saving the bottle rocket motel

my love for wes anderson is no secret. his films, to me, are perfectly executed, perfectly styled, and perfectly cast. so, when i came across an article in the dallas observer detailing the potential loss of the iconic motel from wes anderson's directorial debut film, bottle rocket, i knew i wanted to help.

things got even better when the alamo drafthouse cinema got involved and offered to extend their summer rolling roadshow for a special showing of the film at the motel, which just happens to be a mere hour south of dallas. road trip!

a few friends and i headed south for the night toward the days inn in hillsboro.

it was great seeing so many fans of the film showing up from across the country: texas (of course), but also alabama, georgia, and arizona.

it was also pretty great to be able to walk around and see where the scenes were shot.

in a crazy twist of fate, the temperature was actually quite tolerable last night - there was even a breeze!

my friends and i got to meet robert musgrave, who played bob mapplethrope in the film. he was so cool and chatted with fans about scouting locations with wes anderson and owen wilson, staying on set (or not, as was his case, much to luke wilson's chagrin), and who had crushes on whom.

he signed my commemorative poster...

and sneakily added a moustache on future man (his brother in the film). awesome.

instead of previews and commercials, the pre-show included clips from all anderson's films and the many commercials he's directed. of course, we also got to see the now famous alamo drafthouse psa, which is so hilarious to me (here's the censored version).

right before the show, we all got treated to nose tape. exactly!

the movie was even better viewed in a field with like-minded fans.

it was late when the show ended, but we stayed for awhile just walking around again, finding more shot locations around the motel.

it's fun being a fan.