Man on Fire

When former Electric Lounger and current Slam Planet: War of the Words director Mike Henry was but a wee lad of 10 (so the legend goes), he accidentally trod upon the foot of a bent and withered crone who promptly leveled a gnarled digit at the young boy and whispered "Flame on!"

As it turned out, the poor old woman was suffering from Alzheimer's and currently thought herself the Fantastic Four's ever-combustible Human Torch. But somehow the curse stuck fast and held true, and Henry's life has been touched by fire ever since, first with the destruction of Austin institution the Electric Lounge in 1994 and more recently on the evening of Jan. 31, when another Austin institution – the Guadalupe Arts Center – also went up in flames.

Photo courtesy of Mike Henry

Henry, who along with producer Kyle Fuller had relocated nearly all of the project's existing DV footage and gear to the Arts Center just the day before, rushed to the scene the next morning where, as he puts it, he was "able to convince a very kind firefighter to go up and pull out our computers for us. It was basically either that or someone was going to have to arrest us."

Henry and Fuller (the film is produced by Tim McClure/GSD&M offshoot Mythos Studios ND) were lucky: At this point, the vast majority of their documentary – which chronicles the 2004 National Poetry Slam competition between Austin and New York City/Urbana – has survived the burn thanks to a grueling media recovery process on the part of local outfit Flashback Data.

"We've been able to restore and save most of the 12 external drives we had damaged in the fire," Henry adds, "and thanks to a pretty steep learning curve, we also now know a lot about fire damage and recovery."

Now comes the fun part: The Slam Planet Fire Recovery Benefit, Tuesday, April 19, 7pm, at La Zona Rosa, featuring Alejandro Escovedo, Guy Forsyth, Asylum Street Spankers, Damnations TX, and members of the Austin Poetry Slam, plus, as if that weren't enough, Mayor Will Wynn, who will be honoring Austin firefighters, while all members of the AFD and their families are invited to attend free of charge, which is otherwise $15.

"I just feel really fortunate that everybody's come together for what we're also calling the second semiannual Electric Lounge Fire Benefit/Alumni Reunion Show," adds Henry, whose flame-retardant sense of humor has once again emerged unscathed from the conflagration. "We're lucky to be in Austin. If it wasn't for the support of the local community so far we wouldn't be back up and running this soon. We certainly have a long way to go, but being a part of the arts and film community here, well, you really know who your friends are."

The Slam Planet Fire Recovery Benefit takes place on Tuesday, April 19, 7pm, La Zona Rosa. Admission is $15.