My personal film book stash from my teen years.
Sitting in front of my laptop, with my
little writing area flanked by masses of DVD's, burning tea candles,
an organized chaos of imagery on the wall in front of me and some mid
80's period darkwave playing, I'm reminded of a certain time, just a
little over a decade ago. My high school self, typing up a paper of
the importance of film as part of my application to the film school
at Florida State. I was already accepted to the main University, but
was trying desperately to get accepted into their prestigious film
school.
It was the strength of that paper that
actually got me to the interview process. Family road trip time and I
was nervous and rabbity. The interview went horribly, with my
admittedly sheltered 17 year old self competing with kids who grew up
with access to film and video equipment, as opposed to my very
working class, small town background. Even worse, I tried to explain
to the group of interviewers, all middle aged white men, of how I was
inspired by films like Romero's “Martin” and Von Trier's
“Breaking the Waves.” The smuggest looking one in the room
actually tried to correct me, stating that the latter film was
sexist. Wrap your head around the roundhouse kick of bullshit
entailing an older man trying to tell a young lady what he thinks
is misogynistic. That's cute but of course my powers of sass and
extroversion were fairly hidden at that point because I was still
basically a kid.
Long
story short, I did not get accepted and I ended up attending (and
later dropping out of) a different college. But the weird kismet of
life actually worked in my favor. I've been a writer my entire life,
with a film book or magazine semi-permanently clutched in my wee,
pale hands. But it took the support of some key people in my life,
especially my family and good friends Keith & Ben, to basically
snap their fingers in front of my face, as if to say “Hey kid, you
do this stuff anyways, why not make a career out of it?”
Speaking
of writing madness, I have been told that my style of note taking
should be photographed, so here you go. Believe it or not, it is very
organized, just in my own jigsaw puzzle, stream-of-consciousness sort
of way.
This
week I had the total pleasure of not only viewing, but getting to
write about Paul Bunnell's incredible “Ghastly Love of Johnny X.”
It's a helluva lot of fun, beautifully made and features one atomic
cast, including Will Keenan, Reggie Bannister, Creed Bratton, Paul
Williams and the late Kevin McCarthy. You can read more of my
thoughts on this cool film at Dangerous Minds.
For
anyone who enjoyed the piece I did a few years ago about Cult Epics
impressive two disc set dedicated to Gitane Demone, you will be happy
to know that she has a new solo album out, entitled "The Reflecting Shadow!" Gitane is a strong musical
force, so this is very exciting. After hearing the single for “The
Creep,” it is definitely near the top of the list of music to
purchase.
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