An Industry of Cool: The Almost Famous Moment I Almost Had

An Industry of Cool: The Almost Famous Moment I Almost Had

I’m on the road a lot commuting to work. Two hours in the morning. Two hours in the evening. I have a ton of stuff on my video Ipod. Episodes of “The Office”, “Lost”, “The West Wing”. Lately, I’ve been listening to a podcast called the Slash Filmcast which is a couple guys talking about movies. What they’ve been watching, film news and then into an in depth review of one movie per week. With a lot of my movie friends moving off, the fellowship has broken. This has been a great way to get my movie fix. This is the best podcast that doesn’t have Ricky Gervais involved.
Since March, the Filmcast has been playing on the Ipod more than anything else. David Chen is one of the moderators of the show and every once in a while, he says what his AIM screen name is and to give him a shout if you want. I wrote it down this last week. I added him to my buddy list. Later that night, I saw he was online. I didn’t want to come off as a stalker ala Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” or creepy like Jim Carrey’s “Cable Guy” but I wanted to say something.
“Is this Dave from the Slashfilm cast?” I asked.
“Yup” he typed back.
“I just wanted to drop you an IM to tell you I really love the podcast,” I said.
“Who’s this?” he said
“My name is Scotty. I live in Texas. I send you guys email from time to time. I have a tough commute to work every day. Two hours both ways. I put the podcast on my Ipod and listen to you guys a majority of the trip the last few months.”
“That’s awesome man. Glad we’re able to help in some small way,” he said.
I kind of geeked out on the next line and revealed my inner fanboy.
“You and Devindra (other guy on podcast) are awesome. Ok, I'm done geeking out, I just think it's cool to talk to you online for a moment,” I said.
“Definitely, no problem, feel free to hit me up anytime,” he said.
I left it at that. I didn’t want to take up his night talking about movies and come on too strong. Maybe I can IM more and talk about films with him sometime when I’ve got something to say. Hopefully the geeky kinks are worked out now.
Apparently, they have listeners all over the world and even have people who donate to help keep the site and the podcast going. I’m sure he has a ton of people talking to him. This guy is off interviewing Rian Johnson and Kevin Smith. Who the hell am I?
In a perfect world though, it would’ve been much cooler. I love movies and discussing them. I would love to do that full time. American dream right? Maybe he would’ve been impressed and put me on the show. Maybe I could write for them. I was hoping the IM conversation would go down a little more like Cameron Crowe’s masterpiece “Almost Famous” about a young teenage rock writer who is looking to break into journalism. He runs into Lester Bangs played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the editor of Cream Magazine. This is what I had hoped went down.

Almost Famous Moment with Dave Chen
Dave: So you’re the guy who's sent me those emails.
Scotty: Yeah. Yeah. I've been doing some stuff for a local underground paper also.
Dave: What are you, the star of your school?
Scotty: They hate me.
Dave: You'll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle. Your writing is damn good. It's just a shame you missed out on Hollywood. It's over.
Scotty: Over?
Dave: It's over. You got here just in time for the death rattle. Last gasp. Last grope.
Scotty: At least I'm here for that.
Dave: What do you type on?
Scotty: Microsoft Word 2003
Dave: And you like Clint Eastwood?
Scotty: The early stuff. In his new stuff, he's trying to be Oscar bait. He should just be himself.
Dave: You take drugs?
Scotty: No.
Dave: Smart kid. I used to do speed. You know, and sometimes a little cough syrup? I'd stay up all night, just writing and writing. I mean, like pages of dribble. You know, about Danny Boyle, or Darren Aronofsky.You know, just to freaking write. All right. It's been nice to meet ya. Keep sending me your stuff. I can't stand here all day iming my many fans.
Scotty: I understand.
(Then we continue to talk.)
Dave: You know, because once you go to L.A., you're gonna have friends like crazy. But they're gonna be fake friends. They're gonna try to corrupt you. You got an honest face, and they're gonna tell you everything. But you cannot make friends with the filmmakers.
Scotty: Is it okay if I-- -
Dave: If you’re gonna be a true journalist--you know, a film journalist--First, you never get paid much. But you will get free DVDS from the movie studios. Geez,nothing about you that is controversial, man. God, it's gonna get ugly, man. They're gonna buy you drinks. You're gonna meet girls, they're gonna fly you places for free, offer drugs. I know it sounds great, but these people are not your friends.These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories...about the genius of movies. And they will ruin films, and strangle...everything we love about it, right? And then it just becomes an industry of cool. I'm telling you, you're coming along at a very dangerous time for movies. That's why I think you should turn, go back, and be a lawyer or something. But I can tell from your face that you won't. I can give you 35 bucks. Give me 1000 words on “Star Trek."
Scotty: An assignment?
Dave: Yeah. You have to make your reputation on being honest...and...you know, unmerciful.
Scotty: Honest. Unmerciful.
Dave: If you get into a jam, you can call me. I stay up late.