In the almost two months I have been driving Dakota it’s like I’ve become inducted into a secret society. 4/5ths of the time when I spot another New Beetle on the road warm greetings result. If it’s opposing traffic it’s usually flashing fog lights or high beams and a wave. Meeting up with one in the same direction is almost always a smile and a wave, sometimes a peace sign. Last month on a trip to St. Petersburg I came up to a girl in a Techno Blue New Beetle on the interstate and we ended up carabugging most of the way down I-275. Midway across the Howard Franklin Bridge we came up to a Cyber Green NB who joined in. We went our separate ways at the Hwy 682 split but it made my day.
It’s also a game to try and park next to another Beetle in a parking lot. My record so far is 3 side-by-side. It’s especially fun when I can park nose to nose with one so it looks like they are smooching! I like to think the owner of the other Beetle gets as much joy out of seeing mine as I do theirs.
Oh, and watching kids in the back seat of a car next to me punch the crap out of each other when they see me gives me fuzzies, too.
The film list for the 2007 16th Annual Florida Film Festival finally went up this week, and there are some real gems I’m looking forward to seeing. I was hoping Hounddog would make a presence, but the top of the must see list for me is the anime film Paprika. If you haven’t heard about it, the film is directed by Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress) with an awesome music score by Susumu Hirasawa (they actually used Susumu’s music in the trailer! amazing!). The plot looks rather thin–based around a machine that can enter ones dreams–and certainly just an vehicle for Satoshi Kon’s typically amazing dream sequences. It’s the animation that shines here, as well as an all-star vocal cast.
Another must see for me is Snow Cake, a Marc Evans film starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.
Alex Hughes, recently freed from prison, begrudgingly picks up a vivacious 19-year-old hitchhiker, Vivienne, while driving through Ontario. When the car is hit by a truck on the outskirts of her home town, Vivienne dies instantly. Shocked and stranded in snowbound Wawa, Alex is drawn to seek out Vivienne’s mother, to talk to her in person about the fate of her daughter
Finally, I really want to see In the Shadow of the Moon. A documentary by David Signton that won the Audience Award at Sundance this year. It brings together the surviving crew members of the Apollo missions to tell their stories interweaved with some awesome archive footage.
Hopefully I have good luck getting in on some single tickets when they go on sale next Friday.
An excellent interview with Barack Obama from November 2002, before the preemptive invasion of Iraq. I wonder how many of the senators who voted on the resolution had this level of understanding on the different factions at play and the impact going in would have.