The Vegas Window

Wesley Willis’s Joyrides Trailer:

A few months ago I helped promote a brand new documentary at the Florida Film Festival about the life of Wesley Willis called Wesley Willis’s Joyrides. I discovered Wesley in high school when some friends played his tracks for me off Napster. Every time we did a new search we would find another track of his. The supply seemed unlimited. Of course everybody else just found the music funny and eventually forgot about it. But I thought about the music and I thought about Wesley. I wondered what it was like to be him and to be so famous for such an obscure talent. I was constantly questioning my interest in Wesley. Was he actually a genius? Was he just another victim of people’s never ending drive to escalate the absurd to the level of art? Was Wesley being exploited?

The film answered many of these questions and as I spoke with the filmmakers (Kim Shivley and Chris Bagley) throughout the week I came to a better understanding of who Wesley was. No he wasn’t being exploited. He wanted people to hear his music and wanted them to laugh. He knew sometimes they weren’t laughing with him but he handled the criticisms and heckling well. The man was walking out of shows each night with thousands of dollars. So who was playing who?

I found myself focusing on Wesley so much that it became almost surreal to be spending time with two people who not only knew him personally but documented his life, death, and were present at his funeral. I couldn’t stop wondering. What was he like off the stage? Did he ever slow down and just watch TV? The answers from Kim and Chris were not surprising. No, he never slowed down. He was making music and paintings up until his death. He never just sat still and watched the television. He would be asking you what you thought about this or that or a new song he was working on.

Kim and Chris were incredibly open with their memories of Wesley and equally as genuine in their time with me. The film festival is an event I look forward to every year as an incredible opportunity to spend time with a lot of talented people (abroad and local) and get to know a particular set filmmakers very well. We spent all week hanging out at the fest, eating free fancy food at parties, and drinking late night coffee at Dennys. We still talk often on the phone and I regularly text Kim Wesley Willis quotes like “I’m about to blow my socks off.” I even met their families who were in town for a vacation at Disney World. Chris’ brother was a particularly interesting guy who was reserved but oddly hilarious. You could seem him calculating jokes and quirky things to say, but once he said them he would just sit back and let it resonate without another word.

It is always interesting meeting people like this at the festival. For one week you see them everyday and in a large part feel responsible for making their stay in Orlando a comfortable one. Then eventually go home and you are left in your small town with all the same things. I don’t mind it. In fact there is a part of me that likes it. Its like hanging around a gymnasium after a prom has ended. The parties are still going on somewhere else but you are sweeping up confetti on the floor and pushing chairs under tables.

After every encounter I have with people like Kim and Chris I grow closer to where I want to be in my career. I get a taste of what is possible. The world shrinks. You realize how possible it is to do the things you want if you just don’t stop. I know, I know. I sound like some lame line from Rocky V. But it is true! I have been working on the same film for six years. I need some kind of encouragement!

This is a poster design I made for the film’s Florida screenings:

With all these internet jokes going around about Snakes On A Plane I figured this had to be a joke when I first read the title. Real incident, or cleaver viral marketing?

A few nights ago I watched Barb Wire on Sci-Fi Channel. I had a big long speech planned in which I would make fun of director David Hogan (who also worked on Alien 3 and Batman Forever… oh wow!), the film’s blatant similarities to Casablanca, and Pamela Anderson’s breasts that appear 3 seconds away from completley exploding like bobombs.

If this is what life is like after the second civil war I really hope I am on the North’s side, who lost the original war, and I die. HERITAGE NOT HATE!

I think my roomate Brett’s single sentence review summed up Silent Hill nicely:

“It was like watching the holocaust except no one stopped it in the end.”

The film begins like every horror movie you’ve seen: vague mystery, creepy scribbles, and an even creepier child. But about halfway through, the format shifts. The viewer is transported into a realm of pure dismay. Horrible creatures and humans alike are morbidly massacred, and the cameras never turn away. Faces melt off, bodies are skinned alive, people are torn to pieces (and those pieces are subesquently “squished” between someone’s bare feet). Instead of watching a movie meant to make you jump, it felt as though the movie wanted you to actually experience Hell.

Maybe that really was the point. If so, it succeeded ten-fold. There was no hope to speak of in the entire film. No secret weakness to an enemy who embodies evil. No heroes to stand behind. Morals? Psh! It was simply hopeless, and nearly pornographic in its sadism.

All of this may greatly appeal to horror fans. Personally, I feel so crappy after watching Silent Hill that I physically need to sit down, eat some Lucky Charms and watch a joyful cartoon.

Neverland, here I come.

p.s. One could jump to the conclusion that someone who was so repulsed by a film would be gung ho for censoring it. That person would be wrong, but I won’t delve further into politics at this time. If it doesn’t sound like it’s your cup of tea (as it clearly wasn’t mine) don’t watch it. But for Heaven’s sake don’t use my words to in any way justify a book burning. End.

Drawing By Nick:

A more straightforward explanation is that George Lucas, in writing the script, simply did not remember or realize that parsecs are not time measurements. According to some sources, Lucas did realize this, but wished to portray Han Solo as an absent-minded braggart who simply did not know what he was talking about. The bemused reactions of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to Han’s quip suggest that this could be the case.

Han Solo may be an absent-minded braggart but if there is one thing he knows, it’s the Millennium Falcon (and Sabacc). If Solo boasts about the Kessel run, expecting to impress Luke and Ben, I highly doubt he would use a completely wrong increment of measure to do so. This guy knows how to navigate hyperspace and avoid passing right through stars or bouncing to near supernovas. I am sure he knows the correct use of the term parsec.

Fans often forget that before their demi-gods were such they were normal people who drank coffee, used the bathroom, and made mistakes. (In some cases they still do *cough* Greedo shooting first *cough*) We will look to the script drafts on Starkiller: The Jedi Bendu Script Site for reference. It is not until the fourth draft of Star Wars that the scene in question appears:

HAN
Fast ship? You’ve never heard
of the Millennium Falcon?

BEN
Should I have?

HAN
It’s the ship that made the Kessel
run in less than twelve parsecs!

Ben reacts to Solo’s stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation.

HAN
(continuing)
I’ve outrun Imperial starships,
not the local bulk-cruisers, mind
you. I’m talking about the big
Corellian ships now. She’s fast
enough for you, old man. What’s
the cargo?

Problem solved right? There it is, right in the script by Lucas himself! Not necessarily. Note on the Starkiller site that this fourth draft was published as:

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope, from the Journal of the Whills. Public Version of Fourth Draft. As published in The Art of Star Wars, Ballantine 1979. Dated: “Revised Fourth Draft, January 15, 1976.”

Although it claims to have been written a year before the film was released, this script didn’t appear publicly until two years after. Here is another revised version of the fourth draft dated March 15, 1976:

HAN
Fast ship! You mean you’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon?

BEN
(amused)
Should I?

HAN
It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 par-sec’s! I’ve outrun Imperial starships, not local bulk-cruisers mind you. These are the big Corellian ships I’m talking about. I think she’s fast enough for you old man. What’s your cargo?

BEN
No questions. Is it local trouble?

BEN
Let’s just say we’d like to avoid any Imperial entanglements.

Is it possible Ben’s reaction was simply added as an afterthought for the 1979 public release of the film’s script. The answer isn’t definite… but at the risk of sounding too much like a fanboy I would say the evidence against Lucas’ divine perfection is a little too heavy to ignore.

They were just making fun of Dakota Fanning on VH1’s 40 More Awesomely Bad Fashion Moments. The line went something like, “… wearing this hideous outfit at the Japanese premiere of War Of The World.” Let’s stop for a minute. If I were a C-list star/comedian/magazine editor/columnist on a mid-day filler show I wouldn’t be making fun of TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRLS who go to Japanese premiers for multi-million dollar films. Here is an idea for a new show VH1, it is called VH1’s 100 Worst Show Ideas. Here is how you compile the shows, exclude Pop Up Video, Behind The Music, I Love the 80s and throw everything else in the melting pot.

To all the participants in VH1’s 40 More Awesomely Bad Fashion Moments, this is what a twelve year old girl who is richer than you looks like. ———————->

It seems that most young filmmakers these days lack any real talent or vision. Everywhere I go is another “budding filmmaker” trying to hit the big time with one or more (usually more) of the following: a) “zany” rap videos b) boy band parodies c) hip assassins who dress in suits and kill without remorse (aka - I want to live the Tarantino dream). Owning an XL-1 doesn’t make you an ace filmmaker, it makes you a simple ditch digger with an industrial sized backhoe.

PS - Have you noticed this sudden influx of William Shatner? He is hosting several specials on the History channel, Priceline commercials, AND now his own show - How William Shatner Changed the World. But hey, I’m not complaining.

My research on the artist known as Carlo Of Hollywood continues. Check out the small site I have established to direct attention to my project here.

I promise more updates soon!

Link!

Ok, so I have band called Carlo Of Hollywood. But where does that name come from? Quite a few years ago I bought a piece of artwork at a garage sale for $10. It was an amazing oil on canvas of what appeared to be a man walking from a dirty black city to a pristine white castle. Take what you will from that composition, but the fact remains… it was a really great painting for only $10 (and the guy through in a RATT poster for free). But I was always troubled by one thing. No internet search would provide an answer to whom the “Carlo” that signed the painting was. The next few years were spent with sparse hits on eBay searching for more Carlos. Finally the searches paid off and I was able to acquire another original by Carlo Of Hollywood. This further fueled my fire, and the search began again… briefly. Work and school then took their toll and I was swept up in the monotonous life of non-art exploration. But in the last few months, as I have changed my band’s name to Carlo Of Hollywood, my interest has again peeked. This blog is a record of my quest to dispel the rumors, differentiate the truth from fiction, and track down a lost artist. This is my search for Carlo Of Hollywood.