Day 4

My Life is Festival

Got up At 10am and said goodbye to StubbyP. He had to go back to Colorado to the "real world" of 9-5, wife and kids.

Tim The Wonder Horse and I talked a bit and he showed me the pictures he took of Johnny Rotten at an AMFAR thing last night. He didn't get in and shot them through a window but it was cool nonetheless.

Web came and got Timmy and they went to take Nettie to the airport. She to returns to the real world. Now we are 3. I made some lunch, watched "Wings" on USA and typed up notes and reviews for yesterday's stuff.

Now we are 3.

Web and Tim got back from the airport around 2:30, we worked ont he site for a few minutes. They pointed out to me that it was snowing outside and the view out our window was quite spectacular.

We drove into Park City. I had wanted to a lot of the screenings at the No Dance competition screening, but we had missed many. web dropped us off at the Gateway and we got there just in time for the 4 o'clock screening. There were quite a few people there but it wasn't packed. The screening began with an unannounced re-screening of "Moses vs. Godzilla," so I had to sit through that unfunny atrocity yet again.

The first feature was "Waiting" but it was preceeded by a 15 minute short called "A Clockwork Maury." This had been hyped as a series of interviews with Stanley Kubrick's younger brother, Maury. "Waitng" stars Will Keenan and there was a short trailer for a film he has either made or is trying to get made. it's called "Operation Midnight Climax." This seemed like an interesting idea for a film about some sort of club (kinda like a rave or underground club or something) that a guy tries to interest females in attending. It looked okay - a bit interesting.

Here is my review of "Waiting." The director of the film said he got the money by making a trailer and having the script.

In the hallway outside I talked to the guy who made an alien movie. I can't remember what it was called. He was kinda an asshole. This made me wonder... If I am friends with someone, I think I can review their film objectively. But if I hate them... could I be as objective? I think I could. I didn't like this guy but I would still like to see his film.

He introduced me to a guy who had a short film in the festival in 97 or 98... Can't remember what the film was (but the title let you know it was a comedy). Can't remember what festival either. Maybe Slam.

Also talked to Jeanette Chivvis, the actress in Mike Tarnower's "15 Minute Tape," which was showing at 6. Jeanette had walked out on "Waiting" too.

We watched "15 Minute Tape" (a short film) and then left before the 6pm feature started. We were all pretty tense by this time.

We went to Slamdance and watched a great documentary about the 80's video revolution called "Searching for Roger Taylor." Taylor was the drummer for Duran Duran.

Web, Tim the wonder Horse and I are now having a spaghetti dinner at our condo. Tim just said, "I went to Taco Bell and 40 minutes later it was jazz fusion in my underwear." I told him I had to fart and he said "Don't John Coltrane" me - then did a jazz fart noise. I busted out my spaghetti all over the place. "That's a Miles Davis album... 'In a Silent but Deadly Way...'")

Afterwards, we tried to get into a screening of the film "Dolphins." This was a film you had to pay for but we had media passes. We were told by the festival people that our media passes were good to get into the film. Then, after waiting 35 minutes to see it, we were denied at the door. The screening also had a film by an Austin guy called "Crosswalk" and a short by a nice filmmaker we met called "Voodoo." I wanted to see all of these. Dan Murvis, the director of Slamdance was the guy who turned us away, so if you had a film at Slamdance in this set, I'm sorry, I didn't get in to see your film.

I wouldn't be so pissed off about this except for two things. 1) No one at Slamdance seems to know what the fuck is going on and 2) I could have went into the lounge and seen a film called "Enter" instead, which I wanted to see as well, if I had only known up front what was happening, what the deal was. It was a nightmare.

And herein lies the rub of Park city. One minute your in and you feel like somebody, the next minute you are out and you feel like nobody. It is the most exhilarating and defeating feeling imaginable. It is the ultimate in highs and lows. no wonder they have this damn festival on a mountain.

Don't get me wrong. Getting denied was a pain; but the bigger problem was the total chaos and lack of communication that was going on at Slamdance. Get your shit together people. There are tons of screenings and tons of parties, if you don't want me to go to yours, just say so. I won't take it personally. but don't lead me on and then cinematically cock-block me. That's wrong. That's fucked up. Don't make me the bitter guy when I'm having a week of nirvana.

We were leaving and Tim TWH was trying to get some screeners (films in competition on video for the media to view) while Web and I were going to get the car. We had to walk past the Egyptian theater (where Sundance screens some films) to get to our parking lot. There were a few people gathered around the back stage door so Web asked one of the "working" guys who was coming out. The guy, a cute, blonde, Nordic God, told us it was Kevin Spacey. We talked to him a bit and thought we might stay to see if we could see him. We asked the guy, who turned out to be a driver, if anyone else was around with Spacey and he told us Danny DeVito (as if he were a nobody). He also told us he had driven around Julianna Margulies earlier this week. We asked if he had driven them anyplace weird, like a strip joint or a gay bar and he said no.

I went to tell Tim TWH that Kevin Spacey might be coming out of the theater, cause he had the digicam but by the time he got there, Spacey was gone. Bummer. Web saw him briefly. Tim saw the back of DeVito's head. I, of course, saw nothing. Have you noticed that almost all of the pictures of celebrities on the site, almost none has me in it. I have seen a few, but not many. Okay, I glimpsed Jodie Foster and I did hang out with Tom Hodges, which was one of the best of my life, but damn. Could I get one more. Fuck. I'm like a celebrity junkie. Hit me one more time man... Put the match under the spoon and let's freebase a little Coen Brothers ...

Lodger2000

Park City, Utah

also...check out Tim's Virgin Eye View of day4.