I have always been joyfully weird.
There is something daring and exhilarating about ‘waving your freak flag’ for all to see. To be willing to put your strangest foot forward in the public square and bravely ask “What do you think of me now?”
Most people are trying desperately to fit in, to run with the cool crowd. They live by the proverb “the nail that sticks out gets the hammer”. They follow the trends, wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, watch the right shows and err on the side of propriety.
I like to stand out, I get a kick out of being the weird guy at the party.
Not “serial killer” weird, or “who invited this loser to the party?” weird. It is my intention to be entertainingly weird, to take the conversation to a totally strange place or change the vibe of the room in an unexpected way. To pull people out of the mundane and into an adventurous and playful frame of mind.
When I was getting into music and filmmaking in my late teens and early twenties I would always be making weird tracks in my studio or improvising strange short films with my friends and I would bring these creations on a cassette tape or VHS to parties to see how people would react. It was a kind of litmus test to flush out potential new friends, if they were engaged and titillated by my brand of weirdness I knew I had found a new compadre. I would think “You’re one of my kind”.
Those friendships pretty much always ended up being special longterm friendships.
There is a tribal quality to being weird, to liking weird stuff and being the person that others refer to as “out there”.
Hunter S Thompson once said “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”. I always loved that quote, just the idea that one could turn being weird into a profession. I have been attempting to do that for over 40 years now. It has led me to some very weird and wonderful locations, situations and people.
When I released my first feature film Aegri Somnia it got mixed reviews as one would expect with a truly weird film. People either loved it or hated it, I knew this meant I was doing something right. I got a number of glowing reviews and some comparisons to cinematic heroes like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky, but by far the greatest compliment I got was becoming a list candidate for the website “366 Best Weird Movies of all Time”.
There was something about the honour of even being considered for such a list that I cherish to this day.
I do not know why I take such pride in making weird art, I guess on a basic level it is just the artistic compulsion to do something original. But it goes beyond that, I will often just do weird things in public purely to shake people out of the normalcy of a given moment.
For example:
I was out for dinner one night with my girlfriend and her mother, we had a nice meal in a quiet little restaurant with about 20 people inside. As we were leaving the restaurant I turned towards the tables and bellowed “Goodbye everybody, that was a blast!” Every single person in the restaurant turned and looked at me as if I’d lost my marbles, my girlfriend’s mother was mortified, she could not get out of there fast enough. I just looked at my girlfriend and gave her a sly smirk - she knew me well enough to know that I was having a moment.
But I tell you what, I know for a certainty that there was not a single person in that restaurant that went on with their meal without a mention of that moment. It may have even sparked a few conversations regarding what my disorder might be.
I sacrificed myself on the alter of weirdness in order to provide a brief moment of strangeness for a small group of people. It gave me a thrill, there is immense freedom in truly not giving a fuck what people think of you.
This is why I like to make weird things, I like to remind people that there is absolutely nothing normal about our situation - this is a weird planet with weird creatures and weird people. Consciousness is weird. Matter is weird. Space and time are weird. We’re just used to it so it ‘seems’ normal.
So I like to make weird things and have weird conversations and perform spontaneous strange public acts as reminder to everyone around me that “none of this shit is normal”.
Maybe instead of trying so hard to fit in, take a moment to be weird. You never know, you just may get a thrill out of it. Perhaps, all this time, you were a closet weirdo. Join us, we need more professionals.
To conclude, I would like share a couple of my weird music videos, these are not even close to the weirdest things I’ve made, I thought I’d ease you into it:
This one is a remix of a song I did in the 80’s on 4 track cassette:
But I tell you what, I know for a certainty that there was not a single person in that restaurant that went on with their meal without a mention of that moment.
It may have even sparked a few conversations regarding what my disorder might be.
and YOU ARE SO FUNNY!!!
I can also relate to:
This is why I like to make weird things, I like to remind people that there is absolutely nothing normal about our situation - this is a weird planet with weird creatures and weird people. Consciousness is weird. Matter is weird. Space and time are weird. We’re just used to it so it ‘seems’ normal.
the older I get the more I like to just stand out...like way out on the periphery...like into the WILDerness and watch the show more than join in.
ill check out your vids at yt and respond there
Yep Bro Jimmy you's a bit weird.
Maybe not borninOhiorandraisedinFloridahichhikedtoNYC4yearedittherewhichwasagoodreasontomovetoAlaskaandrealizyoucelebratedyour86thbirthdayjustyesterdayandnowecan'tallbesoluckyweird but yep. a bit weird none the less.
Keep on truckin', even though they may think you ain't got nothin' you's rich beyond their wildest dreams.