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My first car was a white Plymouth Sundance. It cost $800. I didn't know how to drive very well when I bought it, so my friend Julia came with me to do the test drive. The two of us drove around Portland with the middle-aged woman selling it. Julia tested the horn and it worked, but it never worked again after I bought it. We speculated that the middle-aged woman had a horn in her pocket that she squeezed at the exact moment Julia pressed on the steering wheel. In the end I could have bought a new Prius for what I spent fixing that car over the years. But Priuses hadn't been invented yet. Eventually neither of the two doors worked so the only way I could get in was through the trunk, which didn't stay up by itself, so I had to lift it all the way up and then dive in before it slammed shut. When winter hit it was covered in snow and I could barely lift it, I had to kind of flatten myself and roll in sideways. This finally got to be too much for Julia and even though she didn't have any money either, she paid $300 and had the doors fixed. That $300 still seems like the largest amount of money anyone has ever spent. All this comes to mind because I've been thinking about another Sundance, not the car but the film festival. My new movie, The Future, will premiere there on Friday January 21st at 6:15pm. Please come.

If you live in Berlin or thereabouts, please come to the european premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, in February.