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June 27, 2004
Get your Rabbit Ears on.
Listen up, all you sassy kittens and kats...
It's the Summertime...and you know you're looking for some good records to throw on that are just as fiery as you're feeling. Well, well, well...you gotta see what I stumbled across... This sexy, bluesy song just makes me wanna dance in a 1950s pin-up girdle on a hot summer night with an old black steel cage fan blowing my way! You know what I mean. Yee-OW.
The song is called the CB Song and is by my friend, David Lee's band...Those Legendary Shack Shakers.
They are passionate as all hell about the music, and they have worked their asses off - so you can feel really good about supporting them. Cause we're all in the trenches together, don't you know! If their song puts a crazy hypnotic spell on you like it did to me, you can snatch up your own copy here.
My favorite description of them is "...strikes you with force of Jerry Lee Lewis, Iggy Pop, and Elmer Gantry showing up for a bar fight."
And doesn't everyone love a good old brawl?
Posted by Veronica at 04:15 PM
June 25, 2004
Let Me Make You Forget About Time
(Getting touched up moments before the high speed chase scene through the old junk yard.)
I want to share the story with you so badly. I want to take you from wherever you are and bring you here. Into this world of Revolver with me. So, I'm going to be posting pictures from the shoot for you in the next couple of weeks. Lately, I've spent a lot of time there, daydreaming, writing my wishes on the backs of old postcards. And I'm leaving this one in my journal for you to find :-)...
There is a gorgeous whirlwind around Revolver right now. More and more people are hearing about it. The hits to the site have jumped to the tens of thousands, and the trailer is constantly being downloaded (which makes it a little slower sometimes...don't be mad).
I hope you've seen it. I hope you took a peek of what my world looks like. I hope you want more.
And if you do...send the link to your friends, spread the word. The more it comes up in conversations, the more it gets out there, the more doors fly open. I love how this film is getting out there in such a grassroots way...because it really is a film about the underdogs. It's about all of us.
Keep writing to me. I love the letters I get from all of you, they make me fight even harder.
I promise you one day you will see it all.
And there will be all my beloved 1950s postcards scattered before you. My collection of old matchbooks from the road. The lure of the 2-lane dusty highways spanning across America. For there is no feeling of freedom like being behind the wheel. When time doesn't mean anything, and there's just instincts to go by.
You know what I mean.
And today's feeling like a lucky day...
Don't you think?
Posted by Veronica at 11:28 PM
June 22, 2004
How Much Do I *Heart* My New Diary?
And how much do I *heart* this girl?
The re*vamp*ing of this Danger Diary that has made me want to start actually using it again was made possible by the darling Miss Anna. I was complaining to her about how my old diary was scrambling everything in a mish-mosh, how the entries were all over the place with different dates popping up in whatever order they felt like. It was quite the rebellious little journal. She offered to help me whip it into shape, said she'd get started on it, and we'd work on it the next day to adjust. Well, the next morning, I woke up with an email from her written at 2am reading, "welcome to your new journal".
Damn. I love people who don't sleep. She is a total rock star.
Besides not sleeping, designing major book covers and being over-all fabulous, she runs and has built from scratch the glorious creature Burned Down Days, the Psychedelic Furs website. The Furs are one of my favorites in the whole wide world. And I love them. Insanely. Madly. For those of you familiar with them, the site is a great way to find out about up-and-coming things going on with the band, tour info, etc. For those of you who don't know them...be prepared to fall head over heels. Don't say I didn't warn you...
To Anna: *MWAH!* Someday soon I will stay up to 2am baking cupcakes for you. Promise.
Posted by Veronica at 11:41 PM
June 20, 2004
Fasten Your Seatbelts
On the way home from Vegas.
Top things that happened on the trip that I will never forget til the day I die (in order):
1. Getting goosebumps in the airport coming into Vegas with the sounds of the slot machines clicking and ringing and singing and winning.
2. Seeing the famous old "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign in real life, which I have stared at in old postcards for forever.
3. Placing one bet at the roulette wheel at the Lady Luck Casino, and winning $145, and Burke and my Dad pulling me from the table before I bet it all on black.
4. Taking the beautiful drive across the desert, singing in the car, stringing more rosebuds (not while driving), meeting cool people along the way at random roadside stops, getting a good chance to laugh a lot with my Dad talking about old stories.
5. Walking the red carpet of the Orpheum Theatre and having the cameras go off like crazy. Then doing the rounds of interviews. We were kind of famous for one night. It was bizarrely fun. It gave me visions of being completely self-destructive and then trashing the hotel room when we got back. But then I realized that you have to be famous AND rich to do that. So I just threw the do not disturb plastic sign on the carpet and stomped on it. And then I put it back so I wouldn't get in trouble.
6. My legs shaking like crazy from the second the lights went down in the theatre and the awards started. To the point that if they ever called us, I thought I might fall.
7. The second Jeremy Sisto's mouth formed the "R" of Revolver, after the words "and the winner is...". One of the happiest split seconds of my life.
8. The feeling I got standing up on stage, with Revolver playing in the background on a full big screen, standing there with Burke, seeing all those people in the audience and having my Dad there. Being able to share Revolver with them...and thinking to myself how this all started from being broke and sitting on a Brooklyn fire escape one night. How Burke and I told stories back and forth about this fictious world of ours. How those nights turned into scribblings in my diary, how that turned into the screenplay, which turned into the promotional trailer, which turned into this... I had to take a moment to stop myself from crying.
9. Calling my Mom at 2am eastern time to tell her the good news and the two of us laughing and crying with happiness.
9. Meeting Steveo, the graphics genius, for the first time. He created the Revolver logo and did all the amazing graphics for the trailer. The Revolver trailer wouldn't have been the same without him. He really took it to the next level, and made it his own. We had never met him before that night. And I was really glad that we got to meet celebrating the win of our collective baby. You have to check out his site because 1) it's fun just watching his reel and 2) if you need a graphics guy, he's the man. Trust me.
SteveO with the trophy
10. Meeting really great people at the afterparty who are serious about getting Revolver made.
11. Staying in a haunted Hollywood hotel on Sunset Blvd. Yes. You heard right. Haunted. For two nights. It was a total old kitchy 50s hotel with the neon all cute outside. Well...let's just say, the tv kept going on at random times by itself and got louder and louder and louder. It would then shut off by itself. Etc. All night. Until it was unplugged. I figured there must be some kind of explanation and asked the guy at the front desk. As soon as I said jokingly, "So what's the deal with my haunted room?" He said, "237?" And I said "yeah?" And he said that they've gotten tons of complaints about that room being haunted in the past with lights going on and off, and the tv turning on and stuff like that. He asked me if I wanted to move to another room, and I said no. Why move to a normal room, when you can have a good story like that? My super cute 1950s haunted Hollywood hotel room. I wouldn't have it any other way.
12. Going to the Chinese Theatre between meetings. Seeing the Hollywood sign in real life (another thing I had only seen on TV before). Seeing Johnny Cash's star on the walk. Finding a gorgeous reproduction of a 1940s femme fatale fitted business jacket and pencil skirt with black faux fur cuffs and collar that fit me perfectly. After all, every girl needs a fine 1940s business suit to wear when in negotiations for taking over the world. Thank goodness I found mine. Whew.
13. Taking the drive back to Las Vegas from LA with the trophy in the car with us. Because the whole way to LA, I kept thinking...by the next time I see all of this again on the way back to Vegas...I'll know whether we won or not. And it felt good to leave LA with it with us!
14. Taking off in the plane at 1am leaving Vegas. Watching all the lights from the plane. Dreaming of all the good things to come...
Posted by Veronica at 02:13 AM
June 17, 2004
Practicing...
I can't even believe that I'm sharing this ridiculous picture.
I went to LA for the first time and I was a complete tourist. But look how giddy happy I am. Well that, and it's the day after we won the award (which I proudly brought out of the rental car for this pic :-) Look at the gleaming golden trailer on top!) I called upon the goddesses of film...at the mecca of the sirens, Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Held my hands to the cement of Ava Gardner (one of my favorites and the SASSIEST), Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Natalie Wood and Betty Grable.
I used to work in a glorious old moviehouse called the Lyric Theatre. The theatre has an amazing amount of history to it, opening in 1925 as one of the original silent moviehouses in Florida. I spent many long afternoons and evenings in that old projection booth -watching the same classics over and over again during a run. By the end of each film's run, I was mouthing along with the heroines' lines. "You know how to whistle, doncha, Steve?" (lean against door frame) "You just put your lips together and blow." (turn on high heel and walk out).
And during those afternoons, watching the films through the glass, listening to the whirl of the projector, I was in those classic films, too...backing up Miss Bacall with all her strength and class. Setting the world on fire.
"Anybody got a match?"
It doesn't hurt to dream, right?
Start mixing the cement, Boys...
Posted by Veronica at 12:24 AM
June 16, 2004
Happy Birthday to a Muse and a Sultry Spy
Okay, so the computer was all fritzy and weird yesterday. If you happened to swing by the site, you know what I mean. But it is all for good things as the site is revamping for even more danger!!!
I wanted to use this entry to send beautiful birthday wishes to two femme fatales that I feel completely lucky to know....
Alexandria LaNier, a breathtaking faerie tale girl in California who is a genius of costume design and takes magnificent story book pictures of her work that will be going into her children's book. You have to check out her link...it wil make you want to weave roses in your hair and wear wings. Awe inspiring.
and Miss Sacha the Spy, my sister in Chicago, who is an amazing artist, not to mention the eye she has for 1940s clothing like no one else on earth. Mysterious and beautiful - the last of the great spy girls...
My hugs and love and love and kisses to you both. May this year bring you lots of beautiful adventures and dreams come true! This year we take over the world!!!!!
Posted by Veronica at 11:59 AM
June 08, 2004
Luck Be A Lady Tonight.
...and so this lil' girl finally gets to her beloved Vegas.
ahhh, the neon signs from the 1950s, the little wedding chapels everywhere, the endearing tawdriness of it all. It was everything I ever dreamed of. Ever.
At 11:59pm on May 24th, I was sitting by the windowsill on the 17th floor of the Lady Luck Casino Motel, looking over Las Vegas. I was the only one awake, and I had put two candles on the sill and had just finished stringing rosebuds for good luck to bring with me for the awards. Across all the blinking lights, I could see a large digital clock on top of one of the buildings. 11:59. 11:59. 11:59.
12:00. The very first moment of May 25th. The day of the Golden Trailer Awards. I thought to myself..."by the end of today, I will know if Revolver will win or not." I was living in the very day that I had waited a really long time for.
For about an hour afterwards, I just stared out at all the lights. It was one of the best nights of my life, just looking over Vegas with my own eyes - the very place that I had stared at postcards of for years.
And there I was. In it.
And for that moment, sitting up there, leaning against the window of my thirty bucks a night motel room, my sleepy eyes edged in glitter, I was queen of it all...
Posted by Veronica at 09:21 PM
June 06, 2004
Revolver WINS!!
Revolver wins at the 5th Annual Golden Trailer Awards in Los Angeles!!!!
You are looking at one of the happiest days in my whole entire life.
Posted by Veronica at 09:51 PM
