I realize that this may sound shocking for a 36-year-old film geek, but I had never seen a modern movie theater projection room until this morning.
I don’t know what I expected; some part of me had retained an image of an old-fashioned projection booth, a small and musty cube containing a big projector with reels of film on it. I knew about the platters used instead of reels nowadays, I’ve seen photos of platters, but I guess I didn’t put it all together. My brain was still stuck in Cinema Paradiso or Sherlock Jr.
I signed up for some volunteer shifts for aGLIFF to monitor the digital projection setup; most of the festival’s movies will be digitally projected this year. A bunch of us met in the theater this morning to learn what we would be doing. We walked upstairs and I found myself in a much larger room than I expected. It looked like the engineering room in a television station where I used to work.
Author: jette
what’s bred in the bone
I can write for hours about how my family is doing, about how my sister’s roof damage and my brother’s work in Houston and my grandparents feeling lonely in Alabama and wanting to at least go to Baton Rouge for awhile … and so on, and so on. I can recount any number of silly conversations with them.
What’s difficult for me to write about is how I have felt about the recent disaster and how I dealt with it … or didn’t. I can tell you this: however bad you think it might be, if you haven’t ever experienced your hometown being devastated and nearly destroyed, it’s gonna be a whole lot worse. I had imagined the possibility, because every year someone would predict terrible things happening to New Orleans if a hurricane ever hit it outright. But I was never, ever prepared for what actually happened, particularly regarding the survivors left in New Orleans. The Superdome is essentially ruined for me as any kind of event center; it’s a symbol now.
waiting for my charbroiled oysters
I couldn’t resist sharing this bit of news from the Times-Picayune weblog. Drago’s is the restaurant where my family has always held big important dinners and reunions and things, even after they shut down their private dining room:
“Already back in business Tuesday was Drago’s, the Fat City oyster house. Though none of the 140 sacks of oysters that were in the restaurant’s refrigerator before the storm survived the recent electricity loss, its owners used propane to heat 1,300 meals of pasta, chicken and sausage since Monday for relief workers and returning neighbors.
“Tommy Cvitanovich, who runs a restaurant with his parents, said the donation was the least his family could do after a storm that ravaged so many restaurants, especially in New Orleans, but left his with only temporary loss of power and water.”
Also, Drago’s has the best charbroiled oysters in the universe. I don’t even like oysters and I can’t get enough. I am so happy to see Tommy out there getting everything going again and feeding everyone. My only worry is that my parents may go back to Metairie before they should, figuring that if Drago’s is open, everything is okay.
Sometimes it’s the smallest bits of news that get you choked up … you know … even though you’re not sure why. And no, it’s not because I’m mourning 140 sacks of potential charbroiled oysters, either.
Southern hospitality
I have been amazed and pleased with so many people last week. Two people emailed me and offered space in their Austin-area homes for my family, if my family wanted to stay in Austin. All kinds of people have emailed, phoned, or stopped by my desk at work to ask how my family is doing, do we need anything, etc. My hairdresser even called. People have been buying my t-shirts, some of them people I don’t know. Links to the t-shirt site are appearing all over the place.
(Feel free to link or to email the link to anyone you like, by the way. Someone asked me about that and I wanted to make sure it was clear that the more the merrier.)
The Red Cross chapter in Austin is taking applications for volunteers … they have more than they need at the moment. Hopefully when they call the rest of us in a couple of weeks, we’ll still be eager to help. Austinites have donated tons of clothes and shoes and food and anything else they can. Businesses are pitching in too.
a little something
I applied to volunteer with the Red Cross on Sunday but it might be a short while before they need my help. While I was there, I saw about a dozen other people also applying. I think it is fabulous that they have more people than they can use at the moment. I’ll bet they will need help for awhile, so I’ll wait.
But I wanted to do a little something. Obviously, hurricane relief organizations need money most of all. So I designed a CafePress shirt, which looks very spiffy. I will donate all the money from the sales of the shirt to the American Red Cross.
I would like to thank the cinetrix for inspiring the “second line” theme of the shirt in this entry. My boyfriend and I already ordered a couple of shirts for ourselves because they are pretty cool looking, if I say so myself. My boyfriend owns a few other CafePress-manufactured shirts and they appear to be holding up quite well (at least as well as the stuff I buy from Old Navy). I used a high-res PNG image file so I’m hoping the shrit graphics will look nice and crisp.
You can see (and buy) the shirts here. I also made some buttons and magnets.
If you want to buy a different type of shirt, email me and I’ll add it to the selection. Feel free to steal the graphic for the t-shirt from my sidebar and post it with a link to the CafePress shop, or just post the link anywhere you like.
Here are some links to Web pages about second lines: FrenchQuarter.com, Mardi Gras Digest, and nola.com.
Anyway, hope you like the shirt. If you don’t, um, don’t buy one.
refugees
I can’t do any clever writing tonight. Just the facts. Let’s see. Where were we.
My married brother lost his job because the Catholic high school where he worked is under six feet of water and won’t open before January. In January they’ll need him, but in the meantime he is having to look for work where he is now. Fortunately he is a teacher and teachers are in demand right now, to handle the overflow of refugee students, so I think he’ll be fine. I haven’t been able to talk to him yet. His houses are in an area that appears not to have flooded badly.
My sister’s ex-husband was kind enough to drive by her North Shore house and then let her know that a tree fell smack into the roof. She’s mad because he didn’t put a tarp over the hole or anything, but he’s about as handy as I am so I can’t blame him. However, every day it rains, my sister is worried her stuff is being ruined, and she’s frustrated because she can’t do a damn thing about it. Yeah, it’s only stuff, but when you’re an underpaid teacher and a single mom, money is tight and how are you going to replace all of that? Not to mention the unreplaceable items.
New Orleans is hurting and so am I
My sister called me at work today. “I’ve got to talk to you right now. This is an emergency.”
I froze. “Oh my god, what?”
“We need the recipe for fudge that we always use.”
Later, I had a talk with my mom where I asked that no one use terms like “emergency” right now unless they really meant them. Our family does have some serious chocolate love, but needing fudge still does not qualify as an emergency.
“I’ve got Na Na’s fudge recipe at home. When I get home I’ll call you with it.”
“No, we need the recipe for the one with the chocolate chips and the little bitty marshmallows. We bought the ingredients already.”
it’s not easy having a good time
I was originally going to use the title “I can’t take any more” but my brain followed it up with “My God, I can’t take any more of this. First, you dump me for Eddie. Then you cast him off like an old overcoat for Rocky. You’re like a sponge … you just take, take, take and drain others of their love and emotion. Well, I’ve had enough. You’ve got to choose between me and Rocky, so named for the rocks in his head.” (The next line in the film is the title of this entry.)
At which point I wondered exactly how many times I’d seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, back in the day. Damn. I can’t remember whether “datalogging” is supposed to be one word when we use it in documentation at the office, but I have total recall of the trivial.
But then I remembered Sena Mall Theater in New Orleans (where Rocky Horror played for many years) and even though it’s a wine cellar now, it still reminded me of what’s going on there right now. Of what’s being predicted for the city in the next 24 hours when Hurricane Katrina comes to town.
not dead yet
Not resting, either, but not dead. In case y’all were wondering.
Remember when I said that the crunch time at my day job would end around August 12? Imagine a hollow laugh at the thought. We’ve got at least two more crazy weeks over here.
Plus, I am still getting used to budgeting time for posting at Cinematical, although that’s turning out to be a lot of fun. Of course I recommend reading the whole site, because I’m only one of a dozen or so bloggers sharing all kinds of news and commentary, but if you wanted to see what I personally have contributed so far, you can look here.
And I’m finishing up some volunteer work that’s taking a lot of time this week, although I expect the bulk of that work to end by Monday.
Meanwhile, I am deciding whether I want to see two movies this weekend that I have been waiting ages and ages (years, in one case) to see: The Aristocrats and The Brothers Grimm. Maybe I should ration them out. I’ve been hearing that the Terry Gilliam movie has been getting some negative reviews, but I suspect that critics’ expectations are high since it’s been seven years since he’s had a movie in theaters. (Lost in La Mancha doesn’t exactly count.) I’m in denial about the possibility of the film’s being a dog.
oh goody, we’re going to talk about me
And the news is good: I am now posting items at Cinematical, a weblog that provides commentary on all aspects of film news, reviews, and issues. So far I’ve posted only a few tidbits of news because I’m still getting started. I didn’t want to jump in with some crazy story about how my brother blames Christopher Walken on his premature hair loss. I have already managed to mention the Alamo, though. Ultimately I think I will be posting daily over there, depending on my schedule.
I’ll still post occasional Austin-related movie info here, as well as entries that are a little too personal for a film industry-focused weblog, movie reviews, and rants. I may even tell stories about the cat, but only if they are of general interest.
By the way, while we’re discussing my new gig, I’m currently looking for more part-time freelance film-related writing work. Or non-film-related writing/editing work, for that matter. If anyone has any resources or advice they can share, please email me and let me know. I’ll be happy to send you the URL to my online portfolio if you’re seriously interested. I’m not looking for tech writing; I do enough of that during the day. But I would like some paid freelance opportunities for movie reviews, articles, or columns.
[Did everyone recognize the movie quote in the title? If not, go rent The Philadelphia Story.]