one year mark with javaflix savannah

This month was my first anniversary as a JAVAFLIXian!
The group has grown greatly since then.
The above photo was taken this past July, at the viewing of "Philomena". I wasn't there, but several of my friends are! That's Barbara, lower right, on the loveseat by herself. On the tan couch, in the blue shirt, is Sandy. Between them, on the folding chair, in the green shirt, is Bonnie. Nanci is wearing the ballcap, behind Sandy, and Kimberly is behind Nanci and wearing a blue shirt, too.
As I said, I wasn't there. I was with Willie at the ballgame instead. I had meant to be at this screening, though, and had signed up for it, even though I had already seen the movie.
Many of the movies are ones I've already seen at least once. Last year, it was rare that a selection was not one I had seen.
Last year, I had joined the group in February, seeing my first film with them the next month. That one, the foreign film "Wadjda", was new to me and of great interest. I had liked that there were only three of us there, that wintry night, but looked forward to meeting others at future films.
I missed the next months.
For April, I commented on the film, but did not attend. I had seen "Dallas Buyers Club" at the beginning of 2014 and could not bear to ever see it again.
In May, I did not want to see "12 Years A Slave'. I still have not seen it and truly have no interest in doing so. Apparently, few others chose to go see it, as Patrick screened it for only himself and two others.
But I was there - and with a big crowd! - for June's screening! Apparently, "Her" was attractive to the voyeuristic vein in people. I had already seen it, of course, but on a weekday afternoon in a deserted theatre. It was good to see it with others! Truly, this was the best-attended JAVAFLIX event, with almost twenty people there. Wow!
July has already been covered, so let's move on to August. "The Lunchbox" was an Indian film I'd already seen at my beautiful Cinematique - but it was such a lovely film that I leapt at the opportunity to see it again! Such an excellent story of love and death and regaining one's joie de vivre - or should I say, ज़िंदादिली (the Hindi translation)? As I recall, everyone very much enjoyed this one!
September found the JAVAFLIX group "Finding Vivian Meier". I had already done so while in Daytona Beach. I advised all to see the Helen Leavitt photography exhibit at the Jepson Center before their viewing. I hope they did.
Then "Belle" came to the JAVAFLIX screening room. Ah, yes! Even though I had already seen it with my stepmom and first niece, I was eager to see it again. I was joined by twenty others!!! Great discussion afterward, though it did try to wander off into "back in the day" areas. That's okay; easy enough to regain the focus!
I skipped November's screening of "Chef". Already had that dish! But I did leave the group these words of advice.
"Fun movie, with a side of heart! Wish I could be there, but I have plans in Daytona Beach that weekend. Be forewarned - you'll want Cubans after the movie!"
December, January, and February have all featured movies I'd never seen!!! That's been amazing!
As you know, I see a lot of movies. I used to read books, but I do not have time for that indulgence. Movie-going has been a very satisfactory substitute and takes far less time. So, when this group of mixed viewers managed to select three films, over a course of three months, which I had not seen - well, it's not quite a miracle, but it is miraculous!
The films were "A Most Wanted Man", "Calvary", and "Dear White People". I had never even heard about those last two. The other I knew of, but hadn't seen it because it was being pushed as "Philip Seymour Hoffman's last movie" when it played in the multiplexes. This was definitely the right venue for it, especially as I had been to my friend Arthur's funeral that morning and was in need of distraction. Nothing like a spy film, full of betrayals and lies, to do the trick!
For the January event, I made a cake. Odd, right? But Patrick's birthday was coming the following weekend, so I made a cake. It was an Orange Dreamsicle Cake and I gave him the four pieces that were left. The movie generated a lot of talk about death and religion the stages of grief, whether that grief is for one's own impending death or that of another. I'm glad Sandy and I took off for karaoke afterward!
I've already waxed rhapsodically about "Dear White People", so you can read about here. That truly was a lot of fun!
Tonight's movie was "Birdman", the Oscar winner for Best Film of 2014.
How very appropriate to share my second viewing of the movie with the fine folks at this discussion group. You can read more about it here.
Thanks, Patrick! I look forward to more time shared with you and this diverse group of movie lovers!
(smile)

riding a new bike

This evening, I tried something new.
I went to see "Wadjda", a Saudi Arabian movie.
That's not really the 'something new' I was talking about. I go to foreign films as often as I can and have done so for most of my life.
This time, though, I watched the film with a new group in town, a group that tries to show good films worth discussion, a group that offers a free forum for that discussion.
How very nice!
I found it on meetup.com, a site that some of my NK! friends have been using. I haven't noticed that any of them are yet in this group, but that's okay. One of the women at AMUMC, Nanci, is a member.
In case you're wondering, the website is not a place for sexual hook-ups, though I am sure that does occur, especially with the pub-crawling groups. I'm not interested in that just now.
This group promised coffee and caffeinated beverages and the company of like-minded folk. Called JAVAFLIX SAVANNAH, it's located near Forsyth Park, so finding a parking spot wasn't a hassle. What a relief!
According to the signup list for the group tonight, there were going to be nine people in attendance. Good! Not too many new names and faces to get to know!
Only one of those people actually showed up, and that was the group organizer, Patrick. He was running a tad late, arriving when I did. He had in tow a young man named JT (John Thomas, as it turned out), a parishioner of his church. That made a party of three, with two of us not even on the original list.
For both myself and JT, this was our first time there.
Patrick set about making us feel welcome from the very start. We even each had our own bags of freshly popped popcorn! We settled in on the couch and comfy chairs and watched, on the big-screen television, as the story of a ten-year-old Saudi girl unfolded.
She wanted a bicycle, but girls weren't supposed to have them. Only boys could. Still, she found one she really liked and the shop owner was willing to sell it to her. But how to get the money? A contest at the school was the answer to her prayers, a test of her knowledge of the Koran.
A test she won, by the way.
She was not given the prize money. When she had told the judge why she wanted the money, the judge had refused to give it to her, saying they money would be donated to a charity in her name, instead.
Wadjda's mother bought her the bike.
Very nice movie!
After refreshing our beverages, we talked about the characters, the plot, the cinematography. We voted on the films available for the following month. Then we all helped clean up and went our separate ways into the Saturday night.
I look forward to more of these meetings.
Definitely something new!