OK. So remember like two weeks ago when I was rambling on about my own private punk renaissance? Well I did it exactly the way I always do. I wound through the New York folks, first making sure to stop and say hi to Television and Richard Hell on my way past, and before long I’d found my way to early ’80s hardcore. And just as I was starting to get back into the first three X LPs, it happened. I reached for Unknown Pleasures, and before I knew it, what had been a nostalgic, safety pinned trip down punk rock memory lane quickly shifted gears toward post-punk era bands. Of that era, the two Joy Division albums, the aforementioned Unknown Pleasures and its swan song Closer, have never spent longer than a few weeks off of my turntable. I’m one of those folks that find comfort in music tinged with great sadness, and Ian Curtis’ voice and words have long resonated deeply with me. This is why when I heard that Debra Curtis’ book about Ian’s all-too-short life “Touching From a Distance” was turned into a film (the soon to be released “Control”), I was overjoyed. However, the fictionalized tale of Joy Divison has already beautifully been brought to the screen by filmmaker Michael Winterbottom in his kaleidoscopic snapshot of the birth of the Manchester era, “24 Hour Party People.” And while certainly Debra’s book gives those who loved him a very intriguing portrait of the late artist, the news of “Control” wasn’t nearly as exciting to me as when I heard about THIS. It’s my hope to track down a copy before the film premieres next month at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.