What Happened To Me

The view from my commute.

So, I've been absent for awhile. What happened what this. I was scheduled to interview Crispin Glover, during his January visit. An hour before the interview, I was notified that I was being laid-off. The next day I was getting ready to see Crispin Glover present What Is It? when my landlady notified me that she was going to sell the condo I'd been leasing. I'd like to think that losing my job and apartment had nothing to do with Crispin Glover. The following week, the heating broke down in my building, a mouse took up residence in my wall and the zipper on my sweater broke. I decided to move to San Francisco.

I flew down to see what I could line up. Three weeks later, on Valentine's Day, I got offered a job in the Financial District. A few days after that, I signed a lease on an apartment in Pacific Heights. I flew back to Seattle, packed up my shit and here I am, living a stone's throw from Lafayette Park, riding the cable car home from work, eating dinner in Chinatown, knocking back drinks at Tosca [Wim Wenders 'favorite bar in the whole, entire world']. My life is a fucking Rice-A-Roni commercial.

It all happened so vertiginously, I sometimes wake up and ask myself, "How did I get here?" Like Judy Barton, I often feel this isn't real my life, but an impersonation of somebody else's. Things aren't helped by the fact that I pass by the Brocklebank Apartments nearly every day. Hopefully, I won't be falling off any belltowers, anytime soon.

Veering between excitement and nostalgia, I find new and wonderful things to do, as I continuously miss my life and friends back in Seattle. Luckily, some things continue to be the same. Movies, for instance. San Francisco is a real film town. Not just because this city has inspired a significant number of memorable cinematic moments, but also because they show a lot of films here. Granted, there's nothing quite like the vastness of SIFF, but there are numerous festivals, one of which, the San Francisco International Film Festival, is right around the corner. So, along with Anne Hockens, I shall continue to contribute to Siffblog, as a sort-of foreign correspondent. In fact, I still have that Crispin Glover thing to transcribe... In the meantime, I have some SFIFF scheduling to figure out.