...aaaaaaaannd CUT!

A side note:  I was recently greeted in the morning by Miki, as I rolled out of bed with, "Is that you or the dogs?"  I have been carrying it around with me since and need to release it, so thank you for listening.

I guess Miki thinks the 3 of us have something in common.

Traverse City Film Festival

This week marked the 7th annual Traverse City Film Festival and it was not hard to see the city was excited about it.  Signs were posted, tents were being erected in Clinch Park (a city park by the lake beach area), along with a giant inflatable screen for evening movies like The Dark Night.  While shopping with Miki and her mom one day, we found a women's clothing store window, that some creative person with some time on their hands, took film festival fever even farther into the world of fashion.

Made from cardboard popcorn boxes and tubs.

Strips of movie stuff, woven together.

And yes, real candy boxes.

How it all works, is that you go online or get a paper that has all the movies, times, and locations (and cost).  Buy your tickets and go.  There are places all around town that have been set up to house the viewing, from regular theaters to school auditoriums to giant inflatable screens as mentioned before.  There are educational opportunities and forums for discussion.  You may even run into Michael Moore.

Miki's sister, Gail, bought us all tickets to our first official TCFF viewing.  It was a series of 11 "shorts" for kids, although the adults appreciated them too.  There was a musical family entertaining us with music prior to the start.  

After 90 minutes of animation creations, we had been broken in to the world of film festing, along with a butt load of kids (some of which didn't appreciate the sadder or scarier parts and showed it with tears of  disapproval).

This was an illegally obtained photo taken during
"Michelle the Snail with Shoes," one of the  more humorous and short
animated shorts for kids.  She is just to the lower left of the Coke...with pink shoes.

With our initiation completed, Miki set out to select our next film for us to venture out on.  This time we would be alone, without the savvy of her older sister looking out for us (me).  Had I only known what was ahead.  Being the supportive husband I am, whatever she wanted to see was fine with me.  The first red flag was raised when she mentioned subtitles.  Oh well, I can do anything for 90 minutes (well... a lot of things anyway).  Flag #2 was raised when she mentioned it was set in Iran.  Not only did I have to read a lot, but it was going to sound angry too.  That's okay.  I know Miki likes a good foreign film now and again and this will carry me for awhile.  It was to be centered around a little girl and the word balloon was in the title...I'm good.  We arrived at the viewing, to an old building that was once a theater and a packed house...good sign, right?  When the beginning credits started to roll and all I saw was what looked to me like some type of Arabic, Sanskrit, turkey scratch - whatever, my anxiety began to rise.  And it didn't help to see that it appeared to be an older movie, when the guys had Travolta hair from Saturday Night Fever.  There was not a lot to read the first few minutes, so all was okay, but then the tone was set.  Every scene (to me) was drawn out way too long and my interest began waning...and we just got started.  But I was a good boy, even though I got to the point where I was wishing for someone to force my eyelids open and pour salt on my eyes, then wash each grain out with bleach.  Afterwards while we walked to the car, we did discuss how loudly it sucked and that she owed me in a major way.  I won't even tell you what it was about.  I'm afraid I'll start writing in an angry, Iranian way.


To get grounded again in my world, we drove up the coast to a light house and saw wine and orchard country.

Cherries are huge around here...not literally, but they are a major deal.

A vineyard, one of many, many, many.

The lighthouse at the northern tip of the peninsula
that splits the Grand Traverse Bay.

Stopped to get some picnic food and we ate on the beach by the
lighthouse, along with some feathered friends Miki made.

I became fascinated by a feather floating on the water, as it passed
us while eating lunch.  Kind of like a foreign film, but without
subtitles.

Enjoying another "slice of our pie."

We ended our day with another visit to Interlochen and listened to a faculty jazz ensemble with Miki's parents.  I cannot tell you how good they were...let's just say they were not an Iranian, subtitled film.


My Zen from the Road:  The foreign film described above was kind of like the show Seinfeld.    It was a lot about nothing.  The only difference was, I liked Seinfeld.  But you know, there were a lot of people at the end of the movie that seemed to like it, cause they really applauded (but so did I!...maybe for different reasons).  The nice thing about it all...different strokes for different folks...its all good!