And Then There's Black Shampoo

I haven't watched Black Shampoo this much since I was a teen. For the next five nights I'm going to be screening Black Shampoo four times. That all begins tonight in Huntington, NY at the Cinema Arts Centre. From what I hear, I may be braving it bringing trash culture to such a classy joint but we'll see.

On the Road Again - Impossibly Funky Book Tour Notes Pt 1

Day five of the Impossibly Funky Book Tour.

Today's one of the two days amongst the tour dates with no official items on the agenda. The next one will be Thursday.

Andrea and I drove through a lot of Pennsylvania on Thursday (5/26), stopping for dinner in State College, PA for some dinner and narrowly avoiding an oncoming storm. We drove ahead of the storm front for a while before it caught up with us just outside of our evening's destination, Hazelton, PA. The radio was alive with storm warnings and reports of tennis ball-sized hailstones.

All was calm the next morning when we made our way to Jersey City, NJ to stay at the Holland Motor Lodge; a stone's throw from the Holland Tunnel. We had quite an adventure trying to get from Jersey City to NYC via the PATH train. We rode back and forth between two stops, changing trains three times before we finally got the right one to take us to the World Trade Center stop. A quick trip on the E line got us up to Lucky Strike, a nice little eatery where we met up with friends -- Dylan and Christine from Paracinema Magazine, Lisa and Alan from the Cinekink Film Festival, Impossibly Funky contributors Leon Chase and Skizz Cyzyk (all the way up from Baltimore), and Cristina from 92Y -- the host of that evening's activities.

92Y really surprised me. There wasn't just the one theater but a few spaces. The room where we screened Miami Blues and Shock Treatment sat about fifty people. A few more friends and acquaintances showed up to the screening. I got a lot of compliments about Miami Blues. Most of the folks there had missed it on its initial theatrical release and never caught up with it on video, afraid it was "just another Alec Baldwin movie" -- apparently The Marrying Man soured a lot of people. I tend to bill it as a Fred Ward movie, despite Ward taking a back seat to Baldwin's terrific sociopath character. I found out last night that some people thought director George Armitage was "something like an Alan Smithee" -- having never heard of Armitage before, and since the movie felt and looked a lot like a Jonathan Demme film. This makes my determination to find Armitage for the upcoming Projection Booth episode on Darktown Strutters even more of a priority.

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When I originally pitched movies to Cristina I suggested Phantom of the Paradise and Shock Treatment as kind of a Jessica Harper musical double feature. She was able to get her hands on Shock Treatment but then found that Phantom was set to play a few times in the NYC area.

Okay, how about Miami Blues, Cockfighter or The Woman Chaser as kind of a Charles Willeford tribute? Cockfighter was out as they'd shown that before and, apparently, The Woman Chaser is embroiled in legal trouble. But she found Miami Blues.

All right, then, how about a Miami Blues and Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins double feature? Could be a "first movie in a series that never happened starring Fred Ward" night?

Alas, no. Miami Blues and Shock Treatment it was. Now, I'm a fan of Shock Treatment, though I know it has some serious flaws. Yet, I kind of knew that I'm in the minority on that one. We got some Rocky Horror fans and even some Shock Treatment "shadow casters" at the screening but I don't think anyone else walked out without sharing the same sentiment of, "Well, I never need to see that again..."

Books Sold: 3

The next day we drove up to Schenectady NY -- not to be confused with Synecdoche, New York. There's a film society co-run by long-time Cashiers du Cinemart contributor and fan Paul Kazee called It Came From Schenectady. They played a double feature of Greydon Clark movies, Without Warning and Satan's Cheerleaders on Saturday night to a pretty good-sized crowd. I think there were more people -- and definitely more people I didn't know -- in the audience than I had in Manhattan. Schenectady should be proud that there are so many film fans around the area.

Not only did I get to meet Paul after all these years but I went out to dinner beforehand with Bob Plante (and his lovely wife, Tammy) of Gravedigger Video. That's one thing I love about these book tours is finally meeting up with folks I've talked to online or even through letters (remember those?) for years.

Books Sold: 3

Day three had us driving farther north through the beautiful scenery of New York up into Canada, arriving in Montreal in the afternoon.

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Montreal, and maybe Quebec overall, is a strange place.

I grew up close to Windsor, Ontario, and always found it interesting how everything in Canada has to be bilingual -- displaying English and French versions. Packages, menus, street signs, etc. all had to have the two languages. However, driving into Quebec yesterday I found myself at a loss, only seeing French signs/messages with a paltry amount of English. Do the Quebecois not have to display the two languages the same way that other provinces do? I'm also curious if the provinces farther to the west display French and English or if it's only Ottawa.

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Thanks to my pal Dion Conflict, last night the Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Cinema Space played a 16mm copy of Greydon Clark's Angels Brigade (AKA Angels Revenge AKA Seven from Heaven). Blue Sunshine's space is terrific. It's big enough to be comfortable and small enough to be intimate, like watching movies in your friends' living room. About a dozen folks showed up including a lot of folks I've talked to on Facebook. The screening went really well and the best part was hanging out and bullshitting about movies before and after. I hope Montreal knows what a service Blue Sunshine provides. If I lived here I'd be going to their screenings every chance I got. Even in this next week they're showing amazing stuff that I wish I was sticking around for including a 16mm print of Joe starring Peter Boyle.

Books Sold: 5

More reports fro the road when time permits... Starting tomorrow (Tuesday) night the Black Shampoo begins with the first of four(!) screenings.

Blue Sunshine

Tonight I'll be at Blue Sunshine in Montreal. I'll be signing/selling copies of Impossibly Funky and screening Greydon Clark's Angel's Brigade on 16mm. Doors open at 6:45pm, the show begins at 7:30pm

I Come to Schenectady....

Tonight in Schenectady, it's a double feature from Greydon Clark -- Satan's Cheerleaders and Without Warning. Both flicks are part of the A Walk-In Drive-In Double Feature for just $9.

Join me at 7PM at

GE Theatre at Proctors
432 State Street
Schenectady, NY

Impossibly Funky Summer Book Tour Begins Tonight

Tonight begins the Impossibly Funky Summer Book Tour. I'm going from NYC to Schenectady to Montreal to Huntington, NY to Brooklyn, to Boston to Providence and then back to Detroit. I sure hope to see and meet a lot of friendly folks. I'm bringing my video camera and hope to capture some moments.

Tonight's festivities kick off at the 92Y in Tribeca with Miami Blues and Shock Treatment.

Miami Blues

Shock Treatment

Date & Time: Fri, May 27, 2011, 7:45pm & 10:00pm
Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street Directions
Venue: 92YTribeca Screening Room
Price: $12.00 each

The New York City Rocky Horror Picture Show & Shock Treatment Cast will be joining me at the screening of Shock Treatment. They'll be coming in costume and doing a pre-show performance of the title song!

The NYC RHPS/ST cast performs weekly at Clearview Cinemas (260 W. 23rd St. - between 7th and 8th Ave) every Friday and Saturday night at Midnight -- including tonight!

For more info of the NYC RHPS/ST Cast visit nycrps.org.

For more about the screening visit: 92Y.org.

Victoria

Hideous Mutant Freekz

Today is an historic occasion. Mondo Justin and I are proud to present the latest episode of The Projection Booth. It's all about Freaked, one of our favorite films. Special guests include co-writer, co-director, star Alex Winter, co-writer, co-director Tom Stern, co-writer Tim Burns, star Megan Ward, and star Lee Arenberg ("Fire in the hole!"). Amazing! Astounding! Come one, come all to witness the Beast Boy and Freaked!

Listen to the episode:

Or, right click and "Save Link As" to download it.

Impossibly Funky Book Tour - Summer 2011 Edition!

I'm happy to announce the dates for the summer 2011 Impossibly Funky book tour.

This should be my triumphant return to NYC. It'll be a little strange to go back with Impossibly Funky in tow since the first section of the book centers around my experience with the New York Underground Film Festival back in 1995. (Read all about it here).

At each of the stops I'll be screening a movie (or two) and doing an introduction of the film, Q&A, and maybe even some interpretive dance.

Date	Location	Event	RSVP
Fri 5/27	92YTribeca, Manhattan NY	Miami Blues & Shock Treatment	RSVP
Sat 5/28	It Came From Schenectady, Schenectady NY	Without Warning & Satan's Cheerleaders	RSVP
Sun 5/29	Blue Sunshine, Montreal, QC	Angel's Brigade (16mm)	RSVP
Tue 5/31	Cinema Arts Center, Huntington, NY	Black Shampoo	RSVP
Wed 6/1	reRun Gastropub, Brooklyn NY	Black Shampoo	RSVP
Fri 6/3	Brookline Booksmith, Boston, MA	Signing/Reading	RSVP
Fri 6/3	The Coolidge Corner Theater, Boston, MA	Black Shampoo	RSVP
Sat 6/4	Cable Car Cinema - Providence, RI	Black Shampoo	RSVP

Film Threat & The Revenge of Print

The Revenge of Print continues to happen in 2011. Proof? How about Film Threat coming back to a newsstand near you? Hasn't happened yet but it could and you could help...

Film Threat is looking for folks to contribute to the cause. They're using both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Looks like Kickstarter is currently the place where the most money is donated -- strange since Kickstarter is an "all or nothing" platform. That is, if they don't hit their total goal ($30K), none of the money goes to them. Meanwhile, IndieGoGo is more of a direct funding tool. What you pledge is what you give and what they get.

I'm excited that Film Threat is coming back. I've really liked what new owner Mark Bell has been doing with the online version of the magazine and can't wait to see what he'll do with the print version.

Will I be donating? Heck, yes!