"And Special Thanks To The Dallas Police Department..."
We celebrated Sparky's birthday last night, and it got me to remembering...
It was a hot and balmy August night in Big D. It was finals week at AID, and the Scosa's needed a passing grade in our favorite class, Intro Humanities, taught by the great and mighty, tree-hugging, hippie-turned-educator, the one and only George DeLuca. Our assignment was simple, create a work of "art." It could be anything. A poster. A painting. A scarf. A poem. A movie...
You see where this is heading, don't you?
Well, Sparky was (and still is) an aspiring young filmmaker, and he had a "brilliant" idea for a short film. As this was 1992, and a certain "dark knight" had just "returned" to the silver screen, and...God, it hurts to even write this...and, well, he did have the big rubber bat-suit hanging in his closet. Don't ask. It's better you don't know why.
Anyway, Sparks had access to...well, to the roof of the Tom Thumb that he worked at. To make a long story only slightly shorter, Sti-Fu and I found ourselves dressed out in black with leather jackets and prop machine guns.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Jos, why on earth would you and Sti-Fu, seemingly intelligent and responsible adults, go out of your way to involve yourselves in such a ridiculous endeavor? Weren't warning signs flashing in your heads?"
Well...I...yeah. I got nothing. Just stupid, I guess. Happens to the best of us.
So, it's around 10:15 PM on a Tuesday night, and our little band of gorilla filmmakers are on the roof setting up a shot. My character, Spike, was positioned on the opposite end of the scene, so I have a better view of the parking lot below us. As I'm waiting for my close-up, I notice what I first take to be a red strobe light out of the corner of my eye. My curiosity stroked, I glance down to street level and feel my blood turn to ice water. There's a cop car with it's flashers on.
I'm just about to say something when a large spotlight turns on behind me and I hear a rather loud voice behind me shout: "You! In the leather jacket! Drop your weapon and lie down on your stomach with your arms above your head!"
The voice didn't sound like Sparky's.
Some 10 minutes later, we're down in the parking lot with some 15 cop cars and more police officers I've ever seen in my life. Turn's out that while Sparky did work at Tom Thumb, he didn't work at the one we were currently jumping around the roof of with very realistic looking guns. Now, he and the owner had made an arrangement at some point in the past, but nothing was ever confirmed. At least not for that night.
Now, as bad as it was for Sti and myself, hot Texas night wearing leather and all black, I somehow think Sparky had it worse. You see, he was still in the bat-suit.
I'll give you a moment to let that mental image set in.
Yeah, for the next 3 hours everyone had pictures taken and "Hey, boys, we just captured the Batman," became a mantra we couldn't escape.
While we didn't go to jail that night (I can only imagine what would have become of Sparky in holding) it did make for a long drive home.
We did finish the film, and Sparks made an "A" I believe. (Sti-Fu and I had to make our own projects as the movie only counted for Sparky) And we made sure to add a special "thank you" to the credits...
Happy B-Day, Sparky!
-Jos
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." ~Albert Einstein
It was a hot and balmy August night in Big D. It was finals week at AID, and the Scosa's needed a passing grade in our favorite class, Intro Humanities, taught by the great and mighty, tree-hugging, hippie-turned-educator, the one and only George DeLuca. Our assignment was simple, create a work of "art." It could be anything. A poster. A painting. A scarf. A poem. A movie...
You see where this is heading, don't you?
Well, Sparky was (and still is) an aspiring young filmmaker, and he had a "brilliant" idea for a short film. As this was 1992, and a certain "dark knight" had just "returned" to the silver screen, and...God, it hurts to even write this...and, well, he did have the big rubber bat-suit hanging in his closet. Don't ask. It's better you don't know why.
Anyway, Sparks had access to...well, to the roof of the Tom Thumb that he worked at. To make a long story only slightly shorter, Sti-Fu and I found ourselves dressed out in black with leather jackets and prop machine guns.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Jos, why on earth would you and Sti-Fu, seemingly intelligent and responsible adults, go out of your way to involve yourselves in such a ridiculous endeavor? Weren't warning signs flashing in your heads?"
Well...I...yeah. I got nothing. Just stupid, I guess. Happens to the best of us.
So, it's around 10:15 PM on a Tuesday night, and our little band of gorilla filmmakers are on the roof setting up a shot. My character, Spike, was positioned on the opposite end of the scene, so I have a better view of the parking lot below us. As I'm waiting for my close-up, I notice what I first take to be a red strobe light out of the corner of my eye. My curiosity stroked, I glance down to street level and feel my blood turn to ice water. There's a cop car with it's flashers on.
I'm just about to say something when a large spotlight turns on behind me and I hear a rather loud voice behind me shout: "You! In the leather jacket! Drop your weapon and lie down on your stomach with your arms above your head!"
The voice didn't sound like Sparky's.
Some 10 minutes later, we're down in the parking lot with some 15 cop cars and more police officers I've ever seen in my life. Turn's out that while Sparky did work at Tom Thumb, he didn't work at the one we were currently jumping around the roof of with very realistic looking guns. Now, he and the owner had made an arrangement at some point in the past, but nothing was ever confirmed. At least not for that night.
Now, as bad as it was for Sti and myself, hot Texas night wearing leather and all black, I somehow think Sparky had it worse. You see, he was still in the bat-suit.
I'll give you a moment to let that mental image set in.
Yeah, for the next 3 hours everyone had pictures taken and "Hey, boys, we just captured the Batman," became a mantra we couldn't escape.
While we didn't go to jail that night (I can only imagine what would have become of Sparky in holding) it did make for a long drive home.
We did finish the film, and Sparks made an "A" I believe. (Sti-Fu and I had to make our own projects as the movie only counted for Sparky) And we made sure to add a special "thank you" to the credits...
Happy B-Day, Sparky!
-Jos
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." ~Albert Einstein
posted by Josh at
9:35 AM
1 Comments:
The best part of that night was after the cops left and we were in the the car, I broke the tension by saying "that was awesome!" and i remeber clearly getting the back seat josh comment of..."FUCK YOU GUYS!"....awesome...and embarresing..but awesome. the story has finally been told!!!
P.S i have told mark on repeatedly that he needs to break out the video of that once in a lifetime video shoot...he still has it...somewhere. Ah goodtimes!:) JOSH YOU RULE!!!
Stifu
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