I have hung out with Dusty and Melissa, by the way, twice this week. Melissa recently broke up with her boyfriend and Monday night we went to a coffee house, a place on Oltorf called 503, to see a live blues band play. The band, The East Side Kings, is comprised of two older black guys and a young Asian man who plays lead guitar. They were awesome! Their version of "Hoochie Mama" is fantastic. Anyway, I went to get a beer at one point Monday night and when I came back Melissa had started up a conversation with two cute young guys.

One of these guys was Dusty, a really attractive and doe-eyed young man with a henna decorated hand and the most wonderful full lips I've ever seen. Dusty was really cute and sweet.

Later, the three of us went to a coffee house near campus on Guadalupe and drank some more.Or at least I did. Anyway, Dusty mentioned he was bi but kinda seeing a guy now. He and Melissa really hit it off. Guess who took him home that night. Not me, that's for sure.

Anyway, back to my story. (Sorry I'm flip-flopping about here, a lot has been going on lately and I need to catch you up). Going to Sam's would be a pretty uneventful story except at one point I lost my shopping cart. I usually push my cart to the end of an aisle and walk down the aisle and get what I want and then take it back to the cart. Well, at one point, when I was almost done shopping, I came to the end of the aisle and my cart was gone. I thought some employee had thought that it was abandoned and took it, so I went to the front and looked all over for it. No such luck. Finally I retraced my steps and it was like way, way, way back from where I was. I had walked like 5 minutes without it and not even snapped. I think I am getting senile or something.

I went home and watched the end of "Cahoots" and made lunch. At 3:30 or so I went to the Omni and picked up my badges and stuff for the festival. I hadn't even showered but I wanted to get downtown before traffic got crazy. I saw several folks I knew including Courtney Davis, the festival programmer, and Kim (I am not sure what she does for AFF).

Kim introduced me to an attractive young Asian woman named No or Nu or Noog or something. I also ran into a fellow film screener, a female. And dammit, I can't remember her name. When I first met her, she was dating another screener and a scripter named Hall Hood. Somehow we were joking around about how I was bad with names (when I first met her and Hall) and he said something about her just being "incidental." Since then, in my mind, I have called her Cindy Incidentally, after the Faces/Rod Stewart song. Anyway, I am going to have to find out her name which is dumb because I should know it. Sometimes I think I am getting senile. She had a script go into the second round too!

Oh - and while I was there, I heard a great story about Johnathan Schaech. This is an actor turned filmmaker who is married to Christina Applegate and has a cruddy little film called "Miserable Comforters" in competition. Apparently JS was in the middle of a panel discussion and just got up and went out for a smoke with no notice. He had to be found to return to the conference. What attitude that must take!

I really wanted to see "The Business of Strangers," which was opening the festival. This is a film with Sigourney Weaver and Julia Stiles which has been called the female version of "In the Company of Men." But last night, I got passes to the sneak of Lynch's "Mullholland Drive" from my friend Kelly.

A sidebar about my friends Rich and Kelly, who are roommates: Kelly is starring in this DV film for me that Rich is shooting. Things have been going really well. Kelly has been really bold and daring and Rich has done some awesome cinema verite style camera work for the project. Kelly has to do a lot of scenes nearly nude and sexual (sometimes homosexual) in nature and he has been doing a fine job but as a straight guy, it is a challenge for him. He's been really gung ho on the thing but last night seemed a bit tentative about it. Maybe he's just stressing out from school.

Anyway, Kelly had these passes for "Mullholland Drive" but he and Rich are going out of town for the weekend and he gave them to me. What a fucking gift! I called Melissa and Dusty to see if they wanted to go but M had other plans. So Dusty said he would go! I was so happy to get a chance to spend some time alone with him. We really seemed to get along well and I really would just like to get to know him better, even if just as friends. Anyway, I went to pick up Dusty and at the last minute he asked if his friend/roommate Eric could come along. I really didn't mind. Eric is cute too, although I think he's straight.

Last night, I went over to Dusty's with he and Melissa and met 2 of his 4 roommates. We even watched "Lube TV" together. It was cool to show my cable access show to people who didn't really know me. I had kinda forgot it was on and happened to snap to it right at 11pm. Everyone really seemed to like it. Anyway, Eric is really nice and interesting and he and I and Dusty talked a lot on the way to the theater and while waiting in line and I really had a good time. It was like I had two really cute guys for a date so that was awesome. Yes, I know it was just three guys hanging out to them, but to me it was awesome to spend time with attractive guys and joke around and get to know each other. I had a fucking blast. Eric's family is from Iowa, as I am, so we had things to talk about besides my usual arsenal of topics which ranges from films to sex to film. To make things even better,"Mullholland Drive" was brilliant. Awesome. Hobble was playing at Beerland at 10:30 and I invited the dynamic duo to go with me after the film but Dusty wasn't feeling well (a bit of a cold) and Eric had to work in the morning. He seems a little straight-laced. (Perhaps a misguided impression). He has a real office type day job. So, I dropped them home and headed to Red River on my own.

I got to the club and Oriah (the lead singer for Hobble for those uninitiated) was there and smiled and waved and I came over to him. They were about to play. So I hung out by the stage, took some pictures and totally rocked out. The boys did many old faves, including "Suicidal Blunder" which is fast overtaking "Cowboy Song," "78 Speed," and "Backwards DJ" as my fave. They also played some new songs like "Love Slut" and "Itty Bitty Man." "IBM" is about Oriah being picked up by an IBM in an IB car and falling in love with him. I like to fantasize that Oriah is singing about me but changed it from "fat fucking man" to "Itty Bitty Man." Hehehe.

The guys also did what I think is a new song where Oriah and Mike, the guitarist, sang in falsetto. It's nothing like the Stones "Emotional Rescue" but yet it is. Anyway, it's an fucking awesome tune.

The more I hear Hobble, the more I love them. I can't wait for a new CD. They've got a shitload of new songs that are going to rock. After Hobble's set, The Spiders were playing but I couldn't hang. I went to the Driskill hoping to catch the end of the midnight screening of "Ding-a-ling-less." This is a hilarious sex comedy that I saw when screening films for the festival. Courtney decided to program it as a midnight film. I was running late, but I wanted to at least catch the some of the film with an audience. I wanted to hear other people laughing at the film like I had. In the Driskill bar, I ran into Ryan Williams of AFF (whose short film "Daydream" showed last year) and said hello. Ryan is a real cutie and a very sweet guy. He looked great and had a big smile for me. I really think he is talented and has a great future ahead of him.

Luckily, the "Duo" screening prior to "Ding-a-ling-less," which I sadly had to miss (I heard it was packed!), ran a bit late so I didn't miss the beginning of the film. I met the director briefly as well as seeing Kim again and also J.H., an attractive young man who I met the last time I went by the AFF offices. I don't know what J.H. does exactly as a volunteer. He's really cute and friendly and sweet, so it was nice to see him. I talked him into staying and watching the film and he sat by me.

Another AFF screener, Jason, was there running the DV equipment for the screening. Jason and I really both liked "D-a-l-l," I really feel like we had a good influence on Courtney's decision to show it. I said hi to him too although he was busy getting ready for the showing. Anyway, I laughed my ass of for the third time in the screening, along with the rest of the crowd. At times, I found myself laughing prior to the funny stuff, in anticipation of the joke. I just think this film is funny and smart and really, really human. It's more than just a succession of dick jokes, it really has a nice story and nice warm human emotions. There's a lot going on in this film.

After the screening, I got to meet the director, Onur Takel, and talk at length about his film. He had a lot of guys with him, probably many of them crew, but also the lead actor Kirk Wilson was there. I talked to these guys for about 30 minutes and found them to be the nicest, most congenial guys one could ever hope to meet. No ego, no hype, no bullshit, just down to Earth guys.

Having seen their film 3 times now, it was really nice to discuss it with them. They were really interested in my opinion too; of course, they knew I loved their film! But they really seemed to enjoy talking to me about Austin and what I do as much as I enjoyed talking to them about what they do. It was pretty damn cool. Courtney came and hung out with us while we talked. I saw Kim and J.H. again and Cindy Incidentally and even met a really cool guy from Dallas named Eric Watson who works as a DP.

All in all a really incredible start to the festival. Austin rocks! Lodger2001

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