Himes’ Haw Haw

I found a copy of the May 2000 issue of Czech UFO magazine "Astro" when cleaning out the apartment. It features an article on Mike Orth, the ostensible subject (he does the narration, too) of the movie "Hood," which you may have seen on this site.

Time to come clean. As the article reveals, Mike didn't really experience the full-on alien abduction he seems to recount in "Hood." The truth is, I asked him to relate his extraterrestial experiences and he sent me an hour-long audio recording recounting in great detail ten-plus years of psychic and subconscious encounters with a vague foreign entity. I then selectively edited down and manipulated his statement to create a more "cinematic," Close-Encounters-of-the-Third-Kind narrative.

I met Mike when he moved to Prague, the Czech Republic in 1995, while I was living there. We had a mutual friend. This friend and I went to Prague's Ruzyne airport to greet Mike upon his arrival. The first thing I remember is he had a small duffel bag that was incredibly heavy. I picked it up and it felt like I was carrying an anvil. Turned out Mike had brought his entire, extensive collection of crystals from back home in La Mesa, CA.

Mike ended up renting out an apartment from a Czech UFO enthusiast with contacts to "Astro" magazine. They got to talking, and Mike ended up getting profiled. 

Mike and me in Prague, summer 2001 

Click here to read the full "Astro" article on Mike.  

This Christmas, my brother David came East (from California) for the first time in six years. I hadn't seen him since May '04.

He prefers ground transport to air, so on the way over he took the train. When it came time to head back home, the train was sold out for a few days. So he decided to take "the dirty dawg."

Right before he embarked on his three-day journey from Port Authority, he bought a disposable video camera. 20 minutes of memory, no rewinding, no "editing." Click below to see the movie he made, a depiction of the tedium and joy of going cross-country by Greyhound.

YOU Take the Bus

Here's a little "director's commentary," in case you were curious about Lashayshay (taken from our IM conversation):

the "garage" as roland calls the st louis station is about five blocks away from downtown i had a two hour layover so i boldly took that walk to buy some Stag beers shared a few with a street dude who was doing some kind of hustlin' (he showed me where to get the togo's hence saving me the money of going into a bar and thus earning himself some juice …then i took the shot of the christian church and headed back to the "garage" I got a few more beers on the way , ran into the street dude who wanted another , so I said I needed all I had for the long journey…but I was feeling pretty good, soI said," I can offer you a good luck buck!' which he was thankful for. then i set out across the four or five block wasteland setting the garage apart from the city . I turned around to get the skyline shot which had me standing right smack in the middle of wasteland and lashea shea came up. i thought she was walking away so i yelled"bye!' and then she came back saying that for 20 bucks she would "do something for me" I said "DO something?" then explained that i was making a movie which is "basically a joke", . I said ,"the whole thing is basically a big joke about my trip across the country" she said,"Oh I gotta joke for you, gimme a beer"

Just added a music video I did for my friend and old 10th-grade Honors English buddy (what's up Mr. Mertz!) Faith Kleppinger's 'No Galore.' I had to listen to the song over and over and I'm still loving it - by all means go listen to Faith's music. The video is a little dark and grainy, but what do you want, I was shooting in a baby disco. Watch it here