Long-term unemployment in the United States

According to an article that ran in the Washington Post at the end of September, 2013, some 4.1 million people in the United States had been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks.  These people are now known as "long-term unemployed."  On Dec. 2, USA Today, using a slightly different standard (6 months rather than 27 weeks) gave the same figure for "long-term unemployed," and noted that many of them had also lost their ability to purchase food stamps on Nov. 1 when that program was cut back.

On Dec. 28, at least a quarter of these long-term jobless will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress takes action to extend existing programs.  And nearly a million more are slated lose them between January and March.

What will happen to these people?

In "Domino," our unemployed hero tries pawning the family's jewelry.

Well, one of the first things that happens is you try to get help from other family members, and from close friends.  But if you've been out of work for six months or more, chances are that you will already have gone that route and there won't be much help available.

Next thing is you pawn the family's jewelry, take whatever odd job you can find, and try to downsize, but again, you've probably already done all of those things.

Next thing that can easily happen is - you become homeless.

And you become part of an increasingly vicious cycle.  If you're homeless, it's much harder to get a job.  Harder for you to spruce yourself up for a job interview.  Harder for you to have an address to give to a potential employer.  Harder for you to afford a cell phone so that a potential employer can contact you for an interview.

And harder for you to have the frame of mind you need, when and if you can line up a job interview.

Is it right for us to simply push these people, and this problem, aside?  I think not.

And that is the point of my film Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  We need to really understand what these people are going through, so that we will help find solutions.  It is morally, socially, and economically wrong to throw in the towel on millions of our fellow citizens, on millions of our fellow human beings.

One scene re-shot, then WRAP!

I decided that one earlier scene was a little thin, so we re-shot it. Same actors, same location, with changes in the dialogue and the action. There are a few photos below from the re-shoot. And that was the last of the shooting for "Domino." The editing has also been completed, meaning that we are, as of November 2013, at rough cut stage. The technicians need to go over the sound and the image to correct errors, and then it will be done. I think by the end of 2013, we'll officially have a completed film.

Above is Luis (played by Antonio de la Malena) earning some extra cash by moving furniture for a neighbor. Guess who the furniture belonged to - the widow. But Luis doesn't know.

Here is Luis asking the neighbor what he needs to do next.

Finally, in the very last scene we shot (but not the final scene of the movie), here is the hard-working crew working hard.

More photos - more scenes

In out last news post, we said we had finished shooting. WRONG! Turns out that not only was the film about 3 minutes too short to qualify for some important stuff, but also, there was one point that needed to be made a little clearer. So we shot a bit more, in fall of 2012. Here are two photos from the scene making that point.

Above is an actress (Encarnacion Margado, playing the widow) getting into costume, her husband (real husband) looking on.

And above, you see the widow with her friend (played by Maria Duarte)on the street. The widow has just been evicted from her home of 50 years. Note that this is happening for real in Spain...and in the U.S.!

Vampires and Zombies - shades of foreclosures

Apparently, if you lose your home and then continue to live in it while paying rent to the bank that foreclosed on you, you may be harming the economy...part of a problem known as vampire foreclosures. But if you vacate your home, you may be hurting the economy by contributing to the number of zombie foreclosures. Cannot win for losing. LINK

Two photos from the last scene we shot

Now that we´ve finished shooting, we thought you might enjoy seeing photos for the last scene we shot, which I think of as Luis and the furniture. It's where a neighbor (played by Salvador Valle) asks our hero (played by Antonio de la Malena) to do an odd-job for him. The odd-job is moving furniture. Here, we're shooting on the street where the neighbor passes our hero in his car, and stops to offer him the job.
This photo shows one of the actors (Salvador Valle, on the far left) with two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez, the sound tech and his sister, Saira Moreno Jimenez, who held the boom for him in the absence of our usual boom person).

And this photo shows two actors -- Salvador Valle again in the far background, plus Antonio de la Malena in the center -- and two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez again, and Maria Duarte, our continuity person).

José Luis Delgado Herrerapiscazo, wife Amparo, and Papeleria Laso

Papeleria Laso is located in Jerez de la Frontera, at the corner of two major avenues, right on the edge of the historic district in the city´s center.  It´s next door to a bank, and right around the corner from many small business and a grammar school.  It is a great location for Papeleria Laso, which is a a paper good/copy shop/ and school and office supply store.

Luis (José Luis Delgado Herrerapiscazo) has been running the shop for 50 years.  His wife, Amparo, helps him out.  They explained to me that they´ve had hard times before but this is definitely the worse.  No one has any money, everyone is just scraping by.  And like Francis, what they sell is not a necessity so people who used to purchase now often go without. 

José Luis Delgado Herrapiscazo and his wife Amparo in their shop.

Luis told me that the businesses that are suffering the most are the small businesses.  He and his wife have no idea how the country and the economy are going to get out of this mess.  They take the government at its word when it says things will get better after another year simply because they don´t know of anything better to do.

I´ll give a short story here to illustrate their situation.  They are motorcycle enthusiasts, each with his/her own motorcycle and they belong to a motorcycle club.  (The wife is very small, and I find it charming to imagine her on a big, muscle motorcycle.)

About five years ago, they had planned to go to the United States and drive their motorcycles across the country, but then the crisis struck, and they weren´t able to go.  Now, they can no longer even afford to leave the city for a vacation, so last year, they stayed open all year and didn´t take any time off.  They expect to do the same this year.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Antonia Balao and her bar/restaurant.

Francis of Francis Peluquero, a beauty shop

Francis owns and operates a small beauty shop in Jerez de la Frontera near the city´s central market.   When I went to interview him, there were several customers but this was at the time of Feria, when “everyone” wants to get their hair done. 

Before the crisis, when a special event was going on, the wait could well be an hour and a half or two hours if you didn´t have an appointment.  On the day I went, however, there was less than a 30 minute wait – the first effect I noticed of the crisis.

Inside Francis Peluquero.  Francis did not want any faces shown.

 Francis has been in business for over 20 years.  He commented to me that things are slower now than they have ever been.  Going to the beauty shop is not a necessity, like food, and that has contributed to the downturn of his business.  People who before would come in twice a week now come in only once a week, and so forth.

It´s been a long time since he was able to go on a trip, or even take a vacation.  He has two young women working for him during busy times, such as during the annual Feria, because his customers don´t like to be kept waiting and if he doesn´t have the two young women, he won´t have any business at all.  When there is no special event going on, he is no longer able to have anyone help him out.

Francis believes it´s going to take a long time for Spain to recover from the crisis.  He does not believe the government´s statement that things will start getting better in another year.  Beyond that, he doesn´t want to speculate about what will happen in the future.

OUR NEXT POST will be about José Luis Delgado Herrapiscazo and his shop.

Malena and Butikalé

Malena opened her shop just two months ago – a courageous move in view of the current crisis.  It´s called Butikalé, and is located in Jerez de la Frontera on a major street two doors down from her father´s bar/restaurant.  She opened it with money that her husband saved, and she runs it with her adult daughter.

The day I interviewed her, she was just opening the store for the day.  There were customers waiting for her to unlock the door…but the two other times that I tried to find her, when her daughter was running the shop, there were no customers at all.

Malena in her shop.

The customers waiting for Malena – two women with their children – made some purchases.  One bought a blouse, a pair of long pants, and a necklace which together cost under 10 Euros (about $13).  Clearly, the prices are designed to move merchandise. I´m not sure how she is able to offer these low prices, but she purchases from a distributor in Sevilla and apparently, is getting very low prices herself.

The customer wanted to buy other things, but didn´t have the money.  Malena explained, after the customer had left, that the purchaser had a job with the school district, but the school district was not paying its employees – a shocking but unfortunately common occurrence since the onset of the crisis.

The other customer, also a school district employee (and also not getting paid), made a very small purchase of one necklace for 3 Euros ($5).

Malena commented that yes, the first year is always the hardest for a small business and December and January are the worse months.  She has not yet been able to pay herself any salary at all, but she is covering her costs.

She says that things now are particularly hard.  Many people don´t even have enough money for food, and are going hungry or getting food from charitable agencies (I assume these would be the Catholic charities that are so important here).  And most people don´t have the money to buy clothes for themselves or for their children.

Malena thinks that if things continue on like this for a year or two, people will be patient but if they continue on for, say, five years, there will be a war or revolution.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Francis, the beauty shop owner.

Small businesses in Spain and the economic crisis

It is ironic, after the so-called “Second Conquest” of Latin America by Spain during the years leading up to the current economic crisis, that the Spanish government is now courting Latin American businesses and asking them to invest in Spain, to save Spain’s economy. 

This may seem even stranger in light of the fact that the backbone of Spain’s economy is not big, multi-national  businesses, but the small mom and pop shops that abound in every neighborhood of the large cities, in every small town.  Some sources have claimed, in obvious exaggeration but with a grain of truth, that these small businesses make up 95% of Spain’s economy.

A stall in the Mercado de Abastos, in the city´s center.

 (Jerez does have supermarkets, but many people prefer to shop in the Mercado de Abastos, open six days a week.  Each stall is run by a different small business and each has its own specialties.)

And why should you, the reader of this article, who does not live in Spain and may never go there, be interested in the situation and problems faced by these small businesses?  You should be interested partly because Spain’s economic problems have an effect on Europe, and Europe affects the rest of the world.  In addition, these small businesses are not all that different from small businesses the world over, and we can learn much from looking at their plight. 

Instead of doing a scientific study, I decided to interview the owners of four small businesses in the southern Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, where I was staying, with the idea that this more human look at the situation would be of greater interest.  The four shops I chose are a small clothing/jewelry/cosmetics store owned and operated by Malena, a beauty shop owned by Francis, a paper goods/copy shop/school & office supply store owned by José Luis Delgado Herrerapicazo and his wife, and a bar/restaurant owned by Antonia Balao.

Plaza Plateros, a popular plaza with many bar/restaurants and lots of small shops.

Over the next four weeks, I'll publish each of these stories, one by one, allowing us to see their reactions to the economic crisis and their vision of the future…not a very positive vision.  They are all hurting.

We'll start next week with Butikalé, the clothing/jewelry/cosmetics store owned and operated by Malena.

OUR NEXT POST will be Malena´s story.

Background music

On Thursday, we recorded some of the background music for DOMINO.  We´ll have a variety of music but what we just recorded was the flamenco part--some taranto and a granaina por bulerias.  I was amazed.  For about 15 minutes worth of music, we spent a little over four hours in the sound studio.  The most complicated part was adding the percussion to the granaina.

Our cantaor (flamenco singer) was Antonio de la Malena.  He was accompanied by Malena Hijo on the guitar, and by percussionists Luis and Ali de la Tota (palmas) and Alex de Moneo (cajón, tinaja and palmas).

A cool video with some of our actors

There is a cool, bilingual trailer (Spanish and English) featuring Luis de la Tota and Ali de la Tota, two of the performers-actors in DOMINO. These two are percussionists in parts of our background music. In addition, Luis de la Tota plays Josema, the best friend of our lead character, Luis. Ali de la Tota plays Pepe the bartender in the opening scene. Here is the link to the trailer: LINK

The CD release in the flamenco festival

The official release in Spain of Antonio de la Malena´s double CD took place on Feb. 23, 2013, as an official part of the annual Flamenco Festival of Jerez de la Frontera.  The festival presented it in the city´s second to largest theater, Sala la Compañía.

Antonio de la Malena decided to make the event a form of thanking all those who participated in creating his flamenco album (most especially, in the bulerias fin de fiesta in which over eight people, including of course de la Malena, took turns singing).  In addition, he wanted to recognize his brother-in-law, singer Mateo Solea, who helped de la Malena´s career at a critical juncture when de la Malena was a child.

So he gave all these people a public role in his presentation, inviting them to sing a little, or give rhythm (palmas, or nudos, or jaleo).

And he wanted to include the dancer María del Mar Moreno, in recognition of all the years he has worked with her, so she danced near the end of the presentation.

Palomino Productions and yours truly were the official producers of this event, so of course I was there.  In the excitement, I forgot to bring my camera.  SORRY!!!

But not to worry.  The local press and TV caught it all, and here is one of the reviews with a video at the bottom taken from the presentation.  If you don´t read Spanish, just skip to the bottom and watch the trailer.

The old man you see sitting next to de la Malena at the beginning, and dancing a little at the end, is his father, who can hardly walk (and so his dance isn´t really a dance).  It was a very emotional moment for him, especially since one thing de la Malena sang about was his mother, who died not too long ago...and his father still misses her tremendously.

So click on the link below, and enjoy.

LINK

If you are interested in learning more about the double CD, or in purchasing it, if you live in Europe go HERE, and if you live in America, go HERE.

OUR NEXT POST will be about--small businesses in the economic crisis.

Why is "Domino" relevant?

I'm going to make this short...perhaps not sweet, but short.

In 2008, the United States led the world in entering the financial crisis, due to vastly over-valued real estate (read "homes, etc."), extremely risky financial dealings, and corruption.  Thousands and thousands of people lost their homes, thousands and thousands of people lost their jobs.

In 2012, having only partly recovered from the economic crisis of 2008, the United States passed through two moments of brinkmanship when we were on the "fiscal cliff."  Each time, at the last possible moment, Congress and the President managed to find a solution that avoided our falling over it.

As of this writing, the United States is less than 24 hours away from "sequestration," which is something that could well produce another and perhaps more serious financial crisis.

Is Domino:  Caught in the Crisis relevant to the United States?  You bet it is.

I could pepper this short article with photos of closed businesses and homes in foreclosure, but I've already posted those, you've seen those for yourselves, and I think it unnecessary to repeat them.

OUR NEXT BLOG POST will be about the CD release in the flamenco festival

Antonio de la Malena´s double CD is out: flamenco por derecho

Palomino Productions has had the privilege of producing a double CD of the flamenco cante (singing) of Antonio de la Malena.  I say "privilege" because he is a very fine singer, and the double CD is excellent.  It includes a full two hours of singing, with 16 tracks, 8 per CD.

(Antonio, as you will surely remember, is the star of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.)

Cover of the double CD:  Antonio with his father.

It will be formally presented to the world in the famous annual flamenco festival in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013...just a few weeks from now.

The presentation, as organized by Antonio, will be really fine.  In the fin de fiesta of the double CD, lots of family and friends joined him and they will all be in the discs' presentation.  From what I understand, there will be 14 people in all.

Of course, Antonio himself will sing.  I asked him what he was planning to sing, and he answered "Whatever I feel like at the time."

In addition, at least some and perhaps all of the others will sing at the very beginning, and in the fin de fiesta, so it´s going to be really lively.

Antonio de la Malena singing.

And Maria del Mar Moreno, the dancer with whom Antonio has collaborated most closely these past few years, will dance one number accompanied, of course, by Antonio.

The guitarists will be Malena Hijo and Santiago Moreno.  Other well-known performers who will participate include Luis de la Tota and el Bob.

If you are planning to attend the festival, you'll certainly not want to miss this performance.  It'll be in Sala la Compañía.  I believe it starts at 8pm but am not absolutely positive, so check the festival program.  Here´s a LINK to Flamencomania´s announcement of the event.

In the meantime, to enjoy a sample of Antonio de la Malena´s singing, go here:  www.AntonioMalenaCD-ENG.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about why Domino is relevant to people in the US.