So where did I wind up on a Friday night in Paris? Sitting at a really bad Mexican restaurant in the Latin Quarter, eating one of the worst tostadas I've ever had, drinking one of the worst margaritas I've ever had, but chasing it down with a not-half-bad Reposado.
So why here? Simple. It has a window table, where I can sit and watch the people walking by. Even better, this table has an electical outlet next to it. Power plugs near the tables are scarcer in France than hen's teeth. And, to top it off, the restaurant has a not-half-bad mariachi band. The guys in the band know me, because I used to sit and write here when I lived in Paris, and whenever I come in they come to my table and sing me songs from the soundtrack of the film "Desperado." It's one of my favorite films, the second by that enfant térrible of the cinema from Austin, Texas, Rodriguez. He's one of my favorite directors because of his ability to juxtapose seemingly incompatible elements in his films. Action and romance. Fear and side-splitting humor. His DVDs reveal his True Inner Nature, because on each of them he includes one of his Ten Minute Film School clips, with the clear intent of inspiring young filmmakers around the world to do what he did, and turn their cheap HD video- cams and computers into full-fledged film careers. "Desperado" was the bigger-budget sequel to Rodriguez's first film, "El Mariachi." That first film was made on a budget of -- no shit -- 7000 dollars. He planned to shoot it and move it direct to video in Mexico to raise money for a "real" movie. Instead, someone entered it at the Sundance Film Festival, and history was made. I think it won the Audience Prize, and some studio offered him the chance to make a sequel. He did, in "Desperado," cementing his career as a bankable director, and taking along with him on the road to stardom Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, both of whom were relatively unknown in the US until then. To this day, both of these now major stars will go out of their way to do bit parts in Rodriguez's films -- partly because they feel they owe him a Big One, but also because people have FUN working on his movies. He's lighthearted, and creative, and open to feedback from and improvisation by his actors. He shoots in HD, on video, so the cost of film stock is not a concern for him. Between takes, as he steps out from behind the camera to interact with his actors, he keeps the camera rolling. And some of the best moments in his films have been caught before he got back to the camera, with the actors just bouncing off of one another, thinking they were "off camera." This restaurant is not terrribly Rodriguez-like. If it were, Bad Guys would have whipped out submachine guns and knives and done in most of the crowd by now. The whole restaurant would be awash with blood and gore. Only the bartender and I would have survived. (You'll get this in-joke only if you're also a fan of his movies.) But it's still pretty neat being here tonight, recharging my batteries (both computer and mental) before venturing forth to new adventures. In "Desperado," the hero's guitar case is really full of guns, with which he does his real "performing." Mine contains a laptop, on which I write shit like this at cafes and restaurants like this. Both of us are pretty weird by society's standards, but damned if we don't seem to be having more more FUN with life than many of the people around us who are carrying Gucci and Chanel bags and believing that others should be impressed by them.
