Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil with John Brennan

The great John Brennan joins the pod to discuss a movie that is disgusting, rageful and weirdly inspiring — Damon Packard's Reflection of Evil!

This is a great episode! John's the man and we knew he was going to pick some weird underground movie that no one's heard of, but this was way weirder than we expected. 

Damon Packard is a truly independent filmmaker. He breaks every copyright law, experiments with different cameras, dubs over everybody's voice, gets banned for life from Universal Studios, fights dogs, stuff his face with slop...it goes on and on. The movie's almost unwatchable, but the more you think about it and the more John talks about it, the more you start to like it.

Check it out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You do the introductions, Levi.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello, welcome to you pick the movie. I'm Levi with me as always. Jessica Levin. Today's guest, our good friend John Brennan. John, what movie did you pick?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

I picked a movie called Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil. And I picked it to just fuck with the two of you, honestly. I was gonna pick Jurassic Park, and then I said, you know what? Fuck me.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Like, I mean, I guess is that little John? Is that little Johnny boy for that movie?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

So Jurassic Park is the movie that I saw the most times in the theaters. I saw it five times in the movie theaters. But it relates sort of to this movie because of the influence that Spielberg has had over Damon Packard.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

Well, it seems like it. Like it's like, oh my god, this is fantastic. Is this when he goes to Universal?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

So yeah, there's so much to unpack in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

He There is a lot to unpack in this movie. Like I didn't even watch the entire thing and just skimming over it. It's just absolute. But I will tell you this. I agree with you at one point, because you and I, you've lived in LA longer than me. I only lasted for like nine months. But I found Hollywood Boulevard to be I found LA to be one of the saddest places on the planet.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Isolation, sadness, but also opportunity. I mean, so much. Yeah, it's all about dreams.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

When I thought I was going to LA, I thought I would see like you get on a lot. Because I worked in film and TV production there. Yeah. So I went to the Fox lot a lot. But I thought I'd go to these lots and you'd see like a Trojan horse and then a show girl, and then it's like, all right, good. And in this hubbub, it's it's dead. It was dead because the tax incentives everywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So it's like What era was this?

SPEAKER_03 1:37

I was there. Oh, I was working on bones season. I have to I have to go on IMDB to look.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, because I was there actually, I think when he was filming this, or right after. I I moved there in 2003 and I lived there until 2010 or 11. I forgot which exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

He started filming around January 2001.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

You know what? Let's get that first off, since this is such a freaking weird ass film. Let's get give me the director's name and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Well, much like John Carpenter, he it's not, you know, John Carpenter's the thing, John Carpenter's Halloween. This is Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Okay, it is Damon. That's right. He named it Damon at that time.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

He put his name above the title. I know. So that's already a bold statement.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Very much so, dude. Like very, very much. Okay, so I was there. I was there from 2013, 2014. That was when I was there.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Okay, so that was after my time. And I don't know. I mean, I if you because when I went back in um, I think like three, four years ago, everything was different. They had built new buildings. So maybe from the time that I went and this movie was shot. When was it shot? Around 2001, 2003.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

See, this is okay. That's great because that is the we're getting into the new millennia. Yeah. Literally. And like this is like 9-11s happened, right? Yep. So now this is like this is perfect, because this is when I didn't see LA, and it's probably had more of a cesspooly vibe. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I recognized this LA. Yeah. When I went back, I did not recognize a lot of it. It was all remodeled, redone. Right. Places were gone, landmarks were gone. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

I probably would have liked it more than this time, this, this era.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Because it had the grit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

It was the death of the sunset strip. I mean, when I went, I saw the literal death of how people used to cruise the sunset strip and they used to f hang out and make uh basically a traffic jam on Fridays and Saturday nights on Sunset and party and yell out the window at a time. That's what I wanted.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

That's what I wanted. When I went there, it was dead. It was, I was like, this is like an old age home. You know what it's got? It felt like it was in a wax museum that was like once lived. Or you know what it is? It felt like I was at an old carnival that everyone just left and just left the things there, and that was it. I believe I remember passing Fredericks of Hollywood, and there was this one lonely girl. Like they would have models that would sit in there, and I could see back in the day, it was probably like people were like around hanging out. And she was just it was a sad model, just like sitting in the window wearing lingerie. And it was just like yeah, it felt gross.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

They do that out there, the woman in the standard sitting in the the tank just reading and yeah, it was just weird.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

Like I wanted more circus. Like, listen, if we're gonna do circus freak, can I have more freaks? Yeah, it was like it was just like it was just really kind of sad. Yeah, I it felt, yeah, it felt vacant.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

It it changed, yeah. It really did just die. And and it was like one year it was happening, and then one year I th a mayor or somebody was like, no more cruising down the Sunset Strip, it's over, and then it was just like the party atmosphere sort of just disintegrated. Yeah, that's sad.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Because um, I did see a concert, what's it not the Viper Room, what's that big place that everyone used to go see music at? I it was a famous place.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Roxy Whiskey, I think of the Roxy.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

I went, I went to go see a concert there. And um, I don't know. And then I went to an I I got fucked up one night and I went to an art show at East East like East LA. Yeah. And I remember just being bored with everyone. I was like, there was not that, you know, because LA had that what's that Asian uh artist that's insane? Like he became very popular. Like LA had that vibe of like pop.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

But like What's the guy who did the faces?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Uh the the artist like Venice was very happening.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

Yeah, Venice. I used to go there, yeah. I used to go there. I went to a bar, a couple bars there. That was really cool. But then again, LA, LA's just to be you have to drive everywhere. That was the big deal. That was the big deal. It's like that's what's annoying about it. So it's like, and also LA, I didn't realize because Living, I'm the north, I'm a northeaster. You don't go to shopping malls. You know what I mean? Like, you don't go to like, you know, that's but that's where actually the real food was and stuff like that, and strips, and you have to know where to go. Like you have to have a destination to go anywhere. You can't just walk around.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

It's a lot of hidden stuff.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

Yeah. It was just really, yeah. I just didn't like the or like that part of it all. But I almost wish it was that kind of I wish it was, what's this guy's name again? Fucking Packer. David Packard. What like where is he from? What's his deal, dude?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

I think he's he's a California, he sounds like George Lucas in interviews. He actually has George Lucas's voice.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Does he really, dude? This guy's mentally ill.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

This guy must be from the same area. And I feel like he could have been a social. Like he should have been like a stalker.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

Like he shouldn't have been a director. He should have been a stalker that got arrested. He looks like a guy that would get like I'd see him seven. He looks absolutely mentally ill. But he's just a good actor. Yeah, sure. This is bad acting, bro. Like he even does the Spanish E.T.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Oh, yeah. So right now, like we have the movie playing in the background on the part where he snuck into Universal Studios. He got banned for life for this, but he filmed the entire ET ride and other things in Universal Studios. Oh, yeah, there's a Spanish portion. There's so much going on. So I just want to say really quick, whoever's watching, I don't hate LA. I actually love LA. Right. But I felt that there was a lot of weirdness, and I felt like it was represented visually in the hill versus the people below. Right. It was like the most perfect metaphor, visual metaphor for what that town is. Right. And I think what he captures, Damon Packard, is the people on the bottom. Yeah. Right, right. Yes, it's the blue. Like David Lynch's LA. I never experienced that dreamy Hollywood, like classy version of it that he does in Mulholland Drive or semi-classy. Right. This I experienced. This was the LA I lived through.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

So that makes sense to me too. Because Mulholland Drive is, yeah, David Lynch's. I was trying to think of like a Sunset Boulevard's another LA film that that is by Gone Too. And yeah, all those kind of Hollywood films, like script writers. What was the Black Dahlia was one of the things that we've got to do? Yeah, that was um I just thought of another film too, and I can't remember what it was. But I'm with you. This is because he's got you know the dreams of filmmaking, but the the crushing part of capitalism and consumerism and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

So I understand like if you're watching, this is not a movie you sit in and you're like, oh, let's sit in and watch uh Netflix and chill.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Let's have a cozy day.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

Let's have a cozy night. Like this is the kind of like this is the serial, this is the kind of film like where a taxi driver brings her to a porn. If you're on a date, you're like, Yes, you lose friends over this movie.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

You can lose friends. And I'm sorry if I'm losing the two of you because of this video.

SPEAKER_04 8:29

Actually, I like you. I find that you're so much more endearing and lovable because you picked this film. Of course. Because when Levi told me this film, Levi gave me the news, I was like, I'm not watching this shit. And then I and you're such a lovable human being that when you came and you explained it, I was like, I can't get it down.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

You go, I'm just catching up, and it's literally the opening credits.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

Yeah, I know. Seriously, I was trying to get it done.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Two and a half hours long.

SPEAKER_04 8:49

It's almost two and a half hours long.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

214, I think.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah. And well, I think this is his, he calls it the overlong version. Overlong version. There's like there's multiple cuts of it. Like I feel like this should be at the moment.

SPEAKER_04 9:04

Like the Momo or the Met. They do like a whole thing or LA. Because this is kind of like very Andy Warhol-esque, kind of more stylized experimentation. Yeah. Then this is actually a film.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, it's art. It really is art. I mean, that no matter what you say, this is a person who dreamed of making movies his whole life. And when he finally caught an inheritance from a relative, I don't know who, but he had enough money to make this. This was his.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

How much did he spend?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

I don't know. I don't know if there's no idea.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

There's no information on that at all.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Can't find it.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

I mean, he's like, first time I've been banned from Universal Studios. Very easy thing to happen, too. So there and you have? Yeah, one year. I was with a bunch of people, and first I was in the Florida one. Okay. And we were all like the whole thing's drinking. It's a drink fest, especially at night. I was on the board, their boardwalk thing. This woman's walking around with shots. So I was getting them, and I was with, I'm 23, and the girl that I was we're dating these dudes. I'm 23. She was like 20. So I gave her some stuff to drink. And then this guy's caught us. Oh, yeah. This little dweeb, too. They're all over the place. They're high. I didn't even know. Like a little, like, I'm telling you, he weighed like the size of it. I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? He's like, Oh, you're not allowed. And I'm like, what are you talking about? She just took a sip. He's like, she you got her a drink. So I'm like, no, I didn't. She, I had my drink there and she took a sip of it. I can't control that. And he's like, My toddle. They took a sip of my beef. That's what kind of. I go, what? So I'm like, what? If I go out of the guy and he rapes me, it's my fault. And he's like, that's it. You're gone.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

So I got a big thing. So you and Damon Packard have something in common.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

I got banned for a year. Like I think he took a picture of me. He's like, we're putting you on the wall. I'm like, oh no. I'm like, Disney's better. And I was drunk. And he just booted us out, and we had to go find our car. It was a whole thing. It was just ridiculous. So you're on a list? I was on a list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It totally. I love how he shot a child not having a good time. Yeah, like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

He has there's no way they got permission for shooting the kid. No, he just keeps cutting for the kids. He gets confused.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I love the kid knows that they dumped something too.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

You know what he did? You know what? I gotta say, this guy's impressive. He broke every single rule known to man, and no one's it's like he it's like playing queen like hearts. He went for the queen in all the numbers. So it's like you can't, it's like if I go after this guy, I can't stop going out, like it's not even worth it. It's like, holy shit. He goes, takes John Williams, yeah, shot, took some ET shots, he what else? He stole Universal Studios.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

There's Carpenters. The Carpenters are one of my favorite sequences in this movie that I think represents the best representation of for sure LA living, but also city living in general, right? Of the Carpenters, the sweet music you're listening to, and the people around you are pulling out hatchets and machetes and fighting and puking and all this, and you're just walking down the street listening to we've only just no.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

I love that dichotomy because I used to have an idea of wanting when I lived on Helenet Island, I lived like living on tourist areas with the families, and the kids are crying. It's like all these family members like spent all their whole year saving money to do a family vacation, and it's not ever what lived up to the experience of what it is. So I wanted to do like vacation time with kids crying and be like, yeah, like parents fighting in the corner.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Who should do reflections of uh reflections of vacations? Yes, exactly, dude.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

That's so true.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I think this if he really was uh interested, he could franchise Reflections of Evil and have different people do it in different cities and then he just edits it.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Right. I just think he missed a little bit. Like, I mean, I didn't watch all of it. So the commercialism part of it all, like it'd be interesting to make it. I wish he caught more of like the new buildings that were coming into LA because the new like yeah, I don't remember if there's any sequences like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

But it'd be interesting to do a reflections of New York of like how it once is and now they're like, especially in this neighborhood. Like I got a Shake Shack, it's scaffolding. Oh my god, taking like it's insane. Like and all these like especially in Jersey City. I see it really big there in Jersey City. When as soon as I got off at uh Journal Square, I think that's a stop, there's um a Kushner building, like a high rise right there. Like, and Jersey City still like there should be reflections of Jersey City, actually. Because Jersey City is still looks like from the like the nine, it still has this it's all these immigrants, but it's also like trash, and there's a crackhead, and then there's like you know, like old people that are just like live in the neighborhood with their rockers, and then there's young people, so it's a mix of everything, and it still has this grungy feel to it, and but then they have these little machines the the that do the food delivery, the Uber robots.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

It's like what the hell is that and it's crazy because it's in the like the the worst intersection on the planet? It's like and then you stop and you're like, oh my god, I almost hit that. And it's like it's a fucking machine. Why can't I hit it?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Why do I care?

SPEAKER_04 13:53

What do I care? Why am I giving this thing a leak? Like, why do I care? And it's just it's it's just it's it's it's uh it's a bomb of everything all like coming together. It feels like an experiment. Exactly. Like, I feel like we're in a petri dish. Like, is that the same girl from the beginning?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

So that's yeah, that's so there's a loose narrative here, and I'm not sure exactly what it is, but his door his uh sister from the 70s died probably in Universal Studios, and I think he's having a nervous breakdown and remembering her, or she's trying to peek at him through the other side.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I think right now he's dead. Oh, he's dead. Okay. I think she tells him, yeah, you died on the ride.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Oh which one? E.T. or Schindler's List of Ride. Schindler's List of Ride is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah, that's amazing. He takes the tram in Universal Studios and somehow cuts it in so that it looks like he's going on Schindler's List of Ride. I mean, this movie to me is a comedy, and I think it has as many premises for jokes and jokes as something like Dumb and Dumber. I'm I'm really serious about that. Oh, God, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Oh, it has as many double the amount of time, though. That's true, that's true, that's true. Dumb and dumber is 90. Dumb and dumb is a tight 90. This is two hours and 36 minutes. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

This yes, Dumb and Dumber is a tight five. This is 40 minutes, but he only has 10 minutes of material.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

He's really stretching it.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

He's like, yeah, dude. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

It's a beautiful stretch.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

I do like that. Whenever there's a dummy, like the jump cuts is what makes me laugh mostly at this time. Because that's ridiculous. Like, it's just like like that. Like the funny thing is too, is like this film, it's like it's definitely it feels like it's definitely a student film. That's what this whole vibe is.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

There's an amateur nature to it, but there's also professional um thoughts to in really, in my opinion. He he succeeds where a lot of filmmakers fail. They don't put in the themes, they don't get personal, they don't make things from their hearts, and that's why a lot of movies suck to me. Right. Is because when somebody like Damon Packer comes along, love him or hate him, this is his vision.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

He did not compromise his vision in any way to the point where he's doing illegal things like using music from Star Wars and he teaches.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Film the screen.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Oh, wait, wait, it's a it's a it's a trailer, right? I think it's one of the Star Wars shows.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Oh, yeah, Attack of the Clones and other movies. He's just showing it. And in an interview, I don't know if we might have listened to the same interview as these two old guys interviewing them. They were fucking awful. But because they're like trying to put way more meaning to it than there is. So am I and he's just like, yeah, okay. But yeah, there it is. Yeah, but he says, like, yeah, he says, I've never run into any issues with copyright because this movie doesn't make money. He's like, nobody cares. Wow, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Well, it's on Tubi though. I would figure that they would QC in some way.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I deliver shit to Tubi and they'll yeah, they'll hit us with tons of stuff. Really? But I think it's nobody fucking watches this.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Well, I will say though, I I said this off mic, I think this movie has a 3.8 on letterbox, and for an outsider art underground movie, that is really, really hard to do.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

I just but I just don't like there's no like there's there's no beginning, middle, or an end in this, is there?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Sort of.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Sort of because I like the like I wish he went more of like this, like the opening sequence of the pretty girl in the white, it's like it's almost like we're like now we're going into his dream sequence. That's how I perceive it as.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

It's like it reminded me of the conversation. Remember when we were watching that, they had all the dream sequences in that. I mean, obviously it's not the conversation, but what the Gene Hackman film? Yeah. But it had he had like weird dream sequences like that where the flowy dress and all this shit.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Right. It's like it's almost like surrealism.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

And like I don't know what's real and what's fake. Do you know like the dividing line? But maybe that's like maybe that's part of it. Well, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

You know what he does, that's where he sort of fails, is in two ways. It's too long, in my opinion. I still love it, but it also, you're right. The hard Nazi?

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Oh, yeah, because he's on Schindler's List of Ride. Okay, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Like, where is the reality and where is the fantasy? You're right. It needs to be more although I think I think he does do that because it's like I think he's in reality. I think he is living and what we're seeing of him is in the real world, but he then we see his inner insanity.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Yeah. I mean, I d the whole thing feels insane. Like, I don't like I feel like I'm looking at his like it's not like all right, that person is walking up with a blue shirt. I get that, but it's like he's living this world that's like I can't tell like if one and we're inside of his brain process or we're on the outside of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

You're right.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

Sometimes it is a little bit Nelson we're black and white. Okay, so now we're on Schindler's List of Ride. Is now what's going on now? Now we're in the Schindler's List of Ride. I you know, I feel like he's one of these guys that's probably intelligent, but it's just like he tried to take 30 ideas and put it in one film.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

There's zero organization. There's zero organization. I don't know. I think there's I think he organizes it in sections.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

I mean, this is Ari Aster if Ari didn't have Oh, yeah. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Like this. Ari had no fundamentals.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

No fundamentals at all.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

There's a there is a story, there's a narrative, but you're right. It it there could have been like a hook to the reality.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Right. Like something. Like if you want black and white, like you go back and forth. Like I was watching, oh fuck, what was I watching the other day? It was incredible. Oh, Wings of Desire. Oh, I love that movie. Love that movie, dude. Great. So like the angels, they only see black and white. Yeah. And you don't realize that until they go color when they're showing the real. If he created that distinction, something, yeah. Something, because like just watching it now, it's just like I don't know. I I just have no idea what's going on. It's just like I can't.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

But see, you're laughing. You are laughing. This movie has hundreds of jokes and hundreds of laugh out loud moments. It's insane. So I I yeah, I showed this to uh Liz Shack, who is my beautiful, wonderful girlfriend, and uh also helps me produce stuff, but this really helps her through the day. She travels into New York City, yeah, and she loves the carpenters, like loves the carpenters. I do too, I do too. That's it. But she she, after seeing that sequence, put it those things in her ear, the air buds, and listened to the carpenters and was like, I'm experiencing reflections of evil on the subway. Like everybody's yelling, puking, snotting, and you just have this beautiful music in your ear. And that that I think is what Damon Packer gave me.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Like you settled, like that. Does that not make you even more menacing, or does that settle you?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Which one?

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Like the whole we only just begun while there's craziness around you. Does that keep you calm or does that mean? That's making me fucking. Well, that makes you crazy. That makes me crazy. Because it's like the dichotomy of that is just like we've only actually what it is. That's that's that's what's I feel like I'm the Hunter S. Thompson in freaking uh fear of moving. Whenever the dinosaurs and they all start fucking, like it just doesn't make me feel calm.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

See, because they but there probably is music that would like like that would still be a dichotomy. Yeah, I I don't know. It the absurdity of life, life is already so absurd and fucking crazy, and nothing makes sense, really, if we really look at it. Right. But the idea of that you can choose to put something so sweet in your ear while experiencing something so terrible like riding on a New York City subway is funny. That that's like to me, that's what make gets me through days.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Well, I'll tell you what, now wouldn't be funny. I just took Septa in Philly the other day, yesterday. She's just that that there's not Septa in like Philadelphia for their MTA. That that would be interesting to do. It's because there it's desolate, and then all of a sudden a crackhead emerges. It's like because no one uses them really. So it's just like it's it looks like every stop looks like the Bronx, like in the 1970s. It's not even like yes, it would be even there, should be reflections of Philadelphia, too.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

First time uh first time I ever saw somebody smoking crack in public, it was like seeing a celebrity. Oh, that's so I swear to God, it was right by Trauma. You Levi and I used to work at Troma. Together. Right. And I was like, and where's Troma?

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Where is it?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Long Island City. Long Island City.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Oh, so what year are we talking? That's seven train. Oh, oh, you were over that.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Yeah, okay. And an F. It was an F train, and I walked down by Queens Bridge where Nas came from. You know, good spot. And I'm going either up or down the stairs, and there's this guy just blatantly smoking crack right there. And I'm like, that's that whole area used to be crazy.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

Like that whole area back in the 90s, it was all like that's where all the halal trucks, like there used to be um this could be all five points. It was a building that hauled all graffiti on it, and now it house all the halal trucks, and then there's strip joints. Yes, there's one right there. There's still one. There's craw daddies over there. There's a couple of them still, but it used to be filled with that. At night, it used to be just desolate. Like it was just like a no man's land, yeah, and just like people turning tricks and shit like that. And that's what it was until it's like now it's China basically bought all of that area. China or Korea. I don't know. But really? Oh, yeah, it's all Asian.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

They better not get rid of the crack guy.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Oh, they got rid of the crack guy's on the other side now. Yeah, it's gone, dude. It is I loved it. Those like for real. I mean, you still can go behind, you know, where Roosevelt Island is, the bridge to go over there. I used to live over there. If you go over that bridge, it's still that's the old school of Long Island City. It's still got that line.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I loved walking over that bridge.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Yeah, right, right, right. And Roosevelt Island used to be creepy in its own self. Really? Oh my god, yeah, because there's a VA hospital on there. So that place they're all crazy. So they're like there's a guy that was always around that would steal bread every day. You'd steal bread because we had Christetis. Oh, yeah, we used to call them Christ Nasty's. We used to steal shit from there all the time. And the bread guy would come, and this guy on a gurney has no legs, he just lays flat on the freaking bed, would steal bread and roll away with it every time.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Roll away, no punishment.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Yeah, for real. And just like it was just and it was just a freak show like that. It was like it felt like it wasn't the movie Freaks. It was just like it was just random. And supposedly Grandpa Monster, the original grandpa monster from the Ass family, was the owner of that side of the town or something. I I don't know. It was weird. That's fucking good. But my drug dealer lived there, liquor store delivered to you. I mean, at 18, you're like, it was the life. It was abs. But it was crazy. It was still, they still had gun violence there, a couple, like it was just a weird, dichotomous place.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

We've only just totally.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

Like they found my freshman year, they found a dead body in the soccer field behind my building.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

Exactly, dude. So it's like, but it's like, so I like this if this was like a 20-minute shoot like experiment. Yes, that's exactly why I nailed it. It's just like this series we got.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Reflections of evil.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

You know what, dude? You're putting me in a corner with this guy now. It's like, dude, it's just like it's one of these guys where I'm just like, what's the matter with you? And then you're like, all right, I get it. You have some form of vision, and it's like well, he's done other stuff. What's other stuff that he does?

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So John Carpenter's corpse. No, I saw that listed on the IDP. It's a great premise. John Carpenter dies, and a bunch of film students go and dig up his grave so they can bring him to a party.

SPEAKER_04 25:14

Okay, that's just terrible.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

He's like, we need you to make another movie. Like, exactly. Come on, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Exactly. We just want to work. Party with John Carpenter.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Dude, that's but I see. I like, see, I like his premises. He needs he's a great writer. He just needs a guy, a person that's gonna, but he sounds like he's a nightmare to work with. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

He he probably is great. You you might like, like, he did um untitled Star Wars documentary, I think it's the title, and he took all the behind the scenes of the Phantom Menace and then cut him and his friends in using the same camera that they shot the behind the scenes, and they're interacting with Lucas, and the whole thing is them, the the premise is that they're the guys who were like telling Lucas, like, this fucking sucks, don't do it. It's really funny.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

So, so yeah, he's like theatrical. He's also like he's almost like AI before AI was invented.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

He does AI now, and people hate it. People are very pissed about that. He gets into AI.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Yeah, does he he has a following? This guy. He does. Yeah, okay. This is what's made. Okay. Who are I? I mean, are you one of them?

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Personally, I I like him a lot. I I don't follow him on social media and stuff, but I've seen six of his movies. Uh, Dawn of an Evil Millennium, this one, John Carpenter's Corpse, I think it's great. I really do.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

But I feel like people like you are important. Like you have to write a book because it's like because this is a world that I am not invested in at all. Like, I have no clue. And I find it. Well, I was in a hard my first film TV production gig was All Hollows Eve, which is a um I think Lionsgate picked it up. I'm in it too.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Shit, wait. Well, that's uh that's like uh anthology.

SPEAKER_04 26:53

Is that that launched Art The Clown?

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, pretty sure. Is that the one?

SPEAKER_04 26:57

I don't know. Hold on, let me see. Oh, the Bates Haunting. That's what they called it. The Bates Haunting.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

That's different.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Yeah. I did this movie. It was too much.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

I haven't seen it, but I see that poster all the time. I'm gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

It was ridiculous. We shot it on a like, it was in Did we shoot it in Jersey or PA? I can't remember. I think we shot it in PA. It was shot on a like a haunted hayride and they turn into a Christmas kind of place farm. Okay. So they do like, you know, you can come there and you do corn fucking measures and all that stuff. And they just got we had carte blanche with the whole place. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Yeah. I know, seriously.

SPEAKER_04 27:34

So I get like that there I know that horses are just a great, there's a great, you know, uh following for that kind of stuff. But yeah, I haven't gone to the depths of knowing this.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Well, this is this is deep. Like this is I wouldn't say deep, deep. It gets deeper.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

It gets deeper.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Oh, give me deeper, give me a deeper one. Deeper than this? I mean, there's some fucking crazy shit like America, like the guinea pig movies, like guinea pig movies? What's that? There's a series of like tor torture porn before torture porn, but they also are.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

When does it become snuff? Like, what's that line?

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Well, real death.

SPEAKER_04 28:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Murder.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

But there's like like there's a great one called Mermaid in a Manhole about this from the guinea pig series. This artist, his wife dies, and for some reason he's like working in a sewer and doing art, and he finds a mermaid who's like disintegrating, and he uses her as a muse to make art.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

While she's disintegrating, yeah. He doesn't help her out?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

No, I think I from what I've recalled he like falls in love with her, but also doesn't care. It's like a whole thing, but he does art with it, and she Wow, your dexterity of films.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

It's like this and then Jurassic Park. Like, I also love Field the Dreams.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

I mean, fucking.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

It's just like God, I mean, it's amazing. Like, that is a talent in itself, dude.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Well, movies are my favorite thing. I mean, music and movies are the top, then books, then it goes down, like art, whatever. Those are the things that I love the most since I'm a little boy. And I feel like my life is better because they're in my life. And I seriously sit there and when I'm watching a movie, I'm like making connections. Like, oh, that's the guy from that movie. Oh, that's the cinematographer from that. Yeah, and I'm doing research while I'm watching. It's just what I like.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

No, I do the same. I'm a dork too, but I'm more of like Japanese and China, like uh European films, all that kind of stuff. Like I like and all the yeah, all that stuff. Yeah, and I bet you do love those. I but I I I'm almost not jealous, but I like I uh am enamored by you because I I I I can't sit and watch all that and be like, like I couldn't, I couldn't appreciate until I talked to you about it. Yeah, do you know what I mean? I couldn't do that as my own personal.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Well, that's how I felt when I was working at Trauma because I had to watch all these people's fucking dog shit movies.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

And you know, fucking John and some of the other people working there would be like it's great, right? And I'm like, Yeah, sure. It was like it's fucking awful. I'm like, this is nonsense.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

That is true. You you were funny because like everybody before you was like, oh, there's something great about this, this, and you would just flat out be like, this is fucking horrible.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

I'd be with you. You and I'd be like, what are we doing here, dude? We will not just shit. Can we get a classical division? I'll do cartoons. Can I get cartoons?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Lloyd, Lloyd Kaufman, and be like, uh, have we have we acquired any more movies? I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

These are bad. You mean crap? I've watched 50 and they all suck.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

You mean, you know, I was like, I'm not, I'm not right for this because I'm too much of a traditionalist. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

You know what? I'm I'm missionary and you're commercial, baby. You're old, you're all the end of the way.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

I'm the one that they do in the porn where they go jackhammer down with it. You can't do that in real life.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

But that's so great through your eyes, though, you can find art in anything, you know? And the fact that you were able to appreciate what he because I I right, like when I started watching it, I got angry right away.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Well, the first time I watched it, it took me a minute. I think it was the when he is on when I finally clicked, was when he was on Hollywood Boulevard. It's like 25 minutes into the movie. And he's like arguing with people. I'm like, this is it. This is what this movie's gonna be about. And it was right. So then I got into it, but before that, I was like, what's this Tony Curtis thing? Then this thing, it's all destroying.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

I didn't even understand at all. Like, why does he have Tony Curtis? Is this because it just began to old Hollywood?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

It's because he he was like emulating one of those old school laser discs where they would have celebrities introduce him.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

Like, hey, today, and you're gonna watch this, da-da-da-da. Okay, reflections of evil.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

So he used that as like a but now that I watch it again, I feel like that's also something I missed is all the cultural references that he puts in.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

And every single time I find a new one, I'm like, holy shit, I just read about that thing, or that you know. Right. So he has a deep appreciation of pop culture that is it's it's it'll all every time I watch this, it'll keep getting deeper.

SPEAKER_04 32:01

So this is insane. So, like, this is the kind of film that it's like on face value, you're like, Jesus Christ, but then you're like it's almost like watching a dumpster fire, but then you look into the dumpster fire and you're finding all these like treasures. Yeah, definitely like after the fire. You have to wait for the fire to go out, yeah, and then I have to go in to go find some shit.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

It's this but I think that in esoteric cinema, yeah, that there's something for you that you will f see and you will latch on to. I mean, like, I I don't know about maybe this movie, the Beaver trilogy, could be something.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

Is that a porn?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

No, no, it's about a town called Beaver. And it's it's amazing. Sean Penn's in it, Crispin Glover's in it. Yeah. Watch the Beaver trilogy, and maybe we'll talk about that again sometime. Oh my god, amazing. And but it's underground. It's three short movies about the same thing. The first one is a documentary about a guy, and then the next two are fictionalized where Sean Penn plays the guy, and then Crispin Glover plays the guy. I forgot the director's name, Trev Trevor Travis or T Travis something. And honestly, it's where Sean Penn got Spicolis.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Oh, really? Sean personality. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

And and Sean Penn is sort of against this movie, I think, a little bit. Why?

SPEAKER_04 33:19

Because he's embarrassed of it now or something?

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Maybe it's also one of his first movies, so he wants to sort of bury it because it's underground. It's very underground.

SPEAKER_04 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

But it is captivating the Beaver trilogy. Oh my god. So that might be something. Yeah, I'll definitely check it out.

SPEAKER_04 33:31

Because when you're talking about it, it almost reminds me of like Twin Peaks, which is funny. I'm just rewatching um when I was in high school, I hated that sh series.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:40

As an adult, I love it now.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

So I think I'm getting a lot more like the log lady, like you're having weird, like, you know. So that kind of world I can adjust to.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

If you like Lynch, there definitely is esoteric cinema that's not on the surface that you'll get into. There's so much good shit.

SPEAKER_04 33:57

Right, I bet. It's just I wonder, like, do like so horror films runs the gamut of this kind of esotericness, right? But there's do you think of those other things out? Yeah, I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

So there's a movie called Blonde Death that this company Bleeding Skull just put out, which is one of the greatest shot-on-video movies I've ever seen, but it's like a crime thriller. It's not horror. I like crime thriller. I like crime. It's great, and it's made by this uh like collective of artists from I think the early 80s, and it's like John Waters meets Quentin Tarantino. Holy shit. And it's really good, and um, it was rated like the best shot-on video movie of all time recently on some somebody somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

The what's it called again?

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Blonde Death.

SPEAKER_04 34:35

Blonde Death, okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

So all these boutique labels are putting these movies out that were forgotten or were out and had a release and then didn't get like DVD or Blu-rays. Right. And they're all coming out, and they're all great movies.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Like, you just have to think what else is out there? Like that's what you think like, right? Because it's like, I mean, I watched, you know, I got Criterion and stuff, and sometimes, you know, the way um they have to revitalize them and the way that they have to do it, it but it makes me wonder like what else is out there that's been destroyed, or we don't even know that exists.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Oh, there's there's hundreds and thousands of movies that were made and even making a living, like how is he even surviving? I think he probably I'm guessing, I don't know exactly, but I think he like edits and does uh things in the industry that he gets by. He also was doing Kickstarters for a while and living off of the Kickstarters and you know, things like that. He gets by.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

I mean he's still alive, and yeah, I think last last year, I don't know, his 50s, maybe probably hit his 50s.

SPEAKER_04 35:31

So when he made this, he he was in his 30s, 30s, probably, yeah. He looks pretty rough.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Hey, look at me. I look like a white Godzilla pumpkin head over here. Uh I don't know. So, like what the thing I I was thinking about with this movie when I suggested it to you guys was that yes, maybe it would turn you off, but it would also be something that would be different than a mainstream thing, you know.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

Oh, completely 180 million percent.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

That that like I lived through some of this shit. Like, I have my favorite John Brennan Reflections of Evil moments that I lived through in LA that were just as fucking bizarre as anything in this goddamn movie.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Right. What were you doing in LA?

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Uh I moved out there with a dream, like everybody else does, you know. He like capturing the zeitgeist of LA, these guys like Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil or Nathaniel West's uh Day of the Locust about outsiders who moved to LA with a dream and nobody succeeds. That was me. I wanted to be uh a screenwriter, okay, and I had saved money as a janitor and I had enough to live for like a year. Okay. And I was writing and stuff, I didn't sell a fucking thing. Right. I had one meeting with an agent, and he's like, Yeah, this is good, but it's trash. Like that was basically what he told me. He's like, Yeah, this is good, but it's trash.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Yeah. Like, what the fuck? But that's LA like, oh, we love this, but you need to cut it down. Or we like this character, but we don't like the way, like, we we need to make it more likable. It's like, what are you talking about? You like the character, but you said you need to make it more likable. It was weird. They're talking about it. They double talk, yeah, always all the time because they don't know what the fuck they want.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

But he did take the meeting with me, so maybe he saw that there was potential and something. Right. But he didn't tell me. Maybe when he met me, he was like, This guy's a fucking asshole. I can't do this. Right. So I was trying all that stuff. Then I became a delivery driver uh at this place called LA Bite, which was like a proto Grubhub way before Grubhub. We used to use those next tell walkie-talkies and then fax orders to the to the restaurants.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And so that was when my reflections of evil days started because I saw shit. If you think that it's hard as a policeman on the street, wait until you have no authority as a fucking delivery driver. Oh my god, I bet.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

I had my reflections. I remember I was looking for finding a place to live in LA's.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

It's pretty hard.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

It's hard hard as hell. And when I was looking for a place to live, that was my reflections because I went to I think it was close to Paramount. I went to go look at an apartment, and it was a shit show.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Really?

SPEAKER_04 37:52

It I went in and I'd be sleeping on the couch of this dude's house, and like there was broken glass when I was walking up. Like it was just everything in my gut being like, You're not gonna don't do this, don't do this. And I went to check it out, and at one point he was like, Yeah, the door doesn't lock. So, like the door doesn't lock. It was just like, and he had like a lizard in like his room and a dark light, and it was like, and like there was no, like it was, it was bad. It was bad. But it was like, but I could see what you're talking about because it's like if you're a musician or something and you're just like you're like there to like you know, do your like Bob Dylan thing, yeah. Maybe this is what you do, but like in the modern era, I'm just like this still exists, like someone's still like I found it on Craigslist too. It was just like all that stuff. It was LA is such a weird place. Like, like I said, it's the most I've never felt so lonely ever in a place before in my life.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

And I'm not saying it's supernatural, but there are synchronicities that I've experienced in LA that I never experienced here. Things that were coincidences that are too close for comfort, like weird shit. And I it's not I'm again, it's not supernatural. It's like when I was deciding to move back to New York and I was wrestling with should I stay in LA, should I stay in New York, go back to New York? I was walking down the street in an area much like a Reflections of Evil. Right. And I'm seriously like talking to myself, I'm like, what the fuck am I gonna do? Whatever. And I'm walking to work and I look up and there's this small aged billboard of New York versus LA, the Dodgers and the Yankees, who will win? And I'm like, that's what's in my fucking brain right now. And the LA just sent that message to my so shit like that would constantly happen to me.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

Right. And I I would constantly like I went to a lot of movie, like what I did like about it. I went to the what is it, the Oriental Theater or whatever? The Chinese Theater. The Chinese Theater, the Oriental Theater, Chinese Theater. Jesus Christ. They got palm trees now. I don't know. They want to make it like the Orient. Wear a doll. Slap her in the ass. What are you doing here? That's why I like Goofy and Roger Rabbit. That's why that movie rips. But um, I went to the Chinese theater a lot and I saw like a double features. I went to a lot of movies. Oh, yeah. I saw a lot of films. Uh, went to Apple Pan, did all those kind of things. And then um, but and it was like professors that would come and we'd talk about the films and all that stuff. And you can pay a cheap rate and you're getting a USC professional talking to you. And watch stage, we watched stage we did a double feature. Stagecoach and Taxi Driver are one of them when I was a good double. That was that was a great double. It was fun. So I do a lot of, I did a lot of so that was the best part, but everything else just felt like yeah, like like it's weird, like the sun's out, but I feel like everything's decaying. It's like Kara Harpenter song. That's why it's like I don't find respite in that. I find like like like I I'm getting anxious as hell. Yeah like the whole that's a whole film. It was anxiety. It's an anxiety-inducing film.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 40:45

That's why it's like I can't, but you could sit through that, so that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Well, so the one thing also I feel like he didn't really get in there was a celebrity in the environment. Because I encountered hundreds of like Weird Al eating a burrito in a corner, just watching him, and I was like, that's fucking Weird Al eating a fucking burrito. He's probably making a song about that cocksucking burrito right now. Or I was walking down Sunset Boulevard, and this man all dressed in black, the sun is blazing hot as fuck, and and he's wearing a fedora, and he just starts staring at me, and we're walking towards each other, and and I look into his piercing eyes and I go, That's fucking Tom Waits. That's crazy. That's Tom Waits, and we seriously stared each other down, and I'm like, he went home and wrote a song. He's like, There goes fat Johnny Wilker down the street in his hand and some shit on the feet. And I'm like, This is fucking awesome. So that happened hundreds of times.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

That's so cute that you say. I just see like, I'm just like, oh, there's another asshole, and it's probably because I work and told it to you first, and I'm like, there he goes. And like I couldn't stand everywhere I went, everyone was in the like wanted to be in the it's like, oh, I'm a screenwriter. It's like, no, you're not. You know what I mean? Like everyone, like, I guess I'm too I'm too jaded because I just didn't um I didn't feel the magic at all. I just felt the sadness and the decay of LA.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

I felt the magic. I had I experienced a lot of fucking magic in in that city, a lot, like beyond. I met so many great friends, I had so many awesome experiences, I had so many good parties. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

I think if I I started meeting people that would you would have liked, I went to this place called the Lion's Den. I'd like to see. I used to go there.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

Yeah, yeah, I know that bar.

SPEAKER_04 42:24

Yeah, that was a great bar. I used to go because I lived not too far from that at one point, and also where I live too. At one point, I was staying with this chick. I ended up staying with this chick, nice enough, but she was kind of crazy and had a dog that was mean as fuck. So I'd come out, like I'd have to open the door, and it'd be like and I'm like, I'd have to, yeah, it was I didn't find any peace in LA at all. It was like in the helicopters and it's sunny all the time. I'm like, why is it fucking sunny all the time here? I see a homeless man taking his shit in front of the trailer all the time where we're shooting down and freaking. It was just it that that part in that scene, that's me basically what I saw. And then I'm like near the like the Ronald Reagan fucking library. I'm like, this bastard has a library. What are we doing here, dude? It was just so, yeah. I just couldn't find any comfort in that place whatsoever. It was just, and then you go to Venice and it's like there's a beach, but no one's really on it and going swimming. It was either a surfer or models. It was just kind of just like, what is going on? And then I worked for Cirque du Soleil. I did I did when I was out of work, I did, I worked in their kitchen. Well, I during the day I'd help them prep because he knew I had food experience. And then at night I helped um in the VIP tent. So all these actors and like Barbara Streisand and like yeah, big like Woody Harrelson, like all of them, like I didn't know, like this is when Mila Kunis and the other Ashton Cushion were dating, and I had no clue. And they came together and they were being weird. It was just it was just so weird. And I had to cut, I cut prime rib, and they put like like I had to wear that stupid hat.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Oh, yes, I don't get the hat either.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

It was just like that I had a French fuck thing, and then I had to wear this red chef jacket. But I look like a linebacker because it wasn't like fit right. So it was just like this white ass thing. And I had a fillet up. And it's like I see like Leaf Schreiber coming up to me. They're like, I'll take. I'm like, I'm so humiliated. I'm just like, and I'm slicing a private. At one point, I'm standing there, I'm slicing a private wheel. A child comes up and is like all conscious. It's coming up to me, and I'm like, what are you doing? And then I turn and the dad's like, trying to take a I'm like, what are you doing, dude? He's like, we're taking a picture with you and I'm like, no, why I want this documented? Like, are you out of your mind? So I had to do a picture of this chick. It was like, it was just so random. And then I had to, and then from that was the pre-show. And then in intermission, we did sweets and uh desserts. So I had to make crepes. And I remember Paris Hilton came with a bunch of her dudes. It must have been gay night for her because it was all of her gay friends. It was all dudes and her. And she just looked bored out of her mind. Like, just like, just like, you know, whatever. And I made her a crepe and I brought it to her. She goes, Thank you. This looks delicious.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

And I was like, I would have been so hard.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

I did. Yeah. I would have been like, I fucking. She's a lot prettier than I in lies. She's actually beautiful. She's actually beautiful. And then and then I'd leave, and it's like I'm seeing like young children doing hula hoops and like, you know, because they work for some speaking in Russian and stuff like that. And I'm like, this can't be legal.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

And it's just like speaking in Russian. No, just children fucking being in the circus. You're breaking the wall. Now you are.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Wow. Yeah, circus so weird.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

It was just so weird.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

And then like the surgeons guy itself, he's also a weirdo. Like he he's just a weird, like, yeah. He's like the Virgin Records guy. Just as weird. Like wants to go into Hubble's telescope and wants to be a photographer, space photographer. He was just like, yeah. That's when I also I there's a rock star there that I didn't know. He was probably from the 70s with this bitch, with this chick that's wearing all leather, you know, like straight up, looks like from the 80s, like rock glam era. And she was a vegan and we had no food. I'm like, oh, I'll go make you something. And I went and I made her like a slaw and I had honey in it. So I go to give it to her. And she goes, I can't eat that as honey. And that's when I made my bit. I'm like, bees make honey. That's what they that's their life purpose. You think that they're gonna have a union meeting because you're eating your honey? Like, that's all they do is make fucking honey. Now you're taking their will to live away. Yeah, too good for honey? What the fuck? They like making honey. That's what they like doing, you stupid bitch. You think they're like going to get away enslaving bees to make money?

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Why can't she eat the honey? Because it's got church.

SPEAKER_04 46:23

It's got honey from an animal. She's vegan. Wait, that's vegan? Yes. How insane is that to me? That was so insane. What is maple syrup? Oh, a tree? It comes from a tree. You can't have maple fucking syrup where that's where the line's drawn. It was crazy to me. That was so LA was just and then the best part about LA for me, I met a bunch of Mexicans and they introduced me to some great food and some Asian people. The Mexicans and the Asians saved me. But the and also the white people there sucked. Like there's no white people culture there. Like there's no Irish parade. There's no St. Paul.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Have you been to the Museum of Jurassic Technology?

SPEAKER_04 46:53

No, I did not even know that.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

It's white as fuck. I did not Jurassic Technology.

SPEAKER_04 46:57

But there's no like, you know what I mean? Like we have like, you know, like there's no heritage of different nationalities there.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Like it's a melting pot of shit. It's like everything goes there. Everything runs there.

SPEAKER_04 47:09

And there's that, like those it's it's a city that shouldn't exist. It really shouldn't. It's just I love it though.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

It's so interesting. The the the Museum of Jurassic Technology, that's like the hidden place. I don't know if it's still there. It's stuff like a man who spent his whole life making microscopic art out of butterfly scales. And you have to look into a microscope, and it's like a chicken and a fucking farm, and it's all made out of different colors.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

The cryptozoology museum.

SPEAKER_04 47:44

Yeah, cryptozoology museum. You would love that. A bunch of stuffed animals of the Himalayan Himalayan uh what is that thing called? The the abominable snowman.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:54

But they're all like it's it's a museum for that, but it's all stuffed animals.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Oh the abominable snowman.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

And then it's just it's random. John, it's the most random, weirdest thing, and it's in Portland, Maine. And it's crazy as hell. It is the weirdest thing. So, like people like you, I appreciate because you appreciate the oddities of human nature. And I think like for me, it's kind of like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Like you're like even the most normal of us is a fucking weirdo who won't admit it. Like, there's no normal person I've ever met.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

Well, what is normal anyway? That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

It's like they these movies, other movies will present some sort of a normal narrative to you. But you know, behind closed doors, Matthew McConaughey's sticking his cock in a pint of vanilla ice cream and playing bongos naked with Woody Harrelson. Like, that's the shit that they do. So anything that's presented to us as normal in a movie, I sit there and I go, This is fucking this is more fantasy than something like Reflections of Evil, because at least that shows something I've felt about. Right.

SPEAKER_04 48:52

And I I, you know what, and I appreciate that because I talk game about that all the time. I hate like that's why I hate corporate, I hate all that shit. It's fake shit.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

It's not like I still am a fan of populist entertainment that is for the masses. I mean, I'll I'll fucking watch K-pop Demon Hunters and see what it's all about. I'll sit there through the Super Bowl just because it's an event that everybody watches and you all gotta talk about. So I like that kind of shit.

SPEAKER_04 49:15

You saw K-pop Demon Hunters? Yeah, I watched it. Did you like it? No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

The song, the main song that they put out is a Carly Ray Jepsen ripoff. The song Is it really thing? Oh, yeah. There's a song she did called Runaway with me. It's the same melody. Whatever that's a good thing. Call me baby's great song. Call me maybe's a great fucking pop tune. Run away with me is a great pop tune. And that melody. That's the same thing that the K-pop demon hunters did. That was back. Frankly, Carly Ray did it better.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

Oh man, dude. Shout out to Carly Ray. Wait, is that the one that's like, I just met you? That's Call Me Maybe. That's called. Oh, okay. Then what's who's Carly Ray then? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

But the song Run Away With Me, she did, which was after, which was more a more mature effort. Uh, that's the one that's like the K-pop demo. I like I like popular music. Like I fucking everybody hates on Taylor Swift. She's written some great songs.

SPEAKER_04 50:21

Oh, you like Taylor?

SPEAKER_00 50:22

I don't, I don't, I'm not gonna go and sit at a uh a screening of her fucking concert film alone in the 12 in the afternoon with a bunch of children surrounding me. But I will listen to her songs and go, that's a good song. That's a pop song. Yeah, you know, we need more Debbie Gibsons, we need more.

SPEAKER_04 50:38

I love so when I was a kid, I this is what the only thing that annoys me though. Like you can appreciate it, I get it, but I just don't like the cult fandom of it all. It gets a little, that's where it's like.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

Any cult fandom sucks.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

Right, sucks. So it's like, so when I was a kid, I wasn't I liked Debbie Gibson. That was the thing. But by the time I was 18, I wasn't into Britney Spears because I grew out of it by then. Right, right, right. But it's weird to me that there were like I didn't because I went to a really big high school, but I didn't realize that there were 18-year-olds that listened to Britney Spears. Sure. And NSYNC and all that stuff. I went through that when I was like nine. I was New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany. The best freaking, yeah. I went to Atlantic, that was my first concert. Atlantic City. Atlantic City. Atlantic City. I saw New Kids on the Block and Tiffany and um this guy, Kyle something. It was a McLaughlin, like something like Kyle McLaughlin, something like that. It was just like a one-hit wonder kind of guy. And it was an AC and it ripped, dude. And we got it from a guy named Ralphie, who I do now is in my bit, and he uh he like but like he probably got it because he was a bookie and someone couldn't pay the VIG, so he gave me new kids on the block tickets. So we got it from that guy. So that was where I went through it. So by the time I was 18, I already went through that. It's just weird how people are 18 and even into 30, like Harry Potter obsessions, like all this stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Obsessions is where it crosses the line. I I went to I was in college and I was high out of my mind, and I went to see the first Harry Potter movie in the theater. But I went because it was a cultural event.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

And I like to participate in cultural events because it makes me feel less alone.

SPEAKER_04 52:13

Oh, okay. I guess that's interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Like the Oscars. I fucking hate that shit, but I watch it because other people are watching.

SPEAKER_04 52:20

Really? See, I'm the opposite. I'm if I see a line, like I just went to Philly a lot yesterday, and there's this place that has to be like the best cheesesteaks, and I went and there was a line. I was so angry at myself that I was standing in line for a fucking check. Oh, I hate that steak. I but it's like I feel like that's the same kind of thing where it's like everyone's waiting in line for this one thing, and it's like, why are we in line for this? Yeah, like why are we in line for this? What do we do?

SPEAKER_01 52:42

It's never gonna live up to it. Never.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

Well, this was a good cheesesteak. They really did cheese. This was the one time. It's like the LA. Actually, they went really quick. It was actually very much more organized than I thought that it was because you order and then they text you when it's ready, and then you go back and you pick it up. That's good. So it was actually very efficient the way they did it. Was it Arturo's or something? Angelo's. Angelo's. It's the fucking Bradley Pitt, uh, Bradley Cooper one that they talk about. The bread's amazing. Like it was really good. It's a good cheesesteak. I gotta hand to it. Yes, I recommend it. And wine is not bad. But I can't stand like pop culture. Like, like I didn't watch, I don't like the Oscar, I don't like the Oscars, I don't like the Golden Globe. I hate all those award shows. I hate all of them.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Some of them I think.

SPEAKER_04 53:19

Super Bowl, I get also another thing, Super Bowl, the game. I like football, the game itself sucks more and more. Bad Bunny ripped this year, I'll give them that. But other than that, any of the I just find the more popular it is, the more it sucks.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

I don't know. I I I don't know. I feel like it's it it sucks because so many people have the opportunity to rip on it and bring it down. But if it was just a thing that was out there, you might like like with the Bad Bunny thing. You mentioned Bad Bunny. So many people were hating on Bad Bunny. He gave a fucking fine performance, and it was an interestingly done. I think it was very performance.

SPEAKER_04 53:55

Besides the racists, who was pissed off about it?

SPEAKER_00 53:56

There's other people that were in the world. Well, there was like a discourse online like fucking worst Super Bowl ever.

SPEAKER_04 54:01

It's like, well, I thought that was like I thought that was the best halftime show. I thought that was the best halftime show I've seen in years. It was great. Because the way they shot it, and there was like a cultural significance, and it had symbols in it, and it was from and it was from his heart.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

I'm sure people were ripping on Prince the year he did it. Like, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_04 54:17

You know what? You're right. Well, there's always gonna be prints. But for me, it's just like again, like that, like you know what it is? I feel like I hate the saying, but like you're beating a dead horse. Like they're doing another Harry Potter series. It's like how many Harry Potters are we doing, dude? Like how many, like how much, like I feel like we're just like it's a sad circus animal. It's like put it down, man. Let it the part of the beauty of things that they die. Let them die. The part of the beauty, like, let that die. If you don't let it die, you don't let it, you know, nothing else can grow.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Well, that's never gonna happen because I don't know if it's you know, my uh skeptical brain is saying they're doing this series fully just to keep the rights.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

Oh, that's a good point, Levi.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

That happens a lot where they will reboot something that doesn't need to get rebooted. The original's still super popular, but they do it so they can extend the amount of time they get to hold those rights.

SPEAKER_04 55:12

I'm sure there is some truth to that.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Well, I know it's a great recent example of that, is Warren Beatty famously holds the rights to Dick Tracy, and he made the one movie and he's not made a fucking thing out of it. And then recently he did like a Zoom interview dressed as Dick Tracy for TCM, and that was technically how he kept on holding the rights. That's genius, dude. He's just like, hey, what's up? I'm on Zoom. But he care, though. Like, because it's probably a moneymaker in some way, some sort of residual stuff.

SPEAKER_04 55:41

I get it too because that movie's done so fucking well, I'd be pissed if someone try to redo it. And they are rebooting shit ton of shit. They're rebooting Cape Fear.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

Yeah. Um you know what's funny? That's Martin Scorsese came out and talked shit about fucking Marvel and stuff, but he's remaking a movie he remade from a movie that was made in fucking the 60s that was from a novel. So he's doing the same movie. Even though I love him.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

I do too. I do love him too. But he also everything, they all like the same thing. They all do the same shit. Like, even if like if you saw um uh The Departed, oh yeah, that's a straight rip from the Chinese Infernal Affairs. Same movie, which I loved, I'll be honest with you. I liked Internal Affairs more than uh, but I'm obsessed with Asians lately. Like I'm like um Japanese. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with Japanese. Yeah, the Oriental theater. I liked Orient. That's something like my mother would say, my mom says shit like that. She's like, let's get oriental food tonight. God, we went to a real, like, my brother took her to a real, like, you know, Chinese uh who's a guy? He's Mao Zhang, whatever. He's on PBS. He was a big Chinese um influencer. Like, he was a Chinese, he brought like Eastern cuisine to the forefront of like white America. And my mom, we went to the went to the restaurant in Boston, and my mom's like, the guy, he came up to the table and he goes, How's everything? And my mom's like, this is better than the food in Chinatown that we used to get in New York. I gotta tie. And I'm like, my brother's like, this is embarrassing. This is a celebrity chef who's from China, who's brought the food to America, and he's just like, and she's eating miso striped black bass, and she's like, This is better than the sesame chicken from Lucky Yang. This is better than the Mushu Park, and it's like, oh my god. When I when we used to go to China, and we didn't go because they used to say they were gonna kidnap you, which is actually a thing. Oh yeah, because Chinatown was this like very like opium, yeah, it was that grungy kind of like that's where you went and got your opium.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

That's where you cop in Chinatown. Was he really? He's told me some fucking crazy stories.

SPEAKER_04 57:41

I bet, yeah. My dad was a sanitation worker on the west side of that like in the 70s and the 80s. So there's something like that. At the same time, like fuck that must have been the wildest. Wild, wild shit. That's that that's a reflections of evil that I would want to have of a New Yorker. Absolutely. That would be incredible. When the meat market was actually the meat market, like, yeah, RuPaul's down there turning tricks and shit. Yeah, that's when it would have that's the hand. RuPaul was a whole. Oh, yeah, big time. That's she was one of the main ones down there when she was like Damn it. I missed my chance. Yeah, dude, you did, dude. That would be I wish I could be that, like, you know, let's fuck a trans person. Why not, dude? I can't, I can I can't it's the fucking 21st century. Yeah, I know. I I don't think but you know what? You're making me reflect on myself of how many rules like I make fun of mate, like following rules, but I realize I put a lot of rules, I don't I don't break them. You know what I mean? Like, I don't like I there is like a sense of like you know, this film is making me think about that.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Like I'm very like, well, it's not like stoic philosophy is all about you have to make the rules for yourself, and who gives a fuck what other people think of you? You make the rules and you judge yourself. That's what you have to do. So if you judge yourself for fucking transsexual, that's on you. That's not on society. It's it's we've gotten sort of past the point where that is even a big deal.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

Like, no, yeah, of course. But I just didn't realize how many rules I put on myself. Like, you know, you sometimes you're living life and you don't even realize. And it's self-imposed for sure. Exactly. And I never even realized we're talking about this film and talking to you, that I'm like, wow, I do have a set of like I'm rigid. Yeah. And I didn't think I I thought I was like, because I'm I hate rigidness, but meanwhile, I'm rigid.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

I was wearing black nail polish recently. Oh no, sorry, pink nail polish recently because I was doing a show for up all night and they painted my nails, and it was a bit. I didn't have nail polish remover. And I went to the hotel and I had to speak to the woman at the front desk. Yeah. And I had my fucking nails out, and I said, I'm so sorry about my nails. And she goes, It's 2025, dude. Just telling me, like, I don't give a flying fart that you have pink nail polish. And I was like, I'm gonna live that way. Yeah, it's a good thing. It's 2025. Well, now it's 2026, so we can get even more progressive. Exactly. Paint my toe.

SPEAKER_04 59:52

And you need people like fucking Damon Packard pushing the line.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

Yeah, he was like, It's 2003, motherfuckers, we're going.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

Like every year. Yeah. So it's like, you this is a great reminder to live outside the box. And that's don't superimpose yourself with rules and regulations when society doesn't really fucking care. Like in the end, like, don't get me wrong, there is like, you know, like being gay in Oklahoma, like or in Kansas right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

I'm sure it's still a problem.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

That's still a problem, you know. But it's like I don't in order to change it, you're gonna have to have people like David Packard sneaking into Universal Studios and doing copyright infringement. Think about how breaking a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

Think about how many bits and things that you may have done that would have been a success that you sat there and squashed because you felt somebody else might have judged it. They may not have.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:41

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:41

They may have been like, that's fucking genius. That's the first take I've seen on XYZ.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:46

Right, right, right. And that's where I think the thing with comedy I don't hold myself back with, which I think gets me more in trouble than it does in any way. Oh shit. Because I hate I make fun of the pop culture stuff. I mean good, but you know, but I think I need a little bit more of your um grace because you have a lot of grace for a lot of films and a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:07

I never understood the idea of somebody completely blocking off a genre of art, any art. Right. Say, like, there's people out there like, I'll never listen to hip hop, fuck that shit, or I'll never listen to country or EDM or whatever. There's something in all of it that can speak to us, right? And it will expand your horizons and broaden your mind and make you uh a more full person in your tastes and in your art yourself. So I always felt that way.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:34

Most definitely. I just have to work on the fact, like, like like I said, immediately when I put that on, I got angry. I'm like, this is gonna be horrible.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:42

So I have to myself fast forward to 27-19, and this scene is the one, and like here's the reason.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:49

I'm but that's something I have to definitely I want to work on. It's just it's so hard. Like, like, do you I mean, do you have anything that you put on for five seconds? Like, do you watch like Levi does it too? He wants to be able to watch anything. I can't. I will lose my I'm like, what is this horse shit?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

And there are things, yeah, like what the the mo okay, so on Letterboxd, right? I go on there and I only give either five stars or a heart. Five stars means I love the fucking movie, it's great, I recommend it. A heart means I really love the movie, it's good, it had some flaws. But I never trash anything on there because I just don't want to. I know too many filmmakers who do that and then get into fights with each other. How did you do that? So I the only movie that I trashed is The Exorcist Believer. It fucking deserves it. Okay. Fair to do that. They betrayed one of the greatest movies, not only horror movies, one of the greatest movies ever made by being so fucking stupid in their premise for the Exorcist Believer. What was the premise of that film? The idea that Alan Burnson's character would come and say, They kept me out of that room because of their damn patriarchy, betrays every fucking thing that the Exorcist was about. She had no recourse other than to turn to the Catholic Church. Right. And they are the only ones who were able to help her. So she wouldn't many years later go, they kept me out of the room. She didn't want to go in the room. She got f she saw a fucking daughter fucking a crucifix, she got furniture thrown at her.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

I didn't even think about that at all. Because it's what the fuck? It's a complete portrayal of everything that movie said. It is because I love The Exorcist. That's like one of my favorite. It's one of the greatest films. And I love real William Freakin' because of him. He's one of the best. And also his interviews are amazing because he doesn't give a shit either. Oh, he doesn't give a shit. He's wild. I I forget he was talking shit, I think, on Al Pacino. Yeah. He did, he's like, I don't give a flying fuck. And I'm like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

Into a rolling donut or something like that. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:42

I I love him so much. And I think he did the train with about what's that movie? I think that was French Connection. No, he did the French Connection, but I think an early film he did with Bert Lancaster, where it was like uh art pieces that were they're taking he it was a French, they were Frenchmen, and the Nazis were taking art out of fris, and they had to hijack the pl the train.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

Shit, I don't know if that's a Friedkin movie, I don't know it. Was it the French movie? Like, you know, he is sorcerer to live and die in LA, cruising. I mean, the guy's done so much fucking shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

I'll say cruising, I turned off. Really? I turned off cruising. Because I I came into it thinking it was like, oh, this is gonna be like a Pacino. Like, I didn't know that it was a slasher.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's going undercover.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:31

Yeah, slasher Jallo.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:32

Yeah, but that's a great, but I like it because that's I love these films, like, especially I'm big into New York 1970s cinema, like the French Connection is like that. Grit, grit, grit. And it's like that's why I kind of like the Ghostbusters of all, because it's like, oh, it's like, or like taken to the Pelham 1, 2, 3. Love that film. I love that film because it's like, oh, look, it's the mayor, and everyone's like, like, it's so New York. And even like the uh the sense of humor, yeah. He's like, Rico, and it's like uh he didn't go there, or somebody says something so basic, and he's like, Thank you for the update, Rico. Like, you know, like and then the Asian guys that are exploring the whole thing, and then at the end they're like, Thank you very much. We'll see you later. They spoke English the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:12

He's calling them monkeys.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

Like, ah, come here, you monkeys.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

So good.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

Dude, so freaking good in that era, dude. Um, I'm trying because it's a bother, it's gonna bother me um if I don't find it. Man, Bert Lancaster did a lot of fucking films.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:28

Oh, yeah, he's the best. Brute force, fucking uh sweet smell of success.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:32

With him easily back in the train, the movie's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

If he was trans, I would too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:35

Yeah, I might do. Oh, I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:38

I'm 2025. I'm sorry about that. Oh, I love Frankenheimer too. Yeah, that guy that guy's done some crazy. But I love William Freegan. I forget what we're done. So the exorcist, yeah. I love that film, and I never even like listen, I'm I I I'm I'm a feminist fine, but it's like, I don't know why you're super imposing that whole rationale in it, because that's That's not what the film was about in any which is never that that character was. She's a character, she's an actress, she's in DC. There's a lot of other things that are going on in there, and then you're dealing with a priest who has his guilt, who used to was he an alcoholic, I think, or something. He had something going on. He was an alcoholic, his mother, he was losing his faith, all kinds of shit. He's going through all this shit, and that's the turning point, and it's like they're all meeting in the middle, kind of like right? Because I forget the mother's single, right? No, she's a mother, and her husband, her ex-husband's a piece of and he won't come, it's her birthday, and she's like, you know, and then yeah, there is like a sense of womanhood in it. And I would never have thought, like, oh, it's because of the patriarchy. It was just like it never based on me. It was just all like you're a mother, and she's like on the outside, because it's like we have to, we're gonna have to do things that you're not gonna like to see.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

The man sucked the demon out of his daughter, threw himself down a set of stairs, and died, basically. I mean, he didn't really die because Exodus is three, but for her to save his her daughter, yeah, she would never say that damn patriarchy.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

Also, it's fucking retarded. Like, if her daughter needed surgery, she'd be like, Well, they didn't let me do the surgery because the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

Yeah, right, right, right. Good point. This is an exorcism. You need a priest, right? Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry, did you do 30 years in the freaking dang? No. You had you know how to make?

unknown 1:07:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:22

Can't even fucking give me, give me books. How many books are there, huh? You didn't even know that God. You welcomed the demon first place. I wouldn't even be here. You're all living in hell. You're the devil.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

There's probably a note from some fucking jerk off sitting there going, Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:38

Well, that's the thing. I think think modern movies making now, a lot of people don't um aren't, don't have the passion. They like the they like all the the pretty shit that comes from it. I don't see like there's a lot of people, like, a lot of like things like the French connection wouldn't have happened if you didn't have producers that liked film. Like the fact that they allowed him to drive like a maniac, they paid off the NTA guy to get it done. You don't have anyone taking chances like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:05

Taking chances. That's what they did to make their art. I mean, there's the story in the Friedkin connection, his autobiography that's amazing. He gotta check it out. He narrates it himself in the audiobook, and he tells the story of how the sequence was working, but it wasn't all the way there yet. And whoever the guy was, the cop who was driving through those streets without a permit and almost hitting pedestrians and shit, pretending he was a real cop on the duty, he said, I'll do one more take because Freed can ask for it, but he has to be in the car with me when I do it. And he fucking did the it's the point of view shot that's in that movie that makes the scene really.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:42

And it's like it does because yeah, you're like it's just it you get that intensity.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:46

Yup, and that like that that's and Freakin was like fucking scared out of his mind, but he's like, I'm I'll do it for my movie, and he did it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:53

You know what, dude? I give a like there's another um who directed Philadelphia, God bless him. What's his name?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:57

Jonathan Demi.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

Jonathan Demi, who's one of the kindest human beings on this planet, because I worked with people, I worked on a movie called I worked on Creed, and I worked with a lot of um people like old school grip guys that worked on Philadelphia, and they said that when they're shooting that, he said to the guys, it's like, listen, we're gonna go into an AIDS infirmary. Now, if no one feels comfortable as a crew member to come in, you don't have to come in today. I will not hold it against you, but we are going to shoot in this, and he did it, and the key grip uh the key uh gaffer I worked with on Creed said he never met a director that had such humanity and uh compassion for the way he shot that, and to go into like I mean, this is AIDS, this is full-blown AIDS era, you know. This is not like walk it off now that we have. This is like he went in there and he shot that and he shot in and gave these people a story, right? You know, and you know, I don't see that happening now more and more. And now with AI, it's like I don't know, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:55

It's hard. It's like some people are doing it, some people aren't. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:58

Like, like what do you think of Clavicular or that kid that does like, you know, where's where's the line get drawn with that? Like the live, he's the guy that goes, he does live looks maxing, he like fucks up his face and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

You know, I saw looks maxing as a term and I looked it up and I know what it is, but I didn't know there was a person that was like the face of the face.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:14

So he goes around and he does like live footage, I guess. So what do you call it? I don't know, live streaming, live streaming of going around places, and sometimes he starts fights, sometimes it's like whatever. It's like where's the division of art, like the line of art? Oh I hate that shit. Like sensationalism, yeah, like kind of it's all that kind of stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:33

No, I don't like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:34

Like that's the chances that that's the chances that people are doing now. It's not like I want to tell a story, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:40

You know, like like okay, it's Tom Green used to do it, but he would do it in a a story, right? Or borat, like or borad, maybe although some people say that he manipulated a lot of people and fuck with them to a point where it was like no good. I still think it's very funny. But the new prank era is just fucking with people to make them miserable, and I don't find that funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:01

No, it's sensationalism, yeah. It's more of without that, yeah. I guess that's what it comes down to. It is all about the intent. Yeah. Right? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:10

I mean, look, Damon Packer did a lot of man on the street stuff, and he wasn't doing it to fuck with the people, he was doing it to make a point about the world. Right. These people aren't making a point about the world, they're just going into Walmart and fucking dropping boxes on people's heads and shit to hurt them or whatever, and they go, ooh, I got a thousand views, or whatever the fuck it might be. Yes. It's just fucking worthless humans.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:32

Right, right, right, right. And that's the that's the dividing line. So salute to Damon Packard. I'll check him out. Salute to you, John. Thanks so much for coming. You're the man. No, we'll have you back on, dude. I have to watch more of Beaver Trilogy, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:46

Yeah, that might be the next one.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:47

That might be the next one. I have to check it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:49

We got Splatter Farm, Video Violence. I can fucking go on and on with these motherfucking things.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:55

That's great. John, you're an icon. Tell them where they can find you with everything. Tell them all the projects you do. You do a lot of shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

So currently, the main project, I have some things I can't talk about, but I shouldn't have even mentioned it because I just cursed myself. But uh, Yuki and John's Patreon buffet. That's where me and Yuki do our fucking weekly buffet topics. We pick anything. Like we've done uh, you know, the Civil War to laundry to driving to the fucking soaking, if you know what that is. That is the Mormon practice. It's the Mormon practice. You're allowed to enter, but you're not allowed to thrust. But a friend can bounce on the bed in order to make the friction, and then you come like that. What a team effort. Yeah. The Mormons.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:33

I thought you know what you'd probably come even harder. Right? I come just thinking about it. Yeah, me too. I kind of got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

You can also be underneath the bed and pushing up. It's a lot of ways you can do that. There's a lot of ways doing it. Jump pumping.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:43

This man, that there's nothing that he won't touch.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:45

And then you can find me at at Band Techno across all social media platforms. I'm I'm there and I'm doing all kinds of shit up all night with Ronda Sheer. Not currently, but me and Levi were in John Brennan and the Big Feet together, and we gotta do our final record called The Last Drive-Thru. Yes. Because we were on a show called The Last Drive In, and now we're gonna make it food uh related. I love it, though. We got songs like cheeseburgers, we got songs like I'm a potato.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:10

Okay, great. You gotta get a cucumber involved. Milkshakes. Milkshakes.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:14

Milkshakes is about drinking cum though. It's not really about the same thing. Similar dead. We got some good tunes. Levi helped write a song called uh burrito on the pavement about a nerd who goes to Taco Bell, and then his parents hired like a local bully to beat the fuck out of him because they don't like him, and he drops his burrito on the pavement.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:34

Oh my god, intriguing stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:36

Levi did that riff. It was like we're good. I'm running the big feet. Look us up.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:42

That's fantastic. Levi White, my co co guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Levi the White on everything.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:47

And JLov Comedy. Thanks for coming out. You picked the movie Reflections of Evil. Damon Packard. Damon Packard, baby. Check it out.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:56

Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:57

Bye.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:58

Oh my God.