I had been listening to the Pet Shop Boys' "Release" CD. I finally snapped that one of the songs on there was about a young male fan having a secret sexual affair with Eminem. Hilarious. It's done so seriously that its just too fucking funny.

When I got to the Arbor this afternoon right before 5pm, I noticed Fox 7 was outside trying to interview people walking up. They were trying to get this young straight couple to talk to them (who declined), so I guess they weren't there to cover Agliff, unless they were doing something anti-gay for Fox News Network.

Inside, I went to the bathroom and noticed that the Arbor has a poster for "THX 1138" with the words "Coming Soon" on it. Guess they're going to re-release that film. I used to know about all this kind of thing because I totally followed Greg Dean Schwartz's "Upcomingmovies.com. But after it got bought out by Yahoo, Greg got sick and the site has been really lacking. He needs an assistant. It's like weeks and weeks not between updates.

I went right in to the theater and found it fairly crowded with a good mix of gays men and lesbians making up the audience for "Family Farm." Before the feature ran, they ran a video trailer for "Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heros" and it looked really bad. It seemed like it might be a little bit of low-budg campy fun (it reminded me of a local film that Michael Dalman did called "The Duo"), but only if one can sit back and accept it for what it is. The trailer went on forever and the sound design was horrible. The shining moments in it were when "Star Trek's" Nichelle Nichols were in it.

After the film, it was 6:30 and almost an hour until the next show. I was meeting Johnny for that one and staying after for some shorts on my own, so I decided I better go grab a bite to eat. On my way through the lobby I grabbed some "Surge" postcards as a souvenir and headed to my car. I was trying to think what was nearby when I noticed the Chik-Fil-A sign and headed that way only to realize, almost too late, that it was Sunday. Fucking Chik-Fil-A closes on Sunday. Fuck giving those religious nuts any money anyway! I veered over to the other lane and turned into the Boston Market parking lot. If I am going to be sinful and eat at a restaurant that's open on the lord's day, it might as well be one where the food tastes like hell anyway. To add to the queasiness, some yuppie fuck couple had a little kid with them that had learned only to scream at the top of his lungs when he wanted something. Children should be quarantined and raised by the state.

Went back to the Arbor in plenty of time to get into the 7:30 movie, a Russian film called "You I Love." Johnny had called and left a message saying he would be running late, as if this were some newsworthy note.

If you buy the expensive membership to Agliff, something in the thousands of dollars range, you get reserved seats and catered concessions. There are two guys who have reserved seats and have them set in the third row center of the theater. This is exactly where I want to sit. They are in almost every movie I want to see. To make matters worse, during this showing, only one guy was there and he was catered to by the cutie I met working the door at the opening night party, Kevin, the "fishing cap wearing boy." Watching the cutie run his little butt off to get this guy a expresso made me so jealous! Worse, Kevin acted like he didn't even see me there.

While we were watching the rotating commercial ads and listening to music, waiting for the movie to begin, they would stop occassionally and run a video trailer for something. On this showing they ran one for the next Agliff sing-along musical, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." Bobette told us about it at the opening night party. It's coming up within the next couple of months here and is going to be at the Dell Jewish Community Center, to which I have never been. There were also trailers for the Agliff films "Yes Nurse No Nurse" (which is apparently being released by Here!, who are also putting out "Straight -Jacket" and for the film "The Politics of Fur," which looks awesome but is running only once, opposite of "Nurse."

I was taking notes, as is my wont during a festival, when the guy in the reserved seats ahead of me turned around and asked me if I was with a newspaper. I told him about the site and gave him a button. We started talking and he was so soft- spoken that I had to move really close to hear him. We talked about films and he told me that he didn't care for "Surge" and that it seemed like a missed opportunity. I had to kind of politely mention that I hadn't seen it before he told me all about it. He also told me he didn't think much of the shorts this year and when I said one of my friends helped program them, he said, "Oh, I'll shut up then," being very gentlemanly.

Johnny showed up just when Mike, the "Print Manager" for Agliff was introducing the film, he was obviously a little nervous but did a fairly good job. Johnny was talking to me, so I missed what he said when he introduced the film's sponsor. As the Agliff trailer started, Johnny whispered, "Remind me to tell you about Sidekicks after the movie" and I wondered what dishy little secrets awaited me. They also ran the John Waters trailer here as well.

The film was prefaced by a short. I will post a look at all the Agliff shorts that I see somewhere towards the end of the festival. The short was in video and when the feature began, it seemed to be in digital video as well. Something was wrong though because the focus during the whole film was not quite right. I've seen this before with films and it usually means that the film is not seated in the projector correctly or that there is something wrong with the lens or how it is set. With digital video though, I have no idea what might cause this other than a bad lens.

After the film, I talked to John for a bit as I watched hottie Kevin walk back and forth in the lobby and totally ignore me. He said that when he went to Sidekicks last night it was a lesbian night to benefit one of the local gay organizations (LGLR or LGLRA or GRLRA or something like that. People think I am so political but I really don't know much about local gay rights organizations). Anyway he told me that my favorite bartender, a skinny, little, scrawny, blonde boy named Robert, who is always nice to me and all the other fat old queens who tip him, was really in a pissy mood because they had him off to the side and he was only selling one special drink, which cost $6.50 and no one was buying them. John talked to him a bit and said that I could have had him all to myself if I had came. This was not happy, fun dish. I was devastated.

While we were talking this random guy came up and said, "Excuse me but are you the filethirteen guy?" and when I said yes he told me he liked the site. John had me give him a button (it's so nice when friends help me not seem like a self-promoter) and I thanked the guy for checking out the site as he thanked me and left. I have been doing the site for five years and, although many people recognize me from day to day for my cable access show, no one has ever just come up and asked me if I was the guy who did filethirteen. It was cool.

John and I talked a little bit more about what we are seeing and when this week and when we would see each other again and got ignored by Kevin some more and then John left and I went into the screening of shorts called "Desperate Living."

There was a good crowd for a program of shorts on a Sunday evening. While we were waiting for the films to start, they ran the "Best Little Whorehouse" trailer again. Then Scott Dinger got up and did his standard intro. Towards the end, he introduced the director of one of the shorts, "Haircut," Bryan Jackson, who had apparently come in from L.A. to be at the screening. Jackson said he would be doing a Q&A after the screening and said he had some t-shirts to give away as an incentive.

I watched the Agliff trailer again and promised myself silently to stop bitching about it on the website. The trailer was again followed by the John Waters clips.

The program began with a 35mm film and the rest were on video. It was odd too because the 35mm short had obviously been shot on video and transferred to film while there were a couple other shorts that were obviously shot on film but screen on video. It cost a lot to transfer a finished cut to 35mm. Almost nobody does it with shorts anymore. The real point here is that the switch was rife with tech probs as the transition from film to video cause the lights to come back up and the sound to be too quiet for a bit of the second short. It is a shame that the techs can't be on top of this to make sure this doesn't happen.

After the screening a few people mulled around to talk to Jackson but I was dead on my feet. I hurried home and hit the sack. Monday morning was not far away and I have to go back to my day job.

Lodger @ Agliff 2004