Ciro's Birthday Denouement
May. 29th, 2008 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueUp until not-quite-two-years-ago, the number of times Ciro and I were alone together could be counted on one hand. This was clever strategy on my part. There were five exceptions, as far as I can remember.
1. Summer had a birthday party at a bar. Patrick stayed at home for some reason - class the next day, maybe. An enthusiastic bouncer tried to impress his girlfriend by bullying Ciro and Jesse off the city sidewalk. Said girlfriend maced Brent around the same time I was calling the cops. The owner of the bar, and of the bouncer, apologized profusely, offering both drinks and the suggestion that milk helps with mace, but it was an unsatisfactory resolution. Brent, of course, had to go home, and Jesse with him. Ciro and I continued to the bar. My next door neighbor, Meghan, also turned up, and the three of us sat together. She was in a relationship, but was pursuing Ciro anyway. To test the waters, she tried to gauge Ciro's interest in me - to throw me to the sharks, so to speak, in the hopes of revealing that (a) he was flexible about sleeping with women who were involved with other men, and (b) furthermore would throw me over for her. She whispered in his ear that she thought I loved him. He met my eyes and laughed at the absurdity of such a tremendous misreading of the situation.
Later he and I hung out in a dirt parking lot and talked about the general silliness of the world, and then I drove him home.
Oddly enough, this is one of my favorite memories.
2. Everyone else went to the grocery store. We sat around awkwardly.
3. Every year, the Dallas Video Association holds a 24-hour video race. (This is what inspired Film Club: Ciro and I watched the entries of the first one and said "good god, we could make something better in three hours.") We never sign up, because there are steep entry fees - it's basically a fundraiser. And damnit, we don't pay to be allowed to make art according to someone else's specifications. But we still think it's a fun idea and worth supporting, so we volunteer as actors. This time, we were on the same team, and it was a sadly awful film in which we were severely misused. We were, however, cast as a couple because we had "this crazy connection." Somehow, I think the directors thought we didn't already know each other, and had a rapport which they had discovered and perhaps created. In any case, we spent a day mostly hanging out and trying to avoid the harsh Texas sun while the directors were off doing stuff with other characters. Then they bought us Mexican food and we talked about Esperanto. Then I drove him home.
4. Another film, this one for film club. "Through." In some places it's fascinating; in others, it falls down. The requirements were "rejection," "sharpness," and "color symbolism." I was the actor; he was the cameraman. We tried to capture a dream, and the feeling of dream. Most communications were oblique and subliminal.
5. Telephoto. We spent an hour making a very short film - absurdist nouvelle vague. Then we showed it to Chad and REL, who tried to recreate it in an hour after one viewing. Then they showed that to Tom and Patrick, who tried to copy it. In our version, the white wine was made from water and soy sauce, and the long shot lasted 30 seconds. By the end, it was applesauce, the shot was two minutes, and the dog was played by Tom.
--
"Do you find life tiresome?"
"No."
"Let us part."
"That would be best."
- two muffins, in un film d'Amy Winfrey
1. Summer had a birthday party at a bar. Patrick stayed at home for some reason - class the next day, maybe. An enthusiastic bouncer tried to impress his girlfriend by bullying Ciro and Jesse off the city sidewalk. Said girlfriend maced Brent around the same time I was calling the cops. The owner of the bar, and of the bouncer, apologized profusely, offering both drinks and the suggestion that milk helps with mace, but it was an unsatisfactory resolution. Brent, of course, had to go home, and Jesse with him. Ciro and I continued to the bar. My next door neighbor, Meghan, also turned up, and the three of us sat together. She was in a relationship, but was pursuing Ciro anyway. To test the waters, she tried to gauge Ciro's interest in me - to throw me to the sharks, so to speak, in the hopes of revealing that (a) he was flexible about sleeping with women who were involved with other men, and (b) furthermore would throw me over for her. She whispered in his ear that she thought I loved him. He met my eyes and laughed at the absurdity of such a tremendous misreading of the situation.
Later he and I hung out in a dirt parking lot and talked about the general silliness of the world, and then I drove him home.
Oddly enough, this is one of my favorite memories.
2. Everyone else went to the grocery store. We sat around awkwardly.
3. Every year, the Dallas Video Association holds a 24-hour video race. (This is what inspired Film Club: Ciro and I watched the entries of the first one and said "good god, we could make something better in three hours.") We never sign up, because there are steep entry fees - it's basically a fundraiser. And damnit, we don't pay to be allowed to make art according to someone else's specifications. But we still think it's a fun idea and worth supporting, so we volunteer as actors. This time, we were on the same team, and it was a sadly awful film in which we were severely misused. We were, however, cast as a couple because we had "this crazy connection." Somehow, I think the directors thought we didn't already know each other, and had a rapport which they had discovered and perhaps created. In any case, we spent a day mostly hanging out and trying to avoid the harsh Texas sun while the directors were off doing stuff with other characters. Then they bought us Mexican food and we talked about Esperanto. Then I drove him home.
4. Another film, this one for film club. "Through." In some places it's fascinating; in others, it falls down. The requirements were "rejection," "sharpness," and "color symbolism." I was the actor; he was the cameraman. We tried to capture a dream, and the feeling of dream. Most communications were oblique and subliminal.
5. Telephoto. We spent an hour making a very short film - absurdist nouvelle vague. Then we showed it to Chad and REL, who tried to recreate it in an hour after one viewing. Then they showed that to Tom and Patrick, who tried to copy it. In our version, the white wine was made from water and soy sauce, and the long shot lasted 30 seconds. By the end, it was applesauce, the shot was two minutes, and the dog was played by Tom.
--
"Do you find life tiresome?"
"No."
"Let us part."
"That would be best."
- two muffins, in un film d'Amy Winfrey
