Weekend Report

After the poets' dinner on Saturday night, I headed over to Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur for the opening of Kodac Harrison's first art exhibition, Random Intent. The work is all on drop cloths Kodac used while painting houses, but then morphed in Jackson Pollock territory. It was a fun evening.

This afternoon, I went to the 70th anniversary screening of Gone With the Wind at The Fox Theatre with Atlanta historian Ann Boutwell. I hadn't seen GWTW in many years, and I think the older I get the longer it gets. The screening was sold out (over 4,000 people!) and Robert Osborne from Turner Movie Classics and film critic Molly Haskell were on hand to discuss and introduce. If it were shorter, GWTW would make a great audience participation film: throwing plastic babies at the screen when Prissy utters her famous line, cigarette lighters up high for the burning of Atlanta, etc. I've seen GWTW so many times, I know most of the lines by heart and I've long stopped getting misty-eyed at the "march of death" that begins with Scarlett's miscarriage and continues until Melanie draws her last breath. However,  Mammy's (the brilliant Hattie McDaniel) account of Bonnie Blue Butler's death as she walks up the stairs with Melly is still one of the finest moments ever committed to film. Not a dry eye in the house.

I've seen what will probably be the final cover rendering for Conquering Venus. It's a little different from what I've posted here. I'll be posting up and image soon. Now I'm off to work on getting a panel proposal in for AWP 2010 in Denver. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've never seen the whole movie at once. I saw half one time and then caught the last part some other time on TV. Historical and an event but not even in my Top 50 favorites.

GAV
January said…
We were talking about the Oscars/Best Picture today, and I have never seen GWTW. It's on my list.

Yay AWP! See you in Denver. Hope your proposal gets accepted.
jaxx said…
there's a theatre in atlanta that seats 4,000 people?!?

i am going to see a documentary tonight that the fabulous anthony lane (of the new yorker; i read all his movie reviews even though i rarely go to the movies just because he's such a fine & sarcastic writer) said MUST be seen in a theater for the shared experience. he also gave it a rave review, very rare for him. it's about the 80's metal group "Anvil" and i'm going with my guitarist. great way to celebrate my first day of official unemployment!

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