So Y2K didn't happen? It was the impetus of my project. The end of the Millenium was supposed to bring some serious appocoliptical mayham down upon us. I remember pitching my idea as 20 Saturdays Skiing as The World Burns! 20 Saturdays of Y2K the Last Ski Season Ever. Or some such nonsense, if you were an adult back then you have to remember there was some serious anxiety building up to New Years Eve 1999. Aspen was slow. The ultra rich stayed home to oversee their empires. The Grand Ball New Year's Eve Gala at the Hotel Jerome wasn't sold out. Which meant Suzy and me got to party like Rock Stars!
Suzy still worked there, I used to work there and we had recently had our wedding reception there so Tony (the GM) invited us for free to fill in the empty seats! So we partied like it was 1999 because it was. Here's us on the dance floor as the ball dropped. If Y2K was the end of the world I would have died a happy man.
Well so the world did not end and in fact Y2K was maybe the biggest dud ever. In fact nothing happened. I woke up early, road the gondola with Brad (childhood friend who came in from Houston) and Jasmin And skied in a blizzard on New Years day of 2000. Proving 20 Saturdays wasn't going to be a film about skiing the appocolipse taking the steam out of the plot a little bit. But I was committed and the show must go on (or the filming of the show whatever the show might end up being must go on).
The first Saturday in January 2000 finds me on a chairlift in Snowmass on a gorgeous day with two old-school best buds Lionel and Top of Ten Tom. Their short conversation sums up the whole Y2K thing and allows for a Segway into what 20 Saturdays is really all about,
I'll insert the clip soon, when my tech improves for now these stills will suffice
The short conversation was about the lifts being Y2K compliant and that in fact they did have a diesel back-up in case there was a need for ...😊😳😁😃😂😎
So what was 20 Saturday all about. Twenty years latter I see it as a coming of age film about a 33 year old newlywed mountain man with a lot of problems who wanted to record some of what he knew was going to be his last ski season ever!
