The silent bob signature tattoo tale

once upon a time in pico Rivera I had cable. Now kids back in the day they had pay preview channels where you could preview movies. A channel just ran trailers of pay per view cinema. So I found "chasing Amy" that way and I was hooked. At the time I was about 17 and was just discovering myself and I suppose a movie with both geekness and lgbtq themes got to me. I recorded it and I fell in love.  Now when I entered college I took some playwriting classes (about a year) I had a passion for it but found that my cinema preferences often clashed with people who just went on and on about theater experiences they had. One day the professor announced we each had to write a one act and have it be judged my representatives from the Kennedy center. I wrote a piece about a guy confessing his love for a girl...last ditch "all or nothing" effort....then I saw mallrats (yes...mallrats inspired me)
now this came as a revelation to me. The idea that a story can be conveyed in my tone...your average friendly neighborhood geek. Our professor always blasted me for making references"the general audience" wouldn't get...for fucks sake he once told me I should omit a line as too vague, when all the guy said was he "didn't want to be another brick in the wall." All praise fell on a lady who wrote a one piece about a woman (claimed it was something that happened to her mother) who was being interviewed by a Nazi officer! It was completely paint by numbers.
so after a director was assigned
before casting or anything I chucked the script
the new story involved an asshole sabotaging his friend hooking up with a girl he lusted over..graduation night.
and it was chock full of geekness...hell the whole thing is set against a viewing of"Carrie"
no one liked it but my fellow geeks,
the Kennedy center hated it
the director didn't even bother to show up
Nazi story woman got praise
somewhere a dog barked
but I stood by my convictions. I wasn't making things for the general public I was making things in my own Spiderman man loving manchild voice and I wasn't apologizing for it. Due to lack of adult male figure in my household all my younger siblings latched onto my likes. First time I met Kevin smith my 7 year oldish sis got a comic signed by him ("I didn't know our fans were this young") Kevin told her.
I got second place in a short story contest...Kevin gave me a pep talk
I went to arclight with my boyfriend and talked to Kevin and his wife who were in attendance
I broke up with my boyfriend...Kevin hugged me...it seemed for a bit that Kevin smith cameoed in my late teens / early twenties all the time
07/23/2008
Kevin smith was at the secret stash (they had a west LA location once upon a time). So I went with my now age appropriate youngest sister to a signing of the DVD for the British show "spaced"(also met Simon pegg). So I ask Kevin to sign my arm
"who else do you have?" I tell him John waters and Gregg Araki."
he smiled and nodded a fuckin'a nod "Greg Araki"
fucking A

The ballad of the second signature tattoo...Gregg Araki

I want to start off with a happenstance
so one day I was showing my bud squared (we were probably dating at the time ) " doom generation" we get around to Dustin Nguyen of 21 jump street fame getting his head blown off and landing in guacamole...when suddenly squared freaked out..not over the reanimated head vomiting guacamole but because I had in showing him the flick had solver a mystery of his past...the story goes one night he and his father were watching late night cable when they saw the aforementioned scene and did a WTF unknowing what movie it was or what context it had occurred in..till that moment squared sat shocked at the randomness.

I first was introduced to Gregg Araki cinema one night as I had sleepless slumber. I was dealing with my homosexual tendencies. The biggest issue was that I didn't see myself in gay culture. You don't get very many representations in popular media of korn loving punk rock music listening to horror movie buffs...so how could I be gay? I couldn't sleep..i was crying and dealing with my ever increasing feelings towards guys when I decided sleep wasn't happening so I turned on the tv and like squared I found an Araki movie while channel surfing. As I watched "nowhere"
I found myself growing attracted to James Duval...then he has a speech about being doomed...that was cathartic...then another blonde guy showed up...gorgeous and blonde...now if you've seen an Araki movie you know that his gay characters are unconventional (90210 with piercings and tattoos some critics have stated) and nowhere was no exception. You have to understand I was practically suicidal at this point. I had a girlfriend but I couldn't bring myself to go any further with her. I was abused for years as a child because I wasn't straight acting as a kid...to accept being gay was an acceptance that the perpetrator of my abuses was right...but I couldn't help it. I was growing attracted to the high school QB and I couldn't handle it.
James Duval and Nathan bexton end up together in bed at the end.
"all of my life I've wanted to find someone who loves me and accepts me for who what I am"
I cried more. They weren't your typical homosexuals and I realized then I didn't have to be either.
Gregg Araki (and Brian grillo of extra fancy) kept me from being another statistic.
11/24/2007 I raced across Santa Monica with stolzman from a showing of "brick" at the rialto (more on that later) to the nuart where Araki's newest flick "smiley face" (which he directed only) was being shown with an Araki QandA...so we raced so I could have Araki sign my arm so I could get it inked the next day. Movie, purchasing of a Harold and Maude DVD at the cinema, Araki was standing in the lobby. I actually already told him the story of how he saved me (this was my second time meeting him the first was at a "mysterious skin" screening) so this time was strictly a signature endeavor...so he places the marker on my arm and sees my first signature tattoo
"is that John waters?" I tell him it is "I don't want to be upstaged by John waters!"
he signs my arm and tells me he's going to have to tell John about this one.
since that day I've met several people who have been touched by his flicks..all queer dudes who saw a bit of themselves in his cinema. His signature tattoo is for a suicidal teenager who found himself via independent cult cinema.

Signature one...john waters

so having decided to get filmmaker tattoos John waters made sense...see with John I first realized the concept of filmmakers.
see I grew up with a minimal world view on cinema. See movies had no connection aside from sequels. There was no "hey lets see the newest Spielberg movie!" no concept of personal style. Now I won't tell how I met John waters cinema (http://www.dreamlandnews.com/fans/zero_p.shtml
) see I'll tell you the story of Sonya orloff.
one day as I was waiting for a tram to take me up to college (it was on a hill) a lady I would now state was very much like Valerie solanis struck up a conversation with me. She saw me reading a magazine with John on it and suddenly she was grilling me on his other work. I felt inferior having only seen serial mom. I told her I'd check out the rest. I met a new world.
I've always been attracted to the more eccentric parts of life. But in John waters I found with a similar taste of the absurd.
if my filmmaker tattoos represent a specific time in my life I think John waters's signature represents a transition period for me. I got into John as I was discovering my queer identity. Meeting him, having iconic LA punk legend jenny Lenz take a picture of him signing my arm..just surreal. Since meeting him it seems like every unique and interesting person I've met has somehow involved John waters (not to say I haven't met people that haven't). One time someone struck up a conversation with me because I was reading a John waters book on the redline...and I had a Sonya orloff flashback.

The one with the origin of the signature tattoo's

As you may or may not know depending on if I know you..or you know me...well hopefully I know you because while it's flattering when someone says they know you and see you around but you never see them...like sometimes...I'll be at a bar or the cinema and someone suddenly tells me they ride the bus with me all the time and they want to know if I see them...and i'm like...no...Like this one time on the 720 rapid this dude named Jeff was all like...I see you...You ever see me? And I was like....umm no...

Moral Orel is my right arm is full of signatures from various filmmakers and other individuals who in some form shaped my upbringing.  People always ask me if I know Tyler Durden (they don't I just couldn't help making that reference) People always ask me if I ever plan on pursuing a dream of making movies, often I tell them "perhaps" but more often than not I tell them that not every child in a farm town wants to grow up and be a farmer.  Now as I go into these filmmakers and give you an origin story on them then , hey, it might make sense to you why I have silly scribbles on my arm but I can't just jump right into it with JW proper because as everyone knows you need a preamble

some sort of statement of intent

so here you go.  Statement of intent

Now some people love to get tattoo's of things they feel are special, dear etc.  See like someone may never say meet a panda in person, but they might get one inked...now that's their thing.  The first tattoo I got was at 19 on my back.  The story goes like this..I had a hoodie...i kidnapped my sister and her friend and we went around asking dudes we thought were cute if it made a good tattoo, around the point one guy lifted up his shirt and showed us his scorpion tattoo did we decide it would make for an awesome tattoo.  You get ink about things you like right?

And so one day after seeing "Cecil B. Demented" (where cinema terrorist get tattoos of their favorite filmmaker) did it make sense.  I decided one day the first signature would be the first tattoo...and honestly I didn't plan on my right arm becoming what it has.

Clovis the cat: The greek tragedy

Jungian psychology tells us that "only that which can destroy itself is truly alive" and it is with that idea in mind mixed in with a little bit of greek tragedy that I present the story of Clovis.
The cat.
In 1992 an original Stephen King screenplay "sleepwalkers" brought us the story of one Charles and Mary Brady who had an incestuous mother / son relationship...capable of becoming huge bipedal werecats who fed off of the life force of virgin women (yes..I felt silly having to write that bit out)....Now a lot happens there's a girl named Tanya, and Otto from Beetlejuice (Glenn Shadix representing) pops up...There's creepy music dancing...But we don't actually get to the meat of it all till we get to practically the end.
Having mortally wounded a deputy, the deputies cat (clovis, who is always by his side) attacks Charles leaving him clinging to life.
Charles, having killed the Clovis's owner and thus his "father" is now the subject of sweet sweet revenge.
Clovis proceeds to rally various other cats
They stalk the Brady family
station themselves menacingly in the front yard
And wait
See the cats posses a knowledge known to only one other person (s)
the Brady's
See....Their one weakness is cats

Granted it's a convenient plot device (perhaps too convenient?) that they should be killed by the one thing they resemble.  Huge hulking six foot tall cats killed by Baxter.

Not as much of a stretch I mean...In cinema isn't the antagonist always killed by their own?  Nancy to Freddy, Laurie to Michael etc. etc. etc.

Presenting the story of Clovis as such is an interesting experiment but I would rather see it as being the story not told.  Some of the more interesting things in life are things that we don't get all the pieces for...in life you're not often given a full script..only what part you play in it all.

The story of Clovis is your classic revenge story with all the thematic elements present...We just can't speak cat and therefore aren't presented with rousing speeches convincing cats to abandon their plush lives and risk certain death in an effort to help exact revenge.

Personally I would rather see the revenge story from the cat's perspective. 

A naked american man stole my balloons

Rufus Deakin never made it as an actor.

He only has one IMDB credit
"Little boy with balloons."  But Rufus here is an underdog.
In life there are moments when we realize normality isn't always the norm.
As a young child leaving the local Target store...I became fascinated with a woman asking for change.  We passed by her and I offered her what little change 6 year old me had....As my mom put our purchases away I asked her for change and I went back and gave her more....I did this about 3 more times.  Now you would see this as a sure fire sign of a child geared towards altruistic tendencies.  A frood who really has his head together and will act in the interest of some greater good....Ok I mean that sort of ended up being the case...But that's not the point.  The moral orel of it all is that the lady was bizzare.
I remember she was hunched over, and missing teeth and well...I liked her.  When you gave her change she bestowed a lot of blessings on you and acted like you had just given her a hundred dollars.  We're raised to expect the world to function in a very specific order...From the way we are raised to believe family units work (mommy and a daddy) to how nestle brand chocolate mix goes best with milk and ONLY milk (that one might actually be true...I mean soy milk though...how many people are raised with soy?).
Around this time I became enamored with this show called "That's incredible"
Now I never really got why I was so fascinated with things like ghost, etc.  My dad (while being a devout christian) made fun of me for some of my beliefs.  It's wasn't till I discovered John Waters movies (more on that some other time) that I realized what it was I found fascinating.
See life we are told is black and white...It isn't.  There's all sorts of variables and twist and turns and sometimes you have plans that aren't actualized, and sometimes you find you're not the person you were raised to be.
Sometimes the party takes you to places you didn't count on going.
But more importantly at some point in time you realize that stranger danger applies to everyone not just old men sitting alone in a playground with an ice cream cone.  And maybe it was one specific incident or moment.  For me it was that lady in the target store...But Rufus Deakin plays a character who...I don't think is every fully used in cinema.  Rufus plays "Little boy with balloons" a child who loses his childlike innocence of the world through a realization that it's a very strange and bizarre place full of strange and bizzare people.  Of american men claiming to be bush thieves
of american men with no clothes (possibly even the first american he ever encountered!)
...And Was David jewish?  Maybe that was a first too.
We cut away right after his statement to her mother with her shockingly stating "What?" if ever you wanted the camera to linger just a few more minutes it would be at THAT moment.  This potential moment which can be viewed as a follow up to "the red balloon" though shows us that even those odd people we meet have their own layers, like onions. You peel back the naked american man craving latex and you get a werewolf (he became a werewolf in London so it shouldn't be "an american werewolf in..." since that implies he became a werewolf stateside and then went to London....but don't get me started on that).  It's a big world out there and we've all been Rufus Deakin at one time or another.  At least only the ones who are truly alive realized that things can get a little strange sometimes.
And there ain't anything wrong with that

where's my cake Bedelia?

Nathan Grantham: [beginning of a flashback sequence] Where's... my cake? I... want... my... cake! Where's my cake, Bedelia? Where's my Father's Day cake? I want my cake you dirty BITCH! I'm going to have it!
Nathan Grantham: [Nathan clacking his cane, bellowing] BEDELIA! It's Father's Day! Where's my cake? You promised me my cake! Bedelia, I'm your father and you're supposed to be taking care of me!
Bedelia Grantham: [distressed, almost driven to the point of madness] I DON'T HEAR YOU! I SAID I DON'T HEAR YOU!
Nathan Grantham: BEDELIA, YOU BITCH! What do you think I've got you here for? You're just like all the others - you're nothing but a bunch of VULTURES!
[Bedelia is in a highly distressed state, almost driven to the point of madness now]
Nathan Grantham: [still clacking his cane, the clacking sound has been slowly intensifying] BEDELIA! WHERE'S MY FATHER'S DAY CAKE?
Bedelia Grantham: [Bedelia picks up the marble ashtray and lifts it above her head, her father looking up at her in terror] HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
Bedelia Grantham: [Bedelia bashes her father's head in with the marble ashtray, killing him instantly] .

Parents seem to believe that they have diplomatic immunity.
 certain ideologues state we are supposed to respect our parents unconditionally and more often than not this leads to a false sense of entitlement.
I don't get where a lot of entitlement comes from. Out of all the times in their life my parents had sex i resulted in one...i just got lucky.
In life we all want acknowledgement ... 
our"cake"
but "cake" should be earned...not distributed without having done anything to deserve it.
it's something that happens with fathers....post a divorce it seems like there is an expectation you'll be there for them unconditionally. They might ran off with someone else and abandon responsibility but still want the benefits that come with responsible parenting.
Maybe that's the real moral orel ofu the segment of "creepshow" in question. Your children aren't there for you to flaunt your perceived entitlement at so...you make your own cake.
so the real character growth comes from the reanimated corpse...
granted Bedelia progresses in achieving decapitation...but that's hardly positive growth.