The Lost Film Festival & tattoo the earth

Sunday, July 30, 2000

Left to drive to SA at 4PM. Drove through the rain

Flew into Newark, via Saint Louis, and landed at 1AM, Monday.

Monday

Sat around the airport until 3:30AM

Caught the bus to Newark, Penn Station

Caught the NJ Transit train to Trenton

Transferred to the SEPTA rout for the rest of the trip to Philly

Arrived at 7AM

Wandered around downtown Philly and checked out all the Republican National Convention stuff

saw some protest

At 11AM, I called Scott Beiben of the Lost Film Fest

Went to his house

Went to Patrick Hassan’s (the director of Waiting (www.waitingthemovie.com), whom I’d met in Park City) house and took a nap. 

Went down to the Lost FF to flier and sticker up the place

Walked around South Street area and did the same

Went back to the LFF HQ and watched some movies

Ran into Will Keenan and his friend Heidi and went up to the bar on top of the theater and had some drinks

Hung out and watched some more movies

Everything was running late and the Rock Opera screening started around 1:30AM.  Most of the people that hung around to watch it were other filmmakers and the crew from the Lost Film Fest.  They all seemed to enjoy it and we hung out and shot the shit for a while longer.

Patrick, who had to bail early in order to sleep for an early morning meeting, had given me his keys, so I headed back to his house and crashed the fuck out.

Tuesday

Wandered around West Philly and ate a bad ass cheese steak at the Wurst House

Went down to city hall to see the RNC hoopla and there was a big ass protest.  Nothing like the stuff I saw yesterday, big shit.  I overheard one reporter estimate the crowd to be well over three thousand.

Cops moved in

Bike cops, street cops, riot cops, horse cops and tons and tons of cops.  I saw a cop dragging a protested by his hair.  The pig stepped over the guy and mule kicked the guy in the head.  I took some photos of the mayhem.

Loads of press

Goats

Clowns

Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)

Anti death penalty groups

Anti corporate welfare groups, you name it, they were there and in numbers

Followed the chaos as it broke into smaller groups

People overturned dumpsters

Cops were swinging nightsticks

I saw some pig on a motorcycle intentionally run over and break the tire of some woman protester’s bike

The pigs were yelling for everyone to get on the sidewalk.  And most people were complying, including myself.  A few seconds later this other jackass cop comes up to me and cross checks me with his night stick.  So I snap a flash shot in his face (at least I got a pic for the archives).

The protesters roamed the streets, occasionally erupting into violence and I kept up with it as much as possible taking picture and witnessing the spectacle.

At one point I actually got a little choked up at the whole idea of the American political system and the hope and enthusiasm of the protesters.  I think that was the split second before the cop smacked mew/ his stick.

Went back to the LFF HQ and relaxed in front of some movies

At 11:00 and in the rain, I walked back to the train station and caught my train for Trenton.

Wednesday

Transferred from the SEPTA route to the NJ Transit in Trenton, NJ at 1AM.  I got off the train in Newark at around 2AM and caught the bus to the airport soon after.  Arriving at the airport soon after, I only had four and half-hours to kill before my plane will depart.  Catch the plane to Saint Louis and have an hour long layover before hopping the plane to San Antonio.  So the plane lands at around 11:30 in the morning and I catch the shuttle to my truck.  As soon as I step foot on the shuttle I get the overwhelming sensation that I’ve left my truck lights on the entire time I was gone.  Sure enough, I hop off the shuttle to find my battery completely dead.  So, I wait around for the next shuttle to give me a jump.  The driver, instead, calls the maintenance crew.  Half an hour later they show up with a little red box that defibrillated the truck back to life.

Returning home with zero dollars, I was lucky that I had put a shitload of quarters in the ashtray, or I wouldn’t have had the cash to pay for the parking.

So I head over to the gas station and make a few calls.  I hop back in the truck and head over to the Tattoo the Earth show.  Jeremy had a ticket and VIP pass waiting for me at the gate (thanks).  So I wander around and find their bus and eventually run into Jean Luc, their road manager.  He’s a frenchy, so we talk about Cannes and the South of France and all that and wander back to the bus to rouse Jeremy from his sleep.

Sat around in the bus and playing Tony Hawk and smoking weed.  We went and ate chicken on a stick.  Saw Sepultura and Slayer and Slipknot.  Fun, fun.

Thursday, August 03, 2000

I slept for 16 hours.  I also found out that the Leeds International Film Festival wants to screen Rock Opera in October.  Also, they have a history of flying out their filmmakers and putting them up for a few days.