CHAPTER FOUR

A SIDE ADVENTURE TO BROAD RIPPLE

JESSE: While attending CIRT we had to shoot a news piece as part of our training. Darren came up with the idea of shooting at Broad Ripple's Ballet Class. I had no problem with this and neither did that eternal scum Mike Wallace. Darren invited him along to shoot it. He was closer to Mike at this time and thought Mike knew how to use the equipment, which, of course, he didn't. It was lucky that I went along with them, not because I wanted to do the shoot, but because something happened at Broad Ripple that boggled my mind and thrilled my bones.

A BROAD RIPPLE QUICKIE

A brief note on Broad Ripple High School. Broad Ripple is a Magnet High School on the west side of Indianapolis. It houses the Center for Performing & Visual Art. That means it houses all of the entertainment venue for IPS. The only reason CIRT isn't connected with them is because the technical side is considered a trade. They teach Dance, Music, Acting, and other things involved in the visual arts.


MIKE WALLACE. OR, THE TRUE NEANDERTHAL

Mike Wallace was a know it all prick who liked to think of himself as some renegade writer. He was nothing more than a dick trying to rile people up. He had started an alternative magazine (it was fashionable at the time) called Apathetic Zealot that was crammed with articles centering around his own likes and dislikes but was basically just an excuse to bitch. His theories and such were nothing more than an asshole's rhetoric. 


 Darren had done the covers for all of them. They were good covers; hell, they were the best part of the damn thing. Mike also attended CIRT with us. I never liked him but hung out with him only because Darren wanted to. So I suffered his presence. Sometime during the year he met Jeremy, and, being the cocksucker he is, called Jeremy a Neanderthal.


I didn't know Jeremy well, but I still felt he was being a true asshole to reference anyone in this way. Darren told me about it and I just remember saying "Fuck Mike". The only thing this asshole had going for him was that he owned a car.


JEREMY: I only met Mike once and that was when I went over to his house with Dar because Dar needed to pick something up. What that item was I don't remember. I do remember that Mike's parents were well off financially and owned a large house crammed full with expensive furnishings.


Mike was hanging out with a friend of his who was just as big a prick as he was. They only said a few words to me, which were in a condescending and patronizing tone. Mike disappeared with Dar for a few minutes and when they returned Dar had whatever item he had come for.

On the ride home Dar told me that when he and Mike were alone Mike asked him why he was hanging out with such a Neanderthal. For some reason I really let this get to me. I allowed it to rule my own perception of myself for the next several years. I would see these clean cut, expensively attired individuals with perfect smiles and well-paying jobs and I would become ashamed of myself for not being able to live up to their standards. "Well, what do you expect," I'd say to myself. "You're just a Neanderthal, after all."

I’ve often been misjudged as dimwitted.  I remember an incident later in Florida where I had a conversation with a young woman named Holly. She was taken aback by my intelligence and sophistication and said I had impressed her considerably.  I smiled wryly and asked her if she had me pegged as some country rube, to which she replied, “Well, don’t take it the wrong way, but yeah.”

I’ve since learned not to take the words of a person I barely know to heart. 

ON THE WAY TO BROAD RIPPLE


JESSE: Mike and Darren droned on through the entire car ride, their conversation revolving mainly around the magazine. I didn't do anything for the magazine but help Darren hand them out so I had nothing to add to the conversation. At one point Darren switched gears and started talking about his ex, Ginny. He went on about how he wondered if he would see her in Broad Ripple, where she was attending school at the time. He said he hoped not, but everyone could tell he really wanted to. You could almost see the pain on his face as he thought about her.

In some ways Darren wanted her back while in others he didn’t. At this point in our friendship I feel Darren and I were really like brothers. He had already invited me to join DIP and to go to Florida with them. I felt bad seeing him in this pain and switched the subject to movies. Mike was not the type who could hold his own in a conversation like this so he switched it back to the magazine. Darren lightened up and returned to his jovial self. I went back to thinking about nothing and quickly became bored.

BROAD RIPPLE'S POLICY ABOUT OPEN NUDITY


We arrived at the school around noon. I carried the camera and the light kits to the class. Darren helped carry everything else. Darren led us through the hallways to the classroom. We entered this one big room, two walls of which were composed entirely of mirrors. It had two little bathrooms (one for boys, one for girls).


There was also a little space behind the bathrooms that had a stand with a makeshift wall in it about five feet high. This stand covered about five feet of a twelve foot space. We were setting up all of our equipment when the class, comprised of all girls and one boy, arrived.


The teacher brought the class over and introduced us to them. We planned to do interviews and she asked for volunteers. Three girls raised their hands. We thanked these girls and went back to work. The teacher told everyone to get ready for class.


While I was checking the camera Mike Wallace tapped me on the shoulder. I looked back at him with a "What the hell do you want?" look on my face. However, as I turned I noticed why he was tapping my shoulder. A bunch of naked girls stood behind this makeshift wall, giggling and conversing, completely oblivious to us. We just sat there looking at this plethora of naked chicks. Now, most people would act all cool and make it look like they weren't looking. Not us, though. We just kept watching and watching

After about five minutes of this the teacher walked over and asked us if we got an eyeful. I was the only one to reply with an enthusiastic "Yes!" I then turned around and started to mess with the camera again. Luckily, I could look at the mirror wall and see everything going on behind me. Darren and Mike just continued to stare until Darren came to his senses and joined me. Mike was less inconspicuous and didn't detach his eyes until the girls began to come out.

The interview portion of this shoot was awkward. Darren had to sit and interview girls he had just seen in all their glory. You could tell as he talked that he was hiding his arousal. Mike just walked around hitting on the other girls. After they had all turned him down he walked over and sat down. He did nothing else through the rest of the shoot.


Darren and I filmed the rest of the interviews by ourselves. We then filmed the class as they practiced their dance moves. When class ended they went back to the small room to change. Mike Wallace then came over to make it look like he was helping us pack up as he grabbed himself another eyeful.


In a first for both me and Darren (it's crazy, I know) we didn't succumb to temptation and sneak another peak. I suppose we didn't want to push our luck anymore than we already had. Mike, on the other hand, didn't feel that way and ogled the goods until he was content. The two of us finished our work, thanked the teacher, and ran for the car like thieves in the night. The ride home at least gave us a conversation we would all enjoy, being the perverts we were.

DAR: It was a sight beyond sights. Every single girl was butt naked, bush and all. It was like a scene out of Porky’s. It was a good time.

WATCHING THE FOOTAGE

JESSE: Mike dropped us off at CIRT.  Darren and I watched the footage. It wasn't too bad and the interviews were really good. Unfortunately, the footage was never used as we lost it shortly thereafter. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.


Next: Laugh A Little, Act One: Pre-production