Housemates from hell are soon to be gone and more musings..

It's interesting how it always feels like the end of an era for me when I have housemates who move out. For the past couple of years I've had this really interesting guy named Tyler living in the tiny room in the upstairs of my house. He's really into bikes, plays music, is vegan, is pretty smart, and largely keeps to himself. He just bought a home of his own in the neighborhood, which is so awesome for him. He has another deal earlier this year which fell through, so I'm really happy that this one will work out. I'm also kind of sad in a selfish way that he's moving out. He was kind of ideal in the sense that he just did his thing, and vice versa. We didn't really hang out too much or socialize, but would ususally see each other at the same social functions when I was actually in town, or willing to break my workaholism and go out, though I wished that there was more a communal thing going on..but hey.. nothing it perfect? is it?

I really came to appreciate how good I had it until the newest kids moved in here about 6 weeks ago. One of the things about my living space is that I like it to be 100% vegan, smoke free, sorta communal but nothing too formal. They seemed nice enough when I met them, so I let them move in as I was about to leave on my trip for Burning Man. That's when the disaster started...Evn though I stated specifically on the lease that there is no smoking and that it's a vegan household, lo and behold they start smoking in their room, bring meat into the house, invite their friends over who leave food all over and thus the mice which took forever to get rid of the last time, have returned.. It was so completely disrespectful, but to top it off they gave me a hard time about actually paying their rent. They still are $200 short.. but at last.. I will be rid of them soon. I've been pretty nice about them being here until today, but they have to go. Anyhow, on Sunday they're both moving out.

I'm not entirely soured on getting housemates, but I'm going to be super picky who comes in here next. Maybe I just need to live alone again for a couple of months.

Along with all this, I'm excited that I'll be closing on the house next door to me...It's looking really good at this point. I know for sure that I'm going to have to get a big dumpster to clear stuff out of the house..There's so much crap in there.

veggie bus's and art spaces

I just went to pick up the Steaz Veggie Bus. Dave Rosenstraus from Fossil Free Fuel converted an airport shuttle to run on vegetable grease for us. The vehicle is also equipped with an on-board filtration unit. It's pretty badass... Callie and friends are going to be decrating it over the next few days, just in time for Expo East and the Gadgetoff.

A few nights ago I stayed over at this amazing space that my friends Beka, Jason and Winnie live/work out of in Williamsburg. It's called The Change You Want To See Gallery, I've been trying to convince all of them to come to philly and buy some property, and start a space here. It's so cheap to get real estate in West Philly, that it's almost foolish to waste time renting while putting in long hours, tons of thought, and a bunch of money into building up a space that will most likely be taken away arbitrarily.

Well, off to start the long week that will follow.

Hollywood Can Suck It! (very close to launch)

For the past several years I've been working on starting HOLLYWOOD CAN SUCK IT!, which is a distribution company for stuff related to my projects. I'll be carrying DVD's, books, cd's, clothes, organic fair-trade products, doodads and gadgets (like the TV B GONE). HCSI is also the name of the label under which I'll be releasing dvd's. If you're an experienced web designer who's done e-commerce sites, and is interested in doing something with radical media, I could really use your help.


The first release (coming in spring 2008) is going to be TRAIN ON THE BRAIN (dir. Alison Murray - who also made Mouth To Mouth starring Ellen Page). It's a documentary she made while hopping freight trains across the U.S.. I found the film so inspiring that I decided to put it out.

Soon to follow will be the DVD releases of LOST FILM FEST compilations.

Very exciting news indeed.

Check out the trailer:

Lost Film Fest's Day In court - mention in the Eric McDavid trial

In the ongoing trial of political prisoner Eric McDavid, One of my projects, the Lost Film Fest was mentioned in the transcript. Check it out: http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2007/09/42203.shtml

Late on a Sunday night/monday morning

Oy vey.. So much crap to get done.. but so little time to do it in. I'm pretty committed to working a lot less, but I'm finding myself stirring with boredom if I'm not slaving to get things done that I want/need to do.

I've been looking for this check for the past few days. I'm such a dumbass for misplacing a $450 check.. what the hell is wrong with me? I'm sure it's in a book of mine somewhere. I should know better than to leave loose ends untied before I leave...thats why I have a pegboard with pushpins. Worse comes to worse I'll have the check re-issued.. what a dumbass I am.

Tonight was pretty uneventful. I basically boiled some tea to make Kombucha. I was a bit of a kombucha obsessive toward the end of the summer. I had several glass jars brewing all at the same time, which was of course way more than I could deal with. When we returned from the west coast, all of the zogleal mats were overgrown. Time to start anew I guess. I'll probably put some of the kombuchas up on freecycle..

Tonight, I also talked to my friend Dave Rosenstraus about buying a van from him. He runs a shop in Pittsburgh with his friends called Fossil Free Fuel. Liz and I via our project, the Evil Twin Booking Agency, do some booking of his workshop, called Veg The System. Basically, I'm getting this diesel powered airport shuttle from him for a company I work with which is converted to run on vegetable grease. I'm really hoping that the kids in Paperrad are going to want to do the decorations for it. I'd like to have it all done in time for Expo East, the big East Coast convention for the natural products industry. I'm hoping to pick up a bunch of new clients there for The Redefinery, which is my grassroots/ DIY marketing project I've been doing for a bit.

Earlier Liz and I were discussing how we should bring a mess of Evil Twin Booking flyers to the Naomi Klein speaking event in NYC tomorrow. We also discussed changing and updating the logo, graphics, and general aesthetic of our project. We're leaning somewhere in the direction of mixing west philly grit, victorian gothic, found objects, and latin/african symbolism. We shall see how it all turns out.

I'm pretty happy that Liz has gotten me some good gigs for Lost Film Fest coming up as well. It was a bit slow last year because I was working on so many other projects, so I'll be pretty relieved to be back out on the road performing. I have some strong new short films, but I'm really looking for something revolutionary and mindblowing. Plans for the fall include trips around the east coast, midwest, south, (maybe California) and Europe.. It'll be strange to be back out on the road. I have to put myself back into the proper mindset.

One new project I've been particularly excited about is this narrative screenplay I've been writing. It's a mathematical musical mystery complete with gypsies and scallawags of all sorts. Arrow-One and Dugan, friends of mine from the SF Bay Area (who run this project called Avant Renegade) will be helping me. Lets see what happens with this one.... I usually follow through on the things I do, or give up and shelve things if I can't put all the pieces together, but I think that this one might actually go somewhere.

I was working for awhile with my friend Peter Sallade on a documentary about international dvd bootleg rings, but it's kind of been sidetracked for a bit. I'm eager to get Dan Ollman on board with this one, but there's only so much time in a day.

So, it's a funny thing.. what do you get for someone who has everything they want/need? Well.. In my parents case I was going to get them a gps unit for their 40th anniversary, but my dad beat me to the punch. I think I'm going to get them a g4 laptop. They're not such tech geeks, but I believe that they'll actually enjoy using a mac.

Okay, enough rambling. I'm going to eventually post some of our pics from Burning Man (which was indeed the best year Liz and I have gone).

Lovest Scott