Down in the Dumps

May 24, 2004

No car, bad mood. My cousin informs me that the original owner of the car is in jail for seven years, therefore he cannot sign over the car to me. But it will be taken care of.

May 25 I am such a loser.

Still no car, still in a bad mood. I must be really unhappy, since I got motivated to start a new feature length script. I write 18 pages.

May 26

Still no car, but there is hope I will be able to get it out tomorrow. I sign a bunch of stuff from the DMV that my cousin brings to me. Maybe I should have read it before I signed it. Cady came over to pick up the foley CDs to give to his friend who has a ProTools set up.

The System Pimped me Back

On my way to the "cipher" shoot, my car gets impounded. I am left on the side of the road with all the film equipment, including the camera and film we need for the shoot. Rewind to one hour earlier. I decide to wear my PIMP THE SYSTEM T-shirt. Rewind to August 2003: my tags expire and I do not renew because I don't feel like it. Fast forward to this morning: I drive to 7-11 to get some caffeine, and as always, there is a cop parked there. I go in anyway, testing fate, and I really need a Red Bull. The cop catches up to me before getting on the freeway.

WHO ARE MY PEOPLE?

Laura and I had lunch at Mona Lisa and she gave me a copy of Pro Tools "Juanito" burned for her. She also told me she was just awarded a grant from the Mexican government, State of Baja. I am so happy for her. It is very prestigious and this is great news. So I go home and try to install juanito's Pro-Tools and I fail miserably. Either it is not working or I don't know what the hell I am doing. I am inclined to believe the latter.

I meet Aaron Soto at the Media Arts Center for the screening of our films (Poly Esther and 33 1/3). The audience is mostly white and filmmakers. The first frame comes up, and everyone laughs at the Chia Pet. That did not happen at the Cinemainc screening. As the film progresses, the audience reacts differently than the Mexican audience, except for the rotten chicken sequence. Disgusting, smelly chicken is universal and Chia Pets are not, I guess. This screening leads me to believe that my people don't get my film. This bothers me because I don't want to make culture specific films. Who are my people anyway? Oh, and Aaron tells me I intimidated the Mexican audience. That I should smile more. I am going to have to take an acting class and put vaseline on my teeth. I scare people. That's just great. After the screening, a few actors and filmmakers approach me and give me their headshots and contact information and congratulate me. A transsexual (I can only assume it is a transexual and not just a transvestive because he/she is serious about passing as a woman) talks to me, but I don't remember what he/she said to me, since it is hard talking to a man trying to pass as a woman. It is for me at least. Very distracting.

HANGOVER

I have a mini-hangover from those two bass ales I drank last night. That's pathetic. It means my alcohol tolerance is almost nil because I am not going out or doing anything "fun." I email the cast crew asking for their bios. I hope some of them respond.

ONE MORE REASON NOT TO MOVE TO LA

Giancarlo’s friend emails me back telling me he no longer has Pro-Tools. Should I swallow my pride and see if the foley artist can do something? I still have some hope I will be able to do this on my own. I search the internet for free webpage design classes. How hard can it be? Sleeping is for people with lives, not filmmakers.

I get drunk with one and a half Bass Ales while listening to Jeff Buckley and working on the press kit. Somehow I find out that it is illegal to lick toads in Los Angeles. One more reason not to move to L.A.

THE FINAL CONFLICT AND THE PEOPLE’S ELBOW

I am seriously considering studying Karl Rove's spin tactics and applying them to film marketing. Evil bastard. I think he might be Damien from the Omen III. They get away with everything.

Laura changed her production company name from Morgana to Suawaka Films. It means "shooting star" in yaqui, our indigenous ancerstors from the Sonora desert. I am very proud of my yaqui heritage, but I must say Suawaka sounds too much like Chewbaca. She says she doesn't care because she likes that "hairy dude." Okay, if that is what she wants I am changing it, but I am sure there are many cool sounding yaqui words she can use that don't sound like a Star Wars character. I go to Digital Pickles to re-do the credits in light of this name change and because Torrence screwed up the credits. I have a few other minor changes. He says I am beyond super-anal, I say no, I have my reasons and they are very specific. It takes us FOREVER to finish, not because I am anal, but because he takes forever! I even had time to watch The Rock on RAW. He was the surprise guest. I also learned what to “rock bottom” is and how to use the “people’s elbow.” That has been the highlight of my week so far.

PRO TOOLS ANYONE?

May 12, 2004

Neil informs me that alt.pictureshows will be at the La Jolla museum. Giancarlo emails me with a potential Pro Tools contact.

May 14, 2004

It has been two weeks since the Cinemainc. screening, and I still have not found a way to get the full foley. The guy Chris F. recommended has not called me back.

SERGIO LEONE AND DADDY’S HOME COOKING

I spend the whole day at my parents’ house recovering, eating and watching Once Upon a Time in the West. I show my parents my film. They don’t seem to get it or like it that much. They do get a kick out of my brother being in the credits though.