Stop Making Sense closes out our rooftop series tonight at the Central Library

Well, this is embarrassing. I’ve never seen Stop Making Sense, the most revered concert movie ever made. (It’s the one with the big suit, as seen above.)

It’s a puzzling, borderline-inexcusable failure, especially given that the soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme-directed Talking Heads showcase has been one of my favorite records since my best friend traded me a tape of it (with the band’s Little Creatures on Side 2) for a cassette I’d made of my favorite band back then. (No right-thinking person would call it an even exchange today, but I swear he was down.)

That all changes tonight, when the Central Library (14 West 10th Street) fires up its AV gear for the last of this summer’s 1984: Rave New World rooftop movies, presented with The Pitch. That’s outdoor T-Heads, people, on what every forecaster in town insists, despite what seems at this hour like the ninth gray day in a row, is going to be a clear, warm evening. So tonight, we all turn this:

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…into this:

The library opens its doors at 8 p.m., and the movie goes on around 8:45. It’s free, as usual — and as usual, you get a couple of generous pours from KC Bier Co. (Also, you can eat cheap before or after the movie at Milwaukee Delicatessen.)

For the last time this season, Bob Butler and I pull out our canvas director chairs to introduce the movie, following a locally made short film (courtesy of the Independent Filmmakers Coalition of Kansas City). After we’re done playing the soundtrack (the remastered CD, not my old TDK SA 90), of course. 

Click click, see you later.