I was on social media recently and was reminded that Rex Manning Day is coming up. Rex Manning Day is a reference to the cult classic 90’s film Empire Records. The actual date of Rex Manning Day is April 8th, it only appears once in the film on the flyer on the door. I remember seeing bits and pieces of this film in high school and just had the time to sit down and watch it start to finish. This film is the epitome of the 90’s; it made me nostalgic for the old school record shops, plaid skirts, and sticking it to The Man.
Empire Records is about a small independent record shop managed by Joe, whose employees are all teens and early twenty-something’s with different personalities (perhaps the embodiments of several 90’s clichés), that are a sort of self-created family, with Joe as the reluctant and perpetually exasperated father figure.
Employee Lucas discovers that Empire Records is about to be converted into a branch of Music Town, a large and generic franchise music store on the eve of “Rex Manning Day”. Rex Manning Day is the name the staff have given a scheduled publicity function that features the pompous, fading pop singer, who will be in store to sign autographs and promote his new album. No one is really looking forward to “Rex Manning Day” except cashier Corey, a overachieving student headed for Harvard who has a schoolgirl crush on Rex, and plans to lose her virginity to him. Corey’s friend and fellow cashier Gina, encourages Corey in her pursuit of the much older Manning.
Rex Manning arrives and is predictably condescending toward Joe, the rest of the staff, and his fans. Corey, after demanding that she be allowed to bring Rex his lunch, awkwardly attempts to seduce him. When Manning responds with a crude pass, Corey runs off, crying in embarrassment.
The day continues to spiral downward. Corey accuses Gina of encouraging her ill-advised behavior around Rex, and places her at fault for the failed seduction. Outraged at the accusation and seeking to hurt Corey, Gina seduces Rex Manning, much to the horror of her friends.
As the afternoon progresses, the plan to convert Empire Records into a Music Town is revealed, and Joe admits that he had hoped to buy the store himself but cannot because he must use the money to correct a situation that Lucas created when he tried to save the store on his own, (taking money from the till and gambling with it). The employees all pool their resources to replace the money that Lucas lost. Despite their best efforts, they are thousands short. Suddenly inspired, stoner employee Mark runs out of the store and impulsively jumps in front of a news crew and announces a late night benefit party/concert to save Empire.
Between various money raising efforts by the staff, selling their art, a rooftop concert featuring Berko and Gina, enough money is made to replace the money Lucas lost. Joe and Lucas return the money to the owner, and promptly quit. Mitchell, the owner then offers to sell the store to Joe…cheap. Joe agrees. The conflicts between the staff members are mended by their efforts of saving the store from the invasion of The Man.
There is a classic scene in the film where the resident stoner Mark takes his break, eats a brownie and watches a little TV. He is all settled in to watch a GWAR performance when the brownies begin to take their toll and he starts to see himself playing alongside the band. The viewer confirms that Mark’s brownie is of a special (THC laced) variety when things take a strange turn and GWAR starts feeding Mark to a monster on stage.
You can watch the scene here.
This scene in the film is the result of a crazy idea that Ethan Embry, the actor that played Mark, pitched to the producers because GWAR happened to be playing a show in the area at the time the movie was being filmed. They all agreed that GWAR is exactly the type of heavy metal that Mark would be into. Apparently, the live audience didn’t really understand what was going on when they filmed the scene of Mark playing with the band and then being eaten, but the filmakers did a few takes and then were on their way. To me, this whole situation sounds like another day at the office for GWAR.
Although the scene alludes to a more hallucinatory drug than marijuana, Mark is definitely portrayed more as the stoner type than anything else and since Hollywood often portrays the effects of marijuana edibles incorrectly; I am going to argue that he is eating pot laced brownies.
Mark would have used canna butter (cannabis infused butter) in order to get any of the THC effects into the brownies. Now that cannabis is legal in several states it is possible to make and/or purchase canna butter in several areas. However, use good judgement when making or using any cannabis products.
My suspicions were that Mark made the brownies from a box because rarely do stoners make their brownies from scratch. Following the procurement of your canna butter, make the brownies as directed, using the canna butter in place of any oil. Be forewarned that making Special Brownies will make your kitchen smell like marijuana. Enjoy in moderation, you don’t want to bring on any strange GWAR fantasies.
Mark’s Special Brownies:
1 box of Brownie mix
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canna butter
1 egg
- Mix water, canna butter, brownie mix, and egg.
- Bake according to box directions.
