Sitemap - 2025 - Rick’s Substack

THIS PRESIDENT is getting VERY BAD advice (from himself)--Trying 2 bring back 1960s? (National Guard!). Get him OFF the NUCLEAR TRIGGER before he gets to 80s! (Reagan's nuclear warning shot, etc.).

See EMERALD CITIES, my 1983 feature––42 years old! (FREE 4K movie LINKS HERE:).

For those who have forgot (or NEVER knew...), here's where bad gov. shit started (1980s)--See my EMERALD CITIES–– the Punks/THE MUTANTS/FLIPPER knew...

3 Anti-War American Indie Feature Films; I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN, also THE BOYS WHO SAID NO! & Morgan's Cake.

Unfurling of my "1988" banner--down memory lane...(50th anniversary in July of movie's shoot !) plus a little stroll in New Mexico (croquet anyone?).

The HIGDEN MAN says: (1) Best to stop smoking (before metal tube is stuck in your throat to help U breathe). (2) Don't believe a word a stranger tells U about your property.(3)Careful w/power tools.

The absolutely 4 BEST, rock-solid FILM-MAKING RULES (or is it 5...?) for producing great movies .

Scene from "MORGAN'S CAKE"–– Nick Bertoni & Morgan Schmidt Feng discuss "Secure jobs vs a less stressed life." (YouTUBE Premiere!)

My new YouTUBE Channel, books, ("OTHER LIVES, BENDS IN THE ROAD AND WHAT-IFs," etc.)," and being scared how close I came to living in the Lahaina, Hawaii fire!

This TRAILER offered DUMP his best option to resign, before he's HATED by both BLUE & RED states. Maya, age 8, got her first lessons about appearing on TVs in THE 5TH WALL, starring Willie Boy Walker.

(Showboat) "1988-The Remake" (PREVIEW!)––Doug Michaels rolls, Thom Hover's Martian Imitation, Raymond Harvey w/doll, & Lowell Darling & mom!

Dancer, JERRY, interviewed by Kelly Boen, and Doug & Gannon Hall deliver tap dancing for '1988.'

Watch "Loneliness Is Soul" (91 min.) at my new YOUTUBE CHANNEL--"Rick Schmidt Feature Films@Used-Car Prices"––FREE 26 free MOVIES w/TRAILERS. Enjoy!

A "HAREM" art exhibit, in a FANTASY space. Julie Schachter art includes 50 years of paintings, drawings, and pinhole photographs.

Remember the PUNK ROCK scene(?), MABUHAY Gardens, San Francisco. 1978. PHOTOS by JULIE SCHACHTER, from her book (w/THE MUTANTS on cover).

A story about the 1960's--"JOE'S SANDWICHES," when an ITALIAN EMIGRANT became his own one-man welfare system in OAKLAND, CA.

How do DASTARDLY ADULTS become mean-spirited and vengeful 'DASTARDS?' Maybe look into 'MOTHER GOOSE' of the 1800s!

'DASTARDLY' is quickly becoming TOO TAME a word (Kennedy Center!!!). But ART always KNOWS BEST ––(Who is REALLY "Behind the 8-BALL?"). Stay tuned...

DASTARDLY TIMES getting worse(!)= need MORE ART. "Lesbian Lizards" by JULIE for starters. (And SEE HER Historical 50-years of art-making (scroll down): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYXJVY4

DASTARDLY TIMES need even MORE "JOY-ART!" Wife Julie Schachter's PINHOLE PHOTOS may help fill the bill! (Her "Who's Who 1980, Bather's, Warhol-shot by a SOUP can, etc. now @History Museum.

NEED some JOY from art?--My wife Julie Schachter's 'Jumping Chollas' paintings may help...(in these Dastardly times!)!

The arrival of AFI grant $ for SHOWBOAT 1988––I suddenly had ANOTHER MOVIE movie to make! (with script by <Farleyfilm.com>, Nick Kazan (Matilda, Reversal of Fortune), & Henry Bean (The Believer)!

PART 5––Completing "A Man, a Woman, and a Killer"––and a week-long WORLD PREMIERE, Bleecker Street Cinema, NYC, March, 1975.

PART 4––Finding the "EDITORIAL KEY" for 'A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER'–– Spending A YEAR after Mendocino, CA shoot (1973-74...) TRYING to get ANY 2 scenes 2 cut together!

PART 3––EDITING "A Man, a Woman, and a Killer,"--the inside story of the POST-PRODUCTION...@PALMER FILMS, San Francisco, CA

PART 2––("A Man, a Woman, and a Killer,"--the inside story of the shoot...Mendocino, CA, July 11-24, 1973.

PART 1––("A Man, a Woman. .." shoot). My roommate Wayne Wang and I dove into 'feature filmmaking'–a 13-day shoot for $5900 in Mendocino, CA, 1973. Earlier SHORT FILMS taught me the basic 16MM process

INBETWEEN changing to FILM-making, I made a MAPLE wood-pedestal CHAIR in the school woodshop (this main story is about trying to take it home at Christmas-time and stopped by the school cop, Morrie!)

My introduction to 'FILM-MAKING' (1970)--using one of the first portable video cameras in the US-Sony's PortaPak w/recorder. How I got BITTEN by the filmmaking bug!

The 'long-and-winding-road, as I transitioned from FINE-art to MOVIE-art. (Actually THE ACT of taking a video class happened in an instant (of CHANGING my mind...which CHANGED my life!).

Did some ART before I got into FILMMAKING. Here's first day(s) at California College of the ARTS (formerly CCAC, Oakland, CA).

Another story from my '12 DEAD FROGS' memoir (1963)– My U. of Arizona college friend decides to marry a prostitute named 'TIA'--she worked the RED-LIGHT DISTRICT, Canal Street, Nogalas, Mexico.

"12 DEAD FROGS"memoir; Here comes college days--U. of Arizona, 1962. Becoming a FRAT-RAT, sky-diver, and inadvertently an instrument-of-fate that ended my fraternity soon thereafter!

Three 'TEENAGE' stories from my '12 Dead Frogs' memoir-(1) about STARFISH, (2) an unwanted BOXING MATCH, and (3) saved by 'a Voice' @ 120 mph.!

"12 DEAD FROGS"memoir; MY new California school/1956––TROUBLE for 'the CHICAGO KID' right off the bat!

FROM "12 DEAD FROGS" memoir, this story is about my first, I guess you'd call it, 'PUPPY LOVE,' since I was 12. But to me, it was earth-shaking and the real thing!

More "12 FROGS" from my 2017 memoir–– a story –– a Black Savior comes to Mack & my rescue, as we ventured down Lake Michigan coast toward the Chicago Loop on our bikes.

Another "12 Dead Frogs" installment–– Memoir has me up to 11 years old, & a story about the "BLUE TOILET FIRE!"

"TWELVE DEAD FROGS" (my 2017 memoir continues...). QUESTION: Why did I, age 8, spend my savings on a 4-prong garden fork (like a pitchfork) when we didn't even have a garden in South-Side Chicago?

More from my memoir, "12 Dead Frogs"--I barely get born (breech baby, black & Blue, incubater for a first month--" BUT...a proud doctor pulled me out, in South Side Chicago hospital (toddlin' town..!)

A story/as 'MOVIE' –"Joe's Sandwiches."–from my memoir. (1) click on "full page" icon, (2) hit the 'Freeze' button = to READ EACH PAGE. Enjoy!

My books (Part#2): New Dark Ages-How a Punk movie EMERALD CITIES Got its IMPROV, & SLEEPER TRILOGY-making my First 3 movies, OTHER LIVES, BENDS IN THE ROAD, and WHAT-IFs, GREATEST FROG QUEEN, etc.

My books, including "COLD," a novel based on my father's 2-year walk home from Siberian prison camp/WWI, also "Feature Filmmaking/DV @USED-CAR PRICES," plus memoir; "12 DEAD FROGS and Other Stories."

#46-50––Amazing 1900s LIMERICKS wrapup! Featured Cities: Casco, Sunol, New York, Chicago, Baltimore. ENJOY!

More amazing 1900s LIMERICKS, #41-45! Cities illustrated: Altadena, Terminal Island, Casa Blanca, Loop, and Tulare!

More historic LIMERICKS #36-40! Cities discussed; Puente, Oak Knoll, Point Reyes, Perkins, and Red Dog (how special are these?)!

LIMERICKS #31-35! And maybe 2025 WILL be great! In any case, here's Cities-of-poems; some ART, & food for thought: Redondo Beach, Del Mar, Riverside, Red Bluff & Eureka.

"Showboat") 1988-The Remake," with San Francisco's SYLVESTER. "Acts range from incredible to merely bizarre.”— VARIETY

LIMERICKS/new batch #26-30! And maybe 2025 can be a lttle poetic (let us know...). (Cities): Emigrant Gap, Willows, Elsinore, Ocean View, Russian River.

LIMERCKS! (Happy NEW-@2025!!) More great images and poetry. Cities include; Glendale, Sacramento, San Luis Rey, Pomona, Santa Ana, CA