At the risk of repeating myself, I'm going to redo my top five list of things I'm looking forward to at the TCM Classic film Festival (TCMFF). Who am I kidding? I am repeating myself. I might as well admit it. However, the other times it was before the full schedule had been released, so hopefully, you will cut me some slack.
5. Being on vacation. Admittedly, I do have the TCM Social Media Producer thing. I'm on the hook to do video interviews of people at the Festival and make sure my partner in crime, my 15-year-old daughter, Jasmine, comes up with something cogent to say about the films we see. Trust me, this is not an issue. I don't think I could keep her quiet if I tried. And yes we do have to spend a certain amount of time monitoring social media, which I'm not even sure what that means. So yes, we do have some responsibilities. but it's not like real work. If something weird happens, my phone is not going to ring. I know that it takes a lot of work to pull off an event like to TCMFF, and we are helping out, but we are a very very small part of all of that.
That said, my real work, my day job, the way I pay the mortgage, has been kind of on the sucky side lately. So being away from it all for almost a week, running around having fun, despite having some responsibilities, I think I'll cope.
4. Desk Set. Okay, admittedly there are probably other films I'm looking forward to more, but this is a huge favorite of mine. It's one of those films that I end up watching about once every three or four months and never tire of. When am I ever going to get a chance to see it on the big screen again, and even if I do, it won't be the same as watching at TCMFF. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn always have great chemistry, but in Desk Set, it's especially good. I like that what attracts Spencer Tracy to her is that she's smart. Tracy's rival Gig Young likes that she's smart, but mostly because it helps him further his career. Once he makes Vice President, he'd be fine having her never say another thing. The other thing I love is that it has Joan Blondell, one of my favorite 1930s actresses. When she was young, she was absolutely gorgeous. I gotta say even fiftyish, heavyish, Joan Blondell, she still kind of does it for me.
On a side note, I had Jasmine read the descriptions of all the films we are going to see, and I don't even think this was a blip on her radar. Still, I think she's going to dig it.
3. The Return of the Dream Machine: Hand-Cranked Films from 1902-1913. If you ask, this would one of Jasmine's top picks, and if we were to limit it film screenings only, it would be mine as well. This is mostly due to Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon and it's connection to Hugo, especially for Jasmine. And me too. For me, I'm also looking forward to Suspense and The Great Train Robbery as well.
2. Hanging out with my old film cronies. I spend a lot of time online talking about old movies, and live-tweeting films being shown on TCM on twitter using the #TCMParty hashtag.
Now, I have no allusions. I know that the connections you make with people online are not the same as the people you know in real-life. But just because they are not the same, that doesn't mean they are not real. You meet people online because of common interests, not because of proximity, so the connection is real. Meeting these people at TCMFF solidifies that.
Also, it's not just online people, it's anyone you meet wearing a TCMFF badge. If I make a Rock Hudson/Doris Day joke at TCMFF, people will get it. If I made that same joke at work, I would have to spend 5 minutes explaining it. That's why I don't consider the Social Media gig real work. It's what I would be doing anyway.
1. Sharing TCMFF with my daughter. This one by far trumps all of rest. Being able to come up and hang out with my daughter and share really great films with her is just awesome. Thinking back when I was 15, the last thing I wanted to do is hang out with my parents, but Jasmine likes hanging out with me. I have no idea how long that is going to last, so I'm going to hang on to it as long as I can. And getting to share her thoughts on great films at TCMFF through the TCM Social Media Producers program (on Twitter with a #TCMFF15YO hashtag), I don't see it getting a whole lot better than this.
No comments:
Post a Comment