So the Cinema Guy is all about the Bulgaria Experience and this is not too much of a construct. After all my American friend Timmy always introduces me as the Shopping Mall Guy when he cannot remember my name, and we are good friends. In fact occasionally Timmy’s love of networking combined with his inability to remember names is very amusing, and I wonder if purposeful or not.
One evening in the posh-monolithic Sheraton Balkan hotel at a big party, Timmy consistently introduced an American B list actor – ‘straight to DVD’ – to all new arrivals and circulatory cocktail swiggers with an ever changing wrong name. The guy was clearly a bit sensitive about this and probably used to it. He looked like he was about to have a fit about an hour or so into the evening.
I once spent the entire evening, with Timmy’s enthusiastic encouragement, as The Sex Guy – owner of a local chain of sex toy shops and was a very popular guy too for the entire evening.
The Cinema guy – and there is no way that I am going to call him by his real name as I will not be safe re-entering the country – likes movies. So he designed and built a state of the art multiplex. State of the art sound, state of the art vision, state of the art seating, and even a state of the art angle to the way that the floor slopes down to the screen.
I like cinema, but the last one was new to me.
The Wicked Witch of the East who we will discuss later, set up the meeting at a time of year that suited her personality. It was cold and with bitter winds blowing off Vitosha peak, with clumps of dirty snow on the tarmac and pavement.
The Cinema Guy kept us waiting in the inner sanctum, a Zen-like outer room to his personal office. We sat on and obviously expensive leather sofa that was oddly tasteful and I fretted that I would drag black ice all over the obviously expensive light coloured carpet.
Twenty minutes later and in he came, all smiles, and power and wearing very expensive highly polished distasteful shoes.
And I will be back shortly to tell you all about that.
jjberlin 