OUT OF THE BLUE

Friday night after work, I rode my bike up to Wally World to pick up an unnecessary treat. This is what you do on Friday nights when your drinking and smoking days are over. I was walking down the aisle when I spotted Jungle Reggae from the Do-wops (legendary early 80’s Victoria hardcore punk band). I snuck up to him and and said “Excuse me sir, are you going to pay for those things you put in your coat?” He turned around and politely told me to “F-off.”

It’s good to see there’s still a little bit of punk left in our responsible and aging bodies. We ended up in the movie section of the store and spent a few minutes going through the huge boxes of videos and DVDs. The price on some of these movies is cheaper than renting so what better place to spend your paycheque…(in a small privately owned business, maybe? Sorry Pick-and-Flick)…Anyway the movie selection at the mega store is all old, strange and mostly non-box office hits.

I found this DVD with Dennis Hopper with a clown driving a truck on the cover. I have a thing for clowns but can’t say I have a thing for Dennis Hopper, he has disturbed me somewhat with his acting in Blue Velvet and Paris Trout. The movie was called Out of the Blue, from 1979. The back of the case reads “When your mom is a junkie and your father is an ex-con, it’s hard to be a rebel. The excitement of ditching school and doing drugs is just not enough. Cindy Barnes is an impulsive punk rocker, whose search for kicks and encounters with strangers could land her out of the blue and into the gutter.” I showed this movie to Jungle and he was quick to pick his mass mind of knowlege and tell me he thinks the Pointed Sticks are in this. He says he thinks some of the Infamous Scientists (best Victoria punk band ever) guys were at the filming of this show in Vancouver. Well…the price tag on this movie was only $4.66 so I took it home for a view.

The movie starts with a girl in a wrecked semi-truck yackin’ on a CB radio. “Ten-four this is CeBe Gorgeous, it’s all pretty vacant, no future, johnny rotten, out of the blue, do ya wanna dance, disco sucks, over.” The main character is CeBe, Linda Manz, and i remember her from the movie The Wanderers. She was also more recently in a movie called Gummo, which is another one that if you watch it you might not forget it…disturbing. This movie is just a meander through CeBe’s screwed up life. One of the things I enjoy about this film is it was filmed in 1979 Vancouver and it really has a flavour of what the streets were like back then. The late 70’s and early 80’s were my era and this movie captures that feeling of how it was with fashion. It wasn’t glorified Hollywood, is what I’m trying to say.

CeBe walks around talking to herself singing old Elvis songs, smoking, going to the bowling alley, and just plain lookin’ for trouble. Her parents are a whole other story. Dennis Hopper plays the dad and what a fine job he does drinking out of stubby beer bottles. The whole story is very depressing and really just shows a lifestyle of dysfunction not many people know about, but unfortunately some people do. CeBe ends up at a punk show featuring the Pointed Sticks. This live show footage pre- dates my punk rock days by about two years so it was interesting to see. In the late 70’s new wave and punk were kinda one. The live footage captures this new wave element in the way the punks are dressed. Skinny ties, crazy hair, ripped up suits and dog collars.

The Sticks ripped, full force punk/wave music. CeBe briefly hangs with good old Dimwit (later D.O.A. drummer – RIP) and he lets her drum for a live song. This 5-10 minutes of great punk footage is worth the depression the rest of the film brings. Honestly, I couldn’t watch the whole movie because it was too disturbing. Dennis Hopper is one twisted actor. All in all this is a real movie that shows the real world of alcohol and drug abuse that does sadly exist…nothing Hollywood here folks.

By the way, when Jungle and I left Wally World, he never did pay for those things in his coat. The funny thing is he wasn’t even wearing a coat, just a tight track suit top. He assured me he had stolen nothing…he must have some weird piercings!!!

- Ricky Long