Sunday night after the festival, I came home and wrote a little and then watched most of the stuff I had taped from TV. Most of the Fox stuff was reruns but there were new episodes of "The War at Home" (which should be required TV viewing for gay guys as the oldest son in the show has a gay best friend who hasn't come out to him yet and, in this episode, the youngest son was talking to his dad about chronic masturbation) and "American Dad." There was also a new "Gray's Anatomy." I don't know why I watch this show. It's kinda dumb and typical. Sandra Oh (No relation to Johnny) is in it and I like her. She used to be married to Alexander Payne but after the success of "Sideways" they filed for divorce. Go figure.

I had to work half a day (the afternoon) and I didn't get to sleep until 7am or so, so I was tired but after work I wrote some more and didn't take a nap. The drive to the Arbor was easy and I got there early, before Johnny Oh! arrived. I saw Brooks, the hottie Arbor employee, inside selling tickets but I was talking with Johnny on my cellie and didn't say hello. After I got off the phone, he looked busy talking to a female employee, so I didn't go up to him. There was a really hot young guy working the ticket table for Agliff and it made me wish I had waited to get my tickets for the night so I could go and talked to him. Oh well.

I went out front instead and sat on a bench facing the Arbor box office. There were some volunteers hanging around but not much of a line. Suddenly I saw Kevin, the hottie, fishing-cap-wearing, Britney-Spears loving volunteer from last year. His look had totally changed. Now he looks like alt_rock boy and has mutton chops. I think he's into drag - both male and female. It's cool that he can gets dressed up into some sort of "stereotypical" male facade as well as female.

John showed up and we talked on the bench for a long time. I had a ticket for "Made in Secret" the night before and didn't feel like going, so I gave it to John. I told him he could just let me know how it was so I could tell the readers of filethirteen about it. Then I decided to send him an e-mail and just ask him to write a short paragraph. He wrote:

"Made in Secret: The Story of the East Van Porn Collective"

"I was fascinated by this documentary - no Kinsey 0's or 6's here! I learned as much about the value of the consensus decision-making process from this group of young Canadians as I did by peering into their exploration of reclaiming sexuality and eroticism for themselves, and pulling it back from the industry "porn hegemony" as they refer to it. By the end of this movie, I was ready to give a hug and at least a French kiss (if not more) to every member of this very cool male/female, gay/bi/straight group. I think I probably have my first crush ever on a butch dyke!

"I don't know what Lodger would have thought of this - but I give it an A+!"

Yeah... I had to get my dictionary out too. Johnny may write a full review of the documentary, so you may want to get your Webster's handy.

I finally went into the movie and Johnny got snacks. Kevin was at the door tearing tickets and he yelled "Lodger!" and gave me a big hug. Wow! Not only did I get a big hug from a real cutie, but he also remembered my name. I was in heaven! We chatted for a second and when I told him that every time I see him his looks are different, the other volunteer there quipped, "Yeah, he downloaded some hair."

This other volunteer was with Kevin when he made announcements before the movie. He introduced himself and the other guy, an attractive young man with a shaved head as "Kevin and Kevin." The other Kevin then said, If you can't remember which is which, I'm the one with better hair." He was saying this cutely, not cruelly. The intro was quick, cute and well-done! '

The feature "Shem" was preceded by a short called "A Tale of Two Balls" which, sadly, wasn't about a guy with a hot pair of testicles but was instead about two beach balls in a swimming pool that floated around each other while a young man read some sort of narrative poetry about two people in a relationship. The film had bad sound and bad music and the kid who did the reading provided about the most non-emotive narration one could imagine. He may as well have been reading the phone book. The film was really a great idea but it was too long and too bland to have worked. If filmmaker Justin James would rerecord the narration and put some decent music behind it, he might have a first rate short. A second short listed in the program, "Porcelain," did not show.

"Shem" wasn't a great film and it was even harder to watch thanks to a bad transfer that occassionally jumped frames.

After the movie, I was having a long talk with Johnny about it when who should I see but our old Agliff buddy Craig. I haven't seen him since Agliff 2004. (I think his picture is on our Day One coverage). Craig was carrying a here! bag, so I knew he had just picked up his badge and tickets. He was with a young, cute guy. They eventually came over and said hello. Craig introduced his friend as Lance (for some reason for the rest of the night I wanted to call him Trevor which is odd since his name is a slang word for "cock" - you'd think I could remember that). Lance was really nice and Craig worked to keep him into our conversation (Emily Post would be so proud). We talked about "Serenity," the "Firefly" movie which I haven't seen yet and then Craig brought up "The Reflective Skin," which is apparently one of Lance's favorite film. I haven't seen it in ages but it is really good. If you like David Lynch, you have to see this film. I would love to see it again. Why hasn't the Alamo Drafthouse scheduled a screening of this?

As we were talking a Agliff volunteer came by and tried to hustle us out of lobby. I couldn't figure this out as there was no one around and we laughed about it and moved over a few feet. Afterwards, during the introduction of the next film when the volunteer mentioned that badge-holders (i.e. members who have paid a hefty fee for a membership - like Craig) got to wait inside in the A/C and non-members had to wait outside where it is less comfortable, I realized that neither Craig nor I had our badges on before the film and the volunteer was trying to scoot the riffraff outside where they belong. Little did he know...

On the way into the theater, I saw Kevin standing in the back leaning over a ledge and his cute little butt looked so nice I just had to give it a little slap. He giggled and was sweet about it. It was rather bold of me. Craig, Lance and I sat down and I saw Bruce Weatherford with some friends in the row ahead of us but I didn't catch his eye, so I didn't say hello. The opening stuff played, which Craig and Lance had not seen yet as this was their first film of the fest (Craig had been in California). Lance and I agreed that the Pink Floyd music on the Sponsor's slideshow was a good choice.

A volunteer who didn't say his name got up and did a quick intro before a preview for "Wilby Wonderful" ran. I told Craig I had a ticket and had seen the preview before but I still couldn't figure out what was gay about the film. There's nothing gay going on in the preview. When Lance saw Sandra Oh, he said, "Oh I love Sandra Oh!" which made me like him even more.

The preview was followed by a short music thing called "Pink Roots" by George Lyter which we kinda talked a bit during. We thought it was a preview and then we felt bad. It was really good too, a well-made short that was basically a music video using an original song mixed with historical audio clips of pro- gay and anti-gay statements from news shows and the likes of Jerry Falwell, Reagan and Anita Bryant. This was mixed with old video clips and it was quite a professional and well-made piece. It was a great bit of gay history in a easy to digest five minute music video with a basic message about not forgetting those who worked so hard and risked much to allow us to have the acceptance we some times take for granted today. I wish they showed this again sometime.

The next short was a animated piece from Lasse Perrson that used the old 60's song, "Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini. The animation was very French looking (like "Triplets of Belleville") and the story was adorable. A young boy steals his mother bikini and make-up and goes to the beach. Two huge musclemen are wooing a girl there but when they see the boy in drag, they dump her to be with him. This was a cute and amusing short with no animation but what it was doing before a "downer" film like "The Wind, in the Evening" is anybody's guess. Guess it did help to level out the "film going experience" a little. A heavy short before this somewhat depressing short might have been too much to endure.

During the running of the Italian feature there were moments of elongated boredom, so I started wondering if I was silly to assume that Lance was gay and that he was Craig's boyfriend. About the time I was admonishing myself for assuming such, I looked over and saw that the two of them were holding hands. In fact, Craig couldn't seem to keep his hands off his date through the whole movie. Of course, it was pretty boring at times, so I envied not his luck relationship but his advantage at having a diversion.

Also, throughout the film the guy behind us obviously had some sinus problems and kept swallowing and making ucky noises. The film was really quiet and this was not pleasant at all. If I had been alone, I would have got up and moved.

After the film the three of us talked for a bit. Lance hated it and Craig really didn't seem to like it much either. It had a nice third act, so I kinda grew to like it although I could agree it had problems. Craig was talking about how the cell phones text messaging conversations we saw at the beginning of the film were "code" talk between the gangsters who were about to commit a murder (they used cooking as a metaphor - like "the pasta is boiling" to mean the target is in range" and stuff like that). Lance and I had thought this was the two lovers texting each other and when Craig enlightened us it put a whole new spin on the beginning of the movie for me. This is why I like to see films with other people. Sometimes, they see something you miss or see something in a different light than you. That's always so great.

We walked out to our cars, which were parked amazingly close to one and other and said goodbye. I got a big hug from Craig. I'm sure I'll see him more this week. I hope Lance comes with him to some things because I really liked him.

Don't give away the bitter.

lodger2005