Sarasota - Day 3 - The Faint

Sunday. The night before I had pledged to hit the streets early and really put the fire of Blood Car into the populous of Sarasota. Unfortunately, I had a rather turbulent, late night, and despite it being restful, I didn't arrive at the Hollywood 20 until after 3pm. Alex, Katie and I decided to shirk our street promoting duties in favor of seeing a film. Luckily, Hugh picked up our slack and carried the torch like a true Olympian. The film we saw was called The Prisoner. Alex and Katie walked out after 15 minutes. I don't really relish walking out on films so I stayed for the entire thing, even though the film didn't improve. Having endured some tough ones in my lifetime (Chushingura and twentynine palms are near the top of the list.), I try to give most films a chance to redeem themselves. To the film's credit, the main character does find some degree of redemption and understanding at the end.

For lunch, we ate at a juice bar/smoothie /sandwich shop that had not received its fruit shipment for the day so they could only make chicken Caesar and grilled cheese sandwiches. We saw this sign at the cash register. Wikipedia stipulates that 1 oz. of wheatgrass juice equals 2.20 lbs of GREEN vegetables and not the cornucopia you see here. I would have pulled an Archie and tried a shot, but it seems like the same truck that delivers fruit also delivers veggies.

I wanted to see Lars von Trier's film The Boss of it All while in Sarasota so Adam and I vouched some tickets for that film. I enjoyed it. That basically brought us to the screening. As with Cinequest, our second screening in Sarasota was much better attended. It wasn't a sellout but close enough. BC tends to work backwards opening with smaller crowds then increasing thanks to word of mouth. Alex introduced the film. A short film, 'Songbird', which played Sundance this year, played before our film. It had a unique style but was a bit too disgusting for my tastes. I wish BC could travel with the short from Cinequest.

I didn't watch the film at either screening this festival. In retrospect, I missed it a little bit. I think I'll watch in Atlanta. We proudly made a little history during this screening. A 16 year-old in the crowd (Take that MPAA!) left the theater at the point in the film where Archie cuts himself with a razor and drains some of his own blood. En route to the lobby, he fainted and hit the carpet! Festival volunteers sprang to his aid and aside from a small rug burn on his noggin, he was physically unharmed though his ego might be bruised. I spoke with some of the other volunteers who were schoolmates of the teen and they said he's not prone to blackouts. Toby Sells, who created the realistic looking effect, deserves much of the credit here though I'm certain fainting moviegoers is old hat for him. Our fainter, who goes by Dr. Coolness, posted a comment on the Blood Car myspace page. It's worth reading.

Though Alex posted on the BC site that we triumphed in the Sarasota v. Atlanta Karaoke battle, I'd like to delve into that rivalry a little and how it began because it left an awful lot of innocent people in ruin. At some point during the party on Saturday night, we heard SFF programmer Tom H. boasting of his town's karaoke abilities. The scene was straight out of a movie. He was maybe twenty feet away from us and our ears pricked like a bloodhound's. We yelled out, "Hey, Tom H.!" At that point, the crowd went silent and parted in a fashion reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The live band literally stopped playing, nasty reverb adding to the tension. Tom Hall took a sip of his Heineken. Though my Casio read just before 130am, it might as well have been high noon. Somebody from our side yelled out, "Atlanta versus Sarasota. Karaoke." Tom laughed, "As you wish. Sunday, the holiest day at the holiest bar in Sarasota." We accepted.

It was a close match at the outset, but we soon pulled away with Cypress Hill's 'Insane in the Membrane', Luda's 'Welcome to Atlanta' and Tony closed out the night with 'Piano Man.' Things spiraled out of control so bad at one point that the police pulled up alongside the patio and shined their spotlight into the bar. Hugh and Adam, in the middle of '99 Problems', were phased momentarily, but soon resumed rapping.