Friday, May 29, 2009

"I'm STILL Big. It's the PICTURES that got small."

Tonight I saw the Red Stick Ramblers at the Old Town School of Folk Music with my friend Lisa, who'd recommended the show. Cajun/Creole. etc. A fiddle. Some nasal Cajun French. I love that stuff, actually.

So we had two seats at a three-seat table, and a man who had a ticket to the third seat came and sat with us. During the intermission, we all made small talk and were discussing unemployment, and perhaps it was the plastic cup of red wine I'd had, but my interactions with recruiters suddenly seemed closely parallel to the situation in Sunset Boulevard

"I feel like...oh God, I can't believe her name has slipped my mind. You know, Sunset Boulevard."

He looked at me blankly.

"You know, the movie with Gloria Swanson and William Holden? 'I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille'? Carol Burnett used to spoof it: 'Max! Keep the crowds back, Max!'"

He shook his head.

"Nora Desmond! Yes! I feel like Nora Desmond trying to audition for talk movies. You've never heard of Sunset Boulevard?"

He shook his head. "No," he said.

What the hell do you do when a person has never heard of Sunset Boulevard

2 comments:

SP said...

You quote the entire movie verbatim! At least, that's what YOU do.

JC said...

"Mad about the boy."