Month: September 2009

Whip It! Jucket!

Sara 1 Comment

Junket is my new word for the week. I had never even heard of the word (amazingly) until yesterday when I actually went to one in LA for the movie, Whip It! starring Ellen Page and directed by Drew Barrymore.

Yesterday’s junket for Whip It! was a larger-than-life event that took place in the LA Derby Dolls’ Doll Factory in Historic Phillipino Town.

The excitement started out with Har Mar Superstar, aka Sean Tillman, performing the national anthem. I really didn’t pay much attention at the time so I didn’t realize that he was one of the actors in the movie (playing the coach to Juliette Lewis’s team) and that he has a song on the soundtrack called “Never My Love”.

Then the LA Derby Dolls Tough Cookies took the track against the Varsity Brawlers in the most publicized, over-the-top production for a practice bout ever. It was a thrilling bout that included a leg whip by Crissy Crassy and Leguna Beyatch, and at least one skater, Jacq Pot, flying over the rail. They will be playing again this Saturday for their regular season. The Tough Cookies won over Varsity Brawlers, one hundred and something to something less than that. Tough Cookies are currently undefeated, as are The Swarm (San Diego team).

Singer and actor, Landon Pigg, who plays Ellen Page’s boyfriend in the movie, performed the song “Hightimes” from the movie during half time. Again, I really didn’t pay much attention here, I was taking a look at the production booth, watching the emails fly in with questions for Drew.

At the end of the bout, the cast of the movie and Shauna Cross (aka the real Maggie Mayhem), skater and author of the book “Derby Girl” of which the movie is based, came out into the middle of the track for a Q&A session moderated by Axils of Evil, a popular KPCC radio host.

Here is the best photo I could get of the Q&A session with my camera phone right before it ran out of batteries.

Director and actor, Drew Barrymore plus Eve, Alia Shawkat, Landon Pigg, Zoe Bell, Har Mar Superstar, Juliette Lewis, Shauna Cross, Ellen Page along with LA Derby Dolls’ Rachel Piplica (aka the real Iron Maivon) and Kristen Adolfi (aka Crissy Crash) all shared the mic for an inspirational Q&A session. My favorite moment was when Juliette Lewis shared that she really just wants to work on her form (getting low and her starts to be specific).

Over 2,000 people watched the event online at http://www.derbydolls.tv. You can watch the entire event (in two parts) on Justin.tv. Check out some photos from the event HERE.

I managed to walk away from the event with a a prize pack from Fox Searchlight that included promotional items including the soundtrack, the book (renamed to “Whip It!), pins, sweatbands, a cup and a t-shirt. Definitely a sweet package, but no celeb meetings. That’s fine, I would rather see them on the track.

I did find out that the reason that celebs don’t skate is that the insurance with the movie studios doesn’t allow or cover it. I guess Patricia Arquette tried to join LA Derby Dolls in the past.

The Whip It! soundtrack comes out today via Rhino Records and the movie also officially premieres today at the Grauman’s Historic Chinese Theatre.

Writing Like Crazy But You Wouldn’t Know It

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The last few weeks I have started writing just for writing sake. I entered two short stories competitions: Fiction 101 with City Beat and 24 Hour Contest with Writer’s Weekly. City Beat should be publishing the finalists in the next couple weeks and Writer’s Weekly won’t publish their results until almost Halloween. Win or lose, I will post the stories once the results have come in.

Deadlines seem to help drive my imagination, as do word limits. College was great for that. How can I say a sentence the most eloquently or creatively in the least amount of words? I guess that is another reason that I like Twitter. Sometimes it feels like a puzzle, re-arranging words and using the thesaurus to get the right phrase to give the right feeling.

I have always wanted to write a book, but I am a bit of a procrastinator. It is also hard to imagine writing on one subject for 100 plus pages. That is where blogging and short story writing comes in.

Ray Bradbury is my favorite author of all time. Well known for his novels “Fahrenheit 451” and the “Martin Chronicles”, Bradbury composed most of his stories as chapters or short stories to be published in journals (he could make more money that way too). His short stories are descriptive and captivating. The endings are never what you imagine.

He also wrote a book on writing called “Zen and the Art of Writing”. Inspiring, yet simple. He talks about why he writes and where he gets his inspiration from. You can see common threads that run through each of his stories that allow you to see pictures of the whole from only reading pieces.

If you have never read anything of Ray Bradbury’s except for “Fahrenheit 451,” try something new for a change. Here are my favorite novels and short story compilations:

“Dandelion Wine” My favorite novel of all time about a boy and one summer of his life. Horrible description on my part, amazing story from a child’s mind.

“Something Wicked This Way Comes” The carnival comes to town and the dark things that come with it. Again, from a child’s view.

“The Veldt” Short story published in “Illustrator Man” and “The Vintage Bradbury”

“The Small Assassin” Short story published in “Dark Carnival” (Ray Bradbury’s first published book of short stories, now out of print and pricey), “October Country”, “The Vintage Bradbury” and “A Memory of Murder”

“Skeleton” Short story published in “Dark Carnival”, “October Country”, and “The Vintage Bradbury”

“The Gift” Short story published in “A Medicine for Melancholy” and “R is for Rocket”

“The Anthem Sprinters” Short story published in “The Machineries of Joy” and “The Vintage Bradbury”

“Yestermorrow” A collection of essays from Bradbury on projects that he worked on including Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland and the design of Horton Plaza mall. This one is hard to find since it is out of print.