Finding Forrester in Pagosa...

[alexpgp]

Pagosa Springs used to be a one-stoplight town, until someone finally decided that this one other particular intersection really, really needed a light, too. That does not detract from the charm of downtown, and I type "one-stoplight town" with reverence.

The town's movie house is the Liberty Theater. During the "high" tourist season, the business projects its feature twice nightly; during the rest of the year (the part we are in now), it's one show a day. Tuesdays are bargain night, where you can get in for - get this - $2.50, which is half the usual price.

The auditorium is somewhat smallish, and the seats are a little narrow for my frame, and if you stand up in the middle of a show, you're likely to project your shadow onto the screen...but it's a nice place. Back when I lived here in the early 90s, I rented an office suite above the theater, and still remember how the bass would reverberate through my floor for certain films on those nights when I stayed late at the office.

I had to call home to have someone come pick me up after closing yesterday; the car battery had died. Instead of going home, Galina suggested we go do something, so we decided to go see this week's feature, Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery and newcomer Robert Brown as the two main characters. F. Murray Abraham plays an auxiliary role as an English teacher. The director, Gus Van Sant, is the same fellow who gave the world Good Will Hunting, and based on these two films, he becomes one of my must-see directors.

The story can be said to be somewhat predictable, but then again, learned dramatists say there are only 36 dramatic situations, so I suppose almost any story is going to have some predictability in it. What I liked particularly was the interplay between Connery, who plays a reclusive, famous one-book author who lives behind locked doors in the Bronx, and Brown, who plays the role of a 16-year-old who reads authors such as Chekhov and Kipling, and records his thoughts in a journal, but who hides such activities from his buddies, with whom he plays basketball in the playground across the street from Connery's building.

There were a number of interesting one-liners, particularly from Connery, who plays mentor to Brown in this film. Most of the one-liners apply to the writing business; some others, to life. I think I shall purchase this film when it appears commercially; it's worth a repeat viewing or two (or three).

Time to get ready for the day.

Cheers...

Comments

[lakme.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't have to go see Dude, Where's My Car? like I did. Feel lucky, dude.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I am intrigued by the use of the construction "have to go see..."

:^)

Cheers...

Re:

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Oh, the boy wanted something mindless to watch. He sure as shit got his money's worth. I simply agreed to be agreeable. I wish I weren't so agreeable, dude.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Whenever you write "Pagosa Springs," a song automatically jumps into my mind. I can't think of the title or singer, but the chorus goes something like,

"Wolf Creek Pass
along the Great Divide
truckin on down
the other side"

Which is about a runaway truck ending up in downtown Pagosa Springs ;)

The only time I've been through Pagosa Springs was late one evening on my way up to Wolf Creek Pass, which was closed overnight due to construction. So I spent the night in my car parked on the road somewhere out in the middle of a beautiful nowhere ;)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

The song was recorded by C.W. McCall, and is called Wolf Creek Pass. The climax runs something like this:

Well Earl rared back
Cocked his leg
Stepped down as hard as he could on the brake
And the pedal went clear to the floor

And stayed - right there on the floor
Says it's sorta like steppin' on a plum

Well from there on down it just wasn't real pretty
It was hairpin county and switchback city
One of 'em looked like a can full of worms
Another one looked like a malaria germ
Right in the middle of the whole damn show
Was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know

Sign says clearance to the twelve foot line
But them chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine
Well, we shot that tunnel at a hundred an' ten
Like gas through a funnel an' eggs through a hen
An' we took that top row of chickens off
Slicker 'n the scum off a Louisiana swamp

Went down an' around an' around an' down
An' we run outta ground at the edge of town
An' bashed on into the side of a feed store
In downtown Pagosa Springs

[chorus, 2x]
Wolf Crick Pass way up on the great divide
Truckin' on down, the other side.

McCall's song was my first introduction to the name of the town, though I didn't give it much thought until 1991, when Galina and I reserved a lodge at the local time-share. When I heard the name, the song came back to me.

BTW, that "malaria germ" of a switchback is for real, except most trucks that are out of control by the time they get there will go off the side of the mountain rather than continue on.

No matter, though. The feed store's been gone for years.

Cheers...

Re:

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Yup - that's the one. I tried searching for it on the local FM station database, but for some reason it didn't show up.

Songs like that usually annoy me after awhile, but for some reason I always like that one. And it burnt Pagosa Springs into my mind forever ;)

I just hope your store isn't in the old feed store building, hehe!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I actually enjoy listening to McCall's work, as he tells stories as he sings (as opposed to making declarations, but I digress...).

To me, the annoying part of Wolf Creek Pass is the chorus, which is sung by a set of backup singers with the most annoying set of pipes ever inflicted on a willing audience.

Cheers...

Re:

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't notice the quality of the chorus, as I'm usually adding my own voice ;)