The MoMa Q&A Session and Press

In true Daily Duranie fashion, I’m going to write one more blog post about the big screening of Unstaged at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that took place last Monday, November 4th.  Yeah, I’m sure that some of you think that we keep talking about it because we don’t have a lot else to talk about.  Let’s face it.  There isn’t a lot going on in Duranland.  Well, some of that might be true, but it is also because there is more that needs to be said.  We haven’t discussed the question and answer session with the band that was streamed live and can still be seen on the museum’s website.  Also, Duran has gotten some press from this event that I also want to acknowledge.

The other day, we received a tweet from Ken Scrudato, the author of an article on BlackBook about Duran’s Unstaged, which you could all read here.  To say that I was surprised that Duran was still getting press about Unstaged is a slight understatement, even with the screening, since it is something that happened over 2 years ago.  I would have thought that it was considered old news.  I’m glad that Mr. Scrudato decided to cover it, though, as I like Duran getting any kind of good press and this was that!  I also won’t lie.  He had me reading with the first two lines about style and about how Duran is an “unstoppable phenomenon”.  That is how I feel about Duran and my fandom.  I couldn’t stop them or my fandom, no matter how much I try.  I like that he mentions how Duran looks to modern art for inspiration and always strives to work with others who also have vision, even if I shudder with the author’s decision to include Timbaland in that list.  Clearly, the author was a fan of this production, which I will admit changed the format of the usual concert film.  I’m not sure I agree with him, which is evidenced by my review of Unstaged when it aired, which you can read here.  I still appreciated reading about it from an outsider point of view.  I wished, though, that he would have covered the question and answer session, too.

Speaking of the question and answer session, I watched it live on the stream and have watched it again since then on the MoMa website.  If you haven’t seen it or want to watch it again, you can watch it here.  The question and answer session was about 30 minutes long.  Like many panels like this, there were a couple of moderators who asked questions before the members of the audience could ask questions, too.  The guys looked good as they were dressed up and seemed very relaxed.  Perhaps, they were almost too relaxed as they weren’t being very serious as they gave each other a hard time with Nick calling Simon and John “damn lazy” and John pointing out Nick’s socks, for example.  I have to admit that I always enjoy those moments between them as they always show me that the band members actually like each other!  Besides, I’m glad for those moments as I didn’t learn a lot new.

The moderator questions weren’t that exciting or many and asked about how controlling David Lynch was and about the Girls on Film video.  I did appreciate what Simon and John said about the “genius” of David Lynch and about how one person can get away with really odd visuals because of who they are but if others did the same, it would be considered “crap”.  I think that is true–not just of David Lynch but about artists, in general.  Once someone has a reputation to being a “genius” or creative or whatever, they don’t have to defend themselves as much, for sure.  The rest of the question and answer session focused on questions from the audience.

Some of the audience questions made me truly groan.  First, you have some guy saying that his sister has hoped for a hug from John Taylor for the last 30 years in order to ask John to give her a hug now.  Even the band seemed annoyed with that as Nick asked where the David Lynch question was and Roger said that it wasn’t a proper question.  I’m not sure if that person considered that John might not want to give his sister a hug, but was placed in a horribly awkward position.  It could open up the rest of the audience to ask for the same thing.  Then, of course, you have the person who asked about whether or not the band had watched other David Lynch films, which they had already talked about in the beginning of the session, which John pointed out.  Beyond that, there were questions that I have heard a bunch like favorite song to play live or thoughts on the internet’s impact on music.  The only question and answer that caught my attention was the one about if commercial success has hurt Duran.  Simon pointed out that it hurt them with the critics but do they care?  Nick responded with a “Hell no!”  I did like hearing that their focus is to make music that turns them on.  While they want “hits”, they have to like the music they make first.  Thank goodness.

Now, I couldn’t not comment on Simon’s mentioning of a guitar player.  At one point, the moderator said that he would answer if he was made a member.  Simon responded without thinking, “Can you play guitar?”  With that, the audience booed and John joined in.  Simon seemed embarrassed to me after that, which he should.  May this just be evidence that the fan base is ready to make Dom official.  I would say that we have been for a VERY LONG time.  Then, these types of situations wouldn’t happen again!

Overall, it was nice to see the guys all together, answering questions, and having some fun.  Clearly, they were in good spirits.  I can’t help but wonder if all the positive interactions with the fans beforehand had something to do with that.  I have come to the conclusion that the power of fans shouldn’t be underestimated.  I know that the best show we saw on the summer tour of 2012 was the Durham show, in which we co-hosted a preshow meetup with like a hundred Duranies.  Did the band not feed off our energy?  I feel like they did.  Then, just yesterday, we received a comment from a regular at Late Bar (the club we went to as part of Durandemonium!).  This comment mentioned that the rest of the club fed off our positive energy.  Perhaps, capturing the fan energy is something that Duran needs to think about moving forward.

-A