The Wrap Party

The home was jammed into the crevice of a rough looking neighborhood in Van Nuys, California. It was but a few miles from my own place. I was invited to go by a friend who had worked on a short film. The film was a feminist lesbian movie. Period piece (no pun intended). The heavy gate was a hand rolled. The place was rough. Apartment complex on both sides of the place. Screaming babies, and Spanish the prevailing language.

We moved to the back of the house, next to the garage. That's when we saw the first young white face. The barbecue was in a back that opened into a rock garden. A fire pit it the corner. Frankly, this place looked more from the Midwest than the barrio of Los Angeles. I met the host, a peppy cute blonde. A sprite of a girl. You can tell she lost a TON of work to Kristin Bell. Her husband looked more like her brother. Both blonde haired, blue-eye Teutons. I introduced myself. Then quickly found the butchiest of lesbians to talk football. It was a good time. The Butchy Lesbian who was named Lynne was a Penn State fan. Which I didn't have the heart to dig into Paterno and his legacy. It being a sore subject to anyone from western to central Pennsylvania. I'm sure no one in Ohio likes to talk about Jefferey Dahmer being from there. In fact he went to Ohio State. Shhh...

Anyway, that's when Lynn pointed out that our host was from Cincinnati. Fuck yeah! She got really excited and talked endlessly about our town. I was really happy to hear the small things only fellow Cincinnatians knew. She'd gone to the mall that was the closest to my house.

She was 32 and an on air host for some show on Reelz. She was a ball of energy. And MAN, did she have a mouth. She talked about squirting pussies and foot fetishes. And how much she loved porn. Every sentence, even when not warranted had "fuck" in it. She'd been drinking and smoked some weed. Apparently there were some foreigners who, as a ruse, she decided she would fake that she was a porn star named "Sandy Pooles." Perfect, since she was a squirter. Even more appropriate since her husband felt her tits were too small. Fun bunch.

So I sat by the fire, and every once in a while I'd hear a screaming "Kenwood!" (which is the town I grew up in). It'd be her talking about the good ol' Cincy days. She lived in the outskirts farming town of Cincy. And you can tell, that state was too small to hold her energy. She was go-getter. An ambitious ball of energy that is sorely missing in the people of Los Angeles (maybe just me).

The wrap party was because she'd written a short film that was about 50's style suppression of sexual identity. To which I'd joke to my friend earlier...they sure picked a topic that got them to festivals. I wanted to make a lesbian Holocaust movie. During the party, as I was cooking over the fire, she'd said the very same thing...
"yeah, look we made this thing because it's got lesbians and that'll get you in any festivals" Talk about frank! I added that it should take place in the Holocaust...to which she agreed completely. And then die. Which would win them awards. I told her if there was ever such a thing as a Super-Academy Award, she hit it out of the park. Yeah, she knows the business and has a great attitude.

Something to be learned here...ambition, grit and positive nature goes a long way. As does being a cute chick who doesn't conjure up rape fantasies in this town. It was really good to run into Midwesterners who still kept one foot in their hometown.

Their short film premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater next week. I'd been invited, but I hate Hollywood.