Bloomington, A Place for Cinema!

After our live show in Bloomington Indiana we were loading the truck up and were obstructed by a woman wheeling a huge harp on a hand truck into the back of her own vehicle at the very same loading dock we were piling our ample drum set & guitars into: the symphony orchestra at Indiana State University was in the midst of a show at the time of our own musical performance, right next door! Not only did I not know that Bloomington is home to an enormous music conservatory but I also did not know that they are starting to become more and more recognized for their cinema as well!

The IU Cinema, which we performed Gravity in a few nights ago, not only looked incredible (with WPA-type murals curtained as the lights dimmed [side note: why don't we have a Federal Art Project equivalent right about now?] and heavy deep purple-y red velvet drapes drawn back just before the screening) the programming and programmers are incredible as well, even their calendar is expertly conceived, glossy and intriguing as it displays the season of everything from classics like Hitchcock, to (one of my faves!) King Vidor's Stella Dallas to a TON of new indie & foreign films I've never even heard of that all look equally compelling! The show was pretty well attended and Peter, who runs the amazing local film screening collective called The Ryder that takes place in venues throughout Bloomington and who was instrumental in having us in town after seeing us perform over at (the best docu-fiction film festival in the world) True/False gave us such a heart warming, thoughtful intro that stunned us right before taking the stage (and even made me tear up a little!), an intro that definitely got us ready to put on a good show!

Without Brendan for this leg of the tour Mike (and even Brent!) took over drums and I added a melodic, driving glockenspiel to the mix making the show another new musical foray for our crew! The crowd seemed to like it too with plenty of film lovers staying to talk after the performance (including a few students who learned that Brent doesn't like talking about frame rates the hard way!). When thinking of great film one doesn't immediately make the jump to Bloomington Indiana but after our live performance there my mind will probably link the two from now on! I'd also like to thank whoever invented the Chaicoff-sky drink (half chai latte! half coffee! all pun!) over at Soma for making me highly caffeinated prior to the show and to Secrectly Canadian studios for occupying Brent & the band after the show while some of Mike & Todd's friends were recording there, giving this here blogger some quiet post-show downtime! I hope we can go back to this bustling cinematic, musical college town sometime again, an environment that made Gravity feel right at home! Bloomington! Who knew?!