“Be prepared to be scared” -peewee herman

In leiu of a raise or a bonus, TBU’s boss gave us both season passes to the Santa Cruz Film Festival, which kicked off last night. David Arquette’s directorial debut, The Tripper (filmed in Santa Cruz), opened up the festival. Actually, a 16 minute short on Chet Helms, legendary Bay Area concert promoter, opened up but no one is talking about that. I was like Hey, maybe David Arquette will be there and we could have something to talk about for the next 3 weeks.

I waited in the line that threatened to wrap around the whole block while TBU picked up our passes. The guy behind me was a local who had been on set. It really wasn’t all that impressive since they held an open casting call and needed a lot of extras for concert and hippie drug out scenes. He went on and on to no one in particular about how cool it was to be in the movie, how he was going to say hi to David, Oh and that’s Mark the cameraman. He was just a burnout who needed some attention but christalmighty was it annoying. TBU comes back with the passes and I start thinking. I know how much these passes cost and it ain’t cheap. They can’t possibly expect people who paid this much to wait in line with the normies, can they? There has to be a passholders line. TBU doubts it. I tell him to go check. He reappears, waving me out of line. YES! It felt really good going in the VIP entrance in front of the douchehoser bragging about tripping on acid at the audition. I see that’s worked out nicely for you.

I knew David Arquette would be there, but Pee-Wee!!!! was there too! Excellent surprise Santa Cruz Film Festival, I didn’t know you had it in you. David joked about how the film officially opens on April 20, but this being Santa Cruz he knew we couldn’t wait. TBU said, what’s the difference? It’s 4/20 all the time. Well put.

The film itself is a blatantly political campy slasher. A Ronald Reagan obsessed killer hunts hippies at a weekend love fest/rock concert. The message was pretty clear. It’s an anti-war film that juxtaposes laughable gore against war footage. There are the essential slasher grossout scenes, like when Pee-Wee gets covered in shit from hiding in a porta potty. I mostly liked it and would recommend it if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s as though Evil Dead got better and more politicized, or had a $3.7 million budget.

When the Q&A began the first question was, Where’s Courteney? Nice one, now we all look like assholes. Of course someone had to ask how they liked filming in Santa Cruz county, which made it seem like we all starve for Hollywood validation. It was pretty funny when David mentioned he actually wanted to shoot in Humbolt but Santa Cruz was expecting less rain. Then there was yet another of the many attention whores in attendance who asked why David had to pander to violence. I think everyone in the theatre was like, Did you watch the same movie? Because really, it’s called satire and it was pretty obvious. David was really gracious and answered the question seriously but not without a few F bombs, which are my favorite kind of bombs. He yelled, Don’t you see? The leaders of our country are the true psychopaths (referring to the graphic war footage). Which, of course, got everyone cheering.

TBU: Paul and David, what are you working on next?
David: Nothing, I’m going to get some sleep.
Paul: The Tripper 2
[audience laughs]

Those are exact quotes because I was writing notes like the little journalist I am.

Someone asked if David thought the country was ready for another revolution. I wish, he sighed, but no. He mentioned that the ‘hippies’ today aren’t the hippies that mobilized a cultural revolution 40 years ago. They just aren’t. There is a reason the festival screened The Tripper and Chet Helms: The Big Brother of the Summer of Love together. The latter documents the organic evolution of a powerful subculture while the former plays off the ideals they created.

Major bonus points to David Arquette for rocking the Vanilla Ice hairstyle circa 1992 and a white tux embellished with red sequins. I walked into work this morning and my friend Heidi was like Pee-Wee Herman and David Arquette bought pizza from me last night! These guys have Santa Cruz buzzing.

In a slightly related note: TBU had his film in the festival a couple years ago. Saying that is infinitely cooler now that Pee-Wee Herman has had his involvement.

[tags]Pee-Wee Herman, David Arquette, The Tripper, Paul Reubens, Chet Helms, Santa Cruz Film Festival, Santa Cruz[/tags]