NORMAL

14 year-old Me had just seen INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. I loved it. And on a family trip that summer, I picked up a behind-the scenes, making-of magazine.

Reading and re-reading this publication, it soon dawned on me that I wanted to make movies when I grew up. Not just watch them.

But I lived in Columbia, not L.A.

My dad was a struggling entrepreneur. My mother worked in radio. We were devout Southern Baptists, happy suburbanites, college football lovers, and Ronald Reagan devotees.

We were “normal people.” No contacts in the business. We loved movies but we didn’t make them.

So I got into drama at school, darkroom photography, and funny videos with my church pals. That would have to do.

Then…19 year-old Me…saw David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET.

My Spielbergian dreams turned art house. Ambition for deep meaning, bold statements, for high aesthetic achievement…it infected everything.