THE CAKEWALKING STORY By James Parrish Installment #3: GRAVE-SHOPPING The next phase of pre-production on “Cakewalking” was pretty much Salem and I traveling around Washington State to scout locations & collect various props. Our first trek took us to the “hubcap capitol of the U.S.”: Vancouver, WA. The full purpose is vague to me now, but I know one of the reasons was to pick through a renowned car graveyard for parts she could use to fix-up her Chevy Chevelle that at the time was collecting dust in her dark, narrow, cluttered garage. Though the classic mid-60s vehicle was not in great shape, her intention was to use it in the film. Salem had just found and purchased an old 35mm camera that actually used film from a thrift shop for production stills. She was quite meticulous about the look of Cakewalking - namely that it had the feel & ambiance of the 1970s, and the camera took incredible, rich photographs. As anyone with even a novice eye for photography would agree, Salem & I knew digital lacks a degree of charm celluloid captures in an instant without the need for an annoying 6-hour Photoshop editing session. We had a great time snapping some shots that day. At that age, I still didn’t feel comfortable – especially on road trips – with extended moments of silence, and unless we were discussing film, Salem was quiet and always quite pensive. Being in the presence of whom I then considered a genius & even a solemn force of nature was quite intimidating for me, but getting away from it all if even for a day and riding shotgun brings out the kid in me. I love to make people laugh, and Salem was most definitely a tough room. I’m sure I drove her crazy the entire distance. When we got to the junkyard, we hopped on the local lot taxi: an old van with its sides sliced away and post-WWII benches made from couch-sized car seats attached to the “bed” and facing out to allow easy hopping-off access. While sitting on the springy seat, I recall the Cake song* Stickshifts & Safety Belts going through my head. I’d never seen such a memorial of twisted, rusted metal: a fascinating-yet quite spooky glimpse at a bygone era where one’s noisy, over-sized, gas-guzzling vehicle meant more than just a mode of transportation; it was also a form of social status. Yes, that’s true even today but in a much subtler way. The grease & oil-stained/smelling driver asked: “Where to, sirs?” I bit my lip, barely-containing the chuckle which I less-than-adequately-covered with a forced throat-clearing. Salem cut her eyes at me with a smirk. She played like it offended her ever-so-slightly, but I believe she enjoyed often being mistaken for a guy. “To the Chevelles,” Salem requested. And yes, they had their lot separated into many dozen or even hundreds of sections, subsections, and even model-specific sections. A third of the yard was dedicated to General Motors’ models, and the other 2 were of course Fords & Dodges. This place only had American parts. I found out it was because foreign cars were not manufactured to be easy to work on. We passed the Plymouth subsection of the Dodge lot and I saw my dream car much like the character “Arnie Cunningham” first viewed in Stephen King’s novel “Christine”: a 1958 Plymouth Fury in all its shambled beauty. We arrived at the Chevelle line a bit later. The next hour or so we rummaged through the remains of what once were the prides & joys of our forefathers. I snapped the photo of the Chevelle grill below sometime during that time. Before we left, I noticed the black Camaro for sale and just had to sit inside and get a feel. Salem commented how natural I looked behind that wheel and insisted I give my “best Bama Boy face” a second before she snapped the picture. Nearly half-a-decade later when I posted that pic on my newly-created Facebook page, many were envious of the hot rod I “owned”. We drove back that night with the Chevelle parts and a better understanding of each other. We bonded. The anticipation of this production that day I felt would undoubtedly-be the launching pad for both our careers. By this point, wed spent nearly a year working on Cakewalking. It just goes to show you never know until it’s done what impact an endeavor of this magnitude will have on your life.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 08:23:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015