DELICIOUSLY SLEAZY
By
Buzz Bernard
As
a way of raising the curtain on my new Website, I’d like to introduce you to
Jerry Metcalf, a key character in Supercell. Jerry isn’t necessarily a likable guy. But he is, as one reviewer put it,
“deliciously sleazy.”
Metcalf
is a self-proclaimed “chief of staff” for Global-American Cinema. “I make sure stuff gets done and things
happen; I kick ass and take names,” he tells Chuck Rittenburg, whom he’s hired
to find a violent tornado to film.
A
big man with a broad face and full black beard, Metcalf stands out in a
crowd. Especially since he’s usually
dressed in Timberland hiking boots, cargo shorts and a white Greek fisherman’s
cap.
He’s
impatient, goal-oriented and profane. He
detests being away from Hollywood chasing storms on the Great Plains, an area
he views as a sort of purgatory. “People
don’t really choose to live here, do
they?” he asks.
When
he and his film crew are forced to spend some down time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he
reacts badly.
Metcalf mostly bitched, proclaiming
Tulsa the tedium capital of the world.
After discovering the city was
originally part of Indian Territory, he suggested giving it back to them and
letting them turn the town into a giant casino. “At least there’d be something
to do,” he groused, “and it might even attract some decent [hookers].”
(He
actually used a more pejorative term than hookers.)
Metcalf
and Chuck lock horns almost immediately on their “great hunt.” It’s a conflict that escalates throughout
their 14-day odyssey and ends with Metcalf the object of Chuck’s deep-seated
anger.
Chuck’s
assessment of the the whole affair: “Thanks to that weasel, Metcalf, it turned
out to be a classic example of finding defeat in victory.”
Meet
Jerry Metcalf for yourself when Supercell
swirls into book stores November 1st.
