4.24.2002

good ol' whitey
put everything else on hold for this one...as i am.

the infamous Michael Moore was in town yesterday. and yes, when i found out we were hosting the last date on his book tour i immediately volunteered to work it.

at first i wasn't sure if the weirdness of vancouver crowds was going to prevail and the crowd would be mediocre or ... what? i tell you, anything could happen in this town. but we prepared for the best. apparently, HarperCollins had short notice to secure a venue but they managed to get the Vogue Theatre which frankly is a pretty cool old theatre, it used to be a real movie theatre back in the days when people could actually run a small independant movie theatre and still make a living, but i digress...more on stuff like that later. so, the Vogue seats over 1000 people and we had, of course, only enough tickets as seats. we figured on short notice and minimal marketing we wouldn't have too much of an overflow.

ha.

i got there at 4:15pm. the rest of crew was due at around 4:30 so i thought hey why not check out the line up. well, to my delight and surprise the lineup went all the way down granville street. when does that ever happen? i guess it's normal for a Michael Moore event, but it was a foot tingling event for me. the line up was so long that i was almost afraid that i couldn't see the end of it.

so mostly, it was a great night, but i do have a few small gripes for our devoted vancouver crowd: we bothered to make it a free event, you know? and i thought that was pretty cool of us. accessible to all and all that stuff. but what's the deal with all the people with their little bags from crapters with their discounted Michael Moore books inside? i know we're all trying to save a buck, but here we are at a Michael Moore event screwing the little guy?

[n.b. i stand corrected, apparently it was a stipulation by M.M. that the event be free.]

whatever.

it was disappointing. it's great that we had such a huge turnout, and i did feel awful having to turn people away but sometimes i have to wonder about the selective social consciousness of canadians, especially in B.C.

and i must admit it didn't help that Michael Moore didn't plug us once while he was onstage.

but the ranting and raving of Michael Moore dismissed all my grumbling and complaints. once he got over his travel-lag, and his half-hour lateness, he was in top form. i'll gobble up Stupid White Men soon so watch this space, and i'll give you my verdict.

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