Sunday, August 11, 2013

Weekly Mondo Round-Up: The Gorgeous Edition

 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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