Miles Montalbano night in Lancaster.
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I showed the film to a bunch of appreciative souls in Lancaster, England tonight. People were pretty blown away by my film here, several said it touched them deeply and one guy even kissed me on the head for making it.
It was pretty amazing that across town on the same night, a San Francisco filmmaker was showing a film too! Two California independent film folk in the same town in England in the same night. What are the odds? Even bigger of a co-inky-dink was the fact that editor on DIY or DIE, Miles Montalbano, also worked on her film, "We Interrupt This Empire". I didn’t catch her showing, as it was at the same time. She did come to our after party, but I didn’t catch her name, because it was too loud in the club by that point, but here’s a photo of her.
san fran filmmaker lady.
cat that likes me
fadima
drunk chix
sheffielf audience
sheffielf audience
sheffield
manchester
sheffield
trainspotter dude.
Apparently the film was made by a number of people, each one did a segment. It was activist art by committee. I’d love to see it.
I also did something tonight that I’ve never done, that I’ve wanted to do since I was a wee lad: I played a gig in England! (When Bomb did Europe, it was only Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I’d never set foot in England until six days ago.) I borrowed the band’s guitar and played a 15-minute set and sang. I opened with a rippin’ version of with John Lennon’s "Working Class Hero". When I finished the song I said "I wrote that one". They all laughed and it loosened them up for the remainder of the set. It went well and I was really honored to do it.
We showed the film, had a good, short Q&A. Then a good band called "3-D Tanks" played. After, they pushed the PA speakers back, Dean DJed and did a set of Drum and Bass and people danced. It was a good eclectic night.
bass player in 3d tanks
dean at the wheelz of steel.
The promoter, Dean Superjoy, was a super joy to work with. He’s really sweet, (kinda shy, but laughs a lot) really puts on a good party and he really makes you feel welcome. I swear, people in Europe treat American artists, (or maybe all artists) SOOOO well. And while Dean was setting up for the gig, his delightful wife, Georgia, walked me around town and showed me the sights (that took about 15 minutes), did my laundry and cooked me dinner. She drew me a hot bath and laid out coffee and cookies on a table next to the tub to munch and sip whilst I bathed. Also some good books on anarchy and British underground music culture to read. When I got out she gave me fresh plums, and a bottle of vitamin C "to take with you so you don’t get sick".
georgia with trainspotter
I had a good day. I also bought a new wallet, something I’ve been putting off for about a year. Mine was falling apart. I got one of those hipster ones with Velcro and a chain. It will help keep me from getting pickpocketed on the train.
A stranger e-mailed me today and told me that my film book was the "best 30 bucks I’ve ever spent. (Except that night in Montreal with…what was her name?".
It really touched me. And countered the fact that today I had about an hour of doubt on the train, of feeling "what the fuck am I doing with my life?". I am usually pretty confident and sure of my mark, but can have doubts. Even on a crowded train watching beautiful rolling hills and British sheep out the window and going to do some cool stuff in a town I’ve never been to.
I listened to Rollins spoken word MP3s with headphones on my laptop. Cheered me up. That fucker sure is funny. Listened to some Lenny Bruce too. Never have. Wow.
I bought my train ticket this morning in Sheffield, ran for the train, lost the ticket. Bought another one. Found the first one I lost, on the ground. They actually refunded the money. Then I had to RUN like hell for about three blocks to get my connecting train in Manchester.
Someone on the train asked me in a grumpy voice where I was from. I said, "Vancouver". Then he seemed a little more cheery. He thought I was going to Manchester (that’s not until tomorrow, but I had to go through it to go north to get to Lancaster). He said, "What do you expect to find in Manchester? What’s a foreigner’s view of my town?" I thought to myself of Saint Ian (Curtis) swinging from a rope and retorted, "Grey skies and lots of music". He laughed and said, "That’s fairly spot on".
It rained all day and all night today, first rain since I got to the country. The further north I go, the colder it is and the less I can understand the accents. Georgia laughed when I told her that and said, "Wait until you get to Ireland. You’ll need subtitles to understand them".
I learned something I didn’t know until today: Not only is the term "DIY" for "Do it yourself" much more common in England (Every adult here knows what it means….They equate it with self-done home improvement, which is true in America to a much smaller extent. But sometimes in America I have to tell people what DIY stands for. Every single person in England knows it means "Do It Yourself"). But it has a different meaning here too…sort of related to the punk think we have, but here it has political connotations. (What doesn’t, right?). It is associated with anarchism. People half expect my film to be an anarchist film. I guess in a small way it is, I don’t really like governments (or any middle man between resources/power and humans, be it a church, a state or a record label) much, and one definition of "anarchy" is "absence or rejection of government". (Although many people assume it instead to mean "Chaos, disorder and mayhem" because they assume, perhaps correctly, that that is what would occur, at least initially, in an absence of government.). Regardless, I don’t belong to any "movement", especially the Anarchist Movement. Nor do I belong to the "DIY Movement", in the UK or the USA, if such a thing exists. I’m independent, man.
It’s interesting to me how in Europe, everything is assumed to have political implications. And in Europe, people can back them up. In America, if someone calls themselves an anarchist, most likely, they just like to wear a shirt with a cool design on it. In England or Germany, they probably know the whole history of the movement back 300 years.
After the show, I got interviewed for a local magazine, and then went and had excellent Chinese food. I’ve been eating really well, and mostly in restaurants. England has a reputation of being nothing but starch and mystery meat, but I’ve been eating better than I do in the US.
I’ve been tipping well too, which seems to surprise people in England. Sometimes people here don’t tip at all, which I never do. But I figure you should always tip well on the road.
I think something I would like to do is make a lot of money and spend it all. I’ve never wanted to do that before, but it doesn’t seem bad today. Nor does it seem out of reach or wrong. I think if you just let money flow through you, it’s all right.
Meow. Good night, goddammint. Goodnight, Lancaster.