DEADCENTER 2007 – DO YOU REALIZE?

“I think some of those chicks are dudes.”
“Some?”

One of these days, my body is going to remember its age at an all-night festival party and I’m going to turn to dust like Christopher Lee in Dracula A.D. 1972. This didn’t happen last night, but it was a near thing for a while.

deadCENTER 2007 is in the books, and the festival ended not with a whimper but several bangs. For starters, we had the awards. And while I don’t remember…well, most of them, I can tell you that Bitch won…something, and 5 Up 2 Down won the Grand Jury prize for Best Narrative Feature. I was talking with director Steve Kessler when it was announced, which was pretty hilarious. I even offered to hold his beer from him while he went up to accept, but he declined. F****r.

Then there was the world premiere (suck it, L.A. Film Festival) of U.F.O.s at the Zoo. Both Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd were there to introduce the film, which was nice, it being Steven’s birthday and all. The film was good, and made that much better by seeing it in a big outdoor field on a beautiful summer night with several varieties of Boulevard Brewery beers and a thousand or so Lips fans in attendance, several of which were in custom bustiers, and not all of those in the designated gender category for wearing same.

From there, it was the festival after-party at Nonna’s in Bricktown. Lilah V was trying to find someplace to stash her award, which was roughly the size of a cricket bat. Bricktown on a Saturday night is much like Saturday night in any bar district, which doesn’t make it any less fun to watch from a balcony.

Finally, there was the after-after-party, which was held at an undisclosed location. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. I just don’t remember where it was…some guy’s office on Broadway. What’s important is that there was an abundance of alcohol and some wings from a place called Bobo’s that will merit further explanation in a later article. I finally convinced the gang I had to leave around 4:00 and somehow managed the sojourn back to the hotel without swerving into a wall.*

I’ll have a longer article up about the festival soon, but just to get it out of the way: deadCENTER 2007 rocked the house on every level. It was one of – if not the – best film festival experience I’ve had. Kim, Melissa, and Cacky kick 76 kinds of a*s, and I will sing the fest’s praises from the rooftops at every opportunity.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dry out my liver.

* I should probably point out I was on foot.