yesterday afternoon before i went to the urban nomad festival, i went to taipei film house to see long tack sam. a documentary about one woman's quest to find out who her great grandfather was. at one time he was a world famous chinese magician, but has pretty much been forgotten except by people in magic circles.

i really loved the film and wish it was doing a regular run instead of just being a part of a festival, so that some of my friends that i know are not going to be able to see it, would be able to see it. seeing this film - made me really want to see a good documentary on vaudeville. as there is quite a bit about vaudeville in the film.

one thing that struck me while watching this is how important it is to document your own life for posterity. even if you aren't famous, if you have any sort of descendants chances are someone is going to wonder who was this person? what made them tick? photographs and home movies may not answer this completely, but at least they leave behind clues.

the audience at this screening was really well behaved. i didn't hear a single cell phone go off, nor did i hear people talking in it. if only urban nomad had been like that as well...