14 might be the most uncool age of
your life. Exhibit A:
<shakes
head>
I know Dwayne Wayne wore them on
"A Different World" but why did I ever think this
looked cool?
20 years ago, the summer
before I entered high school, I wrote
this short film and proceeded to cement into
history how remarkably uncool I was at
14. It's stunning really. Every single frame
of this thing is embarrassing to me. Ha.
Whereas the "stealing dad's car" back when
I was 9 was cute? This makes my skin
crawl. But I would be hard pressed to act
like it wasn't me at the time. Oh and
I take back the every frame embarrassing
line 'cause I still think this was
cool...
I actually throw off
my jacket and jump that fence like I'm gonna
beat the fuck out of that kid. Ha. That's the
only part in the entire video that comes off
well to me. Everything else reminds me of
constant miscommunication with my dad trying
to explain how I wanted to stage stuff
(because I had no idea how to write a
screenplay and even less of an idea how to
communicate with my dad who was a gigantic
role model) and of course, that we're all
complete dorks.
Brendan Murphy wasn't
though. He was that kid in school that bucked
the dorky trend for sure. The girls
lovvvvvvvvvvved Brendan. He always seemed
older than everyone else in class and had the
stylin' haircut and cool clothes - was tall.
I fucking hated Brendan for the longest time
because of this. Well, that's more because he
got Katie Frye, and I didn't (this was in 6th
grade mind you). I wanted desperately to have
a girlfriend and was clearly too dorky to get
one.
By this point we were
friends and I caught up in the cool
department at some point in high school, so
we were better able to relate. ;) Remember
"the bet" Brendan? Still reminding you that I
won that. Ha. I've kept in touch with him
more than anyone in this video the past 2
decades. I mentioned him a couple years back
for making me realize just how strong
I was to withstand the Donna situation
and still be upright. Good man, beautiful
family and I wish I was closer to
them.
Good segue for a "Where
Are They Now"... The star of the show
however, was clearly Bruce Euans aka "Bad
Bud" Stockton. I still laugh out loud at
the outtakes remembering how poorly he
learned his lines and tried desperately to
just ad-lib through the scene. We're Facebook
friends and have met a couple times since
this, but certainly need to catch up again.
Married, no kids...
Aric Shorr and I lost
touch for over 15 years and just recently
reconnected on Facebook. Married, 2 kids and
is a cop who could now beat MY ass fairly
good.
Kid on the left is Justin
Linnabary who is married and just had his
first child. Again, all knowledge through
Facebook - we barely spoke once we got into
high school. Jeremy Baack on the right is the
only person I have had zero contact with
since, which is strange considering we were
the two biggest Bulls fans in the world and
hung out all the time. Funny how that
happens...
Man, it just occured to me how
"Stand By Me" this entry is. Same age during the
video... the summer before you enter high school
really is a special time because it really is the line
in the sand between childhood and adulthood. It's why
you rarely keep in touch with the friends you had then
- but as Dreyfuss says in the movie... do you ever
have better friends? Clearly you have deeper
friendships later, but there's so little baggage in
8th grade. So simple. You could still do "guy things"
and actually care more about that than girls. That is
eviscerated in high school... and than strangely,
right about now? It seems to come back. Usually
because everyone is married and they go back to the
more balanced period where they want to spend time
with guys playing games like... uhm FOUR SQUARE.
Ha.
However I am still far more
obsessed with girls. I was chasing girls in
kindergarten. Goddamn that's bizarre. I guess it's in
the blood. And speaking of blood...
Me and dad. Dad playing a
reporter... wow - and 20 years later at
CBS?
So cool. Man I was heavy
during CBS. Grrrrr. Seriously, look at the difference
between that and Comedy Central two years
later...
And of course the Comedy Central
pilot never sees the air. (sigh) One of these days the
stars are gonna align. And you wanna know what really
fucks with us artists? Wondering what would have
happened had I looked like that last picture
while I was on CBS for over a year... now do you
understand why Hollywood is over-obsessed with looks
and weight? It can change the course of your life.
<shakes head>
Slick Tracy however was just a
sign of things to come. Quite ambitious and in fact
the following summer I wrote another film, Second
Wind, that was lightyears beyond Slick Tracy - but
co-ordinating schedules since none of us drove killed
the project. It was totally inspired by Back to The
Future 2 with all sorts of trick shots showing two of
the same person on screen from "different times"...
and, heh, clearly I'm getting that out of my system
with The Journey documentary I'm trying to finish (I
really have to shoot this thing already). Man, you
really are who you're going to be at an early age
aren't you. Which means I am still that dork, I just
hide it a little better.
Adam
PS - Technical info here... this
was edited a la the "2 VCR" method back in 1990,
which made the running time 30 minutes. Thankfully, I
was able to load it and edit it to a more manageable
size. And yay for YouTube upping their time
limit!
