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Suziey Block
2.1k Plays1 year ago
Suzanne (Suziey) Block was born in Fenton, Michigan. She graduated from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she studied film/video production and theater. Suziey made her film debut in a small scene in Michael Bay's The Island before moving to Los Angeles, California.
This Scream Queen steals the show in Horror in the High Desert, Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva, Entrance, Wonder Valley and more . . .
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Delante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer. So, folks, don't you're a gal? Yeah.
Acting Techniques: Script vs. Improv
00:00:20
Speaker
And, yeah, he would just give me like a script loosely of like what
00:00:27
Speaker
He wanted me to say, and then we would just go for it. I actually didn't know how it was gonna turn out at all. I only knew my part. I think that's what made it so believable. I didn't get like a full script, so I just got my stuff.
00:00:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So I didn't know what the other actors were saying. And I didn't really know. I only knew what I knew. So that makes it very believable that I only knew what Gale, sorry, Gale knew. So yeah. I like that. I like that.
Film Festivals and Unique Viewing Experiences
00:01:01
Speaker
Art in the High Desert 2 Minerva is out. What's it been like? I think recently you had a showing and things like that related to that film.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, we went to the found footage festival unnamed found footage festival in San Francisco, and I waited to watch it because I thought that would be really cool to see it on a big screen. I also like also haven't been to a movie in a movie theater in a long time. So that was cool. Yeah, it's it's way more.
00:01:34
Speaker
It's way more into it. It's not as slow of a burn, I should say, without giving too much away. Dutch jumps right in to some pretty spooky found footage stuff. But it's been really fun. They welcomed us with Open Arms. It's a really great festival with really amazing people. And they were so sweet and so nice. And they loved the movies.
00:02:02
Speaker
I mean, who doesn't love getting love? Yeah, well, the movies are completely excellent. And your performance in them is just great. It's just like super noticeable. And I've watched your other films. So I really enjoy your work. Not to be missed within it is your performance. And that really unique, in the first one, in the unique way of saying like,
00:02:27
Speaker
how that was put together. You mentioned on the second one that you waited to watch it and you hadn't been in the film. Had you done that before? I'm just curious about the experience of like, you finished this film and it's like, I don't know how you don't watch it, but so what was that like going in?
00:02:44
Speaker
It was really exciting. I just wanted to watch it in the big theater. I was in a, I've been in a couple other movies that have been in film festivals and I always think that the energy with a big crowd and seeing how everyone reacts is just way more fun than watching it alone in my living room. So I wanted to wait. Whether they liked it or not, I still love hearing people's reactions, even if it's,
00:03:10
Speaker
even if it's negative, it's just interesting. It's also interesting because they don't know maybe that you're in there listening.
00:03:19
Speaker
hanging around with your popcorn and your doctor nearby just to. Right. Yeah, the director, the director actually just stood in the back of the theater and like paced a bit. Yeah, he couldn't sit still. What an experience. In the film, Infernum and Wonder Valley, you've done a bunch of
00:03:43
Speaker
horror movies.
The Allure of Horror Films
00:03:44
Speaker
Does that come, where's that come from? I mean, I think you said really, you really dig on on horror movies. So like, what's your relationship to horror? Yeah, my dad really got me into horror movies when I was a kid. He's his big thing was kids love to be scared. So I remember seeing Psycho and Village of the Damned when I was younger. And then
00:04:08
Speaker
I remember once he took me to see Pet Sematary in the movie theater and he didn't tell me really what it was about and it really scared me. And I just got like a love for horror movies. We would, my cousins and I would go to the video store and try to
00:04:24
Speaker
rent scary movies and somehow my mom just didn't care and let us watch some pretty disturbing stuff as kids. It happens when you dabble with the horror. Yeah. Yeah. And then as I came out here to LA to do acting, I just fell into it. My first couple of movies that I did were horror and it's like a small family. So once you do one, people know you from that one and then
00:04:49
Speaker
someone on that one's working on a new one. And then they're like, oh, you should be on this one. And before you know it, that's just your genre. And I love it. I wouldn't change it. I think making horror movies are the most fun. I've done a couple other types of movies. And horror, there's just an energy about it. And everyone on set is just trying to really make something fun and cool.
00:05:13
Speaker
And it's just a good time, so I love it. Yeah, I think there's something, I mean, horror film is a different experience for a lot of people. Some people can't watch it. And I know that it has an impact on you, but I think the viewer a lot of times thinks about that. They're going for that to get that energy out. And I tell you, I've never had experiences comparable to watching horror movies.
00:05:42
Speaker
a paranormal activity for the first time in the theater. And I walked out of that theater and I was standing outside the car. I was scared shitless. Like I was like,
00:05:52
Speaker
Do I talk to somebody? It was just, it scared me so much. It felt so real. And there's something about horror movies. I think when I watched Poltergeist, I was at that tender age, like 12 or 13 or something with Poltergeist. And, you know, as far as the feature film, just the images and stuff, there's something thrilling if you look for experiences that can come from horror movies where you're like, I'm really affected right now.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, I thought Blair Witch was real when I first went to the theater. I was like, I can't believe the family is exploiting their children. Yeah, that was messed up. It was like the sticks and the woods and the witchinets of Maryland. I lived in Maryland for a bit and I just knew that area and that creepy something about that that hit just right.
00:06:51
Speaker
What I find interesting about the horror that I've seen you do is the location of the desert and the high desert. So I'm an East Coast guy. I lived in the Midwest and I live in the Pacific Northwest right now. And I've lived in the desert in Klamath Falls on the opposite side of the
00:07:11
Speaker
the range here in Oregon and I've been to New Mexico and Arizona and it's a newer environment for me but I found it fascinating watching harder where you're performing within that realm because I don't think that way I think Jason I think the woods I'm scared of the woods I think certain things and I think the desert is like full of mystery and some of the sound dynamics that are going on in the films that either
00:07:37
Speaker
What do you think about your experience? Am I building it up too much? But the desert is a place for horror. Yeah, I know this one came because this is where Dutch is from. He grew up in a little town of Ely, Nevada. So I think for him, it was just making something while he was at home during the pandemic. I've been in other horror movies that I've been in the desert.
00:08:03
Speaker
And I think it's also a convenience for a lot of filmmakers out here in LA because it is so quick. You can just drive like two hours and then you're in the desert. But I think the vastness of it is really scary. You could definitely hide a body out there and no one would know. I mean, we did some rogue filming for, I was in a movie called American Mummy.
00:08:28
Speaker
And I don't think we were supposed to be out there, but no one ever stopped us. Cause we were just in the middle of nowhere. Like no one even knew we were making a movie out there. Cause that's how vast and you're just alone. And I mean, that's terrifying. Yeah. I, uh, I yeah.
00:08:49
Speaker
I'm intrigued by the desert. I think I'm not exposed to it enough. So I still share some of the kind of like romantic ideas of it. And there's this brute reality of the desert that I would certainly respect before heading in.
00:09:04
Speaker
The hills have eyes, I think, in the desert, too. Everything's dead, if you think about it, too. You have to have a really hard, thick skin to survive and live out there. If you can imagine what's been living out there and wants to do you harm, that's terrifying.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, well, one of the things I picked up on when I first went to Albuquerque, I went a couple times last year, first time in my life, but I felt right off the bat as soon as I got there, that there was just a different energy, like that was moving through and it was like dust and dry and desert. But I was like, this is completely different from the tree respiration of the Pacific Northwest is just a vibe. Yeah.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think like because the woods you can try to survive, there's things that are there to help you survive. And I think in the desert, it's just an environment that's like actively trying to kill you. You just scared me a little more. Yeah, you're right. At least in the woods, you got some stuff you could find out there. Yeah. Where is water? Exactly.
Career Path: From Street Puppetry to Artistry
00:10:09
Speaker
No water.
00:10:12
Speaker
No, thanks for chatting about that. I got to ask you about your work as a puppeteer. Tell me about puppets. I have a friend of mine who is a puppet. She buys really nice puppets and she
00:10:29
Speaker
is a puppeteer with them. I find that a couple, you know, older adults like myself kind of track her down and be like, do a puppet show for us. So love puppets. What's your relationship and work with puppets? Yeah, that's it's a funny story. I was working in a coffee shop when I first came to LA and there was a guy that would street perform
00:10:55
Speaker
in front of the coffee shop a lot. And I thought he was homeless. So I would constantly be giving him free coffee and free food. And in turn, he just thought that I really liked him, because he wasn't homeless. He was just a puppeteer, street performer. And we became really good friends. And he was house-sitting once. And he was like, do you want to come to this house that I'm house-sitting? And I was like, sure.
00:11:25
Speaker
And I went up into like the Hollywood Hills and this person that he was house-sitting for just had puppets everywhere, like Kermit the Frog and all the labyrinth puppets and Jim Henson stuff. And I was like, oh my gosh, this person's obsessed with puppets.
00:11:43
Speaker
And he was like, yeah, well, this is this is Heather Henson's house. This is Jim Henson's daughter. And I was like, so is this really Kermit? Like, is this like Miss Piggy? This is like Miss Piggy. Yeah, you know, probably it's definitely like a prototype. I was like, oh, this is crazy. And.
00:12:00
Speaker
I just loved the kind of puppeteering he did. His name's Eli Presser and he does these like beautiful, almost like Tim Burton-y type of like spooky puppets. And I had just never seen anything like it. And I was like, I want to do what you do. And he's like, okay. And so he just trained me one day and I would street perform with him. And then we just started working on music videos together and
00:12:25
Speaker
He was like, you have a knack for this. I work briefly at Bob Baker marionette theater here in Los Angeles doing puppet shows. And yeah, I guess I just sort of fell into it. If I didn't like set out to be a puppeteer, I had no idea that it was even a skill that
00:12:44
Speaker
I could do. That's not something you talk about all the time when you're a kid. Yeah, I've done like a lot of really cool like immersive theater, like horror immersive theater out here with a group called like Creep LA and doing puppets for them. And yeah, it's just did a couple like music videos for Norah Jones, Seawolf,
00:13:08
Speaker
It's just been a crazy ride. And yeah, I just fell into it. I don't even know what happened, but I love it. I love doing it. It's really weird. And the weirder, we do a lot of really weird puppet shows. So it's outside the box of your normal Jim Henson puppets or marionettes. We kind of push the envelope of,
00:13:35
Speaker
odd and spooky. I like this vibe. I do have to tell you that for the podcast I have announced roles at the time and I do have a patron saint of the show in her name is Avizia Takini and she does
00:13:51
Speaker
puppeteering. It's a Jesus puppet and it should have a disclaimer. That's another topic. But the show has been friendly to puppeteering. I think I like the Henson and the Muppets. It's such an outsized impact on my brain and mind. Again, maybe growing up when I did as well, growing up in the 80s and stuff, it's such a huge impact. And I think
00:14:22
Speaker
The Muppets Christmas Carol is one of the most beautiful, sweet movies, maybe the best holiday movie I've ever seen. And I just, I thought about that last couple of years, just like with the puppets and like the conveyance of like, I don't know, all that stuff that is pretty magical. I don't know. So I'm down with the puppets. So thank you. Yeah, my friend is Thanksgiving every year and we go to his house and
00:14:48
Speaker
his tradition is to watch an episode from The Muppet Show. Love it. Yeah. Muppet Showtime. I want to chat with you about art because it's like looking at the things you've done and some of your interests and some of the things you've already talked about. What's been your relationship with art? Did you see yourself as an artist at a particular point in your life?
00:15:19
Speaker
I don't know. I think I just saw myself as an only child and wanting to be the center of attention at all times. And that just kind of like fell into any type of theater. I was a dance kid. I did like dancer settles when I was really young, community theater. My dad's really into music. My dad's a record producer. And so I grew up with like pretty artistic,
00:15:46
Speaker
household. And acting was just something that I mean, I would do I was, you have to keep yourself busy as an only child. So I would constantly be like, I'd have my Barbies and I would act out a whole entire show, I would write it out first. And I think that just stemmed into any type of way of expressing myself, whether it's through acting,
00:16:10
Speaker
really bad karaoke puppets. I'm not like an artist of like painting wise, I don't think. Though I do like wine and paint nights, those are always fun. But yeah, I don't know. I think what I do is an art form. So yeah, I just, I didn't think I set out to be an artist when I was really young. I just kind of,
00:16:37
Speaker
knew what I like to do to have fun. And I wanted to continue to do that for like the rest of my life somehow. Yeah, like the nine to five jobs. So I wanted to make
00:16:50
Speaker
this work. Yeah, it does sound always like as an identity question, an interesting one. I always get different answers because I know sometimes it has to do with the definition of what an artist is when you answer the question. I would look at the things that you do externally, not knowing you, but seeing your performances and things like the puppeteering and hearing you talk about.
The Role of Art in Society
00:17:18
Speaker
always wanting to perform in theater and you know just like that whole performance or the intent to to create. So I always I like sometimes I'm I have an artist that I see a particular way and they come on the show and they're like oh I'm not really an artist like I'm something different you know like I'm something different and
00:17:40
Speaker
So leading into the question of what art is, I was wondering your opinion on what is art and what you think art is. I think art is just a way of a self-expression, whether it comes out in acting, music, singing, painting.
00:18:04
Speaker
Every character I play is an extension of myself. I always try to put myself in every character one way or the other because otherwise I don't feel like I'm real and I want all my characters to be real. I don't want to seem like I'm acting. So yeah, I think art is just an expression of yourself, putting yourself out there, being vulnerable and taking a chance.
00:18:34
Speaker
Whether it's well received or not, you learn either way. Even bad press is good press. Any press is good press. That I've learned, I've been told, and nobody's disproved it exactly.
00:18:51
Speaker
I mean, sometimes when I hear that a movie has gotten terrible reviews, I immediately want to watch it. I mean, in horror reviews, I would say for myself is like,
00:19:05
Speaker
When there's positive inattentive thinking going to horror and analyzing it and criticizing, that's a different beast than subjecting horror movies to the regular critical view. It doesn't fit in. It's never good enough. So I find reviews in horror to be the ones you have to parse out the most because they're incredibly unreliable. And you got to...
00:19:32
Speaker
You know, when you read in the review of somebody who understands hard, they don't have to be obsessed about it, but somebody understands what's being attempted with the film. And then it's like there's a cure and a consideration of you're operating within, say, found footage and horror and what techniques are being used. And I think sometimes there's a blunt analysis of this doesn't look like Gallipoli, so. Yeah. Sucks. Yeah.
00:19:58
Speaker
It's definitely good when you get a good review on like definite like fangoria or dread central or one of those like that specialize in horror movies and watching horror movies and they know horror.
00:20:13
Speaker
One of the things I've enjoyed on the show is on horror movies, I've had a couple of directors of Friday the 13th fan films that have kind of continued on from the Friday the 13th franchise and they're really high quality and I've really enjoyed having James Sweet and Vincent DeSanti on the show and being able to drop in
00:20:36
Speaker
to like film horror as a real tree. And those are kind of like Kickstarter films and stuff. So there tends to be a lot of community around that. Related to your thoughts about art, I wanted to ask you, Susie, what do you think the role of art is? And I've asked this recently in the sense of,
00:21:00
Speaker
as I've talked to folks recently, I don't know, it's politics and climate change and the way the world feels now in 2023 versus, at least for me, versus a few years ago, has the role of art changed or do you think it's, you know, it's. Um, I think it's, I actually think it's needed even more to be honest, um, with the way our world is. Um, I think people need the outlet, uh,
00:21:30
Speaker
They need that like, they need the entertainment. They need something to inspire them. They need something that speaks to them, whatever kind of art it is. So I think it's even more important. I think it's gonna keep growing in importance as, yeah. I mean, it's always really been important if you look back on history too. Like that's always everyone's,
00:21:59
Speaker
When things were bad and things were hard, everyone would look to art, look to going to the theater, look to reading books, look to going to a museum and that sort of thing. So yeah, did I answer the question? Yeah, yeah.
00:22:17
Speaker
I forgot it halfway through. With this show. It's respectful of the quality within the show with me and my guests, but I don't call people back. It's like, let's keep going.
00:22:33
Speaker
So one of the things I was interested in, as far as your thoughts on art being more important now, one of the things I've been wondering lately is
00:22:48
Speaker
I would say it's both a very tangible obsession with crime, horror, you know, you see it within podcasts, you see it within culture and stuff. And in my head, being a horror fan and thinking about like the pandemic or thinking like deep into that, like what's happened with people.
00:23:08
Speaker
Susie, what's going on with people like tripping out on like all the horror and true
True Crime: Cultural Fascination and Implications
00:23:13
Speaker
crime? Do you know what's going on? It feels very palpable and huge. I mean, I'm guilty for that. We're guilty parties. There's no reason for defense here. I don't know. I think it's the psychology of it for me. I can't speak for everyone. I love
00:23:33
Speaker
watching true crime and I love watching anything about serial killers or just people that have like flipped their lid because like I just want to know why. I want to know what happened. I want to like the psychology. I want to know what's in their brain and why their brain is the way that it is which because for me it's just that's just so crazy of a way to be and I could never imagine doing that.
00:24:01
Speaker
So I want to know what is going on inside their head. So I obsessively listen to that stuff. And it's not like I'm not idolizing anyone that commits crime like that. I just am so curious to know.
00:24:17
Speaker
Like why? Like what happened? I mean, a lot of it seems to stem from childhood trauma, but sometimes not always. Sometimes it's just someone who just kind of was totally okay and then just like snapped.
00:24:32
Speaker
So it's like, I noticed there's that psychological piece of figuring that out. When I went to, I studied philosophy. I have creds. I studied philosophy at Marquette University, mid-90s. And I lived four blocks from where Dahmer's apartment building was. And I could see the Ambassador Hotel from where my apartment was. It was like one block over that way where
00:25:02
Speaker
And I, you know, it's like a deep fascination with the true horror. Like there's this, like the apartment buildings demolished, but I just stare at it and see what's there. It's like, it's really strange, particularly in like industrial Wisconsin, like in old months, you know, that type of thing. Wisconsin's pretty big. Midwest is pretty good on the history of
00:25:32
Speaker
serial killers, you go to the Midwest, you can spend a lot of time there. But yeah, I think a lot of the psychology is what really, what really becomes like, fascinating, or like, what the heck somebody or like, did they snap or is
00:25:45
Speaker
Like, you know, also when you hear them, like a serial killer talk and you start to like listen to them and they talk, I don't know, say normal, but like you're listening to them talk and you're like, I don't want to keep following your brain that way. But there's, there's this kind of trickery or something.
00:26:05
Speaker
Well, that's probably somebody's PhD thesis and we shouldn't really. I mean, part of me wanted to go into like criminal psychology when I was in college just because I was so fascinated with how that part of the brain functioned and why it worked the way it worked or didn't work or yeah.
00:26:29
Speaker
And speaking of finally, we'll leave this horror piece here, but I was thinking of the desert in LA, and I've been long fascinated by the Manson family, and that there, I thought of the desert now, so we were talking about it earlier, and is...
00:26:57
Speaker
Culturally, what I wanted to ask about that culturally, the whole thing with that, is that a mythos down there? Is it so far away? Or does it still have this spooky element of the terror and the horror of late 60s, the killing of a starlet, all of that?
00:27:16
Speaker
I mean, I listen to, it's funny, I think it's still happening. I think we just don't know much about, I listen to a lot of podcasts about true crime that still kind of goes on in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and it's still so spooky. Charles Manson, you know, being one, I think everyone's obsessed with him and his story because, you know, he didn't actually
00:27:41
Speaker
For him being able to convince a bunch of people to do something for him is just crazy and so powerful. And that's so scary. Yeah, that was, I think that's the core of it right there, right? Yeah. Um, but I mean, I, I don't know, I've never, um, it's one, it's on one of my bucket list to go to, um, where he kind of, his little hideout is in the desert. I haven't, yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah, I see. I don't, without trying to glorify it too much, I'm just, just, it's mostly curiosity. Like I definitely don't want to like, I'm not like someone who is like, Oh my gosh, I love Charles Manson.
00:28:22
Speaker
But I'm just so curious. Well, there's Hollywood stuff there and not like, like, you know, the spawn ranch being like the kind of the old westerns, you know, like where they would film some of the westerns and have like the horses from there. And that's that part of Hollywood was dying. And like, you had people on that ranch who were like, existing, but they were just kind of out in the desert kind of like,
00:28:45
Speaker
They floated away from LA and they just moved in. It's a strange space to think of. And I think in relation to LA, obviously Tarantino built up as far as the connection to Hollywood, but there's an LA underbelly or horror or ghost or something.
00:29:05
Speaker
in there, I think. So you're from Michigan, Susie. Yeah, I was gonna say real quick, it's funny you bring up Charles Manson, too, in in Wonder Valley. I think you said you watched Wonder Valley. We filmed, supposedly, there's like a room where I'm sitting in and not to give away too much, but I'm getting being forced to eat really gross meat.
00:29:27
Speaker
That house that we filmed in was apparently Charles Manson's childhood home briefly when he was like two or three years old. And the woman that let us film there, the reason she let us film there and let it, because it was so gross, is because she was in the middle of redoing it to have it be like a B&B where people could stay in Charles Manson's childhood home. It was really spooky.
00:29:56
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. I was starting to ask you about Michigan. Let's not go anywhere yet. I'm just saying, like, I want it, like, yeah, I don't know if she ever fixed it up or if it actually is rented, you know, rentable now. But I mean, we were filming there at night, too, and it was always just something always felt off. And I know he only lived there when he was a little kid, supposedly. That's what this woman said. But it definitely
00:30:23
Speaker
It was so spooky filming there. I mean, it's so quiet. Nothing around. Nothing was there. Yeah, I mean.
00:30:31
Speaker
Even if it was there when he was younger, he was a deep delinquency, like, off, like, I mean, like, really early on with him. So I think about, like, the energies. And it must have felt weird being just being out there then. You didn't know that then? Or like, they were like, hey, we do that then when we were filming. She, like, told us. She was very proud of it. So she told us all about it.
00:30:56
Speaker
I don't know if she had any proof, but she's a woman who's living in the desert. I would like to think it's not made up. I would like to think that it was true. Let's ask a different art question then into our conversation.
00:31:15
Speaker
What's his name? Bobby Bosley, one of the killers in the Manson family. He's an artist in prison, right? And so I've been fascinated and say, what do you do with art from the hands of a killer? And what do we do with Charles Manson songs, which catch your ear? Because I've listened to Charles Manson songs because I'm
00:31:37
Speaker
deeply fascinated by what that is. And what happens when a Manson song catches your ear? What do we do with that type of stuff? Or what do you do? What do you suggest? Like, any ideas? Um, I don't know if there's a way to, uh, part of me doesn't want to support them at all because they're killers. Yeah. I mean, it's like, I just, I don't want to like, but at the same time, is there a way to separate, um, their art for what they
00:32:05
Speaker
they did? Is their art really good? Or yeah, is it? Is it because they're who they are? Or do we really like it? Because it's, it's catching our eye? Or is it catching our eye and ear because of who they are? You know, their, their pen or their paint was, you know, that was, that was on it. I think it's, I thought it was just an interesting question. Because like, let's say somebody, let's say both still
00:32:27
Speaker
area so he was uh he was you know convicted killer and let's say right after that he goes through an intense completely religious conversion of true follower of christ in all past right deep sinner now i'm there and now he does other types of of of art i've always thought of like those type of questions of like can we ever receive should we ever receive our and and you know from there and if we do
00:32:55
Speaker
you know, do we buy it because the money goes to the victim's fund? Or can you buy it when, you know, I think those things just fascinate me. And I don't Yeah, it's like, well, Gacy was an artist too, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you're like, I, yeah, I don't maybe if the money goes somewhere good. But then do you want to have that art in your house? Yeah, I know. I don't, I don't know if I would be proud of that. I would be like,
00:33:26
Speaker
Energy can travel. And I know for some folks to be like, no, like you'd only put that even like, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's hard because it's like whether or not if, if they're redeemed, if they're a better person, if they've changed, can people really change? Can people that do that change? I don't know. I, I, I have no, only they know if they really have become, um, you know,
00:33:51
Speaker
if they've really have become a different person and decided that what they did was wrong. Yeah, it's hard. And I watch a lot of like stuff too about people who are in prison and listen to like their stories and how they feel now. And half of me is like, I totally believe that they feel really bad. And the other half is like, oh, I don't really fuck with me. Right. You did too much. It's like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's so yeah.
00:34:19
Speaker
I can't it's that's that's in their heart and soul I guess they have to I don't know if I would want to buy their art though I might just give money to the the victim's fund and then the art can just go somewhere I don't know you can burn it or something well thanks for kicking this one around boy I don't I don't know I even think it shows up sometimes on film right so like let me let me
00:34:41
Speaker
if you'd indulge me, like thinking about The Shining, right? Shelley Duvall, right? So the text, the film, what's captured there is tied to our heads in what we know now to be some sort of psychological abuse. And it's a remnant. Now you're watching The Shining, which for me is a brilliant film, just for me, just my opinion. And you're watching some sort of
00:35:10
Speaker
video of the stress or acting and it gets it's been weirder for me watching that film recently. I still watch it. Yeah, weirder though. It's Yeah, I mean, I've had I've had directors to where I've had to be
00:35:27
Speaker
I don't want to say pushed, but I guess triggered whether or not it was crossing a boundary. I don't know. It definitely got the performance that was needed.
00:35:42
Speaker
I try to like car pen cart like put it in one section on my brain. I can't say that word. I can't say compartmentalize. I wouldn't know if I would I didn't know if I'd get it right. Yeah, I'm terrible with pronunciation. But yeah, I mean, I I don't know like I there's that one to the the hills. No, no, the Oh,
00:36:07
Speaker
It's on the tip of my tongue where she was like a fake raped, but then she comes out later saying, I spit on your grave. Oh yeah, of course. And there's like a really tremendous like rape scene where she was like actually like handled wrong and they really put her through the ringer as well. Right, right. It's like, do we watch that for art's sake or do we, you know, veto it? Yeah, it definitely, definitely puts into like a sour taste in your mouth. I would never want,
00:36:36
Speaker
you know, a director to do that to me. The stuff that I've had done is basically like, you know, your dog just died and like that kind of thing. So like a picture of my dead dog, which made me cry out of nowhere. Like the hierarchy, the hierarchy, the strange hierarchy where it was like, it was just one of the
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, they did that one on the unit work. Yeah, for me acting wise to like substitutions always been big and big help for me. So I always try to think of something if I have to have an emotional scene something in my real life that really did make me.
00:37:09
Speaker
you know, upset and emotional. And that's helped me get a real performance. But I'm also like, you know, a healthy person, I've worked through a lot of shit. So it doesn't hurt me to bring it back up. But it is useful. I should say, yeah. Oh, no, thanks. Thanks for the thanks. Thanks for the insight. And
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, and like I said, I've seen a few of your films now, recently seen some of your older ones and really appreciate your work there. I don't think that's to be missed. I think sometimes within...
00:37:48
Speaker
you know acting or even within horrors if you know i think there's like i was trying to point to earlier there's subtleties and things that are going on that are missed but uh i just want to let you know i saw those uh in the film they were remarkably effective within the overall uh of what you're doing so thank you yeah yeah i think we're doing like um
Recognition and Career Growth in Horror Films
00:38:10
Speaker
I mean, Jamie Lee Curtis won an Oscar, which is awesome. And she's an old screen queen. So it's just really impressive. You have Jordan Peele making like exceptional, wonderful horror movies and getting like noticed as well, which is so awesome. And I think, you know, horror is not.
00:38:27
Speaker
to be, you know, we're not, it's, you know, acting in a horror movie is not easy. And I, I don't think a lot of people realize that to just run and cry all the time is takes a lot out on you. So it's nice when horror gets recognized by its peers, I guess I should say. Well, I think the public sometimes holds two things, right? Like it's,
00:38:52
Speaker
It's easy, but I also recognize failure all the time within it, right? Like, she's not there, not believable. And it's, like I said, kind of common conceptions of horror don't do any work for me as far as understanding anything. So I was jumping in, we stayed in the desert there, but just wanted to ask you about your experience in Michigan and like, you know, acting. And I know you went to,
00:39:21
Speaker
You studied film there. So your trajectory, what just you want to talk a bit about that experience and being there and working in film? Yeah, I mean, I grew up in the country, 10 acres of nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And I started, like I said, with dance and then a lot of community theater, so much community theater growing up.
00:39:49
Speaker
Never, like a lot of musicals. And then when I went to college, my parents really wanted me to have a degree to fall back on. They didn't want me to do drama. They did not want me to study theater. And all I wanted to do was study theater and do drama.
00:40:10
Speaker
But I was making, I got a video camera when I was really young, like 14. And I was making videos with my friends and my cousins. And I really-
00:40:22
Speaker
What kind of camera? High eight millimeter camera. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. And then I also had, I had a like a super eight camera too. I want to go jump camera. Yeah. And I just started making videos and I was in high school and someone asked me if I did weddings and I think I was like 16. And I was like, I could do a wedding. Yeah. Knowing nothing about what I was doing. 500 dollars, 500 dollars.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah, and then it snowballed from there, and I started making wedding videos. So my parents, I think, saw that. And my dad had a recording studio, so I would make music videos for his bands that he was recording, and then I'd make wedding videos. And I think my mom's a nurse, so she's very logical on having a degree and going to work. And my dad's more of the free spirit.
00:41:18
Speaker
I think my dad would be more okay with me doing theater, but when I did tell my dad I wanted to be an actress, he's like, you want to be a waitress then. I was like, okay. But I think they saw film as something that
00:41:32
Speaker
could pay the bills. I think they thought that I could do wedding videography or make music videos like with local bands and stuff like that. So when I decided to do film, they were like, that's okay. You can study film.
00:41:48
Speaker
even though as soon as I graduated college, I left Michigan and moved to LA for acting. If you just walked around, said cinema for a couple of months around, I mean, cinema. Exactly. Well, so you got the film and that's interesting to hear as far as I adore Super 8. My Super 8 camera is
00:42:13
Speaker
not acting the way it should, but my dad bought it in 73 cause he wanted to take super eight of little Kenny when he was like one, you know, and, um, that I used that super eight camera for a while. And like, I can't, I couldn't adore something more than that little
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think my mine also was my dad's as well. My dad was also really into photography and stuff like that. So when I when I did move to LA, he did give me a lot of like his old like 35 millimeter camera, like, you know, photography cameras and some like a medium format camera he gave me.
00:42:52
Speaker
to take out here. And because when I was in college, I would it was great being a film student and then being able to still I was still doing wedding videos and I was still doing music videos. But instead of my just my high eight camera with like one camera, I was able to like rent out, you know, three cameras and then pay my friends to like help. So I'd like a whole plus lady, a whole little business going on. Yeah, it was
00:43:19
Speaker
It was crazy. And then I came out to LA and I just stopped doing that. I wanted to really try to do acting. I mean, I came out here not knowing anyone. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no clue. I was...
00:43:34
Speaker
I was like, well, I'll start working, I guess, as a waitress, like my dad said, see what happens. You had just like a deep familiarity with like working professionally with film already, you know, so. Yeah, I mean, I did like in film school, we made movies, you know, we that's what we did. And it was great because I would be in all my friends movies in film school, because I was also I had a theater minor, I was in the theater, I was still in the theater in college.
00:44:01
Speaker
I just wasn't majoring in it. So I would still be in all my friends' student films. And I did my first feature film. I was working as a PA in Detroit on a feature film. And I got to be a waitress in it and a dead body.
00:44:20
Speaker
And that was like super cool. Waitress and dead body and acting. It's all like this. It was and it was a horror movie. It was like a D&D horror movie. D&D horror movie. Hey, this sounds great. Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
Game gone wrong type of premise? I think it's called night chills. I don't even know if it's even out there. But I know it's about a kid who played D&D who was made fun of and I know that he dies and he comes back as his big burly D&D character and seeks revenge on everybody that was mean to him.
00:44:57
Speaker
Yeah, like, like barbarian or something. Yeah. It was a night. It was a big night. Okay. Yeah, night chills. That's why it was the KNI, GHD. Well, I
00:45:09
Speaker
You know, D&D is back on the big screen and never going anywhere as many of us know. I was watching a documentary on the big scare around the D&D in the 80s and stuff like that. I don't, I remember elements of that. I didn't realize it was such a big deal, like the engine of like the devil or something like that. It was much bigger of a deal than maybe I gave it credit for or paid it to at the time.
00:45:40
Speaker
I think I did The Island and I was in Michael Bay's The Island. I was a background person. I did that when I was in Michigan still. I got to find you in that film. That's a cool film. I love the environment in that one. Yeah, I was actually just there with a friend who was working as a PA on wardrobe and I had done a hair show where my hair was really weird.
00:46:01
Speaker
I was like a weird futuristic odd haircut. And Michael Bay asked if I was background. And they're like, no, she's just helping out with wardrobe. And he's like, can you just have her in this shot though? Because I like her hair. So I got to be in some shot that I think is even edited out.
00:46:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was really cool. I like never got you know, never was on a big set like that before. And I get get in there should have just popped off and said you're in, you know, XYZ scene, it's, you know, right around right now and be like, Oh, she said, I like her hair. She's in those scenes too. Yeah, it was really fun. But um, but yeah, I
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah, I did another movie too out there. I can't remember what it's called right now. It's escaping me, but I know my mom went to set with me because she was nervous. It was a night shoot. She didn't want me there by myself. And I played a nurse and so did my mom. My mom actually got to play a nurse because they were setting up some patient and they put all the tubes in wrong. And my mom being a nurse was like going crazy. Yeah. She's like, you're putting a catheter in someone's nose.
00:47:14
Speaker
It doesn't go there. So they brought her on to set and they're like, well, do you tell us what to do? Oh goodness. Yes. I can see how, how you both got involved for sure. How she got involved. Um, uh, so yeah, so, uh, so you worked with film a lot and you moved from Michigan and LA and then you got, you got involved and, um,
00:47:42
Speaker
Yeah, I did a movie. It's funny, my dad did all these audio for one of my movies, like mixing. He did all the stereo sound for a movie called Entrance, which was crazy because he's in Michigan. And the director of that was actually filming something else that he was working on in Michigan. And on his days off, would go to my dad's studio and they would mix the movie. My dad was really sweet and did it for free.
00:48:12
Speaker
very nice I um I had recognized before it's in a photo that you're a Death Valley girls fan yeah and I had them on the show I just want to tell you a quick shout out to Death Valley girls um I had them
Creative Collaborations and Philosophical Musings
00:48:30
Speaker
I was able to interview them before going into a small music club bar, Kelly's, well known in Portland, and then capture a bootleg inside. It was so fun to interact with them and definitely thinking of creative energy and sharing and all that stuff. And then I had Sammy Westervelt was also
00:48:53
Speaker
in the band, Don. And soon, I am having Bonnie Blumgarten, the lead singer, and she, we're gonna talk about UFOs. Oh. Oh, she's, I'm doing research, but Susie, it was easier to do research for you. I could watch, you know, your films and read about you on the UFO thing. I don't know which angle to take, so. My parents saw UFOs.
00:49:22
Speaker
Did they tell us? My mom and dad were driving home late one night and we lived in the country, like I said, in Michigan. And they came to a stop sign.
00:49:38
Speaker
And a silver-looking, saucer-looking thing came down right in front of them. And my mom describes it as almost iridescently clear, but still had weird colors. And it was like she could see inside it and things moving around inside.
00:50:00
Speaker
and then as quickly as it dropped down it just vanished and like the the trees all shook and it was just gone and that was my mom and dad saw it and they didn't even know what to say to each other they were just like yeah whoa yeah
00:50:22
Speaker
So whether it's a UFO, I mean, definitely a UFO, but whether it's aliens, I don't, I don't know. They don't know, but. Well, Bonnie Boulevard and Death Valley girls. It's nice to, it's nice to connect with you and then we'll connect with them. I was watching the second season of Fargo.
00:50:39
Speaker
again and I forgot about the aliens motif that was in the second season of that show so I was like super excited to see that again after a few years but yeah UFOs aliens and when I moved to Oregon southern Oregon man I had so many people telling me stories it's like a huge the Oregon
00:51:04
Speaker
strange place I live in. But the, in the woods in southern Oregon, there's a ton of sightings of, you know, UFOs. And I've talked to people, you know, just had deep conversations with them. And they talk about it as this is like a central point or a location or something. And I don't know, I don't know the whole, you know, the whole thing, but I was very
00:51:32
Speaker
people would openly talk about, well, people talk to me about a lot of things, but like, just like excited about it, like, and being like, hey, do you know? And so- Yeah, I mean, on the way to Ely, Nevada, you have to take the extraterrestrial highway for a little bit. Do you? Is that really? Yeah. Damn.
00:51:52
Speaker
Which is cool. I got a road trip. I've been reading too many Hunter S. Thompson books and thinking about this. I might have a road trip out of this. Okay, Susie. I saw Death Valley girls in a concert in the desert. Did you? Yeah, that's how I found out about them. I went to a festival called Desert Days. And they were just playing and I was like, these chicks are rad. So I immediately bought their t-shirt.
00:52:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun. And I've been interested in a lot of, since I've been doing the podcast, connecting to like the collective energy of festivals, you know, of cons and things like that, it's just different than I found like, it's cool to be at those music festivals. I just, I'm reminiscent, I went to Woodstock 94, I was talking about it to somebody recently, and I'm like,
00:52:47
Speaker
Woodstock, 94 is 2023. Okay, 30th anniversary for Woodstock, 1994. That's awesome. Coming up. So the question is, Susie, the question of the podcast is, why is there something rather than nothing? Gosh, there's a really great,
00:53:15
Speaker
There's a really great piece of art at Burning Man this year. Oh, I want to look it up because I took a photo of it and it has to do with your question. Take your time. Yeah, let's talk about it. I want to know what it said because I feel like it could be a great answer to this question. This year, do you went recently to Burning Man? I do. Yeah, I go every year. Do you?
00:53:42
Speaker
I do. Yeah. I've never been. It's crazy and wonderful at the same time. Also in the desert, also in an environment that is actively trying to kill you. Oh, boy. You keep bringing that up. So your question was, say one more time. Why is there something rather than nothing? But you'd have the answer on your phone. Well, the art piece is a big thing that says the only other thing is nothing.
00:54:14
Speaker
I like categorically the only other thing. Wow. I think you've tricked. Thank you. I think I've like weirdly answered it but made it more confusing.
00:54:28
Speaker
No, I think you might have provided another automatic answer. I really enjoy that answer. The other one, because I'm such a big Douglas Adams fan, the Hitchriker's Guide to the Galaxy, you can say the number 42 and get away and go on to the next question and talk about your work. So I really like that. I really like that a lot. And I like it came from...
00:54:47
Speaker
Burning Man, just talking about festivals and cons and stuff. And it came from the desert as well. The wisdom comes from the desert. That's what we've arrived upon. We didn't know how to say it earlier, but the wisdom of the desert. Susie, how do listeners
00:55:09
Speaker
Find your film, find where the films are. Yeah, I think a lot of them, I have a bunch on Tubi. You got to love the free streaming service. Straight up. Yeah, there's a bunch on there. I know there's a couple found footage ones that I've been in. I recently had someone tell me, they're like, Oh, I saw your other found footage film. And I'm like, I've been in another one.
00:55:40
Speaker
You didn't even get credits. I mean, this sounds like a union issue. I forgot that it was a found footage element film, so I forgot that it was. I just, yeah. But I don't... Yeah, so there's one on Tubi that was just released called Where's Amy Pressman that I did. It was my very first movie, so be kind. That's on Tubi. That's cool. I know I asked you the question, but I know.
00:56:06
Speaker
on on amazon they have the horror in the high desert which yeah i was gonna say amazon i know there i have a lot of movies on amazon as well um i think entrance is still on amazon um that's a i i feel like that movie was i mean that's the movie i i i have to give credit for being in to even get me to horror in the high desert um because dutch the director of that movie saw me in entrance and
00:56:34
Speaker
saw me at like a coffee shop and basically waited for me outside the coffee shop to talk to me. And I thought he was joking when he was like saying, I'm a huge fan. And I'm like, oh, bullshit. He was like, no, I really am. And then we started talking and he was doing infernum. And so I ended up being an infernum and from infernum went to and to horn the high desert. So
00:56:59
Speaker
I know entrances out there. Yeah. Gosh, I wish I knew. I wish I had more answers. No. I think they're out there somewhere. No, and I got the horror in the high desert.
00:57:11
Speaker
That's definitely Amazon and 2B. Yeah, I purchased that one. It was a good price and it was a good rental price there. Infernum was on Amazon and you know, it's streaming. The stuff's out there. It's great too. It's great. But yeah, folks, a lot of stuff on Amazon and you can find your film credits on IMDB where you get things. I'm on Twitter and Instagram.
00:57:40
Speaker
Facebook. I'm not a TikToker yet, though. Everyone keeps telling me I need to be. Yes. I'm like, I just feel too old. No, it's I'm very fascinated by TikTok. I don't like being fascinated by things for too long a time without being able to
00:58:04
Speaker
make the effort or interact. I don't like to have opinions from afar forever when something's dynamic with that. I always am intrigued by what people can do with video, you know, and there's dynamics right now that it's tough to gain attention of folks, you know, but I think, you know, it's like podcasts face that and films and all that type of thing. But
00:58:34
Speaker
You know, I think there's something about paying attention to what's there in the quality and spending some time with art, which is what I try to do because otherwise it feels facile and quick moving and just non-attentive. So I am a very big attentive fan of you, Susie Block. Thank you. That's so sweet.
00:58:58
Speaker
Yeah, and enjoy your openness talking about like puppeteering and horror and that and all that I got a lot of spooky stuff in the in the podcast, which is pretty cool like painters, you know, kind of one who does watercolors based off old
00:59:19
Speaker
old photographs, particularly children and brings them out in large size watercolor names, Brianna C. Martins. And a recent episode I recorded with Ryan Brosmer, just recently within the last few days, I was staying at the Hasidah head lighthouse in Oregon, which is haunted. Oh, yeah, ghost is a whole other thing. I could talk about that forever, too.
00:59:45
Speaker
We can't leave, I don't know how much time you have. I'm not ending this episode with when we got to broach ghosts and I would talk and you would talk. So tell me some ghost stuff. I think, yeah, I definitely think, I can't tell if ghosts are ghosts or if it's just a weak spot in a multiverse.
01:00:08
Speaker
Keep going with that, keep going with that. Like I really don't know if that's just like our two worlds kind of having like a soft spot so we just see the other world or are we, is it someone in a past life or an entity or a supernatural of some sort? I don't know, I tend to go down rabbit holes on the internet about both subjects because I just
01:00:35
Speaker
I saw a ghost once when I was younger and I saw something. I don't know what it was. But it's just like, I don't know, I don't know what it, I can't explain it. So I just am fascinated and I want to figure it out. And I've still never been able to figure it out. When you saw the ghost, did you see it or just? It was like, there's a moment where
01:01:01
Speaker
Friends of my bro, we broke in to an abandoned statute of limitations. I'm not a lawyer, but we're waiting. We broke into this abandoned house that was in a campground where I grew up. I won't say the campground, so I don't get in trouble.
01:01:19
Speaker
There you go. I said, I'm not a lawyer. I wasn't giving you lawyer advice. I'm giving you. I don't know if I'll get trouble, but I'm thinking, well, we broke in and we heard it was haunted. Nothing really scary was happening. We were sitting in this little area and all of a sudden it looked like someone sat, there was like a cushy chair next to us and it, and it looked like someone sat in the, in the chair. Um, and this happened right after my friend turned a light on.
01:01:49
Speaker
And then it looked like a butt print and a back print went into the chair. And as we saw that, we then noticed that the light wasn't plugged in, yet it was on. And then we ran.
01:02:03
Speaker
as fast as we could. Like it scared the pejivas. Like we were just, nope. You think like in a, every time I watch the ghost adventures type shows, I'm always like, how do they stay around there when they hear or see something? Because
01:02:19
Speaker
I want to pee my pants and run. I was so scared. Just flight response completely activated and we were gone. I can never get it out of my head. I don't really know
01:02:38
Speaker
What happened? I also have like some really spooky noises I caught once with my cousin. We were playing the Ouija board and I videotaped it. And there's two moments where there are whispers and a low growl. What? I still have that tape. And I don't know what that is either. And that, you know, that has stuck with me. So I don't know.
01:03:05
Speaker
Wow. No, I, um, I haven't, I'm not the, um, like in my human, like regular human relationships, not ghost relationships. I don't have any, but like I tend to be an empath. However, I'm not sensitive to, I don't find myself sensitive to.
01:03:23
Speaker
whether it's that slippage from the multiverse or the other energies that are around us. I'm not particularly sensitive to that at all, though. I can get the little hairs in the back of my neck stick up sometimes in situations and spooky moments. I had a roommate once who I think was haunted by something, so therefore my house was haunted. The lights would flicker a lot. Really, it just felt something spooky, and then as soon as she moved out,
01:03:51
Speaker
that went with her. She ended up seeing a witch doctor in South America, and he told her that she had an entity that she needed to have removed from her, which was just crazy. And so I don't know if I'm
01:04:08
Speaker
sensitive to it, but I definitely just feel, something feels off. If I'm in a place where I feel like, I don't know, it just, it's like when you meet a serial killer, you're like, something's not right about this guy. I'm not going to go home with him. That's the actor you get going the other way. Yeah, it's like, it's the same feeling. It's like, got weird. I don't know. My cat sometimes here will, he'll he'll just meow in the dining room and nothing like up
01:04:35
Speaker
my roommate and i just joke and relate to ghost or he sees the the weakness in the multiverse i don't know i tell you you know i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you some props there i hadn't thought like i'm into multiverse stuff because i'm a comic book guy right so now it's like it affects your head but yeah i i always i always think of like in maybe just always think about the ghost in terms of energy and maybe not so much
01:04:58
Speaker
energy transference of moving between realms. So I'm very fascinated by that idea. And we can get somebody on who's like a quantum physics person who explain how what we're saying is the science behind it as well. Yeah, I mean, there was a there was a young kid that talked about he like explained, you know, the Mandela effect.
01:05:23
Speaker
where people remember certain things a certain way, and that's not the way it was. Because there was a YouTube video of him many, many years ago. He's like an 11-year-old kid. And he said it was when that big atom collider was turned on. I forget what it's called in Sweden or somewhere. They turned it on.
01:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, the particle accelerator. Yes. And everyone like nothing happened. But in reality, something did happen. Our world imploded. But because multiverses are stacked on top of each other really closely, we just
01:05:59
Speaker
our matter, because two different matters can't exist in the same place. So we just meld it in with the Susie below, and maybe the Susie up top. So that's why I remember the two different ways things were because our brains are mush. I mean, it was like, yeah, I don't know. My brain and philosophy, psychology, we're doing what we're supposed to do on this show.
01:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know what it is. You know, I grew up going to Christian school, so I don't know if it's like something, you know. I grew up Catholic as well. I grew up Lutheran. So basically the same thing, we're just dating Catholics. It's a ghost. It's not being funny or anything like that, but just like the presence of ghosts and spirits is like embedded.
01:06:50
Speaker
I mean, The Exorcist was the scariest movie I'd ever seen when I was a kid, that movie. That movie. Hey, have you ever read the book, The Exorcist? No. The only reason I mention is my dad, he, my dad is reading a lot more books in retirement than he did, but he'd always get on me. He said, Ken,
01:07:08
Speaker
I was like, I read The Exorcist. You're a big book guy. You go to the university and all that shit. You got to read The Exorcist. And like, I didn't. I didn't. Maybe I was like, you know, like a snob to The Exorcist book. You got to read it. You got to read it. About eight years ago, I read it.
01:07:26
Speaker
I was blown away. It was so incredibly written, rich, psychologically like, incredible. And I'm like, I called him up like sheepishly. I'm like, Ken Senior. I'm like, Hey, dad, sorry. You told me for 30 years and I read, he said, I told you.
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a big, I love reading books. I read a lot of Stephen King. I read a lot of, I don't know, I love horror books. I love even like biographies of people's insane life stories. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I love to read. I love to read a book too, not like on my phone. Yeah. I like holding a book. Yeah. I think it's the old fashioned person of me that just wants the book.
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah. Wonderful. Well, I, you know what, we've covered it all, but I'm sure we'll in the future. We'll have to talk about some more things. Maybe we'll drop covered a lot. We will do the Susie block. We'll do, we'll do some book recommendations. I have, I'm thinking about your captured audio and what's going on with that. I find it also, um,
01:08:39
Speaker
Also fascinating, but um you know what um by the way to one of the things going on with the show where I'm really excited about is um
01:08:49
Speaker
My day job's a uni guy. I moonlight doing my art stuff. And the show is taken off. And there are things that I'm doing or things that I'm looking at that are very much projected. And one of the things I like is that now when I have guests on, because some of the things that I've done, the amount of time that I've been around, and it's indie. Do it yourself. It's hustle.
01:09:17
Speaker
My new episodes get 2,000 downloads in three days. That's amazing. So when we chat, I know now that 2,000 to 11,000 folks will be listening to it soon. Yeah, let me know too. I'll be sure to put it on my social media. I'm trying much better to be a better social media person.
01:09:46
Speaker
I'm so it's, I always, I'm like, it's just hard to like update and to keep and to post, you know, you gotta post a lot and you gotta, it's just, yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying better. I, part of me, my, I'm a best friend who has a daughter who's like 17 and I'm just like, can I just pay 50 bucks and have you do my social media?
01:10:08
Speaker
like you really do like you would, you would be able to do this for me just do it. Yeah, well, I um, yeah, I know it. I know what you mean. I struggle. I struggle with those things like I, I won't do it all with with the show because in a certain sense, it's like
01:10:27
Speaker
again, it's independent, right? And I don't have a, there's a style and a tone and everything, but there's not a, what do you call it? Like a brand, you know? Yeah. And that's not, that's not how my brain works. I'm not, like, it could have that. Like I totally believe in coherent understanding of what somebody's bringing, but I do think it's tough. Um,
01:10:51
Speaker
It's tough to do social media and what to say. I would be talking to you, Susie, and I'm open and direct. I would say to you, visuals that were around, scenes that you've done that I see a particular way, I'd be like, that, that, and that, and you point to it. But it's tough to see.
01:11:12
Speaker
It's like, what do people wanna see, right? Like what should I show? And I think what's cool about for the podcast, I mean, however you wanna do it, but one of the things I do is like with kind of like the audio clips and there's certain ways of doing this show that like, I feel it's fun to be ostentatious about it and being like,
01:11:37
Speaker
look at this conversation, this is really cool. And I'm telling you, it's really cool. Because I know it's really cool. And here it is. And the proofs within it all, too. As you as an artist, you have to think the same type of way. I know what I did here. And I know somebody's going to catch it. Somebody's going to catch it. Maybe a ton of people will catch it, right? Yeah.
01:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I try to post something, I don't know, every day, whether it's of my cats or I don't know what I'm doing that day. I try to like, I'm filming a movie this week. So I'm going to try to be really proactive on set and film stuff. Look at you.
01:12:32
Speaker
You're still in practice. I'm gonna... I'm gonna film it. I'm gonna post it if I can. There's not like an NDA. I'll post what I can. No doubt about it. Oh my goodness. This little movie I'm about to do, we'll see what happens. There's an actor in it, David Thornton. He's
01:12:54
Speaker
And a movie called The Terrifier, which it's bad of me, but I have never seen. I guess he plays a clown. I heard of The Terrifier. I think there's a sequel to it. Yeah, he's the clown in it, I guess. So a lot of buzz is happening about this little movie, and I'm not sure what it'll turn out to be like, but we'll see. I'm excited to film. I'm playing just a mom.
01:13:20
Speaker
which is kind of funny because I don't feel like a mom, but the lead- I wanna watch the mom scenes, I'm sorry. I know, the lead of the movie is my kid and he's like, it's kind of like a really fucked up version of the sixth sense. I think that's what this movie is. That's enough of the- He sees like,
01:13:47
Speaker
dead people and bad things, but he also wants to do bad things. So it's like a weird, like, yeah. One final thing. You said you're an animal lover? Yes, I have a tattoo of my dog that passed away on my arm. That's sweet. Can I see it?
01:14:06
Speaker
It's hard to see. It's upside down right now. But yeah, I have two cats. They were impulse buys. I didn't buy them when I say that. I like adopted them, but I had a cat, my best cat ever passed away and I was feeling lonely. That's tough with the cats. And my friend was, she was like fostering six kittens and I went over there to play with the kittens. Sure, just to play, just to hang out.
01:14:35
Speaker
And then I left with two of them. So someone told me it's always best to have a buddy. And I was like, oh, I can't just take one. It'll be lonely. I'll take both. Yeah, you made it. You made it.
01:14:50
Speaker
I love and hate them because I haven't really had kittens. I found my cat, he was like older. And kittens are a lot, like they get into everything and no one really, I mean, I'm constantly like, no, get down or like a little spray bottle.
01:15:08
Speaker
They don't care. They will, they will, you will yell at them and they will do exactly what you just told them not to do again and again and again and again. But on the other hand, they are super cute and lovable and affectionate and want to. Well, my cat, my cat, she's a wild child. She got her, her
01:15:31
Speaker
She used a lot of her lives early on when she was a kid, and she got her metal collar caught in the plug-in for the lamp. And so she got shot and shot across the room. And so check this out. And she was named as soon as she was brought home. Her name is Mrs. Mia Wallace as well. And after that happened, I'm like, oh, she's still alive. Yeah.
01:16:03
Speaker
I have I feel bad I I was watching American Idol and there was a contestant on their last season named Fritz Hager Hager and I was like oh that's such a cute name for a cat Fritz yeah and so that's what I named one of them Fritz but he has like a it's a German name and I think about that and Fritz has like a German freaking like
01:16:26
Speaker
Hitler mustache and then I go and I name him a German name and I was like, that wasn't my intention. You got covered. No, you got covered. There's, um, I actually, I don't know. This will provide you cover. There's the underground comic. There is. Someone told me Fritz the cat. Fritz the cat. Actually that might not help your situation. You'll have to decide. He's awful too. I read some of his stuff. He is like not PC whatsoever.
01:16:52
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, yeah, the cat, but it suits his name because he's like, he just looks at you like he's just on the fritz all the time. Like something is just like, not right. And then my roommate, I let my roommate name the other one and she's really into like, um,
01:17:12
Speaker
Disney and those type of like action, you know, heroes and stuff and he has like a black mask. Yeah, yes. And so she named him dash after the youngest in the cartoon The Incredibles. The Incredibles, yeah. But he also fits his name because he's just like, like he dashes like all over the house.
01:17:35
Speaker
They were named before their names like fit them, but they're exactly like your cat. The name does suits them. I think she came home as Bree. You know how it goes, right? You go to the shelter. They were, they were Basil and my friend had named them all after seasonings. Basil and something else. I can't remember right now. I don't know.
01:18:00
Speaker
Cilantro or something I can't that is so cool. So cool Susie. I just want to thank you for spending time It's been a real great pleasure and I gotta tell you too. There's on my side There's a real fun effect that I'm honest about of you know I've been watching your films and then being able to chat with you right after um
01:18:22
Speaker
The research, as I admit it, is a little bit easier with film than other things, but I just really appreciate you spending the time and talking about different things we're chatting about. Thank you. Are you kidding? This has made my Sunday for sure. This has been awesome.
01:18:41
Speaker
Very, very cool. Yeah, to be asked to be on a podcast is just it's really cool. So I appreciate you. Thank you. This is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your art is your art is your art is seen within this. And, you know, I think it'll be really cool of everybody. Listeners, we chat a little bit about the Valley Girls with that UFO episode. I might have to call in a special correspondent sometime.
01:19:07
Speaker
We'll talk about that later, but thanks so much for coming on the show and great success in any desert adventures as well. Thanks. You too. All right. Thank you. This is something rather than nothing.