels good.
Go Back Next Year, Do It Better
Have any tips? Find me at @jeremyspeaks and @jeremybjohnson on Instagram. I’ll collect your tips and post them here. See you on the street!
Mar 14th
Sneak Peek for This Sunday’s Episode of Vikings
If you have not checked out the all new series on the History Channel, “Vikings” make sure you make it a point to do so. The series is set at the beginning of the Viking Age, marked by the Viking raid on Lindisfarne. This weeks episode, which is the Episode 3, is called “Dispossessed”.
A monastery in Lindesfarne is about to get a firsthand look at how the Vikings operate. In and out in a flurry of violence and terror, Ragnar and his crew raid the monastery for everything it contains from treasure to monks who can be sold as slaves. Unable to ignore the riches this unsanctioned journey has returned, Earl Haraldson has no choice but to agree to let these warriors undertake a second trip out. The west has now been opened for the taking by Ragnar Lothbrok and the world of the Vikings will never be the same.
The show will air on this Sunday, March 17 at 10 p.m. on HISTORY. The show is directed by Johan Renck and written by Michael Hirst.
Here is a sneak peek of Sunday’s episode.
Mar 14th
Raising the Bar: Teams Go Head to Head to Create the Ultimate Bar from Scratch
On March 4th Hulu started airing the “Raising the Bar” series which took place during last year’s American Royal World Series of BBQ. There was a contest that had six teams that had to construct a bar within an eight hour time limit. Each bar was judged on its uniqueness and ability to pour George Dickel Tennessee Whisky. The producers of shows like the “Deadliest Catch” and “Storage Wars” were the ones that created this series.
The first episode followed three guys who are metal workers that dubbed themselves “Team Big Steel”. They used over 4000 washers that were welded onto metal slabs to construct their bar. Their design also called for a steam powered arm that would actual pour the whisky. They had eight hours to build the bar and make sure it was in working order. I don’t want to tell you if they were able to complete the bar in time, but if you want to find out what happened click here for the video.
One of the reasons that this contest took place was to celebrate the fine art of American craftsmanship and ingenuity. George Dickel Whisky was looking to see which team would rise above the rest of the other challengers and create the perfect bar. 
One of the cool concepts coming from the “Raising the Bar” series is that viewers get to voice their ideas of what they would add to the bar to make it stand out even more. The series runs for five weeks and in each episode a new bar is created from a different team. Each idea that is sent in will be given to that specific team. For instance after watching the video of “Team Big Steel” and if you feel you can add something to make it better send in your ideas on Twitter using the hashtag “RaisingtheBar.”
If your idea is selected by the winning team and Master of Whisky Gerry Graham you have a shot of winning some cool things from that team that won the contest. Use your imagination, but the items that teams do not want is anything dealing with electronics or the latest tech gear. If you are a fan of good old fashioned hard work and independent thinking watch the “Raising the Bar” series each week and send in your ideas to make the designs of the bar you love even more impressive.
Mar 13th
Showtek Returning to Orange County Before WMC 2013
Dutch brothers Wouter and Sjoerd Jannsen, better known as Showtek, return to Orange County March 13 at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana. The brothers will make a few more stops before arriving in Miami for Winter Music Conference 2013 where they are scheduled for a boatload of performances.
Last summer, Showtek tore it up down under with a sold-out Australia tour.
MANjr had the privilege of meeting up with hardstyle masters Showtek for an exclusive interview before their sold-out performance in Orange County awhile back.
Showtek rocked the house at the Grove of Anaheim in front of raucous legion of fans that came early for a meet and greet with the Dutch hardstyle masters. The pride of Eindhoven, Wouter and Sjoerd hail from a musically gifted family, and have exploded on the electronic dance music scene with their relentless energy and bangin beats.
After a mind-blowing morning set at the inaugural EDC Las Vegas, Showtek embarked on a European tour followed by a U.S. tour that culminated with their epic show in Anaheim. MANjr was granted exclusive access and got to hang with the brothers before, during and after the show.
As we entered the duos hotel suite, we were greeted with Jack & Cokes and smiles, which was pretty impressive considering the jetlag they were feeling from their long Glasgow flight.
The interview covered a gamut of topics including their EDC Las Vegas set, their musical influences and their aspirations to be professional basketball players like their homie the Dunkin’ Dutchman Rik Smits.
After we wrapped up the interview, the party moved to the Grove of Anaheim where thousands of loyal fans were ready to greet their favorite DJ’s. The boys took the time to chat up, take pictures and mingle with everybody.
Once the pleasantries were complete, the brothers Jannsen were ready to take the stage and throw it down. Showtek pumped up the crowd from start to finish, playing a wide range of their hardstyle hits like Here We Fucking Go! and World is Mine. Wielding an ice gun and striking willing fans with blasts of cold air, Sjoerd is the MC and crowd handler while his bro Wouter controls the pace from the ones and twos.
When the lights came on, Showtek stuck around to thank their fans and sign all sorts of stuff ranging from posters, pictures, phones and even a Mohawk. Since then, Showtek has continued to tour the globe and spread their sound.
Showtek’s combination of upbeat energetic beats mixed with a genuine love for their fans should serve them well moving forward.
Mar 8th
The Mowgli’s Shine at The Satellite
The best things in life are free. This was certainly the case Monday night at The Satellite in Silverlake where the up and coming band, The Mowgli’s, rocked out the fourth and final leg of their residency in a front of a raucous capacity crowd.
The Mowgli’s musical style personifies the diversity of California as their songs incorporate several genres that project a message of universal love and peace. The joy and harmony displayed on stage by the 8-piece collective is infectious and permeates through the audience making for one helluva good time.
The Mowgli’s formulation is vintage California. Five childhood friends from the San Fernando Valley jamming out making music linked up with three mid-westerners in search of greener pastures to forge a perfect union of rock ‘n roll and good vibes.
The opening performance of the evening featured a unique collaboration of gifted musicians. The amazing Lisa Donnelly shared the stage with the talented Aaron Glass and his folk love group Papa Bear and the Easy Love. The sense of togetherness and unity was a prevailing theme as members of The Mowgli’s performed alongside their friends and got the night rolling in style.
Next up on the slate was the funky sound of rock ‘n’ soul band The Diamond Light. The local blues rock group jammed out from the get go and provided the perfect segue to The Mowgli’s set.
Closing out the night after The Mowgli’s delightful performance was Los Angeles native Zak Waters and his group. Waters style of pop music infused with funky dance beats meshed well with the more inebriated crowd looking to dance it up after midnight.
Special thanks to Michael Vincze of The Mowgli’s and my fellow UC Santa Cruz alum Aaron Glass for their graciousness and willingness to chat it up after the show. It was a great night of music from beginning to end. Everyone in attendance could definitely feel the love.
Photo and Video Credit: Ju Park
Feb 28th
Interview with VIKINGS Actor Travis Fimmel
VIKINGS is a new show on the History Channel that takes a look into the world of the Norseman and how they learned to travel to different places looking for treasures to bring back to their people. The series looks at how they worshipped ancient gods like Odin, Thor, Freya and Loki.
The main character Ragnar Lothbrok played by Travis Fimmel feels that he is a direct descendant of the Norse god Odin, who, as well as being the god of warriors slain in battle, is also the god of curiosity. The nine part series centers on the curious and compelling Norseman who is always looking to break through barriers and discover new worlds to conquer.
Lothbrok has a family and is a farmer, but he is deeply frustrated by the unadventurous policies of his local chieftain, Earl Haraldson, who is played by Gabriel Byrne. Haraldson continues to send his Vikings raiders east every summer, to the Baltic States and Russia, whose populations are as materially poor as themselves. VIKINGS looks at Lothbrok’s stand against Haralson and his mission to go west and explore new lands.
I was able to chat with Travis about the show and talk about his character and that he hopes fans will love the show as much as he loved filming it.
Art Eddy: First off can you tell me a bit about your character Ragnar and what viewers can expect from the show?
Travis Fimmel: Well Ragnar is based on a historical character. He is very adventurous and he is one of the first people to sail west and discover England and do what Vikings do when they discover places. Say good hey to the ladies and beat up people.
AE: Your character is based on the real life Viking leader Ragnar. What type of research did you do for your character?
TF: Well I was very lucky, the writer and creator, Michael Hirst is an amazing guy and he gave me a lot of information. My job as an actor is to make it relatable to the audience. He has got a family, brothers, and he had got his wife and his children and has the same conflict that any family does even in this day and age.
AE: Ragnar’s brother, Rollo seems to be a wild card in the show. He takes whatever he wants and he looks to have eyes for Ragnar’s wife Lagertha. How would you describe the relationship between Ragnar and Rollo?
TF: It is a real power trip between Ragnar and his brother Rollo. Both of them want to be the leader, but there can only be the leader and that causes conflict between them and jealousy. You know I am sure at one stage they certainly will be against each other.
AE: I have seen a few episodes so far and I have to say you guys to a great job of portraying that time in history. Where did you guys shoot the series?
TF: We shot in Ireland for five months. It is an amazing country and it is so beautiful. Very bloody cold there man, very cold. The people were amazing. The crews are amazing. It was a really good experience. We all enjoyed making it, so hopefully the audience will sure enjoy watching it.
AE: You challenge your local chieftain Earl Haraldson, played by Gabriel Byrne, who always wants to travel east, while you think going west is the way to go. Why is Ragnar so curious about the east?
TF: He is so curious. He thinks he is a direct descendant from a god named Odin, who was a god of slain warriors and curiosity. Legends say that the god Odin killed himself just to see what death felt like. Ragnar has that same curiosity about stuff. Nothing is good enough for him. He wants to know what is out there. It is not just for the raping and pillaging stuff. He wants to learn about people and the gods they worship, what the look like, and their customs. He is just a curious person and his curiosity doesn’t end.
AE: I love the character Floki, who is played by Gustaf Skarsgard, and how he sees himself as the Norse god Loki. Gustaf seems like he would be cracking people up on the set. How was working with Gustaf and shooting the scenes with him?
TF: He is just a great actor in a role that he was playing. He is a funny guy and he made a great character and he is very interesting to watch. I think my character really enjoys his company so you will see plenty of Floki.
AE: In one of the upcoming episodes you guys raid a monastery in Lindesfarne and these monks get a firsthand look at what the Vikings are all about. You also save the life of Athelstan played by George Blagden. What does Ragnar see in the young monk to save his life?
TF: I think they definitely will and they do actually. He is very intrigued by Athelstan the priest. George is a great actor. He can learn so much from him. He can learn where the other settlements from the priest. The priest is a wealth of knowledge for him and it would have been silly for him to kill him.
AE: What can we expect to see in future shows of the Vikings series this season on the History Channel? Will there be a second season?
TF: There are nine episodes. It really keeps building. It gets better and better and I look forward to seeing the finished show. For the second season I don’t know. That is the producers job and I stay out of it.
To listen to the interview, click here.
VIKINGS premieres Sunday, March 3 at 10 p.m. (ET) on the History Channel.
Feb 24th
Interview with Underwater Archaeologist Fritz Hanselmann
After the screening of The Unsinkable Henry Morgan, I had a chance to chat with super chill underwater archaeologist and all around good guy Fritz Hanselmann.
Hanselmann is really the star of the film. His voice drives it and his personality shines through. He’s the kinda guy you’d want to get drunk with as you listen to him educate you about pirate history. It’d probably be pretty sweet to scuba dive and recover sunken sea treasures with the dude as well. Here’s the conversation we had:
CS: So who discovered the cannons first?
FH: I did.
CS: You did. So you were there? How did you know where to look? You had to have gotten like a tip or something, right?
FH: We knew that he’d wrecked the ships in that general area on the reef, so we started looking in the reef. And that’s one of those spots where it’s like waves are crashing and you’re just kind of holding on. What we did was we run a line and we’d follow that and just do visual observation. We call it visual survey. We’re basically just observing what’s there. And then we make notes and we come back and we do illustrations and create a site map of anything we found. We found eight guns to start off and then when we went back in 2010, a couple of guns, the two smallest, were gone. We also noticed that there was a lot of disturbance to the site. They’d had a big storm come through and the two smallest guns, those ones you could lift with your hands. I’m presuming that they were rolled offsite during the storm because some of the other ones that were exposed were buried under rock that we found with the metal detectors later on. Still sort of in the same place but the site had changed.
CS: So how come you could only excavate in the summer?
FH: Well we teach the rest of the year so…
(Laughter)
FH: So it’s I do have a day job. This is just one of those things where the best time to go is typically July through September. So we try to go May/June so that it coincides with summer break and we can get some students involved and we can get some other people from different organizations and institutions to come and take part in the project.
CS: There has to be like a huge waitlist for students that wanted to get in on this shit, right?
FH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was graduate students only and to be honest I think we had about four or five because this project wasn’t quite ready for field schools, which is what the students typically participate in to get that experience. So we had volunteer drivers, friends and colleagues of mine from the National Parks Service’s Submerged Resources Center, from NOA, Aquarius Reef Base, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, they have maritime archaeologists. So we had a number of people from different organizations and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, which is part of the Smithsonian, they’ve got a base in Panama, helped provide some logistical backing as well, scuba tanks and whatnot. So I pulled a team from, basically friends and colleagues of mine that were top notch and raring to go. There was a waitlist among them, too.
(Laughter)
CS: How did you first get into the whole underwater archaeology thing?
FH: Man, that’s a good question. I grew up snorkeling and free diving in Florida where my grandparents live and I was in love with all things aquatic. I watched the Jacques Cousteau reruns, but I also love history so I would read biographies of Leif Ericson and Columbus and the explorers and the history of Mesoamerica and the conquest of the Americas by the Spanish. And what little kid doesn’t like pirates? I mean how many Pirates of the Caribbean movies do we need? It’s a good business model, everybody wants pirates.
(Laughter)
FH: I mean I even watched the old Errol Flynn movies when I was a kid.
CS: The Black Swan was featured in the film. I used to watch that a lot growing up.
FH: Yeah, exactly! See? It’s there and it’s fascinating and it’s something that people are interested in. And when I found out that there were like various possibilities that I could make a living doing it, I was like…
CS: Sign me up.
FH: Yeah! And here we are and it’s been amazing and I’m looking forward to more stuff in the future.
CS: So what’s the game plan for the upcoming summer?
FH: I’ve got a couple grad students who are interested in looking at the one shipwreck that we do have and so I’d like that to continue doing the study on that.
CS: But you’re going to move on to other potential –
FH: Absolutely, man! We have, I talked about anomalies in the Q&A session, we have approximately a 150 targets and we’ve only been driving 20 to 22 of them. So there’s all kinds of stuff that we still need to check out and with all the movement of the sediment at the bottom, chances are they’re going to be completely buried. Until we actually start digging holes and testing to see what’s there, we won’t be able to know. It’s not like we can just go and see so that’s a disadvantage and it makes it harder to find. But the flipside is when you find it you have something that’s phenomenal, like that shipwreck where you’ve got an intact hull structure. I mean if you think about it, it’s a three-hundred-and-twenty some year old shipwreck and you’ve got the hull, you’ve got these wooden chests, and if it were exposed, you wouldn’t have half that stuff. So the fact that it’s buried, it creates an environment that’s anoxic. So oxygen can’t get to it, it can’t cause deterioration.
CS: And that also helps the wood.
FH: Exactly!
CS: And I know you mentioned the warm waters, is that an additional challenge because of the preservation factor?
FH: Yeah. For preservation of organic artifacts, especially in the case of shipwrecks, warm saltwater is the worst there is. And in addition, in the Caribbean, there’s an organism called Teredo navalis or Teredo worms. It’s basically a ship worm. It eats wood. So you’ll find these pieces of wood and you’ll see that worms have bored through the wood and that leads to further breakdown of the shipwreck. So if you take what you saw there and if you go up to the Baltic Sea by the Netherlands, you will find intact ships with masts upright, hole in the hull and it’s because it’s that cold that the wood doesn’t deteriorate. Same with the Great Lakes. You’ll find some phenomenal shipwrecks in the Great Lakes because it’s cold and it’s fresh.
CS: So how long does it take to uncover and recover four feet of sand?
FH: Well once we’ve uncovered it…
CS: You know what you’re doing at that point.
FH: Yeah, yeah. The trick is, that sediment has been there for almost a few hundred years, however long it took for that wreck to come into a state of equilibrium with the surrounding environment. So sometimes you have to work really hard just to get up some of that sand because you’ve got a mixture of sand with river sediment and river sediment’s more clay and so that makes it stickier and harder to get through. So that’s one of the difficulties but once you get that off, it becomes looser and when you go back to review it again…
CS: It’s a much easier job.
FH: Exactly! The first try is always the hardest because it’s been there forever and it’s compact and it’s more difficult.
CS: So in the film you had that moment where you talk about finding the cannon and you were kind of at a loss for words. Can you find some of those words for me?
FH: I think that was one of those moments where I think I even said to Michael, “You guys are going to use that, right?”
CS: “Fuuuck.”
(Laughter)
FH: Yeah, right? It’s breathtaking really because for me that’s what archaeology is all about. That’s what makes me be like “This is the coolest thing,“ because we’re not just reading about it, we’re touching it. We’re interacting with it. It’s like, you put your hand on that handle and it’s like “Holy crap! This was on Captain Morgan’s ship,” you know. What was it used for? And that to me is what archaeology is about; it’s about making history tangible. We’re really, literally interacting with the past.
CS: So what kind of classes do you teach on the regular? It can’t all be sunshine and Caribbean vacations.
FH: Well the trick is, my faculty position at Texas State is a research faculty position, so I’m not beholden to a certain course load. The tradeoff is that I don’t have a tenured position. So I teach courses in Scientific Diving, so training students in the basics of how to do science underwater, mapping, fish counts, transects, looking at shipwrecks, hull-based communications, surface of wide air. I think you saw in there at some points we didn’t have tanks on our backs.
CS: Yeah, I noticed that. It was just a big, long tube.
FH: Yeah, we had a unit on the surface that would pump air down the hose to the regulator in the hull and as long as there’s gas in the unit, you will dive for four hours. You’re not limited by the capacity of the tank. So all the different things that you can use in these different situations, you’ll learn about in the basics of scientific diving. I teach an Underwater Technology Techniques course. I also teach a graduate seminar on heritage management, so looking at how different countries, different organizations and institutions manage historical archaeological sites.
CS: It’s gotta vary across the board in terms of standards and regulations.
FH: Yea, it is. I look at it as more of a theoretical course and so we look at what makes them decide…why are they building this massive highway around Stonehenge? Not that they are, but what are the implications of doing so. What are the different implications of construction or whatever? Like do you open it up to the public? Do you allow people to go snorkel shipwrecks? And it’s not just shipwrecks it’s also looking at sites that are on land as well.
CS: So do you suspect then, I mean you didn’t find The Salvation, but was it likely one of the other ships that was wrecked during that whole Panama siege?
FH: I’m pretty certain that this wreck that we’re looking at is of the same time period, but I think it’s Spanish. Some of the chests,the tops of them were eroded away and you could see nails and mule shoes. Now the mule train was like the backbone of Panama, because the mule train would take the goods and the gold and the silver and all the stuff from the Pacific to the river to the mountains. The other route was across Panama City to Portobello. So that speaks to me that is was Spanish. Looking at the sword. And in doing some follow up archival research, I had a colleague of mine who’s a historian in Seville who did me a big favor. He looked up a few things for me, and there was a Spanish merchant ship that sank in 1681, ten years after Morgan, and it had a cargo of chests and mule shoes and stuff like that and who knows? Maybe it was inbound to help reconstruct the fort after Morgan thrashed it.
CS: But you’re still pretty confident that those are Morgan’s cannons?
FH: Oh, yeah. The distance between where we located the cannons and the shipwreck is roughly a kilometer. So they weren’t really on the wreck at all. The guns were on the reef and that’s why those smaller guns speak to the fact that some of those other anomalies could be really interesting. And this is a really bad place to dive, the swells are big. So you’ll be on the bottom and you’ll have a four or five foot swell. And it hurts your ears because you can’t go any deeper, but it’s increasing the pressure on you and after a while it starts to make you dizzy and of course it makes it harder for the guys topside to try and tend the line.
CS: Especially with the reef involved.
FH: Oh, yeah. And if you’ve trying to dig there, you need to have at least two, probably four anchor systems, so the boat doesn’t go everywhere and take you off the site. But yeah, the cannons were on the reefs themselves and they’re smaller which means they would’ve been on the upper decks. So if you hit, then they’ve fallen off. But the bigger guns probably would be with the wreck.
CS: Super buried.
FH: Yeah.
CS: So were you stoked when Captain Morgan the brand, the rum company, got involved? Was that a fun thing? Like, oh yes, extra interest!
FH: Yes, absolutely. Working with the Captain Morgan brand has been great because normally with grants and research funding that we look for, the process to get those funds is….
CS: There’s got to be a lot less red tape when you’re going straight to someone who sees the benefit of a marketing opportunity.
FH: Yes, exactly. Sometimes the process can be convoluted and sometimes it can be bureaucratic and the Captain Morgan brand is kind of like “Cool, this is awesome! We want in. How much can we give you?” and I’m like …
CS: “How much you got?”
FH: Exactly! So they’ve dialed it back a little bit but it’s been great. It’s been really great working with them and I look forward to doing stuff in the years to come.
CS: How long do you spend on something like this? Is this something that you spend all your summers on for the foreseeable future?
FH: Yeah, absolutely! What I’d like to do is have another two month field season and then look at making it like a month every year, where we come into the field, we’ve got all the equipment and we just dive in, work for four weeks, see what we can find and keep studying. As an example, there’s a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey and it’s like been 10 years of excavating. Of course they did a total land excavation. In this case, we’re probably not going to excavate the entire shipwreck.
CS: Someday?
FH: Maybe. If there’s money, yeah sure, but we have to be realistic. Like Tomas said in the film, Panama is hoping that this will be a long term project and so am I.
CS: That’s got to be good, having the government’s support.
FH: Absolutely. I mean they’re the ones who allow us to be in their country and allow us to work with their cultural heritage. And the trick is that we’re doing this as a public good, a public benefit. It’s just fun and we’re learning and everybody’s learning and the Captain Morgan brand helps to put that message out there and teach people more about underwater archaeology and the history of Panama. So really, it’s a win-win for everybody and Panama keeps its heritage and it’s not being sold off.
Jan 17th
