Thursday, October 22, 2009

Musing on the movie madness or when I saw my head on the big screen, I agreed that THAT was about the size of it....

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=723580726339&ref=mf

So, The Perfect Age of Rock N Roll finally had it's New York City premier the other night (Tuesday, October 20th) on the opening night of the CMJ Festival. After a year and a half of spouting off about it to anyone who would listen, I finally was able to put my damn money where my mouth was and invite my friends to come and see the finished work.

Now I know what you're thinking....you're thinking that Mr. Marty Egomaniac just wants something more to spout off about in the bar....right? Well....that may be true, but there's something much more important than that involved here.

When you've worked with something so intensely and become so close to it and the other people who were involved in creating it....to see it come to some kind of fruition is extremely gratifying and fulfilling....and that's something that you feel smack dab in the deepest pit of your heart. I guess that's what made this experience a lot like unleashing new songs on an adoring audience with your band.

Anyway, back to Tuesday night....I went over to the Trailer Park bar across the street from the Theater about a half an hour before the scheduled show time to have a beer or two. Were those butterflies in my stomach? What...are....these...."nerves"? Yup....guilty as charged. The bartender there was a real prick, but I guess it's his job to check ID's.... more on that later...

I had friends rolling in here and there to pregame with me, which calmed my nerves a little bit....but not much....after I basically slammed a Budweiser, I went across to street and stood outside, waiting for a friend who was to accompany me. Thanks to Mr. Obama's speech at the Hammerstein just 10 blocks North if the Theater, traffic was thick (DAMN it, I should have invited him, ahahahaha....)...so that took awhile. No matter, I had a LOT of friends to say hello to as they showed up (and once again, THANKS everybody!)....

Anyway, we went in right as the movie started rolling....perfect....the place was fucking PACKED....but the first two rows were empty. That's fine with me, I like sitting in the front....I can hear better, you know....plus I like having that huge screen in my face. (I was the type as a kid, way back when, who sat WAY too close to the tv). SHOWTIME!

In one of the first scenes (if not the opening scene), Jason Ritter's character directs a classroom of children through a rousing rendition of "Hot Cross Buns" on these plastic fifes.....it's absolutely hilarious, and one of my favorite parts of the film.

But, at the risk of sounding crass....the first time I appeared in the film, a bunch of my friends cheered....(again, THANK YOU).....I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...but I figured I'd call it even and just grin from ear to ear.....

Really, what makes the film for me is the "live" performance footage....I mean, you really get into the Rock N' Roll spirit (which, really, is what the movie is all about, from what I get out of it)....you can feel this electricity watching it in the theater (and kudos to Tom Richmond, who's one hell of a camera man)....it made me want to jump out of my seat.

During one of these scenes, I heard what sounded like some kind of a scuffle going on near the back if the Theater.....I thought that was funny....and I found out later that it was my compadre' in the Dirty Pearls, Mr. Johnny B, telling some drunken assholes to shut the fuck up and stop kicking his chair....hahahahaha....great stuff!

Other than that, I don't want to give too much away about the movie, because I'm hoping, if you haven't seen it, you will get the chance to sooner than later.....

So afterward, my director/producer Scott was kind enough to wave me up to the front for the Q&A with him, Joe White, Jason Ritter, and Jasin Cadic, which really meant a lot to me. As my friend Gabe told me later, I was grinning like the Kool Aid Man ("OOOHHH YEEEEAH!"). It was strange being on front of that many eyes, but not being behind drums with my Homeboys in the Dirty Pearls....I mean sure, I sing with the Brian in the Lonesome Fools every now and then, but....this was different...I mean it was exhilarating, but I felt like I wasn't wearing pants at first, ahahahaha....but I got accustomed to it.

The dipshit whose ass Johnny B almost kicked in asked a stupid and inappropriate question, but Mr Ritter handled it like the Gentleman that he is. That was cool. At some point, I made some joke about having done character research for the role for, like 20 years, ahahahahaha!!! But the coolest thing, again, about it, was just....being able to experience being a part of the presentation of this THING we all made together....and it's still happening. If you ever get a chance to experience something like this, I highly recommend it. But there's not a day that goes by that I take something like this for granted, and I'm truly humbled, in many ways, that such an opportunity came my way. I'm extremely fortunate.

Afterward, I went back to the Trailer Park bar to have some shots with a few of my friends....and the same bartender was there, and was even more of a prick than he had been earlier...he gave us hell about ID's and credit cards, and whatnot, and generally, ran serious risk of ruining some great vibes if we stuck around there (how this guy makes a living on tips is beyond me, and you can tell him I said that). With that, my friends (and the CAKE that one of them made with the movie's logo on it) (wink wink) and I got the holy hell out of there.....

....and we jumped in a cab and went to the AFTERPARTY at Norwood. I did some press pictures with my aforementioned homeboys from the film (and the aforementioned cake). I love that shit.

Then, I proceeded to get BOMBED out of my BRAIN on Gin (Bulldog, I believe) and Lemonade for the rest of the night.....this is when the details get kind of fuzzy...not that I'd TELL you anyway, hahahahaha....although I heard that I missed meeting Actress/Rock N' Roll UberBabe Gina Gershon somehow....perhaps another time!

Anyway, to sum it up, it was one of the best nights of my whole life....and I have some great fucking nights, to say the least. I can't thank everyone who worked on the film with me enough......or all my friends who came to support and celebrate it's New York City premiere with me....it was indeed a night that I'll never forget.....

....well....most of it, anyway, hahahahaha.....

Marty E.


Monday, October 19, 2009

Humourously crazy people that have crossed my path, or whacked out ghosts of blogs past, or just a few of life's special moments

Hey....while I've been out yackety-yacking on the town, I've been compelled for one reason of another to bring these stories up....so I thought I'd share them, the way I wrote them on my old Myspace (remember that phenomenon?) blog....enjoy.....
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Current mood: amused
Category: Life
Just a few minutes ago, I was walking through Madison Square Park....not the least bit bothered by the rain....when I heard this voice bellowing something indecipherable on the other side of the park....

"Now just what the HELL is THIS, now?!", I thought, as I guzzled my Dr. Pepper like it was a bottle of Jack.

As I got closer to the other side of the park, I see what appears to be some homeless dude on a bench. It became apparent that, in his mind at least, he was putting on a little concert. I say this because he was talking at this point, as if to an audience (of which, incidentally, there were no members), between songs.

And what I heard him say still has me laughing my ass off.

He said, "Thank you VERY much ladies and gentleman....and my next number is a special song originally sung by Laura Branigan....."

OK? And I thought to myself, "No....NO....Dude...PLEASE tell me you're NOT GOING TO!!!"

But yes he did....he proceeded to do a gloriously off-key version Laura Branigan's song "GLORIA" at the top of his lungs....I still can't stop laughing......but maybe you had to be there....

I thought of uttering some cliche', like "Don't quit your day job"....until it occurred to me that this is probably it.....hahahahaha.....

Marty E.
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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Current mood: confident
Category: Life
...ok....so, I stepped out for some junk food (sometimes a dude wants some Chicken fucking McNuggets, ok?)....

...and this dude...who looked like a cross between Albert Einstein, Col. Sanders, and (what I imagine, the looks of) the King of France character in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn starts yelling,"EXCUSE ME....SIR...YOUNG MAN....YOU....EXCUSE ME...THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE HAT!!!!"

So, after ignoring him for a few seconds, I turned around and said, "WHAT do you WANT, (Man!)?!"

And he says, "Do you mind if I take your picture?"

"Nah, I don't mind," I replied.

And he said, "OK, let me see your profile?"

Slightly annoyed, but figuring 'What the Hell', I turned to my left. He took a closer look at me....

....and then he said, "Well....no," and he walked the other way.

I hollered after him, "Look, Dude....you're the one who asked, ahahahahahahaha!!!"

I love this town.
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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Current mood: confused
Category: Life
So....after "another one of those nights", I was dropping off a couple of friends of mine on my way home in a cab. I got out of the cab to let them out on the curb side. When I did, two or three guys on the sidewalk held up cameras and started taking pictures of me, and looking as jovial as all hell!

Um....what the fuck?


This sort of thing has happened to a couple of girls that I've known, but....never to me!

I can't help but wonder....just who the hell did these crankshifters think I was?
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You get my point.....and here's to many more "special moments"!

Thanks,

Marty E.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

You can & should never go back, but a song will sometimes take you there anyway, just for a moment....

No matter where you live, anywhere on this Earth, one's most immediate certainty is the passage of time. I know, it's not a profound notion in the least...yet it's something a lot of us don't take notice of....which perhaps is a sort of passive way of denying it.

But every once in awhile....the simplest, most random thing can just make your mind explode, and the force of which can act as a sort of virtual time machine. Maybe it's the smell of fresh muffins wafting out from the open door of a bakery on 1st Ave & 11th St....or the perfume of a random, beautiful stranger sitting across from you on the train. Maybe it's the soft sound sound of an owl "CooHoo"ing behind every building on your block when you wake up....or maybe it's just the way that random good Samaritan of the moment on Nowhere Street sympathetically looks you in the eye and asks if you're ok when you're sitting alone on a bench, feeling momentarily hopeless when you're just having a bad night. (Yeah, you're ok....now that someone asked....right? Hahahahaha!!! And Thank YOU!)

For me, what takes me back most often, unsurprisingly....is a song (and, truth me told, I've sold my soul for a song many times, hahaha...and resold!)....one that I once listened to over and over again....that I haven't heard in a long time. Sometimes it's not so meaningful....sometimes it's completely mundane....and sometimes it's just fucking hilarious.

But last night, it was a song that just hits me like a concrete block dropping 20 stories, crushing my admittedly thick skull. It's a song that immediately, without warning (or, perhaps, any indication to those around me) transported me back to a different time and place. It took me on a First Class trip back many years (and many, MANY beers), to a time when I was incredibly young, naive, stupid, ultra sensitive, directionless, irreverent, drunk, and painfully in love....and didn't care about anything else. Yeah, THAT song...a song (and it's not the only one) that defines that period of my life when everything revolved around a feeling in my heart and the look in her eyes...when the entire world could have boiled in oil and all of its inhabitants with it as long as her arms were around me. Yeah, no shit....it's a DAMN good song...and an awfully consuming feeling that it exemplifies for me.

But the thing about it is, when I think about it for a moment with some clarity and perspective....hearing a song like this also reminds me of some really important and poignant things. The first is that, nothing lasts forever....at least in terms of situations. I mean, sure, feelings can certainly last forever, no matter how far under the rug you try to sweep them....but life changes, one way or another....and people simply move on. And when that (usually inevitably) happens, it's usually a good thing for both parties involved. That said, I think that, at the end of the day, a big chunk of what a person's legacy in this world consists of is the memories that you leave with those you have been closest to. And hell, nobody's fucking perfect, but....if, when they tally them up, you left them with more joyful memories than painful ones....well, that reflects on your heart and your soul....I always hope I'm on the right side of the column.....

Even if you never see someone again that you've loved so intensely and insanely that it, at times, has made you sick....if, after the smoke has cleared, you've come out of that situation a better person in some way, than it was all worth it, wasn't it? And when something brings you back like this, you feel as if as if you couldn't possibly imagine your life without the experiences & adventures, both ecstatically blissful and excruciatingly painful, that you shared with this person. It was just something that was meant to be at that time. It isn't a feeling of looking back or wanting to go back, but more a matter of seeing it from a different angle...and it can be sad, even if you aren't a nostalgic type (and as much as I think about the past, nostalgic, I'm not). If you lament something that's gone, to the point where it brings tears to your eyes, and a storm to your heart.....than there must have been something pretty fucking good about it, right? One can only hope! Goddamnit...life is crazy....

But, you know...we roll with the punches....do our best....and when push comes to shove, with any luck, we learn, we move on, and hope to do better next time. Sure, life is never going to be the same...tomorrow is never going to be the same as yesterday....and thank GOD!

For me, though....sometimes it's the thoughts of many yesterdays ago....that reassure me that, despite all the bullshit, I still haven't turned into a jaded, cold, & heartless fuck yet, and I sure hope that I never do. And I hope the same for you. We never know what's going to happen next week, who will cross our paths, and what great things are waiting for us.

We can only hope the be prepared.

Thanks for reading!

Marty E.

PS-Thanks to Lenny Kaye for playing this song at Otto's last night! I just thought that was worth mentioning for some reason, hahahaha.....