End of July, 2005

Worked on the lumberjack thing some during the week and took some firewood north. Checked on marina, brought family south, got CA a ticket for the Duke City Shoot-Out Digital Film Festival, which we all attended.

Philee & Jerry and the editing crew overcame a huge MacIntosh--computer-related disaster well enough to win the audience favorite film and best actor prizes for Pirates. We saw plenty of nifty short films. There was some disorganization or some technical problems, so the show started about a half hour late and organizers gave up on reserved seating.

One gripe: Flanking the lectern to either side of the announcers were freakin' fake Saguaro cacti. Where did whoever did this think they were, Tucson? I can't imagine a native New Mexican set dresser doing something so dumb. Sure, someone might come up with the lamebrain lazy-butt excuse, "We were trying for a general southwest ambience" and it doesn't matter that saguaros don't grow within a few hundred miles of Albuquerque.

Yeah, right. And when we dress the motion picture academy set at the next Academy Awards, we'll be sure to include the coast redwoods illustrated in their native San Diego habitat, photos of Joshua trees digitally superimposed on Melrose Avenue, the giant Sequoias shown in their home of Catalina Island, eucalyptus trees growing on Half Dome, and Monterey Cypress trees pictured thriving in Palm Springs for a "General California ambience" and see how folks like it. Freakin' 'zonie saguaros.

We also went to the party after the film and awards ceremony but that was excruciatingly painful. Bought overpriced drinks, stood around for an hour an a half waiting to see if anyone we knew would show up while feeling utterly out of place and mentally kicking ourselves for being idiotic enough to go there. (Not to mention hungry, since we hadn't had anything to eat since lunch -- we gave up on the party at midnight and went to the Frontier, where we saw some folks who'd been at the film ceremony among the large crowd there.)