Why would I get up before the Sun on a Sunday, trek down to a sandy field on the bank of the East River, don a shirt 5 sizes too small and dance around a softball diamond? To shoot a comic video with friends, of course! Laura & Nicole, the dynamic duo who brought “His Name Is Cosmo” to the LGBT film festival circuit, have teamed up again to film an hysterical music video for Clay Drinko’s single”I Heart My Lesbians.”
“Cosmo…” screened with “The D Word” at the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival earlier this year and the fest’s director asked us in the Q&A afterwards if there was a small lesbian filmmaking mafia (the “Muffia” as it were) in NYC. We laughed it off, but if you’re hitting the queer festival circuit, the connections seem clear. The Muffia is as tangled-up as the dyke dating scene in Park Slope. An example of 6 Degrees of Dasha Snyder:
- Dasha Snyder (that’s me) took an editing class at Dyke TV, taught by Erin Greenwell.
- Erin Greenwell edited “The D Word” and wrote/directed/produced “Mom” starring Julie Goldman.
- Julie Goldman (was also stared in “The D Word”) is a writer for Mr. Murray Hill.
- Murray Hill has hosted “The Lesbian Overtones” (all lesbian, all a cappella, all the time) several times at his show.
- “The Lesbian Overtones” is made up of several illustrious voices, including it’s founder’s, Elizabeth Dahmen.
- Liz Dahmen has appeared in many queer shorts, including “Bar Talk (also starring Alix Olson who made “Left Lane” with Samantha Farinella)” “His Name is Cosmo,” & “Mom” which brings us back to Erin Greenwell and Dyke TV, which leads to Jules Roskam who made “Transparent” and Sam Feder who made “Boy I Am” which were both shown at NewFest, where Dasha works and met Cherien Dabis who made “Little Black Boot” which was funded by Power-Up, etc…
So you can see how the connections pile up for the Muffia. No wonder they put me in the “Muffy” shirt for the shoot…
That really IS Melissa Etheridge jamming at MSG
Melissa Etheridge concerts, like the one last night at Madison Square Garden, are like primal scream therapy: cathartic, felt in the gut, deeply emotional, and in this performer’s case, unabashedly sexual and spiritually uplifting. Hair still closely cropped after her bout with breast cancer treatment, “The Ridge” rocked the house with oldies, indignant anthems and joyful tributes. Thank you American Express Gold Card Events for the awesome seats!
For a brief moment, my sweetie and I thought we might get to actually meet the rock goddess as tag-alongs to Shelly Mars and Urvashi Vaid, also sitting in our section, but the opportunity vanished as quickly as it was proffered. We had mused on our way to the concert how we might get to meet with Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy Lynn Michaels, not just as fans, but to talk some business for “To Do:“ - a script about a young lesbian with breast cancer with a plum role for Tammy in it! We laughed it off as an impossibility, but when the slim chance of success appeared, we both wondered at the coincidence of speaking that which you desire, and it’s appearence in the realm of possibility. No more excuses: as Melissa said from the stage last night: “Fear is just a lack of imagination.”
I’m a writer; I’ve got plenty of imagination to go around.
Fred belts it out with a little moral & vocal support from me
My girlfriend kept asking me “What do you want for your birthday?” and I kept replying “A really good party.” She was focussing on a physical present, and so was I, but of a different sort. Yesterday, after dozens of friends and family showed up to sing out and chow down at my Karaoke Birthday Bash (thanks to Karaoke Champ and Liz Dahmen), she got it.
I’ve been waiting for nearly my entire adult life to be healthy enough to grab the microphone and sing out strong, with the cheering from friends and family as the ultimate bonus. I got the hard-sell in LA to move out to the West Coast and capitalize on the momentum of the Lab and my script. Now that I’m finally able, it’s time to make the move and work my brain to the max in pursuit of my writing career. It’s oddly exhilerating and terrifying to contemplate the move, even if temporary. Didn’t I just make fun of LA in The D Word…? Not to mention the logistics of apartments, pets and girlfriend. Oh yeah, and I’ve got a ton of spec scripts to write before I even get there and attempt to land an agent, get staffed on a show and raise funds for my next film. All minor technicalities…
So, like a savvy traveler, I hustled my girlfriend to the Long Beach Airport early, thus saving an extra day’s worth of rental car charges and making an earlier flight back to NYC. Alas, as stated here before on this blog, no good deed goes unpunished.
Our flight hit a lot of turbulence. Now when I say turbulence, I mean the kind that makes you puke and think you’re going to die. After circling JFK for 20+ minutes, we attempted to land in the middle of severe thunderstorms and succeeded only in terrifying the entire passenger population, having to break off the attempt and fly out of harms way; that’d be to Stewart Airforce Base in Newburgh, NY. After revisiting the meal that Jet Blue didn’t serve us, I asked that we be let off the plane (and was supported by other beleagured passengers). I wasn’t keen on taking flight in stormy weather any time soon. I thought: spend the night in upstate New York recuperating from the ordeal and take Amtrak to NYC in the morning, right? Not happening, as our incredibly-out-of-touch-bordering-on-rude crew informed me. (BTW - they were out-of-touch and rude before the whole “we’re going down!” incident.) Stewart AFB was not equipped to de-plane passengers and there were more detoured planes touching down by the minute. So, what to do? Refuel and try to land back at JFK, apparently. Which is what we did.
Guess what? The gate where we arrived was just a trailer, so they bussed us to the Jet Blue terminal to retrieve our baggage - but there was an entire plane of queasy, tired, pissed-off folks and only one tiny bus making lots of trips. Strapping young men butted in front of women with children and the elderly. Everyone was so ready to get the hell outa’ there.
Did I mention we flew into Queens, which was omninously dark due to electrical outages across the borough, thus making the AirTrain or subway an impossibility?
And who could forget the crying baby in front of our seat? The really bad “jokes” the head flight attendant kept telling over the loudspeaker, making us feel like prisoners in a maniacal comedy club? The airport ground crew member wearing a t-shirt depicting an suicide bomber’s aftermath with the subtitle “You want to start a war?” Watching the trailer for Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” on the Direct TV at our seats - over and over and over again?
Bad travel day. Sit. Paw. BAD travel day.
Dasha & Kermit (the Frog, that is…on the Walk of Fame)
to
Dasha & Cousin (Steve, that is…in Santa Barbara)
Profound thoughts on the end of the whole LA experience to come soon - when I get back to NYC.
First the LGBT committee of the WGA held their “Video Fun House” panel, then we celebrated the final screening of “MOM” at the DGA. It was a small invasion of NYer’s, led by MOM’s auteur Erin Greenwell and her stars Julie Goldman & Emily Burton. We cheered wildly from the back row then chowed down at CPK afterwards. I can’t wait to come back and celebrate with friends at future fests.
The “MOM”ers: Julie, Melineh, Emily, Erin & Erin’s Mom
Who cut the cheese?
mentors & fellows: Luther, David, C. Jay, Barry, Anne, Sam, Seb, Guin, Dasha, Isaac
I can’t begin to describe how amazing the lab has been. At least not in the short time and space I have at the moment. Suffice it to say, it rocked. More later. Promise.
This is the life… Talking writing with brilliant, funny, working screenwriters - my mentor heroes - then getting advice from industry powerhouses, all in such an idyllic setting. I want to do this forever; Even when it’s not this glamorous. I’m getting a glimpse into the world of possibilities, not just for my script, but for myself. This lab is permission to follow my passion. I didn’t realize that’s what I needed. The living examples of our mentors enables me to give myself permission to write; To really pursue writing. I want to be my own mentor hero.
The 2006 OutFest Screenwriters Lab Felllows at the Chateau Marmont Hotel.
Dasha Snyder, TO DO:
Isaac Webster, AMOS AND LOWELL
Luther M. Mace, ON THE LOW
Samuel Park, SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
Sebastien Gauthier, FUCKING PRESTON
We got down to business this morning; 5 mentors, 5 lab fellows, festival staff, special guests - all in an historic luxe bungalow (Yes, it is the Belushi Bungalow…) in the heart of Hollywood - all working towards the same goal of making good scripts great and screenwriters better. I wanted the sessions to go on for hours more. Can’t wait for tomorrow morning…
