Monday, April 24, 2006

Props to My Peeps: from The Strip to Cannes

I went to The Strip at the Evidence Room the other night. (It’s only on Saturday nights, so when I say “the other night,” I mean that I went to The Strip on Saturday night. Why didn’t I just say “I went to The Strip on Saturday night” instead of going to all of the effort to explain that “the other night” meant Saturday night? I dunno. Because I like to type.) (And because my blog buddies BonBon McBonBon and Babes McPhee [they’re IRL buddies too] [though we’ve had much more blog interaction than IRL interaction] [look at this! I’ve got parenthetical statements inside of a parenthetical statement!] [it’s like that moment in the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Xander’s trying to sing his stanza and then Anya starts dancing crazy and she yells out “look at me! I’m dancing crazy!”] [except I’m not singing and I’m not dancing and there’s only one person here, not to people] [so it’s not really like that at all] [but parenthetical statements inside of a parenthetical statement are still kinda exciting!] [to me] [do you even still remember the thought I began in the parenthetical statement that preceded all of these inner-parentheticals?] [I was saying that my blog buddies Bon Bon McBonBon and Babes McPhee] recently started calling me Kiki Longpost, and I wouldn’t be Kiki Longpost if I didn’t write really long rambly blog entries) (hence this whole “the other night” tangent) (is anyone even still reading this?) (sometimes I freak out, like, what if people just stopped reading my blog, like, today?) (or what if something in my brain snapped and I just went crazy, like, today?) (these are honestly things that I worry about) (I worry too much) (I suppose the “snapping and going crazy” thing would be worse than the “exodus of blog readers” that might happen if y’all got tired of me and my rambling) (much worse) (whenever I’m in my car talking to myself and I see crazy people walking the streets talking to myself, I know that the only thing that separated me from them is my car and, I guess, a little bit of sanity) (WHAT THE FUCK WAS I TALKING ABOUT BEFORE ALL OF THIS RAMN DAMBLING) (or, “damn rambling”) (oh, right: THE STRIP!)

So I went to The Strip at the Evidence Room the other night. The Strip is a serialized late-night outrageous campy theater piece, written by (my new friend) Michael Sargent (we’re in a writing group together) (Michael is freaking high-larious), Justin Tanner (who wrote the “Guns and Gossip” episode of My So-Called Life!) (hello), and Hugh Palmer & Patricia Scanlon (who is a brilliant freak). The Strip runs for three more Saturdays (don’t quote me on that—but I’m pretty sure there are three more Saturdays).

The cast is a rotating assortment of awesome LA actors, several of whom I am proud to call friends—including blogger-extraordinaire Colleen Wainwright, who is awesome. Go check it out.

*

Okay, so this is huge…

HUGE.
(The hair in the above picture is merely big. The hair in the above picture is nowhere near huge. What I'm about to tell you is much huger.)

My friend Sian Heder wrote and directed a short film (produced by my friend David Newsom) called Mother. (Making your own film is a pretty huge thing in and of itself, but it’s not the huge thing I was alluding to, like, two sentences ago.) (Wait for it—the huge thing is coming.)

Sian and David are incredibly talented people. (When I met Sian in London in 1998, I quickly realized that she was one of the most talented people in London in 1998, and she keeps getting’ mo’ and mo’ better at her art.) (When I met David about a year-and-a-half ago, I quickly realized that he played Hank on one of my favorite shows ever, Homefront, and so I was able to quickly peg him as one of the most talented people in the room, too, but because I’m neurotic and weird I don’t think I mentioned to him that I knew him and loved him from Homefront, and then, after we became friends, I felt like it was weird that I hadn’t yet mentioned that I knew him and loved him from Homefront, and then I felt like it was too late to mention it, so I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it, and now we’ve been friends for, like, a year-and-a-freaking-half, and, well, David, I’m coming out of the Homefront-loving closet right now and telling you that I know you and love you from Homefront) (why am I so neurotic?) (I blame my Mom) (I blame my Dad, too—I’m sure he had a hand in this as well.) Anyway, what I was trying to say was that Sian and David are really talented.

They made a lovely, funny, sad, moving, visually beautiful film. It packs a really strong emotional punch.

In other words, it’s really freaking good.

Well, guess what? (Remember when I said “this is huge,” about five sentences ago? And then I was like “HUGE” in case you didn’t get how HUGE it was? Well, here’s the part where I tell you what the frick is huge.)

Mother was accepted into competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Did you just read that sentence? MOTHER WAS ACCEPTED INTO COMPETITION AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL.

Yeah, you read my ALL CAPS correctly. How fucking cool is that?

So:

Felicitations, Sian and David! (That’s French for “congratulations.”) And felicitations to everyone who helped make Mother an awesome movie!

You so deserve this. You guys rock. Your movie rocks.

Bises, (that’s French for “kisses”),
dimsum (that’s French for “Erik”)

26 comments:

christy said...

First!!

Bonnie said...

Augh! Woman, you are amazing!

Erik said...

Eleanor thinks it's not fair for me to claim "first" or "second" or even "THIRD, bitches!" but here I am, claiming away.

THIRD!

Bonnie said...

Okay, so now I've read the post.

What frickin' huge awesome news!

That's outstanding!!!!!!

Bonnie said...

Oh, and I don't think dimsum is actually French for Erik.

But I could be wrong.

Bonnie said...

But I do love that KiKi Longpost is catching on. ;)

Erik said...

Kiki Longpost is definitely catching on (however, did you notice that I just wrote the shortest post in the history of My Year of New Things--the dandruff post? So who you callin' Kiki Longpost now?) (Okay, but I'm still Kiki Longpost.)

christy said...

The exception that proves the rule, Kik.

(am I the only one to who(m?) that expression has NEVER made any sense?)

Anonymous said...

I am blushing. Erik you are so cool for writing that. I do love you, yes I do! - Sianie

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... well, I am happy for your friends. I don't really know what to say about you claiming thirds other than: it's pretty sad that you can't even make firsts.

Erik said...

Sianie, YOU are so cool for making your movie. xoxo.

Erik said...

Eleanor, I don't want to claim first, I want that to be a fun goal for my readers. The fun goal I keep for myself is to try to get "third" every time. (At least that's what I tell myself.)

Erik said...

Christy, that phrase makes perfect sense to me.

Bonnie said...

Okay, KiKi, if you can explain that expression to Babes, maybe you can explain this one to me:

Why do New Yorkers say they waited "on line at the bank," but everywhere else in the world, we say we waited "in line"?

What is that about?

christy said...

Well I know how to use it in a sentence, and I still use it in a sentence even though it makes NO SENSE to me WHATSOEVER.

Does *that* make any sense to you?

Anonymous said...

Okay, okay, I give. You make me sound like a fun-smashing bastard face.

But it IS fun to make fun of you.

Kind of like how you pick me up, and even though I kind of hate it, it makes me laugh like a monkey.

Continue on with your mindless games. I'll judge and mock in silence.

Erik said...

But you ARE a fun smashing bastard face, that's why I love you.

Erik said...

So "the exception that proves the rule," is like, well, first of all, before I try to explain it, and because this sentence already has sooooo many grammatical errors (I almost typed the word "incorrections" and then I realized that's not even REMOTELY a word), I just want to say, Christy, that you totally used the phrase (that you claim to not understand) correctly--yes, absolutely and totally--so, anyway, the phrase "the exception that proves the rule," is like, well, when one thing is different but it's obviously "an exception," thereby proving "the rule," i.e. the comonly held belief (or whatever) to be true (I should never get a job for the dictionary because I sound really stupid) (though I HAVE defined two words for the urban dictionary [which should be spelled dicktionary] and I was pretty good at that) and I am way too tired to be posting comments right now. Really. If I was drunk, I would be in better comment writing shape. As it is, my eyes are all drooping and someone should really tear me away--tear me away!--from the computer!

Erik said...

Bonnie, the "on line at the bank" thing is truly a mystery to me and I think it's weird. Though I do have to admit that I love strange geographical phrases like that. Like, I love saying "I have to go to the loo" and "let's take the lift" and "let me show you my flat," but ONLY if I'm in London. (Geographically-centered phrases should only be used in their home of origin.)

What really annoys me is when people ask why angelinos say the word "the" before saying the number of the freeway they're talking about. Saying "you want to take THE 5 freeway" makes perfect sense to me. Much more sense than saying "you want to take 5 freeway," which is apparently how they do it in lots of other places. I'm totally willing to forego the "the" when I'm in those other places, but when I'm in Los Angeles I will say the "the" and I don't want anyone to get all hoity-toity about it.

Besides, didn't we invent freeways in Los Angeles? Because if we did, then no one should talk to us about how to talk about freeways.

christy said...

It's because in LA, "5" is the adjective and in other places "5" is noun.

christy said...

Okay you got me with the whole "claim(ing) not to understand". I guess what I *really* STILL don't understand is why this phrase exists at all.

I mean, rules don't really require validation. They're RULES! They're like Republicans. They don't have any concept of burden of proof. Their existence is already proven by the fact that no one wants them to exist but they just do. And they will still exist even if we find exceptions among them or avoid them entirely.

But it's still kind of fun to say it sometimes. Like I have earned a place in polite company, that I know how civilized people talk to each other and can turn it on whenever I want.

Okay, did I just read *way* more into that expression than anyone has ever before in the history of the universe?

christy said...

I also don't understand the phrase "salad days".

Bonnie said...

I would like for Republicans to have to prove their reason for existing.

Let's get on that.

And just a guess, but I think the "salad days" are days when we had enough money to have salad, and not just a main course.

But I have no idea.

A return to the salad days would be getting back to the time when you could afford a nice, long meal with lots of courses. So, it's a return to both financially better times AND a time when you didn't have to rush around to do anything.

Just guessing. I suppose this should be up on Answers.com, but I have no time to even Google.

I am not in my salad days, time-wise, right now. ;)

Erik said...

Christy, I like Bonnie's response to your "salad days" question. Even if it's not right (but I suspect it IS right), it SHOULD BE right.

christy said...

Erik, I liked Bonnie's response SO MUCH I blogged about it.

Oh and by the way, welcome back to your own blog!!!

Erik said...

Was I gone from my own blog? I guess I was. I'm not even sure if I've replied to every comment. I will have to go through the past several posts and make sure that every comment has been replied to at least once, if not seventy times.