Jade Jolie — ‘Equality is like rainbows’

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Cute and bubbly Jade Jolie got off to a decent start as a contestant on the reality competition series “RuPaul’s Drag Race”’s recent fifth season, but the pressure soon caught up, leading to her elimination halfway through the season. The Gainesville, Fla., native known to the government as Josh Green also became scandalized when past work as an adult film actor (called Tristan Everhard — also a good drag name!) emerged once she entered the spotlight.

The drag queen says, “My style has always reflected my personality, giving you a taste of the crazy rainbow.” She took her stage name from a combination of the “Mortal Kombat” character Jade (“the character who would always give me life with her monstrous tatas and great physique”) and a movie star (“who, in my opinion, is the queen of queens”).

Jade Jolie headlines this month’s edition of the LGBT party “Hard Candy.” VIP tickets include a meet-and-greet, photo and specialty cocktail at 9 p.m.

LEO: What do you do at your live appearances?
Jade Jolie: Clearly, from my final episode of “Drag Race,” I’m not a live singer (laughs). I don’t wanna scare anyone, and I enjoy having people in the audience for my shows, so lip-syncing is a must. I serve the children with high, fun energy and crazy costumes. Drag, to me, should hold your attention and be a blast, so I do my best to make things visually exciting and entertaining as possible.

LEO: What did you learn about yourself from seeing yourself on TV?
JJ: There’s nothing like some seIf-evaluation after watching yourself on TV. One thing I did learn is to edit (laughs). I also thought, prior to the show, I was America’s sweetheart — and it turned out I was America’s sweet and sour patch kid (laughs).

LEO: Which version of RuPaul do you prefer, the “Tim Gunn” version or the “Covergirl” version?
JJ: I’ll take any version! She is one fierce muthatucka.

LEO: Did you make it all the way through that movie Angelina made with Johnny Depp?
JJ: I feel like a terrible fan saying no — but it’s a no (laughs). Some of my all-time faves from her is in “Original Sin,” “Tomb Raider” and “Gia” ... oh, and she was a clearly a goddess in “Alexander.”

LEO: What is your biggest goal?
JJ: To be a queen to be remembered.

LEO: How do you feel about the recent Supreme Court decision about marriage equality?
JJ: I know to some it seems like a small step, but to me, I am overjoyed. I feel you have to celebrate each and every victory, and equality is like rainbows — beautiful and free, hunty!

LEO: What do rainbows and unicorns add to your life?
JJ: Everything! Seriously, though, who doesn’t love a damn unicorn and rainbow? They make me smile and definitely add some more pizzazz in my life. I love to tell people, “Don’t think it’s only rainbows, because if you mess with the unicorn, sometimes you get the horn!”

Jade Jolie with Dee Ranged & DJ Syimone
Thursday, July 18
Hard Candy at Prime Lounge
104 W. Main St.
facebook.com/HardCandyKY
$6; 11 p.m.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Lebowski Fest 2013: The Coen Brothers — you know, for kids!

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Cult hits, Oscar winners and an accidental festival

On June 29, in the midst of a road trip, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Joel Coen and his wife, actress Frances McDormand, came through Louisville. The power couple stopped at a Carmichael’s Bookstore, where staffers recognized the Academy Award-winning star of “Fargo.” Though they didn’t initially identify Coen as they shared their Hollywood sighting with their Facebook followers, WHY Louisville’s page lit up the next day with the news that their spirit animal had made it to the store owned by Lebowski Fest organizer Will Russell.

Coen, who has remained mostly silent about the independently run festival, even signed a poster advertising this weekend’s 12th Louisville edition: “Hi Will, a dozen years is too long … —Joel Coen”

In his career to date, Joel Coen and his brother, Ethan, have written, edited, produced and directed 16 feature films together, including “Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” “No Country for Old Men,” “A Serious Man,” “True Grit” and this fall’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which received much praise at this spring’s Cannes Film Festival. The brothers, who do everything together but have often split credits due to union rules, have long since established theirs as one of the most consistently inventive, smart, weird, usually funny, idiosyncratic filmmaking voices of our times, a veritable genre of one.

They are known for their visual work as much as for their dialogue, for never repeating themselves even when working with a company of returning actors, and for being able to do whatever they feel like without seeming concerned about how much money it will cost or earn them.

Their films sometimes work in the noir genre, sometimes as slapstick comedy and sometimes both. Throughout their work, a philosophical subtext missing from most movies can be traced (Ethan holds a philosophy degree from Princeton, while Joel studied film at NYU; their parents were an economist and an art historian, though their intellectualism rarely interferes with their work’s jokes or eruptions of violence).

“The Big Lebowski,” their seventh film, combines great doses of stoner humor with acid-drenched, whimsical philosophy and surprising violence, while reconnecting them with favored actors John Goodman and John Turturro (whose off-kilter relationship in the Coens’ fourth film, “Barton Fink” — written around the same time as “Lebowski” — can be seen as an antecedent to the “Lebowski” relationship between Goodman and Jeff Bridges).

Upon its release on March 6, 1998, reviews were mixed, and the movie struggled to find an audience. Moviegoers expecting a sequel to the Coens’ previous film, the award-winning and popular “Fargo,” found themselves confused by the complex yet almost random-seeming plot of “Lebowski,” and confused by a fatter, hairier Jeff Bridges than they were used to seeing. In a 2010 review, Roger Ebert wrote, “‘The Big Lebowski’ is about an attitude, not a story.” While moviegoers often prefer stories to attitudes, attitude was a great jumping-off point for a party.

As co-founder Will Russell details in his recount in this issue, Lebowski Fest was started by a pair of fans of the movie — a couple of odd ducks, sure, but otherwise decent young men — who found it endlessly quotable, and who decided to get some friends together to celebrate it in a bowling alley. Add alcohol and then costumes to the party, have a few bands play outside, and suddenly, a festival is born.

Part of the credit for the festival’s ongoing success goes to the prescient vision of Russell and co-founder Scott Shuffitt, who anticipated the rise of “nerd culture” 12 long years ago as a viable business model. (San Diego’s Comic-Con is probably the only new place left for the fest to visit, unless you think the Vatican might let them drink a few White Russians in the parking lot.)

Some of the credit must go to the Coen Brothers and the film’s owner, Universal Pictures, who not only didn’t sue the Louisvillians a dozen years ago but even enlisted the fest to help promote the 10th anniversary DVD box set release.

Credit must also go to the weird people of Louisville, who helped get this institution off the ground and kept it going — perhaps, Mr. Coen, longer than it ever should have, to a rational person, but that is not this audience. In the early years, locals could be heard becoming increasingly skeptical of yet another Lebowski Fest, but as the years went on, it’s become harder to remember that an annual Lebowski Fest really is a weird thing to have. So congrats to us, Louisville, and to Achievers everywhere. LEO is proud — we are — of all of them.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

The Jolly Green Art Giant

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Lebowski Fest revelers take home souvenirs of all kinds — happy memories, bowling injuries, White Russian hangovers — but the most popular might be each fest’s posters, all designed by Louisville native Bill Green. Since 2002, Green has created dozens of unique posters and art prints for the fest. Add up the rest of the merchandise he’s worked on — shirts, rugs, iPhone cases and what-have-you — and we’re talking about 100 pieces of Lebowski Fest “swag,” in his parlance.

He’s seen the movie “well over” 100 times, and literally co-wrote the book on it (2007’s “I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You”). But how does he come up with so many fresh concepts?

“Every time I start a new one, I’m petrified that the well’s run dry,” Green says. “But I think what is driving me to try to keep it fresh is the community reaction.”

He’s not just a guy pumping out product. He walks among them. “The day when it’s, like, ‘Oh yeah, another Lebowski Fest poster from Bill …’ Maybe that’s already happened and nobody’s told me,” Green laughs.

For him, Maude’s the most versatile to draw; Donnie’s the toughest. There are many great ideas for posters, he says, but “of those, there are only a few I could execute well. That helps me a lot, knowing my limits.”

Green likens his process to going down a rabbit hole, searching for ideas. “I just like to find an eye-catching graphic and build around that … I start doodling and see what happens. And it’s really nerve-racking every time. Until I sit back in my chair and take a look at it: ‘Ok, this is going somewhere.’ (Then) I have a lot of weight off my shoulders. But until then, it’s not enjoyable,” he laughs, “what I do for a living.”

In 2007, Green and his then-wife moved to Houston when her job transferred her. “That didn’t work out,” he says now with a bit of an understatement. He thought about moving back to Louisville, but having already been uprooted, he realized that if he ever wanted to live anywhere else, this was his chance.

“I wanted to say I’d lived somewhere other than Louisville in my life,” he recalls. “Even if it means I don’t like it and I move back to Louisville. I felt like if I moved back to Louisville, I’d be looking for the house I would die in, and that kind of depressed me (laughs), so …”

He moved to Los Angeles in 2008. He knew some people there already, and “I work from home and on the Internet, so I don’t really have to be in a certain city.”

He credits his success with Lebowski Fest with giving him the ability to leave the more stable workforce behind and start his own Bill Green Studios. Today, the fest provides him with 10 percent of his clientele, a lesser percentage now than five years ago. The majority of his clients are still based in Derby City.

Green comes home every July for Lebowski Fest. “Coming back to Louisville and being able to see 90 percent of my friends at once — instead of running around town, scheduling lunches — is nice. And, yeah, the fest is always fun.”

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Kyle Gass does work, sir

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The other guy in Tenacious D, Kyle Gass led his other band, The Kyle Gass Band (aka The KGB), at Lebowski Fest Los Angeles this spring. The Kage returns for this weekend’s mothership edition. (KGB plays Friday at Executive Strike & Spare at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20-$25. Check out lebowskifest.com for details.)

LEO: How was your first experience?
Kyle Gass: Oh God, it was great! We had so much fun. Like everybody, we’re all pretty big fans, so we designed the set specifically for the fans. We did songs from the movie, and then we all dressed up as characters from the movie. It was really fun. Jack (Black) made a cameo. He wasn’t really a character from the movie, but he enjoyed it anyway.

LEO: Who’s your favorite character?
KG: It’s hard not to love Jesus. He’s only on screen for, like, two minutes, and yet, it’s one of the most memorable ... the costume — our guitarist (dressed as) Jesus. He has the same body type, and he found the tightest, greatest costume. But, you know, it’s hard not to love The Dude and Walter. They’re all great.

LEO: Who is the most like you?
KG: Probably The Dude. I feel a kinship to his relaxed attitude and style. I mean, I’m a California guy. So I relate.

LEO: And there’s a lot of pot references in the movie, as well as in your own oeuvre.
KG: I’ve heard that, yeah! (laughs) Come on, it’s California. We can handle it.

LEO: When you played the L.A. Fest, did a lot of people want to smoke out with you?
KG: No, we were backstage. We’re having fun, but we’re working. We’re more likely to maybe down some White Russians than do that.

LEO: Those are pretty potent.
KG: They’re a little rich. They’re not really on my diet. We actually had a little bar set up on stage, and the guy that, I guess, Lebowski was based on, the real Dude (Jeff Dowd) pretty much absconded with our bar. It seems kind of funny, but it wasn’t. Like, “Hey, you know what? Don’t. That’s for us.” Taking it off the stage, like, “Oh, somebody left this here!” ... Like he had some sort of hall pass or something. You’re stealing, that’s what’s happening there.

LEO: How many times have you seen the movie?
KG: It’s one of those I’ll bump into and check out some favorite scenes. All the way through — probably a solid three or four times.

LEO: You’re not obsessive about it.
KG: No, I’m not of that mentality. I’m always glad there are fans like that, because it’s better for a performer, but I don’t need to be crazy obsessive.

LEO: You have your own crazy obsessive fans.
KG: Oh God, yeah!

LEO: How do they compare to the “Lebowski” fans you’ve seen?
KG: There’s more similarities between superfans — whatever they’ve chosen to focus on, whatever floats their boat … But I don’t think you have to be a superfan to celebrate a movie like “Lebowski,” or Tenacious D. Or even the KGB, the band that’s playing.

LEO: You’ll be playing some of the covers here, as well?
KG: We will. I wish I could reveal them. But if you’ve seen the movie, you know what we’re gonna play. We’re probably gonna play “Condition,” and there’s probably going to be some Creedence and the like.

LEO: You’ve also starred in a cult film. Do you think there will be a “Pick of Destiny” festival in the future?
KG: I don’t see it now. But we’re still — let’s see, we’re seven years out ... 10 years, you’ll probably see something. And it’ll be a get-together at a Holiday Inn. Or a Red Roof Inn, if we’re lucky. The Burbank Hyatt — that’s at 25 years.

LEO: (laughs) It’s a movie that some people are very passionate about.
KG: Are they? Well, they weren’t on the opening weekend!

LEO: While I have you, I also wanted to ask about your work in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!”
KG: Yes, yes.

LEO: How did that experience compare to, say, making a Tenacious D record?
KG: It didn’t take nearly as long. I think I was in and out of there in two days. But I had a great time on the “Chihuahua.” I liked my character. He was kind of a lazy gardener. But he had a spirit about him.

LEO: It’s great when you can bring all your years of training in the theater to some of these parts.
KG: If someone casts me in a movie without me having to audition, there’s a real good chance I’m gonna do it. I hate auditioning, but it’s fun to work. It’s fun to act once in a while. That’s how I was for years and years, and the music was on the side — so, whatever’s working.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly