Tour Tales

Leah and Rozz take their documentary film, "Rock, Rage & Self Defense: An Oral HIstory of Seattle's Home Alive" on tour. This blog is Leah's thoughts, experiences, and tales from the tour.

[lmtourtales]

Day 3: Leaving Oklahoma

We woke up in time for breakfast again and then attempt to consolidate two checked bags into one so we could save our film fund $25.  I brought my half of the merch with me and I get two free checked bags on United, but no free checked bags on Delta so this had to work. After squishing, sitting, and wiggling items into place we made 6 pieces of luggage into 5. Now 5 = 2 carry-ons each and one checked bag. Hoo Ha! Now it was time to talk to the front desk about our vouchers. We headed down to the lobby and when we get to the front desk, we find out that they had used the vouchers on someone else’s room! The manager was not there so we would have to call the next day to deal with it. As we are waiting for our cab back to the airport, we ran into Scott and Damien in the lobby. We are all talked about our experiences and made sure we had each other’s contact information. Scott is laughing at the voucher situation and says, “now that is a good story.” Rozz and I just look at each other and smile because we know that this trip has provided plenty of good stories. Fran, a mother of one of the filmmakers of Suck It Up Buttercup, is also sitting in the lobby with us and we had a nice chat with her for a while. Our cab arrives, we say goodbye to everyone, and then arrive at the Tulsa airport. The Delta attendant, Trevor from Australia, talks with us for about 45 minutes. He used to live in Idaho and then tells us that we have to go to this random bar in the middle of the woods in Montana somewhere called The Yak. “You gotta go to The Yak girls!” We’ll keep that in mind Trevor. We are about 4 hours early for our flight, but want to make sure we got to the airport in case anything crazy happened and to be able to get some work done before hand. We are eating lunch at one of the airport bars and then we hear, “Girls!” It’s Damien! He joins us for lunch and we talk about filmmaking, festivals, funding, people, and he tells us how awful his experience was at SXSW. “I will never be cynical about Disneyland now that I have been to SXSW,” he says. We could not help but laugh. As festival newbies, we have started to learn the ropes and the realities about the some film festivals. We all agreed that Bare Bones was a wild and crazy experience. Everyone did some work in the business center after lunch and then Damien left to catch his flight.   “Stay awesome ladies!” He exclaimed as he made his way to his gate. Rozz and I go to our gate for our first leg of our flight home to Boise and then we hear that there is now a tornado warning for Tulsa.

Of course there is. As we are waiting for updates about our flight, one flight is cancelled, and two are delayed. However, airport attendants were handing out water, soda, snacks, and game books. I obviously took a game book and was happy working on a word search for about 20 minutes. Luckily our flight was only a little delayed. After landing in Salt Lake, we booked it from one end of the airport to the other and made our connection. We landed safely in Boise and that was the end of our first stop and first festival on our spring tour.

Thank you Bare Bones. We met some amazing people and had some crazy times. It was fascinating. 

[lmtourtales]

Pieces of Muskogee

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Day 2: Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival

Rozz and I woke up in time for our free breakfast and then got ready for the day. Our film screened at 3 pm and we wanted to get into town in time to see the parade. We called a cab from the hotel, which is more like an independent shuttle and landed in downtown Muskogee. Carol, our driver, told us the best place to get a drink is Max’s Garage. We walked around a little and witnessed the parade and the chili cook off. After finding studio b, we are finally introduced to ShIronbutterfly, Oscar, and Helena, the organizers of the Bare Bones Film Festival. When ShIronbutterfly sees us she says, “Are these my divas?”

Maybe we called her a few too many times from the airport.  It was so great talking with them and meeting a few other people. We picked up our VIP passes and then went to Max’s Garage. After everything that happened the day before, we needed some relaxation. We ordered drinks and salads and met some other filmmakers. One of them was Paul from France. His film, The Dream Life of David L, screened the day before ours. The Bare Bones Film Festival was his first time to the United States.

After lunch we went to the OK Musical Hall where our film would be screening to get everything set up before our time slot. Oscar was there to help us and Steve came too. Paul came to see our film and said “I want to learn about self defense” in a French accent. More people came in towards the middle of the screening and afterwards we had a great Q&A session. One woman who was asking us questions lived in Seattle for two summers in the 80s and played in a band. Another filmmaker, Scott, loved our film, asked a lot of questions, and then shared with us some other festivals where he thought it would do well. All in all it was a fun. We wanted to see Greasepaint, but also wanted to see another film so we told Nigel, a filmmaker who was involved in Greasepaint, to let us know when it was available online. Nigel was British and his main expression was “fantastic!” Every time we bummed into Nigel the conversation ended with “fantastic!”

We went back to Max’s and then saw a couple other films, grabbed a slice of pizza, met Damien, another filmmaker, and Helena bought a tank top so we had to get a cab back to the hotel to pick one up for her. By the end of the night we were exhausted and the cab right back to the hotel was an odd one.

[lmtourtales]

Day 1.5: The Steves

Rozz made her connection and arrived in Tulsa at 10:30 pm. We powered walked towards each other and had a huge embrace. We both took a death breath. We made it safely and we were here together. Bare Bones had sent a volunteer, Steve, to come and pick us up from the Tulsa airport and drive us to Muskogee which is about an hour away from the airport. We also thought we were supposed to meet another filmmaker at the airport and we’d all go to Muskogee together. By 11 pm, we still had not heard anything from Steve. We had called and texted his cell phone multiple times with no reply. We called the head of the festival one more time and apparently Steve’s phone had died and he was charging it somewhere in that airport. Then we also asked about the other filmmaker we were supposed to meet. “The other person is you!” Oooh. This is why texting is confusing. We waited outside of the airport for Steve and after about ten minutes we hear someone calling, “I am here to pick up Leah and Rozz.” We matched the voice to man with an empty big gulp. Things were about to get even more interesting. Of course he thought Rozz was a guy. Everyone confuses Rozz with Ross. We were just laughing and Steve went to get the car. After we fit our tons of luggage in the sedan we were on our way to Muskogee.

(starting to go insane with exhaustion)  After about an hour and a half and a bunch of missed turns, we had made it to the Quality Inn. The man at the front desk was also named Steve. We had vouchers we wanted to make sure we could use for our room. Quality Inn Steve was unsure if he could put them into the computer and we decided to deal with it in the morning. Rozz signed paperwork for our room number and we dragged all of our luggage down the hallway to room #211. We were exhausted from a day of stressful travel. Rozz moved the electronic key in and our of the card reader. No dice. After multiple failed tries she goes back downstairs to the front desk. Quality Inn Steve had put us in the wrong room and if the key had worked we would have walked in on people sleeping. Now we are assigned to room #328. We get back in the elevator and drag all our stuff down the left hallway because even though the numbers are going down in sequence the sign point left for #328. Then we realize the sign is wrong and we drag everything all the back way to the small corridor where 328 is.   It is 1 am. The room was good and the bathroom was huge. We settle into bed and fall asleep to the cacophonous sound of the man coughing in the room next door. 

[lmtourtales]

Rozz made it!

Rozz made her connection and was the last one on the flight! YESS!!

[lmtourtales]

Day 1: Travel to Tulsa

I awoke this morning at 7:30 am and realized that today was the day Rozz and I would start our first tour of the documentary film that took us three years to make. “Rock, Rage & Self Defense: An Oral History of Seattle’s Home Alive” would travel to 11 different cities and communities. Our first stop is the Bare Bones International Music and Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I roll over and look at my phone. There is an e-mail update from United titled “Cancellation and Rebooking.” Uh-oh. I open the e-mail, still half asleep, and the copy explains that my second flight from Newark to Tulsa has been cancelled. I have now been rescheduled to arrive in Tulsa on…SUNDAY! WHAT?!?! PANIC ENSUES I hear the shower running, but still scream through the bathroom door to my Mom, the seasoned traveler. She pokes her head out, CALL THE UNITED EMERGENCY NUMBER! I run to my “travel drawer” and pull out the number, call it, and am connected to a woman at United. I explain the situation. “I need to leave today to get to Tulsa! The film screens tomorrow!” I hear silence for about five minutes and then she comes back. “There are absolutely no flights leaving from Baltimore to Tulsa on any possible connections for United, American, and Delta.” *%(^($*$#&@ How is that possible?! I beckon back to Mom who is still getting ready for work. “MOM! NO FLIGHTS FROM BALTIMORE TO TULSA ON ANY AIRLINE.” She responds, “WHAT ABOUT ROUTING YOU THROUGH CHICAGO OR DENVER?!” “NOTHING!” “ASK ABOUT DULLES?!” Dulles is the one airport in the entirety of the continental U.S. that every traveling human being loathes, but I knew what I had to do. “What about Dulles?” I ask the United lady. “One second” On hold with awful elevator music. She comes back on the phone, there is one flight from Dulles to Tulsa at 5 pm. “Book it!” Silence again and she comes back and says that it is confirmed. Hallelujah! Now I have to call Dad and ask if he can take me 2 hours earlier and, oh yeah he has to take me to..... Uh Dulles. I knew he would not be up because he is night owl and rarely wakes at these wee hours of the morning. But I call the house phone five times until he answered. I explain the situation. Luckily, my Dad is a saint and said he’d meet me at 1 pm at my house. I finish all the last minute packing very quickly because I just lost two hours of my day and then walk to the café to do some work. Things at work got very busy, very quickly and Ms. Irena was kind enough to drive me home. As we are leaving my phone rings and it is Dad. *WEEERO WEEERO WEEERO* goes the loud house alarm. He has arrived at the house half an hour early, let himself in, and set off the house alarm. He couldn’t hear me as screaming the code to him over the phone and the cops came and now we are getting fined. Well since Ms. Irena is a Buddhist she taught me a calming chant and we chanted together on the way home to help calm me down with all the craziness that was going on today! It did make me feel better.  Thank you Ms. Irena!

So then Dad and I talk and we kind of laugh about it….but we knew Mom was not going to be happy (Leesha…insert inside joke here). 

I get a text from Rozz that says:  Your flight was cancelled and I stepped in fresh dog sh*t…our luck can only go up!! To Oklahoma we venture!! Anyway then we get on the road to Uh Dulles, and it only took an hour which was amazing timing. I had a nice attendant help me with checking my luggage, but then it took me an hour and a half to get through security and to my gate. Why do you ask? BECAUSE IT IS UH DULLES! I get to my gate, buy a fancy gadget that can battery charge two devices at once, get an iced chai latte, and have a nice conversation with fellow travelers. I am starting to feel calmer and enjoying myself and then… CUE SCREAMING BABY! We get on the plane, but it is one of those small ones that is only three seats in a row: two on one side and one on the other. I’m slightly claustrophobic. I sat next to a nice gentleman, but he had very different beliefs than I did and we have a civil debate for about the entire plane ride. We hit turbulence for about 45 minutes, the plane did, not the conversation, and when I went to open my water bottle it exploded all over me like a water fountain! All we needed was some disco lights and techno music and it would have been worthy of the Barcelona Fountain show. I was completely drenched! I just starting laughing hysterically and my flight mate jumped up and went to get me some napkins. We landed safely, and I was now arriving 4 hours earlier than Rozz because of the flight changes. I turn on my phone and see that her flight has been delayed. I am now waiting in the little Tulsa airport for 5 hours. I’m glad I’m safely here and that I have an amazing and educated travel support system, otherwise this would have been a lot bigger mess than it already was. Cowgirl up because this is going to be a crazy, amazing, hilarious, awesome journey! This already feels like a sitcom. Stay tuned for more entertaining stories from the road. Now there is a couple hardcore making out next to me. GET A ROOM!  P.S. Please let Rozz make her connection she only has 15 minutes to make it!