One degree of separation

One day not that long ago, I was joking around with family about how film maker Michael Moore used to deliver anti-government diatribes before screening really good movies you couldn't see anywhere else in Flint.

Moore always wore overalls, a plaid flannel shirt, and a baseball cap. He'd jog down the aisle at the theater at the Univ. of Michigan-Flint - and rant and rave.

So I was rolling on the floor laughing when my brother-in-law announced he used to be the projectionist for these movies, and when Moore was absent, he was the one to talk to the audience before the movies.

OH MY GOD! I replied.

Not quite so zealously, he added.

Michael Moore was like the Tom Ryan of Flint (the police would conduct regular searches of his trash, his office & etc.), only he was more about the federal government (they killed Harry Chapin, they killed John Lennon - stuff like that). He had a paper, first called the Flint Voice and later the Michigan Voice.

The Flint Voice Cinema was where I saw movies I otherwise probably would not know even existed.

So ... years later, when I lived in Boston, two friends who were also from Michigan (but not Flint) invited me to go with them to Framingham for a screening of Moore's first movie, "Roger and Me."

And damn if Moore himself wasn't there, and damn if he didn't jog down the aisle and deliver a rant. My companions had to hold me down in my seat, insisting that I not embarrass them by standing up and saying something when Moore asked if anyone had any questions or comments.

I don't know why they thought I would do something like that!

Moore screened the film in Framingham because it was a place that was also ripped apart by GM's desertion.