Saturday evening on Valencia Street in San Francisco I attended Christian Divine's wondrously informative, educational and just fun presentation and lecture on the Hollywood films of 1970 representing "Protest-ploitation." Whether Christian was discussing the "critical focus" of Richard Rush's shooting technique or the gloriously bizarre and, um, f****ed up ending to Getting Straight, or the incongruity of Antonioni coming to America to make a $7 million dollar MGM picture that would be Zabriskie Point, and becoming disillusioned in the aftermath of that movie's reception, or the continentally-differing takes on The Strawberry Statement, which impressed many a European critic at Cannes only to be smacked down by American critics, or commending the drab and harsh verite realism of The Revolutionary or giving Stanley Kramer a most eloquent and persuasive defense in his lead-up to discussing R.P.M.: Revolutions Per Minute, it was a tremendous experience to listen, absorb and watch (he brought many excellent clips)--and to meet him. It was a grand evening, out on the town.
And of course, no trip into San Francisco would be complete without the past-midnight occurrence of a black transvestite prostitute tapping on your window as you're stopped at a red light. After rolling down the window, the individual asked, "Looking for a date?" To which I replied, "I use the monkey to test them for me." In a moment of awkward delirium, the person laughed, understanding my statement, at which time the light turned green, I rolled my window up and gently pressed down on the accelerator.
And of course, no trip into San Francisco would be complete without the past-midnight occurrence of a black transvestite prostitute tapping on your window as you're stopped at a red light. After rolling down the window, the individual asked, "Looking for a date?" To which I replied, "I use the monkey to test them for me." In a moment of awkward delirium, the person laughed, understanding my statement, at which time the light turned green, I rolled my window up and gently pressed down on the accelerator.
9 comments:
Sounds like you really had a worthwhile time at Christian's event, and methinks it was an excellent idea to showcase it here at CCC. I know Christian is quite the knowledgeble and passionate fellow, so I can well imagine what insights were interpolated.
I love that final anecdote about the San Francisco transvestite prostitute!! You came up with the right answer! LOL!
Ha, yes, it was quite an experience all around.
Naturally, I urge all people to check out Christian's blog!
lol, well that was a pretty lightning-quick response to that prostitute.
Awesome that you were able to make it to this, and that Christian is going around doing things like it!
I'm not sure why I had the date line at the ready except Valencia is near Dolores Park, which always conjures thoughts of seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark with thousands upon thousands of people over two years ago there.
Haha, yes, it was a lot of fun. And like you say, Daniel, it's great that Daniel is going around doing this!
Haha, well I can't take credit for Christian's work! lol
See, that's what you get when you post a comment while finishing a film review and getting it posted, writing some poetry and reading an article about the financial crisis all at the same time. My bad! :0)
Not to mention watching my tape of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" with the eye and ear that weren't committed to all the other junk.
Indeed!
Hmm...I didn't you know you wrote poetry other than that which comprises your reviews.
Ah, thank you.
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