Electrolicious

Last night, Andreas and I joined some friends for a little outdoor cinema at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary, final resting place of the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, and Rudolph Valentino.

It was quite strange — but enjoyable. When we parked and exited the car, our truck’s door bumped into a marble bench at the foot of someone’s grave. The movie (shown from a reel, not DVD) was projected onto the side of a mausoleum — or a columbarium, I’m not sure. Regardless, I watched a movie shown on the side of a building where the walls are made of dead people. Cinespia, the organization that does the showings, tout getting to watch classic Hollywood cinema “under and above the stars.” Har har? The locale seemed sort of in bad taste, but then again, the whole Hollywood Forever Cemetary seems in bad taste (Library of Lives, anyone?), so perhaps it’s actually quite perfect.

The movie shown was “Pick Up On South Street,” a 1953 noir flick about a pickpocket who accidental swipes some microfilm containing commie secrets! The beautiful, unknowing courier that he pickpockets turns out to be a real dynamo, and they have relations. Weird relations. As the IMDB review points out, “Peters falls much too quickly for Widmark, though. You can’t help noticing it because by their second meeting she is hopelessly devoted to him. It’s all the more odd because Widmark can’t seem to keep himself from belting her around and ridiculing her at every opportunity. Of course this sort of masculine behavior may appeal to some women. It’s always worked for me. A couple of unprovoked clips on the jaw and they worship you.” Part of me wants to say this is a cultural thing that we’ve grown out of, but violence against women in film is still common place, so I don’t know why I would think it’s changed. I guess it’s less common to show a woman falling in love with someone who abuses her, now. Maybe?

Also: someone smoked a cigarette in every single scene. Advantage of outdoor cinema: you could join them! In addition: movie had some hilarious lines like, “Everbody loves everybody when they’re kissin’,” and “You got some happy money?” (”What’s that?”) “Money that makes me happy.” Most especially, during a kiss scene following the leading man punching the leading woman: “I guess when you’re drillin’ for oil, sometimes you hit a gusher.”

Anyway, it was a great outing, complete with beers and a good DJ playing before the movie started. If you’re in the LA area, I recommend catching a Cinespia screening. And thanks to Megasoul for the invite!

Remember how I said I was going to write about the Hooper Hand-Fasting at Burning Man? I still haven’t, but Stefan did, over at hooping.org. As a video editor, you can bet that Stefan included some footage in his review.

To his report, I will only add these things:
1. I forgot about the marriage (which I hadn’t really planned on participating in), but was invited to “a hooping thing at 4:30″ by a couple different people. I showed up, and realized that I was about to get “married” in what I happened to be wearing a the time (a pair of dirty white tap pants) and a white gauze shirt I borrowed from Christabel.

2. Wow, I look ugly in my vows video.

3. While I’m normally not a fan of rituals, it was nice to be able to express my commitment to the community I’m serving over at hooping.org.

4. The center camp “wedding reception” was my first and, for all I know, my last hooping performance. It was exhilarating, and my boobs fell out of my shirt and I didn’t care. The best part was how all of us shouted encouragement (and letchy comments) while our fellow hoopers were performing. Overheard shouts included, “yeah, girl — shake that ass!” and “All RIGHT now. Nice tits, too!” and “There he goes, there he goes — teach it, boy!” There are pictures of the performance over at hooping.org.

5. The honeymoon has been going just fine, thank you.