Okay, so we made it to Philadelphia. It was a long drive, but I only almost killed us once, so that's good. We're staying at the downtown Marriott in Center City. We're on the 14th floor and we can see Philadelphia's historic City Hall from our room. I know I've seen this building in some Philadelphia-set movie, but I can't remember which one(s). 12 Monkeys? Any ideas?
Emily and I were hungry when we got into town, but it was getting late and the fondue joint across from the hotel was closing as we tried to get in. So we asked the concierge and she recommended a place called the Veal Cafe or something like that. I said, basically, "we're vegetarians, so is there someplace that's open that doesn't have the word "veal" in the name?" So she sent us to the Caribou Cafe. Seriously. Fortunately, it was de-lish.
On our way to the restaurant, we passed Philadelphia's famous Cockroach Plaza -- or so we assumed when we saw this! For some reason, just this one particular granite building was COVERED in roaches. Buildings adjacent to this one appeared to be roach-free upon casual inspection.
Now I'm in the hotel bar sampling some local-ish beer and doing my blog thing. Emily is upstairs in our room seeking out soccer before falling into some much-needed sleep. Tomorrow, after I clear up a little banking snafu, I'll check in at the film festival HQ and we'll do some sight-seeing.
Speaking of the film festival, I'm getting a little nervous about my interview on Sunday with Devo co-founder Gerald Casale. I found this item about the event on the PIFF blog...
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Gerald is a visualist with an eye for comedy, offers the double-barreled punch of a veteran craftsman’s experience fused to a fresh, quirky, post-modern sensibility and will use his talent in critiquing selected films and providing valuable to feedback [sic] through interaction and dialogue with filmmakers. When asked about speaking to filmmakers, Gerald says, "Life is too short for one bad short".
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If Casale is saying that "life is too short for one bad short" from the perspective of the viewer, I suppose I would agree, but how busy are you that you can't spend an occasional 10 minutes of your time watching a not-so-great short film? But if Casale is saying filmmakers shouldn't waste their time making bad shorts, I actually think the exact opposite is true. The only way for filmmakers to get good at their craft is by making lots of films -- and that probably means making some dogs. Actually, Ira Glass says this better than I ever could in this short YouTube clip, in which he doles out some incredibly valuable advice to filmmakers. Basically, he says don't sweat your bad stuff. We all make bad stuff at first -- even the greats. The point is to not get discouraged by your inability to be great right out of the box. If you can keep making films and telling stories, eventually your chops will catch up to your vision of what you know your films should be.
Okay, time for some sleep. It's going to be 94 degrees and humid tomorrow. w00t!