On stage at The Music Box Theatre in my hometown of Chicago after a sold-out screening of The Innkeepers with Ti West and Scott Tobias of The Onion A/V Club. 

Truly a humbling moment for me. The Music Box is the oldest theatre in Chicago where I saw many art house and repertory classics for the first time in my teens and early 20’s. Among those were 8 1/2, DEAD MAN, LE SAMOURAI, The John Cassavetes collection including HUSBANDS and THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY(years before it was available on home video), CRUMB, BREAKING THE WAVES, ERASERHEAD, SPIDER BABY, THE CONFORMIST, BITTER MOON, Jane Campion’s SWEETIE, Mike Leigh’s NAKED, Wong Kar Wai’s HAPPY TOGETHER, SLACKER, ALPHAVILLE, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, Todd Haynes’ POISON, SLING BLADE… Phew… So many more. 

Such a strange and wonderful experience. Thanks to the owners and staff of The Music Box, the Chicago fans and Scott Tobias for the amazing memories!