On The Road: Prelude to the Film

Well, the day is finally coming -- The film of On The Road is arriving in Palo Alto on Friday.

By now, I've resigned myself to the fact that the whole thing has been botched. In two days, I'll be able to talk about it (well, if I can stand to).

That's something. So far, I've spent most of a year wondering why it was being released the way it was: At Cannes, then everywhere else but the U.S. Then in LA, with what seemed like a startling lack of publicity. And now, three months later, it arrives in the Bay Area at four (count them!) theaters: One in San Francisco, one in San Rafael, one in Berkeley, and one in Palo Alto -- the publicity consisting (as far as I know) of one short interview in the San Francisco Chronicle.

But I love Kerouac. I'd even like to see the (by all accounts lamentable) 1960 film of The Subterraneans (with George Peppard and Leslie Caron).

Friday night, late, we'll see if I "wanna talk about it." After all the buildup, I could (after all) be wrong.

Stand by for another post on "what I'll be looking for" in the movie.