69th WINTER

First a little anecdotal name dropping. Back in the 90's i worked for the high end construction firm Strasser and Assoc. One of our prime sources of income was THE DAKOTA.  And one of our best clients was Jane Rosenthal and investment banker Craig Hatkoff. Jane produced WAG THE DOG. Both her and Craig were big Dem. fundraisers at the time. Right before King Bill got popped for the Monica Lewinsky "not sex" BJ, they had a fundraiser for him and Hil Dog. I installed a piece of flooring next to the fire place. On the back I scrawled- "Here stood President William Jefferson Clinton". I always try to do a little piece in everyone's pad. Jane also started Tribecca Films with buddy Robert Deniro. One day he knocked on the door. "Hi. I'm Bobby." He said, sticking out his hand. I knew that. "Is Jane home?" That's the end of my name dropping. I wanted to talk about the Tribecca Film Fest. film "FIRST WINTER". You can't make this shit up.

    I first heard about this film a couple of weeks ago. I caught an interview with the director Ben Dickinson on some fluff news show. He'd plopped a bunch of his Brooklyn stereotype friends down in a big empty house in Orange County and filmed them for the winter. He was happy as a clam that his film was being hyped. He'd shot it for less than $100k and it was getting the buzz. All good. It looked stupid, but Hell I was glad when any film shot on a shoestring got press. I wanted to like the guy and his project. That didn't last long.
  Now comes word that the clueless hipsters shot a couple of deer in Feb.- well past the end of deer season and included it in the film. "We are idiots." Dickinson told a reporter. "We didn't know how to do this hunting stuff. There were so many deer weak from the winter and getting eaten by local dogs, we didn't even think about it." I agree with the "idiot" part. I'm about to face my 70th winter. And I can honestly say I never shot a deer out of season for any reason- art, food or otherwise. These guys give artists and hunters a bad name. How hard is it to find out when deer season is? I grew up in Orange County and if the public thinks it's some sort of post apocalyptic landscape of starving deer and roving, bloodthirsty dog packs, let me clue you in. The OC, NY is the suburbs. All deer are scruffy looking in Feb. And most look healthier that that yoga teacher in the cast of cliched characters (whom I'm sure were fed well when the camera turned off.) Not since a  Cady Noland multiple sold at auction for over $6 mil. have I been so incensed. IFF! I'm fucking flabbergasted that people can be this stupid.