Back in October, Norm Wheeler wrote in with his notice of a Captain Beefheart film show which took place in Austin, Texas. Owing to some technical malfunction or other I did not receive his mail until very recently.
Anyway, such is the Texan interest in Captain Beefheart that the same film show is being held again tonight at the same venue so I thought it would be appropriate to let you read Norm’s mail as a sort of preview to tonight’s event.
[wp_quote]Last night (2005-10-10) the 1997 BBC documentary The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart was shown at the “Alamo Drafthouse Downtown” in Austin, Texas, a venue that specializes in art/indie/rare films. It was the only scheduled showing. I have no idea how their copy was obtained. Also shown was a music video of the Captain and the Magic Band performing “Electricity”on a beach; this was described as being “from French television”. Finally, the Anton Corbijn film was also shown.
The showing was almost completely sold out (~260 seats), unusual for their “Monday, Music Night” programs. What I found interesting was that the audience was primarily young folks in their 20s and 30s. There were only scattered old codgers like me (age 64). Furthermore, when the BBC program ended the audience applauded, which is rarely the case in USA movie theaters (except in Los Angeles first-run theaters, where applause is traditional if the film was enjoyable).
Best wishes,– Norm Wheeler[/wp_quote]