At the end of every year I like to share some personal shite about myself
and my life via the site for you too see that no I am not a machine, I’m a man… I’m a man!
ROCKY 4 references aside, if you dig, fine, read on, if you don’t,
all good, skip to the next story and call it a motherf*cking
life.
For me, 2006 continued where 2005 left off
with
the site growing even stronger and what I do outside the site taking more and
more room in that tiny bubble that I call my life. I went through a
lot of great f*cking moments in 2006, actually it was easily one of my best
years in a while as the negatives were on an
all time low. Allow me to share them with ya! Here it goes!
ARROW’ TOP 6 POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES
MOMENTS OF 2006
-POSITIVE MOMENTS-
"DEADEN SITGES PREMIERE"
Sitges’ Mike Hostench and I,
presenting DEADEN.
. Getting
DEADEN (formally known as Pain Killer) done last year
alongside the man with the plan Christian Viel was a feat in itself. But
getting a film past development, production and post production is not where it
ends. It goes on. And
on it did. I got the honor to present and screen the film at the prestigious
2006 SITGES FILM FESTIVAL
on behalf of the DEADEN team (yeah you were all there with me in spirit yo) and
what an utter blast that was!
To sit there and listen to the positive audience
reaction to the events onscreen was an incredibly satisfying, cum inducing and
fulfilling time for me. Did it mean anything as to DEADEN and its long run? WHO
CARES! That moment, in that theatre, with an enthused crowd who actually stayed
till the end credits…that’s all I needed man…I felt validated for an hour
and half. It don’t pay the bills but it is those bits of positive
energy that makes the bullshit I swim through daily in the name of doing what I
love worthwhile.
"PHILLY LOVES ROCKY WEEK"
Me, Sly, the Rocky statue, Philly
= WOW!
. For anybody that’s been checking the site for a
while, you’ll know that I’m a big Sylvester Stallone
fan. I mean the dude and
his films practically raised me and are responsible for a large chunk of who I
am as a person. So you can imagine my
delight when I got the opportunity to go to Philly for 4 days to attend the
Philly Loves Rocky Week
(Read
my report here). I got to see Sly up
close, witnessed the dedication of the Rocky Statue to the Philly Art Museum,
ran up those Rocky steps (something I’ve wanted to
do since I was a kid), soaked in the beautiful city of Philadelphia and
basically lived and breathed Stallone for 4 days.
I was on top of the world man and had the time of
my life. Thank you JoBlo.com for that one!
"ARROW IN JAPAN"
WTF am I doing in Japan! Having a GREAT time! That’s
what!
.
This dinky site has given me many opportunities (that I capitalized on gladly)
over the years. I got to meet many of my genre heroes, made all kinds of new
friends and traveled around the globe. But if you ever told me that one day, I
would wind up in Japan
because of it, I would’ve said "yeah right and I’m the Queen of England".
Well it happened. Who knew? We (JoBlo.com/AITH) were invited to the
The
Grudge 2 set in Japan and yours truly strapped on his condom and went off to
represent the site. What resulted was one of the more
memorable trips of my year. It was a brand new world for me with all kinds of culture,
awe inspiring sights and fun times all around. I can’t
believe that I went to Japan…wow…that’s nuts…I’ll always have pictures to prove
it. YEEEHAW!
"THE WIDE ASLEEP SHOOT"
Me and director Donny Broussard! Loved working with ya
man!
.
There’s nothing like business and pleasure
mixing well. And that’s what went down when I acted in and co produced the
short film
WIDE ASLEEP alongside
Donny Broussard and his crew in Louisiana (great State had
never been there). Not only was
the shoot itself highly stimulating in a guerilla filmmaking kind of way,
but I was also surrounded by fine peeps, got to
drive one heck of a slick corvette, shot a scene at one of The Blob remake’s
location,
made all kinds of new friends and had a blast at the wrap party.
Granted a
couple snags went down along the way; some dude’s girl wound getting too
close to me during the wrap party hence causing conflict and I maybe got too drunk for my own good
(hence me becoming a jerk-off),
but overall, the Wide Asleep experience was a great one! Good script, wonderful people, fine ladies and all kinds of beer that I’m
still trying to work off (I must gained 10 pounds of beer fat on that
shoot…ouch..!). Thanks for everything Wide Alseep gang!
"CAMPING IN PEI"
Being AWAY from the city always does me good!
.
Every year, I try to hook up with a group of
close friends, get in the car and go somewhere far away in the name of
camping. This year
we hit up PEI. Actually, it was initially supposed to be Nova Scotia but once we
got there, the camping ground was a freaking hole, with shades of Texas
Chainsaw Massacre
oozing out of it.
So we said f*ck that, took the Fairy
and hit PEI instead. Kayaking, the ocean, fighting off mosquitoes, living in nature,
getting drunk and doing stupid shit (like jumping in the water butt naked at 2
in the morning), camping always makes freaking sense to me. No computer, no
business, no f*cking phones, no e-mails, good friends, good beers…LIFE MADE SENSE!
"THE RECON 2022 SHOOT"
Goofing around on the RECON 2022
set.
.
After the positive experience that was working with producer/editor/writer/beer
drinker/director CHRISTIAN VIEL on DEADEN, we went at it again this year. I co wrote and acted in
RECON 2022 and
the writing process was a lot of fun while the actual shoot (even with the usual
BS that came with it) was quite the hoot.
RECON 2022 is presently in Post and what I’ve seen of it thus far has got me
fairly stoked about it. For me, I love nothing more than to be involved in
filmmaking in any capacity, specially when surrounded by great peeps that keep
their egos at the door and embrace team spirit. For the most part i was well treated
in that department here again!
—————————————————————————————
-NEGATIVE MOMENTS-
"RIP GRANDMA"
I miss you Mamie…
. This was easily the hardest thing I had to cope
with this year. A couple of days before Christmas, my Grandma passed away out of
left field. This beautiful woman meant a lot to me. She was a constant positive
presence as I was
growing up and had a substancial impact in terms of my evolution. She had a great sense
of humor, lots of pride, was a sweetie and just a gorgeous human being.
I
talked to her for an hour or so the day before she passed on, promising her to
whoop her butt at a game of dice (she loved playing dice) come Christmas day. Sadly that was not
to be, as she died the next day. Christmas was the not the same without her and
my life won’t be either (shit, I’m starting to tear up writing
this). I’ll always love you grandma and will never forget you, you will live on
in my mind and in my heart forever.
"F*CKING BED BUGS!"
I wanna become a fumigator one day
just
to get EVEN with these f*ckers!
. You know the saying “sleep tight,
don’t let the bed bugs bite”…well I just learned the hard way that its FOR REAL. My
building recently got hit with a bedbug invasion and it hasn’t been pretty.
You see these little buggers are like vampires; they hide in the day, wait
till you fall asleep and feed off ya at night. You wake up the next day with
itchy rashes all over the place.
Now the building was fumigated last week so
all was well for a couple days, but this morning I woke up all eaten up
again and not in the way I like it; yup
they’re back! Reading up online about them, I learned that they’re very hard
to eliminate as they reproduce like crazy and all it takes is “one” to start
the madness again. I caught two of these fuckers taking a stroll on my couch
this morning, so I chucked the couch and one came out of my printer…I kept
the printed by squashed the bug. Time to go see my landlord again and get that fumigator back
in here! WILL IT EVER END! ENOUGH!
—————————————————————————————
"CONCLUSION"
Right to left: Eric Red, me and Michael Pare
And that was that on that in terms of negatives.
WOW!
Like I said, it was a very good year for me, didn’t feel it as I was living
it but looking back…NICE!! On top of all that; I got to appear in the
Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD, spend some groovy times with
great company in LA with
Eric Red and his family, hit the always fun Cannes Film
Festival again,
survived the "fascinating" AFM,
was a member of the Sitges Jury, made
new friends, was quoted on my first
theatrical poster (The Descent), went white water rafting,
finally saw one of my fav bands (30 Seconds to
Mars) in concert, hit both the
San
Diego Con and The Rue Morgue Festival of Fear,
Rocky Balboa came out and I loved it…and the list goes on!
BLAM! The bitch (me in front) goes down!
Did I learn anything this year? YUP! I’ve
learned that putting intense pressure on myself to achieve my goals can be counter-productive
as I become overwhelmed. So I
found a new system, just do my best everyday; work wise and as a human being. If I
keep pulling that off, all will fall into place
sooner or later. I also know that I need to focus on LESS this year. I have
too many things going on at the same time, its dizzying, but if I minimize
the amount of projects I take on, I’ll be able to streamline them more
effectively. So it is with that
in mind that I will charge 2007.
To be interviewed alongside Rob Zombie, Clive
Barker and cie in H25 was an honor. I’m the first to say "I am not worthy!"
But it
happened anyways. SWEET!
With that said, thank you
all for still reading my drivel, thanks to my staff for the much appreciated back-up, thanks
to my friends for being there & telling it to me like it is, thank the
honeys for their loving and thanks to my family for
the support. I wish you all a wonderful 2007, take what you’ve learned in
2006 and make 07 a better year! RE-FUEL YOUR TANKS! HERE WE GO AGAIN!
KILL 2006 AND CHARGE 2007!
HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!
