Snow and celebrities

The day began with light snow and slush--nowhere near as much as forecasters ominously predicted, by the way--but it was like Hollywood in these here parts.

Ed Begley Jr. was on campus as part of a lecture series, and I accompanied the students who had the opportunity to interview him. My impression: tall but not as tall as I expected.

This evening I went to Ohio State to see author James McBride interview Spike Lee, the recipient of this year's Wexner Prize. Since the weather promised awful rush hour traffic, I slipped down to the university area early, got something to eat, and found a quiet spot to knit in public. Since I haven't had much time to knit lately, it was wonderful to have a half hour that I could devote to working on a blanket.

I liked it so much that I decided to continue knitting when I got to my seat in the auditorium. A middle-aged couple sat down behind me. I could tell that they were talking about what I was doing. I struck up a conversation with the woman, who is also a knitter. She is currently working on a sweater for her son. Another woman a couple rows down also expressed a wish that she had thought to bring a sock to knit while waiting for the program to begin. Around this time I stopped knitting because I encountered a bad spot in the yarn, but I did get to kill the time chatting about knitting with these strangers.

I had high hopes for the interview with Spike Lee. I went to a similar event in 1997 when Roger Ebert conducted a fascinating talk with Martin Scorsese. The two discussions could not have been more different. Tonight's program was, in a word, underwhelming. Some other adjectives: unfocused, rambling, and, in a word I don't associate with the provocative director, boring.

Perhaps my expectations were incorrect. I thought I would get Lee talking about his body of work. After all, that's why he was awarded the prize. Instead I witnessed a scattershot chat about Lee and, more specifically, the film he has coming out later this year. (McBride wrote the source book and screenplay, which explained his presence.) We got to see a teaser montage cut to opera (?). The discussion was over in what I'd estimate was a little less than an hour, which was just as well if it was going to continue in the same vein. Definitely disappointing.