Sundance Stories Part II

My first night in town I had dinner with Lisa and Margaret. We discussed things of my generation: politicks, music, emo and, of course, myspace. Lisa then asked me to help her run the podcast project, a joint venture between Stella Artois and Park City Television. I was excited because doing Internet fun things like this is right up my alley. Let me be clear, at no point was me being on camera discussed as an option. I woke up the day after the screech incident at 7:30 and came downstairs to get some coffee. It is worth mentioning that Margaret (remember, she is the awesome lady I'm staying with) only makes coffee that is extra strong. So strong in fact that Lisa has been known to water her down. One cup of Margaret's coffee has me bouncing off the walls off 4 hours of sleep. Clayton and I drop the ladies off at various places and head to the tent. Clayton drops me, and heads off on a swag hunt…he cracked me up with this endless pursuit of freebies. At the tent I do a couple things, there was always lots to do, and wait for the sprint camera crew to arrive as they were doing interviews at the tent during the late morning and early afternoon. While standing outside smoking a cigarette and talking to Dingo the door guy (no Jaime, he didn't eat my baby) I see a very familiar face on the sidewalk. I can't place him so I walk back inside. Clayton returns from an unsuccessful attempt to break into the Fred Segal lounge. Classic.
Shortly after, the PCTV marketing boss Stacey and her assistant Emily show up at the tent. We discuss plans for each of the podcast and set up a time for the camera crew to be there, 4pm. The ladies leave and we go back to setting up. I eat by grazing…basically. I continually steal bites from the backroom where the hors d'oeuvres are being made.
Blah, blah, blah until the crew shows up. We head to the streets to celebri-stalk for people to be in our podcasts, but we're also looking for cool people. We get two cute snowboarders from Hawaii, the "U-pick" superhero from Nickelodeon, and Schuyler Fisk (of Snow Day, Orange County and The Baby Sitters Club), plus some other people on the street. Then I see the guy from the tent again. Clayton erupts in hysterics. "Get him! It's Donkey Lips!" I run across the busy Main Street and up to Donkey Lips and his friends. "Excuse me, do you want to be in our podcast?" After I explain to him who I am and what we're doing, he agrees. We go back across the street and he shoots the podcast. It's basically an elaboration on the Sundance mantra for this year "Focus on Film." Do I feel like a hypocrite preaching no swag, while at the same time accepting it? NO. But that's because I don't make millions of dollars a year and whore myself out for free IPOD's. Besides, I gave away all the free stuff. After we're done shooting Clayton and I start talking to Mike, his real name, and his buddies. We invite them to the Stella Artois patio to drink and offer to put them on the list for the next day, they accept. We head back to the tent. Unfortunately, being 19, Clayton can't come in the tent with me. I drink two beers and eat hors d'oeuvres. The regular portion of the tent closes at 7. Clayton, Lisa, Margaret and I stick around while Simon Townshend performs to a packed tent. He's Pete Townshend's brother and now tours with The Who. His son, Ben (who is a super hottie) performs with him. They do an amazing job and the music is really good. After the show, Julie (Simon's publicist, whom Clayton had struck a conversation with earlier) gets us in to see Simon and we thank him and take pictures with him. People stay and drink another hour or so. I meet Chris Mulkey (look him up on http://www.imdb.com/, he's been in everything) who is there promoting the documentary Nanking. He gives me his card, which is pretty cool looking, and we take a picture. The conversation goes like this:

Chris: So now I live in Louisiana and play my music.
Me: You should make a myspace page.
Chris: Oh yeah? I've heard about that. I have a friend whose page has all kinds of stuff on it.
Me: Yeah, mine is like that too. I have a slideshow and a background.
Chris: When you email me the picture, you should email me the name of your Webmaster.
Me: Um, I'M my Webmaster.
Chris: Well then you should set it up for me.
Me: Yeah ok

Man myspace is funny. Emily calls and says that the footage from the entire podcast is blurry and unusable. She promises to get man on the street shots of people saying focus on film and get it to us for the podcast. As I'm walking out Julie stops me. She thanks me for my enthusiasm and tells me to keep an eye out for Simon stuff. I tell her to make him a myspace page. We talk about it for a while. Ok, so yeah, I'm pretty much always pushing myspace on people that don't have it. So what? It's a great way to get things done. Besides, the more non-perverts or skanky 14 year olds there are, the more legitimate myspace becomes. She gives me her card and tells me to call her when I come to LA. I thank her and say good-bye. At this point, I'm thinking "Yeah right I'll ever come to LA."
Clayton and I go back to the house, drink and eat.

I know this one is a little short, but this was a relatively short day.