Friday, June 06, 2003

They showed "American Splendor," the movie, at this year's Cannes film festival. HBO and Fine Line, who own it, sent me, my wife and daughter over there to publicize it. I was warned in advance to bring over a tuxedo and suit, so as to be able to attend certain events. Cannes apparently has a very active group of fashion police. I hate messing around with clothes, and try to dress as simply as possible, but if I was to accept their generous sponsorship I had to have the threads to fulfill my functions at various parties and screenings. So I got busy. My wife arranged for the guy who does our taxes to take me to a going-out-of-business clothing store, where I was able to snag a suit with a one hundred dollar discount, plus a couple of ties and shirts-- all paid for by HBO. Then one of my neighbors offered to lend me her husband's decades-old tux, which eventually allowed me to attend the premier of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant," another HBO production. I'm happy to report that I was not turned away from a single event. The tuxedo outfit, particularly its fancy shirt, garnered an especially large number of compliments. I was told by a film exec from Barcelona that this shirt had been made in Mexico. Who am I to argue with her? The suit got me into a couple of parties and a screening of "American Splendor." Again I was applauded for my sartorial elegance-- mostly by people used to seeing me in jeans and a T-shirt. Anything more impressive than that would delight and surprise Harvey Pekar observers. As good as I looked, however, I was overshadowed by my wife's lovely attire. She wore a skirt with a bustle that she claimed made her “look like a character from a Henry James novel that had just swum to the shore after falling off a yacht in the Mediterranean.” 9:23:10 AM