Parties and a film review

I guess the first full week in February is a big social week – Monday was the sailing club’s quarterly meeting which was super fun. I like those guys. Tuesday was Love on Wheels (SFBC’s annual Valentine’s Day party) and another party I enjoyed too. Last night was the opening Gala for SF Indie Fest – the independent film festival.

I went with Gabriel – we decided to volunteer at the last minute in order to get into the sold-out show and party. So, I got to boss a lot of people around to keep them from going the wrong way. The opening film was Inland Empire by David Lynch which was the worst movie I have ever seen. It was nearly 3 hours, and by the end I was really hoping the Laura Dern character would kill me too, please. I like to be able to say something nice about nearly everything; so, I will say that the scene with the weird prophet lady in Laura Dern’s house at the beginning and the scene at the end where the little homeless girl is talking about her friend in Pomona while Laura Dern dies were interesting. Also, the acting was really good. But… BUT… the other two hours and 40 minutes were complete masturbatory crap lacking meaning and respect for the viewer’s time and then repeating itself over and over and over until you want to kill yourself because Laura Dern is taking too long to do it. I guess it goes to show you that if you have a famous name, you no longer have to do good work.

The Gala was at the Porn Palace downtown. Booze was free, but the lines were huge. There was also a pancake station, a quesadilla station and other food station that were pretty fun. The Porn Palace had a prisoner room, a dungeon, and a stable to fulfill all standard sexual fantasies – I have one about a magician, but I guess that’s eccentric enough to be overlooked in this setting. Hard core porn was showing in two rooms but was pretty boring. I mean, people on the screen were having sex; they just didn’t look they were having any fun.

Gabe had a lot of schmoozing to do while I either tagged along or, later, danced. I left at about 1 with a guy who’s trying to set up an alternative film festival in Boston. He was surprised when I dragged him onto the 14-Mission – visitors from out of town don’t often ride the bus – but it had stopped right in front of us and went where we were going. I was still a bit spinny from the vodka when I got home, but I woke up this morning to find everything intact. It’s amazing how well you can do on habits – putting your keys in a certain place, your shoes in another, etc.

The rain is cramping my style, and it seems like it’s going to be a low-key weekend. Now, I’m looking forward to that. I have a lot of work to do.