should have started a documentary...

This isn't a picture from this weekend but it should serve as some sort of visual representation of "The Morning After." This is a good picture of Bevan being quite hung-over after two or more days of continuous drinking. With this image in mind, I will proceed with the tales of adventures, reunions, mis-adventures, forgotten promises, a distaste for menthol cigarettes, and a wonderful dish of Pad Thai.
We had to call off shooting for the weekend on Divine Manipulation of the Threads for a series of reasons that just didn't come through. It's hard to get some of these shoots set up from time to time... and this one just didn't happen the way we wanted it to. So, instead I decided to attend a series of occasions that most of us (under any sort of normal circumstances) would dread and fear. Yeah, I went to my 10 Year High School Reunion...

As the days approaching this vastly uncomfortable chain of events disappeared behind the horizon, my brain began to work overtime. Should I go through the trouble of having someone help me document the occasion for a short film somewhere down the road? I would make it a documentary, but full of lies. I like the idea of Grosse Point Blank, when Martin Blank (a.k.a John Cusack) comes back to town for his 10 year High School Reunion after a freak-out incident at work (which by the way, he's a contract killer). Martin sees his old friends, the girl he left at the Prom and tells them the truth about his life after being prodded with the question, "10 Years! What the hell happened to you? 10 Years... 10 years."
"I freaked out, joined the army, went into business for myself, now I'm a professional killer."
Amazingly enough, no one believes him, so once he realizes that his new found honesty is taken as a load of shit, he continues to feed all of his old acquaintances a ration of lies and it makes for a fantastically humorous story. I kind of wanted to do that with a documentary. Instead I drank. I thought that it might be a better idea then having to kill a rival hit-man. Unfortunately they didn't hold the reunion at the school. I was kind of looking forward to that part.
Friday night we had a dinner meeting at Tsunami on Cooper. I had never actually eaten there before. I have to recommend the calimari... excellent. I talked to a few familiar faces, Christine was a trooper, and I ran into Samuel L. Jackson. If I were making it up I would just be lame... but Samuel L. Jackson showed up at my High School Reunion. He was having dinner (and the calimari, by the way). He was nice enough to entertain some conversation and I felt stupid about bothering him afterward. He did ask, "Do all of the girls look the same?"
I replied, "Amazingly enough they do."
"Really," he said, "That's usually never the case, they get all fat an' everything."
That made me laugh. Christine would later approach Sam to attempt a conversation and he told her that "You're not supposed to date the people you work with." Samuel L. Jackson still lives by the rules (it's the guys like me that break them).
Later in the evening I went to the Young Avenue Deli and got pulled along to One More, which is a lesbian bar (nothing wrong with that)... I just thought that I was going to get my ass kicked... and I told someone that they looked like Toni Collette (and that Toni Collette played a transvestite in a movie... it just got worse from there).
Saturday allowed an opportunity to sleep in. It was needed and welcomed. It also brought about an insane notion to go to the Shelby County Fair. Christine needed it... I just wanted a Funnel Cake. After a little "hair of the dog," I was feeling better. Then it started raining and this Saturday afternoon at the Fair turned into every "first date" movie that you've ever seen... bumper cars, running into the Skee-ball building to get out of the rain, and saying "fuck it" and walking home in the rain. Then we went to the "big" High School Reunion at Sam's Town casino. We showed up two hours late - but I did get voted one of three guys "Still 10 for 10" which roughly translates to "looking good Ten years later." One of my old buddies, Christine, and I then snuck out to drive back up to the Young Avenue Deli to see The Reverend Horton Heat (a fantastic Rock-a-billy show - or just a 'Psycho-billy-freak-out'). I drank too much Pabst Blue Ribbon, smoked too many squares, and got home around 3AM.
I got a call at 9:20AM Sunday morning from Robert Saba. Apparently I was supposed to film on Delusions Sunday morning and I flat out forgot about the shoot. Robert was calling from Birmingham... he didn't know that I was still in bed. I got to set at 10AM hung over as all hell... and I had smoke. I didn't bring a pack because I was sick of smoking and drinking and really desired to vomit. Someone on set had a pack of Menthols... so I proceeded to smoke take after take after take until we finished the shoot.
I got a fifteen minute nap, cleaned house, watched L.A. Confidential and played a video game for a few hours. By the time I had finished eating a fantastic meal at Bhan Thai, it was 9pm... there was an empty bottle of champagne and white wine... I barely made it to 11pm without passing out. There is no medium... the engine is either at a dead stop or the accelerator is smashed firmly into the floor board as though we were racing the Devil. And in a way I suppose I am racing the Devil... and I didn't kill anyone in the hallways of the High School. We get to rough cut the Stone Free Joey scene tonight!!! Filming this weekend?!? We shall see... we shall see...