The Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One (1969) of My life

I work for Patrick St. James--this is not his real name, but that's what he generally calls himself, so that's what we'll refer to him as. Patrick, as have most others who have become important variables in my life, has come at a time that just seems to make sense, and his presence has had an indescribable, but important, impact. For the nature of this blog assignment, I will attempt to write, in the coming paragraphs, a comparative description of the life and times of Patrick St. James(as he pertains to my understanding) and Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One. I will do so with the attempt of removing first person. This begins now.

Patrick St. James is either 42 or 52, verification has been moderately difficult to come by and his attitude is so energetic and youthful that proper guessing might prove inappropriate. Born in the US and then possibly schooled in England for 7 years, he now resides in Philadelphia, PA where he works from a studio that also doubles as his living environment. The studio maintains a certain kind of disarray and also water damage(he consistently overflows the 3rd floor hot tub, despite his mantra of "Don't forget you're filling the hot tub! Don't forget you're filling the hot tub!") Presently he is working on the horror film--potential cult classic--, Lezpyres. Lezpyres, a film about a gang of lesbian vampire strippers, is just another extension of his ongoing fake outs, the place where his mental aptitude begins and his bullshit ends is difficult to decipher.

In Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One William Greaves takes the stance of someone playing the character of William Greaves. His crew members, who may or may not have been scripted, discuss the fact that Greaves' character of himself is more vulgar and outspoken than the man they know him to be. When on camera his nature changes, even his voice changes. He works from a script that he consistently seems to be changing and which he hasn't fully discussed with his cast members, who stay in a state of mild confusion. Working from the position of someone who has difficulty communicating what it is that they want, Greaves directs his cast members in an allusive manner and doesn't give them the direction that they desire. Less concerned about the film that is being made, Greaves' main focus seems to be the film that is the documentation of the film that is being made. This documentation of creation with the involvement of false persona could be construed as an understanding of the personas we all adopt to get by in life, even those that we claim to be 'real' or 'honest'.

Leading up to his feature film, Patrick has been filming short "webisodes" of a mockumentary that falsely documents the creation of Lezpyres. Using his actual crew members, he creates short pieces that illustrate a ridiculous process of casting and idea-creation, that actually is not far off the mark. Down to the last second, he focused more on the documentation of false creation than he did on preparation for the film. Two days before the then-decided shoot date he began 'pre-production.' The script was not yet written, the roles were not cast, the locations were not locked. He scheduled a 10:00pm meeting of about 10 crew members where he described the entire story line from start to finish, discussed the look of his necessary cast, and the feel of the wanted locations. And, indeed, two days later, he had locked the location of the lounge 125, established the rest of the locations and cast the entire film--complete with young attractive women willing to remove their clothing(and including an 18 year old model who is a black belt in karate, an incredible find for the 'scripted' fight scene).

When Patrick is on camera, at any time, he speaks in a British accent. He is not British. He does not have a natural British accent. He is almost always loud, abrasive, outspoken and full of a seemingly unending amount of physical energy. At 5 in the morning, if something should spark his interest, he bounces off the walls and yells with punctuating arm movement. Prior to Lezpyres, but linked in a way too complicated to honor a description at this point, Patrick had his day of "Rod Bull." Rod Bull is a non-existent Rod Stewart concert sponsored by Red Bull(a sponsorship that doesn't exist either). On Rod Bull, 4 people were equipped with cameras to document all movements of the day, 2 of those cameras were to be trained on Patrick for the entire day and evening. The day began with the introduction of a number of interns, all of whom left within a few hours. There was actually supposed to be a concert, that involved 'Rod Stewart'(played by Patrick because of his resemblance) and DJ Delta 7(who is a young guy that has never been a DJ). The concert didn't happen, but there was the creation of a song. The instrumentals of the song had been presented a few days earlier and on Rod Bull, Patrick wrote and recorded the lyrics. DJ Delta 7 recorded a rap to be inserted in the middle. Then, around 5pm, the crew was brought out to the river front behind the art museum(in 40 degree weather; it began to snow) and instructed to record the Rod Bull music video, for the new hit single, 'I Believe'(recorded earlier that day). 'Rod Stewart' didn't know any of his own lyrics. He had the entire song shot over 7 times. Everyone was freezing. The tapes of footage were given to a talented editor who ended up making an impressive music video that, for the most part, successfully masked the lack of lyrical knowledge.

Individuals fascinated by the creation of false personas can be found all over the artistic arena. The actions of Greaves and Patrick are reminiscent of celebrities such as Andy Kaufmann and Andy Warhol. They remind their audience of the falsity of any personality and of the alter-ability of this sometimes seemingly stagnant reality. It is personality types such as these that serve as reminders that nothing has it to be as it seems and that any moment is open to numerous possibilities, most of which remain hidden when situations are approached from a conventional and comfortable vantage point.