So we're off to NY tomorrow for Thanksgiving weekend. We're a little freaked out at the thought of driving up on the busiest travel day with the probability of snow, but it should be fun. This will be the first chance for my family to see the completed film. Also tonight, we're going to see the Strokes! I'm very psyched for that show. Jimmy Fallon is the opening act which ought to be pretty funny. Probably no updates here until Monday, so have a great weekend and holiday!

Happy birthday Jenna and Barbara! Yep, the Bush twins turned 21 today and I suspect their secret service agents are already scraping them off the floor of some Georgetown bar. And I wonder what their dear cousin Noelle got them for their birthday. With a daddy like theirs, they'll need all the booze they can get their hands on. And in other news today, our good buddy Rick Santorum is an even bigger dick than we've given him credit for!

Cool Blog Alert: Marjon and Ivon, my pals from way back in the old usenet days, just started their own blog. They're Dutch, but not to worry, their blog is in English.

3 more screenings have just been added to the Art-o-Matic schedule! If you missed the Premiere, you have 3 more chances to see it for free before we go exclusively to theaters. Your options are 8pm, Wed, Nov 27 or 4pm Fri and Sat, Nov 29-30. I unfortunately will not be able to make it, but Elizabeth will be hosting these screenings. You can download a flyer for this encore run right here. In other screening news, Washington Interns Gone Bad was entered into the Nodance Film Festival today!

We all gotta duck when the shit hits the fan! Play this hilarious Flash game. Link via metafilter.

This blog was just reviewed by Bloggy Opinions and I'm very happy to say that I got a positive review! Anyone coming from that site, please feel free to say hello in the comments.

Cool DC Blog alerts: First up, Matt Croydon, younger brother to Washington Interns Gone Bad star, Elizabeth Croydon. He has a pretty cool tech oriented blog here. I've only met Joanne once and very briefly but she's been a supporter of this film from early on and has a very interesting mostly political blog. I also came across Missy's blog from Freakgirl's list (I actually met the fabulous Freakgirl years ago on a usenet group), and she usually has interesting stories, cool pictures and excellent tastes in music and film. But I always have to avert my eyes from her Sopranos spoilers. And last but not least, we've got Matt Bradley who I've met through the IMC / 942 house / DC Blog list circles. He does a lot of reporting for indymedia and his blog has a lot of things about that. They're all in my cool blogs list now, so check them out!

I did another google search for "Washington Interns Gone Bad" today and found a couple of new ones. Besides the expected hits in my friends' blogs, there's a quick blurb in the City Paper for films playing this weekend. I also found it mentioned in some online chat on Washington Post's site. So as to save you from having to find one little blurb in a big long chat, here's what they said: "One of the indie films screening on Friday is the vastly over-hyped "Washington Interns Gone Bad." It is notable only for it's sheer persistency." Oh, if they think it's overhyped now, wait till they see what we still have up our sleaves. Mwah ha ha!

Just posted the first half of Jello Biafra audio here. It's 74 minutes, 35mb mp3 file and he talks about Bush, Iraq, homeland security and the other Dead Kennedys lawsuits against him. I'll try to have the second half sometime soon. We're on our way to hit Art-o-Matic soon so we can do some volunteer hours. It should be a fun chance to network and see more cool stuff.

The premiere completely rocked, but what many don't know is that it almost didn't happen. Last night I set the letterboxing to render out and it seemed to work nicely until I started dumping it back to the camera and it started glitching on me a little past the halfway point. This has never happened on my one good firewire drive, so I figured it probably could use a defrag. I'd say that the drive was probably a solid 80% fragmented, so it took over 2 hours to defrag. Then I went to start up full letterboxed film and the preview files that took all night and most of the morning to render were gone. At this point we were only 4 hours before run time. I had a full on freakout over it (I have to buy a new mouse today). Now, the other tape of the film was the work print that we finished last month to get into art-o-matic, and since then we've added effects, music and even a few new shots, so I really didn't want to have to show the old one that we had already shown to people. So in order to make it to the premiere on time, I only had one chance to successfully dump something to tape. I was able to get an un-letterboxed version on tape successfully and we got there about 15 minutes before we were supposed to start. It was a full house and then some. People were sitting on the floor and standing in the back. People who got there just a little late couldn't even get in because it was so packed. We got up and did a little intro with Britannia the Cheerleader, Karen holding up a press kit, Elizabeth holding up her lunchbox and me explaining the lack of letterboxing. Anne and I didn't even get seats. We stood in the back near the keg. It really went over well. People were laughing pretty hard throughout, in all the right places and in some surprising places. Many of the cast brought their parents, and all the parents loved it. The whole thing was just so exhilarating. Afterwards we did a short Q&A, schoozed with the fans and had a last couple of drinks at Capitol Lounge where we could laugh at all the real hill rats. It was an incredible experience. We were beyond capacity and Art-o-Matic was buzzing about it all night. Karen Zamperini needs a shoutout for getting there early and setting up as well as buying the keg (which surprisingly got completely kicked in a very short period of time). We were supposed to get there early, too, but getting the film done wound up coming completely down to the wire. Thanks to everyone who came, and those who weren't able to make it will have more opportunities soon which will be posted here and on the film site.

So tonight I had a unique opportunity to have dinner with one of my heroes.I had gone to see Jello Biafra speak tonight only planning on having a minute of facetime and give him a press release, much like with Jim Hightower yesterday and Bill Maher last week (did I even mention that here?). But I got to the church about an hour early and he was wanting to get food before he went on and I offered to take him someplace. So at first I was a bit starstruck and I started us walking up 14th toward U St. instead of over Mass toward Dupont and I forgot that there was such a long stretch of noplace decent to eat, so we wound up walking all the way over to the Luna cafe over on P and he was getting increasingly concerned that we wouldn't make it in time. I did my best to make sure we got there only minutes late. So over dinner we talked about some of my less than pleasant experiences working at the DNC, including how I would play his MP3s about Tipper Gore in my cubicle. I mentioned that I wrote to him when I was 13 and my mom was going postal on me over being punk and how he was public enemy number one in my house. We talked about San Francisco and the lack of jobs and affordable housing which has me scared to death of moving there so soon. The lawsuits with the other three members of the Dead Kennedys were mentioned. We got back to the church only minutes late and he spoke for the next two hours solid (which I recorded on minidisk and will post somewhere within the next couple of days). The topic was with a few little tangents in other directions, war with Iraq, and Jello was as inspiring as ever.

Just one more day. Things are coming together beautifully. I just got the last of the effects shots in, I'm getting the sound mix shortly, and I'll put it all together and letterbox it tonight! Art-o-Matic is covered with our full color posters (thanks to Sarah Kroloff for making them and Karen Zamperini for postering them) and Anne is baking an incredible cake which will be decorated with our film logo. It's been a very long and sometimes stressfull process, but it all culminates tomorrow. There probably won't be any posts until after the premiere. And in case you missed it before, here are all the details you need to know... WHEN: 8pm (get there early though - it's going to be packed) WHERE: Art-o-Matic's Transfer Theater (401 M St SW - take the green line to Waterfront Metro and follow the signs for Art-o-Matic) HOW MUCH: Free! Refreshments will be provided and cast and crew will be available after 6pm for interviews and schmoozing. See you there!

OK, just 2 more days to go until the big premiere and my head is pounding from lack of sleep and no lack of stess. Things are falling into place very nicely though. I got the sound mix and there's some incredible new incidental music and sound effects thanks one of the John G's. After a little tweaking it'll be perfect. Now I'm waiting for one last effects shot from the other John G and then the letterboxing will begin. On the press end of things, Elizabeth has been burning the midnight oil with Adam Eidinger at the Mintwood Media Collective to put together a press list, and I managed to put our press kit into the hands of Jim Hightower today! Tomorrow Jello Biafra gets one and maybe I'll get a good night of sleep tonight for the first time this week.

Well, things are moving along nicely. We expect to be done with our press kits tonight, and I hope to get to hear the new sound mix tomorrow. We're also going to be whipping up a press release to blast fax out all over the Hill. Tuesday night both trailers and the 6 minute behind the scenes featurette will be shown at Visions for the IMC Newsreel, and it's going up before Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election. That's 2 shows, 7pm and 9:30, which should be packed houses of potential fans! Yippee!

Oh my god, we're FUCKED! The republicans now controll all three branches of our government. What's going to come first, the war, the depression, or the police state? As if we weren't already becoming the laughingstock of the world just based on Bush's illegitimate "presidency." Now he's unchecked. His court appointees alone will ruin this country for generations. Folks, Canada has never looked better.

Halloween pictures are finally scanned and posted.

Last night Anne and I saw Auto Focus. It was very well done. Greg Kinnear was great as Bob Crane and Wilem Dafoe was at his creepiest. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that made sex seem as downright icky as this one.

Hey, it's election day. Get out there and vote, dammit! You still have time to help stick a sock in Bush's agenda before it's too late.

I just love merchandising! We now have an official Washington Interns Gone Bad THONG!

Remeber SaveKaryn.com? You know, that girl who racked up a big credit card debt and then asked people to send her money? It looks like she's opened up the floodgates for people looking for a handout online, like this woman who wants people to chip in to buy her some breast implants. $10 gets you before and after pictures.

Got to go over to Art-o-matic for a bit tonight. I was going to see A Cricket in Times Square. John, one of 2 guitarist/singers in the band, used to be in Dirtpach with me and Russ. I got to see a bunch of folks who I haven't seen since back when Dirtpatch used to play at the same parties as these guys' bands in this basement in College Park. It's good to see that all these guys are still making really good music together in different incarnations. I thought they'd be going on much earlier so I didn't actually get to hear them play, so hopefully I will soon. Anne, Karen and I spent the afternoon in my office working more on the press kits. They're coming along nicely. I'll be getting the first reel back from John, our sound guy, within the next couple of days. I can't wait to hear it!

Just got back from the movies. We saw Frida and it was really good! Frida Kahlo led such an interesting life that it must have been really hard to get it all into one film, but they managed to not only tell a pretty good chunk of it as well as really visually representing the spirit of her art. The rest of the day was pretty good too. I woke up pretty early and somewhat hung over from the party last night. I had fun, though it turned out to be more of a dance party than a glam rock party and my dj-ing was revolted against the second I played something with guitars in it. Some pushy little chickie came up to me while I was playing Mr. Brownstone, pushed past me to look through my records and said "this music sucks." I wanted to strangle her. Then she came back and bitched some more. I mean, I was asked to come play rock and roll. Who the fuck is this disrespectful little twit? Why do people have to suck so hard? So I just let other people spin and that's when I started to really enjoy myself. The DC blog crowd was well represented by Zoe, Matt, Joanne and at least a couple of others who I can't seem to recall at the moment.

It's official, I am the world's biggest dumbass. So I'm over at my friends' house helping set up the sound for tonight's party and I see Zoe's keys with what I thought was a laser pointer on them. So I think to myself "cool, let's check out the laser pointer." I push the little thingee on the back and nothing happens. Then I see a little plastic slide thingee on it. "Hhhhmmmm, this laser pointer has a safety on it so it doesn't go off in your pocket. Well let's just slide that and push the little button." Instead of a laser, a small spray came out. Yes, this was mace. Not pepperspray but the real deal chemical fucking MACE. Let me tell you something about that stuff... a little dab will do ya. We had to open windows and get a fan blowing out just to stop from gagging. And now I feel like the world's biggest moron. When I told Anne about it, she said "That is just so like you." Indeed.

Art-o-Matic is extremely cool! We went last night for the opening/halloween party and it was killer. We saw the 942 Westminster group house installation, drank a bunch of Guiness and Jim Beam, saw lots of great costumes and cool folks, and also saw the theater where we'll be premiering!!! Today I'm working on getting some flyers printed and then going over to 942 to help set up for tonight's glam rock party.