Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere Pics by Steve Puvogel 2

Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere Pics by Carla McDonald

Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere Pics by Steve Puvogel

Angie & The Car Wrecks

Sound Check

Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere Pics by Diane Jacobson

Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere & DVD Release Party

So yesterday we get up relatively early to the sight of gray clouds and rain rain rain. This is not good for a Cruise-In, which is how we were planning on kicking off the Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere. We load up the van and head down to the theater. Several of the Rat Bastards and some Die-Hard Hot Rodders are already there parking their cars. It takes balls to drive an open wheeled, no windshield car in a Northwest rainfest. We set up cars from the movie on the front walk area by the box office and on the front side of the building. My wife, who has become expert at laying out our vendor tables, gets busy setting up our merchandise. We are ready to sell when the theater opens the lounge at 2 PM. Because of the cold rain, the Cruise-In was a bust. Maybe twenty cars total. We had rented the parking lot for the day and night, so at least we all had free parking. Angie & The Car Wrecks and The Hard Money Saints loaded in at 5 PM for sound check. At that time handfuls of people were coming and going, buying drinks in the lounge and asking when the movie started. Steve Puvogel (who plays Officer Dumdown in Rat Rod Rockers!) was busy doing a photo shoot in the parking lot of actress/model Becky Lee. It's for an article I am writing for a national car magazine. Becky also plays Veronika Lakester in Rat Rod Rockers! Several other photographers were snapping pics for other magazines including my buddy Dan Brouillard. The bands started playing at 7:30 PM and the people started crowding the lounge area and theater. Both bands are exceptional and I was glad we landed them for the show. In the lounge we had a big double sized table set-up for the actors to sign posters and DVDs. By 8 PM they were armed with glitter pens and ready to sign! This was the largest gathering of Rat Rod Rockers! cast members we have ever had for any event. Becky Lee flew up from Arizona, Teri Aslett flew up from California and Charles Kittay drove up from Portland, Oregon. It looked awesome seeing them all crowded by friends and fans at the table. After the bands finished, I jumped up on stage for a few minutes to announce the film. I asked the audience if they had any questions about Rat Rod Rockers! and they said they just wanted us to "run the film." So we obliged. The turnout was lighter than the four hundred plus patrons at the Historic Everett Theater, Just over a three hundred people came out to the King Cat Theater. Still it was an exuberant bunch laughing and cheering through much of the film. I love to watch the audience react to my films.

After the  Rat Rod Rockers! credits rolled, Kitty Baby of The Pin-Up Angels and the Emerald Dollies took the stage for the Pin-Up Showcase. Several Burlesque numbers and then a Pin-Up contest with some thirteen contestants. I only got to see part of the show, because I was working the merchandise tables, but some of the gals were total knockouts!

The whole night felt really good. Friends and cool peeps having a good time at a great venue. We may schedule another screening at the King Cat in the near future. The only downer was my Meat Wagon II model car got banged up in transport. I planned on putting it on the merch table to show what new film projects I was working on. The suspension got ripped apart and the leg cutter blade broke in half. Fixable.

This upcoming weekend (April 2nd & 3rd) we will be doing several free showings of Rat Rod Rockers! at the Mild To Wild Car Show in Puyallup, Washington. This is a very big show with all kinds of cars and people.

Meat Wagon II

Took a few more pics of my Meat Wagon II concept model for the Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross photo sets.

Had a heavy dentist appointment today where they pulled four teeth. They did a great job getting all four out in under an hour. These were broken teeth that had to be removed so I could get a partial.

Also getting ready for the big show Saturday at the King Cat Theater. Last minute stuff like setting guest lists and comp tickets and verifying set times for the bands. I think we will have  a decent turn out for this event (he says fingers crossed).

Parking Lot Ducks

During our morning coffee run and for the second day in a row, the Parking Lot Ducks (two males and one female) were sitting on various cars and SUV's in the store parking lot. To be specific the male ducks were sitting on the vehicles, the female was hiding in the bushes. This guy duck I took a picture of was completely unafraid of people. The vehicle roof must have been warm on his flappy webbed feet. Made me smile.

Rest In Peace Elizabeth Taylor

Heard this morning that my favorite actress, who I also share my Birthday with, passed away at age 79. Elizabeth Taylor was many things to many people. In the end- I think it was all good. She has made a permanent impression on this world and will be missed.

Too Much News

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Partial-Meltdowns, Contamination, Revolutions, More Spilled Oil On Beaches. The last few months have been full of bad bad news. Overwhelming.

Fukushima Meltdown

Massive problems in Fukushima Japan as a series of nuclear reactors can't be cooled. Explosions and severe radioactivity in the surrounding areas. This is a mess!

Hohner Melodica

Just took delivery of a Hohner Melodica. Been wanting one of these for a long time. Gonna use it on the next D.A. Sebasstian record "Burnt Orange." Thinking fretless bass, voice, minimal drums, found percussion and the occasional Melodica.

Meat Wagon II

A few more pics of the
Meat Wagon II.

Evil Undead Girlfiend & The Meat Wagon II

 

Finished the 1/25th scale "Meat Wagon II" 1960 Chrysler New Yorker Hearse Gasser for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. The leg cutter blade was a pain in the arse. I used a real Dremel metal cutting blade and various plastic pieces to build it. The idea is the blade pops out from under the Hearse to cut people just above the ankle incapacitating them and enabling Invar (female Igor character) to toss them into the back of her "Meat Wagon II" and then take said potential lab rat into see the good ol' Evil Doctor for a bit of experimentation. I am hoping we can build the real car in the next year or two- if we can finance the film. Also added some basic art work to the Evil Undead Girlfiend website. I am still sorting through all the excellent pictures of Smookie Tiger and Becky Lee that Zombie Crush took last month. Should have some of them up on the website shortly.

Rat Rod Rockers! Advertisements

The Seattle Weekly ads for the Seattle Premiere of Rat Rod Rockers! just hit the web. We are running several weeks of ads online and a small print ad with the Weekly for the event. We also have radio sponsoreship ads hitting KEXP and KGRG in the next week. We didn't have alot of money for advertising the event- but are doing what we can. As an indie-film company you have to maximize your ad dollars and holding an event that also corresponds to (in our case) a DVD Release Party is a two fer situation. You are announcing the event and the release. Four wall screenings can be costly, but with decent grass roots promotion you can get people out to see your little film. Key to this strategy is never letting up with your promotion. You can't just have a four wall and then move on to the next project. I look at promotion in stages. With Rat Rod Rockers! the first stage was the World Premiere in Everett. This opened channels to promoting the film and was the initial push. Four months later we have the second stage which is the Seattle Premiere and DVD Release Party. The third stage is car show vendor booths and event screenings all summer long with the release of a new Black & White version of the film (love the old B&W films). You have to be relentless, because in the world of DIY indie-film making, you can only count on yourself.