On being uninvited...

All right, I'm now officially starting to get annoyed. For a month I've had several interviews lined up to speak with some of America's top dachsund breeders and handlers at New York's Westminster Kennel Club show. I wanted to speak with them about the world of show dachshunds, as well as to find out why many in the Dachshund Club of America are opposed to dachshund racing.

Now all the people are dropping out one after the other. On top of that, it seems like we've been "uninvited" from Iris Love's famous party at the Tavern on the Green. We've been looking forward to interviewing a lot of people at this shindig, but our promised invitation never arrived and our phone calls are not being returned. What the heck is going on???

We're still heading to NYC - I've paid for the tickets and the crew so we're committed. We'll just have to wing it and hopefully we'll be able to talk some people into speaking to us on camera.
If anyone had told me that shooting a documentaries about wiener dogs would involve this much work chasing people for interviews I'd have laughed. I'm not laughing now...

Michael Moore and wiener dogs

Very weird. Wienerschnitzel, the hot dog chain that co-sponsors the Wiener Nationals, is not returning my phone calls. I keep getting a vague "wait and see" response from their PR people as to when I can interview one of the executives about the history of the Wiener Nationals. They say that since SuperSize me and Bowling For Columbine have come out, that companies are very hesitant to speak on camera. Um, if you’re making weapons or using child labor, maybe, but I just want to ask them about wiener dog racing. This will probably be resolved soon.

Noodles Wins!!!

Well there’s no turning back now. We’ve got our first footage in the can and I have to admit it feels good to finally get this underway. Last night was a blast. We met most of the dogs that were racing today, and we made our picks (well most of them) of which ones we will follow for the following year. They are (in no particular order): Noodles, Baby Luv, Heidi Roo, Hailey, and Vinnie Babarino. The fifth dog that we were going to profile, the defending champ Pretzel, died suddenly earlier this month. We may profile Pretzel’s little brother Blitzen if possible. We’re also trying to track down Todd and Poppie Kroeker from Orange County; a family that boasts four very successful wiener racers.

Noodles won today’s race hands down – not even close. It was a very satisfying victory for Noodles’ owners after having been so close to the money for so many years. Will he have what it takes to defend his title next year? Check back 365 days from today to find out. Actually check back sooner than that lol.

Party pics

We finally got to meet Bobbie LeGrua and Baby Luv, one of the Wiener National's perennial runner-ups. Baby Luv is one of the faster dogs at the Old World wiener dog races held in Huntington Beach, California. I'll try and post some frame captures later. Tomorrow's race day! Gotta get my rest!

And so it begins...

We start filming tonight and we're already off to a rocky start. Exactly 10 days ago I was in a bad bike accident, and broke my arm in 6 places (my bones were poking through the skin in a couple of places). On the upside I got a ride on one of San Diego’s newest paramedic units and some kickass pain meds. Today I got the stitches (60+) out and a new lighter cast, designed by my orthopedic surgeon to allow me maximum flexibility for operating a camera. It hurts like hell, even with the vicodin. My camera man, Ricardo, finally made it here from Mexico City. I couriered his plane tickets 3 weeks ago, but they never arrived, so I had to resend him tickets. They arrived yesterday and he arrived this morning. Sheesh.

Tonight we’re going to the Wiener Nationals pre-race party, where we will be meeting most of the competitors from around the country. Our eye is on Noodles who, two years in a row, has “won” the Wiener Nats, only to have the race declared a false start and then lost the second (and final) race. Hopefully this year he will win an undisputed race (finally).

Noodles (right) is edged out by Buddy in the
controversial final race of the 2003 Wiener Nationals
Photo (c) Kevin Nibur