Thursday, March 5, 2009

A Thief in the (Oscar) Night




We decided to have an Oscar party at the bar that I have my Band practice (Guitar Hero) every Monday night. It was a good time in spite of the fact the the Oscar show itself was just awful. Who directed that show?! It was a mediocre student production at best. It was all played to the studio audience, but what about the other 700 million of us? I hated watching the clips through a camera looking at a monitor. If I wanted picture-in-a-picture I could do that myself on my own tv. Do you think all those fans around the world watching 13inch tv's (think Slumdog in the ghetto of Mumbai) could read even ONE name in the Memorium section? Please.


The only innovative thing was 
the 5 past Best Acting winners 
each intro-ing one of the 5 nominees. Sophia Loren is still breath-taking! Other than that, fire the director and get a new producer. I'm sure Bob Hope is spinning in his grave--
he IS dead isn't he?


We ordered food: Chinese, Thai, Pizza etc. Drank Oscar inpired named drinks and bet on the results (as we always do). What fun is watching if you don't have a stake in it? Re-claiming her throne as Oscar winning ballot-teer was JAMIE CEASER! Drats, I just missed. I thought I'd have a chance since Raymond was absent and partying in New orleans. It's hard to win if one of the 3 of us are playing. We actually go to SEE the movies!


After the Oscars were over some of us went to the back room to try out a new band--with SINGERS. I decide to take pictures of us playing. I put my camera on the table while I'm playing lead guitar (what else;). When we finish and decide to go to the Wild Hare to hear Gregory Issacs, my camera is gone! I'm told 'there was nobody here but your friends'. Hmm.


Let's back up. Earlier a shady character, aka an attention needy actor, shows up. He walked in totally sober and after 1, count them, 1, drink he was soooo wasted that he couldn't control himself.... See what I mean 'attention needy actor'. And suddenly someone at the bar's iPhone is missing. Maybe he left it over... no he had it at the bar...his buddies search and search as we play Guitar Hero in back, along with drunken actor, who kept f%@king with me while I tried to play. Yes folks I take my games very seriously so don't stand in front of me so I cant see what notes to play when I'm in the middle of a song. Geez. And I don't do needy--EVER

Meanwhile the guys that are searching, call the iPhone and can hear it somewhere muffled in the backroom where we are. They continue to search as we play on. Because I want to play the game and not play with him, the drunk actor tells someone that he doesn't think 'I like him' and leaves for the front room of the bar. Miraculously the iPhone rings louder and suddenly it is sitting between the two rooms on a ledge leading to the front. (Yes, they checked there earlier.) Hmm. 
Okay so my camera is missing with my pictures of me and Melvin Van Peebles from the night before:( We look everywhere, even in the trash and once again I'm told 'only your friends were here.' I'm beginning to hope one of 'my friends' accidently picked it up, but a woman who had been in the backroom (no, not one of my friends) and mentioned that she thought the drunk actor had it. Why? Then it all comes out about the phone and that he had berated the bartender, telling her she was not going to amount to shit because she was a bartender. Then, get this, he took a picture of them and left! 

But even with all this evidence NO one wanted to believe he took it. 

I think the owner of the bar believed it.  He was really angry and  he kept saying that the guy was a scumbag but he never thought...  He also promised to get my camera back or buy me a new one.  A new one won't have my personal pictures on it, it was afterall an 8G card in the camera--that's a lot of pics and info.

Too make a long story short....the next afternoon I received a call asking if any of my friends had returned the camera. Of course not. I was then promised to have my camera returned by the end of the night.  By 10pm my camera was back at the bar.  Seems Mr Needy Actor had indeed taken it.  After someone went to his house, because he wasn't answering the phone, he claims he thought it was his camera (yeah with the girlie strap & case attached to it) and he realized someone else was in the pictures so it must not be his. (He realized this when he got a visit about the camera!)

Why do I tell you this? Because this guy RUNS THE MIDWEST FILM FESTIVAL!!!!  He is a nut and he is dangerous, so watch out. BTW If you find yourself at the Midwest FF keep an eye on all your valuables and hands in pockets.  

Oh yeah, he deleted the pictures he took of the bartenders etc. but he DIDN'T go far enough back and delete the picture I took of him earlier.  So here he is (in the cap, also NOT his) with Michael. If you see him--grab your stuff and RUN.