Satisfaction.
While some in the British Invasion community have notably registered complaints regarding their inability to receive such a thing, on October 23rd, 2015, the Rot team and just over 900 fans discovered that squirmy, elusive sensation that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards could only dream of. Having experienced it, we can say that its pursuit has proven itself, unequivocally, to be worth writing a song about. Cruder people than ourselves might take advantage of the many comparisons to sex that could be accurately extrapolated from this climactic event, but we prefer to focus on the main differences and true advantages that the satisfaction of finishing a long-term creative endeavor has over carnal knowledge – you don’t have to feed the final product, and we’re breaking no moral or legal boundary by selling it. Hell, it’s encouraged.
And while that is entirely our intent, to sell our sex and/or film (call Jeremy for a good time and/or a great time), we would be remiss if we did so without saying something long overdue and vitally important to a truly breathtaking, altruistic group of people -
Thank you.
By “you”, we mean every single one of you that is reading this, thinking about reading this, skimming this and deciding it is too damn long to read, not reading this at all because they have never even been to this page but have told someone else to check us out, and frankly, every single person who has ever heard the words Chicago Rot and spoken them again. Hell, we even mean that reporter who saw one of our stickers and thought we were making some kind of trenchant social commentary on the state of the CTA. We weren’t, but someone really should, because that shit’s got some issues.
Without this amorphous but invaluable “you”, this dream would have been nothing more than that – a series of sounds, images, and ideas etched in our subconscious, lacking any manner of corporeal expression. The minds that created them cursed to also function as the prisons from which they could never escape. But due to your support, in all of its forms, they have you to thank as their liberators, granting clemency to these recalcitrant ideas and allowing them to become something expressed in the real world that people can witness and judge and celebrate or condemn. But the one thing that no one can do is censor or incarcerate them. It is too late for that – they are alive now, and even those of us who birthed them cannot control the trajectory of their lives. Nor would we want to. Once manifested, ideas, like everything, should be granted the opportunity to dictate their own fates.
But despite this ideological prison break finding its successful conclusion, our work is far from over. As many of you are no doubt thinking, “If this thing is so damn emancipated, then why the hell haven’t I seen it yet?” It is an excellent question, and remedying that disconnect between fact and experience is precisely the focus of our current efforts. Both domestic and international distribution deals are our endgame goals, and we are pursuing them through every route imaginable. Being a completely independent film, we had no distribution deal in place when we started this film, but the strength of it is such that we have already attracted some suitors. Many festival screenings and meetings with people who might rightfully be compared to predatory animals surely stand between now and that eventuality, and all we can say for certain is that we are doing everything in our power to expedite that process. It could be a very short road or a very long journey, but hopefully soon we will be debating whether China will know our film as Putrefaction in American Wind Town or Windy City: Unclean or Milwaukee Fresh. Depending on how saucy our distributor is, we may even go for the shameless unauthorized name recognition grab and just call it Kill Bill Origins: Pulp Fiction 2 And Also Avatar So Buy This.
But those kinds of decisions are our burden to bear, and harrowing though they may be, we will shoulder them with resolve and quiet reverence for the noble end that they serve. In the meantime, if you have seen the film and want a stylish way to show your support, or simply have a desire to experience your aesthetic preference being misinterpreted as a clever way of casting aspersions on Chicago’s public transportation, then keep an eye out for the Rot merchandise that will be available through this very website in the next few days! What better way to spread some holiday cheer than by dispersing apparel that, to the uninitiated, designates its wearer as a putrid creature?