You are good at writing things. Your writing may not be 100% grammatically perfect, but your writing is clear and concise. I think I've made more mistakes than you have.
I will e-mail David when I get a chance.
Alright, I'll try to dig something up later tonight
I just did the preliminary research to get out of the way basic stuff before we start digging deeper, and these are the results:
First of all, I went to IMDB (both the regular and the mobile) to make sure I didn't miss any details we didn't know before, as well as confirming the current info we have: - Cast: Only Dennis Conroy is credited as the director - Duration: 6 minutes - Country: USA (it doesn't specifies if it was shot in San Francisco) - Release date: October 28 1996
With that out of the way, I checked Dennis Conroy's IMDB page to make sure we weren't missing any details, he's only credited for Lush Life as the co-director and editor, and 45 RPM Love as the director
I checked my-hit.org to see if they have any info about 45 RPM Love or Dennis Conroy, there's nothing
I repeated the quick Google search I did earlier to confirm if there was any useful results, and the answer is no, only the IMDB pages we already have, as well as that weird website which claims to have it on torrent, and also ANOTHER sketchy website which claims to have the audio on MP3, as well as a lot of unrelated vinyl resutls (because of the 45 RPM thing)
I checked on YouTube and have the same thing, a bunch of unrelated 45 RPM results. However, I did realize that there's a LOT of YouTube channels under the name of Dennis Conroy (including that old guy's channel which, as you remember, I proved is NOT our Dennis Conroy), 10 results to be specific. I checked them all, only a handful of them had something related to music, and I'm pretty sure non of them is the guy we're looking for, they're the typical YouTube channels made by people to upload old videos recorded with their cellphones during a family reunion just for funsies, having only 1-3 suscribers, and some of them not even one
And I think that's all, I'll make a proper summary of this information once we have a bit more of clues and, hopefully, Johnston responds
Quick off-topic question: Are you going to write articles about Lifesaver and Lush Life as well?
Maybe. I haven't fully watched them yet, and I'm not sure what there is to say.
Seattle, huh? Well that kinda rules out the LinkedIn page I found, but we should still keep it in mind and do a research on it later, at least we know that it is in fact another LGBT production
No copies means that it is still lost, huh? Well I guess we have another mission here, let's go for our third find! (Technically fourth)
Yeah I'd do the articles, but as you probably already noticed I'm not that good at writing stuff (not even in spanish) and I don't even know how to create an article to begin with, so I'll be counting on you for that
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 18, 2017 6:30:12 GMT
I just did the preliminary research to get out of the way basic stuff before we start digging deeper, and these are the results:
First of all, I went to IMDB (both the regular and the mobile) to make sure I didn't miss any details we didn't know before, as well as confirming the current info we have: - Cast: Only Dennis Conroy is credited as the director - Duration: 6 minutes - Country: USA (it doesn't specifies if it was shot in San Francisco) - Release date: October 28 1996
With that out of the way, I checked Dennis Conroy's IMDB page to make sure we weren't missing any details, he's only credited for Lush Life as the co-director and editor, and 45 RPM Love as the director
I checked my-hit.org to see if they have any info about 45 RPM Love or Dennis Conroy, there's nothing
I repeated the quick Google search I did earlier to confirm if there was any useful results, and the answer is no, only the IMDB pages we already have, as well as that weird website which claims to have it on torrent, and also ANOTHER sketchy website which claims to have the audio on MP3, as well as a lot of unrelated vinyl resutls (because of the 45 RPM thing)
I checked on YouTube and have the same thing, a bunch of unrelated 45 RPM results. However, I did realize that there's a LOT of YouTube channels under the name of Dennis Conroy (including that old guy's channel which, as you remember, I proved is NOT our Dennis Conroy), 10 results to be specific. I checked them all, only a handful of them had something related to music, and I'm pretty sure non of them is the guy we're looking for, they're the typical YouTube channels made by people to upload old videos recorded with their cellphones during a family reunion just for funsies, having only 1-3 suscribers, and some of them not even one
And I think that's all, I'll make a proper summary of this information once we have a bit more of clues and, hopefully, Johnston responds
Quick off-topic question: Are you going to write articles about Lifesaver and Lush Life as well?
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 18, 2017 1:09:50 GMT
During our investigation of David E. Johnston's Lush Life and Lifesaver, we discovered the existence of yet another apparently lost music video: 45 RPM Love
The information about this one is extremely limited though, we only know that it was released in October 28 1996, directed by Dennis Conroy (co-director of Lush Life), apparently it has a LGBT thematic, since IMDB lists "gay interests" as one of its tags, here's the IMDB page:
"45 RPM" means "45 Revolutions Per Minute", which is one of the most common angular velocities of vinyl records, however, its release date doesn't match with the vinyl records peak, so its meaning must mean something else
Finally, I discovered a really good candidate on LinkedIn which could easily be the Dennis Conroy we're looking for, he has tons of experience on filmmaking-related topics, and he has worked several times in San Francisco, here's his LinkedIn page:
Lastly, since we now have the contact information of David E. Johnston, and he seems cooperative, the very first thing we should do is ask him if he's still in contact with Conroy, that would save us LOTS of time. If he isn't we can just ask him everything he knows about him
You found me! Gift of Tongues is what I call my band, which is usually made up of just me. But I am flattered of your interest in Lifesaver and Lush Life. Since you asked about them, I digitized the (kind of bad) VHS footage and put them on YouTube. I'm also attaching here the program pages from the Frameline festival in 94.
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 17, 2017 8:32:16 GMT
I decided to dig a bit of info about that Dennis Conroy I found on YouTube. Guess what? He's an old man, so he can totally be our Dennis Conroy. Or at least this is the profile picture from his YouTube channel:
So, why did I think he was young? I don't know, I was half sleep when I wrote that post since I had just woken up from a nap so I wasn't making that much sense, but now that I'm fully awake I see that he could totally be our Dennis Conroy (based on his age, of course)
Now, what do we know about this character? Well he only has 4 suscribers on YouTube, 2 followers on Google+, and his videos reach as far as 150 views, hell, one of them has 3 and was uploaded a year ago, so he's definitely not well known. He has no personal info on his "about" section nor on his Google+ account either, although I found a couple of his songs on iTunes and, according to the description of one of his videos, they're on amazon as well
So I really had to dig veeeery deep to get more info on this guy, but eventually I found something:
First of all, he seems to be part of a songwriting and production duo called Birds Fly South, along with some other dude called Kenny Parry. Their songs (or at least four of them) are on Spotify, and, according to their Facebook page they have worked with people like Tina Turner, so maybe they're not AS obscure as their social media suggests. Their official website doesn't seem to work, however I found a website called bandcamp.com which has some information about them (the official site which doesn't work, their Facebook page and their email). Their Facebook doesn't seem to be very active either, since they only post once in a while, their last post was on June 14, before that was in May 8, and before that was on December 11 2016, and you get the idea
Remember that you mentioned that he had a brittish accent and that he probably was from the UK? Well you were right, his last video uploaded on his YouTube channel, according to the description, was an entry for a competition called Dreamboats and Petticoats Competition (although they didn't make it into the competition), so I searched what this competition is, and apparently it is based off a jukebox musical called Dreamboats and Petticoats "based on popular songs from the fifties and early sixties" according to Wikipedia, their productions go from 2009 to 2017, and all of them were for UK Tours. Finally, on their Facebook page, they say that they're a duo from from Merseyside, which is a metropolitan county in North West England, so yeah, he is totally british
Now the important question: Is he OUR Dennis Conroy? Well, I still don't think so, there's no biography or anything that places him in San Francisco, nor anything related to filmmaking, so I highly doubt this is our guy
But that wasn't enough for me, nah I wanted more clues, something new, so I kept looking, and I found a weird book in Google Drives which mentions a Dennis Conroy, but that can't be our guy, since the guide only mentions dates from around like 1940's or something, so I highly doubt that's our Dennis Conroy either
Last but not least, the REAL clue I found: I decided to check on LinkedIn once again, although this time I decided to specify that I wanted to know about any Dennis Conroy from San Francisco, and guess what? I got one! Now, this guy has a lot of experience and I don't feel like listing everything on here, but to sum it up, he has a LOT of experience on film-related stuff, among them as contributing writer to film publications and film festival program catalogs, he implemented a campaign for the San Francisco International Film Festival's films and guests by securing publicity materials and media coverage, he assembled film prints and operated film and video equipment, among many, MANY others, all of them in San Francisco-located entities like the San Francisco Film Society, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and as a contributor to Get Lost San Francisco: An Underground Travel Guide, among others. Finally, on his education field, it says that he studied filmmaking, cinematography and film/video production at the New York University in 1989, and communication studies and film/cinema/video studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from 1981 to 1985
So to sum it up: His studies pre-date both Lush Life and 45 RPM Love, he has worked in San Francisco SEVERAL times, and he has TONS of experience on filmmaking, this dude totally matches with the profile of our Dennis Conroy
Finally, a couple of things that I forgot to mention: I searched on my-hit (that russian IMDB-ish website, remember?) any info about Lush Life or Lifesaver, but unfortunately I found nothing, they don't even have an article on there. And as for the Nao Bustamante matter, I'm seriously starting to believe that she's not interested in helping us. I will definitely report in case she eventually responds my tweet, but don't get upset if she doesn't. At least we could confirm that she is THE Nao Bustamante from Lush Life, so I guess that's that
And of course, very important, the URL to Dennis Conroy's LinkedIn page:
She responded my tweet! That is indeed the Nao Bustamante from Lush Life, I will proceed to ask her a few questions now, I'll report once she gives me some useful information
Great! Good luck.
Why do you think the Dennis Conroy on Youtube is too young?
Well he must be around 40-50 years by now, that dude looked like less (to me at least). With that said I'm nt good at judging the age of people just by looking at them
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 16, 2017 19:03:50 GMT
She responded my tweet! That is indeed the Nao Bustamante from Lush Life, I will proceed to ask her a few questions now, I'll report once she gives me some useful information
Hey, sorry for disappearing. You've pulled up a lot of useful information.
I did some digging on the Dennis Conroy you found to try to verify who he was, and it seems that they are both musicians, but the Dennis Conroy here is from the UK, and he definitely has a British accent, likely something from around the Linconshire / Yorkshire area (Midwest).
"45 RPM Love" seems like it could be describing an old-fashioned or old romance, or older ideas. By 1996, vinyl records had fallen out of favour. Cassette tapes were the preferred recording method.
I did see Bustamine's Twitter too, but to me, it didn't seem like she was using it. Taking that chance is okay. I hope she replies.
There was also an address in the contact information. I looked it up and it appears to refer to an apartment above a shop downtown. They almost certainly don't live there anymore, and I never thought they did. I just wanted to see if it was a business, hone, or post office box address.
Yeah he seems to be kinda young to be our Dennis Conroy to be honest, but it is worth a shot, like I said earlier is better to make sure about stuff rather than just saying "nah, no way" without confirmation
"45 RPM Love", like I also said, is definitely a strange name, so I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't referring to revolutions per minute. My dad was kind of a fan of old vinyl records back in the day, so I might ask him if he knows anything about it
Yeah like I mentioned her Twitter is not, like, super active or anything, but she seems to use it once in a while. I'll give her like a week or so, if she doesn't responds then I'll message her on Facebook, if she still doesn't responds I'll comment one of her videos or something (even though the last video was uploaded 3 years ago doesn't mean she still doesn't use her account for stuff like liking/disliking videos and such), and if she STILL doesn't responds then fuck me I guess
So both Lifesaver and Lush Life were featured on this film festival after all, it was kinda obvious at this point, but it is good to confirm it, actually if Bustamante responded to me, I was thinking about asking her about this
Yeah like I suggested earlier probably any contact info we get about these people from that source is more than useless since, well, 20+ years have passed and they probably moved or something, but any piece of information we have is technically useful, since they could lead to other pieces of information
Oh and by the way, no response from Bustamante yet, for the record
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 16, 2017 10:01:36 GMT
I think I have good news!
First of all, I found a song from 2015 called Lush Life by Zara Larsson, which also has a video, so one more to the "not to be confused with" list
With that out of the way, I decided to make a little deeper investigation on Lush Life's cast
I had no results for Jim Winters, apparently there's a musician with the same name, but I don't think that's our guy
No results for Ryan Rubio either
Nothing for Jennifer Locke, although I found an actress with the same name, and the Chair and Curator of the Armed Forces History Division, who's name is also Jennifer Locke, and also a writer called Jennifer Locke, though I don't think any of these three are our Jennifer either
No results for Rodney O'Neil Austin either
However, I remembered that Nao Bustamante seems to be a successful personality, and apparently she is, since google matched a lot of results just by searching her name
For starters, she's not only an actress and director, she seems to be into artsy stuff as well, since her wikipedia page describes her as "using her own body as a canva". She has also been awarded with "the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman Award" in 2001. So, how do I know this is OUR Nao Bustamante? Well I found her profile on a website called net-worths.com, I don't know what's that about, but according to this website, she has around $950,000, and Lush Life (along with many other of her works listed on her IMDB page) appear here on the list of her works
So, since her identity is more or less confirmed (still not 100% sure until she comes and confirms it, though I'm getting ahead of myself), I decided to investigate her a bit more. Like I mentioned earlier she has a wikipedia page, and here it says that she holds a BFA/MA from the San Francisco Art Institute, don't know what "BFA/MA" is, but now we know that she was present in San Francisco at some point, and this is confirmed by an article I found on a website called roski.usc.edu (and also this information is in the "about Nao" section of her website), which says that she was born in California, but now she resides in Los Angeles, so we're in good tracks here
What about music though? Weren't we assuming that Lush Life is a music video? Well I found another article of her in a website called hemisphericinstitute.org, it has a short biography of her, and it says that two of her most common fields are video and pop music, which makes her the FOURTH member of the cast who has worked with music
Unfortunately I couldn't find any mention of Lush Life (besides that net-worths.com website), so, where's the real good news? Well guess what? I found her Twitter! and although it's a pretty average Twitter account (referring to its content), she has some artsy stuff on it, so it's definitely her. She also has a Facebook account and a YouTube channel, but the last activiy on her YouTube channel was 3 years ago, her Facebook seems to be active, but her Twitter seems to be a lot more active (her last activity on Facebook was on August 29, while in Twitter was on September 9), so I guess there's a better chance of her responding via Twitter. I sent her a tweet, asking her if she participated in David E. Johnston's Lush Life to confirm if that's our Nao Bustamante, I wish I could've been more specific and detailed but you know that Twitter has a character limit, so yeah, now we just have to wait if she responds my Tweet
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 15, 2017 7:07:33 GMT
I tried to dig up a bit more of information about Dennis Conroy, and I had no luck. However, I decided to check his IMDB page one more time, and I completely forgot that he was credited for two works: Lush Life, and 45 RPM Love. According to IMDB, guess what it is? A music video, a 6 minutes long music video, to be specific, and the keywords "pop music" and "gay interest" tagged. Its release date was October 28 1996, and it was shot in the US (though it doesn't say if it was in San Francisco or somewhere else). The IMDB page of 45 RPM Love is empty, crediting only Dennis Conroy as the director
So where can we watch this? Well guess what, I can't find it anywhere. "45 RPM" might refer to "revolutions per minute", and according to wikipedia, the most common angular velocity for vinyl records were 33 and 45 RPM. It's really technical and my head is spinning because I don't understand anything about this, but so far, everything I've found is about vinyl records, so this "45 RPM" is most likely referring to revolutions per minute, however, IMDB lists its full name as "45 RPM Love", so... is this video called 45 Revolutions Per Minute Love? Kinda weird, isn't? And is just as weird that not only it specifies that this is a 45 RPM record, but it puts this fact right before the title, not even between parenthesis or anything. What I'm trying to get at is: is "45 RPM" really just refering to its revolutions per second? or is 45 RPM part of the title?
Technical stuff aside, I went to google to check if this video was somewhere available, and guess what? Of course it isn't
Just for the record: remember intheatremovies.space? That website which claims to have Lush Life uploaded on torrent? Well guess what? They also claim to have 45 RPM Love as well, it even says it's from 1996, though I won't even click on it
So what did we learn about all this?
1. Dennis Conroy worked on at least one more project 2. He seems to be interested in LGBT stuff just like Johnston
And finally, and most important, Dennis Conroy is the THIRD member of the cast who has worked on music videos before. First we have Jennifer Locke who worked on Snap 'n' Snatch, then we have Johnston himself who, even though we don't know if he was involved in a actual music video, we know he did live music spectacles, and finally Dennis Conroy with 45 RPM Love. Now I'm seriously considering the possibility of Lush Life being a music video, way too many coincidences, way too many clues pointing at the music industry
Post by LoneWolf Moonlight on Sept 15, 2017 3:27:26 GMT
Okay I think we have enough information to do a quick summary, I want to keep whatever we have in order, just like with Talking About the Weather:
Lifesaver
Not much is known about this one, except that it was made in 1994 in San Francisco, and directed, writen and starred by David E. Johnston. There is a high probability that he was also the composer. A brief sinopsis found on issuu.com describes it as "an adventure in queer cyberspace"
Lush Life
Released in 1993, and, apparently, released to home video in 1995, also shot in San Francisco. A brief review about the film which, apparently, is from the film festival it was exhibited on, says: "Dennis Conroy and David E. Johnston's beautifully shot Lush Life is a representation of voyeurism, sad-masochistic fantasy and masturbatory hallucinations. - festival program"
Cast
David E. Johnston: Co-director and composer of Lush Life. He seems to have some kind of affiliation with Gift of Tongues, he also used to do live musical spectacles during the 90's. Besides Lush Life and Lifesaver, some of his works include Talking About the Weather (1994), The Hustler (1995) and Gone Dollywood. The Hustler can be watched here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8S1028iAxY
Dennis Conroy: Co-director and film editor of Lush Life
Bob Smith: One of the stars of Lush Life. Some of his other works includes Talking About the Weather and several episodes of The Joy of Painting. He is credited in Lush Life as "sailor"
Rodney O'Neil Austin: One of the stars of Lush Life
Nao Bustamante: One of the stars of Lush Life. She seems to be pretty succesful as an actress and as a director, since she has worked with big names like Jim Parsons. She has a wide library of works, some of them including The Perfect Ones (2006), Silver & Gold (2010) and Tableau (2013), among many others
Jennifer Locke: One of the stars of Lush Life. Besides Lush Life, she also appeared on a "sot of music video" called Snap 'n' Snatch
Ryan Rubio: One of the stars of Lush Life. He is credited as "man"
Jim Winters: One of the stars of Lush Life. He is credited as "man"
Other relevant concepts
The San Fransisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: A film festival which apparently still exists (although under a different name). Evidence suggest that at least Lifesaver was shown here. They also have contact info of David E. Johnston, though it's pretty old so it's probably useless for us
Frameline: We believe that this is a distributor company which released Lush Life in June 7 1995, probably in some kind of compilation
Snap 'n' Snatch: A "sort of music video" in which Jennifer Locke was featured from the year 1990. It might follow a similar style as Johnston's works. It was released along 25 other experimental shorts on a DVD called "The world of George Kuchar". Snap 'n' Snatch can be seen here (although you have to pay to watch it): www.vdb.org/titles/snap-n-snatch
Gift of Tongues: They seem to recognize and upload Johnston's live musical spectacles, they're the ones who uploaded The Hustler
issuu.com: A website which apparently has info of several film festivals, we got contact info from them (although as stated earlier, it might be useless for us)
And I think that's all for now. Clues are coming at a relatively fast pace, so I'll be doing another one of these soon, when we get more