Not Bad

Indie Memphis action yesterday! I went and saw A Life in Waves, the Suzanne Ciani documentary (that Memphis Concrète was a "community partner" of). I mean, I was already set up to like it sure, but it was really really good anyway. And there were some good bits I didn't know about her (one highlight being working for Buchla and getting fired the second day but she went back to work the next day anyway and said they can't fire her (it was over a bad soldering joint that she knew wasn't hers)). Also a big thing I apparently didn't know (though actually learned two days before at the other movies when they showed a preview for it beforehand): how to pronounce her name! I'd been giving the 'C' a soft 's' sound but it's pronounced with the Italian 'ch' so now I know. Memphis Concrète was mentioned before it started (though it was pronounced "concrete" hehe). I was happy 'cuz there was a lot of people there. It was one of the smaller theaters at Studio, but it was pretty close to full which is great for something that started at 4 pm on a weekday. Saw a good number of friends there: Mary Beth (hi!), Luís, Jacques, Amy, Ricky, Alex, Curtis, Olivia, Ricky, Christopher. Had a gap between that and the other movie I saw so Jacques and I went to grab some food, just the barbecue place that used to be a German place that's right there nearby. It's kinda weird. It feels like they kept the same ingredients and stuff and just shuffled stuff around to make it barbecue instead of German. It was also pretty empty. It's not horrible, but the food's kinda not that good either. I didn't have high expectations for it, but it was more a convenience and a sure why not kinda factor. Then it was back to the movies to see Bad Lieutenant. Abel Ferrara and the editor and the music guy and the guy who played Jesus were there. I hadn't seen it in a long time. Also, this was a 35mm print and it had Schoolly D's "Signifying Rapper" which got cut from the film after Jimmy Page sued because the song "interpolates" "Kashmir." So that was pretty neat. The movie was good to see again and the q&a was entertaining. Abel is a bit of a character. He wasn't quite as cantankerous as his reputation might make it seem and he was mostly pretty friendly, but he's kinda all over the place and did have a little bit of rudeness in response to a couple questions by the moderator (or one question, he only asked two before it went to the audience, but the guests talked extensively in response to the questions). His first question had something to do with spirituality in the film and Abel's first response was repeating "these questions..." and passed it on to someone else. Though that question did generate a very lengthy discussion. All in all it was pretty entertaining. I went back home after that. But went back out to meet Mary Beth after her movie got out but her phone had died and she just walked back home and I waiting and missed her. Ah well, I apparently didn't wait too much longer after she got home. Then I woke up today a little tired and went and grabbed groceries. There you have it.