After about 45 minutes, Elijah Wood arrives on my doorstep proclaiming, "HARRY HELP!!! I CAN'T FIND THREADGILL'S!!!"
So I leave to help Elijah find his way. You see, Quint had an interview set up with Elijah at the birthplace of Janis Joplin music, and didn't give Elijah adequate directions on how to get there. Luckily it was just a few blocks from my house. So I hopped into Elijah's comfortable as hell BMW and off we were.
As we get to THREADGILL'S we see Quint with his brother baking in the sun at the front of the establishment. Elijah says, "oooooh maaaaaannnnn, I feeeeel sooooo badddd.... do you think he's been waiting there the whole time?"
I respond with, "Yup."
So we park and head in. Sure enough Quint had taken my advice and staked out the Diner section of the great food hall. Elijah loves the place, he's scoping out the neon, signs, the speakers, the floating tubes of frozen food, etc...We take our seats, and Quint presents Elijah with a Star Wars gift sack of vintage Star Wars drink glasses from long ago. Both original Star Wars release and Return of the Jedi release. Too cool.
I sort of fade into the background while Quint asks Elijah the questions upon his mind... recording our every word. Elijah provides good answers, but it would be unethical of me to scoop on one of my own spies. Quint had just finished asking the stupid questions. (Quint will whole heartedly admit that these were stupid questions) That's when Elijah realizes that he has to get to my house to meet Josh Hartnett and Laura Harris. Ya see they play Zeke and MaryBeth, two of the cool kids in Robert's film. Josh plays the cool kid with the kickass car. He also can be seen in H20, which just wrapped according to him. And Laura Harris has been acting since she was 5, and has been in a number of tv shows and films. They are both cool kids.
Anyway, Elijah and I leave Quint to return to my house. When we get there SIX STRING SAMURAI is ending. Elijah sees some of it, and goes wide eyed, so I drag him out back so that he doesn't see the glorius ending of SSS.
Elijah goes wide eyed as he enters the back yard, with the smell of delicious brisket and sausage caking the air, the xeriscaped yard going back forever. He walks around, introduces himself to dear ol Dad, and we sit down to await Tom and Annette. Soon though, Josh and Laura arrive.
Let me paint a picture of Laura for ya. First, she is quite a lovely lady, about 19 or so (I think). She has her camera around her neck, and her eyes are taking in the details. She is talking to no particular person, though I think it was directed at Dad and myself, that this was 'great'. She particularly loved the graveyard and the tree of woe. She asks if she could take some pictures, and then off she goes, but not without first giving me an excellent bottle of wine.
Josh is a bit taken aback by all of the 'sensory input'. He's trying to pick up on all the details as well. He wanders back into the great xeriscaped labrynth, decorated with my father's stone sculptures, an old totem pole from Alaska, benches made of logs, and sickled grass.
Elijah wants to move in. He's convinced. Laura begins making noise about wanting to move in as well. That's when Quint arrives. I tell him to finish up with Elijah, that I'm checking on Annette and Tom. I get in for the climatic climax of the film. Annette is riveted, Joad is slack jawed, and well... well... I watch as the end of the film raises a lump in Annette, she begins pumping tears, her mouth open, and a goofy satiated smile in place. Quite honestly she was beautiful. Awe, wonder and happiness all rolled into one perfect package.
We head out back, and we see Laura, Josh, Elijah and Quint sitting down having a chat. I tell Laura, Josh and Elijah to follow me for a tour of the house. Elijah jumps up about as fast as humanly possible. In fact, I'm feeling a bit spry myself at this point. I love showing off the cool stuff in my house, I love blowing people's brains. Elijah hadn't seen the living room with the lights on, and as I illuminate it... He exclaims, "My God!"
