A conversation between Alan Licht and Jim Jarmusch appeared in November’s Wire—consisting mostly of the director’s recollections about Avant-garde Musicians He Has Known. Jarmusch is one of those downtown cynosures that somehow knows everyone from Kenneth Koch to Kool Keith. Which is probably why he has been chosen to curate this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. His selection includes ATP favorites like Sonic Youth and Iggy Pop, but also enlists some cool outsiders like Australian punks The Scientists (who have not played in the U. S.) and San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips. I had a chance to see the latter on Halloween and it was pretty engrossing. In the interview he has some interesting insights about the nature of performance, specifically casting musicians in films (he has worked with Tom Waits, Richard Edson, and Joe Strummer, among others):

Jim Jarmusch I’ve seen Mick Jagger do some kind of not-so-interesting things, and yet I think his performance in the film Performance is fantastic, a great character they made, y’know? And I love watching that film, I’ve seen it ten times, and I’m always impressed. So I don’t know what that equation is, for me it’s always intuitive anyway. But [Joe] Strummer had the ability to be a really fine actor, I don’t know if he got so much of a chance to work on it, and he was sort of easily discouraged, because he was sensitive to criticism in a way that he wasn’t about, really, anything else. He told me once, “When I come on the set, it’s like carrying a basket of eggs, that I just want to get there without breaking them.” He was very careful about it. I kinda wished I had another shot at making something with him as an actor. But Waits is really something else. Iggy is a great actor. He just has to trust you. Cause I think Iggy, if you don’t work with him, it’s like with all actors, they have to trust you.