The Next Big Thing

First thing I usually do of a morning is turn on the radio. Even before the computer. And today, “Seventy Six Trombones” came blazing out. This was one of the first pieces of music that I ever remember hearing and I’m pretty sure that if I looked, there’s a 45 of it at my parents house. On the Embassy label as I recall... anyway, it kind of weirded me out. I don’t really recall much of what happened last week but hearing this took me back someplace pretty vividly.

Visited the EIFF yesterday and hooked up with Mr McKay and for a short while with Mike McCarthy. The aspect of the festival being in June now seems to have had more of an impact this year. Maybe the hub is at Cineworld now because it didn’t seem to be at Filmhouse. Not that it wasn’t busy for the screenings but the hubbub seemed greatly reduced. I’ll get the taste of what’s happening up the road at “The Runaways” tonight. The big question is still will Joan Jett be there? Something that would make it a little special for sure. The feasibility of attending a press screening of “Cigarette Girl” was sketchy so a better use of my time is getting the bunker ready to receive guests.

I did see the Steven Soderbergh documentary about Spalding Gray entitled “And Everything Is Going Fine”. Trying to remember when I saw him at the Assembly rooms, maybe 1985, but the grey matter ain’t budging. I always liked his monologues and know a couple of people who really didn’t. He was an odd character for sure and this, to my mind, requires that you have a background appreciation of his work. It’s a little like a compilation of “extras" that might accompany a DVD collection. It purports to be a final monologue but it’s not.

I think it would be pretty impenetrable for anyone coming in cold but you never know. His wife said at the Q&A that it was about keeping his work alive and maybe introducing it to new people. I think that releasing the actual monologues might be a better way of tackling that and it came to light that something might be available that doesn’t kick back to the family. Such are the trials and tribulations of anything that has artistic value.