“Friend Me,” which is not to say, “be my friend.” It’s something entirely different, something thin, nearly empty but for the wisps of longing which drift into the void via the screen of your phone or computer. Entirely deletable, yet likely the most used phrase being uttered these days, we can’t deny the way “friend me” rings as a sort of Orwellian (of course) simplification of language for people completely dependant upon the little Big Brother in their palms, to whom they’ve offered every piece of themselves.

In wanting to explore the private yet simultaneously public culture of teenagers and young adults, Chicago artist Kathy Halper, mother of two teens, logged on to Facebook, and her exploration yielded a sort of archeological map of modern language and the sensibility and humor of today’s youth. By using appropriated Facebook photos for starting points, the artist creates embroidered drawings of humans partying, talking about sex, and being young and dumb online. Halper then randomly pairs the embroidered drawings with captions from similar social networking sites, and what emerges are these delicate and hand-stitched snapshots, absolute encapsulations of a piece of our culture.

We’re intrigued by the idea that these spontaneously taken photos likely mean nothing to the people in them any longer, just transient images that will eventually disappear; yet embroidering such transience  - setting it down in cloth – gives a historical weight and permanence to the fleeting moment.

From top to bottom:

Danceaholics – 19.5″ x 19″; FU – 18″ x 18″; Karaoke – 19.5″ x 19″; all embroidery on linen.

See more Halper embroideries in the grippinglyauthentic! gallery.

Anything happen while we were away?

(Please enjoy this drawing by Chicago artist/curmudgeon pundit-in-the-making Russ White, recently commissioned to make art for the Village Voice due to the excellence you’re currently feasting your eyes upon.)

“…the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth’s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor.”

- Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”

- John F. Kennedy

“…every citizen of the republic ought to consider himself an unofficial policeman, and keep unsalaried watch and ward over the laws and their execution.”

- Mark Twain, Traveling With a Reformer

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Meat Loaf Train and Curly Franks. You know, for kids.

Done the right way.

We received an intriguing email the other day warning us about a hoax for the new iPhone 4CF, which is free of conflict minerals. Upon further investigation we were led to a website that brilliantly and flawlessly spoofed Apple’s site, introducing a “new” iPhone 4. As it turns out, this email didn’t come from Apple, but from the creators of the hoax itself. The fake site presented information on conflict minerals and instructions for exchanging your phone for a new “better world,” as well as encouragement to make a citizens arrest of heads of  mining companies “that have been implicated in pillaging the resources of the Congo and fueling the conflict in the Congo over the past 14 years.”

We linked the photo of the nonexistent phone to the website – it was top-drawer activism and someone clearly put a great deal of work into it – but just two days later the site disappeared. (Luckily, religionandtechnology.com had the foresight to take screen shots of all the pages before the site went dark.) The iPhone 4CF and subsequent website is yet another gem from The Yes Men, who have now posted links to more information on Twitter. Along with their hijacking of the Chevron “We Agree” campaign, which has received more media attention than Chevron’s actual campaign, The Yes Men are very busy indeed. These guys deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for their tireless, breathtaking and hilarious work in all areas of activism. Recently we encountered a man sitting on a street corner shouting “If you want peace, fight for justice,” which could easily be a tenant of The Yes Men, and… We Agree.

Are we suggesting that you give up your iPhone or any of the other gadgets that contain conflict minerals? No. We are, after all, users of this technology ourselves – at least until we figure out how to transmit our weblog directly to your minds. We are simply passing on information that isn’t exactly at the forefront of everyone’s attention. As Nicholas D. Kristof says in his Op-Ed piece : ”It’s not that American tech companies are responsible for the slaughter, or that eliminating conflict minerals from Americans’ phones will immediately end the war. Even the Enough Project, an anti-genocide organization that has been a leading force in the current campaign, estimates that only one-fifth of the world’s tantalum comes from Congo.” But awareness is a step toward solution. There simply has to be a better way. We should all know where the products that are a part of our everyday lives come from, what the impact is, and what it means to our future and our past.

A man is overtaken by the urge to not only wear his mother-in-law’s vintage red jump suit, but compelled – once in this horribly ill-fitting monstrosity – to give himself over to a dance the likes of which you’ve never seen before, leaving him a spastic gibberish-spitting blank-eyed ball of confusion and, well, rapture. He doesn’t know why The Delicious makes him happy, but it does, and he can’t help but let his bliss overtake him and his “normal” life.

Scott Prendergast, the writer/director/star of  The Delicious, commits so completely to what he’s doing in front of the camera that you can’t help but experience some measure of the same confounding joy his character feels in the jumpsuit. As soon as it ended – our mouths still open – we knew that Prendergast was someone to keep our eyes on.

After seeing a few more short films by Prendergast, two years later his first feature was released, in which he starred alongside Lisa Kudrow, Teri Garr and Chris Parnell. The film, Kabluey, showcased some of the trademark strange we came to know and love from Prendergast’s earlier work, and introduced us to even more idiosyncratic behavior, inspiring the question finally: who the hell is this guy?

He agreed to shed a little light on the mystery for us…

grippinglyauthentic: So, since we first saw you on Wholphin with The Delicious, let’s start there. Before anything else, though, we want to say that you were absolutely and magnetically odd in the film. Even after multiple viewings, the film still pops.

Scott Prendergast: Hey thank you!

ga: We couldn’t take our eyes off how absolute the obsession with the red jumpsuit appeared in your eyes, nor could we deny a certain vacancy in your eyes as well, nearly Zen in how consumed you were with this one thing. It made us wonder what in your life is equal to The Delicious? Is there something which compels you – perhaps beyond reason at times – the way the jumpsuit and dance compelled the character? What exactly do you know about obsession, and how personal is that knowledge?

(See part 2 of The Delicious here.)

SP: Hmm… Well, that’s a good question. I have been obsessed with a number of things throughout my life. And some of those obsessions have taken on a similar manic tone: I see something – I can’t resist it – I can’t stop thinking about it – I obsess over it. Here is a short list:

• French fries
• The Muppets
• Teri Garr
• Rear Window
• Tin Tin
• Paint samples
• Bruce Jay Friedman
• Japan
• The Wizard of Oz / Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon combo

Of those items – I’d say only the Muppets drove me to distraction. When I was a kid I was so obsessed with the Muppets that I would get in trouble at school for making lists of Muppets instead of paying attention in class. In fact when “The Art of the Muppets” exhibit came to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the woman in charge of the exhibit called me and said, “Hi, I heard about you – this weird kid obsessed with the Muppets – would you like to work here and do demonstrations?” It was one of the greatest things that had ever happened to me.

As a kid, it seemed to me that the Muppets were speaking TO ME. That there was a greater mystery at work in my life and if I paid attention I would someday find myself working with Jim Henson – or somehow involved with the Muppets. I used to play daily games where I would imagine that the world was offering up clues and that if I could decipher them, they would lead me to NYC and to the Muppets. It was a mystery only I saw and there was a massive pressure to figure it out.

I sometimes planned to run away (from Portland) to NYC to find the Muppets. When I was in college in NYC I used to go by the Henson Associates brownstone on the upper east side and lie, “Hi, I’m here for the internship?” – which sadly never led anywhere. Although one day I did in fact run into Jim Henson – face to face bump. Unfortunately I was so star-struck I couldn’t say anything, and then two weeks later he DIED!

Anyway, that’s probably the closest I’ve come to Delicious-level obsessions. But I think The Delicious is a little more insidious. That guy is obsessed but it’s a very dark, horrible obsession. He realizes that he is drawn to this item but he knows that it is wrong – that it is going to ruin/change/destroy his life. And yet he still can’t stop himself. Something larger is being revealed to him – he is discovering a whole new life – a new way of being. And even if it doesn’t make any sense, he has to go with it. It’s awful really. At least, it will be awful until he figures it out. I’ve felt that in my life too. But it was less about obsession and more about facing different truths.

(Also, sadly, I was so obsessed with French fries that I used to lie in bed and imagine that every flat surface in my room was covered with baskets of French fries and the garbage can was filled with ketchup and I would have to eat my way out of the room.)

ga: We’re curious what kind of truths you’ve faced which have ultimately improved your life, or perhaps lead to new and unexpected and maybe wonderful things, despite how hard those truths might have been at the time?

SP: Hard to answer that one. I think I knew all along that I was different in many ways. I knew I wasn’t going to have a typical career. I wasn’t going to work in an office for years and get married and have kids. And it was sad and hard to realize that an unconventional life is harder. But I knew I wanted to pursue unusual things and I had to go down this road. Who knows.

ga: Is there a new Delicious in your life right now, something undeniable that you’re pursuing?

Scott Prendergast: Sadly at this time in my life my Delicious is white cheddar cheese popcorn. I am thinking about it ALL THE TIME and hunting it down at ALL TIMES. Really.

ga: How did the film end up on Wholphin?

SP: The Onion had a film screening in NYC and somehow they asked to use Anna Is Being Stalked. And then I guess Wholphin contacted them and they said “call S.P.” One of those random connections. So when they called I offered them The Delicious. (Anna was tied up with the Sundance Channel at the time.) It turned out to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. The film got seen EVERYWHERE because of Wholphin. People still stop me on the street and ask, “Are you The Delicious?”

ga: Can you talk about how the story was developed? (Long nights writing in solitude? Getting slobbering drunk with friends? Slow evolution over time?)

SP: It just popped into my head all at once. It was on the set of Anna Is Being Stalked (And when I say the set I mean my friend’s living room on the coldest day of the year. And there, 10 unpaid friends hanging around eating pizza). I just started talking about a man in a red pantsuit and somehow this was destroying his marriage. Aren’t Pat and Christine AMAZING in The Delicious? And Mary and Bryan and the whole cast really. Everyone was SO GOOD! I think the original idea for the movie was more about the marriage and the disintegration. But it sort of became more about the suit and this guy’s deteriorating mental health. Or just his desperation really. It was one of those ideas you get and you latch onto it and hang on until you’ve done something with it. I couldn’t let go. The Delicious was my personal Delicious. I had to get it made – had to do something with that idea. When we were shooting the therapy scene we didn’t have time to rehearse – we just rushed everybody into the room and I started doing the dance. And Christine (who had not yet seen any of the movie) thought it was the weirdest thing she had ever seen. She and Pat were laughing in horror for a long time. Which worked perfectly for the movie.

(The guy in yellow and I spent an afternoon trying to come up with the dance – and we stood around in my apartment doing it – and it was so weird and surreal we kept having to stop and laugh and take a break.)

ga: Is there a Delicious Fan Club, and if not, can we start recruiting people?

SP: Ha. I don’t think there’s anything official. But I do enjoy it when people stop me on the street to ask nervously if I am the guy from The Delicious. It leads to a lot of interesting discussions. People REALLY respond to that movie on a DEEP level. It’s very gratifying. VERY VERY gratifying. In fact every time it happens I think to myself “I can die happy now.” Really.

ga: Does the story extend beyond what was filmed? In other words, did you envision what might have happened after the man in red and the man in yellow finally disappeared? Did they connect? Did they find others? What was next?

SP: There were going to be two more films – making a Delicious trilogy. We still might make them someday. The man in red will go home with the man in yellow – where he meets a man in green. And then there are some other people. The 3rd piece is called The Delicious, Inc. and it involves many of the characters from part one. Maybe I’ll get someone to animate the stories. I don’t know – I don’t want to disappoint people who like the first film.

ga: Would you care to elaborate on some of your other short-listed obsessions?

SP: Rear Window – I just think it’s the greatest film ever made. The plot and the construction are so genius. Every neighbor is a variation on love. And when she finds the ring it’s doubly important because she wants to get married – but also it means the wife is alive. A BRILLIANT story. Amazing.

Bruce Jay Friedman – The first book of his that I read was The Current Climate and I had never read a TONE like that. It was so unusual. Comic and sad. This guy was pathetic and he felt everything so strongly – so much pain – but the world was absurd, everyone was ridiculous. But he was experiencing it all so seriously. I put down that book and said “I just found my favorite author.” My favorite book (of his and of all time) is Stern.

Paint samples – Don’t know what to say. As a kid I was obsessed with rainbows and now I am obsessed with colors, which is ironic if you could see my apartment – it’s all WHITE! I am a hard-core minimalist. But I love color! I guess the bedroom is colorful. That’s where I put 600 stolen paint samples on one wall. It looks incredible.

ga: Now that we know you’re mad for Muppets, it might be difficult to avoid drawing parallels between the fuzzy puppets and your work; for example, the way you move in The Delicious or Anna Is Being Stalked almost suggests a certain manipulated quality, as if you’re not entirely in control, a puppet yourself. Or the distant gaze you’ve mastered which perfectly embodies perplexity and is not unlike the plastic-eyed stare of a Muppet… Can you cite the influence of the Muppets in any of your work?

SP: The most obvious influence would probably be the Kabluey suit. It’s made of the same fabric they make Kermit out of, Antron. And when I described the suit I would always say it should be soft and fuzzy like Kermit or Ernie but less fuzzy than Cookie Monster.

ga: Given the chance to speak with Jim Henson, what would you say?

SP: I’d probably want to talk to him about letting me make a short film with Muppets or something. Anything to be involved with them, to get to work with him. I’ve had an idea for a short Muppet film for a long time, but it’s really weird – about disease. Ha.

ga: How exactly did you go from making what seems to be an ultra low-budget film like The Delicious to what is a clearly more sleek and at least moderately better financed production like Kabluey?

SP: Well, having The Delicious on Wholphin helped a lot. And I had written the Kabluey script and it was getting a lot of attention. And then we found a producer/financier who was willing to take a chance. FOR VERY LITTLE MONEY. Kabluey is a small small low budget movie.

ga: It feels like an autobiography. How much do you draw from your own personal history when you make films?

SP: Much of Kabluey is autobiographical. I worked as a mascot in high school at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I was SUPER EXPLAINER and it was hell. And then my brother was in Iraq in 2004 and I went to help his wife out with the kids. As for the short films, there are no direct autobiographical elements, just theoretical stuff. Hard to describe. I felt like a weirdo or an outsider and like something was calling to me that I couldn’t resist. And that’s The Delicious.

ga: What was the reaction to the film from your brother, sister-in-law, and nephews?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lisa Kudrow, Jenifer and William Prendergast.

SP: It was weird for my brother and his family, I think. My sister-in-law was sort of confused and maybe a little hurt – but eventually it all became a joke because the reality is so different than the movie. The story probably works because it’s based in reality. A lot of that stuff actually happened. But then the movie throws in some melodrama and bizarre elements. I think it was a little surreal for my family meeting the celebrities who were playing them in the film, but again I think my family also felt separated from the movie because it was so fictionalized.

I did in fact go to my brother’s house to stay and help while he was in Iraq. And it was hard. And I did work as a mascot in high school. But it’s all put through a weird movie blender. So it’s personal but also fictional.

The nephews.

ga: Do you find it difficult to put your life on the screen, to hand pieces of yourself over to the world?

SP: It does create a weird kind of vulnerability. People sometimes ask me questions about the movies and I will think “How do you know that about me??” and of course it’s because I made a movie about it or blabbed about it in an interview. Which is strange. You are opening yourself up for “art” and “commerce” and you forget that you are actually OPENING YOURSELF UP and people can see inside. And then you feel a bit violated when people ask you about intimate details of your life. Weird experience.

At least with The Delicious and Anna is Being Stalked (which are very very personal movies) it is gratifying. You reveal some small weird part of yourself and people respond. There’s a part of you which you are embarrassed about or ashamed of and you make a weird little indie movie about it – and then people see it and they say “MY GOD THAT’S ME TOO! I AM THE DELICIOUS! I DO WEIRD THINGS WHEN ALONE! THAT MOVIE IS ABOUT ME!” And that’s fantastic.

ga: Did your Teri Garr obsession come before or after working with her on Kabluey?

SP: BEFORE. I’ve always loved her. Since I was a wee lad. I loved her in Oh God and Young Frankenstein and forever after. I’ve always worshipped her. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can’t explain why. She just seemed so funny and smart and nice. And pretty. I’ve always loved her. Meeting her was surreal. I gushed for about three hours and listed off every movie and TV show she’d ever done. I was a dork. At one point she said “Uh, wow. You really know my work, don’t you?” I’ve kept in touch with her and I have to say I would do ANYTHING for her. ANYTHING.  I love her.

Prendergast and Garr.

ga: Her character is a bit… nuts?

SP: She’s supposed to be completely insane. And schizophrenic. So when she sees Kabluey there’s a real chance that she’s hallucinating it. When I saw the movie with big crowds I think it was clear from the way they were laughing that they understood “this crazy woman” plus “this crazy blue thing” is going to = a problem. That was the point. A vulnerable lunatic interacts with something she can’t understand. But gradually we added in the idea that she had worked for the company and lost her life savings and THEN went nuts.

ga: Was she great to work with?

SP: Yes indeed. Although it was COMPLETELY surreal. On the first day of shooting the cast listed on the call sheet was TERI GARR and SCOTT PRENDERGAST. I kept that call sheet and actually framed it. I couldn’t believe I was actually working with her – that this was actually happening. And she was very funny and very nice and very good – a pro.

ga: And how about Lisa Kudrow? How did you connect with her, and how was the working relationship?

SP: We just sent her the script and she said yes. It was incredible. She was amazing to work with. Couldn’t be nicer or more relaxed or more professional. Really just wonderful all around.

ga: We love to see film makers give work to the same actors throughout their projects. It helps audiences appreciate the versatility of the players and highlights that of the writers/directors who work within an ensemble. Christopher Guest and Hal Hartley come to mind. A familiarity arises that helps us connect with what we’re seeing, and excitement builds around what actors such as  Patricia Buckley and Christine Turner might do in other projects of yours. We actually look forward to seeing them, in fact. How did your relationships begin with Buckley and Turner? Were they friends, fellow actors? How did you find or meet them?

SP: I was in a play with Pat in 1999. We played siblings. It was a bad play. But she was so funny that we became fast friends. And when I wrote Anna Is Being Stalked I realized I was picturing her in the role. We became much closer shooting Anna. And then she was so great I couldn’t imagine working without her. So she basically became my “muse.” I wrote the part of Elizabeth P. in Kabluey for her and she was amazing. I don’t ever want to make a movie without her. It was SO GRATIFYING to have her in Kabluey; 1. Because she was perfect in the part and 2. Because instead of shooting a movie in my bathroom in Brooklyn we were on a real film set together. Lovely.

I met Christine Turner in Portland in 1995 at an improv comedy show. She was really incredible onstage. And I approached her as a fan and slowly we became friends. And then she helped me put my one-man improv show together. And then she was in The Delicious and Saragossa. I actually wrote the part of “Kathleen” in Kabluey for her – but then it didn’t work out – which was and is still heartbreaking, even though Conchata Ferrell nailed the part.

ga: Are you more comfortable when you bring past collaborators along for the ride?

SP: Yes, because when you work with people you’ve worked with before you already have the relationship down pat and you can use a kind of shorthand. Pat knows what I like and just gave it to me without much direction. So much of her dialogue in The Delicious and Kabluey is improvised. She’s just super funny when she talks and I just let her go. And it’s fun to include friends along on the ride. But again, both Pat and Christine continue to be collaborators because they are so talented – not just because they are friends.

ga: Is improv an important aspect in your film making? The improvised material in The Delicious works perfectly, which we imagine you credit to the performers. Might they credit how comfortable they are on-screen to you?

SP: Yes, improv is a big part of my short films – but oddly there wasn’t too much improv in Kabluey. We just didn’t have time to fool around too much. We had to keep moving and get all our shots. Occasionally Lisa would throw something in but there wasn’t enough time to do more. Which is a bummer. But it does help performers to relax and feel at ease – at least it does if they are improvisers. It gives them freedom to do whatever – to make mistakes – and it’s all OK.

ga: Do you let the performers improvise because of your own background, and how does that change the energy of strictly scripted material?

SP: Yes, things are just so much more natural when you improvise. Awkward lines of dialogue can be smoothed out and made more realistic. Also it makes the other actors actually listen because they don’t know what’s coming. That is HUGE.

ga: You said Anna is also quite a personal film. Would you care to elaborate on what aspect of the stalker story is personal?

SP: Well I don’t know how to quantify it really. I guess I have felt like an outsider – and that maybe relates to the albino. And I’ve been in bad situations that get CRAZY bad and yet they still endure – and eventually you kind of just make due. And that’s what Anna is about. I once had a therapist ask me if she could see examples of my work and I showed her Anna and she basically exploded. She was like “Oh my god – that film – your issues – your psyche – the knife – the woman – the death threat – merging – your character – your life – I don’t know what to say!” That was interesting.

ga: Ever tried a Rorschach test?

SP: No but I’d love to. I mean, I would love to see what the results were. I’m looking for an online Rorschach test now…

ga: There have been hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours of film devoted to the subject of stalkers, from bloody and suspenseful to yours – an altogether oddly charming take on the subject. What was your intention with the film? Was it to create a parody?

SP: In the beginning the film was all about ONE joke. Just ONE SIMPLE joke. A woman comes into a police station and says “I’m being stalked” and the cop says “Yeah yeah lady – every hour some nutty chick is in here crying and claiming she’s being stalked. It’s a very hard thing to prove and there’s lots of paperwork.” And the woman points to the window, and the albino is standing right outside with a knife. And the cop is like “Oh! Oh my. Uh. I guess you ARE being stalked. Ha ha ha – sorry.” We shot this scene – you can see it on my website – and then it got cut from the film! Somehow when I wrote the script for Anna, I wrote that scene and then I just got off on a weird tangent about how they are co-dependent and dealing with each other 24/7. And THAT became the movie. Which was surprising to me. I didn’t expect that at all – it was just gravy. The movie was SUPPOSED to be about the cop.

ga: Have other projects (or even personal moments in your life) naturally and spontaneously evolved in the same unexpected way and with surprisingly pleasant results? Or the opposite, turned into total disasters?

SP: Hmm – I don’t know. I guess all of the short films are little ideas that blossomed into larger ideas. And when I was writing Kabluey a number of things just developed out of nowhere – and turned out to be pleasing and OK. As for things that went wrong – I’ve had a number of “survival jobs” in the past that seemed like a good idea – and then turned into nightmares. I am a horrible employee. I do not like doing ridiculous jobs and being told what to do.

ga: Can you talk about Group Therapy? It struck us as an introduction, of sorts, to Scott Prendergast; a “meet the talent” film, if you will. Whether or not that was the intention, it certainly works. Each character seems fully fleshed out, despite the fact that each has very little screen time; regardless, they’re well-defined by their flaws or traumas.

SP: That was my first short film. I had written a series of monologues about weird people in weird circumstances. And then this producer Anthony Bregman said to me “We should film it.” We made it in about six hours for about 60 bucks. And we added the line of dialogue “I’m in this group with these people who have problems” to tie the whole thing together – but really it was just supposed to be five weird monologues. The fifth one got cut. It was about a crazy guy who claimed that he was being held hostage by hand puppets.

ga: Again with the puppets! Is the fifth monologue available for viewing anywhere, and is it connected to the Muppets in some way?

SP: No I don’t think we ever edited or captured that footage. This is the monologue:

DRAGON: Ok – this is going to sound really weird I know – but I was held hostage by some puppets. These – puppets – surrounded me… It’s hard to describe what actually happened. But they took me hostage and made me sing on their album. OK? My name is Dragon.

It’s so much shorter than I remembered. Anyway – it never went anywhere. But yes I was obsessed with puppets for a long time and they found their way into everything I did.

ga: Are any of those characters different aspects of you?

SP: Hmmm – I dunno. Sort of? I just REALLY love Catherine – the rat-bite victim. SO SAD! My friends call her the “rape victim” (?!?!) because she has been “violated by a rat!” which is kind of humorous. But I don’t think I’m like her. I’m probably more like the banker. Sullen. Ha.

ga: Can you describe the path that led from Oregon to Chicago to New York to LA? Was it the natural progression of pursuing a life in the arts that took you to where you are today? A series of opportunities?

SP: Grew up in Porltand, Oregon; went to college in NYC – Columbia University; moved to San Francisco after college for the summer with a group of friends; at end of summer moved to LA to get into Groundlings; one year later I hated LA so much I had to leave; travelled around the country for three years (?) doing an improv comedy show with a friend; we went to Santee, South Carolina (two months), New Orleans (six months), Portland (six months), Chicago (one year); then it ended and I went back to LA for more Groundlings; stayed 1.5 years – hated LA again; went back to NYC to do a one man improv comedy show; stayed in NYC for eight years; started making short films – stopped doing improv comedy; started having luck with films – started writing features; moved back to Portland (life fell apart) for about a year; moved to LA when I got a deal to make Kabluey; stayed (five years now) and finally I like it here.

ga: What brought you to Chicago?

SP: I was in Chicago for one year, 1995, working with a friend. We did a comedy improv show at the Organic Theater called Tonight At Six. It was a big hit and we were super well reviewed in the Reader. And it ran for about six months. It was a great year. I loved it. ALTHOUGH it was during the heat wave and 1200 people died and I was almost one of them. I hate humidity!

ga: How are or were you involved with Groundlings?

SP: I just took all the classes and performed with the Sunday company (the farm team) for six months. But I wasn’t sure that it was for me – I wasn’t sure I wanted what they were offering – so I left. I was never an official Groundling.

ga: With a feature and several shorts under your belt (shorts under your belt?), what are you working on next?

SP: I’m just writing a few TV pilots here in LA – it’s a great way to make a living – and I really believe in the pilots that I’m writing. I can’t talk about them too much because all of them are in development and you sign this thing saying “I won’t give away the idea!” so blah. But one is sci-fi, one is a detective show, and one is a crime show. And they are all hour-long single camera comedies.

ga: Any other feature films on the horizon, and if so, let’s have details. Using some of your regulars?

SP: I’m writing a movie about a year-round Christmas ornament store – for me and Patricia Buckley. It’s about an insignificant man who witnesses a crime but no one believes him. And I’m writing another more serious movie about a woman with a recovered memory of something awful. That’s all I can really say about that at the moment.

ga: Is the Christmas ornament/crime project influenced in any way by the previously mentioned obsession with Rear Window?

SP: Not really. Well – sort of. Hadn’t thought about that. It’s supposed to be about a guy who is insignificant and he witnesses something and no one believes him. And the world keeps churning despite the crime. No one really cares that there’s been a murder. The whole thing gets wrapped up in bureaucracy. It’s basically inspired by my life and times in Los Angeles.

ga: Has some measure of success made L.A. more palatable? It sounds like a hard town to struggle in. Is there some lesson L.A. has taught you professionally, personally?

SP: Hmm – well – LA is a hard weird place because everyone is doing the same thing – and all day long you are running up against friends and contemporaries who are at different places in their careers and it can lead to despair and Schadenfreude. I have had a tiny amount of success and it has made my day-to-day life more pleasant. I am not living on a friend’s couch and worrying about the phone bill all day SO THANK GOD FOR THAT. But also LA is kind of like a trap. You aren’t struggling – so you don’t struggle – and so you don’t get as much done. Sometimes I think that being here is counter-productive and that I would be more successful if I was still living in NYC or Portland and trying desperately to get out. But I am earning a living in entertainment and that is always a good thing. LA has definitely taught me that FILM is hard and confusing and TV is like a well oiled machine. Film leads to greater rewards – larger rewards – but TV leads to money – and less despair.

ga: We would love to see a screening of Scott Prendergast short films someday soon. There are people who haven’t yet seen your work, but who should; people with their own Delicious welling up inside, waiting to spring out in the middle of their day. Maybe they just need permission.

SP: Ha. I guess that happens at the end of my career, huh? Hopefully I’ll get some lifetime tribute someday. For now I think what happens is I’ll hopefully do some project which will lead to more notoriety and then people will be curious about me and they will seek out my DVD of shorts on Amazon – or YouTube. And then those projects will continue to live on – right?

ga: By the way, what else are you reading these days? And what are you watching?

SP: Believe it or not I am reading Wuthering Heights (never read it before) and I am watching all the great films of 1939. Also Dune – the extended cut. And Twin Peaks, the Aliens movies and Jurassic Park 1,2, and 3 (I watch all these regularly).

ga: We look forward to seeing more from you soon. Is there anything you’d like to exit on, words you live by or refuse to live by?

SP: Hmm. I guess I live by the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared.” I was an Eagle Scout and as kooky as that seems – the motto is actually quite good and helpful. If you are prepared – you have much more control.

All images courtesy Scott Prendergast and Google.

Don’t forget about the hat and the intoxication.

From top to bottom:

See more of the 5.5′s in the grippinglyauthentic! gallery.

When fellow workers started mistaking him for one of the autists, Caveh quit his job and moved to Paris to try to raise money for a film about French poet Arthur Rimbaud.”

The story continues in both heartbreaking and amusing directions, and might be one of the most self-effacing biographies you’ll read about someone on their own website. It also proves that nothing can stop Caveh Zahedi.

He is the winner of an IFP Gotham Award for “Best Feature Not Playing At A Theater Near You,” the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and  a Sundance Documentary grant. His films have won critical acclaim, yet they haven’t been widely seen. Each is autobiographical and fearless in the way they investigate Caveh’s idiosyncrasies and addictions, which probably doesn’t equal box-office success, but the film maker creates what is true to himself, and we like that quite a bit.

Caveh was good enough to speak with us over the last couple of months, and here’s what he had to say:

grippinglyauthentic: Let’s start with where we first “met” you, so to speak, which was the segment of Waking Life – Richard Linklater’s beautiful and ground-breaking film – called “The Holy Moment.” Can you tell us how you got involved with the project and how your segment was set up? Were you simply asked to have a conversation or was it scripted?

Caveh Zahedi: I got a package in the mail one day from Rick Linklater, who I’d met at Sundance in 1991 when we both had films in competition there. I was there with A Little Stiff and he was there with Slacker and we liked each other’s films and became friends.

The moment I got the package in the mail is actually documented in my 1999 year-long video diary film entitled In the Bathtub of the World.

In the package was a scripted scene as well as animation samples by Bob Sabiston, the head animator, to show me what it would look like. I loved the animation but I didn’t think I could deliver those scripted lines very convincingly. I explained this to Rick and he said “No problem, we’ll figure it out when you get here.”

So I flew to Austin and Rick asked me if there was something else I’d rather say instead. I said I had four ideas for things to talk about and he asked to hear them. I told him the four ideas and he said he liked all of them and that we might as well shoot them all and that he would decide later. We shot the four scenes in about half an hour and that was that.

He later used one of the deleted scenes for his own segment about Philip K. Dick. That scene (about a dream I’d had) was pretty much verbatim what I had said on tape, and he simply re-enacted it. If you listen to it carefully, you can hear the same verbal rhythms and inflections that I typically use. I thought it was a really good idea to put that scene in the movie at that point but with his character saying it.

The idea of the holy moment I kind of just made up, but the term is used in a slightly different context in A Course in Miracles, a “channeled” book that I was obsessed with for many years. In that context, it refers to a moment in which two individuals surrender their egos to what the Course calls the “Holy Spirit.”

ga: We’re not surprised that you talked about what you wanted to. You seem incredibly adept at being Caveh Zahedi, at stating your mind and being present, for better or worse. The performance felt spontaneous. What you were saying and how you said it, along with Sabiston’s ethereal animation, reminded us of those perfect little epiphanies we have when a degree of clarity enters our minds and we see what is truly important to us. We’d like to live in those moments, though it would probably be exhausting.

Experiencing someone on a level that feels authentic and sincere is always elevating, almost like a kind of high. Can you talk about some of your own epiphanies, when some piece of seemingly divine information opened up to you and maybe changed the way you saw the world around you or the way you lived in that world?

CZ: A lot of my epiphanies have happened on drugs. I was on LSD once and I “saw” a Buddha with a flower in his outstretched hand. And what I got from that was that “beauty” (symbolized in this case by the flower) is always available and right in front of you and that you don’t have to go looking for it – it’s right there in front of you!

ga: It seems that accessibility is an issue you constantly deal with, whether or not anyone will see your work. Admittedly, it took Richard Linklater to introduce us to you, and fortunately what we saw in Waking Life was compelling enough to inspire some investigation, to make us seek out your work.

You’ve collaborated with film makers who reach larger audiences with some regularity, whether working with them in creating a film or staring in their work. Is there some level of frustration you feel regarding the size of your audience?

CZ: There is definitely a level of frustration regarding the limited audience I’ve been able to reach. It may be that having a small audience is a condition of the type of work that I make, but I love a lot of films that reach a much larger audience, so I would prefer that.

One of my favorite filmmakers is Lars Von Trier, and he manages to reach a much larger audience without sacrificing depth or extremity or innovation. If I could have the filmography of anyone other than myself, I would choose his filmography (with the exception of his pre-Breaking the Waves films).

ga: Even when Von Trier makes a film that isn’t necessarily easy to “enjoy,” he seems faithful to his ideas and faultless in his integrity. These are qualities we appreciate in your work as well, admirable in a business where art is often turned into product, integrity traded for market appeal. Though Von Trier reaches a large audience in Europe, there’s still some strong resistance to a lot of his work here, especially because of the explicit sexual content.

Do you think your willingness to talk about drugs in your films is something that scares people?

Caveh Zahedi by Michael Grimaldi, 2008.

CZ: I don’t know if my openness about drugs is holding me back from broader acceptance. In a way, it’s part of the appeal of my work, I think, since there aren’t a lot of filmmakers who are open about it.

I gave a talk on hallucinogenics recently – really just the autobiography of my drug use, and it was given at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn – and  it was pretty packed and people seemed pretty hungry to hear and talk about this stuff. It would certainly be great if there were an intelligent debate about drugs for a change, and I’d totally be interested in participating in that. I love marijuana, but I think hallucinogenics are the really interesting drugs.

ga: Does being a parent have any impact on drug usage for you?

Caveh Zahedi: My wife doesn’t like me to get stoned in front of our toddler, so it means there are fewer opportunities.

ga: As far as audience-friendly films, is directing someone else’s story something you would consider?

CZ: I would certainly consider directing someone else’s story if I loved it (which is rare). I once got hold of the last screenplay that John Cassavetes had written before he died, and I thought it was ASTONISHING. I tried to get the rights to direct it but I was unable. I would have loved to direct that particular script. But it’s probably the only one I’ve ever read that I was DYING to make. The directors, other than Cassavetes, that get me excited – Von Trier, Ken Loach, Lukas Moodyson, Michael Haneke, Frank Capra, Mike Leigh, Andrei Tarkovsky.

I recently saw a film by the Safdie brothers called Daddy Longlegs that I loved. Other films I saw recently that I loved are Head On by Fatih Akin (which is not terribly recent but which I only saw recently) and Precious by Lee Daniels.

CZ: The Tripping project is indefinitely on hold. I might resurrect it if the right person to do it with comes along, but I don’t like to repeat myself. Your animation idea sounds like a really good way to do it actually, so maybe I’ll do it after all.

>> See some of Caveh’s feature-length films here. <<

ga: Can you give some background on how The Unmaking of I Am A Sex Addict came to be?

CZ: The audio for that had been recorded at a monthly story-telling series in San Francisco, but there was no video. I was at a party one night and I met Brent Hoff, the editor of Wholphin. He had seen I Am A Sex Addict and asked if I would be interested in making something specifically for Wholphin. I asked if he could pay me, and he said he could pay me $1,000. So I said okay. In trying to think of something that I could do for that amount of money, it occurred to me to animate the audio from the story-telling series.

ga: It’s perfect. The animation is manic and rough and compliments your voiceover. It’s great to watch while high. (Segue.) Talk to us about drugs.

CZ: The drug experience for me is essentially a religious experience. I was an atheist before I started experimenting with hallucinogens, and I’m not anymore. Most of my experiences of “God” or of mysticism or of the oneness and aliveness of all things come from drugs.

It varies from trip to trip, but under the influence of hallucinogens, it is usually clear as day to me that God exists. Sometimes it is a sudden and incontrovertible awareness of God’s presence. Sometimes, this takes the form of a kind of direct communication – God “speaks” to me, usually through a kind of telepathy, but with actual words being exchanged. Sometimes, God speaks “through” me, with me uttering the words out loud, and without knowing what exactly is going to come out of my mouth. A few times, I felt that I was “seeing” God, never directly but in some indirect form – once as a clock with the equation “E = MC2″ written on it, once as a blue light that suffused everything. The clock moved towards me (in my mind’s eye) and I felt God’s LOVE, and I was stunned by the overwhelming intensity of it – a trillion times more intense than anything I could imagine. Another time, God appeared to me in the form of David Bowie, in a limousine and incredibly joyful and alive. I don’t think that God actually resembles any of these forms – just that these were the forms God took to communicate something specific to me.

I tried to make a film about mushrooms at one point but I got sidetracked. It’s a tricky thing to convey, and I’m no longer sure that drugs are salvational in the way I used to think. By that I mean that I used to agree with Terence McKenna‘s idea that hallucinogens are the only thing that can turn you around on a dime. But my experience is that, however transformative, we still have to do the daily work of living and working and coming to grips with this dimension of existence. I think hallucinogens are a great tool for understanding the big picture, but the day-to-day tasks are still where it’s at and where I need to put my attention. It can be very tempting to “transcend” the real, but it’s getting along with your girlfriend or boyfriend when he or she is being an asshole that is the true challenge and where the ultimate deep internal growth lies.

ga: What is your day-to-day life like? Are you constantly working on films, still teaching, pursuing other creative endeavors? And do you ever feel mired in the often mundane daily tasks? Transcending the real is an increasingly attractive idea today, when the “real” is becoming darker, when we’re bombarded by the water crisis, global warming, endless war, the expanding chasm between rich and poor, the buying and selling of government, and so on…

CZ: My day-to-day life is fairly mundane. I teach, which also involves a lot of administrative drudgery. I have a 18 month-old son, which is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me but also means I’m perpetually sleep-deprived and negotiating with a toddler’s world view.

We asked Caveh to send images of himself. This is what we got. He asked, "Is this too weird?" Nope.

I am constantly working on films in my spare moments, but these are fewer and farther between than ever before. If I don’t spend a certain amount of time each week on creative endeavors, I become unhappy so I really have no choice but to keep doing it. I also enjoy it more than almost anything else, so it’s really a no-brainer.

I often feel held back by the need to accomplish daily tasks which I experience as essentially mind-numbing and mundane. And yes, the “real” is becoming darker and more stressful – air travel has become less and less pleasant, the invention of the automated phone tree is a minor circle of Hell, people are busier and more stressed out than ever before, etc.

ga: Were drugs ever about escape for you, or have they always been a tool for enlightenment?

CZ: Psychedelics have never been about escape for me. They are way too scary and demanding for that.

But there was a time in my life when I was smoking too much marijuana in the sense that it was getting harder to enjoy life if I wasn’t stoned and I had to pull back from that temptation.

It has always seemed to me that being “evolved” would mean being happy and content and fascinated no matter how mundane the external circumstances of one’s life. In that sense, I think that the mundane can be a real teaching tool, in much the same way that the challenges of a relationship are always very growthful. Which is part of the reason that I try to make films about the mundane as opposed to the “spiritual.” I think the intersection of those two things is the leading edge of personal growth.

ga: You’ve studied philosophy, and we’re curious if there were particular thinkers who contributed significantly to your own personal philosophies? We wouldn’t consider it inappropriate to call you a maverick, and we’re always curious about how such individuals define themselves, where they draw their inspiration or take their cues from.

CZ: As far as philosophical influences, I was always really taken by Nietzsche, Heidegger, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heracleitus, Parmenides, Deleuze and Derrida. If I have a world view, it is probably a cross between Hegel and Heidegger but my spiritual worldview is mostly the result of drug experiences I’ve had.

The single text that has been the most influential on my world view is A Course in Miracles. I’ve read that book very, very carefully several times and it strikes me as absolutely dead on. I have also been very influenced and affected by the writings of Maurice Blanchot as well as the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Wallace Stevens, and John Ashbery.

ga: Where and what do you teach, and how long have you been doing it?

CZ: I teach Screen Studies at The New School in New York. I’ve only been teaching here since the Fall, but I’ve taught on and off as an adjunct for the past ten years (in San Francisco).

ga: Have you met students who give you hope?

CZ: Absolutely. I really like young people. They’re full of potential. Anything’s still possible for them. I find them more conscious and more evolved generally than my own generation at their age.

All paintings are oil on linen mounted on wood, measuring 12″ x 12″ with the exception of Last Dance – which is 30″ x 32″ – and were painted in 2009.

Let’s just think about all this oil, about what’s happening and what this will really, truly, do to our world. It’s not just a “large group of carbons where they shouldn’t be,” as some people in some mindsets would have us think; and why is that something we would dismiss as no big deal, anyway? Carbons. One of the (what, three?) essential elements that we’re made of? Why is that what we’re willing to accept as the reasoning to not worry about it? A large group of carbons where they shouldn’t be… That is exactly what we’re concerned about. What’s a nuclear explosion? Oh, don’t worry about it. Just a large group of really little hot things.

Please note that these images can be clicked multiple times to zoom closer. And they are all totally worth your extra clicking.