ambition bomb
Tonight Patton Oswalt did a little Q&A at Cinema 21 after a screening of Robert Siegel's new film Big Fan, starring him. Big Fan isn't a perfect film, but it's very good, and Oswalt is dead on when he called it "in the spirit of the great 70s Hollywood films." It's a film I'm glad was made and I definitely wish more people would see it. He was great for Q&A though, because he doesn't know sports* but he is a fanboy for film directors and comic books. That is to say, it was my kind of Q&A.
The first person to have a question, he referred to with, "Yes, the hipster in the black t-shirt?" (The response "hey, don't call me a hipster!" went ignored.) The second person was "Yes, the hipster in the black sweatshirt?" The third, "the hipster in the black Raveonettes t-shirt -- well that's perfect." (The third was Cassie's boyfriend Jim.) This amused me a good deal. But my favorite comment of the night was, when discussing how much he loves Portland, Patton Oswalt said, "I really do love it here, I come here even when I don't have a gig and just walk around, but this city needs an Ambition Bomb dropped on it bad. You all are a little too laid back for your own good."
It was funny because it's true, both as a city and on a personal level. Where's my Ambition Bomb?
P.S. I like the Cinema 21 Q&A business. Good guests. Compare to this.
* Best analogy ever to his (and my) feelings about sports: "I relate to sports the way an autistic person relates to love: I see other people, and they're very happy, and so I'm happy for them, but I don't really understand why." Badly paraphrased. But the gist is solid.