Thanks, Grandma
Posted by Gabby
Ethan and Tex are up finishing the trailer for Barking Spiders tonight. God bless the two of them, not that I believe in God. But it’s so damned inspiring watching the two of them work together, makes me think that this is what it must have been like for the Coens. Two brothers, sitting side by side creating something from beginning to end, making something tangible out of thin air, out of what began as a spark of an idea.
I think it was Tex who first came up with it - probably when he was literally farting around one day - Barking Spiders, a gross-out comedy with echoes of Mars Attacks and Raising Arizona. I mean, this isn’t the kind of thing I would normally go for, but I remember the night the two of them started riffing on the idea of a planet overcome by silent but deadly spiders, and something took hold of me. I knew they had landed on something. A spark. An idea. Something that could carry us through.
And by amazing coincidence, it was not a week later that the funds to create such a thing appeared. My grandmother Cecily died. Now this may seem like an alarming and potentially amoral subject to bring up, but keep in mind that this was a very special week. Not only had Ethan and Tex landed upon a fantastic idea that they were already playing out on paper, but that week I also happened to be listening to Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, which, if you’ve read or spent any time listening to it, you’ll realize the POWER OF NOW. Of doing things now and rapidly and listening to the universe when it speaks to you. And that week, the universe was speaking so loud to me I could not ignore it.
These three realities converging in my life - Barking Spiders, Eckhart Tolle, and my dead grandmother - made me realize there was only one thing I could do: honor my blessed grandmother by using her inheritance to fund Barking Spiders. There was nothing my grandmother wanted more than to see me give birth to something in this life, and I knew that by shepherding this project into existence, I would be satisfying her up in heaven, or wherever she is.
Grandma, if you could see Ethan and Tex now, laughing and crying as they pick out the perfect fart sounds for the Bean Parade onslaught, I know you would be proud.
