Out of those of you who weren’t familiar with Daniel Johnston when I told you about his performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival last month, I’m willing to bet more than a few of you found him interesting (even if you read only my brief introduction to him).

So, I thought I’d pass along Fiona Shepherd’s interview with Johnston over at Scotsman.com.

Apparently, a new Daniel Johnston biopic is currently in the works – which Shepherd addresses along with lyrics to various Johnston songs – but what I found most interesting was Johnston’s comments on the first film about him, Jeff Feuerzeig’s 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston:

Johnston’s response to the film is ambivalent. “I didn’t know what to think about it because it was such exploitation,” he says, “but I finally surrendered and just decided that it’s kind of humorous.” So did he feel exploited? “Not at the time when they were filming,” he says. “It didn’t seem like it until the movie was finished. Even the title was a surprise – man, that’s pretty radical.”

Johnston felt exploited? Well, that’s completely understandable.

Speaking of celebrities and mental health organizations, Joey Pantoliano’s No Kidding, Me Too! is now one of the charities you can support when you bid on or buy “items” at CharityFolks.com.

The announcement I received stated -

Win tickets to the Broadway show “God of Carnage” (including meet and greets with stars, James Gandolfini, and Marcia Gay Harden), a set visit to “Nurse Jackie” and “CSI”, an appearance as a character in an upcoming work by acclaimed writer Patricia Cornwell, and much, much more!

- but featured on the CharityFolks.com page for No Kidding, Me Too! right now, I only see the auction for the “God of Carnage” tickets and meetings with James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. I don’t know if that means the other auctions have already ended or if they’re still coming up.

And, while we’re on Joey Pantoliano’s efforts, remember his trip to Iraq a while back? The NKM2 website now features a video and photos from that trip where he, along with Dr. Bob Irvin, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital, and actress Lisa Jay, showed troops his documentary (also titled “No Kidding, Me Too!”) and held discussions with them about mental illness and coping mechanisms.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to listen to these soldiers talk about thoughts of killing themselves. Most of us can’t imagine what they’re going through – or have gone through – and I expect that kind of inexperience and unawareness doesn’t help these men and women any once they get home. Fortunately, organizations like Joey Pantoliano’s No Kidding, Me Too!, Glenn Close’s Bring Change 2 Mind, and Paige Hemmis’s Blueprint for Hope represent just a small handful of the people – celebrity or not – out there who not only care about and want to help folks struggling with mental health problems, but who also have personal life experience with these very kinds of issues.