Guy Maddin was part of indieWIRE’s Apple Store talks yesterday, here in New York promoting Tribeca screenings of My Winnipeg. Maddin was very charismatic and had a lot of really insightful things to say, particularly about Canadian identity construction when the cultural mammoth of America lies beneath us. But one thing that I must note, because its too funny not to.. During the talk, I noticed a really intense odor. At first I thought maybe it was someone near me who maybe accidentally farted. But then the smell got worse, and I noticed people going into the bathroom (located about ten feet from where Maddin was sitting) and then turning around within seconds with a disgusted look on their face. Maddin and moderator Dennis Lim must have noticed it, but continued on without flinching. Then custodial staff went in with buckets of water, holding their hands over their faces. 10 minutes later, they came out with a giant bag of garbage and the whole room smelt like that horrible mix of air freshener and human excretion. I still don’t know what happened in there. The custodial staff get a cameo in my fourth clip, but otherwise, enjoy 5 clips from the talk, smell o vision free:
Moving your career to television is obviously not a bad thing to do these days, especially if you’re a woman over 40. Glenn Close, Sally Field, Mary Louise Parker, Kyra Sedgewick, Holly Hunter and others have exemplified this recently, gaining roles that are both challenging and successful. But when I read this today, I wonder if Angela Bassett got some bad advice. After years of getting the shit end of the movie role stick (Mr. 3000? Time Bomb?), Ms. Bassett has got herself a full-time gig, on the final season of ER. Why not her own series? Or a series that isn’t ending? Or a series that doesn’t suck? No offense to John Stamos, but you deserve way better than this Angela Bassett. Remember when you were amazing in What’s Love Got To Do With It?, or when upstaged Whitney in Waiting To Exhale because you were so damn good? I do. But it’s not gonna make me watch ER.
A couple days back, I asked some actual New Yorkers why the Empire State Building was pink. I thought maybe it was because Friday was a day of silence for Lawrence King and other hate crime victims that it was for that. Some suggested Tribeca Film Festival, as its main colour is pink, other thought maybe it was breast cancer. But, no, none of the above. It was for Mariah Carey.
I found this press release which pretty much says it all:
New York Landmark To Shine in Lavender, Pink and White in Honor of a Great New
Yorker and her #1 album E=MC2
WHO: International superstar Mariah Carey, the #1 most successful
female recording artist of all time, with more than 160 million
sales worldwide—who recently earned her 18th #1 single on the
Billboard Hot 100 with “Touch My Body,” surpassing Elvis Presley’s
long-standing chart record of 17 #1’s.
WHAT: A lighting ceremony at the Empire State Building, where Mariah
will flip the light switch on a scale model of the Empire State
Building. The Empire State Building will be lit in pink, lavender
and white all weekend to celebrate the album color motif of
Mariah’s new album E=MC2, which enters at #1 on the Billboard
chart this week with the biggest first week Soundscan total of her
career, 463,000 units.
WHERE: The Fifth Avenue Lobby of Manhattan’s legendary Empire State
Building, located at 350 Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th
Streets
WHEN: Friday, April 25th, 2008
I also found some youtube clips from the event, and jesus:
The indieWIRE produced Apple Store talks continued yesterday with Tony Gilroy at 6:30 and Amy Poehler at 8. I only had time to catch Poehler, which I’ll admit was one of the most entertaining live events I’d seen in a long while. The talk was moderated by her SNL co-star Fred Armisen, though neither seemed to have anything prepared, which resulted in a hilariously improvised hour of chits and chats that strayed in all directions. Both actors were very warm and inviting, bringing an energetic audience to seemingly each have a question for them. One highlight was when Amy said “fuck” in front of two 10 year old girls in the front row, leading both Amy and Fred into a sketch that contained the word a few dozen times.. Anyway, check out some clips:
Oh, and another great moment (for us at indieWIRE at least), was when an audience member suggested (erroneously, as far as I’m concerned), that indieWIRE editor in chief Eugene Hernandez looks just like Fred. Amy pulled Eugene (who was sitting beside me) up on stage to test the comparison:
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