Blue Screen Avoidance

I refer to the internet as something inherently pornographic; this speaks volumes about my technical savvy. And yet, tonight at the Horror Film Kabaret, I found myself, with François at my side, a technical director for the evening's screening. This involved pushing play and stop, ejecting tapes, avoiding the blue screen (very important to my favorite Belgian), and drinking a little Molson Dry. I was a bit terrified of the task. If one makes an error, there are 250 spirited spectators to run at you with torches and boos. But the task was hands down better than selling t-shirts in the lobby or checking coats. And I sat there with the line-up, and tapes cued up, and I thought, I could really do this for life. In addition to my experience at the Telluride Film Festival and the Wisconsin Film Festival, tonight provided me with a new side of event planning, and I wasn't suprised one bit at how much I enjoyed myself (especially when the night ended with me giving a Belgian high-fives!).

In other news, in eighteen days I will be in Nebraska, and in two and a half months, my dear friends Julia and Zoe, fellow camarades from my Masters program, will move to Montreal for internships. Both countdowns have me thinking a bit. Have I been here long enough to make the adjusting strange? When I return for my grandmther's wedding over Thanksgiving, will I order "un café" at Starbucks? Will I say "excusez-moi" when I run into the old woman in the toilet paper aisle at Russ's? Most of me hopes that I've been immersed enough that the transition back home is strange, and perhaps not just on a linguistic level. Part of me finds myself territorial about my space and my solitude my experiences and my new city. As marvelous as it will inevitably be to see Z and J, I'm wondering, strangely, if I'll exhibit territorial tendencies in an attempt to protect what I've discovered, carved out, and created for myself. All these changes do get one thinking about where one wants to be and who one wants to be with and how solitary one is, etc. All this to say that life has been pretty grand, especially these past two weeks. The job, though not always pleasant, has gotten increasingly better. François has made a series of films about a character named Jordy Jordan who has little adventures with pilots in Laos. This is but a small reminder that I'm doing better than I had initially imagined. And I hope you're all well too!