Archive for January 2008
Sundance 2008: Slammed
I made any important discovery about myself walking into town just now. I want to be on the guest list, I just don’t want to have to ask to be on the guest list. * * * I’m standing on the patio of Treasure Mountain Inn, home base of the anti-Sundance, Slamdance. The steps of…
Read MoreSundance Film Festival 2008
Bono & The Edge: U2 3D
Benjamin Wagner: What do you notice in yourselves and each other in 3D that you didn’t before? The Edge: I was struck by the separateness really yunno we’re up there quite individual and quite separate something about the 3D the depth of field you really feel that Bono: Are you saying you felt lonely up…
Read MoreSundance 2008: Faraway (So Close)
There was nothing between The Edge, Bono and me except Jerry Penacoli. Incidentally, the Xtra correspondent is not a small man. I’m gonna’ wager 6′ 4″, 225. Nor was he very happy with me at the moment. The “U23D” red carpet was the single most crowded press line I’ve seen in the last four years…
Read MoreSundance 2008: Bullet The Blue Sky
Park City sprawls out below The Lodge At Mountain Village at the base of Park City Mountain Resort. Looking east from Room 270, the sun is crowns the Wasatch in cool pink. Below, steady streams of red brake lights flow towards the highway. Following a largely uneventful (though painfully early) flight, and an equally chill…
Read MoreWindow In The Skies
There may be no more awful sound than Delta Airlines’ on-hold music as heard through the tiny, tinny, mono speakers of my Blackberry at 5:36 in the morning with a soul-crushing, Harp-fueled headache. Abbi woke me up. “What time is it?” For a second, I wondered why we were awake, why she was asking, and…
Read MoreBelieve In The Great Sound
I haven’t been listening to much music lately. As someone who is defined by my love of both making my own and listening to other’s, this is somewhat disconcerting. Years ago I lost my voice for no reason whatsoever. I wasn’t neither sick, not had I been talking too much. It just disappeared. Now, I…
Read MoreBushwacking
All weekend long, my Blackberry was abuzz with Breaking News Alerts from President Bush’s Middle East Trip. Friday, January 11, 2008, 11:18 PM PST CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — (AP) President Bush says no decision yet on sending more troops home from Iraq, and reduced force levels will depend on conditions on the ground. Saturday, January…
Read MoreHell’s Kitchen Confidential
I tell her she doesn’t know how good she’s got it, but she’s not having any of it. See, I’m a neat guy, but I’m not a clean guy. I figure most guys are neither, and worse are beer-swillin’, couch-squattin’ channel surfers. So, if nothing else, I should be gettin’ some points for neatness. But…
Read MoreTrying To Tell Me All Along
There are a few authors whose books, based on their bibliography alone, I buy as soon as they hit shelves. Tobias Wolff is one. He was my creative writing professor at Syracuse. His PEN/Faulkner Award-winning memoir, “This Boy’s Life,” came out my freshman year there, and premiered on the big screen (starring Robert De Niro…
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