Friday January 04, 2008

Bull Hockey

Kaye on set

I have decided to get out more. Unfortunately, this resolution went into effect yesterday—the coldest day in anyone’s recent memory—when I decided to loiter around Madison Square Garden and watch eccentric British director Tony Kaye shoot a promotional film for Ford and its sponsorship of the Professional Bull Riders tour, which is in Manhattan this weekend.

You might remember Kaye as the director of American History X, although he was so unhappy with the final edit that he tried to force New Line to change his credit to “Humpty Dumpty.” He was also working a performance art shtick a few years ago that saw him appearing—in person and in short films—dressed as Osama Bin Laden. But nevermind. By all accounts Kaye has been on good behavior lately, and his new documentary about America’s abortion divide, Lake of Fire, is generating Oscar buzz. (You can inspect the trailer here.) It was fun to watch him interview a handful of fresh-faced cowpokes, punctuating each chat with the obligatory Anglo throwaway, “Brilliant!” It’s a toss-up who found who stranger.

Bull on Ice

The bulls, like me, seemed impatient with the cold. Their blood appeared to run thick as they sluggishly stampeded up and down a makeshift chute on 33rd Street, chased by two men on horseback. I ducked back into the subway once I lost feeling in my hands, but unfortunately wasn’t able to take any of them with me.