What I Woke Up To St. Patrick's Day Morning

So... we left this Leprechaun trap out on the couch in the living room last night when the kids went to bed:

The kids thought the Rolos, wrapped in gold paper would tantalize the Leprechaun, tempting him into the trap. On top of that, my middle son made a tiny green beaded necklace at a birthday part craft table he had attended earlier on Saturday. We tossed that in to further entice him into becoming trapped. 

But when we all got up and checked to see if we had caught a Leprechaun... this was the state in which we found the living room. I don't know if you can tell but he completely flipped over our green love-seat (no he didn't mismatch or ugly up the furniture, we did that all on our own) and most of the other furniture. 

Since the Leprechaun isn't a complete jerk, he did leave some surprises on the love seat for the kids:

Some green nail polish and green rock candy for my 12 year old daughter, and some green candy and green Hotwheels cars for the two boys. 

The toy fox that my son sleeps with every night turned up in the mess with the little green necklace around his tail. This was probably the most ominous part of the discovery... because I couldn't help but think this was some sort of veiled threat. My wife assures me that we are all safe and that the Leprechaun was just being "cute". I'm not so sure. 

But I think my absolute favorite item that he left for us to discover was this:

I think he appreciates our little game of cat-and-mouse that we play each year, but looking at the wreckage we had to put to rights before we could sit down this morning... I'm wondering who is the cat and who is the mouse.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Goodwill Geek and family! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Motivational Growth Q&A With Don Thacker Pt. 1

Here is the first half of my Q&A with Don Thacker of (soon-to-be) Motivational Growth fame. 

I've maybe mentioned the movie a couple of times on the blog... here and here. 

What follows is a pretty much (save for a few grammatical or spelling errors) unedited version of our Q&A. I've added a few little observations of my own to the mix, after receiving Don's e-mail, but I've placed these in parentheses. I should also point out that ALL of the images in this post, and the two other posts I link to above are NOT MY IMAGES. They are all images belonging to Imagos Films or Don Thacker, that I've culled from the internet. 

I'm sending you 10 (technically 11 ) questions.
Feel free to answer or not answer any of these in any way you choose. 

Let me start by pointing out that each of your 11 questions
 is actually, like, four questions. :P I am happy to answer them all.

(Okay, so I was hoping I could totally slip the whole "each of your 11 questions is like 4 questions" thing past without too much notice. They were at least organized in such a way as to give the appearance of same-topic musings, fit together with question marks at the end. My questions will be in bold, while Don's replies will be in standard text. -G.G.)

1.       Give me some of the background on yourself and Motivational Growth.

I am the director at Imagos Films, a company founded by myself, Alexis Thacker and Edward A. Chaves Jr. Alexis is our executive producer (and sometimes producer) and Edward is our CTO/DIT as well as an executive producer.

Imagos was founded in 2010 with the hopes of producing feature films. Motivational Growth is the first of these feature films.

Imagos Films resides in Seattle, WA, and employs a lead writer and composer. On the side we do hand-picked creative work for other industries. We're currently providing design and writing for an upcoming video game and our most recent commercial/trailer - for Pixeljam's new game "Potatoman Seeks the Troof" - has been met with cries of both "trailer of the year" and "what. the. fug."

You can see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAeHNZAbNs

Where did the “road to Motivational Growth” begin?

With an entirely different film, actually. When we were seeking feature funding we pitched a completely different film; a more expensive film. When the negotiations smoke cleared and the resultant super-indie budget was agreed upon, the decision to make a much smaller scope film was made as the budget wouldn't have done the originally planned picture justice, but would fit MG just fine.

As I am sure is the case with many other indie studios, we have a bit of a library of pitches/treatments to offer against potential budgets. MG was in there, to be sure, but it was just a kernel of an idea. A little nugget.

How has it changed or evolved from its beginnings?

The original Idea for MG was hatched at a 24hr deli in Los Angeles at, like, 2am over a bowl of matzoh-ball soup and half of a reuban sandwich. I'd saved up for a few days of PA work for this sandwich.

Things were bad for me back then. I was in a pretty dark place. I'd moved to LA in 1999 with stars in my eyes and was hit pretty hard by the harsh reality of a deeply competitive and mature industry whose single barrier to entry - the network - loomed large like some sort of monolithic iron wall tempered against incursion from young nobodies in a forge of broken dreams. Everything is very dramatic when you're 19.

So I'm in this deli with butcher's paper over the table and I pull out a pen and pad and fail miserably at being brilliant. All I can muster is "His name was Kent. He was my television set. He died sometime around week 67. Odd-- I'd always thought I'd be the first to go."

I had this television in my parents' basement back in Michigan - this little 13" deal with a built-in VCR that I used to spend summers playing Turbo Grafx 16 and watching bootleg anime on. I named it Kent. After the dude with the braces from Real Genius. In my head that this TV was my friend. I longed for him in when things got dark.

In those long summer nights in my parents' basement it was just me and that TV. I would have lost my mind if he'd died.

So that's 1999. Between then and 2010 everything changes. I've got a film company, that giant iron wall dissolves with the advent of a universally accepted system of internet communication and, well, I just grew up. I kept that line from the deli, though. And I'd pondered a story about a guy and his television on and off for the decade between that line and our decision to make MG.

When we agreed to do MG, I took that concept, as well as a number of others we'd worked into the story, and wrote drafted a script.

Then we made it. :)

There's a completely different story about The Mold - where he came from - but that's one I'm going to keep for now.

Where do you see it heading next?

In all honesty, I made a film that some people will hate, and some people will not be able to ever stop thinking about. Real world experience with screening it has born out the success in this regard. My goal in MG was to make something for people to discuss. Make something for people to dig into.

Also, though, make something that strives to make up for its lack of budget by adding value in as many ways as are possible. To go deep where it couldn't go tall. To offer a bent reality rather than an expensively impressive reality.

In that way, I hope it gains a faithful audience to whom it resonates deeply. I fully expect that this audience might be a smaller audience. I have been told that it has the makings of a "cult classic" or a "go-to midnight movie", and honestly I can't imagine a cooler outcome.

If there's one dude out there who thinks that MG is awesome, I've succeeded.

I know that's kind of dodging your question. I can't really speculate on where *I* see it going. I'm caught up with it right now. I'm flying it all over the world, to festivals all over the place.

I suppose in the immediate future I see it going to the Sun Valley Film Festival in Idaho, the Little Rock Horror Picture Show in Arkansas and ECU, the European Independent Film Festival in Paris.

That's just March, though. Right now it's difficult for me to see past March.

2.       You’ve worked with many cast members from Motivational Growth before on previous shorter film projects. What can you tell us some about the cast and your history with them? 

So, you've been doing your homework!

You get a B-. 

(To be honest, my “homework” consisted of poking around on IMDb for about 15 mins… I should totally get a D at best. -G.G.)

See, there's a time dilation effect in film. The short stuff looks like it came first because it was finished and released more quickly. I first worked with most of those people you're talking about on MG, though. It just takes 4 months of pre-production, a month and a half of production proper and 18 months of post-production for that to come bear fruit. In that time, one can produce things. Like award winning short films.

Adrian DiGiovianni (MG's Ian) is a rare gem. When we auditioned the role of Ian for MG we did so in a public library. We did this because I needed someone who wouldn't be afraid to be doing/saying uncomfortable things in front of people, even if those things were inappropriate. For Ian we auditioned the toilet monologue. As you've seen the film, you know exactly the monologue I'm talking about. It's not a public appropriate monologue.

While every other actor, regardless of skill, stood there uncomfortably or briefly pantomimed "bathroomy" things, Adrian asked me if he should drop his pants. I was sold.

I spent the next few weeks calling him in to feed lines to other people auditioning for Ian, to see how he held up under the pressure. I wasn't really auditioning those other dudes for Ian, I was paying attention to Adrian the whole time. He never lost energy. He never broke.

I knew I'd found a guy I could hang from the ceiling in his underwear.

There are similar stories for the other cast.

Danielle Doetsch, Ian's love interest, had no problem giving me a blood curdling scream on command (in the same public library), a scream I later capitalized on in The Catastrophe at Catalina (https://vimeo.com/40921927).

Pete Giovagnoli made Box the Ox a giant at his audition, even though he's only, like, 5'2" tall. His performance was so solid that we used platforms and forced perspective to make him look as big as Box is in the film.

Ken Brown did an absolute TON of research for his part.

Everybody nailed it.

Since then, I have worked up personal relationships with almost every cast memeber from MG, and worked with most of them. I have since cast them in other projects, and will continue to.

3.       Without delving too deeply into dangerous “where do you get your ideas” territory, can you talk about the some of the inspirations you drew together to build the story behind Motivational Growth? Some of it seems like it must come from some pretty personal, dark places.

MG is unique to my process. It comes from a dark place, as I've said already. Nothing else I've written is like MG in that regard. I am a huge fan of high fiction. If two people having a dramatic discussion is interesting, two people having a dramatic discussion about robots is better. Better still is two people having a dramatic conversations about robots while in space.

MG was an adult's interpretation of a young man's angst. I had the kernel when I was 19 but wrote it when I was 30. A lot happens between 19 and 30, most of it perspective. I tried to grow the weirdness of the world at 19 through the lens of being 30.

When you're 19, you have no idea. If you're 19 and reading this right now, you're totally lost. Even if you're on the perfect path and have everything under control, when you're 30 you'll see how stupid you were for thinking that right now. When I was 19 I had ideas about the world that, now, seem almost indescribably wrong.

I suppose MG is an expression of that. Ian's the worst of my 19yr old self and his twisted world is what my a romanticized depression might feel like through that lens.

That's not to say none of that touches on real stuff. I've had a number of people approach me after screenings to tell me that the could relate with Ian. With some of his habits or the depth of his depression. I know I can.

4.       Parts of Adrian DiGiovanni’s performance are delivered directly to the camera. They almost feel like they could be part of a staged one-man stage show. What inspired the decision to break the fourth wall in such a way?

This was a tough decision to make. I spent a lot of time, even after the initial edit, on the fence about this one. There is a huge story reason that he does this. It's a hard sell, though, if you don't come to that early on. I think that to most people, their first time through, it's just a dude talking to the audience.

If you like the film, and are willing to watch it again - maybe a few more times - it might become more evident that your initial impression was misguided.

Maybe he's not breaking the fourth wall at all. Maybe it's not the audience that he's speaking to...

5.       While there can be many ways to interpret the outcome of M.G. there is no denying there is a struggle between certain… forces going on throughout the movie. Without spoiling too much, can you give us any play-by-play on the different forces involved, how they are represented, or even just what they represent? Or is this ALL literally up for interpretation? At least tell us a little about why Mold and TV play such heavy roles in Ian's development.

I'm not going to spoil anything, I don't think, by saying that Kent and The Mold are definitely at odds. This is true. There's a struggle there. It's an odd struggle, though, because both of them represent a very distinct dichotomy.

Kent is TV. If you grew up in the 80s, like me, the TV is this chained god sort of entity to you. It had all of this great stuff, but there was this burgeoning attitude toward television that shrouded it in this weird form of semi-taboo. TV was responsible for teaching us, for informing us of the current state of the world, for entertaining us but also accused of dumbing us down, creating mindless zombie consumers out of us and corrupting our perfect little minds. Watching TV was semi-bad, but no household was without one. It's bizarre, really.

The Mold is a fungus. Actually, The Mold is fungus. All fungus. It's gross, but it's natural. You don't want it in your bathroom, but it's been around since before there were people around to invent bathrooms to keep clean. It's nature. It's something bigger than man.

So you've got this guy who's been, essentially, abusing his TV intake and ignoring the atrophy engulfing his apartment. While he veges out on the couch, nature begins to devour his bathroom.

Again, not trying to spoil anything, what events would make that television and that fungus pillars of this guy's life? The film has a single event that does this - that polarizes these two forces - fits them into slots.

I suppose you have to choose your idea of good and evil. It becomes obvious to everyone who watches the film that one of them is good and the other is evil. The thing is, though, people don't always agree on which is which.

I imagine that Ian lives in a world where good must be sought out. Must be paid attention to. It's message must be inferred from context. It's words spoken in code. A world where evil asserts itself under the guise of good and presses, unyielding, against one's will.

As the storyteller, I have the answer. The film isn't an exercise in interpretative art. There's a through-line, and I worked very hard to both make it at once clearly discover-able to the dedicated viewer and sufficiently well hidden to entice one to watch it again.

I am sure that this will turn away a section of the viewing public. Hell, I understand - sometimes I just want to watch Commando, man. I have that shit on Blu-ray. But sometimes I want to be given a riddle.

This film is for the riddle-breakers.

Okay that's it for part one of the Q&A! I'll be back soon with more of the Q&A soon, so until then... go buy something at Goodwill or something. 

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: I'm Seeing Red!

I'm jumping in with both feet on this week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic. I've been off and on the grid for a week or so with a few check-ins here and there, but I'm trying to get back on track with GH4G. I see no better way than to let the League get me going. 

So what's the topic? It's one near and dear to my heart... a photo challenge!

I’m seeing red!

I scoured the cave looking for any trace of Red I could find. And I decided to get creative with it. 

Here's a shot of everything I found in in the cave, with a background of larger red items like books, a DVD and a Little People Silo. 

Let's see what's got the rest of the League seeing red:

Toyriffic and Henchgirl both feature my favorite Red Lantern. 

Neato Coolville and That Figures both decided to showcase red toys as well. 

Flashlights are Something to Eat and Branded in the 80's both took creative interpretations of the topic.

I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!  

I've SEEN the Growth. Motivational Growth.

So I haven't been around the blog much lately, I realize. I hope no one's missed me... and I realize probably no one has. And then the cutting starts.

I cut out sugar cookies. And bake them. And then I eat them. With my awesome family. And I don't care what the internet thinks about me. So huh.

Be that as it may... I have recently been allowed to view the movie directed by Don Thacker, "Motivational Growth" that I blogged about a while back. It was... an experience.

Let me tell you one thing: This is not your average horror movie. It's actually a stretch to even call it a horror movie (in the traditional sense) at all. It has horrific events that happen throughout, and it will almost certainly make your skin crawl and maybe even trigger your gag reflex in a few sequences... but it seems more a surreal exploration of existential crisis. With... a story going on. 

The movie opens on Ian, a depressive shut-in who hasn't left his apartment in months. He has pretty much given up on life, hygiene, the universe, and everything. 

So pretty much my average Saturday night. 

It appears Ian has a deep emotional attachment to only one thing in his life: His television. It is a dinosaur of a television set, handed down to him from his parents. Ian has named the set Kent. Well, as we see the story open, Kent dies. Kent's death elicits a... strong reaction in Ian, to say the least. 

Goodnight sweet prince.

So strong in fact that he appears to begin addressing the viewers of the movie directly. As he does this, he begins explaining to us the ins and outs (sometimes literally... painful... outs) of his current existence, while preparing to end his own life. This action is the one that sets up the series of events that make up the rest of the film. 

What a 16-bitch.

Ian's world for the rest of the movie seems to be counter-balanced by two different forces: Kent and the numb escape that he represents... and the rampant, aggressive force of life that is The Mold. A hard-talking yet motivational-speaking mold growth in Ian's bathroom. There are a series of bizarre encounters with people visiting Ian's apartment, strange visions where Ian participates in the shows on his television, and of course, interactions with The Mold... which may or may not be responsible for the more... psychedelic sequences of the film. 

These guys are adorable.

The whole thing could have turned out to be a wreck of a film if it weren't for a few very important factors that hold the whole thing together like crazy (literally crazy) glue:

1. Jeffrey Combs. Jeffrey Combs is the voice of The Mold that begins interacting with Ian and trying to get him to "clean" up his act. Combs is of course quite a prominent voice actor these days, what with his appearances in shows like Transformers Prime, and the new Nickelodeon TMNT show. His voice performance in Motivational Growth is no less epic, and shows us a side of the actor that I'm almost 100% certain we've not seen before. He oozes (sometimes literally) charm and chutzpah. A street-tough, silver-tongued master of manipulation and influence. He feels at times sinister, and at other times we wonder if that's just a part of his front. His motives are not entirely clear in why he tries to help Ian... but the fact that he wants something is crystal.

2. Adrian DiGiovanni. The man we spend the entire movie wondering what the hell is happening to this guy? is played by DiGiovanni. His Ian is fractured, raw, and vulnerable. He's given up, but he desperately wants a change. He wants to be rebuilt. He wants to change, but he doesn't have a clue how to go about it. He spends scenes speaking directly to the camera for extended periods of time, and other scenes careening wildly through various different television show realities like a pinball. He must make interacting with a sentient mold growth in his bathroom seem realistic, shocking, and mundane all at the same time. He also spends a huge amount of his time exuding anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, xenophobia, and then in equal measures he has to make the various climbs in and out of that emotional pit seem believable.

You try selling this.

3. The WTF Factor. Don Thacker's film is paced in such a way that it never really gives you the time to contemplate the batshit insanity that is being perpetrated from one moment to the next. What could easily have been viewed as a seizure inducing chain of images, characters, dialogue, genies, 16-bit animation, breast-spores, death scenes, unreality, and puppetry... all coalesce into something that feels like it actually has a deeper meaning, a story to tell, and themes that actually matter. It's just the kind of movie where one viewing is not necessarily enough to suss that all out. It's a testament to Don Thacker's ability to write and direct a compelling if disturbingly confusing film.

Like this compelling if disturbingly confusing thumb.

Overall... I enjoyed the hell out of this film. I genuinely wanted to see Ian rescued from the brink. I loved the interaction of forces throughout. I thought for a first feature-length film that Don Thacker and his cast made what is destined to be a cult-classic on the same level as Rubber or yes even my beloved Bubba Ho-Tep. It has its weaknesses. Some of the performances from the supporting cast could have been tweaked and in some cases... eliminated altogether. Some of the confusion seems to be played for the sake of confusion itself. Some of the television sequences were definitely stronger than others, and the 16-bit animated sequences, while clever and beautiful... don't really seem to support the rest of the film in a real way except to create a feeling of heightened reality.

This happened.

But warts and all, I want to see this film again. I want to see other people, seeing this film. I want so see this film become more than a film. I want to see it ingrained in the sub-culture the same way great cult classic films do. I want message boards online where fans argue over the meaning of this film, the different forces at
play within it... and just what the Hell is actually happening.

What.

After seeing the film thanks to Don Thacker's incredible generosity, I also rattled off a list of questions via e-mail for Mr. Thacker. He took the time out of his busy schedule promoting his film to... well promote his film some more, but he answered my lengthy list of questions anyway.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Academy... Don Thacker.

Those questions, broken up into two parts will be featured on the blog very soon. He gives us some really interesting insight into the history of the movie, working with the cast he did, and some of his own personal observations on... just what the Hell is actually happening.

That's it for tonight though. I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies. Until then, Happy Hunting!

Still Alive... Here's some stuff from Goodwill to prove it

Things have been hectic around my home and work lately, with lots of crazy stuff, health stuff, money stuff, kid stuff, etc. to worry about and keep my attention away from blogging. I'm basically just getting on here long enough to prove I'm not dead. Luckily, I have some pictures of some stuff I picked up at the Brewer, ME Goodwill last November. Yep. Last November. I photograph stuff and either sit on it for a while for a slow day, or just forget about it. I think this stuff was a little of both. 

First up as a HUGE grab-bag I paid 3.99 for. Inside it was all you see above. There's a squeaky manatee that makes the most AMAZING squeaky noise you have ever HEARD and a tiny yellow plastic maraca with a smiley face on it.There's a weird truck with a bunch of cereal mascot heads attached to it, including Tony the Tiger, Sam the Toucan, Dig'em the Honey Smacks Frog, and (on the side you can't see) Snap, Crackle, and Pop, the Rice Crispies guys. A handful of PEZ dispensers, a green plastic alligator squirt gun, a Dotty Dog doll from the Get-Along-Gang series (I looooooved these guys when I was a kid, and I had a TON of Montgomery Moose toys)The weird triangle thing in the top right corner is a sort of spinning top toy on wheels. There's a set of plastic army men, an orange plastic monkey, some Pokemon Happy Meal toys, some Batman Brave and the Bold Happy Meal toys, and finally a single M.U.S.C.L.E. Thing figure, smack-dab in the middle. A handful of these items I was really excited about, and the rest are all pretty fun to either give to my kids or pass along to other geeks, etc. I take the manatee at random intervals and just squeeze the ever-loving heck out of it. 

Next up we have a couple of Golden Books. But one of them (Peter Pan in Tinker Bell and the Pirates) is actually a Big Little Golden Book! 

These aren't lined up perfectly, but this gives you a pretty good idea of how much of a size difference there is. The smaller of the two books is I Think That It is Wonderful and other poems from Sesame Street. If you don't already know about my dual vintage Sesame Street and vintage Little Golden Books obsessions, let this post be your introduction to those. As usual, these kids' books were .99 cents apiece. 

Finally, look at this. I was severely conflicted picking this up at Goodwill. I don't consider myself to be too deeply entrenched in gender-role nonsense... but I felt weird picking up a doll for myself. I don't collect dolls. But if you'll please notice, this is a mother-effing PUNKY BRESWTER DOLL!!! This isn't just some sticky, dirty old Baby Alive that I'm going to cradle in my arms when I sleep at night. This is different. I mean, maybe the world is blind. Or just a little unkind... I don't know. Seems you can't be sure of anything anymore. But I'll tell you, that day at Goodwill when I turned around, I saw the the girl who turns my world around. Her spirit lifted me right off the ground. So... I bought her. for 2.99. I already have plans for what to do with her. 

Nothing dirty or sticky. Just making sure you all understand that. This is not that kind of blog. 

I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Secondhand Cinema: 5 Goodwill DVDs!

So... the last week and a half or so have been insanely busy for me, with my entire family coming down with what seemed to be the bubonic plague but what really turned out to be a nasty head/chest cold type thing... and a literal shit-ton of work related mania (maybe someday the Goodwill Geek will tell you what he does for a living...) 

And in the mean-time the blog has dragged a bit. There have been other behind-the-scenes commitments I've made that will be coming to fruition very soon on here, and in general I think I'll be a bit more "back in the swing of things" within the next day or so... 

With that being said, I'm going to kind of shoot off a quickie about a pile of movies I found several weeks back... like... last year back. Like slightly before Christmas I think. I just haven't found the time to shoe-horn them in. Every single one of these DVDs cost me 2.99 and I bought them all in one trip. 

Here are three science fiction movies I brought home: Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", "The Riddick Trilogy", and the 2005 "War of the Worlds Remake" by Steven Spielburg, starring Tom Cruise. 

Let the record show that the only movie in this pile I have seen and can form an opinion on is "War of the Worlds". I've never seen "2001" or any of the Riddick movies. I've heard "2001" is revolutionary (and I know almost everything about it from the Obelisk to Hal, thank you internet. I didn't ASK to know this stuff, but you're always putting it out there. Can't even really call them spoilers with a movie this old...), and "Pitch Black" is the only Riddick movie worth seeing.

"War of the Worlds" will get a lot of people rolling their eyes at me possibly, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the use of oppressive and claustrophobic elements throughout the story, I liked the family dynamics, I enjoyed the effects, and it's one of the few films that I can genuinely enjoy tom Cruise's performance in these days. 

This is just a Best of Will Ferrell DVD from SNL. I'm never clamoring for this sort of thing, but I do like Will Ferrell's brand of crazy, so when I saw it, I bought it. 

This... this is the REAL piece de resistance... "Killing Zoe". I looooove this movie from waaaay back. And it's one of those movies that I always meant to track down on Amazon or something someday, but just never did. To find it at Goodwill knocked me on my ass. If you haven't seen this partially French-language movie with Eric Stoltz and Julie Delpy about a bank-heist gone terribly complicated... you need to correct this as soon as you can. Directed by Roger Avery, and executive produced by Quentin Tarentino, I can genuinely say if you are a fan of crime-noir films with an indy vibe to them like Reservoir Dogs and the Usual Suspects, you will probably really dig this movie. 

That's it for now, but I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

The Dream Catcher Antique Mall

Today I thought I'd feature a local establishment in Ellsworth Maine, near where I live. It's an "Antique Mall" that boasts three different floors and "Over 50 Local Dealers". 

I don't shop here too often, as the prices are not terribly reasonable, and the stock doesn't switch out very often (I think there may be a connection between these two details...).

Anyway, there's a dealer in the upstairs portion of the store that specializes in action figures, comic books, and vintage toys. I thought I'd show off a handful of the stuff I've seen there and have been drooling over.

More on Motivational Growth... and the surreality that is my life.

So... a while back I posted one of my lazy "Hey, here are some movie trailers to movies that look interesting because I can't be bothered to actually post anything today..." posts.

That post included the teaser Trailer for a movie called "Motivational Growth". At the time I wrote this about the preview:

"This just looks insane. I mean, there's a talking pile of foul looking mold... and someone obviously having some sort of existential crisis, and then reality blends with whatever messed up crap is going on here and... well I just want to be a part of whatever this is going to end up being."

Wow.. That's quite the write up.

And I still stand by that. In the same post I mentioned Quentin Dupieux's new film "Wrong" and honestly, watching the trailer for Motivational Growth, I see some of the same weird abstract storytelling at play, with some obvious body horror influences. Movies like "Jon Dies at the End" and "Detention" come to mind, or even Charlie Kaufman films like "Adaptation" or "Being John Malkovich". I'm wondering if the future of horror... or movies in general... are going to be more and more surreal stories that try to take the movie-viewer out of their comfort zone (I know it's horror, which is all about not being comfortable... but traditional horror movies can be a sort of worn-smooth comfy spot for horror fans expecting a certain "kind" of movie) by turning traditional story-telling conceits completely on their ear.

But what about the three-act formaaaaaaaat!!!!!????

Well... yeah. Anyway... I posted those youtube videos without giving them another thought and went on with my life.

That was on February 10th. Since then I've posted some other stuff. I've gone out for Valentine's day to see one of the other movies in that post (Silver Linings Playlist) and I spent my vacation off from work catching up on some other Netflix viewing. I had a payday Friday visit to Goodwill and I've participated in a couple of  League of Extraordinary Blogger posts. My life just sort of... went on.

And then on February 20th I was contacted by e-mail by Don Thacker, founder and director of Imagos Films... and the writer and director of "Motivational Growth".

And I was like: "Huh. I do not believe anyone who has written and directed a film watched by more than 3 people has ever contacted me via hotmail before."

Me. Totally normal, just checking my hotmail.
"Don Thacker? Huh. Cool."

He told me that he'd noticed my sharing the preview on my blog and that he wanted to reach out to me with more promotional information about the film. He showered me with informational links about the film, including one leading to the IMDb page and the one that leads to the Motivational Growth official website. He also mentioned that the film won the Boston Science Fiction Festival's "Gort Award" for Best of Fest.

That's... actually pretty awesome. 

And for good measure he threw in a link to the official poster for the film:

There was also a link for Vimeo containing a different trailer for the movie and an interesting treatise on the subject of "panic". I also learned that the type of mold featured in the film is Aspergillus which according to wikipedia is not known for it's powers of speech... but can cause all kinds of horrific invasions of the human body. 

Don't know who they cast as the mold but he's going full Stanislavski method here.  

Now, with all this being said and shared. I should tell you all that I was extremely flattered by Mr. Thacker's interest in my blog, and the fact that he took the time to contact me and give me the information he did. He's really taking the time to promote his film by hitting the (figurative) bricks and knock on (metaphorical) doors to contact folks showing interest in this venture. 

I was not offered any kind of financial incentive to help Don promote his movie. I was happy to do it because I genuinely think the movie looks great and I cannot wait to see it. I did let him know that there was no guarantee that I would be writing a favorable review for his film after I'd seen it (believe me, this blog has defined the box-office takes of many a film project with only a few deft words so... I can't even finish this ridiculous sentence) but that I was looking forward to seeing it whenever I was able to. He remained unfazed by this information... as he should.

So that was something that happened to me once. I posted a youtube preview of a movie I wanted to see... and the writer and director e-mailed me and contacted me due to my interest in his film. I found it surreal, and less a bit of proof that this blog is anything more than what it is... and more just that the internet is a big, weird place, and full of people doing fun things and working their asses off... and that I should never take that for granted. Also don't tell people you want to be a part of something amazing-looking unless you mean it, because the people responsible may contact you and give you information on how to help promote it. 

Thanks for your e-mail Don! Can't wait to see Motivational Growth at some point! It looks like a total mind-f**k!

That's it for today guys! I'll be back real soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!