The FilmFest thing last night turned out to be a lot of fun. The northern couple and I left from their place about 5:30 and got there in about--I'm guessing--an hour. Immediately found Betty and niece and husband, Joan and Jim; not difficult, as the street fair wasn't very heavily attended, I'm afraid. We walked a bit, talked some, ate lightly, and I found an irresistible original sketch of a blonde playing an accordion while tap-dancing. The sentiment on it is: "The desire to perform isn't necessarily a sign of talent." HAD to buy--twenty bucks--especially as the artist's name is David Byrne (my maiden name)--must have been meant to be (heh).
The one-minute films didn't start until 9:00 and lasted until 10:30, but it seemed a shorter time, as the large majority were very entertaining. There were some dogs, of course, but overall, it was a good show. Stayed over up north, but drove home early.
That's the thing about a one-minute movie: If one is boring or pointless, you know you don't have to endure it for long.* (That's unlike Larry Crowne, a ninety-minute exercise in tedium, sez this Hanks fan.)
*I'm convinced of the truth of Neil Postman's belief that television, in particular, and the other speed-up entities of modern life, have led to the general inability to concentrate as long or as intensely as our antecedents did. Postman taught at NYU, wrote several books, including Amusing Ourselves To Death," in which he elaborated on the idea above. (I met him at Rider when he spoke there about fifteen years ago. He died in 2003.) Here's what he said in a speech in a 1990 speech in Germany:
"Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one's status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it." He added, "...what started out as a liberating stream has turned into a deluge of chaos."
And this was twenty-one years ago, before the surge of computers and smart phones!