44 . JUStjOUt
JANUARY 6. 2006
January Storewide
WOMEN
seeking
WOMEN?
The Sundance Kid
Portland gay filmmaker ready to rub elbows in Park City
WM 5’7”, 145 lbs, BR/BR. scruffy,
u
I
easygoing, seeking partner in crime.
include drinking, not exer- i
I cising, therapy and waiting for you to
Skip the trolls, creeps
and straight guys on craigslist.
front of the line, but really anyone bigger than me
Post your profile al
♦ j ustoutpersonals.com ♦
Respond with your height, weight and an embarrass
WBHm call. Genius knuckledraggers go to the
(common) and smarter than me (rare) is eligible.
ing story about yourself.”
Not your type? How about this one:
shirts and pants and dresses
and skirts and lingerie
and corsets and clubwear
and costumes and accessories
and wigs and gloves and
jewelry and make up
and toys and books and
james and gifts and cards
and party supplies and a
fun start to your New Year!
“GWM, 5’7”, 145 lbs, seeking someone to pretend
to be my boyfriend. It’s easy, just ignore me. 1’11 do the
same. No talking, no sex. I’m happy enough being
alone. I’m just looking for someone to be alone with.”
Or, even more succinct:
than a year—and started to collect all of these words
“GWM, 5’7”, 145 lbs, BR/BR, scruffy, easygoing.
that I was writing, and the film came out of that,” he
Seeking someone as desperate as I am.”
SPARTACUS
300 SW 1 2 th AVE. OPEN LATE
M-W 10am-11pm
Th-Sat 10am-12am Sun 12pm-9pm
“I just spent a really, really lonely year—more
says. “I didn’t really know what I was doing.... It
Those are real personal ads placed by Andy
wasn’t until [later] that I realized it was really about
Blubaugh, a Portland indie director who turned his
words and that it was going to have this focus on the
frustrating search for a soulmate into the confession
idea of putting so much creative effort into something
al film "Hello, Thanks.” In November the eight-minute
that’s essentially ephemeral and transient and
short received an Honorable Mention at the 32nd
disappears.”
Northwest Film & Video Festival. (Full disclosure:
The short also features a frank discussion with his
Blubaugh ran the festival in his role as regional serv-
31 -year-old sister, Amber, who admits that she revises
ices coordinator at the Northwest Film Center. He
her personal ads to address shortcomings from past
recently stepped down after five years with the non
relationships.
profit organization to concentrate on filmmaking.)
"We’re very close,” says Blubaugh, 25. “She’s fea
Later this month, "Hello, Thanks” will be in com- I tured prominently in another film that I made called
www.shopspartacus.com
</
Arthouse ★ Foreign * Cult Classics * Gay & Lesbian
Documentaries ★ Asian Cult ★ The Latest Chart Busters
petition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in
The Burden,’ which is about our mother, who died
Park City, Utah. It was one of 72 shorts selected from
when we were pretty young. The entire film is based
3,400 submissions, but Blubaugh doesn’t anticipate
around a conversation that we had on the phone....
any awards or film deals coming his way.
She allows me to verbalize what I’m thinking really
“Nothing is going to happen with this film. It’s too
well.”
experimental, it’s too rough, it’s not going to get pur
The siblings grew up together in Cleveland until
chased by anybody. It’s not sexy, so a gay film distrib
Blubaugh dropped out of high school because he
utor is not going to want to pick it up,” he says. “I just
couldn’t stand the slow pace. He moved to San
want people to see it and to know my name for the
Francisco and soon had a film accepted in a festival—
next project. I think it’s really great that this film got
at the age of 16.
in, but it’s by no means my opus or anything.... It’s an
honor just to be selected."
“It was a really dramatic, heavy-handed thing
called Of Roots, Ghosts.’ It was based on this essay
“Hello, Thanks” juxtaposes twisted text, taken
that was in a free weekly paper in Cleveland that I real
from more than 100 actual personal ads, with re
ly liked, about what it meant to be Midwestern and
enacted images of Blubaugh getting to know potential
relating being landlocked to being trapped.”
paramours in his downtown studio apartment.
His favorite films include Atom Egoyan’s Calendar,
Appropriately, the men are played by friends he met
Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy and Henry
through personal ads.
Jaglom’s Last Summer in the Hamptons. But his
biggest artistic hero is Adrian Tomine, creator of the
cartoon Optic Nerve.
“He’s a huge influence on my storytelling and my
POP IN!
editing technique,” Blubaugh says. "He has a really
cinematic eye.”
As for queer directors, he digs Lisa Cholodenko
(High Art, Laurel Canyon). "What I really liked about
her films.. .was that they essentially were films about
class rather than sexuality.”
Speaking of sexuality, how goes that quest for love?
Blubaugh admits he’s given up on personal ads.
“It just came to the point where the search was
really exhausting, and I wasn't getting much out of
it.... I think the conclusion is that I don’t like people
very much,” he laughs. “I’m doing very well alone....
My life’s going pretty well.” •
H ello T hanks can be viewed online at
wwu.hellothanks.com after Jan. 19.
2310 N Lombard 11136 NW Lovejoy I 1990 SE Ladd
503-289-8400 I 503-796-2825
I 503-231-1181
I 7522 N Lombard I 2640 NE Alberta
I
503-247-3433 I 503-288-4067
Andy Blubaugh (insat) puts away his bed after
another lonely night in "Hello, Thanks."
Arts and Culture Editor J im R adosta needs your
feedback. Write to jim@justout.com.