Froggy Goes A'Courtin'...

Details of how it all went down are almost impossible to ascertain. Mass media paid the event no attention. Messageboard poets of idle, narcotized disbelief and decelerated-learning were caught with their pants on the keyboard. December 2012 is still too far away for the liking of some. An anonymous cinephile reputed to be one of the top research biologists presently stationed in Antarctica demanded it and now it has happened: Zach Passero, enigmatic tight-rope balletist, stained glass artisan, and medieval gamesman, has had a gonzo grindhouse feverdream one protean thinktank is calling Wicked, Wicked Lake.

"But to find religion is only one out of many ways of reaching unity; and the process of remedying inner incompleteness and reducing inner discord is a general psychological process, which may take place with any sort of mental material, and need not necessarily assume the religious form... For example, the new birth may be away from religion into incredulity; or it may be from moral scrupulosity into freedom and license; or it may be produced by the irruption into the individual's life of some new stimulus or passion, such as love, ambition, cupidity, revenge, or patriotic devotion. In all these instances we have precisely the same psychological form of event,--a firmness, stability, and equilibrium succeeding a period of storm and stress and inconsistency. In these non-religious cases the new man may also be born either gradually or suddenly." -- William James

"From out of the rabble and into a quiet expanse we had emerged. My friend was wearing some kind of suddenly-hewn loin cloth. Me, I had lightning in my hand." -- The Unexpurgated Journals of Honourable Captain Jeremiah Headframe

"In the end, life is a private act." -- Lola Scobey

Updates from a Screamfest mixer...

"In attendance for the industry mixer (which was sponsored by Rachel Belofsky’s horror film festival Screamfest LA, which runs this year October 8 through 17 at Manns 6 at Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood, CA) were...Wicked Lake alumni Zach Passero, Justin Stone and Luke Thompson..."

As for Zach Passero, the director of the 2008 Fever Dreams/Media Blasters release Wicked Lake, he had some interesting news. It seems the filmmaker was given the opportunity to re-cut the entire flick, and he handed me off a copy of the director’s cut, which in the interim I’ve screened. Passero’s take is a completely different animal and realizes great steps in humanizing the film’s characters by eschewing much of the original cut’s exploitative elements for a more artistic and thoughtful approach. This edit is markedly more coherent and grittier than the original release and features improved pacing and a score which is complimentary to the narrative.

There is no word yet, however, on when we’ll see a DVD or Blu-Ray release of what is being titled Wicked, Wicked Lake, and the call I put in to one of the film’s producers this morning only yielded news of shifting release schedules. April is a possibility, I was told, and one can only hope as Passero’s Wicked, Wicked Lake is a welcome thing and suggests his talent for greater work."

Justin Stone, Zach Passero and Luke Y. Thompson inspire dread...

*****

In other news, motel, glimpse, the Ozark gut-comedy dreamtime movy Zach and I created, ought to soon be available for purchase, rent or download. Stay tuned, nobody. You are alone, you are surrounded by a world. You are hairy, prone to laugh.

I been keeping me at arm's length. Making what might be called the opposite of a name for myself in TV. Completing my "bible of one-liners for awkward situations." Like a cross between Twitter and the Dark Ages. Like a cross between Facebook and a Russian penitentiary. Phone call from a solar storm. Maybe a podcast. Somebody keeps saying "franchise" and I'm hopeful but also nervously unsettled. Like my mom always says:

"Take a shower, try again."

Or...

"There's only so many knocks against you."

First day of spring, Chicken! Get some swings in. Throw the ball around. Certain injuries may make a spot available for you up in Double-A.