2nd Modest Mouse Memorial Weekend in a Row in Reno: How my son Cody starred in a Modest Mouse music video and all the Good that has come from it!
Last year, my family and many of our friends spent the Memorial Weekend participating in the filming of the Modest Mouse “Little Motel” video. Cody (then 5 yrs old) had a starring role in it. Pretty cool, huh!?
It was a long weekend of shooting and we all had an excellent time staying up all night watching Reno native writer/director Justin Francis work his magic. A Flickr slideshow is here.
A year later, Modest Mouse is playing at the Grand Sierra Resort on Tuesday 5/27 the whole Twelve Horses crew is going to support and draw attention to GabrielsLife.org. Modest Mouse is an amazing band in the first place, but this whole experience has made them even more amazing with the attention it has brought to Reno and to GabrielsLife.org.
The Backstory:
Many of you know my best friend / local attorney Matt Francis. We met on the UNR ski team back in 1988. His younger brother Justin Francis is an amazing music video producer/videographer having done music videos for artists like Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keyes, Mariah Carey, the Hives and on and on and on….they guy never stops shooting videos and commercials.
Anyway, he pitched Modest Mouse on shooting a video of their song “Little Motel†in the town he grew up in, Reno Nevada with a script he had written. He asked Cody to play a role in it. If you’ve not seen the video, now would be a good time to watch it so the rest of this blog post makes sense!
For obvious reasons, the subject of the video was difficult at best. My wife and I had our reservations about having our son play a role in such a tragic story. I mean, would you? Every time I watch this video I tear up and cry. If you made it through this video and are still dry-eyed, you’re definitely not a parent!
Leilani, Twelve Horses’ Social Marketing Manager, talked my wife and I in to letting Cody doing the video. I work closely with Leilani every day and she’s been a tremendous role model in my life. If you have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know her, then you are undoubtedly aware of the tragedy in Leilani’s life due to Hydrocephalus and the amazing leadership and courage that has led her to launch GabrielsLife.org. If you’ve never read this story or met Leilani, please take a moment to do so and sup[port this organization. Also, there’s a great story that the local newspaper did here: http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080129/LIV/801290331.
Now it’s almost a year later and I’m reading the hundreds and hundreds of comments of how deeply moved people are by this video Justin wrote.
Our family is absolutely proud of being part of a project that has reminded so many people how precious life is and how powerful connections are. Through family, friends and the online social media, tragedy, writing, creativity and friendly helping people have all had an opportunity to inspire each other. That’s cool.
If you’re in Reno Tuesday, I hope to see you at the Modest Mouse concert! We’ll all be there!
Comments
By OverDad on May 23rd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Wow, I definitely shouldn’t have watched that tonight. Thank you for sharing, very touching.
By Kim Illions on May 24th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Beautiful! I have the pleasure of knowing Leilani personally and the story of Gabriel. Truly inspiring. My nearly 3 yr old son also has hydrocephalus, hence our connection. The song and video are just awesome! Good luck in raising money and awareness for this cause!
By brian on May 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Wow, I had seen the video, but the letter from Leilani just got the waterworks going. Thanks for sharing, David. Have fun at the concert. I’ll have my eyes peeled for future opportunities to support this worthwhile cause.
By Bonifer on May 28th, 2008 at 9:09 am
the idea that if you put some good into the world, good things will return to you is a powerful one.
gabriel taught us that.
cody taught us that.
we are learning from them, and what we learn, we will share with the world.
thank you for the post.
m.
By brian on June 6th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
OK, I know I already commented on this post here, but now I have a new reason to come back. I don’t normally do this, but I’m officially “tagging†you with an invitation to summarize your life in Six Words. I’m interested to see what your 6 will be.
By SuperCirio on October 14th, 2008 at 1:31 am
the saddest ideo i’ve ever seen…
i think that only an american people can use an argument so terrible for making of entertainment products…
By Aimee on October 9th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Thank you for this video. I learned so much about myself as a parent from the emotions I experienced when I was watching this.
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