I'm not the type to hop in the car at the last minute to drive 2,600 miles (round-trip), but my incentive came in the form of emails from Nate Sadler and Mark Thompson, from the Starr Hill Brewing Company in Charlottesville, Virginia, informing me that I'd won two VIP tickets to the 2007 four-day Bonnaroo music festival, which takes place on 700 acres of farmland in Manchester, Tennessee and attracts over 90,000 people.

Almost 100 bands were featured in the main lineup with another 34 bands playing the cafes. Headliners included of The Police, Tool, Widespread Panic, The White Stripes, Ween, The Flaming Lips, and many others, including special guest, and former Led Zeppelin bassist, John Paul Jones – who played on various artists sets.

Although Bonnaroo is mainly a music festival, they have recently begun adding other entertainments, including a Bonnaroo Cinema tent, which this year included live appearances by documentary film-maker D.A. Pennebaker, animator Bill Plympton, and the ever-iconic zen-master of cinema: Jim Jarmusch.

Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995) is on my list of all-time-favorite films, and the chance to see him in-person and possibly finagle an invitation into his hands to be at a guest at my film series was a huge Bonnaroo bonus. On Sunday, June 16th, between a screening of Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) and Down by Law (1986), he spoke to a capacity crowd of about 400 people for over an hour. It was hot and dusty in the tent and it was a noisy environment, with Wolfmother and Elvis Perkins in Dearland playing at the two nearest stages (this latter band actually affording a movie connection of its own since Elvis Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins). But despite these settings, Jarmusch kept the crowd riveted with stories he had of what it was like to work with Neil Young, Bill Murray, and many others.

I am also pleased to report that TCM fans can count Jarmusch as one of their own. When one person asked Jarmusch if he watched The Sopranos the director answered that he didn’t watch any tv except for Turner Classic Movies, which he watched all the time. Another person asked him if he could remember the very first movie that he ever saw, and he said that it was probably Bambi or other such fare, but that the first “adult” film that he remembered watching as a kid was Thunder Road (1958), which starred (and was co-written by) Robert Mitchum. Jarmusch didn’t elaborate on how this film about a war veteran who takes over a moonshining business influenced his career, but he did point out that he was the proud owner of the soundtrack album, which has Mitchum singing the theme song (“Ballad of Thunder Road”) and he then launched into an impersonation of Mitchum as he sang part of the song (“Let me tell the story, I can tell it all / About the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol / His daddy made the whiskey, son, he drove the load / When his engine roared, they called the highway Thunder Road.”)

Jarmusch talked until it was time for the next film and was then immediately mobbed by fans. So I gave my invitation for Jarmusch to visit Boulder, Colorado to his assistant, who was clearly anxious to fulfill his next task of ferrying the director to another location at behest of The White Stripes, but hopefully got it anyway. Mr. Jarmusch, in the off chance you not only watch TCM but occasionally also peruse this website and come across this, keep in mind that despite the hot, dusty, drought in Manchester, I drove through my own Thunder Road (Kansas was socked with nasty weather, both ways) just to make sure you got that invitation – and I do hope you give serious consideration to visiting your many fans here in the Rocky Mountains. We’re big on Robert Mitchum too!