Catching Up

The Movie

It's going fine. Still playing in Colorado, and will continue there as this weekend we add Austin, Texas. Marc will fly out to Austin for some Q&As, so if you live in the area, stop on by. So far we're averaging two weeks at each location, so if you want to go, it's probably best to go sooner than later.

And yeah, we've been losing money (which is to say, we're spending more on advertising in toto than the film has taken in), but we always knew we were going to lose money, that's how these things work nowadays. A couple years ago I attended a seminar conducted by Peter Broderick, who explained that with the exception of the really big Hollywood blockbusters, all theatrical releases these days are really looked upon as "loss-leaders" for the DVD. That definitely opened my eyes: the idea that a theatrical release is really just advertising, designed to raise awareness of a movie so that people will buy the DVD. With that in mind, all along we knew we were going to lose money by putting Zen Noir in theaters; our budget always reflected a loss from this release.

Still, there's a difference emotionally between understanding a thing intellectually, and watching the reality of the numbers as they come in every week. But hey, that's when you do a gut-check and keep your eyes forward.

The DVD, by the way, will probably be released fairly soon. I can't make the announcement yet, but believe me, when I can, I will announce it loudly.

Starstruck or Just Plain Desperate?

Last week I went to an event at The Egyptian sponsored by the No-Budget Film Club, during which director Christopher Nolan screened his first film, Following, and then previewed his new one, The Prestige. Nolan stood up with Peter Broderick (what, him again?) to introduce his movie; the second he was done, as he headed for his seat and the lights started to dim, some guy hurtled up the aisle with something in his hand. So now all those people, in their hundreds, had to wait till this guy was done wasting Nolan's time; but no sooner had Nolan somewhat grudgingly accepted whatever it was this guy had foisted upon him, than the guy started to actually pitch a project. In the aisle, as Nolan tried to get to his seat, this guy actually starts nattering on about whatever the idea was that he hasn't been able to get anyone else to listen to. So one of the event's organizers warns the guy that he's gonna have to return to his seat or get thrown out, and there's a little tiny scuffle, and then the guy finally retreats--all the way out of the theater. As he harrumphed up the aisle, he started shouting something about "this goddamned incestuous industry" not letting the average guy get a break, then he punched a wall and was gone.

And of course he's right, but still. Behavior like that will get you exactly nowhere, ever. If this guy can't figure that out, he might as well just go home now.

Post-Robbery

The hard part is fighting against the almost overwhelming impulse to cast blame. I know perfectly well that the crime against me was not a Latino crime just because it was committed by Latinos. I knew that before I got robbed, and I know it after. But that deep, awful reptilian part of our brains wants very much to cast a wide net so that anyone who is like the robbers becomes a robber. And once that process starts, it only ever expands. I was walking around the other night and my internal radar was pinging like crazy off practically everyone. Dark corners got darker; innocuous alleways suddenly loomed with danger. I refuse to give in to this sort of thing; still, it can't be accidental that lately, most of my walks have come during the daytime because, you know, I had errands to run and they were all fairly close by so why not walk? And of course these places are closed at night so what can I do but go during the daytime? And so forth and so on. This is how we explain things to ourselves so that we don't have to admit that we've become a little more fearful than we used to be.

At the same time, there is the still-astonishing example of the Amish. And with that shining before me, fear is forced to retreat back into those dark dingy corners. It's been an interesting internal struggle lately, the light and dark more fiercely at odds than usual.

Roger Waters

Given all the above, the recent series of Roger Waters concerts at the Hollywood Bowl was well-timed. Great music, well-played, in a great venue. I went with Marc Rosenbush (who then went twice more, catching all of the L.A. shows with different people), and at one point Marc commented that Waters needs two guitarists to recreate what David Gilmour can do by himself. True enough; but at the same time, having two guitarists opens up some Lynyrd Skynyrd-like possibilities that produced some great results--particularly when Pink Floyd's drummer, the great Nick Mason, came onstage for the second half of the show. (I've now seen all four! Yay!) That meant two lead guitars and two drummers working away, as the sound filled the space and made my chest vibrate.

The political content has been controversial, but in Southern California there were no complaints--and the floating pig, with "Impeach Bush" written across its ass, was greeted with delight. (Check the link above for a photo.) My real complaint about Waters, though, is that for some reason he has abandoned metaphor in his songwriting. It's not like "All in all you're just another brick in the wall" was terribly subtle to begin with; but now even that level of metaphor is gone. He performed his new song "Leaving Beirut," and it's a completely straightforward, on-the-nose number that says exactly what it says and nothing more--prose rather than poetry. On top of that, he had artist Bill Sienkiewicz (whose work I've always liked a lot) put together a comic strip to illustrate the story of when Waters was a young man visiting Beirut. Put that together with the overtly-political flying pig which was being walked around at the same time, and you get three layers of obvious when one would have been enough.

Still, nothing beats "Comfortably Numb" for closing out a nice evening of music.