Got up early today, packed my gear (computer, 3 feet of phone line, portable cd player I bought at a Pawn Shop this week, and my cds of DAS BOOT, SUPERMAN, FLASH GORDON, THE SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS, THE BLUES BROTHERS and THE BEST OF BUSBY BERKELEY AT WARNER BROTHERS. Oh yeah and clothes and an uncorrected advance copy of a book called READING THE RABBIT: EXPLORATIONS IN WARNER BROS. ANIMATION edited by a Kevin Sandler, and the script to an unnamed year 2000 Disney animation property.)
My father and I dropped my sister off at school and I went to Target to get socks, a notebook, pen and a wristwatch. From there we went to the Austin Municipal Airport, where I would leave my gorgeous city for ATLANTA home of all those rabid scalp chopping baseball fans. The city that if the yankees hadn't burned it, then there would have been no need to burn KING KONG's wall for the making of GONE WITH THE WIND. Sigh... venting, please excuse.
Everything seems to be going well at the airport, then at the time they are supposed to say, "Now Boarding Flight 1814 from Austin to Atlanta," they say, "Our compass is broken, we have to fix it." They tell me it will be a 30 minute delay. I give Dad a call to tell him what is going on, when they make another announcement, so I tell Dad I'd talk to him later. The new announcement says they are flying in a compass from Dallas and the flight is delayed 2 hours. WHAT!?? Now I know for a fact that there is a Walgreens up the road, and you can get one of them groovy sphere compasses that you can stick on your dash for like $1 and in 15 minutes. So what the hell? Damn DELTA!
Meanwhile all the 'connection folks' are going nuts. I go to call Dad to call Atlanta and update the Festival people. The line is busy.... OH THE SCORN of my line being busy, revenge for a thousand score of busy signals people get when I'm online. Sweet revenge. Argh!! So I call up GLEN, I give him the whole skinny and since HE IS DEPENDABLE, I know he'll answer, which he does. whew!
Time passes as I'm tempted by the evil Taco Hell in the airport, but I realize I'm a stronger person that. BEANS AND LARD HARRRRRRRY... Back demons of my Id. Time passes and it's the theoretical boarding time. As I show up they say our flight is now indefinately delayed. AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!! Man, this sucks. Damn dirty deltans. First there was that tart that came on to Decker and the Voyager probe, and now this.
Then an announcement saying I'd get to Atlanta at 7:55pm. First of all I have a speaking engagement at 7:30 so I can't be late. People are counting on me. People paid to see me, (and a more retarded concept I've never heard of), and I can't let em down. (severe sarcasm.) So I call my house to get Dad, who is again stilll on the Net. So I call Glen, who is now gone. So I call Atlanta and tell them. I hear a miserable groan from Gabe (he's the top dude at this here Film Fest), but he says it'll just start late. I feel guilt for no particular reason.
I begin thinking that this Airport would be a sucky place to live when the undead walk the earth thirsting for my flesh. Then I meet some people headed to Dublin (cool, I have the soundtrack for THE SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS which flew across the Atlantic and Jimmy screams out the window to find out he is in Ireland) They are terrified of missing their connection in Ireland.
Then I decide to call Robogeek. I'm in the midst of roasting the Deltans, when they say "NOW BOARDING" hahahaha, man Robogeek has power.
The flight was fairly uneventful, except that I took off to the soundtrack of THE SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS by Franz Waxman, and I have to recommend this for you folks out there. As the stirring theme rose so did I through wispy clouds, watching the ground getting further, I could feel the shaking and buzzing of the brushed steel finished plane. I could almost make out my compass in the bubblegum stuck mirror. A tear formed.
Then it was John Williams' incredible SUPERMAN score. I can not recommend flying with this theme enough. Wow. To look out the window and hear that music as we went through this cloud bank, over that one, I could almost feel Margot Kidder's fingertips.
As Atlanta neared I programmed the little Cd Player to repeat the last five tracks of DAS BOOT which is the amazing score with dialogue and sound effects. I shut my eyes, closed the visor on my window, turned off the air blowy thing, and listened to the sounds of the great U-Boat flick. The creaking around me combined with the turbelance was thrilling. When the bolts started blowing all around me, and the floor bucked as an explosion went off. Wow, the ultimate way to hear Klaus Doldinger's score.
Next time I'll have to bring the ROCKETEER. I arrive, find my driver, and we head to the reception/talk area. We arrive EXACTLY on time. I planned that. uh huh, sure did.
I meet a couple of the other judges and then collect myself for the talk I was about to give. People keep coming up to meet me, all enthused about meeting me. Noone sounds like Vivian Leigh, another preconception shot to hell. I do my typical breathing exercises and am ready for the talk.
The talk is in a relatively small stage sort of thing, and it's pretty cool, about 50 people or so. A decent looking lot, not a single NRG sniper in the lot. So I talked. Actually performed was more like it, wish I could remember some of the lines that came out, but I was real good tonight. They laughed, clapped and didn't hate me. Good. Three good things. Unfortunately they did not throw quarters or tuck money in my belt.
Afterwards was a reception with food, BUT I was trapped by people with questions. So I decided to blow off food, it isn't necessary, I could live for about 3 months without food. I have a damn good discussion with these folks, and many of them are coming to SXSW next week. Wow. Am I suppose to be recruiting? I don't know.
Stayed talking till about midnight (electric cool standard time) Lots of innerestin' pokes. The other judges seem cool, but I'm gonna slaughter them, fight them with illogic, dazzle them with dumbness, and basically rule the process. Yeah right, I'll just moo along with the peer pressure of the world. NOT. I'm gonna pick cool stuff, then argue like hell for it. I think the votes should be adjusted for body weight, that way I could get 3 votes.
Well, now I'm in my hotel room and typing to you, I have to wake up in about 5 hours. So till then I'll chat atcha later! I have no idea what films I'll be seeing, but I'll find the good ones for ya.
