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A bit warped itself, National Lampoon's 'Endless Bummer' goes on summer tour
Art imitates strange little slice of life
from: venturacountystar.com
by Brett Johnson
John "J.D." Drury remembers the surfboard that was stolen from his youth almost 30 years ago at Pierpont Beach in Ventura.
"It was a special board," he said. "As a kid, you only ride one. When you got one, it was a prized possession. I remember it like it was yesterday. It could happen to me tomorrow and I'd have the same feeling."
The story, a bit of a comic caper that took him and his posse of Ventura friends all the way to the San Fernando Valley to retrieve the purloined board, has never really gone away, either.
He told it to good friend - and Warped Tour founder-creator-producer - Kevin Lyman in 2001 as they and their families had lunch at Eric Ericsson's on the Ventura Pier.
A good 45 minutes later, Drury recalled, "everyone was laughing, and intrigued." Someone blurted out, "That's a movie."
Three years ago, the buzz goes, rocker JOAN JETT read Drury's script from cover to cover in one sitting and was so enthralled that she wanted to play a homeless woman on the beach.
Now, it is a movie - "National Lampoon's Endless Bummer" - and Ventura, where much of the filming went down two summers ago, is splattered all over it.
It will premiere for free at the Majestic Ventura Theatre next Sunday night, the same day the Warped Tour makes its annual visit to town.
The film has an unusual marketing model; bypassing the traditional theaters route, it will screen only in cities with Warped Tour dates.
"It's a very spirited roll-out program," Drury said. "It will evolve as it goes. Right now, Kevin and I are going to get out on the road and do premiere parties. Will we be doing one in someone's living room? Why not?"
The 90-minute film will be distributed by National Lampoon, the "Animal House" and "Vacation" folks synonymous with racy comedies. Parts of it are Lampoon-esque, said Drury, who has screenplay, story and co-producer credits on it; after they jumped on board, they added shoots and spiced it up with "a little T-and-A." (For that, along with language and some drug and alcohol use, it drew an R rating.)
But, Drury insists, the story held up. Some of it centers on teens who don't want to give up the Ventura beach lifestyle, where in movie marketing-speak "beer, bongs and bikinis rule," and wonder what life holds for them.
"It's a heartfelt piece with funny moments in it," said Drury, who also does voice-overs in the film. "It is a stretch out of National Lampoon's comfort zone. There are actually some poignant moments in it."
Or putting it another way, he said, "The stolen surfboard didn't mean anything. It's the journey of our friendships that matter."
Lyman, in a separate interview, agreed.
"I look at it as a coming-of-age movie," said Lyman, who shares a story credit with Drury. "There is the comedy side of National Lampoon in there, but they took it further into a real story."
Groovin' in the '80s
The story is set at a Ventura beach in 1984; Drury believes the surfboard theft occurred at Pierpont two or three years earlier.
Many of the characters in the film are based on real-life people who the now-47-year-old Drury, best known locally as the lead singer-frontman of the band Raging Arb and the Redheads, has met over the years.
The movie, he said on a recent day down on Seaward Avenue, "pays tribute to all flavors of characters on the beach. Beach communities, there's a whole spirit to them."
Jett got the part of Dell, the homeless woman at the beach who happens to write down the license plate number of the car carrying the swiped board. (Her manager, KENNY LAGUNA, plays a liquor store clerk.)
The film's soundtrack has another twist; it's infused with '80s cover songs done mostly by contemporary artists. The Dollyrots do Jett's "Bad Reputation." Katy Perry roams all over The Outfield's "(Use) Your Love." Pennywise chips in with Iggy Pop's "Bang Bang." The Aggrolites do Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie" and The Specials' "Ghost Town." Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 cover The Adolescents song "Amoeba."
Drury's band, Raging Arb, contributes one of its '80s songs, "Monster." He also teams with co-songwriter Jay Ferguson and guitarist Chris Byrd on "Pierpont (A Beautiful Day)."
And Jett puts her chops into the Missing Person's smash hit "Destination Unknown." Jett's label, BLACKHEART RECORDS, is putting out the soundtrack.
Lyman thinks his Warped Tour's youth-skewing demographic will eat up tunes first recorded when most of them weren't alive yet.
"There's definitely a movement where young kids are learning about the music of the past," he said. "And if they don't like it, their parents who are taking them to the Warped Tour shows might."
The film comes amid a bit of a milestone for the Warped Tour - its 15th anniversary. Lyman deemed it "strange" that's he's still doing the tour.
"It's still in me," he said. "I still get goose bumps doing it. How many people get to go to their job 15 years later and say they still get goose bumps?"
Next Sunday's events, Lyman said, mark the anniversary and give nod to those who assisted with "Endless Bummer."
"It's kind of a Ôthank you' we're throwing," he said. "The city of Ventura was so helpful in getting this film made."
A major kidnapping
Lyman remembers that lunch at Eric Ericsson's in 2001.
"After he told the story, and J.D. does it well, I said, ÔWow, that's not the endless summer, that's an endless bummer,'" Lyman recalled.
The title, of course, plays off Bruce Brown's 1966 cinematic surfing classic "The Endless Summer."
Drury said he spent more than six years writing and fine-tuning the "Endless Bummer" story. It was frustrating - financing fell through four times - but Drury added that he was so close to the story and characters that he felt an obligation to not walk away.
"The creative elements were pretty fun," Drury said. "Some of the movie politics, I could do without that. I went through a hard-core course of Moviemaking 101."
On the cusp of the film's debut, he's got butterflies. The fact it even got made is the amazing part to Drury, who added: "The story? That's totally up to the viewer."
The movie's story line hews fairly close to actual events, though Drury was mindful of not spoiling too much for filmgoers. In real life, instead of a homeless woman supplying the license plate number of the offending vehicle hauling Drury's board, one of his friends happened to see a board thrown into a car, thought it looked like J.D.'s, and wrote down the plate number. They traced it through a friend of his mom's who had pull at the Sheriff's Department, and got an address. He and friends drove down the Ventura Freeway. "It was some place right off Winnetka (Avenue)" in the Canoga Park area, Drury recalled.
The board was sitting in the guy's bedroom. Drury said he got his board back largely without incident.
It might not sound like much, but it was at Pierpont, which Drury recalled was more blue-collar then.
"When something like this happens," Drury said, "when a board gets stolen and your community hears about it, it becomes a major kidnapping. It was a big to-do."
He saluted actor Khan Chittenden, who plays him in the film, saying: "I think he did a fantastic job. He definitely has a similar look to me, what I looked like growing up at the beach. I got to know him a little bit; we hung out and had some beers."
Getting Jett, who got wind of the story when she did the Warped Tour the year before filming began in Ventura, was a coup.
"I saw her on the set one day and it was like, ÔI can't believe it's JOAN JETT,'" Drury recalled.
Reflections in the waves
Some filming took place at Pierpont, which has been quite the ground zero in his life.
From the moment his family moved to Ventura in his middle school years, Drury knew what he wanted to do - surf. He lived, as he put it, "12 1/2 minutes from the beach."
He recalled warm feelings at Pierpont, "paddling in and out with friends. We'd get in two or three sessions a day. Sometimes, we'd barbecue afterward. It was the perfect package for a day."
Pierpont is also where his band Raging Arb had its first live gig - July 4, 1983. Surfing and music, he noted, easily intertwined; you'd go to house parties on the beach and there'd be bands playing.
Of that first gig, Drury remembered, "The energy on the beach and it being Independence Day, that whole feeling was kind of similar to dropping in on a good wave, the rush of it all."
Almost 26 years, a couple records and tons of local club gigs later, Raging Arb is still going. The dream of being a successful touring band has long since passed, but Drury said: "The beauty of it now is that we're playing music and sharing it with family and friends in Ventura. I look out when we play and see friends from years ago."
He still surfs from time to time but 'fesses that he likes to avoid crowds now. But the sea is still in his blood.
"Now, the tricks don't matter and the perfect wave no longer matters, but the ocean is still a special place," he said.
So is Pierpont. Surf, a stolen board, song and now cinema have all mixed there in Drury's life. On a recent sunny day that punctured the June gloom curtain - "I'll be surfing later," he said cheerily, motioning to a good south swell and blue skies - Drury strolled along familiar haunts, exchanging greetings with at least a dozen people on South Seaward.
Said Drury at one point, "A lot of things started for me here."
About J.D. Drury
Callings: Surfer, lead singer of the band Raging Arb and The Redheads, rookie filmmaker.
Local ties: Grew up in Oxnard and Ventura (attended De Anza and Cabrillo middle schools and Ventura High School) and now lives in Ojai.
Age: 47.
Done for us lately: Drury has screenplay, story and co-producer credits on the new film "Endless Bummer," which involves a chase to recover a stolen surfboard and is based on a real-life incident that happened to Drury at Pierpont in the early 1980s.
Family: Wife, Amber, 36; sons Jason, 20, Ryan, 18, and O'Neil, 5; and daughter, Ava, 8.
Real life: Owner of RedHead Clothing, used to have a surf shop on Seaward Avenue, has done construction work and many odd jobs. Says Drury, "Any kind of stable job, I've become accustomed to not worrying about one."
At a glance
Film premiere: "Endless Bummer" will screen for free at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28, at the Majestic Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St. The punk band Fear will warm up the proceedings starting at 9 p.m.
After-parties: The Watermark, 598 E. Main St., will throw open its doors for an 11 p.m. dance party, featuring DJ Kamtin Mohager, aka The Street Gang of 1974. (A private VIP party will be held upstairs in the W20 Lounge.) Sans Souci, 21 S. Chestnut St., also will host a public party at 11 p.m.
I'm with the band: "Endless Bummer" soundtrack bands will liven up the downtown with some late-night gigs: The Dollyrots will play the Good Bar, 533 E. Main St., at 11:15 p.m., and The Action Design will do a midnight show at RooKees, 419 E. Main St.
Happy birthday: The Vans Warped Tour, celebrating its 15th year and featuring a scheduled 70 bands headlined by Bad Religion, NOFX and The Devil Wears Prada, will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at Seaside Park and run to about 9 p.m.; gates will open at 11 a.m., the box office at 10 a.m. Tickets are $31 and available through Ticketmaster at ticketmaster.com or 583-8700. For more information, call the Seaside Park box office at 648-3376.
For a full list of dates and bands playing the national 46-stop Warped Tour that begins Friday in Pomona and ends Aug. 23 in Carson, check out warpedtour.com.
After the final credits roll: For more on "Endless Bummer," slated to be released on DVD by National Lampoon this fall, visit endlessbummerthemovie.com.
On location: Filming sites included South Seaward Avenue, Pierpont, Marina Park, Buffalo Records, the old Pacific Coast Highway north of town, Oxnard Shores, the San Fernando Valley and Imperial Beach in San Diego County.
The "Endless Bummer" soundtrack
The "Endless Bummer" soundtrack, scheduled for release Tuesday on BLACKHEART RECORDS, features remakes of '80s and other classic hits including "Bad Reputation," "Destination Unknown" and "Bang Bang" by artists including Katy Perry, JOAN JETT, Pennywise and members of Blink-182.
Two homegrown songs also are included on the soundtrack: "Monster," by J.D. Drury and Raging Arb and the Redheads, and "Pierpont (A Beautiful Day)," by Jay & J.D., featuring Chris Byrd.
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