You Gotta Sell Yourself
Those who have been following this column for any amount of time know that I have no problem with self-promotion. If I've made a short film, if I've worked on a film, or if I've done a bit of film programming somewhere around town, I'll mention it here. In fact, right now I'm in talks with the Smell of Steve corporation to star in a stage version of the comic Ziggy-with-a-Hat (not to be confused with the original Ziggy, whose character does not wear a hat). Seriously. Smell of Steve is a local comics writer and illustrator who's done a lot of work for this here paper. I was out drinking one night and ran across him, and he asked me if I would be interested in starring in a musical stage version of his beloved cartoon character. I said sure. He's finishing up the script, and another guy is finishing up the songs. Apparently it's an innocent '30s-style musical about taking a train to New York to star in a Broadway show, though it does end with a crucifixion and Ziggy-with-a-Hat giving birth. I haven't read the script yet, but he assures me it all makes sense in the context of the story. If anybody out there has an idea as to where we should mount this play, please drop me a line.
Okay, so I have no beef with self-promotion. But not everybody has a column in this paper (though sometimes it seems like it). What do "regular" folks do when they have something to promote? If you're Todd Redenius, you rent out the Rendezvous and take out some big-ass ads to promote a screening of your brand-new short film. He'll be showing his latest, Make Believe Day, on Saturday the 17th between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. In one sense, this seems a little extreme. Then again, this isn't the first short he's promoted like this, and it seems like he may be gearing up for a feature. When he's looking for money in the near future, he may be able to sell himself as a guy who's willing to go the extra mile to promote his own work. The benefits of this are impossible to calculate. You can see for yourself on Saturday.
The Rendezvous is host to another couple of great shows later in the week. On Wednesday the 21st, they're showing the brilliant 1953 Edward D. Wood Jr. film Glen or Glenda. That's the classic docudrama about transvestites and the fragility of gender roles, with Bela Lugosi "pulling the strings" as some sort of crazy narrator. The next night, Thursday, they are going to be host to ISAN: Folk + Pop Music of Northeast Thailand. This is a showcase for Sublime Frequencies, who are described as "a collection of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers." In this case, it's music and images from Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia.
