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Strangeness Issue 02
Ok.
Here ya go...
Welcome to Issue #2 of Strangeness...
This is basically the continued outporing of all the random stuff 'n'=20
nonsense that I've collected over the months + years. What does that mean??=
?
it means that this 'zine contains everything from interviews of They=20
Might Be Giants and Dean Cameron ("Chainsaw" from the movie Summer School=
=20
to my every collection of random FTP + Web sites.=20
Copies are available from me: jonathar@gas.uug.arizona.edu or that .umich=
=20
ezines archive site thingy (I'm not positive about this).=20
Oh Yeah. This issue also contains a SPECIAL BONUS PICTURE OF ERIN GREY.
Yeah, that Erin Grey.
The research offer still stands. I actually like doing research=20
(ahhhhh!!!) so I'll look into any random thing that someone asks about.=20
You can't fault me if I fail, though... hehehe
That's enough babbling outta me...=20
----Brennon Lankin's homepage Mostly links to other cult movie pages, but
worth checkin' out.=20
http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~brankin
---WWW site for independent film/video makers
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/mvidal/film_vid.html
---Index to musical web references(includes links to other musical indexes
too)
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music-index.html
---You don't know how much I love that show "My So Called Life." Somebody=
=20
created a web page for it. Check it out.
http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/g564/lask0008/mscl.html
----The Cult Shop
"Featuring directors John Carpenter, Joel and Ethan Coen and Sam
Raimi, and actors Kurt Russell, Bruce Campbell, Deborah Foreman, and Ted
Raimi on my homepage."
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~abormann
---institute_of_technology
A site of some EBN type band. I don't have a graphic browser, so I=20
couldn't get a good look at their site. Hehe... anyone wanna help me get=20
a slip connection???
http://breakfast.com:2500/breakfast/it/it.html
---American Recordings Home Page
http://american.recordings.com
Loads of Slayer stuff there
=09=09=09=09DUUUUUUUUUUUDE!
---The WWW Drug Information Server
You figure it out.
=09=09=09=09http://www.paranoia.com/drugs/
---The "official" Pulp Fiction World Wide Web site:
http://www.elmail.co.uk/movie/pulp/contents.html
---Stargate
Ya know, I just saw this movie and it's actually pretty good. And, as a=20
random aside, the creators of this film have actually credited The Net=20
with a major roll in it's success as the boxoffice. Wow.
Be sure that when you type the URL you enter STARGATE in all=20
caps, it is case sensitive!
HTTP://digiplanet.com/STARGATE
rec.arts.movies #176476 (1 + 405 more) (1)--=
[1]
From: caddy@ix.netcom.com (Terri Clendenin)
[1] Re: FTP sites for movie pics
Date: Sat Oct 29 02:28:05 MST 1994
Organization: Netcom
Lines: 113
Distribution: world
In <1994Oct27.200609.10127@yvax.byu.edu> brugga@yvax.byu.edu writes:
>
>Hey!
>
>Does anybody out there know of an FTP site for downloading stills from fil=
ms
>or QuickTime movies?
>
>Write me if you know: brugga@yvax.byu.edu
>
>Thanks,
>
>Alan Bruggeman
>
Alan,
I have a Quicktime movie from ED WOOD at ftp.netcom.com. The directory pat=
h
is:
/pub/caddy/movies/misc/edwood.zip
There are also some movie pics, but a limited selection. Read the=20
00index.txt file in each directory for details.
Here are some other sites that I know of:
nic.funet.fi /pub/pics/tv+film/
To retrieve pictures from this
site you must login with the
username "pictures" instead of
"anonymous"
ftp.sunet.se /pub/pictures/tv.film/
I know that they have Alien pics here.
You may need to login with "pictures" here too, but try
"anonymous" first.
ftp.wustl.edu
This site is very popular and often full of anonymous users.
It has a great selection of .gifs and .jpgs. I'm not
sure of the directory path, but I believe you start with
/multimedia/ and go from there.
If you have access to World Wide Web, you may be interested in these URLs:
Cult movies http://www.public.iastate.edu/~abormann/
Pulp Fiction http://www.musicbase.co.uk/movie/pulp/contents.html
Star Wars: http://www.wpi.edu:8080/ftp/starwars
Evil Dead/AOD: http://b62528.student.cwru.edu/home.html
Q. Tarantino: http://www.nvg.unit.no/~eddie/tarantino.html
Natural Born Killers: http://crimelab.com/NBK.html
Reservoir Dogs: http://colargol.edb.tih.no/~kennetha/dogs.html
Blade Runner: http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi/br/off-world.html
John Woo http://panacea.library.ucsb.edu/~jkoga/jw_gallery.h=
tml
Forbidden Planet (Sci-fi movies,etc.)
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/mmm/ReviewsFromTheForbiddenPlanet.html
Cardiff=D5s Movie Database (absolute BEST for movies!)
http://www.msstate.edu/Movies/
Horror Movies
http://www.teleport.com/~caseyh/
If you can play .avi movies, you may be interested in this site:
schlunz.chemie.uni-dortmund.de in the
/incoming directory, unless they've been moved to /pub/windows/avi by now.
> Name Contents
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---
>sw10.avi Star Wars: The destruction of the Death Star
>empire01.avi The Empire Strikes Back: Tripping and destroying an
> AT-AT
>sw5.avi Return of the Jedi: The destruction of the DeathSta=
r
>rotj01.avi Return of the Jedi: Space battle sequence
>rotj02.avi Return of the Jedi: The destruction of the Super St=
ar
> Destroyer
>aladd02.avi Aladdin: =D4Genie, I wish for you to make me a Prin=
ce=D5
>fewmen01.avi A Few Good Men: =D4We follow orders, son, or people=
die=D5
>fewmen02.avi A Few Good Men: =D4You can=D5t handle the truth=D5
>robo01.avi RoboCop: Introducing ED209
>robo02.avi RoboCop: ED209 demonstration goes awry
>robo03.avi RoboCop: ED209 vs RoboCop
>
Hope this helps!
Terri
--
e-mail: caddy@ix.netcom.com
finger: caddy@netcom.com
rec.arts.movies #176712 (2 + 405 more) -=
[1]
[1] Re: Raising Arizona Trivia ?
From: Re: Raising Arizona Trivia ?
Date: 20
Organization: 20
Lines: 20
In Message-ID: <1994Oct6.062647.793@muvms6>
humphre4@muvms6.wvnet.edu writes -
> Does anybody know any interesting trivia relating to RAISING ARIZONA ?
> I read that there is a reference to DR. STRANGELOVE (P.O.E), where is it =
?
The POE (Peace On Earth/Purity Of Essence) thing is written on the door
of the restroom that John Goodman and his buddy rush out of when they
steal the car from the filling station. I never noticed this until some
bright spark on alt.cult-movies pointed it out. What "Raising Arizona"
has to do with the Kubrick movie I'm not sure; I guess Joel and Ethan
Coen had their reasons. One thing that's always puzzled me about this
movie is that the financiers, Circle Films, have the movie, script and
score copyrighted in 1985, and yet distributors Twentieth-Century Fox
released it and copyrighted it in 1987. Does this mean that Fox sat on
one of the best films of modern times for two whole years ?!
Harry Roat Jr, from Scarsdale
=D2 Better hurry it up there son, looks like I'm in Dutch with the wife. =
=D2
---------
You may send cards and letters ONLY to:
Pedro Zamora
c/o Body Positive Resource Center
175 NE 36 Street
Miami, FL 33137
__________
Trivia bit:
Q: Which city in Germany has the most mcDonalds?
A: Hi there, the only thing I can tell is, that the city with the most McDs
is Hamburg with 25 followed by Munich with 24 (Data by 1993 stolen by the
Big Mdp) McDonalds Route Atlas.
----
I l00000000ve this show.
just kidding=C9. I hate it.
=09=09=09=09=09=09I watch it every week.
hmmmmmm...
you should hear the song my band wrote about Angela Chase!
just kidding. It's the worst thing you can imagine.
_________
From=20cotopaxi@pine.circa.ufl.edu
Subject: MSCL: Claire Danes bio
Claire Danes Age: 15
Born: New York City, NY
Birthdate: April 12
Height: 5=D55 1/2=D3
Hair: Dark Blonde (orginally, anyways!)
Eyes: Grey green
Claire grew up in New York City and, at the age of 9, started taking acting
classes at the Lee Strasberg Studio. In the sixth and seventh grade, she w=
as
enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School. She also stared study=
ing
modern dance at the age of six.
Off-Broadway appearances: "Happiness", "Punk Ballet", "Kids on Stage" (in
which she choreographed her own solo dance)
TV appearances: "Law and Order" (she killed her agent I think.. ;) ),
"No Room for Opal" (w/ Tyne Daley), "The Coming Out of Heidi Lieter"
Film debut: "Dreams of Love" (Milos Foreman, exec. prod.)
"Thirty" (short film)
"Pesky Suitor" (festival short film)
Upcoming project: The role of Beth in "Little Women" with Winona Ryder and
Susan Sarandon.
Claire was raised in =D2a very creative household. Her mother is a painter=
and
a teacher. Her father is a computer consultant. She also has an older
brother, Asa, who is a college senior. And she has a cat, Fifi-Champion.
Of MSCL, she says "it's as real as TV can be, I think."
Hope you all learned something=C9 bios of other MSCL characters are
available via email by request.
---------------------------------------mail bonding-------------
you know the address:
=09=09=09=09=09jonathar@gas.uug.arizona.edu
-----------
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 13:52:27 -0500
From: HinTysen@aol.com
To: jonathar@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu
Subject: Your zine
WWOR09A@aol.com (WOR News) -- WOR (NY/NY superstation) news dept
The first part of that address suggests that the suffix should be
prodigy.com..
Also: Ex-King Missile lead singer John S. Hall: JohnSHall@aol.com
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 16:24:32 -0500
From: Bill Triplett <billt@gate.net>
To: jonathar@gas.uug.arizona.edu
Subject: strangeness 1
i like it.. informally informative.. covers stuff i like.. its got hamsters=
..
..the mountain dew thing looked about right.. but i don't like mountain
dew.. but mellow yellow really sucks BAD. dr. pepper's really a good drink,
now. a friend of mine's mother would sit there and tell you why its the
=D4he most refreshing beverage on the market personally, i think she got a
little more out of dr. pepper than i ever can..but i still like it.
i also like ween=C9 i haven't heard they're new album! but i'll be on the
lookout for it. i'll also have to check my stock in scotchgard=C9should be
up!
here's some of my favorite www sites...maybe you'll appreciate them:
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 16:28:04 -0500
From: Bill Triplett <billt@gate.net>
To: jonathar@gas.uug.arizona.edu
Subject: that was a lie
no, HERE are some of my favorite sites:
http://www.willamette.edu/webdev/principia/
http://bazaar.com/Art/mendoza.html
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~kb10618/fnord.html
http://www.ntua.gr/mandel/mandel.html
http://www.actwin.com/fish/index.html
sorry bout that! my mailer is just jealous because i have hands and it
doesn't. it decided to send a message before its time.
----
I haven't had a chance to check this stuff out yet... hmmm...
see what ya'll think.
hehe...Maybe we should have some kind of "If you were trapped on a=20
desert island with only 10 web site addresses, which ones would they be?" t=
ype=20
contest.
Dammit, I gotta get a fast modem so I can run mosaic through SLIP.
anyone feeling generous??? hehehehe
At least my 2400 baud anchor beast has a lot of cool lights. I know what=20
they all mean. Is that a bad sign?
Please ignore all the random file translation problems. They suck, I know..=
.
but I can't find any easier way to do it. Fuuuuuuuuck
anyone have any experience in max to unix translation?=20
the following textfile from Dean Cameron is from my VideoCHeez zine. It's=
=20
a print thang, available (right now) from me at
295 N. 3rd Ave
Tucson, AZ
85705
It's only a quarter + a stamp
...and I just got my september issue done + xeroxed last week, so you=20
should reward me... yeah, so what if it's 11/5/94.
enough shameless pluggzzzz......
---legal note---
Dean Cameron will hunt you down and kill you if you reproduce this=20
anywhere (and then then he'll kill me... and we wouldn't want that.) So=20
contact him.
From=20waldodfb@netcom.com Mon Aug 8 09:52:33 1994
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 01:21:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dean Cameron <waldodfb@netcom.com>
To: jonathar@gas.uug.arizona.edu
Subject: The Chainsaw Memoirs...
Jonathan,=20
I got inspired on my day off and wrote this. I only ask that if you make
any changes, other than spelling, to pleeeeeeeeze send them to me for
approval.=20
I hope that it's not too long or boring. Let me know
I've included my e-mail address in the article, go ahead and print it.
You can snail mail me at:
Dean Cameron
c/o Landmark Artist Management
5200 Lankershim #260
North Hollywood, Ca.
91601
=20
=20
I WAS A 23 YEAR OLD CHAINSAW
by=20
DEAN CAMERON
LIFE BEFORE CHAINSAW
My path to Chainsaw began in Norman, Oklahoma, where I lived with
my mother and Santa Barbara, California, where I would visit my
father for the summers. It was in Santa Barbara where I started
doing community theater and would continue through the years.
=20
A couple of the other kids I did plays with were Anthony Edwards
and Eric Stoltz. We have remained friends since then. When I was
back in Oklahoma, they would go down to Los Angeles and do
commercials and guest roles on T.V. shows. I figured that since
they could do it, I could do it too, so, in 1980, after many
lectures from my high school guidance counselor and other
concerned adults, I forewent a college education and drove to
Hollywood in a 1976 Firebird that was promptly stolen one month
after my arrival.
=20
I was roommates with Eric and Tony for awhile. They were going to
U.S.C., continuing to do T.V. and I was working at Mann's Chinese
Theater as the Head Usher and hating life. They, of course, were
Sean Penn's surfer buds in the mother of all high school movies,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
=20
I won't bore you with all of the gory details about being a
starving actor. Let's just say that it sucks. Especially when
your best friends are becoming major film stars.
=20
I had been slowly but surely getting bit parts on various shows,
etc. and studying acting.=20
=20
My first brush with "filmic Highschool" began on a television
pilot for a piece of garbage called "Highschool U.S.A.". It was
my first "big job" a series regular on a T.V. show. I got fired
after three days. Long story, not my fault, blah blah. But I got
paid anyway and didn't have to work in the real world anymore. In
1984 I decided to quit my job parking cars (I quit the Chinese
Theater after they threatened to promote me to Assistant Manager;
the thought of excelling at a "job job" terrified me).
=20
Later that year, I got a supporting role on a t.v. series called
"Spencer" with Rob Lowe's little brother, Chad. He quit the show
after 7 episodes and they recast it with Ross Harris, the kid
from the movie Airplane; "Do you like gladiator movies?" It died
7 episodes later. Ross wasn't the teen dream Chad had been, so
NBC axed it. But, I was actually making a decent living.
=20
Here's where the Chainsaw machinery began rolling.
=20
In 1985 I got a small part in a T.V. movie, "The Prince of Bel
Air" with Mark Harmon. It was about a pool cleaner who slept with
all of his client's rich wives. Also starring in "Prince" was
Kirstie Alley and Patrick Labyorteaux, both of whom would go on
to roles in "Summer School". I worked on the thing for about a
week or so. Whatever, the die was cast...
=20
CBS decided in '85 to do a t.v. series of the movie "Fast Times".
When I heard about it, I thought "Gee, what poor sap are they
going to get to play Jeff Spicoli?". Well, it turned out that
that poor sap would be me. After about five months of auditions,
I got the job, died my hair blonde and began work on "Fast
Times". The series, of course, was doomed. The movie dealt with
teenage sexuality and drugs; two taboo subjects for network t.v.
I was able to pull off Jeff Spicoli with a minimal amount of
resistance from the critics, and earned a bit of respect from
some of the Hollywood community for being able to pull off a
legendary character on t.v.
=20
There were two "Summer School" connections in "Fast Times". Amy
Heckerling, who directed the movie and directed some of the t.v.
episodes had a script in development at Paramount called "Summer
School". It was going to be a sort of "answer" to "Fast Times".
She wanted Patrick Dempsey, who was playing Mike Damone in the
"Fast Times" series to play a part in "Summer School" called
"Chainsaw". I really liked Amy and was kind of jealous that she
hadn't thought of me to be in her movie.=20
=20
The other connection was Courtney-Thorne Smith, who was playing
the Jennifer Jason Leigh part in "Fast Times". I always thought
that she was really cool because she liked hanging out with me
and Dempsey in our trailers where we would listen to Derek and
Clive tapes and light our farts.
=20
"Fast Times" aired for 7 weeks in the spring of 1986 and was
unceremoniously canceled. Once again I was unemployed with a very
nice chunk of change in the bank. I appeared in a few "teen magazines" at=
=20
the time and often the girls who sent me fan letters would enclose nude=20
polaroids of themselves. Interesting...
=20
Over at Paramount, Carl Reiner, who now refers to himself as
"Rob's Dad", had a film in development. I don't know what it was,
but somehow it wasn't going to work out so they pulled the plug
on it and gave him his pick of any script they had in
development. He read the Summer School script and decided to
direct that, much to the chagrin of Amy Heckerling.
=20
There were two main concerns from Paramount as far as casting.
The first was getting someone to play the teacher, Mr. Shoop.
When Amy was involved they had decided to pass on the obvious
choices of "wise guy actors"; Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, Joe
Piscopo, et al. and try to find someone that would bring more
"normalcy" to the role. They had toyed with Jay Leno, David
Letterman and Joan Rivers(!), but couldn't agree on a choice.
Carl Reiner saw Mark Harmon on some talk show and decided that
that was his Shoop. They met and the deal was finalized.
=20
The second was the kid roles. Since it was going to be a
relatively low budget project (9-10 million, I think) they didn't
want to pay a whole lot for all of the kids and decided on
casting "relative unknowns" in the kid roles. (Relative unknowns
means actors who work semi-frequently, but aren't known by name
outside of Hollywood.) Also, because of child labor laws, actors
older than 18 are usually hired to play highschool roles so they
can work full time. Minors have to go to set school and may not
work more than a certain numbers of hours. Calls to agents were
put out and the casting process had begun.
=20
Mark Harmon had worked with Kirstie Alley on "Prince of Bel-Air
and suggested her for the female lead. Carl liked this idea and
she was cast. He also suggested that Reiner meet Patrick
Labyorteaux. Patrick wanted to play Chainsaw but was offered the
role of Kevin, the football player, instead. In the original
script, all of the kid's roles were of equal size. There was a
very large sub-plot with the football player and the pregnant
girl, so Patrick was quite pleased with the part.
=20
Kristy Swanson was the first choice for the surfer girl, Pam, but
she got the lead in "Flowers in the Attic" and opted for that.
Courtney was the second choice and was cast.
=20
The last time I had seen Mark Harmon was at a screening for
"Prince of Bel-Air". It was during the "Fast Times" shoot, so my
hair was dyed blonde, and I looked pretty damned weird. He wasn't
aware that my hair was blonde because I was working, he just
thought I was insane. During the casting process, he called my
agent asking to see actors, "a young Dean Cameron" was the
phrase, I believe. My agent said "Dean's young", so after a bit
of haggling over my sanity and hair color and it's reasons I got
an audition.
=20
As far as the age thing goes, there was only one "real" teenager,
Shawnee Smith, who was 19. Everyone else was in their twenties. I
was 23, Ken Olandt, who played the male stripper, was 30 or
nearly 30 as I remember. Kelly Jo Minter, the girl with the
dyslexia, had a daughter!
=20
When I read the script, I knew that I was going to play Chainsaw.
Sometimes this happens to actors and this was one of those times.
In the original script, Chainsaw and Dave are obsessed with the Tod
Browning classic "Freaks", not "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was a
kind of parallel thing happening with "Freaks" and the class full of
misfits. I thought that was really clever and interesting. (More on that
change later.) I had seen "Freaks" a couple of years previously and had
loved it. There was also a sub-plot involving Chainsaw's alcoholism that I
related to. (That's a whole other story.)
=20
The thing that I really liked about the script was, besides being
hilarious, how mean and dark the characters were. This would also
change.
=20
I went in to read for Carl Reiner and the producer, George
Shapiro (who now produces "Seinfeld"). I read through one scene,
a scene that is not in the final cut where Dave and Chainsaw
propose to the foreign exchange student (who was Swedish in the
original script.) After I finished, Reiner asked me to read it a
completely different direction. I thought that he was insane, but
I went ahead and did it his way. He later told me he did this to
see if I could take direction. We read through it one more time
and I left. I knew that I had nailed it and was sure that they
were going to pick me.=20
=20
Sure enough, a couple days later, I went back to read with their
"Dave prospects". There were two guys there. One was the kid (his
name escapes me) from E.T. and the other was Gary Riley. I went
in and read the proposal scene with each one. Personally, I liked
what E.T. guy did.... Oh well...
=20
I got the offer the next day. After some tense negotiations,
always the worst part of the process, the deal was finalized and
the ball was rolling. It was my first movie role. I was ecstatic.
=20
There was a month before we started shooting, so I had some time
to do "research". I searched desperately for a video copy of
"Freaks". There were none. I also rented "Texas Chainsaw
Massacre". I was blown away. It remains, to this day, one of my
favorite movies. Around this time, it was the anniversary of
TCM's release, so there was a slew of articles about it and
director Tobe Hooper. The other thing was Rick Baker. He loved
the script and the homage to him and agreed to do the special
effect makeup sequence in the movie, so I got to hang out with
him and his crew for a couple of days and make neat stuff and
learn all about effect makeup. The other thing was wardrobe. The
wardrobe guy for Paramount (who felt like he was slumming doing
"Summer School") showed me the trenchcoat, I loved it. I came up
with wearing the cap (from the Fotomat that Dave and Chainsaw
work at) backwards. YEARS before this became popular... (What a
trendsetter!)
=20
Carl Reiner arranged a screening of "Freaks". He had never seen
it. After the screening he matter-of-factly stated that it was
too intense and weird, so Chainsaw and Dave should screen "Texas
Chainsaw Massacre" for the class, instead of "Freaks". I was
bummed. In my own meek way, I pointed out the parallel to him. He
didn't get it. The writer, Jeff Franklin, was extreeeeeemly
bummed as well. In retrospect, I don't think that he was too
happy with Reiner taking over. Although Carl Reiner was/is a
legend in Hollywood, he was a bit too "nice" for the "Summer
School" Script. The darker aspects of the script were kind of
brushed over in the following weeks and we began shooting.
=20
THE SHOOT
=20
Most of the shooting took place over an eight week period in
Woodland Hills at an empty school, JFK High. JFK high's other
credits included "The Karate Kid" and a couple of other high
school movies. What was interesting about the location was that
the exit off the freeway was Shoup Avenue. Weird.... Who cares?=20
=20
I had hung out with Gary Riley, the guy who was cast as Dave, a
few times and found him to be incredibly annoying. He was really
into this "New Age" vibe, and kept wanting me to read these dumb
books about how we are all part of the universe and crap like
that. I had been through my "new age period" several years
earlier and I found it to be really selfish and self indulgent at
this point. As far as reading went, the reading I did for
preparation and during the shoot was an endless supply of Hunter
Thompson and Charles Bukowski and a great novel, "The Jungle" by
Upton Sinclair about immigrants dying in horrific meat packing
accidents in the twenties, so some book about the "true nature of
our beings and spirit" was of absolutely NO interest to me and I
relayed this to Gary many, many, many times. By the third day of
shooting (the scene where the black girl drives, with us in the
back seat) we weren't speaking to each other, maintaining a
friendly facade when others were around and silently loathing one
another in private.
=20
The tension with him increased during the shoot. I was pretty
serious about my work (still am) and would work bits and business
out the night before and bring them in. Because of this, Carl
Reiner took a liking to me and basically gave me free reign to
ad-lib anything I wanted to. Gary believed that any preparation
and homework was asskissing. Oh well. Enough about the bad stuff.
=20
The good stuff was this: Carl Reiner has a really nice wife,
Estelle, who he's been married to since the beginning of time. He
only shoots from 9am to 6pm so he can go home and be with her. My
experience before and since showed me what a rare situation this
is. Movies usually begin shooting as soon as the sun is up and a
day can last as long as people remain standing, so the set was
always relaxed and fun.=20
=20
Richard Horvitz, who played Eakian, was a sugar freak who would
consume mass amounts of candy and soda and run around the
schoolyard like a raving lunatic.=20
=20
There were many games of Simon Says. Kirstie Alley would always
ask if she could play. I usually led the games so I would say,
"Sure, Kirstie, stand over there". She would and I would
immediately call her out as I had not said "Simon Says". On
halloween, all of the departments; makeup, lighting, camera and
drivers, had a costume and trailer decoration competition. We
took a long lunch and had a mariachi band and mexican food.=20
=20
Mark Harmon and I would talk about our girlfriends (his future
wife, Pam Dawber, my girlfriend who would turn out to be a
nightmare and haunt me to this day) and chew tobacco and disgust
the women. (This was also right after he was People Magazine's "Sexiest=20
Man Alive" so most of the cast, especially me, would remind him of this=20
and he would generally throw something in your direction.)
=20
I began a friendship with Patrick Labyorteaux that continues to
this day.
=20
As I said before, there was a scene where Dave and I propose
marriage to the exchange student, Anna Marie. She was originally
supposed to be Swedish, but they couldn't find a Swede who could
act, so they found an Italian who could (kind of). In the scene,
the girl runs down the beach topless and jumps in the water, we
jump in after her and propose. She declines, saying that we are
all too young to get married but maybe someday. The girl who
played her, Fabiana Udenio, asked that the set be cleared the day
that scene was shot. When the day rolled around, she decided that
she didn't want to do it and started freaking out and crying.
Carl Reiner explained to her that he was going to shoot it very
tastefully from very far away and not to worry about it. The
producer explained to her that she had signed a contract where
she agreed to show her yabbos and what American Lawsuits were all
about. Needless to say we shot the scene. Unfortunately for her,
that was the day that anyone even remotely associated with
"Summer School" or Paramount Studios "coincidentally" decided
that they "really needed to come down to the set for a look
around". Everyone was gunning for a look at her ripe melons. If
you can picture about fifty guys in suits milling around a beach
parking lot trying to look like they need to be there, you might
get an idea of the surreal sight I had from the freezing November
Pacific Ocean.=20
=20
Fabiana, on the other hand, stopped being modest after about 30
minutes. Which has generally been my experience since. Actresses
feel that they need to complain about doing nudity for a while.
No one on the set really cares. When you're working, you just
want to get the shot over with and the actress usually forgets
about it. The same was true with Fabiana and the scene went off
without a hitch. The scene was trimmed from the movie just
because it was too long and took away from the love story between
Shoop and Robin.
=20
Another scene that was shot and trimmed was a scene after the
party at Shoop's house where he takes Chainsaw home. Chainsaw's
drunk and pukes all over his dad. It was a funny scene but it
didn't fit.=20
=20
There were a lot more sub-plot stuff with the other kids that was cut way
down after filming was completed. I was really the only one to survive the
knife, the two scenes excepted, so the part of Chainsaw turned out to be
larger than it was originally intended to be.=20
=20
The only drawback to doing a movie called "Summer School" is that people
think that it's some sex romp with a slew of tits and ass. (Like, oh, say,
"Ski School" or something.) I always thought of it as a sort of
continuation of the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" idea. Real kids with
real problems, but not a pretentious gabfest like "The Breakfast Club". It
didn't, in my opinion, turn out like this at all. Anyway, a really
annoying thing would happen when we were on location. Someone would ask
what the name of the movie we were shooting was. When they would hear
"Summer School", they would get this really condescending tone in their
voice: "Ohhhhhh, one of those movies." I often enjoyed the confused stares
when I would mention that Carl Reiner was the director.=20
=20
I worked on "Summer School" for all of the eight weeks and, Gary
Riley notwithstanding, had a great time. The last day was at
Malibu Grand Prix and we got to ride as many times wanted for
free and had the run of the video games. (Simple pleasures.)
=20
LIFE AFTER CHAINSAW
=20
"Summer School" came out the summer of '87 and did reasonably
well at the box office. I got a nice development deal at
Paramount and seemed to be headed for a bigger stature in the
business when a really annoying writer's strike happened and put
the town on hold for about six months. The deal's time limit
expired and I got paid off in quite a large sum of cash.
=20
I waited about a year to do another movie. It was called "Bad
Dreams". Gale Ann Hurd, of Terminator fame had a deal at Fox to
produce smaller budget (for them) movies. I played a wacko mental
patient who enjoys cutting himself and ends up committing
suicide. I got a Joe Bob Briggs best actor award for this
performance along with Rowdy Roddy Piper, Carl Weathers and Clint
Eastwood. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing...
=20
I played a "rock and roll vampire" in every 8 year old's favorite
movie, "Rockula". And a bound and gagged pizza delivery guy in
"Men at Work" with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez.=20
=20
I continued getting offers for really, really, really, shitty
movies because of the Chainsaw thing. I was trying to "grow up"
in the industry and stay away from supporting roles and "wacky"
guys. It's really annoying to go somewhere and have a drunken
teenager walk up and say "Duuuuuuuuuddddee, you're my hero!" or
scream "Chainsaw" at you. =20
=20
An interesting side note. My dad teaches highschool in Oregon.
Without fail, during finals, someone invariably screams and then
says "tension breaker, had to be done". He hates it.
=20
Anyway, I found myself turning down everything waiting for the "right"
project. It never came. They never do. So when I got the offer for "Ski
School" I took it. It was rent for a year. Patrick Labyorteaux was going
to do it too and we went to Canada for a month and had a great time. I met
Stuart Fratkin on this and we ended up in a syndicated T.V. series called
"They Came From Outer Space" together. I did another crappy B-movie after
that; "Miracle Beach" (Miserable Beach as I fondly call it) and decided
"enough with the B-movies".=20
=20
I got a job in an HBO drama with Joe Mantegna called "State of
Emergency" about an inner city emergency room. Last year I did
another supporting role in "Sleep With Me" with Eric Stoltz and
Meg Tilly. We were accepted into the competition at the Cannes
Film Festival this year. "Sleep With Me" will be out late
September, '94.
=20
I'm working on another independent film, "211" playing a burnt
out L.A. cop who robs a bank with his friends, right now as I am
writing this.
=20
Oh yeah, I paid my rent for the year with the money from "Ski
School II".
=20
So, "Summer School" is on cable constantly and people tell me it
is their favorite movie and that is a good thing. I saw it on
real T.V. one day. A local channel here in L.A. I had always
wanted to see the "T.V. version" as we shot scenes with
"alternate" swear words (a common practice) like "eat chips" for
"eat shit", "you're a dink" for "you're a dick"... stuff like
that. So for "historical purposes" I taped it. Anyway, before a
commercial break, the announcer says "Summer School, starring
Sean Penn, will return after these messages". I have the tape and
it frequently turns up on my answering machine as an outgoing
message.
THE END
=20
Dean Cameron can be reached at the internet address waldodfb@netcom.com.=20
If you harass him he will send a nice man from the F.B.I. to your house=20
to ask you to stop. If you are nice, he just might let you send him money=
=20
and nude pictures of your sister.
"Do not mock The Corey or it=20
will forever dominate your life..."
Ask me about MILK...
Embrace The Corey-ETC =20
waldodfb@netcom.com
------
From=20gajarsky@pilot.njin.net Tue Nov 1 10:15:44 MST 1994
Article: 137718 of alt.music.alternative
Path: news.Arizona.EDU!noao!ncar!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uunet=
!dziuxsolim.rutgers.edu!pilot.njin.net!not-for-mail
From: gajarsky@pilot.njin.net (Bob Gajarsky)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.music.alternative,alt.music.tmbg
Subject: INTERVIEW: They Might Be Giants
Followup-To: rec.music.misc
Date: 31 Oct 1994 22:00:47 -0500
Organization: Freelance writer
Lines: 249
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <394b0v$819@pilot.njin.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pilot.njin.net
Xref: news.Arizona.EDU rec.music.misc:109120 alt.music.alternative:137718 a=
lt.music.tmbg:8554
=09Consumable Online recently caught up with John Flansburgh of They=20
Might Be Giants. Flansburgh and John Linnell comprise the main part of thi=
s=20
group, best known for their quirky songs such as "Don't Let's Start", "Ana =
Ng"=20
and "Birdhouse in Your Soul". On their most recent release, _John Henry_, =
the
duo employed several full time musicians to add to their breadth and depth.
=09How busy was he this day? While we were conducting the interview,=20
John was doing his dishes - it's hard to do that when you're on the road mo=
st
of the time. He had been giving interviews for seven hours straight. But, =
in
between, he was told that the St. Louis show sold out in 90 minutes. The=
=20
hectic pace comes with the territory when you're as in demand as They Might=
=20
Be Giants.
C:=09Your new album, _John Henry_, is the first album you've had a full=20
band on. What triggered the decision to implement a full backing band?
TMBG:=09Well, it was a practical thing - we were going out on a long tour i=
n=20
the middle of 1992 (for _Apollo 18_) and we were trying to change up the sh=
ow.
We had toured for a year solid in 1991 (for _Flood_) and then went out in t=
he=20
beginning of 1992 as a duo and it struck us that even though we had added a=
=20
half dozen songs to the show, it was hard to make the show seem different=
=20
>from what we had done in 1990. We didn't want to do a big national tour=
=20
that was the same as the 1990 show.
C:=09That was when you had the backing music and such accompanying you?
TMBG:=09Yeah, we were working with a drum machine; we spent 1991=20
working on _Apollo 18_ and not working on a live show, so we were trying=20
to figure out how to spice up the show. We decided to bring in some side=
=20
musicians to play a couple songs and at some point, we decided that might=
=20
be too weird to have someone on the road to play only three songs - it was=
=20
an indulgence of sorts. I had been playing drums in the show for a few=20
songs - which was interesting - so we were almost dipping our big toe in th=
e=20
live rhythm section. We auditioned some people, rehearsed for a few weeks=
=20
with a five piece lineup and it started working. The audience's response h=
as
been really receptive.
=09Over the last couple years, the lineup has changed a bit - Kurt
(Hoffman, horns) has left the band to work on some movie soundtrack project=
s.
We're now a six piece - we added Randy Ando, who plays trombone as well as=
=20
tuba. We're expanding - it's nice to have a full horn section.=20
C:=09So, how long have you been together now - it must be nearing ten years=
?
TMBG:=09We've actually been together since 1983. We played in crummy=20
clubs for three years or so.
C:=09What's the best and worst things about having a band playing=20
behind you?
TMBG:=09The best and worst parts are intrinsically linked. It's an=20
intimately more social thing - the up and down sides of that are a total=20
constant now. It's really fun hanging out with these people and it's music=
ally
challenging to work with them; there are all sorts of levels to pursue what=
=20
you're doing. On a personal level, as a musician, it's really opened up a=
=20
whole new area for me. Writing for horns is really exciting, hearing the=
=20
music *become* a full blown band sound - I feel like I'm lucky to hear=20
these great players work on my songs. It's really wonderful and rewarding=
=20
to work with a great bunch of guys.=09
=09The other side - John and I have this responsibility of being band=20
leaders, which means to some extent, we have to think of ourselves as=20
bosses. For us, that's uncomfortable - we want to be fair, we want to do r=
ight
by these guys, but it makes things complicated. We've (the two Johns) have=
=20
always been self-contained which has been a strength, without compromising=
=20
a thing. We just did our own thing - but now we have to figure out schedul=
es=20
that work for us - it's a whole new level of complexity.=20
C:=09I notice one song is written by four of you on _John Henry_ - "A.K.A.=
=20
Driver" - and the rest were written by you and John. Were there any proble=
ms=20
with that - songs that the other members contributed on, that didn't make t=
he=20
final cut?
TMBG:=09No, not at all. John and I are the songwriters on the project - we'=
ve=20
been in the band for eleven years and to some extent, They Might Be Giants
is linked to the collaboration between the two of us. It's hard for me to=
=20
imagine how it could work any other way. When they are involved in the=20
writing process, they are credited, but the songs are pretty arranged by th=
e=20
time they get to the band. They bring out the nuances in the material, but=
=20
the arrangements come down to me and John.
C:=09Other than the band, how did _John Henry_ differ for you from the=20
other albums?
TMBG:=09It was the first record we made outside of New York City (in=20
Bearsville, New York).
C:=09Was t
