Late last night, I was surfing the web getting ready to fall asleep and made the fatal error to visit the Perfect Duluth Day blog. This is the same place that broke my Kickstarter story and caused the initial uproar. To my surprise, there on the front page was a seemingly anger-fueled parody of my project called "Vincent Gargiulo Is Horrible" I immediately found this hilarious. Not that it's particularly funny, but that this amount of hatred existed. I then got slightly concerned when I saw who wrote the piece.
His name is Adam Carr and he did a similiar project last year, writing a blog called "January in Duluth." I'd actually already been looking at it. Mr. Carr contacted me on Saturday saying he was in town until Monday afternoon and if I wanted to get together to chat. He was extremely cordial in the email and had "no agenda." I was traveling and sick and in that short amount of time replied that it wasn't to be but I wished him best in his adventures.
Perhaps he's doing just a slight ribbing and certainly, I can take a joke about myself. In fact, I left a comment that I was looking forward to auditioning. But his piece seems to be coming from a different place. It's like if I made the film with a different name and then changed it later to "Duluth Is Horrible." His piece feels passive agressive and backstabbing. I apologize for not getting coffee with you. Though now I'm convinced you might of poured a latte on my crotch. Mr. Carr, I challenge you to "March in Stockton." I pick the streets.
Meanwhile, my sickness is nearly out and with that, I decided to get out and walk around. Armed with a Canon 5D Mark II, I took photos of the neighborhood. I never really been in snow. I giggled like a small child as I built a small snowman & stepped into unexpected deep pockets of snow. It was all lovely. Do I feel guilty for calling it horrible? No.
Today was also spent contacting local restaurants to see if I could film there. While there are many possibilities, nobody is willing so far. Come on JJ Astor. You follow me on Twitter for Christs sake! On the other hand, I have an appointment tomorrow morning with the Duluth News Tribune to look at their space for the office scene. I hope it'll work.
I need to pick up some mace too tomorrow.
Lake Ave. Cafe might let you film there.
ReplyDeletedarn it!
ReplyDeletei wasn't coming from a place of hatred or passive aggression or backstabbery -- i was hoping it would come across as playful, which clearly didn't make it across in the clumsiness of the words.
vince!
i've been torn up about this response, because the last thing in the world i want to be is a bully. i just reread my piece, keeping in mind all the scrutiny and skepticism you're navigating, and can see how it came across that way. i was just hoping to do a little skewering of the situation as a whole and prodding the absurdity from all sides.
for some reason, as i was writing, i felt as if i was heartily throwing my arm around you and saying "vince -- you picked the right place. it's cold and it's blustery and it's really fucking beautiful here. you may account some resistance, but you're not in duluth to create a piece of non-friction, are you? good luck, dude."
so for what it's worth, i am massively impressed at the imagination, initiative, and daring of your project. what you're trying to do is not easy. i'm very much looking forward to the product of your gumption and execution.
misunderstanding is horrible,
adam
Adam, I have given your comment long & careful thought and I believe you to be completely honest and it was indeed a misunderstanding. It seemed weird to begin with but there has been a decent amount of anti-Gargiulo hate around, at least on that blog, so you never know. Apology accepted. Now it's here a classic Genesis tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmFRvpwVSwo
Deletealso, the duluth playhouse is putting on almost, maine this february -- there's some similarities between your project and that one, at least on a surface level. it might be interesting to check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.duluthplayhouse.org/
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost,_Maine
I'm glad you both sorted things out, and this all turned out to be a misunderstanding.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't understand the outcry over your film's name. In comparison, there have been much more negative titles. The alternate name for Swedish film Show Me Love (not saying it here as I don't want to swear on your blog!) is much more negative, but the film didn't portray the town as being completely awful. There was also a fictional book written by Dr. Kevin Patterson about Canada called Country of Cold : Stories of Sex and Death. Along with a title stereotyping my home country, it didn't really make Canada look good at all... one of the stories has been seared into my brain as it made me uneasy. I love my home country; I also still loved this book. Overall, a title which may be "negative" may not reflect the contents of the story, and even if a story is negative, it's only that, a story.
Sorry for the novel. I look forward to seeing your film and wish you all the best on it.