A quick note to mention that I just interviewed Noah Segan for Cabin Fever 2 (CF2). What a cool guy. Noah is a fan Cinema. Yes, we talked about CF2 (I will post the full interview at a later date),but we also discussed films he likes, importance of a good script and how he got convinced to do CF2 by the director referencing other films that would be the model. Seriously, it is always a pleasure to talk to smart actors that are also fans of film.
Make sure you check him out in two other great films:
Deadgirl- This horror movie has a dark, twisted tone...very bad decisions are made and then accounted for. This will soon become a cult hit. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896534/ Brick- Neo-noir-ish film set in high school. This is required viewing for fans of cinema. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/
Movies that come out tomorrow on DVD and Blu Ray that don’t suck-
Food, Inc.- If I had a video store there would be a section in it called “Required Viewing”. Food, Inc would be in that section. Make sure you check it out.
Not Forgotten- Starring Simon Baker and the ever lovely Paz Vega. This is a thriller-mystery Santeria inspired tale. I’m just not sure how you can go wrong with devil worshipping and Paz Vega in the same flick.
Answer Man- I’m not a big fan of the Rom/Com, but this Indie flick hits it’s mark. Lauren Graham, Jeff Daniels and Olivia Thirby star.
Recently I had a chance to interview Elise Pearlstein, producer of the documentary Food, Inc. She is a highly regarded journalist and film producer and just a pleasure to speak with. Below she talks about her food, politics and why its important to know where your food comes from.
JAM-Good morning. Thank you so much for accommodating us.
EP-Well thank you for doing this so early in the morning.
JAM-You know what, absolutely, my pleasure. I gotta tell you when I heard that I had an opportunity to speak with you, I kind of got giddy. Your film had a really big impact on me.
EP-Really?
JAM-Yeah, in fact I wasn’t really in the mood to see a documentary that night. My girl friend dragged me to it because she was actually teaching, or using Omnivore’s Dilemma in a class of hers and she assigned the movie as extra credit. And it worked out really well. And when I saw Food, Inc., it confirmed some ideas that I had.
EP-Did you know what you were getting yourself into?
JAM-I absolutely didn’t. In fact I’m kind of one of those other – I used to lean the other way; I didn’t care that much about free-range chickens or the importance of it, or grass-fed cows and why it’s important. I knew it was healthier. I knew it was better for me, but I didn’t understand why.
EP-Yeah?
JAM-And I actually didn’t eat for about 20 hours after the movie. And then completely re-arranged how I buy food.
EP-Wow. Where do you live?
JAM-I’m up here in Sacramento.
EP-Oh, OK, so you have some good options.
JAM-I do actually. I’ve got three or four very good farmer’s markets as well as a couple of good coops that provide me excellent options actually.
EP-And you must have a very happy girlfriend as well.
JAM-Yeah, she is pretty happy now. She was happy that there was something that she brought me to that had such an effect on my life. So, yeah, she points it out every time we got to the co-op. How did you get connected with Robert Kenner and Food Inc. to begin with?
EP-Well, Robert and I have worked together in the past, and he came to me before we got our funding and asked me if I wanted to be involved. It was a subject that I was very interested in and I was very excited to get on board.
JAM-How much of an influence was Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation? Obviously it was important enough that he had the writers, the authors in the movie, but do you know the impetus for the film?
EP-Well, actually, Robby met Eric , who wrote Fast Nation, a number of years ago and Robby was really inspired by Fast Food Nation. And the idea of seeing something that you thought you new in a fundamentally different light. And that was what we hopped to do with this film. Let’s look at something basic like how our food gets to the table and really kind of explore what’s really going on there. So the film was originally going to be a little bit more directly tied to fast food. But by the time we got our funding and we were ready to go, we realized that we couldn’t just do fast food because basically all food had become fast food in the sense that the same companies that supply to the fast food restaurants are also supplying to your supermarket. And there’s really no difference anymore. All the food that you’re getting in your supermarket is coming out of this same industrial food chain and so we expanded the scope of the film greatly.
JAM-One of the things it does expand to is the first amendment, free speech.
EP-Right.
JAM-And I was curious to find out some of the laws or proposed laws against speaking out against meat manufacturers or where food is made. How did that become part of the food as well?
EP-Well, we were really unaware – or unprepared for how controversial this subject was going to be and how difficult it was going to be to get companies to participate. And to get farmers to feel like they could speak freely about these issues. And really it was when we were talking to Barb, who is the woman whose 2-year-old son died from eating a hamburger –
JAM-Yes.
EP-She was the one who – Robby asked what he thought was a benign question about how has this terrible experience changed how you eat? And she said, well you’re going to have to consult a lawyer before you put any of this in the film because I could be sued by the meat and poultry companies and then she reminded us of Oprah Winfrey and how she was sued for saying something about beef on her show. It just opened up a whole knew area for us. We looked into the veggie liable laws. There are actually food disparagement laws that are on the books in 13 states. And we realized that we in fact had to be very careful about what we said in the film. And we consulted and spent quite a bit of money on a first amendment lawyer to make sure that we were being as careful as we could be about saying what needed to be said but not opening ourselves up.
JAM-I heard that you spent more on that lawyer than any other film or combination of films.
EP-Fourteen films combined.
JAM-I’m sorry, it’s really not funny. But wow.
EP-Yeah, and it was something that – I knew – I’ve done journalism in the past for ABC News and NBC News. I knew going into it that we had to be careful, and document our exchanges and be – make every effort we could to get different sides of this argument. But I did not realize that – we’re talking about food, not nuclear weapons, so there was this shocking element as we were losing sleep over this and spending more and more money on this lawyer that we’re talking about food here – we’re talking about chicken. We’re not trying to get into the Pentagon. It’s really startling that the food world can be so litigious and that you have be so careful about what we say about what we eat.
JAM-One thing about what I was mentioning earlier you not having necessarily a political message – first of all, to me, Food Inc. is not only the best documentary; it’s one of the best films to come this year, and one thing I found interesting about it was not only do you identify problems in food and food production, but you also give answers. You give really – I mean, as disgusted as I was throughout the film, I found myself by the end of it sort of charged to say there are things we can do about it.
EP-Right, and that’s actually what’s empowering about this subject. We eat at least three times a day. So this is an issue where you really can make an impact right away. You can watch the film and immediately start to change the way you eat. And in lots of different ways, and much to the dismay of some of our critics, it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do that – to change the way you eat. So it is an empowering – you know, it’s easy to take the bull by the horns and make some real changes. But then also you have to vote with your fork and you have to vote with your vote. On a government level, we have to try to affect some policy so that we can make a bigger difference on things like our food safety agencies and different laws that would protect animals and the environment and workers and things like that.
JAM-Sure and that was one thing I loved about the film, that’s the one thing – well, one of the many things I came away with – but the most important thing is that it is our vote and we vote every time we go to the grocery store.
EP-Right.
JAM-We make a choice and that’s how we influence decisions. The whole – the Stony Field yogurt getting into Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart looking at the organic as here is something our customers want, and now we are going to provide it for them.
EP-And that’s what Gary Hershberger, the CEO of Stony Field says, you have so much more power than you think you do, every single time a product goes by the scanner you’re voting. And these companies have to listen to your vote. If we don’t buy something, they’re not going to make any money. They’re not going to sell that product. So it’s very important to vote with your consumer habits. But also just to even ask questions. I found just calling these companies trying to get information, calling the number on the web site to say, “Is there corn in this?” “Are there genetically modified ingredients in this?” They’re not used to getting those questions and I think it puts these companies on notice that consumers do want the information and a lot of the most crucial information we want and need is not on the label. And that’s because it’s been, the industry has worked hard to get certain information off the labels – or not on the labels.
JAM-I’ve actually been an advocate against high fructose corn syrup and I thought I was doing a good job not bringing it into my house. OK, after watching Food Inc I realized I was wrong.
EP-Well, corn itself is in so many forms. And a lot of the words you can’t pronounce end up being corn. Not necessarily high fructose corn syrup but a corn product.
JAM-Right. And I was shocked by that. Even when I thought I was doing and OK job at it, it looked like, oh I’m really not. So. For all the things you brought into this film, were there any that you stayed away from or that you felt you couldn’t put in the film?
EP-Yeah, I think we came across a lot – there’s a really big story around the environmental consequences of these industrial factory farms and how this waste gets into the water and into the air and affects the people living around these facilities. And that was a story that we investigated a little bit. But we couldn’t do justice to how profound these impacts are. Likewise, we came across a lot of studies being done and concern about antibiotic resistance and the development of super-bugs that can’t be treated. And that was something else that our chicken farmer talked about because she’s been subject of some of this antibiotic resistance studies. But it was something that again we could have gotten more into but we just couldn’t do it all in the film.
JAM-Right. I remember her just mentioning it. It’s one part of the conversation and then you kind of move on from that.
EP-Right. And also one other thing we spent a lot of time in Tarhill South Carolina with the workers – the whole story of the workers working in the fields and in the plants is something that didn’t get enough time in the film and again how – just the effect not only the animal and the environment but on the workers handling these products and the speed of lines and injuries and all that kind of stuff was again something we could have done a lot more on.
JAM-Yeah, I mean after watching it, those scenes directly related to that subject, I thought to myself, wow there is a real place for unions and seeing that there is good that can come out of unions. Because I think the idea of unions for some people, we’ve moved passed that saying they’re not really necessarily any more and these are specifically the type of conditions that started unions to begin with in the United States. As your movie makes it into video stores, what’s your hope for it? What would be the ideal affect of people watching your movie?
EP-Getting the film out beyond theaters is just a great opportunity to reach everybody. We really wand people to see the film and we want a public dialog about these issues. We want people who agree and disagree to see the film and to just start talking because obviously we’re not trying to get everyone to speak the same thing but we do feel that it’s really important that we bring all the different –what’s the word?
JAM-Opinions? Ideologies?
EP-No, but really all the different, um…stakeholders to the table. And when it comes to food we are all stakeholders because we all eat. It’s important to us that people see the film. But we know that there was a lot of interest in seeing the film and the movie didn’t get to a lot of small towns. We’d love people in farming communities to see the film, more rural areas. And we just want it to start a public dialog about something that we should be talking about.
JAM-How important is local business when it comes to food?
EP-Local business is incredibly important because when it comes to food some of the problems of our food system have really come from companies being too centralized and too big and losing a certain amount of accountability to their local customer. Also it makes – when something goes wrong, the effects are really widespread because these systems are so big and centralized. So I think there’s something about when it comes to food, local means knowing your farmer. Knowing the source of your food and it also – in a societal, cultural way, it keeps you connected as a community. So there is a real value to local influence in the food system and I think it applies to local business as well, it’s how we keep our communities grounded.
JAM- I read or saw another interview with you and you said one of y our first jobs was doing a documentary on Pink’s Hot Dog Stand?
EP-That’s true.
JAM-You’ve really run the full gamut.
EP-I have. I seem to keep – I’m interested in food. I’ve looked at hot dogs, potato chips, Hillsburry Bake Off Contest.
JAM-I’m sure you get this question quite a lot: how has the film changed your eating habits or how you buy things?
EP-The film definitely opened my eyes to how I shop and how I eat. And I have two pretty small children and I’m keenly aware of what I’m putting in their bodies because they are so vulnerable. And also I just feel like it’s important for me and for them to know that food isn’t created in the back of the supermarket. Part of that distance of feeling disconnected from your food is how we’ve allowed some of these things to happen. I try to take them to farmer’s markets and we’re going to go to the county fair and look at the animals. We live in an urban environment so we can’t just drive down the road and meet a farmer, but it’s important to me that we stay connected and actually see where our food comes from.
And I would just say, you didn’t ask me specifically about this when you were talking about the political agenda, but I mean I think it would be, if there is a way to make the point that we did not go in with a particular agenda, we really wanted to hear all different points of view. We thought it would be a more interesting film if we could bring all the different players to the table, and it was the fact that they wouldn’t – that a lot of these major corporations didn’t want to participate in the film that actually changed the course of the film because once we couldn’t get people to talk, that became part of what the film was about. Robby’s last film was called Two Days in October and it one a Peabody and an Emmy and it did – looked at one issue from multiple points of view and that was the intent of this film as well.
JAM-And that is a good thing to point out. When you take a look at the top 5 grossing documentaries out there, you know, it’s going to be Michael Moore.
EP-Yeah. And we are not like him.
JAM-He’s a polarizing character in media right now.
EP-And he doesn’t make it any easier for us.
JAM-No. I like his films, don’t get me wrong. But, his films are entertainment. He comes at it from a wisecracking point of view, which I appreciate. And at the same time, it’s not true journalism.
The Proposal- Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and every obvious joke you've ever heard or seen. And still, the movie works.
Land of the Lost- Who the hell green lit this? The TV show was sci-fi, dark, and never spoke down to it's audience. Universal turned this into... a comedy? Really?
Drag Me To Hell- Sam Raimi is back doing what he does best. This is must see horror even if you are not a horror fan.
How To Be A Serial Killer- Check out my interview with Matthew Gary Gubler. N'uff said.
American Violet- The true story that changed the Texas judicial system.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Indie Titles Coming Out This Week That You Need To Know About-
2 Turntables & a Microphone- Legendary hip-hop DJJam Master Jay, is gunned down in his Queens studio. The five witnesses were uncooperative and no one is talking...until now. An interesting piece if you can get passed the inane rapper bravado.
Adam Resurrected- Tormented in a concentration death camp by a Nazi officer (Willem Dafoe), Adam (Jeff Goldblum) spends the next 15 years in a experimental insane asylum with fellow Holocaust victims. Possibly Jeff Goldblum’s best performance to date.
O’ Horten- Odd Horten (Baard Owe) is having trouble adjusting to retirement. Horten's restlessness launches encounters with a host of strange characters, new behavior and unlikely adventures. This film is a quirky Norwegian comedy.
Major Titles At Your Video Store This Week:
Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past- this is Hollywood’s way of stealing from “A Christmas Carol” and putting it in theaters during the Summer. Pretty sneaky, Hollywood. Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner star in this obvious, but well meaning rip-off… er, re-interpretation of the holiday classic.
Observe and Report- Seriously, one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen this year. It’s either the worst comedy ever or a genius satire of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq. You be the judge. Seth Rogan , Ray Liotta and Anna Faris (who is great).
Lymelife- Think American Beauty meets the Ice Storm. Alec Baldwing, Timothy Hutton, and not one… but two Caulkin brothers, Rory and Kieran. But the real break out performance comes from Emma Roberts (who knew?). Definitely see this.
Battle For Terra- An animated family film where the humans are the bad guys. Well, not all of them, but still. Humans try to take over a planet because their planet has been used up of all it’s natural resources. It’s a cautionary tale and great for kids. Another reminder to go green.
The long sabbatical is over. I was in the wilderness for a while. Deep in the wilderness. I have since traversed the wild and made it home.
I met a lot of interesting people on my French leave. Many stories to tell. Here is a short one...
I got to do a phone interview with Matthew Gray Gubler. He is one of the stars of the TV show Criminal Minds and he turns in a very funny performance as Joseph Gorden-Levitt's best friend in 500 Days Of Summer. He is also quite adored by my friend, not gonna use her real name yet, for right now, let's call her Agnes. Agnes, it is fair to say, has the hot sweaty thighs for Mr. Gubler and finds him yummy. When she found out I was interviewing him the look on her face demanded an invitation to listen which she accepted gladly.
When the time came for the interview, mister Gubler was no where to be found. Five minutes pass, still no Gubler. Fifteen minutes, no love. I called his assistant who said we wouldn't have to reschedule, that Matthew was just running late and he'd call in a few minutes. It was worth wait. His first words were "Hey, really sorry I'm late. BTW, I'm really high on painkillers right now".
Christmas comes early for Agnes and me.
I threw out all my prepared questions and we just started talking. To be fair, Matthew had recently taken a pretty bad tumble and his leg was very badly broken as a result. The reason he was late for the interview was because his physical therapy appointment ran long. The injury was so bad that the writers of Criminal Minds had to write it into the script. FYI-spoiler- his character is going to shot in the leg soon. Despite the painkillers, he was in a lot of pain and he still took the interview. Why, you ask, because as Agnes and I were about to find out Matthew Gary Gubler is, in fact, a hell of a guy.
Actors, in general, are very guarded people. They have to be, especially during interviews. Matthew is not. He is completely approachable and unaffected. Talking with him was like sitting down with a new friend over a beer. We started by talking about his latest film to hit dvd, How To Be A Serial Killer. It's a quirky, comedic bloodfest where the public speaking serial killer gives seminars on the merits of murder and how to properly stalk your prey. He takes a young fledgling wanna-be killer (Gubler) under his wing and teaches him the finer art of the craft. While it may take a fairly perverse mind to appreciate, Serial Killer is a lot of fun and should be on your viewing list this October.
Interesting thing about talking to someone high on painkillers, they will tell you anything you might want to know...except the answer to the question you just asked. I don't begrudge him. Mathew is a much more interesting person than any of the questions I had for him. For the record, I tried asking him the standard "what was like filming an indie flick" and "how did you become an actor" type questions. He was much to wily for that. Instead, he told us stories that were charming and funny and that had an endings that had no relationship to how the story began. He talked about why he loves indie film. He gave us his insight about the movie making industry. Agnes swooned many a time.
What started out as a required bit of PR for a movie he made almost a year ago transcended into a subject changing stream of consciousness conversation that spoke to art, film and even, as a byproduct, politics. It's unfortunate that nature of Hollywood fails to foster genuineness off the screen. Fortunate for me that Matthew Gary Gubler is not Hollywood. He is far from it. He is an actor. He is a director. He is a writer. He is, without a doubt, an artist.
And, of course, a hell of a guy.
I will post the full interview when How To Be Serial Killer hits video stores on Tuesday, October 13th.
Make sure you check him out on twitter @gublerland and his website http://www.matthewgraygubler.com/.
Feels like I was gone for a long time. It's good to be home again.
A dumb, pointless comedy or the most brilliantly disguised condemnation of American foreign policy in years?
Ron is a bigoted, arrogant, medicated mallcop. His actions are devasting and unilateral. In his compound, a shopping mall, he is both protectorant and abuser . He is a tin badge with assumed authority. Ron is America, the mall his Iraq.
Ron's daily patrols include harassment of the middle eastern merchants, stops for free coffee (his right) and ogling the beautiful cosmetics girl while insulting her gay co-worker. Ron's world is unfettered until a real crime has to be addressed. When a flasher is accosts various women at the mall, including the subject of his affection, Ron jumps in boldly...and blindly. The first thing he does is reject the real authority Detective Harris (Ray Liotta). Instead, Ron “helps” Harris's investigation by questioning various mall inhabitants and then, without evidence, falsely accusing everyone that Ron distrusts. Scarily, he does this with unflinching conviction. While the flasher is not found, Ron's authority is given new credence by the incident and his confidence is given even greater purpose.
He now has the confidence to apply to become a legitimate police officer. Or, perhaps, plead his case to the U.N. Predictably he fails. He passes the physical and written tests well. It is in the psychological test that we find what we had begun to suspect the whole time. Ron is bi-polar and recently off his medication. Ron is a danger to himself and others. He has no business being a police officer. I guess WMD's were never found. Humiliated, Ron returns to mall with, well... a vengeance.
Minor offenses are responded to disproportionately such as the owner of an illegally parked being tazered and skateboarders being beaten within a inch of their lives with their own boards. Not necessarily thrown into Abu Ghrab, but close. Throughout the film his violence is not addressed in any way by the toothless mall manager. Ron has acted without reproach. All the while, real crimes are go on unresolved. Someone has been stealing from various stores in the plaza and when it turns out to be Ron's second in command Dennis (Michael Pena), Dennis overpowers Ron and flees to a foreign country with a final stash in dramatic fashion. (Haliburton, anyone?)
Again humiliated and convinced that the flasher will reappear, Ron returns to the mall but this time undercover and without permission from the mall manager. His aggression has worsened with the lack of medication and soon the real police are called in. Refusing to leave, the mall is Ron's last stand. There is an euphoria than can accompany a break with reality and Ron is swimming in it. Drawing first blood against the cops, Ron is eventually brought down... Rodney King style.
It's a month later, Ron is back on his medication and back in the mall. Only now he is plainclothes and a customer. He sits by himself in the food court ruminating his life. He is offered a free coffee by the girl working the pretzel stand. She is Ron's only bit of redemption for the entire film. Earlier he had viciously attacked her boss for making her cry. While extreme, it is the only time he acted out of concern for another instead of his own ego.
At that moment the flasher returns. Penis dangling in full view of the mall patrons and the audience. Ron jumps up to chase the flasher down. A footrace ensues and just as looks like the trenchcoat villain has given Ron the slip, Ron appears in front of him, gun in hand (the weapon he was never allowed to carry as a mallcop) and blasts the flasher in shoulder. He then drags his prize victoriously through the mall and then to the police station to say a final “F U” to detective Harris. Ron, seemingly redeemed, gets his job back at the mall and hooks up with the born again christian coffee girl.
Ron is hero.... Really?
It is my sincere hope that this story has no hero. That, upon reflection, it is a cautionary tale warning us against unilateral military solutions. We need reason and rationality to operate in the world. To act any other way is not only dangerous and wrong...but, much like the film, soulless as well.
So, I have an Austin hangout. The Hideout is a combination coffehouse and indie theater. Long and narrow with exposed red brick as the whole right side wall and to the left a refrigerated display case featuring sandwiches of both the panini and croissant in all their varieties. In the front, is a small stage for the wannabe beat poet/acoustic performer and if no one is playing or speaking you can be sure that interesting music is being played at just the right volume. The Hideout is the epitome of hip cafe.
The is a really good reason for this. While there is obviously a lot of effort put into this establishment to create just the right tone, it is the city itself that helps foster the hipness. Austin is hip. Hipper than, let's say, Berkeley, Ca? In a word... Yes. And the reason why is that their seems to be an inherent sense of community in Austin. People here are just are just naturally nice to each other. Maybe it's because in the summer time it's just to damn hot to be anything else... I dunno. I do know that sense of community crosses over and even embraces the artist community. In town where the people could turn a cynical eye to all the tourists who are invading their city for one of the largest film/interactive/music festivals in the world, instead, with open arms, Austin-ites welcome us. Welcome me. Every single local I have met has had a generosity of spirit. Striking up conversations, giving directions and helping me out when I needed it. Their spirit inspired me to do the same. Unfortunately.
I walked into a mostly empty Hideout yesterday. I ordered my triple espresso, sat down, turned on my laptop and got to work. It was short lived. Crazy joe was at the counter asking the staff (it should be said they have always been nice and patient and cool) about where a show was being played. “Come on! No, I don't know the name of the band. They're from Belfast!”. The staff didn't know. Crazy Joe stomped off to the free publication area to try to find his band from Belfast who's name he couldn't remember but that everyone else should know who the are because they are from Belfast, dammit.
The free publication area is next to where I was sitting. Generosity of spirit, remember? I had the power of the almighty internet at my fingertips. I could help Crazy Joe. “Buddy, I could look it up for you online if you'd like”. Mistake. I would realize later that Crazy Joe was not from Austin. He was from Buffalo,Ny. He,therefore, was not cool. He was, in fact, crazy.
“Great” he said without even a hint of appreciation in his voice. He then plops himself down right next to me breaking all personal space boundaries. I've had one night stands that had more space between two people than he gave me. I quickly bring up the official SXSW site and start searching. Nothing. After a couple minutes I let Crazy Joe know that nothing is coming up on the site and, without the name, I'm not gonna be able to find the band.
Angrily, “It's a free show. They are not part of SXSW. Can I use your phone to check my messages?”
I had left my phone on the table and before I could say “sure” (generosity of spirit, remember?) he grabs my phone and begins to dial. When he is done listening to his messages, he, with great sincerity, asks if he could make a quick call. He was waiting on his application for some sort sociological internship. He had received a call from a professor and needed to call him right away. His phone was back at the hotel.
Generosity of spirit, remember. Also, he wasn't “Crazy Joe” yet. But it was coming. Actually, it was almost here. He gets on the phone and, while holding for his professor, I get his “deets”. Crazy Joe is from Buffalo. Crazy Joe has been everywhere. He worked raising money for the Kerry campaign of '04 in California and Florida. Crazy Joe says politics are F*****-up. Everything is screwed. We don't use enough solar power. The F***ers in charge should be overthrown and... Okay, at this point I have to say I stopped listening. I love talking politics, but this guy was pontificating and his sermon started turning blue. I noticed that now there were more people in the the cafe... more children.
Then he started talking to the guy who was going to give him a job...or not. It went like this:
Angry tone. “Hello professor.... the thing that you have to understand is everything you are doing is F*****. You are considered a joke. The university is laughing at you. Yes, you make no sense. Yes. No. I can't work like that. You should do something more relevant. I just can't go back to Buffalo. No. I'm not being disrespectful. No I am not. I am telling you the F****** truth. You need to do more relevant work. F*** that!”
This goes on for another five minutes and I am feeling uncomfortable because people are starting look at the crazy guy on the phone. Then they start looking at the shmuck next to him... me. Then Crazy Joe screams “Right now! Yes or No, will you consider me for the job?! I am sitting next to a crazy person. This is when, in my mind, Joe transcended into Crazy Joe.
Btw, I think the professor's reply was “no F***ing way”. Just a guess.
Crazy Joe hands me back my phone (which now goes directly into my pocket). And begins to ask me a question. Like the professor, my inside voice says “no f***ing way”
“Good to meet you, dude. Gotta go see a movie. Hope it all works out” and I am out of there. Yes, Crazy Joe was so crazy that I just got up from my new home away from home and split.
Generosity of spirit can be a bitch. Which makes the people of Austin even more impressive. SXSW brings all sorts of crazy to their town and in their own way they embrace it, Crazy Joe and all.
Monday, March 16, 2009
"Sync" Post Script-
I was at the Robert Rodriguez Q & A today and everything was going fine. Mr. Rodriguez was talking about his use and the future of 3-D in film. Just then all of the lights in the auditorium went out. Realizing I was in my chair, very far away from any wall or panel, I let out a sigh of relief. When the lights came back on, I looked to the back of the room and saw a guy standing near a wall looking nervously from side to side.
My sister arrived in Austin facing a couple of challenges. First of all is was raining and cold. Secondly, the couch she was sleeping on was owned by a friend...and his girlfriend...who had just had a major fight that night. And, to top it off, they lived even farther away than I was staying. She called me hoping that she could get a ride in the morning for the first day of the SXSW fest. She would be attending the Interactive part of the show and it would be great if I could pick her up. No problem, what time? 9:30? again, NP. Do you want to call in the morning? Just to give me directions, I'll be up. Although I have been known to sleep in on occasion, with the time change and my excitement for the show, it was going to be... No Problem.
Problem.
When my phone rang at 9:30 I had absolutely no idea where I was. Slowly it came to me. Texas. I am in Texas. Hello (groggy as hell)? What? Who is this....? My sister, in good humor, let this one pass. I eventually picked her up and we headed out.
I bring this up because sometimes I can fall out of sync. Sometimes it can last a minute, I've even had it last a whole day. There are times when the normal level of concentration that gets me by isn't enough. And sometimes it can take quite a jarring to get me back into rhythm.
Such as...
I was running into the first panel discussion of the day. I was thirty seconds late and in the auditorium of two thousand people there was no place to sit. By the time I made it the back of the auditorium to find a wall to lean on the discussion was in full swing. The panelist were funny and cracking wise, the audience was completely engaged. I put my bag down, leaned against the wall and focused my attention on the discussion.
That's when the lights went out.
First the lights flickered for a moment, then went completely out. I thought it was odd. I also thought it was odd that the wall I was leaning on was fairly smooth. I turned around to notice not all of the wall was smooth, just the panel I happened to lean on. The panel, of course, was a touchscreen that controlled the lighting for the entire auditorium.
Shit.
In the dark I could hear the staff rushing around trying to find the closest light panel to them. Two staffers had reached their respective panels at the same time. Just as one pressed the lights back on, the other pressed it off. This repeated itself more than it should have until even the audience started laughing. Then I saw a couple staffers walking towards me. Bummer. I was preparing an apology as they walked up to me. One of them asked me if I had touched panel. I look him straight in the eye and said “No”. I then gently pointed to the guy next to me . They turned to him, ask him not to touch the panel and walk away. The guy in front of me (who had not seen me gesture at him) shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment and went back to watching seminar.
So I took a chance. But I wasn't the only one. Knowing that I was going to be in Austin for SXSW, I decided to rent a condo from a local Austin-ite instead of staying at a hotel. I went to Craigslist and searched high and low for a decent place to rent. Every time a had something in place and ready to go, it would fall through. Eventually I found Beto's ad. He was gonna be in Costa Rica during SXSW and he was throwing around the idea of renting his place out. I jumped on it. A couple a emails and a phone call later, it was done. It was very casual and each us placed a fair amount of trust into each others hands. Of course, the jokes started right away from my friends. “dude, yer renting a place from some guy you found on Craigslist? Dude, they are going to find you in pieces in his freezer, dude.” And so on.
Apparently, Beto's friends had made similar stabs.
But, I got to Austin, made it to the condo, met Beto... and it was all good. We took a few minutes to talk and take care of business, then he drove me around Austin and showed me the downtown area. It was starting to be dinnertime so we picked up a friend of Beto's, Willy, and thought about where to eat. I asked him what his favorite restaurant was. He smiled and said “We are going to Rudy's”
Rudy's is a bar-b-que place. And a gas station. But mostly a bar-b-que place. They serve to order brisket, turkey, ribs, and even a kick your ass jalapeno sausage. All the sauce is on the side. It was explained to me that in Texas, bbq is cooked without bbq sauce and said sauce is served like a condiment. I had always had BBQ with the sauce cooked up on the meat. This was better. Much better. Like, sex is better with a partner than by yourself better. For the record, the BBQ sauce was awesome too. It's just that the BBQ brisket was so awesome that if you were stuck on a desert island without sauce, you live a happy life with just the BBQ meat until you got voted off for hording it from the rest of the tribe. Served sliced up by the half pound on deli paper accompanied by as many slices of white bread and pickles you can eat and don't even get me going on the creamed corn (which no one has been able to tell me what the hell creamed corn is... except delicious). The place was filled with personality and all of it was Texas. It was an unique experience. This type of place just does not exist in California, and I doubt ever will.
Beto had taken me around not like a guy who rented me his condo but like a friend, which he is now. Before he left me with his condo I asked him why he had rented his home to me. He had taken quite a chance. A guy from another state, no references and we had both been a little lazy in getting a rental agreement signed. Most everything was just agreed to over the phone with a verbal handshake of sorts. Any number of the things could have gone south. His decision couldn't of been made easier with his friends making serial killer jokes as well. In the end he said after talking to me on the phone he had a good feeling about the situation and that “at some point you just have to trust people”. I couldn't agree more.
Back of the plane, middle seat, and I didn't even have the luck to be seated next to Stripper Girl who had checked in right before me. Well, maybe I'm jumping the gun on that one. Just because she had the tramp stamp tattoo (which I'm a fan of) and no tan lines (also a fan), doesn't mean she's a stripper. However, her outfit for a six a.m. flight that showed me the tattoos and her all over fakebaked tan sans lines does allow my imagination to run in that direction. She had checked in with her stripper friend and stripper friend's boyfriend (manager). I didn't realized they traveled in packs. For an early flight she is the most interesting person on the plane. Even the ambiguously gay airline stewards serving up drinks on either side of the aisle can't help but strike up conversation with her everytime they pass.
The Good Omen.
As I sit scrunched in my middle seat between two anonymous men that are involuntarly invading my person space, the in-flight movie is announce. I am on my way to Austin for the SXSW fest to enjoy the best in indie, foreign and mainstream films as well as all kinds of music. My expectations are high to experience film as an artform. Over the cabin P.A., ambiguosly gay steward number one informs the passengers (with great pride) the inflight movie will be “The Women” starring Meg Ryan and that headsets can be purchased for two dollars.
Fuckme.
As the movie begins to play (my body wanting to cry out against this injustice with a series of Grand Mal seizures that somehow I suppress), I start thinking about omens. My first thought is that watching piece of commercial studio crap aimed at a demographic who wants to be rich and white, is a sign of bad things to come. However, my more rational mind retorts, if you expect bad things to happen... they will. It's basic science. Like attracts like. If you put out that sort of energy into the universe, that's what is gonna come back to you. This makes sense to me. So, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. Trying to leave that grotesque affront to cinema behind, I let my imagination wonder.
Then a funny thing happened.
Right about the time my thoughts carried me to a place that Stripper Girl and I could spend time working on an all over tan, a bunch of the ambiguosly gay steward call lights started blinking on throughout the cabin. A moment later, it is announced that because the audio for the movie will only play in Spanish, a different movie will have to be played. The irony that Spanish may be the only way “The Women” would be tolerable (especially if you don't speak Spanish) and it was that exact reason why the movie had to be switched out was not lost on me. The next movie to come on was “Four Christmasses”. Okay, not a huge step up, but at least it's got Vince Vaughn.
This a good sign. A good omen. A way to put good energy out in the world and have it hopefully come back to me.
Speaking of... Hello, Stripper Girl, my name is JAM.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
AMERICAN IDOL-
SXSW...It's almost here.
Nine days of film. Panels? You bet. Director Q&A's? Oh, golly yes! Yes, everything a film geek like "Yours Truly" could hope for. So, yeah... I'm giddy.
Enough about me being a nerd.
I got a chance to interview Thora Birch the other day. I will eventually post that interview here, until then, I wanted to mention is how refreshing it is to have my preconceived notions smashed.
I, like many others, have seen Thora on the screen since she was a little girl. Certainly most people reading this have seen her in American Beauty. Great performance, especially since she was only sixteen years old at the time of filming. As we see people on the silver screen we have a way of idolizing the performers. That idolization also tends to separate the viewer and the actor. It's that separation that allows our assumptions of that person to grow wildly. In our imaginations they can begin to have powers beyond the mortal man. Godlike and magical. How else can they exist in two places at the same time? On screen and in real life?
Gotta be magic.
If not magic, then maybe something else. But, certainly, something extraordinary.
Either way it is easy to forget that movie stars are, well,... people.
As I was talking to Thora about her latest film, we got off topic. She started talking about directing some shorts with her brother and how funny he is and so on. And somewhere during the conversation she transformed from an actor doing a contractually obligated piece of PR work to a really cool chick talking about her brother and that part of life. In just a few seconds she went from being an on screen Idol to a person.
My preconceived notions of who she might be were destroyed. And she reminded me that we are are all people who are connected by our friends, family and the everyday things. Honest, true and beautiful, Thora is named for the Norse God of Thunder. Yet, is was the wisdom and subtly of Athena that she gently reminded me that on some level we are all connected. That we are all the same.
Thank you, Thora. You really are a Goddess.
Monday, March 02, 2009
It's a strange world...
Slumdog...really? Best film? I mean, did we all watch the same movie? Don't get me wrong. It's good film. But, better the Curious Case of Benjamin Button? I know my tastes differ from the mainstream, I know. But just when I think the mainstream cinema-intelligencia is on the right track, No Country For Old Men getting the Oscar for instance, which almost made up for Crash winning a few years before... The Academy turns around and votes the obvious crowd pleaser as its favorite film. Am I the only person who feels the ending was flawed? No, not the ode to Bollywood dance ending. That was fine. I am talking about the last question. That whole scene just didn't work for me. In a movie that shares the idea that all of our experiences are connected like a giant tapestry that tells the story of who we are, we are supposed to believe that at the moment when we are most empty, it's ok to let Fate take over. Actually, he tells us that Random Fate will save us. Shmuck. Thanks. Everything in our lives is connected. Every moment has meaning if we are paying attention... except if you wanna be a millionaire, then you just randomly pick an answer as if you were picking Lotto numbers.
