For some. I’m on my way to a funeral
Today
Two more disorganised but intermittently glorious events today. No, one disorganised one and one probably very well organised.
At The Exmouth tonight we are putting on a totally-relaxed showing of the Edgar Wright films. IE, one for people who want to drink, talk, shout, crash the punch-line, do their comedy voices, eat, dance, flirt, etc, while the films are on. IE, not one tiny hint of the fetid miasma of film studies.
Theoretically we are going to show all three of these Simon Pegg/Nick Frost roller-coasters: Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and World’s End. A quick calculation has just revealed that that’s five hours’ worth of celluloid (what that? Ed) and we have a four-hour slot. 6:30pm to 10:30pm. What’s worse, we are showing them on Blu-Ray and the LAW OF BLU-RAY is that you have to bend over and take what’s coming: trailers, adverts, blood-curdling threats etc.
Every problem has a solution, and here’s mine. The people wandering in and out can decide. They can choose the order and… in the boring bits or when the room is deserted… I’m going to press the FF button.
I’m also preparing an End of the World playlist. The theme is ‘Apocalypse Then’. How did the end of the world we imagined when these films were made differ from the one we are actually being offered now? More zombies? Fewer meetings about meetings about meetings? Avoiding environmental apocalypse by causing more and more of them?
If this sounds like your kind of thing, or the kind of thing people you’d like to see the back of for a few hours might like, please send them along.
Oh yes, it’s FREE. As in ‘free beer’ (although there won’t be any of that) and ‘free speech’. If the end of the world means anything, let’s hope it wil set us all free of tedious things like money and having to breathe.
Meanwhile at Charlton Kings, the Charlton Kings Film Society is showing Polite Society . I think this can safely be characterised as the alternative (or antidote) to the above. It’s a proper, well-made film from the masters of the well-made British comedy. It’s set in a school, where the interestingly multi-ethnic and uniformly sparky and attractive girls are thinking of their futures: which are not the futures their parents want. It’s a well-run society and a lovely room. Rather nicer than the room at the. back of the Exmouth if comfort is your aim. Larks and hi-jinx … come to the Exmouth.
Greatest Hits Selection
We had a good night at the Exmouth for La Cocina. It’s a wonderful film. I could have done with more than 13 people attending. I’ve had a word with Jesus, though, and he says there’s a good precendent. Who was our Judas? I don’t know but I could have done without being told not to put on the English subtitles for a film in highly-accented English being shown to an audience who did not all have perfect command of our uniquely irritating language.
Then, last night, an excellent turn-out at Pip and Jim‘s for Radical. Excellent technical support from Tim, St Jeane personning the SumUp machine so we could take some money, and rapt attention from a splendid audience dominated by young people, many of them welcome New Cheltonians from more interesting countries. We will do more in this excellent venue. A church with proper toilets!
Oh, yes. My Terry Gilliam interview is on the official Monty Python channel. My hi-tech son is impressed with my ‘reach’ or something. I don’t care. I just liked doing it. Less keen on some keyboard worrier trying to put me down for not framing my laptop picture of myself properly, but it’s social media: them’s the breaks.
If this sounds