Days 4 and 5

Day 4 Tuesday After my post on Monday evening, I received my first hostel experience when I was awakened by the noise of someone checking in at 2 a.m. I soon found out: the guy was to be my roommate. Some shuffling outside my door, a clatter of a key in the lock and boom, the door was open and my new roomie was checking in, “What the FUCK?” he said. I have no idea why but he said it. I wasn’t naked or anything. I was pretending to be asleep. He closed the door, talked with his buds for a half hour, they concluded to go to a hotel, then reopened the door, tossed his shit on the bunk above and left. When I awoke, I started a routine. I had surmised on Sunday — which turned out to be along day — that I needed to find a routine to ensure the days were either productive or at least stimulating (it can be hard when you have no work to do and are in a strange town by yourself). With my second film slated for 6:45 p.m., I woke up at 10 a.m. — ah, sleeping in! — and drove to 900 E and 900 S, right where the cinema of my first showing was. The intersection there had a few neat shops, somewhat like Inglewood, and Google told me there was a Starbucks. Google lied. A good lie as it turned out; disappointed at the plot development, I noticed a cafe next door to the cinema and went there. I ordered a SUPER LATTE (a large) which happened to also be quite super, and continued reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. After a bit of reading, I worked on some of my screenplays and before I knew it, it was 1 p.m. I drove back to the hostel then walked to the library downtown. The library was enormous and beautiful. The architecture is modern with an entire side comprised of glass and bridges over to the landings in front of them. Again, read and worked until it was 5:30 — polished off Brave New World (which was so awesome) —and drove back to the hostel, checked my email and went to my second film. With paid parking downtown, I screwed up and parked way too far away from the cinema. I got inside and chose a nice place to sit, just off the isle on the right and the film got going. The Meteor, a French Canadian film, told entirely through images with narration over it. It drew parallels to The Tree of Life in its style — so naturally, I loved it. The film ended and the Q and A started. One gentle, ignorant soul asked the director if there was a particular genre Quebec cinema preferred. The director was nice and backhandedly threw the rest of Canada under the bus. I forgave him cause his film was awesome and if it wasn’t for our taxpayer dollars his provincial government could not have generously funded it. So I’ll let bygones be bygones. Day 5 Wednesday With my film not until 9 p.m. I had a lot of day to fill. I started it out with my routine — I hit up the coffee shop (SUPER LATTE!!!), started The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by Le Carre (a sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), did some screenplay work then went for a walk in Lierty Park which was beautiful. Afterwards, I bolted back to the hostel for lunch. This is when I met my roomie for the first time. John was his name and he is from Philly. Except, as most Philadelphians (Dov’nah I am looking at you), he leads expeditions into the wild. Like, Survivorman-style. What a badass. He apologized if he work me — he did — I told him not to sweat it — he should — and said I didn’t wake up — I had. After lunch, I went to the library and did the same: read Spy/Cold, then started an idea for a television series, very high-concept stuff on the world of professional football. Thought it pretty badass. I did all this until 6 p.m., then went to Trolley Square (where I had purchased my Sundance tix) and to a wing joint a hostel tenant had recommended. These wings were BADASS. For one, they were huge. For second, they had unlimited flavorings as they could mix any you wanted. And for third, they had a blue cheese dip which was delicious. Well worthy. Afterwards, I drove to the Tower Theatre (the site of my first film), was a tad early for entry so I froze my ass off for 10 minutes before getting in. I watched a curious little film called Computer Chess. It was shot on one of those handheld cameras form the early 70’s and was about a chess competition between computers and the hilarity of their creators. It was...curious. Uneven, but funny.