Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Boring people and exciting LAND OF THE DEAD news

There’s a girl at work—all of 23 or 24—and for some reason or another, we don’t get along. I’m not sure why, and I’m not sure I care. Maybe it’s because I’m the only one there even remotely close to her age. She prefers flirting with the folks twice her double-decade, perhaps. Just speculation on my part. She doesn’t have a lot of patience for my inexperience, so I just try to stay out of her way.
At any rate, I’m passing, pushing a cart full of mail, and she’s talking to one of the carriers. I hear this: “Oh, I’m wild! I start here at five in the morning, work until three or four, then my boyfriend and I party all night. Then back here at five. I’m serious,” she tells the carrier—Ronny? Ricky?—“I’m a wild girl. You’ve never met anyone like me!”

And I just could not help thinking, “Kid, you’re not even as interesting as the most boring person I know!”
A twenty-something party-girl post office clerk. Sorry, but you don’t compare to:

A dancer-turned-engineering student who went on to be an activist for women’s rights in the horror genre.

A former-dominatrix who, at my age, just became a grandmother.
A homeless girl who put herself through a number of prestigious New York acting schools.

A bi-sexual model who became a fire-eater and stunt-woman.

A kid from a small town in Maine who moved to Pittsburgh to study special effects and co-founded a movie production company.

I could go on.

Yeah, kid, you’re a real wild girl.

After we saw Big Fish, Amy and I were thinking about how we could have told the same story, but without having to exaggerate about the unique people in our lives…

***

In other news, I spent a good part of yesterday in Cameron Romero’s office, hanging with Cam, Chris, Jason and Joe-the-Intern, watching them lose their minds over the upcoming Pittsburgh Premiere of Land of the Dead. I’m in the middle of writing a piece about it for Film Threat, and I’ll post the link here. (Actually, I'll post it now: http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?Id=1480)

But needless to say, I couldn’t get them to confirm or deny that not only will the premiere have Romero, Sr., in attendance, along with folks like Tom Savini, Tom Atkins and half the cast of Day of the Dead, not to mention the ‘N’ in KNB, Greg Nicotero, but also Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead)!

And—and—and—Quentin friggin’ Tarantino!

Not so far-fetched. Quentin and Greg are friends. Edgar and Simon and Quentin are friends. They’re all Romero friends. Greg’s a Pittsburgh guy. Why the hell not?

But Cameron won’t tell me. “You’ll know when you know,” he says, with a big shit-eating grin on his face that I’d love to knock off, but I won’t because he carries a gun. “And,” he says, “you’ll be the first to know.”
And I take that as a promise. ...

And it was. About two AM, my cell-phone rings.

It's Cameron.

"It's a go!" he says. "Simon and Edgar are flying into JFK on Wednesday, and we're arranging for them to fly in from there. Quentin is flying in either with Greg or around the same time."

This morning, on local radio station 3WS, Greg does a quick interview about the event, mentioning CamOp (the first time it's even brought up in conjuction with the event, with so much emphasis in the past on the Steeltown Production Project which is being benefitted by the proceeds - a charitable event, after all) and Simon, Edgar and Quentin.

According to Quentin: "There is no better place to see Land of the Dead than Pittsburgh!"

So... holy hell! I get to meet Quentin Tarantino next week and hang out with Greg Nicotero and the Shawn of the Dead guys!

I'd better buy some new clothes. Something that doesn't say "slept in". ...

Oh, and click here for more info...

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