Outside Counsel

A and EGA were in attendance at the concert They Might Be Giants put on for the filming of Gigantic, the documentary about the band. Naturally they hoped that they'd get interviewed for the movie, but A. was afraid she'd have nothing to say, or that she'd freeze up. "The trick is to have something ready to say," I told her. She said that the problem was that she couldn't think of anything. "Make something up," I said. Tell them that you were at J&R and you couldn't decide between Lincoln or the new thing by When People Were Shorter and Lived by the Water, but you made the right pick and haven't looked back since."

As luck would have it, EGA was passed over, but A was plucked from the line and interviewed. She tells the story better than I can, but apparently even having a prepared story didn't prevent her from veering wildly off-script, and she spent the time from the concert until the release of the movie hoping desperately that her bit had found its way to the cutting room floor. She emerged from the screening last Spring relieved that her babbling story about TMBG and a band that only readers of the agate type in the back of the Village Voice ever heard of had not made the print. She reckoned not with DVD, though. EGA says she is featured in the "Extras", and tonight we get to see it. When People Were Shorter and Lived by the Water. Ahahahahahahaha! As Nick Hornby moments go, that's right there with the Licorice Confits.

Update: A comes across as quite sane, well coiffed, and nicely lit. She was relieved; I am glad for her. This is generally how it goes: she is so sane that it actually comes across, and is the impression most people have of her. Interesting that it works in the movies as in life-- I may have to re-think the line I give out about the way I appear on television.