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Marianne Faithfull feels out of sorts. “I have a cold, the weather’s been terribly hard here in Paris and, what else … well, the usual,” she says on a call from her home in the City of Lights. “I’ve got to have a shoulder replacement, so I’m in a lot of pain.” Despite living in a state of discomfort, her voice sounds strong and there’s something about how her words come through her London accent that suggests confidence. “In the end it will be much better,” she concedes.

When the music documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man made its North American premiere in Austin in 2007, I interviewed its out filmmaker Stephen Kijak (Cinemania). As a full-fledged proselytizing Scott Walker freak, I would have liked the fact that Stephen has the gay to be enough to get our readers to give it a click, but let's get real. The audience for documentary films about obscure ex-pat musical geniuses is neither large nor disproportionately well-represented on our site.

I found a way to get around that little problem when the publicist for the film sent out a note that one of its associate producers was also available for press events in Austin: actor and AfterElton.com hot 100 listee Gale Harold (Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives). I interviewed him; the article did well, so my editor was happy; I got to write about one of my musical obsessions, so I was,...