I don’t even know how to begin to describe the party I went to tonight. Finding Kraftland was a documentary (“the most over-produced home movie”, if you will) about Richard and Nicky Kraft – a father and son who travel the globe, and collect, well, all sorts of stuff. Richard is an agent for film composers who I’ve know for years, and the documentary was absolutely insane. He’s a huge collector of all sorts of kitsch, from obscue board games, to food packaging, to James Bond, to Disneyland. To say that lots of people showed up to the screening/party is an understatement – there were about 700 people there.
They held the “premiere” at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios, so I just went over there from the MI3 mixing session. I walked down the red carpet with a bunch of folks – with screaming “fans” (i.e. paid actors) shouting for my autograph – and then was even critiqued on my fashion choices by an “E!” Fashion Reporter (or at least, a stand-in for one), while being taped. And that was just to get to the pre-screening reception!
Once inside, a throng of people were crowded around popcorn stands, and the bar. There were Skittles, Whoppers, and other movie-theater candy items all over the place. The screening was a blast, with a lot of interviewees on screen, ranging from film composers (Danny Elfman, Marc Shaiman, John Ottman, Alan Menken) to family and friends of Richard and Nicky. But the video was nothing compared to what was to follow.
The video was basically a tour of the “top 10” features of “Kraftland”, Richard’s home (i.e. storage place for all his stuff). And the after-party was, quite literally, a tour of Kraftland. They had transformed a portion of Paramount into sections: “Game Land”, “Disney Land”, “Food Land”, “Bond Land”, “Dance World” and more. Each area had a distinct theme, with a lot of items from Richard’s collection available to display. They even had character actors in costume wandering around. I really really wish I had my camera with me, because you literally had to see it to believe it. From the Bond girls wearing bikinis and dancing in over-sized champagne glasses placed next to casino games (in “Bond World”), to the Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders characters wandering around next to the In-n-Out and Hot Dog on a Stick trucks (“Food Land”), it was absolutely crazy.
I spent a few hours there, chatting with a lot of folks who I knew, and hadn’t seen in a while. But, as I have brunch plans in the morning, I had to cut out at a reasonable hour. So, I left around midnight. I really wish I had my camera!