Goodbye Myrtle Street

I saw Superbad recently at Atlanta's Atlantic Station, a place that if you look at it, you might say, "This place should be haunted." I stayed for the end credits, which I used to do unilaterally, but I regret to say that tradition buckled under the weight of PJ's Rings' Trilogy of endurance-testing credit scrolls. As I was watching the montage of penis drawings, I felt a sense of pride come over me. That sentence probably hasn't been uttered too often, but there was something special about seeing crude drawings getting laughs in the cinema. The first thought that jumped into my head was, "Hey, we've done that." I don't mean to suggest that Apatow+CO aped anything related to BC, as I'm sure nasty little drawings as comic relief go back to the silent era. No, I saw some dots and I connected them. No revelations, no epiphanies this night - just a couple different movies with nasty, funny drawings.

Ralph Goings drew one of the early sketches for the Lorraine character by the way.

I attended the Atlanta Underground Film Festival a while back for the midnight screening of Blood Car. We lazily promoted a 'Dress As Your Favorite Character' contest in connection with the screening, but I didn't notice anyone dressed up for the film. Our screening coincided with Professor Morte's Silver Scream Spook Show at the Plaza, so many people were dressed up as sexy ghouls and creatures of the night. 1960s B-movie Jason and the Argonauts was on the silver scream downstairs. Unfortunately, BC does not feature any members of the undead community nor any centaurs, three-headed dogs, or skeletons. Had we brought any signed posters or unsigned t-shirts, we would have given them away to those folks who at least dressed up as something. The disappointment continued when I think one person suggested to me that the only thing that was missing was a t-shirt cannon, also known as a bleacher reacher. Our marketing team must be on vacation.

With fall gaining on us, we have a number of premieres forthcoming, including Texas, Canada, New York, South America and Rome, GA, which just happened. Having halted our submission process, it's safe to call this the beginning of the end of our film festival run, but the beginning of the beginning of our theatrical run. It begins in the evergreen state in the city of Olympia of all places on Oct. 6 at 9pm and where it will end we may never know. According the Olympia, WA Visitor's Bureau website, the ghost of a janitor killed in an explosion at the Capitol Theater may still haunt the aisles. It also states that the Capitol Theater denies this.

So, let's take one last look at our festival batting average. We may hear from another festival or two in which case I'll adjust, but until then, as Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal would insist, "Let's do the numbers." 64 submission. 36 rejections. 28 acceptances*. No, the asterisk does not allege that Alex may have juiced while using withoutabox.com. It refers to the Denver Film Festival, which we were accepted to, but because our DVD release precedes our screening date there, it violates a policy they have against showing films that have been released on DVD. Since we were accepted, I've kept it in that column. We've ended the season with an astonishing .438. Ted Williams eat your heart out. Wow!

Even bigger news, I suppose, is that BC will soon become a palindromic acronym. It's an ending so many films meet and so many do not, something so commonplace but so coveted at the same time. TLA, our distributor, is the home for films such as Meatball Machine (great title!), The Girls of Tattoo U, and Naked Boys Singing! The Movie. They've been generous enough to give us great freedom in designing the cover for the DVD and with the extra features, which are special endowments for film lovers like ourselves. I eagerly anticipate seeing the 60 minute behind the scenes video Alex has been editing together. eDVD retailers have begun to post adverts for the film on their websites and we hope good reviews proceed the actual street date, which is November 6th. On that day we will also celebrate Mike Nichols' birthday and the anniversary of the Sex Pistols' first concert.

You can do a few things to help us promote the DVD release of Blood Car. They may seem insignificant, but I assure you they are not. ONE: RATE THE FILM ON IMDB.COM. 76 people have done so thusfar. On myspace, we have over 12,000 friends. Such a 'rich get richer-poor get poorer' brand of disparity probably shocks you, so register with imdb.com and rate our film. TWO: RATE THE FILM'S TRAILER ON YOUTUBE AND MYSPACE. THREE: MAKE BLOOD CAR ONE OF YOUR TOP FRIENDS. FOUR: RATE OUR FILM ON FLIXSTER.

If you're short on BC press related infotainment, please scroll down to the comments section of the BC myspace page and watch the Rule Hollywood episode covering BC. It features Adam P. looking like he's the Che Guevara of Agnes Scott College talking about the making of the film.

In a few weeks, I'll be moving out of the apartment that has been my home since 2003. I have many wonderful memories of this brick and white-shuttered nest in midtown Atlanta. Hugh and Alex shared number 3 while Adam and I shared number 4. Here, we gave birth to the golden age of Fake Wood Wallpaper's Beardman series. We celebrated Xmas together. No history class will ever survey the events of this puny, cloistered building, but that will not mitigate it's gravity. It was here that I really came to know the men and women who would shape my life, tastes, and views during those formative years, unexpected as that may sound to them. Our dueling apartments came to serve as the braintrust not only for FWW, but for Blood Car. Number 3 became our production office and the set of Archie's apartment. The current residents have a large dog and a cat that resembles Alex's former feline, Lupus, whose whereabouts remain unaccounted for. To be grandiose, it was our little Factory.

I learned something from a book of film criticism about Michelangelo Antonioni years ago. It seems like I learned everything I know about the cinema from him. Anyway. The locations depicted in his films often serve as metaphors or reflections of the characters' lives or emotional states. When I walk away from here the last time, I hope that whenever I smile, one will still be able to see this drab ten unit apartment complex on my 27 year old (and counting) face. Goodbye Myrtle Street. Goodbye.