2002-02-03 - 9:00 a.m. taste the floor I'm half way through my "5 movies/5 days" SF Indie Fest marathon. So far, I've seen: Party 7 South West 9 We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll Penelope Spheeris, director of "We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll", attended the screening last night. She said we were one of a lucky handful of audiences that has been able to see the film due to music clearance issues. This is no small issue since the film chronicles the 1999 OzzFest tour, and has interviews and performances by Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie, Slayer, Primus, Slipknot, System of a Down, Godsmack, Static-X, the Deftones, etc. This isn't the music I listen to at home (although I have been known to crank up Rob Zombie on the headphones at work if I'm doing a design project), but was great subject matter for the film. I've seen 2 of her 3 "Decline of Western Civilization" films on video, and have seen "Suburbia" at least half a dozen times, and thought it would be cool to see this one in a theater full of cheering Black Sabbath fans. It was a good thing. Sort of like seeing South Park on opening night with all the knee-slapping, singing-along-with-the-songs fans...And I was right. During the Q&A after the show, Spheeris was joined by the Rev. Dangerous whose antics during the OzzFest involving a drill up his nose, weights on chains through his nipples, etc., all captured in the film, made the audience groan in empathy for his perceived pain. A woman asked "As a mother, I want to know how you keep from getting infections." There was silenece from the duo, then Spheeris finally said "I don't fuck the roadies," and started laughing. She then asked "Does anyone have a real question for me?" Perplexed, the original woman asked her question again, and made it apparent she was talking to the Rev. Dangerous, not Spheeris. This made Spheeris, and much of the audience, laugh hysterically. South West 9 So far, my favorite film of the Festival is "South West 9" which I saw on Friday. The first film (written and directed) by former documentary filmmaker and cameraman Richard Parry, the film captures youth culture in Britain, against a background of drugs, rave culture and anti-globalization Internet activism. The story, with added dimension and social background lended by some of Parry's archival riot and war zone footage, keeps you sucked in to the very end, moved along by lively music that makes you want to get up and dance while you watch the film (especially the beats being mixed by the narrator.) The audience took this Q&A more seriously than the audience took Spheeris session. I even bit the bullet and asked a question...turns out his next film, if he gets the funding, will be a thriller set in San Francisco. Sounds like fun to me. I need to find out where I can sign up to assist. On a personal note, I preceeded this film with dinner at Luna Park. Located about 3 blocks from the Roxie (where the movie was shown), this is where I like to head for comfort food with friends. My co-movie watcher and I dug in to more food than we could eat, and capped it all off with "Make Your Own S'mores". I must note, for the record, I'd never made s'mores before. Clearly, I had some sort of terribly bland childhood. Tasty and fun, but we ran out of marshmallow too quickly, and had to eat many graham crackers with only chocolate on them. Not that I am complaining, mind you. Since I'm going in reverse chronological order here, I'm now back to opening night of the festival, at which I saw "Party 7". Billed as an homage to David Lynch, this film was a sort of Japanese gangsters on the run film, with a sub plot about an obsessive "peeper". What sold me on attending was the still from the film that they used in the program guide for the festival, which shows 2 men in funny outfits sitting on a funny looking bed in a long narrow room, which, it turns out later, is a special observation room in a hotel. The film had amazing opening titles with fast, fluid animated characters introducing the plot and the players. Unfortunately, the titles set an expectation for the film being a stylized, fast-moving caper which it was not. So, I had mixed feelings about this film overall. It was good, but I could've rented it at a later date and not felt I'd missed out on the in-theater experience. On the other hand, I like any excuse to go to the Castro Theater, so that was a plus. This evening was kicked off with dinner at "Home", a new restaurant in the space formerly occupied by John Frank, with the comfort food vibe. Unfortunately, my grilled flat iron Niman Ranch steak was stringy and not very tasty. Thankfully the fries with the steak's sauce on top were tasty, as was the creme brulee the size of a plate that I ate for dessert. Whew! 2 more days of film fest fun and frolicking, then back to normal life for a day or week or two. While the rest of America watches the Super Bowl today, and eats a few million tons of guacamole, I'll be handing out ballots and herding film goers into queues. Cheers. any comments? (0 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09