silver linings in moonlit clouds

This looks to be quite the idyllic setting, doesn't it?
It's the ocean-facing porch of a beach house on Fire Island, on the 4th of July.
But there is no joy there for the two couples who populate it...
the two heterosexual, white-bread couples, steeped in adultery and AIDS-phobia.
"Lips Together, Teeth Apart" pulls no punches.
Set sometime in the 1980's, the play is wrapped around themes of death and isolation, mistrust and homophobia, fear and love.
Sally inherited the house when her brother died. She and her husband, Sam, have gone there, for the first time, to determine what to do with the property. Another couple have joined them there: Chloe, Sam's sister, a woman who wards off fear by never, ever shutting up about banalities; John, Chloe's husband and Sally's 'secret' lover, a sourpuss full of cancer.
All of them are terrified of the swimming pool, terrified of any involvement with the neighbors, terrified of honesty with each other or any others.
The play brought back memories of Bill Gebhardt, a fellow Masquer, who died of AIDS in the mid-1990's. I remember visiting him in the hospital and holding his hand.
Of the many who had revered his acting and thought him a friend, few came to see him, so fearful they were of breathing the air and catching the disease.
That kind of ignorance, so easily remedied through knowledge, is so sad.
Here's the thing, though - it persists, still, all these years later.
So very sad.

Fortunately, I was not alone at this performance by the Bangers and Mash troupe.
Barbara and Sandy were there with me, las tres amigas having a rare night together.
They quietly listened to me mourn and rant, allowing the night air to blow my troubles out to sea.
By the time I was done, we were at Fannie's On The Beach, a favorite of mine.
Barbara, of all people, opted to mount the stairs to the deck - nice!
There, we watched the moon rise, peeking between scattered clouds.
And we ate shrimp and chatted with the waitress and sang along with the muic...
and all became right with the world, again.
i thank You, God.

hinesville, jim says all is well 197791

Maybe I should start by parsing that title, eh?
Sure thing!
Last night, I rode out to Hinesville to spend the
evening with my first niece and her Miyah.
Mostly, she talked and I listened.
Um... "she" being my niece, of course.
She's been under a lot of pressure for months,
between her job and the baby and the treks
back and forth to Savannah.
All will be better after court on July 19.

She made salmon stew for our dinner, using Mama's original recipe (not my variation with tuna).
But when we went to eat it, she did it her mom's way, crumbling large handfuls of saltine crackers until the stew became a porridge.
Whoa, Nelly!
Fortunately, she had oyster crackers for me, allowing
me to eat the soup as it was meant to be.
As I tell folks, everybody's Mama does it differently!

What did we do on our night together?
Fed the baby, bathed the baby, fed us, and went to bed.
The next morning, bright and early, we were back on the road to Savannah.
As I was waiting outside the daycare, this cloud formation swirled above!
See them dancing, the boy on the left, the girl with flowing hair moving off to the right?
Well, I do, and that's what matters.
(smile)
After she returned me to my waiting car, in the lot outside her job at the furniture place on White Bluff, I went home and thought real hard about taking a nap... but I didn't.
Well, not right away.
After all, it was Wednesday and that means Weight Watcher meeting at noon15.
My nap was taken when that, and grocery shopping, were done.
(smile)

Then Jim texted, to remind me of the PFS movie.
"Is it Bubba Ho-Tep?", I asked.
He responded, "Hmmm... (eyebrow cocked)".
Hallelujah! I had guessed correctly!
The mystery movie for the 60th birthday of Bruce Campbell would be this 2002 favorite of mine...
and, as a definite bonus, I had managed to surprise Jim with my knowledge of it!

I talk like I've been watching the movie ever since it came out, even though I only discovered it by chance one evening this past January.
My attraction to it was partly because of my upcoming trip to Las Vegas, for sure.
But I have to credit Campbell's performance, too.
His version of an aging Elvis was spot-on and quite believable - Carolyn even said so!

Sure, the above photo looks like The King in his
early 40's, right?
By that time in his life, he was greeted by throngs everywhere he went.
Craving the anonymity he once knew, he exchanged places with an ETA - pardon, they were called "impersonators" back in the 1970's - then lost the paperwork in a fire.

Bad luck, that, but he ended up in a nursing home in
his older years, just when he was needed to use his
7th-degree black belt against a rampaging mummy.
As he lay dying, he asked God if he had made the right choices, if he had saved lives at the Shady Rest.
The reply - in Egyptian and translated - was
"All is well."
Of course I clapped! Bravo!

Jim told me afterward that this movie was not the one he had first intended to show, but he had changed his mind a few days ago.
i thank You, God!
I even walked away with a memento of this Wednesday evening with friends.
Not one of my three raffle tickets were drawn,
but Jim still rewarded my efforts with this T-shirt from the 2016 Campbellfest of films.
Very nice! Thanks, Jim!

And let me say this again:
i thank You, God.
I have definitely been in the right place, right time yesterday and today.
My odometer has even confirmed it with its palindrome reading that registered as I neared home.
I know that to not be mere coincidence...
don't you?
(smile)

word fun with daddy's sister!

I thought this word choice was rather poetic!
Aunt Barbara - aka "Babs" per my Mama! - had invited me some few weeks ago to play "Words With Friends" on facebook.
As it's a game akin to Scrabble, of course I agreed!
She's quite good at the game and won the early rounds, as she is more adept than I am at making use of the special tiles that double or triple letter points or entire word scores.
I am just accustomed to playing to build a story from the words - as I once used to do with SamJ's wife, Jan - or to make sure all of the tiles get played - when I'm playing Right Hand versus Left Hand.
I still find myself primarily playing to open up places where new words can be built.
When the goal is just to maximize points, the board can become rather shut off in a lot of directions, making it very difficult to use the letter tiles.
My Aunt Babs plays for blood... I mean, for maximum points.
(smile)
Anywho, like I said, I mostly play to open new lines for building words.
Occasionally, though, my style will net me a bunch of points... as it did here!
Ordinarily, the letters f_a_m_i_l_y would be worth 15 points, based on the tile points of 4_1_4_1_2_3, respectively.
However, I had placed the "y" over a triple letter spot on the board, making the word "family" worth 21 points.
Sah-weet!
Even better, though, was the occurrence of one of the other five tiles fortunately landing on a triple word spot!
That bumped up the value of that common word to a whopping sixty-three points.
Wow!
And what a nice coincidence that "family" came along while playing with family!
(smile)
i thank You, God!

true baseball, even in the rain

No, let me rephrase that.
True baseball, especially in the rain.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I'm talking about the game last night between the Savannah Bananas and the Peninsula Pilots.

"Oh, I remember that name! That was one of the games you got when you traded in a July game, isn't it?"

You are correct! You may also recall that name from the 2016 Championship games. That was the Virginia team the Bananas had to best - and did!

"Very nice! So this game pitted your boys of summer against a team of their same caliber. At last! The Bananas have had a pretty mild season."

Yes, they have. I've been watching the board stats and knew this was going to be a challenge. I had hoped the boys would not scatter errors all over the place, especially as they did yesterday.

"You're telling me. They had two errors before even getting out of the first inning!"

Yeah, that was some sloppy ball to start with, but they remedied their playing and won. Still, it was a good thing Mister Willie wasn't there, or he'd have been having fits at these college boys.

"Heard! Having played ball himself, and with a son in the majors, Willie really cannot abide sloppy ball."

That is so very true!
(smile)

"What about this game? Was he there?"

Yes, he was, and in fine form, too. The day had been extremely hot, followed by thunderstorms, so it had been a source of debate between us as to whether he should go.
I had finally relented about 5:30, as the temperatures had slid back into the 80's.
Berry Aldridge had met us on the apron outside Grayson Stadium and took charge of Willie while I found a place for my car.

"I thought you had the Handicap parking permit from his car...?"

I do, but we had arrived so late - and the weather was such - that all nine slots were filled by the time we had arrived. No worries, though. I was allowed to park right across the way, in the special lot.

"Oh, that was good.
So, just what is going on in the above photo?"

Well, we'd just gone through the eighth inning, with the Bananas still having only the one run, from back in the third inning. Willie had been cheering them on, too, constantly and loudly - you know, like the old days... even if 2009 was not so long ago!
(smile)
But all his encouragement had gone for naught.
The Pilots had scored a run in both the third and fourth, and they were in the lead...
still...
four innings later.

"Well, that was certainly enough to cause concern for the fans in the stands!"

Yes, indeed. And see those four fellows off to Willie's right? They've sat with him several times over the last few years. I think they even took him to Charleston to see the Sand Gnats play the Riverdogs a couple of years ago.

"I remember that! Willie had been very excited about that little jaunt... and the boys had been elated about him being there to cheer for them!"

"Well, okay, that's one way to change the topic..."

Sorry, you just seemed to be rambling a bit and I have a story to finish.

"Well, do carry on, dear."

Thanks, I appreciate that.
Okay, what's happening here?
Well, there had been soft rains for about an hour and the mound had evidently become slick. The Pilots had noted the slippage of the Bananas' pitcher at the top of the ninth when he had successfully mounted his final attack on their batters. The Virginia team insisted that the mound be refreshed before their man took a final stand.

"There will come soft rains... wasn't there a Ray Bradbury story by that title?"

Yes, there was. It was also my favorite part of his book, The Martian Chronicles.
And... you have strayed off topic again.

"No, I haven't! You were just talking about putting some fresh dirt out there because the Pilots were concerned that their pitcher might not fare as well in keeping the Bananas down."

You have been paying attention! Good!
And, yes, indeed, the Pilots had cause to be concerned, as it turned out.
Here we have Alex Rodriguez tying up the score, thanks to a double by Cade Marlowe...
and the crowd goes wild!!!
Yeah!!!

"Hooray! Does that mean the game went into extra innings?"

Thankfully, no.
Justin Dirden hit a single and Marlowe sped around third and landed safely at home!
And the crowd went wild again!
And the Bananas bounced as a bunch out of the bullpen, joining Justin at first base!
What a magnificent way to end the game!!!

"WOW!!!"

Wow. That was baseball at its finest, it truly was. Two evenly-matched rivals, playing their very best, down to the very last of the game.
Believe me, Willie was as happy as I to have been present there!

Afterward, he had one stalwart young man to steady him on his bad left leg. Two other young men held umbrellas over them all, keeping Willie dry.
Very nice.
Thanks, y'all!

"Wow... what a wonderful night!"

What a wonderful night...
i thank You, God.

banana sunday, with a cherry on top!

What a delicious game this has been, almost as good as ice cream!
(Get it? See that little pun I threw in there? Hahahaha hahaha!)
I'm sure Peyton Fuller (the Bananas pitcher) and Cade Marlowe would agree with me.
Today was their 19th and 21st birthdays, respectively, and the team gave them the perfect present - the winning game to send them to the Championship Play-Offs in August!
Woohoo, my boys of summer!
I bet those Florence Redwolves weren't expecting that trouncing.
What do I mean by that?
The Bananas won by doubling the score of their opponents: 6 to 3, baby!
(smile!)

That win, like the one at the game last week, was due in large part to Clay Dungan. The 22-year-old shortstop has a bat that's on fire!
In the 3rd inning, he drove in Connor Basler for the first run of the game.
After the 7th inning stretch, his hit to right center field allowed Ruben Someillan and Alex Rodriguez to score, ensuring the win.
So, not only did the man have three RBI's, he also landed on base himself, even coming in for a run in the 6th when the Redwolves' pitcher balked.
Sah-weet!
I'll be keeping an eye on #6 - he'll be moving on up after this!
Tomorrow, I'll get to see him play again, this time versus the Peninsula Pilots.
Mister Willie will be with me, too, so that should be very nice.
Maybe not as nice as a banana sundae... but close!
(smile)

the boombox and the bard on a twelfth night!

Methinks that I
shall not again see
a sight so lovely
as this knee,
with leg clad in yellow
down to the toes
in such radiant
and bright a hose
and with garters crossed,
no less -
does but accentuate
its shapeliness!



I do believe both William Shakespeare and Joyce Kilmer would pardon my waxing rhapsodic about such a thing as lucky yellow socks, yet again!
Travis Spangenburg, thanks for the inspiration!
Speaking of inspired, having Savannah Shakes berthed at Savannah State's Kennedy Building for this production certainly qualifies in that regard.

Imagine this: a small university's theatrical troupe
has been tasked with putting on "Twelfth Night"
as its final play of the academic year.
The frat boys are involved, of course, and have
a decade of repeat viewings of "Animal House"
fueling the fire in which they burn.
Time is running out and most of the allocated money
has been spent on keg parties.

Now, further imagine that is the
spring semester of 1989 and "Say Anything"
has lit up the silver screen and the airwaves
with its romantic date night flick...
and its immortalized boombox.
Eureka!
Why not have that device featured in the play?
Heck, why not include the music of that decade, too?
They could even sing along with it!

And so they did... and, perhaps to the addled amazement of the frat boys portraying Uncle Toby and Sir Andrew, the audience loved it!
It certainly helped that they had cast the most popular sorority girls in the roles of Olivia, Viola, and Maria. The audience got a real chuckle out of the lovely Viola masquerading as a lad - what a hoot!
Then there were the love triangles, a bit warped around the edges - but aren't they all? And the wackier they could make them, the better!
That's why they cast their newest pledge as Malvolio. The hazing was not yet done, in their minds, so who better to have to don those crazy yellow stockings? Oh, and to cage him in a dog kennel... what sport, that! How rich that it was all in keeping with the Bard's own words! Who knew the guy was so timeless in his writing?

Who knew?
I did!
I grew up reading Shakespeare and loving the rhythm of the language.
With a sparse set, those four hundred year old words shine at their brightest!
Thanks, y'all, for a night of laughter at this tale of love and mistaken identities and the antics of the young at heart!

gone, desk, gone, too!

See anything different?
Hint: those creases in the carpet are a clue!
Something heavy once rested there...

This was there!
The L-shaped computer desk that occupied
that space for so many years is GONE!
After the velociraptor cats left my building,
I wanted this out, too.
In May, I posted word on fb that it was for sale.

I had completely dismantled it,
taking care to mark the pieces for
easy reassembly by its new owners.
The four people interested didn't
any of them live around here.
They must have missed the location
I had listed!


So, yesterday, I posted a listing on craigslist.
An hour ago, I had a text message: "Was the desk still available?"
Two minutes ago, I helped Dolores load it, and the desk chair, into her car.
Nice to now it went to a good home! She is a realtor that lives around the corner. She had needed something to set up her home office and had found nothing she could afford... until she saw my craigslist item this morning.
Now, I have $75 and she has working space.
Hallelujah!
She was thrilled that I had taken the time to write directions on the pieces. She plans to set it up herself and surprise her husband with her know-how. Bravo!
I'm glad to have been of help at empowering her!
i thank You, God!

sir Paul on the telly!

"Can you please, please help me?"
How could the good Sir Paul deny such a request?
Especially as that request came from countryman James Corden!
Wow...
By coincidence, Carolyn and I were sitting at The Diner, post Chris Pratt movie...
by coincidence, the television was tuned to the correct channel for this show...
by coincidence, the place was a-buzz with celebrity fever, as John Travolta and Morgan Freeman were shooting scenes over at Doubles...
so, we knew to stay put...
to eat v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y to watch the whole thing...
to slurp up every ounce of star gossip from the waitstaff...
and to bounce out back and try to catch a glimpse of the stars...
but all we saw were the ones above.
(smile)
That's alright...
I took photos of the three cars being used for "The Poison Rose"...
that ought to hold me for a while...
maybe!

Time for some sweet dreams!
(smile!)

i thank You, God, for these little delights!

happy international dance day!!!

Oh, hey, it's national DANCE day!!!
I so want to dance with a unicorn, too!
That may be even more fun than when I danced with Rum Tum Tugger when "CATS" was in Savannah, back in... 2001? 2002?
Whenever it was, I will always remember him coming into the audience and reaching out his paw for -me- to join him in a twirl or two... magical!
Now, in honor of this being the official First Day Of Summer, I'm going to stroll over to youtube to unearth the perfect song. That would be Peter Frampton's "I Wanna Go To The Sun", folks. Nothing feels better on a hot day than a little blues in the air!
Excuse me while a little dance break... and, as George Bernard Shaw said, "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."
Don't grow old... just older!

having a ball with Mister Willie!

... and I meant that quite literally!
Why does the man have a beach ball in his hands at a baseball game?
Well, you have to recall that going to a Savannah Bananas game is akin to "a circus [where] a baseball game broke out."
Ryan Flores sure did nail that one!
Here, Willie managed to grab some of the fun and is looking for a kid to receive his throw -
and he found one, about six rows down from his seat!

(This photo turned out amazingly well, considering I just pointed my whited-out screen in his direction and clicked the button. My SIM card is at fault and I have not replaced it because I don't want to redo my phone book. Hooray for serendipity and fortunate circumstances... and a couple of years of practice of shooting blind!)

That photo was taken around actual game time.
This particular one was taken much earlier -
like, two hours earlier.
Why was I there so early on a Tuesday?
I had agreed to chauffeur Mister Willie for the game
and he prefers to arrive very early, to hobnob
with the staff and the ballplayers.
I call this "five o'clock shadow" -
a little inside joke, a pun, if you will.
(smile)

Now the darkened image thrown by Grayson Stadium upon the field has grown appreciably, and only in an hour's time!
Thus, this is the six o'clock shadow.
There's a lesson to be gleaned from this image -
the front of the stadium faces west.
That keeps the sun from being in the players' eyes
when they're trying to catch high-flying balls!
(smile)

Here's the seven o'clock shadow, confirming the theory that I proposed above.
The players are all lined up for "The Star-Spangled Banner" and those in the infield are almost totally protected by the building's edifice from being blinded
by the light.
(Pardon, but I needed a time-out for fun! After all,
it's summertime and school is o-u-t!
Can I get an 'Amen, sister"? Hallelujah!)

Alrighty then, back to the ballfield orientation talk.
By 8 PM, when Clay Dungan dinged the ball far enough into left center field to allow two runners to attain the safety of home plate, the entire field was in the stadium's cool shadow.
That made the Bananas' score "5" in the 4th inning.
The Lexington County Blowfish got their only run in the 5th inning, losing the game by four runs.

I credit Mister Willie's lucky yellow socks for the win.
As I recall, the last time he wore this footwear,
the boys of summer emerged from the game as victors -
that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Come to think of it, that game had been against the Blowfish, too!
I guess I'll have to make sure he's wearing this apparel for the next outing the home team has with these particular foes.
(smile!)

This was the photo that gave Willie pause.
He had just hollered "Settle down, pitcher", followed by the "Talk to him, catcher" advice...
and turned to see me take this shot.
"What do you do with all those pictures you take?"
"Well," I told him, "I entertain myself with them."
Most assuredly, I do, especially by including them into the postings sent sailing into the ether, like messages in a bottle... or like the many letters I would write home to Mama, regaling her with my adventures abroad,

Including numbered photographs to attend the descriptive passages and my impressions of events.
Please realize that I did such writings for others, too, but Mama was the primary recipient.
I loved sharing my life in a form that could be held in her hands after being held in mine...
neither of us felt quite so far away from each other.
Back on topic, this would be the "nine o'clock shadow", with the sun almost gone and the field lights on.

What else did I commit to still life?
Well, as I was there so very early, I was treated to batting practice, with the boys clad in only T-shirts
and shorts.
That was fun!

What was more fun was watching the five designated dancers practicing their moves!
The song was Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" -
love that one!!!
I was able to enjoy part of it over and over and over as these young men perfected their choreography -
yeah!

I was also treated to the practice of the Bananas Pep Band, seen here venturing onto the catwalk.
How marvelous to have music above my head!

And did I happen to mention that today was
"Bark in the Park"?
Well, it was!
Only thing is, I kept referring to it as
"dog day afternoon",
but with a healthy dose of mirth!

The mirth continued throughout the game,
to the 8th inning's cleaning of the bases
and right on to the end!
By the way, today marked the birthday of
this little French maid -
such a shame for her to be working, n'est-ce pas?
(sourire)

And what have we here?
The flag of this country I call mine,
the land of the free
and the home of the brave,
flying proudly in the face of a cooling breeze.
Nice...
What a perfect ending for the night.
I'm so glad I could bear witness to it all.
i thank You, God.

a day with Dood

What a wonderful day I've had!
Even though it began with no coffee and ridiculously early - for me, at least -
I have had a wonderful time in the company of my youngest brother!
What did we do?
Well, we went to the grocery store, so I could have milk for my coffee.
Then, we went to my house, so I could have coffee... and breakfast.
(smile)
What did he do?
He started working on the removal of the little squirrel-planted trees in my yard.
Then he worked at mowing my front yard and back yard.
I helped with that, having gotten fueled up for such activity at last.
He moved on to trimming the huge branches from my neighbor's tree.
What an enormous task!
I helped lug and carry the yard trash to the front to pile by the curb...
and pile by the curb...
over and over, as I have done in the past.
He had thought he would be doing all of that by himself and was thrilled by my help.
After all, both of us are older now -
those trips between the back yard and the front yard got slower and slower...
until, finally, after more than four hours, we called it a day.
Whew!
After a bit of lunch, we headed to the short film festival!
He had never been to such a thing and so I had expected to pay his way...
no, he only let me pay part of the cost.
Then, he bought me a soda - very nice!
He stayed right through the whole Q & A session, too.
(smile)
Then, we left for dinner (his treat at Wendy's!) and discussion of the films -
very nice!
After the food, the efforts of the day - and his 60-hour work week - had him ready to call it a night and go home.
Now, I've returned home to this sight.

What a huge pile pf branches and small trees and thorny vines!
How incredible that we moved that amount of wood and leaves today.
Even more incredible was the view from my driveway into my back yard.

I could clearly see the trellis and all of my shed!
Honestly, I cannot recall a time when I could say that...
and I've lived in this house for almost seventeen years.
Wow.
I'm looking forward to him and Laura and her son moving in to my mother's old house, just seven houses down.
He'll truly be coming home in just another few months.
Dinners together and future times to be shared...
yes, it's good to have my youngest brother starting his new life right here.

i thank You, God.
Please continue to give him strength these next few years.

48 hours, part 2

What a delightful afternoon it was, made even more so by the presence of my youngest brother by my side at the Savannah Film Company!
This Fathers Day coincided with my viewing of the second block of shorts made for the 2018 Savannah 48hr Film Project. (I saw the front nine on Thursday. Why the golf lingo? Why not!)

Referred to Group B, here is the screening order.
* Odd Lot Improv, "Noir Baby"
* 21 Nuke Salute, "Legend of Sixkiller"
* Argyle Forest Films, "Music Theory"
* Dapper Dog Films, "The Interloper"
* Irish Wolves, "The Lies"
- - intermission - -
* Gored by Rhinos Productions, "Ripples"
* Dorky Puppy Productions, "Stealers of The Lost"
* The Moment After Productions, "Chello"
* Killer Fish Productions, "Bias"

I really wanted "Noir Baby" to be my favorite, I really did... especially as it was noir, done as Odd Lot knows how. However, the sound was muddy at the beginning, for the Tina Chello dame in distress - and that threw me off. Then, I didn't care much for the story line of child trafficking - nope, didn't like it. I especially didn't like seeing Justin's son and the Soucyman's daughter in bondage. Nope. (Kindly bear in mind that I walked out on "The Children Of The Corn", back in 1984, because of the killing of children. That's the only movie I've ever left within the first fifteen minutes.) Other than that, great music, great black & white cinematography of this town I hold dear, great twist at the very end!

This western, "The Legend of Sixkiller", was definitely a favorite! It actually blended science fiction into its mix, with Melanie Goldey showing up as a time-traveling bounty hunter - hilarious! Hey, as Sixkiller himself said as he hightailed it on outta there, "Any time you can walk away from a gunfight, you know it's going to be a great day!" I know Mister Willie would agree!

"Music Theory" was a very good film about a widower who took over the teaching of his wife's class of non-traditional students. Backstory was given for several of the characters, with much growth during their second chances at life, culminating in a song with personalized verses - so it was almost a musical!
Kudos, y'all!
And kudos, too, for daring to be involved in two simultaneous 48hr Film Projects! That involved some mighty fancy footwork between here and Jacksonville, but they seemed to have performed the moves flawlessly, a pair of pliers in one hand and a wrench in the other. Wow!

Billed as a mash-up of film de femme and vacation/holiday, "The Interloper" pitted a woman the daughters liked versus a woman their widower dad liked.
One had been the mom's best friend; the other, Tina Chello, may have been found on a "Russian brides" site.
The women had each been invited by a different party to the lake house for the 4th of July, neither knowing of each other and both having to work without a net to keep the peace in the family.
How very nice that they managed to sort things out!
I recognized the two women from the Tybee Arts playhouse!
Very lovely cinematography of the marshes, too.

"The Lies" was not really to my taste, even though it was spy/espionage, another favorite genre.
That's partly because it had a horrific character with zero backstory, but also because it was plagued by very muddy dialogue in quite a few places.
The story was a bi t disjo inted,t oo.
(See how aggravating that is?
I'll stay tuned in to this group of youngsters -
they have plenty more time to get it right.
(smile)

Time for intermission!
Let's all go to the lobby,
let's all go to the lobby,
let's all go to the lobby,
and get ourselves some eats!
Or something like that - lol!
*
I won a T-shirt and tote (for a defunct film festival)!
*

"Ripples" featured 'Jessica Savannah' in two roles, though we don't find out that's the case until the end.
The film opens with a disgruntled Tina Chello, raging into an army surplus store and accusing the owner of unspeakable acts against her family, years ago, in Saigon. That scene closes with a gun shot.
Flash forward to a public library. A woman looks like Tina Chello having a good day strolls in. Suddenly, panic breaks out, an off-duty police officer draws his gun, and... well, click the link and see!
Very good story, especially for a first-timer!

"Stealers of the Lost" was an absolutely delightful romp! Part fantasy, part spy/espionage, definite comedy
I couldn't help but see echoes of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the characters of Thomas and Tina Chello -
"No relation", as they were quick to tell us!
They were the only humans in a world populated by three-headed dragons, the Easter Bunny, and a fairy store keeper, among others.
What a delight!
Hopefully, I'll find a video link soon...

So, "Chello" is billed as a road movie, but I prefer to consider it vacation/holiday mashed with horror comedy.
Hear me out, please.
What if Riff Raff and Magenta - the other-worldly butler and housemaid for Dr. Frank N. Furter - returned to this planet for a bit of rest and recreation?
Now, what if their idea of good times continued to be death and destruction all around?
And what if they needed updated aliases for their travel?
Well, then you would have the Chello siblings portrayed here!
Seriously, look for their heads touching and tell me I'm wrong!
Loved it!

Honestly, this last one of the day - much like the last one of the Thursday slate - was my favorite.
"Bias", done partly in black & white, was a silent film and drama, opening with six witnesses to the gas chamber death of a murderer.
As the flashbacks proceed, we begin to mistrust that justice is being served...
follow the tattoo of the musical instrument, y'all!
Stunning indictment of preconceptions holding sway over facts.
Very well done, very well, indeed!

So, that's a wrap, folks! Tony and I left after the Q & A session, seeking dinner and discussion of our own about the afternoon's stories.
What a perfect ending to our day together!
I'll have to stay tuned so I can let him know which films won awards...
(smile)