I seem to have discovered that one cannot access older blog posts on
myspace, after a point?!? I wrote some stuff early in the summer
about my obsession with George A. Romero, plus some personal
experiences I had trying to cover his fourth zombie flick, "GAR's Land
of the Dead," on the radio show I usually host on KCSB 91.9 fm
<www.kcsb.org>, "The Freak Power Ticket" (currently on hiatus).
Fearlessly wanting to sharing my writing with the peeps out there, I
was going to blog what was going to be my "trilogy" of GAR-related
essays here, but then realized I only got two-thirds of the way through
that project... Thanks for indulging me with this. At least it's
the right time of year to repost this stuff!
---------------
Part One: On Seeing "George A. Romero's Land of the Dead" @ an
L.A. Premiere (Originally Posted on Myspace: July 20, 2005)
Shit.
I don’t know the last time I wrote for an audience (guess it was for a
professional listserve recently, a whole discussion in its own right).
Here’s my first attempt at blogging… (I feel so “next millennium!!!” )
Sadly,
my first coupla paragraphs just disappeared off the computer screen, so
I’m going to take another stab at this offline, save it, and then paste
it into this whole interface.
I started that piece by going into
my obsession with zombie movies. I guess you could say that I’m a huge
fan of George A. Romero’s living dead films. I’ve been pretty tickled
by his re-emergence during (what his L.A. Weekly interviewer called)
‘the wrong side of his 60s’ (at least by Hollywood standards).
I
have to out myself here. I’d venture that I’ve seen Romero’s “Dawn of
the Dead” about… Jesus… Dozens of times! “Night” less, but a lot. “Day
of the Dead” up to 10 times maybe? But “Dawn of the Dead” fucking
changed my life. I first caught it at a raucous, packed midnight
screening in the early 1980s, back when I was a teenager. It was
probably my first midnight movie ever (I went with my brother and his
girlfriend/future ex-wife). Later, I actually took my first date to see
it. I think it was “homecoming” night of my senior year. After the
dance. (Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I thought that it might
make her grab my arm or something, ‘cause my bros’ girlfriend grabbed
my forearm the time before that, like we were on a rollercoaster or
something! That girl, Jill Van Vorhees, though, was too cool for such
behavior… plus she had fucking seen the movie already. Ha.). I was a
sympathy date for Jill…Friend of her older brother. I think that I was
a project for her, on some level (I had been such a basket case since
sophomore year, when my skin went haywire). I grew up in movie
theaters… (I was too shy in high school, too damaged, to do the whole
music thing… That came a bit later.)
No
wonder I was into these films… There’s this whole mirroring going on
between us in the real world and Romero’s zombie characters… They
reflect the ways that we see our selves as abject, and monstrous, just
like so many damaged, maladjusted teenagers. Ever since those fuckers
(“stenches?” “walkers?”) started running, they largely stopped being
characters! As much as I loved “28 Days Later,” and was impressed by
elements of the “Dawn” remake, it took Romero with “Land of the Dead”
to remind us of that classic part of the horror genre: the ways in
which what’s “monstrous” reflects parts of who we are, or fear what we
might be (or become).
So… I got to meet the man recently. George
A. Romero, that is… Got off my ass after finding out about the Los
Angeles premiere of “Land,” worked a contact at Universal through the
generosity of the undergraduate advisor in UCSB’s Film Studies Dept.,
Joe Palladino… With Joe’s help, I got an email to this cat from the
studio, Jared Pfeifer, who may or may not have been a former student of
mine (I used to T.A. in the Film Studies department for a while), and
told him that I wanted to do a special broadcast of my radio show in
connection with the premiere of this series revival. Jared set me up
with a guest pass at a “special studio screening.”
It was my
first “red carpet” Hollywood event (I had seen something like that in
connection with the SB International Film Festival, but nothing like
that line of paparazzi on a sort of catwalk along the street, outside
the National Theater in Westwood). I was struck by how there wasn’t a
big marquee outside the theater… they had just roped off the sidewalk,
lay down their red carpet, and had dozens of photographers stand along
the gutter. It was such an image-oriented phenomenon, I couldn’t bring
my minidisk recorder into the theater with me – they’re so afraid of
piracy, the studios – and since it all came together so late, I never
had time to talk someone into going with me to the screening, which
will factor into how some of this played out (in terms of my desire
even to record as little as two or three interview questions with the
“master” himself).
A very big line already wrapped around the
theater when I showed up. (The Weekly had advertised a ticket giveaway
at the Tower Records on the Strip.) I managed to get immediate,
priority access through my studio pass, but was forced to put my
recording device back in my car before taking my seat. The sentry –
some European looking dude, like one of the sharp-featured
Scandinavians from “Operation Hennessey” in “The Life Aquatic” -- even
scolded me for trying to bring a recorder into the theater, upon my
return to his checkpoint! I just pointed to my KCSB shirt and told him
that I had thought that I might be getting a press pass instead of just
a guest one… I was thinking “chill out, dude!,” so I had to say
something to him… (Post-9/11 security measures seem to intersect in
curious ways with the “home taping is destroying the music industry”
vibe that overflows from the whole entertainment world,but that’s more
than I can tackle in this particular forum).
Not too much that
was especially noteworthy about the pre-screening scene inside the
theater. Free popcorn and beverages… I noticed Patricia Tallman (star
of the “Night” remake in 1989,and also in the wonderfully cheesy Romero
classic, “Knightriders”) in the house… Some hunky semi-washed-up TV
actor, James something or other,was there with his very “L.A.” hottie.
What also stood out for me about the privileged crowd inside was that
the studio people seemed so freaking square!!! I couldn’t get over
seeing a Romero flick in a theater filled with aging industry suits,
their young loser wannabe successors, studio gofers fresh out of film
school, and a good number of out-of-place women in stiletto heels.
There were two leathery boomer dudes across the aisle to my left,
comparing PDAs with some younger, turned-out babe in front of them…
Lots of fancy clothing. It was trés surreal to be privy to that whole
crowd’s shtick.
The unwashed masses came in closer to screening
time, and included your expected geeky film buff and comic-book store
types, a gothy/punky looking couple, a couple teens with their parents,
other ordinary shmoes… I didn’t really get much of a sense of who all
was there, since they came in not too long before the introductions.
They certainly felt more like people I was used to seeing movies with…
A few worker-bees from the industry who could probably hold decent
conversations were in the crowd as well…
As for the glamorous
types: I had noticed some of the cast and crew earlier, peering outside
of the theater window on the second floor down towards the catwalk on
the street. After a bit, I went downstairs, sat down, and watched their
legs from the behind the glass (the windows were all covered up for the
most part). There was a tall, skinny blonde actress that I still can’t
quite place (the one who drove the Dead Reckoning?)… “Big Daddy” Eugene
Clark was all dapper in black and a stylish leather jacket. I didn’t
recognize anyone else at that point. I did see Romero’s limo pull up
eventually, though…
The producer said a few words and introduced
the special guests… The makeup guy, Nicotero, actors Robert Joy and
Eugene Clark, the Samoan guy in the film, Pedro something… Dennis
Hopper, of all people, was there too! He seemed pretty boring,
ultimately… Didn’t linger after the screening, was in an expensive but
unassuming suit, waved to the crowd upon being mentioned. Nothing else
of note about his appearance… He’s clearly not all hopped up on cocaine
like he was back in the late ‘70s.
And then, not long after I
spied him walking into the house, they called up Georgy-boy to say a
few words… (More about this later…)
:)