I also bought a media reader so that I could download pictures from my computer faster, but I'm missing some piece of software to make it work right, so to download pictures from my camera to my CPU takes a long time. It's frustrating.

Anyway, I was doing all this and before I knew it, it was time to head to the Dobie for the screening of Korey Coleman's film "2am." I had thought about trying to get to "The Notorious Betty Page" at the Alamo, but that would have meant leaving right from work to get down there and stand in line for over an hour and I just didn't want to deal with the hassle. Why wasn't this movie shown at the Paramount? It's coming out in a few weeks anyway and will play at the Dobie, so I'll see it then.

Korey is the host of a local cable access TV show where they review movies called "The Real Deal." This used to run directly before Lube TV on Wednesday nights (we made sure we had them as a lead in because it is a popular show) but I haven't seen it lately. I wonder if they are on at a different time or a different channel now. Korey is also an animator and used to have a comic strip in the local paper here.

I got to the Dobie, parked and got inside the mall. I made my way to the door, there was no line and I assumed everyone was already inside. As I walked in, Korey was walking out and said "Hello Lodger." I see Korey and his co-host Martin at film previews at times and they are always nice and friendly to me. I got inside and saw a lot of the "Reel Deal" flunkies inside. Martin and Korey always seem to have 2 or 3 other people on the show with them.

The showing was in the Egyptian Room at the Dobie, which has the most seats but is the most unusual screening room. There is a big support pole in the center of the theater and in order to get as many seats as possible in there, apparently, they have angles the rows of seats on either side of the pole and, in effect, not a single seat directly faces the screen. The place was packed too, which always makes for an uncomfortable time. I was in the second row and there were two guys in the front row but off to the side. Before the movie started a guy who was apparently their friend and LITERALLY as big as an ox sat beside them. He was one seat over from me and his head and shoulder framed the left lower corner of the screen so I could just see it clearly by a mileometer.

Korey got up and introduced the film and said he was really nervous about the screening but the big turn out had made him feel better. He said there would be a Q&A after and left the stage and the lights went down and the big lummox in the front row moved over one seat (why?) and sat right in front of me. Kate Pierson of the B-52's with a beehive hairdo would have been less of a brick wall to look through. I said, "What are you doing to me, man," out loud and the guy turned around and said, "Sorry," and then sat there. WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE. Listen! If you're as big as a fucking house, don't sit in front of a short person at a movie theater. Especially the Dobie!

What a fucking dumbass. Luckily, there was a seat next to me, so I moved over next to some poor little skinny girl and I could see the screen again. I should fucking got up and kicked that fucking Goliath in the shin.

This was apparently an omen because for the next six days of the festival, I saw only one good film. The Lummox and "2am" were equally bothersome. "Americanese" later in the evening was also quite bad but more about that later.

Korey was nervous during the screening, or so he claimed during the Q&A after "2am." "I almost left, I was so nervous," he told us. After questions from the audience, he told the crowd it took 5 years to make the film ("you can see my afro change"), that it was shot on an XL-1, that the first cut was two and a half hours (it now runs 98 minutes) and that the initial read through with the cast was 3 hours long.

I walked to my car in order to head to the Alamo Downtown for the 9:15 screening of "Americanese. I had thought about going to the Paramount to see Heaven's Fall, which had some name actors in it, but opted to stick to my original schedule instead. I noticed that the moon was pretty much full. I thought about how much my friend Johnny Oh! lets the full moon affect his mood. It's so psychosomatic. It's like he needs an excuse to feel melancholy and he has to wait a whole cycle of the moon to express this. It's kinda sad and yet really irritating.

I got over to the Alamo, waiting in line while listening to idiotic conversations. There were a lot of Asians at this screening because it was a piece about Asian-Americans. I went in and sat in the third row and order a Woodchuck. The Alamo does not sell my two favorite items anymore. It really pisses me off. They don't have Hard Core Cider anymore, just Woodchuck, which is livable. Woodchuck isn't as hard as Hard Core but it is tasty. They also don't have Blue Hawaii pizzas anymore. UGH! The Blue Hawaii is just Canadian bacon and pineapple. I never order that at any other pizza place, but I just loved having it at the Alamo. I don't know why they changed it. Maybe they didn't sell very many. I like things nobody else likes, that's for sure.

Anyway, after sitting there inside and cruising some cute young Asian guys, I sat attentively as the director got up and made some opening comments. He told us that he was Asian-American and there were many other "specimens" of these people in his film which we could look for. I didn't stay for the Q&A after the film, it was so boring. I had to get up early the next morning and I was sleepy, so I went home and went right to bed.

Lodger @ SXSW2006