Saturday, October 18, 2014

Last Days In Vietnam Movie

    This afternoon I went to see the documentary movie 'Last days in Vietnam' at the St. Anthony Main theater in Minneapolis. I had wanted to see it at the Uptown theater last week but couldn't find the time. After finding out it would move to another theater I knew I could wait anyway. I haven't read much about the Vietnam War, so it was educational to me. I knew that Saigon fell in the spring of 1975, just over two years after American troops left, but this was basically it. I had a hard time understanding some things depicted in it, like a million dollars in cash being burned at the American embassy in the last days of the war. One thing in particular was familiar, from footage I had seen before. It was where a helicopter was being pushed into the sea, showing how desperate things were at the end. Looting of the embassy after it was evacuated, not too surprising at all. I have seen footage of looting before, it tends to happen whenever there is a breakdown of the law. There was plenty of footage from interviews with Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State during the era being covered. After the movie ended, I estimated the crowd as 10-15. I heard somebody swearing about what they had seen, they must have remembered the war. Then I could see and hear how they were choked up about it.
    I did resume hanging flyers, and I like how I haven't run out of ideas yet. I 'Went suburban' and displayed some at the Ramsey County Library in Roseville, as well as at a Cub Foods on Larpenteur. I then found my way to University Avenue, and posted some on a bulletin board at a Cub Foods there, as well as at a Subway sandwich shop inside a Wal-Mart. On to Snelling, and I made a return to Cheapo Records, after hanging some at the Jimmy John's sandwich shop across the street. I don't have many left now, knowing how the festival is starting in a few days.
   In the evening I went to see the play 'Radio Man' at the History theater in downtown St. Paul. It is about the radio show 'Prairie Home Companion', and its host, Garrison Keillor. I liked it, made me laugh often, seemed to capture the spirit of the show well. The actor playing him was anything but a dead ringer. Though I think it would be hard to find a dead ringer, unless it was Keillor playing himself like in the movie version I saw. I liked the scenes involving a lady friend who had returned, as these were the most personal ones. I liked others like when there was mention of the show satirizing nostalgia, and then became what it satirized. Or how Keillor has a hard time accepting compliments, this I can relate to as I was this way for a while, definitely before doing stand-up. And
the part about how he was considered to be weird when he was young, but now some would just call it 'High-functioning autism'. or his being a loner.
   The day started with getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube, and I liked who I met there. He said he was going to Mankato as he knew somebody running a marathon there, as I recall his wife. He had served in the Army, and said he knew about some car maintenance from his dad owning a gas station in Louisiana, along with what he did in the military. He told a story about two people who claimed to be Cajun, one was named Pierre, but he really wasn't Cajun as he was from Mississippi. It was in response to hearing about one of my fellow comics being from that state, along with how one of my jokes was about a 'Cajun cougar'.

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