-------------------------------------=
Day six, in Sheffield, morning after the showing.
I had a blast last night. I showed the film to about 45 people in a bar called "Bukowski’s". When we were loading in the archaic huge projector (how do you wind this thing up?) and testing the crappy image quality in the afternoon, I said, "If it’s a bar called "Bukowski’s" and I don’t have some drunk guy vomiting on my shoes, I’ll be really pissed off". Well, I pretty much got my wish, in the form of Barry.
barry's girlfriend and barry.
Barry reminds me of a young me. Barry IS a young me. Barry even looks like a younger, thinner, better looking, drunken me. Barry used to be in a signed band, "Freakspurt". They lost their deal, they used to be somebody, now he’s currently "between deals".
Every town, every scene has a Barry. Barry is the guy who when he walks into a gig, or a movie, or a party, everyone knows him and everyone sort of shudders a bit.
Barry showed up an hour before the show, first guy there, at 7 PM, and talked non-stop until they threw him out at closing (11:30 PM!). His first question to me was, "What’s Ian MacKaye like?". I kinda rolled my eyes and answered. But this fan boy Barry tried to take over the evening and make it HIS night, commenting throughout the movie by saying this and that, trying to equate himself with people in the film and make himself look cool instead of just sitting back to enjoy it. During the Q&A period, he tried to steal my thunder to the point of most of the audience saying, "SIT DOWN BARRY!" It was pretty amusing. I handled it well and with humor, even when Barry grabbed my mike and made a pro-Scottish nationalist speech. I followed this (and also referencing one idiot who made a derogatory comment about me being from America) with a statement about why I hate nationalism, why I reject borders and since I didn’t vote for Bush I shouldn’t be judged for his actions.
I got a couple more questions like "Why did Henry Rollins sell out" (which has nothing to do with my film, really, but these people were quite drunk and a few of them were a little combative), to which I replied, "I’m not him, you should ask him, and by the way I don’t feel he’s sold out at all, I have a lot of respect for him.….)
Then a couple great questions, like "Would you accept a million dollars to make a movie?" (My answer was a qualified "yes" that basically broke down to "I don’t think that money is intrinsically evil, but it’s what you do with it. I know millionaires with integrity, and I know people that have sold out their friends for ten dollars").
The Q&A went on for almost an hour, and despite (or because of) the idiots, was a lot more exciting than the one in London, which had exactly the same number of people present.
I like showing in bars. The people are a lot more exciting and lively. I do end up smelling like smoke, but it’s cool.
People can fucking DRINK here. Man.
England
has an insatiable appetite for ale. Last night someone even offered to buy me
a drink, and I said, "Just water please" and they brought me wine.
(Reminds me of that Simpsons in Australia where Marge orders a coffee and they
keep hearing "BIER?"). Then the same thing happened later in a Vietnamese
restaurant where I ordered water and they brought me the wine list. Then my
British host (and the incredibly cool promoter of the show), John, interpreted
for me. He said "Wah-Tur" and they brought me some H2O.
sheffield audience:
promoter john on left, friend matt on right.
more audienc:
I hung out for hours after in the bar and talked to everyone. They were quite friendly. About ten people all asked incredulously why I didn’t’ drink. They asked me, in an irritated tone if I was Straight Edge. I said, "No, I used to drink, but alcohol turns me into Barry." EVERY TIME, that made them laugh and also immediately quit offering me booze.
I hung out with the bar kitty cat, Chinaski, and we went back to John’s house. Some cute drunk girl was trying to fuck me, but I was tired and it didn’t seem like a fair fight, so I left. There was a very cool other woman I was talking to and I regret not getting her number, I would have loved to at least chatted to her more.
I tried to go to sleep at midnight, (John gave me his bed and took the couch. What a cool dude). I tossed and turned for three hours, then slept DEEP from 3 AM until 11 am. Jet lag is going away, but still there. It’s a bitch.
Barry, Barry, Barry…..we are still talking about him now at this sidewalk café.
Barry has a good heart. And I cut him a lot of slack because I understand him. I used to BE him.
There’s a little Barry in all of us.
