Wallace J. Tavlov Picks Up The Pieces

He's made some movies that really intrigued me and made me think out of the box. Whitney Houston, the Von Erichs, no one's spared from the intense and critical eye of this man. His work can easily be found here. He's here for a lot of reasons. Important reasons. Reasons that grips the souls of mankind, womankind and otherkind.

He is what he is.

He is WALLACE J. TAVLOV. Don't sleep.

TC: You are the man that calls yourself Wallace J. Tavlov and made a pretty remarkable documentary about the Von Erichs and stuff. How does it feel?
WJT: Alright I guess. I appreciate that people take the time to view things I've made. The time people give my work is a gift. I try to grow as a person. Work out demons and such.
WJT: I'm very passionate about the shit I've allowed to fill up my brain. I try and transform it into something of spiritual significance.
TC: Have you been successful at what you're trying to achieve? Or is it something that's currently pretty futile?
WJT: I don't know honestly. I can't make a living at doing things in the style that I like. But we may be entering a period when content creators do not make a living off of the stuff we produce. Digital folk art some might say.
WJT: Making videos is something I want to feel free enough to walk away from.
WJT: My artistic tendencies have come from psychological places that really need to be grown out of I've realized. My hope is that I will reinvent myself.
WJT: Sorry this isn't sounding retarded in the manner you expected.
TC: Haha, it's okay. My food just came. The staff of Testicles Chowdhury works night and day. The Mexican man got a paltry tip, however.
WJT: That's good to hear.
WJT: Not about your food... the Mexican man being poorly tipped
TC: How does someone mistake "TWO SPRITES" for "CHEESE FRIES", man?
WJT: I don't know. I'm a really bad employee everywhere I've worked in the service industry. I'm always do embarrassing Jerry Lewis-slapstick shit like that which confounds people.
WJT: It's embarrassing really. I worked in a supermarket once and enjoyed eating from the salad bar. I would put something on my salad I thought were turnips. I told my roommate I was way into turnips. Turned out what I mistook for turnips was "imitiation crab meat"
TC: The Chinese has socially risen in every industry except for the entertainment industry. They've pretty much wiped the floor with caucasians when it comes to the service industry. And apparently, they've got a better judge of salad bars if I take your experience into account.
WJT: The Chinese are an efficient machine...I mean "race."
TC: Their efficiency may be astounding.

…

TC: So what's next on the horizon for you? Archery? Alchemy? More pontificating, undoubtedly.
WJT: Hopefully not too much pontificating. I know very little.
TC: Then I'd suggest archery.
WJT: Definitely alchemy though. There's an alchemical nature to what I do.
WJT: I tried archery at a Christian summer camp my parents sent me to when i was young.
TC: Christians with arrows are something that I fear. But a Jehovah's Witness with arrows would be more intimidating, especially when you take their newsletters rolled into their back pockets into account.
WJT: I knew Jehovah's Witness in grade school. A cute girl I had a crush on. Didn't really knew what the religious affiliation implied beyond the fact that there were a lot of things she talked about not being allowed to do.
TC: You needed to watch out back then; she coulda got excommunicated if you tried to mack on her.
TC: I think it's still the case nowadays. Insanity.
WJT: I don't know. My big thing is to obtain some kind of closeness with god.
TC: Testicles Chowdhury does not promote any religion. But we do promote the East region and UTZ Potato Chips.
WJT: I think those things are great. You have a very pro-family blog it seems, aside from the title, which is decidedly anti-family and I do not support.
WJT: I have to fly on an airplane on Monday to see my girlfriend. I'm terrified of experience of flying and the general prescence of the sky itself. My girlfrind flies all the time and I told her that I would be less afraid if I had a closer relationship with god and she looked at me like I was crazy.
TC: We gave up on religion a long time ago. Times were tough, our hearts were broken, Benito Santiago and the tragic fate of Drazen Petrovic kinda came all at once for us. Flight can bring fright, but through all the struggles that we go through in our possibly or probably mundane lives, we could use those experiences to help us grow out of it. Our leader, the Mysterious Swede, only lets us listen to the "pick me up" songs of the late 90's. Yes, Matchbox 20 and Hanson are on the playlist. Regardless, he wouldn't stand for any one of us having a fear of flying. Who would make the round trip to any of his homes in Europe to pick up his dry cleaning?
WJT: Right. I think that makes absolute sense.
WJT: You can understand something on an intellectual level but to experience something is to truly know it.
WJT: That's what I'm talking about wrt to walking away from movie making. Before Of Birth and Blood I didn't want to make a movie for another ten years following Our Summer in Oklahoma 1990 but had to complete the picture out of academic obligation.
WJT: My pictures are an amalgamation of found materials because I reject the cultural forces that made me who I am on a primal level. What interests me is self transformation. Experience will be a new language toward my re/unmaking.
TC: Sounds kinda insane, but I dig your stance. I am pretty much stuck on the primal level, debating whether my ceasar's salad may be the great meal I ate all time all my life.
WJT: That's all that matters though. Being able to appreciate a great meal in the present-tense "now" of experience. The life in the mind leaves me stuck simultaneously in the past and the future. I long to be in the "now" but I fear I have to abandom my artistic ambitions/creative tendencies.
WJT: Foresaking future artistic endeavors on the level of a christ-like sacrifice I think.
WJT: is on the level
TC: You sound very open about the conflicts in your life. I may be the internet's Mike Wallace. Or someone more probing than Ed Bradley. As far as abandonment, that's some really deep shit that my brain can not fathom right at the moment. And the Jesus comparison is tremendous for this interview. Our audience is applauding while furiously copying and pasting when they scroll down to this part.
WJT: Your readers should now I do everything for them, not for me. I am an open, honest person with everyone. I strive for honesty and have a pure heart in a cynical, "best week ever" age.
TC: Hey, that doesn't sound so bad. Especially if your strive is ultimately successful. But if it doesn't, please don't don a scarlet letter for the rest of your days. Maybe several letters; for example, a FUBU sweatshirt.
WJT: FUBU Sweatshirt? Those have to be worn kind of oversize, no? I tend to wear smallish clothes that amplify the emaciated skinnyness of my body. In a physical sense, amplifying my lack of flesh helps people who know me to truly understand what I lack, what I've forsaken in a larger metaphysical and psychological sense for my artistic and intellectual passions. But change in fashion and gearth could be reinvigorating toward that very same purpose.
WJT: Yo, pretty soon I'll have to get my own salad on.
TC: Hahahahaha.
WJT: Meaning I'll have to eat a meal just as you've done. I hope I haven't uninentionally repeated some analogy for prison rape..if I'm remembering the Chris Rock bit correctly.
TC: Salad is something that people shouldn't ignore. And we here at TC have gotten quite a bit of content from you. And we appreciate it. Your check for $3.05 will be in the mail soon.
TC: We thank you.
WJT: Well good luck and may god bless you.