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Notes
from Austin Volume 2 #32 (9/28/00)
LODGER's Notes
Well, a little while ago I celebrated my one year anniversary
as an Austin resident. This week marks the one year anniversary
of filethirteen. com
I just want to thank everyone who has made this year a rocking
experience for me. Especially my buddy Web who is the arms
and legs of filethirteen. Web works his ass off to get my
words up on the site and I could not even begin to do this
without him. Cheers, dude!
I had a pretty lame weekend recently, movie wise. I worked at
my day gig and spent the evenings with friends. It was only
lame in the sense that I just relaxed and enjoyed myself. I
didn't worry or think about the website or anything.
My friends Mary and Jan treated me to home cooked meals
at their new house on both Saturday and Sunday evening. I
didn't even get home made food from my mom on my last visit
to Houston! Of course, I eat out here in Austin most of the
time. Mary and Jan treated me like a king.
The other Monday night I went to Casinos and had some drinks.
It was a pretty typical Monday night. The DJ girl was spinning
and she actually played a pretty cool block of new wave hits
when I first got there; Lene Lovitch's "Home," Split Enz "I
Got You," Echo and the Bunnyman's "Do It Clean," and some other
songs. But, overall, she stuck to that 50's and 60's alt rock
that eventually works my nerves.
I went over to 710 afterwards but it was even more lame,
so I finally went home.
Tuesday, I had an interview with a writer from the Austin Chronicle.
I wish I could have picked where we met but I didn't have any
decent idea of a good place to hook up and we ended up going
to Bookpeople which, in my opinion, was a huge mistake. I had
never been to Bookpeople before and I hope I never have to go
again. It's like a fucking Barnes and Noble except they try
to appear to be a good ole mom and pop store - or worse yet
- some sort of eclectic bookstore for the hip intelligentsia.
They even have a table with info on "banned books" and stuff.
But the place is so oppressive. It's so BIG BUSINESS. At least
Barnes and Noble's act as if they are a big fucking chain store.
They ARE a big fucking chain store and are unapologetic about
it. Bookpeople tries to pretend that they are this cool little
groovy place when they actually reek of corporate greed and
commercialism. They're like the Republican bookstore. See, Barnes
and Noble is like Pat Robertson. It is what it is. It's not
even ashamed about what it is. Bookpeople is like George W.
Bush. It's trying to pretend it's some sort of idealistic, cool,
"normal" little thing when it is in fact a fucking wolf in sheep's
clothing. It made me ill.
I met the writer, David Garza, and we sat in the coffee
bar and talked. I felt uncomfortable and I couldn't truly
be myself. I usually don't mind when people overhear my conversations
in public. Like, if your standing in line or something, sometimes
you can give people something to do by talking a bit loudly
and letting them overhear you. But at the little wannabee
hideaway coffee shop at Bookpeople, everyone around us was
trying to read and study, so I felt like I was talking in
a library. I couldn't be as loud or flamboyant as I usually
am. I really felt like it was a bad interview. I don't know
what kind of coherent or, even more important, interesting
article could be written from it.
I didn't get to truly talk about how passionately I love
Austin or about all the exciting things I've done and interesting
people I've met. It's weird to be interviewed when you are
used to being the interviewer. I didn't steer the conversation
where I wanted to take it, so I didn't really get a chance
to say all that I wanted to say. That was unusual for me.
Wednesdays, I've been going to the Atomic Cafe for "Glam Slam"
nights. The other night, they had the worst DJ ever. I was there
3 hours - 3 HOURS - before he played a Bowie song. HELLO! What
a dumbass. The cute bartender there finally introduced himself
to me as Spider. He's got one of those weird haircuts where
part of his head is shaved (on the sides and back) and then
there's like a big piece of hair running down the center of
his head. I don't know, it looks so cute. There's a lot of black
lights in Atomic, so I need to get some fluorescent nail polish.
I have a new favorite TV show: "Strip Poker." It comes on USA
at 10pm (Central). It's a really, really, stupid game show that
has two college aged guys (and girls too) strip down to bikini's
while they answer really, really stupid trivia questions. It's
like 30 minutes of tease TV. And when the guys are cute - and
they usually are - all the better. What a great show. This is
the true power of the medium. Not to evoke thought or entertain
but to present mindless mild pornography. The television is
the Pussycat Theater of the new millennium!!!
My friend John Christensen has been out of town working on the
set of "Jesse James" for something like 4 weeks now. I am truly
going through some heavy Johnny withdrawal. It's killing me.
I finally watched the 8mm film I shot with John and Richard
Eckersley and David Bilow called "Rector." It was really bad
if you consider the content but the images and the lighting
and stuff looked really cool. I have been trying to get my 8mm
projector to work but can't seem to borrow a proper take up
reel. I had to rig it to get it to work so I could see "Rector."
Tim the Wonder Horse has been filming some stuff on video and
on 8 - and he wants to try and videotape the 8 stuff using my
projector. I've got to figure out how to make it all work.
Tim's also trying to put together some sort of short horror
flick for a contest that "Good Morning America" is doing. Since
I usually don't get up until noon, I have no idea what it's
all about, really.
In my CD Player
Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage" (thanks Phatt Matt) Eno's "Nerve
Net" Iggy's "TV Eye" and "The Idiot" Tik Tok's "A Single Drop
of Water..."
On my nightstand:
"Love is Colder than Death," the biography of Fassbinder
by Robert Katz "Lost Films" by Frank Thompson
Yet another Monday night at Casino's, but this time Mark Brauner
and Rich joined me. I called Mark on a whim because I was missing
hanging out with him and John and the Lube TV gang since John
is doing all this work on "Jesse James." We all meet at Casino's
and surprisingly, Mark asked me to cohost an episode of "Lube
TV" with him since John is out of town. Therefore, I will be
the first official replacement cohost in the history of the
TV show! As luck would have it, it was also Mark's birthday,
so he was in good spirits and I got to treat him to a couple
beers. It was nice to hang out with Mark and just shoot the
breeze. It was the first time we'd ever hung out without John
and, as I suspected, we had plenty to talk about and plenty
in common. It was really a delightful evening.
I haven't seen Rich in aeons, and he looked great. He claimed
to be a bit sick from a stomach virus but it didn't show.
He just looked wonderful. Rich is one of those kind of guys
that would not really catch your eye on the street, but when
you get to know him, you can't help but want to get with him!
Plus he has the most adorable and sincere smile this side
of the Mississippi. He's always fun to be around. And the
chemistry between he and Mark and myself just sparkled. We
had great conversations about film and acting and Austin and
stuff. Even the guys at the next table, as we sat on the outdoor
patio at Casino's, were working on a script. Austin rocks.
Mark and Rich are just two of the numerous multi-faceted people
I have met here over the past year or so. I was a happy guy
Monday night.
So I went for the first time to the Atomic Cafe for the Tuesday
night Fetish night (which has some kind of weird name like "Flesh
Assembly" now) and it's pretty typical. It was $7 to get in!
Here's a helpful tip: If you go, wear black. Don't wear
anything but black except for maybe some sort of silver chain
or stud or something. If you don't wear black , you look horribly,
obviously out of place.
So it's a pretty obvious scene. There are some cute guys,
some floggings going on (sort of a pay $5 and see your buddy
get whipped kinda thing). And the show they put on is pretty
much what you'd expect: scantily clad girls whipping and getting
whipped. Nothing out of the ordinary from what you'd expect
at a punk club on a sort of hetero bondage night. But late
into the evening, something extraordinary did happen to me.
At about 2 o'clock, I go to pee and a really cute blonde guy
is at the trough. Normally, I am pretty pee shy but I really
have to go, so I haul it out and pee. The guy chats me up
and before long, after we both mumble out something about
"not being gay" he's all over me. I'm nervous as fuck cause
it is, predominantly, a straight bar (or at least pretends
to be) and anyone can just walk in, when, in fact, the door
opens and some other guy comes in. Surprisingly and much to
my relief, it's blondie's friend; it's one of the first guy
I've seen get flogged in the evening. He's been shirtless
ever since.
Soon we are enmeshed in a sort of three way hug with much
nipple biting going on. It was really odd. I am just not used
to such goings on. Of course, I'm nervous as fuck and totally
unable to just relax and get into it. (It is, after all, a
fantasy come to life). The two guys are sort of making out
and I'm just sort of there trying to figure out what the fuck
to do when the door opens again and I sort of break off from
the guys and we sort of go our separate ways, even though
this forth guy is also friends with blondie. This is all really
odd seeing as how I didn't allow myself to relax and enjoy
it. Next time, I'll be more able to relax but, of course,
it will never happen again.
Still, if you want to find me on Tuesday nights from now
on, chances are I'll be at Atomic for the fetish night. Even
with a $7.00 cover, it's one of the most interesting nights
I've had out on the town in a long time.
Stuff I'd really like to see here in town but probably wont:
"Tru" at Zach Scott (thru 10/8) "Elytra" at the Vortex (thru
9/30) 9/30 - Daniel Ash of Bauhaus - Guest DJ at Atomic Cafe
10/14 - Tragically Hip at Stubbs 10/20 - Supersuckers at the
Metro 10/25 - Victoria Williams at the Texas Union 10/28 -
Fastball at Stubbs 11/3 - Tom Tom Club at Flamingo Cantina
I watched LubeTV for the first time in a long time and I think
Access screwed up again and showed the wrong episode. They showed
Episode 33 which featured Bowie's video for "Ashes to Ashes"
and an interesting short film from around the same time period,
the early 80's, called "Extended Play" which brought back many
a memory about the early days of video games and video arcades.
I think they were supposed to show episode 35 which featured
the local short "My Life Is Pastry" and an in-depth interview
with Milena Grozeva, the writer and director of the film.
Later that night I caught what was apparently the last show
of "The Austin Connection" which was sort of a rave/live DJ
show that could have some fun moments. They had a guest Dj
named Bill who was really cute. Dj Kadabra, who has been there
a lot lately, is always nervous when he takes callers - actually
terrified is more like it. He can't seem to handle the dickheads
who call and hassle the on screen talent. But Bill was a rock
star. He did a set that started with train whistles and crickets
and weird sfx then rocked for over an hour. and when he took
calls, he was funny and quick and clever. He rawked. If they
return with another show/a new show in January, they gotta
have this guy on. He needs to guest on LubeTV too. He was
awesome.
That reminds me, I also saw Ol' Bitty for the first time the
other night. Now here's a guy... er host... who knows how to
deal with the asshole crank callers. What a great show! I think
it's on at like 2am on Thursday nights/Friday morns if I'm not
mistaken.
And that's a wrap for this time. Peace Lodger2000
Austin
Film News: (New 9-29-00) The
latest info on Screenings in the Austin area, Austin films,
actors,and directors, as well as info about Austin's numerous
Film Festivals
Hollywood
News :
(New 9-29-00) The latest info on Hollywood films, actors,
directors, and studios as well as info about Film Festivals
and on-line screenings... !
Things
to do this Week - Check the calendar!
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