Sal Goes to the Best Picture Showcase

I am a huge movie nut, and so is my son, Christopher.  For several years we have been going with some friends to the AMC Best Picture Showcase -- an event that appeals only to the truly obsessed.  The premise is to watch all of the Best Picture nominees one after the other -- 10-12 hours of movies in one sitting!

We started going when there were just five nominees, which meant that we saw all of the films on one Saturday.  There was no Showcase in Cleveland, so we drove 2+ hours each way to attend the Showcase in Columbus.  It was a fun adventure, despite being a very long day. 

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in its infinite wisdom, decided to increase the number of nominees to 9-10, we had to drive to Columbus two Saturdays in a row.  Blech. Some of us have a hard time getting two Saturdays off, and driving there twice is not as much fun as doing it once.  Therefore, we were very happy when our local AMC started having the Showcase.  The theater manager made a great occasion of the event -- even rolling out a red carpet!  We had a wonderful time!

Cut to last year. AMC Ridge Park Square was not on the list of theaters having the Showcase!  Calls to the theater and posts on the AMC Facebook page brought reassurance that the Showcase would return to Cleveland this year.  We thought all was well until AMC announced the Showcase theaters -- and Ridge Park Square was not on the list! 

My son sprang into action -- irritating people at all levels of the AMC organization -- and eventually received an e-mail telling him that Ridge Park Square would be having the Showcase after all!  Triumph!  (I'm not saying that Christopher was personally responsible for getting the Showcase to return to Cleveland, but he can be quite persistent!)

Unfortunately, AMC did not add Ridge Park Square to the list of Showcase theaters on their website until just a couple of weeks ago, and did not add a link to purchase tickets until even later than that.  Therefore, the theater was almost empty on the first Saturday of the Showcase.  We hope that more people will show up for the second week, and that AMC will realize that it wasn't a lack of demand that caused the low ticket sales.  Next year, guys, please get your act together and the theater will be full of crazy Oscar fans like ourselves!

Regular readers of Travels With Sal are probably wondering when I'm going to bring that lovely little uke into the narrative.  The wait is over! The backstory is finished, so the time is now!  Of course I brought Sal to the Showcase. 

When we started attending the Showcase at Ridge Park Square, this gentleman was the manager of the theater.  He was a wonderful host!  Since then he has transferred to another AMC theater, but we were happy to see him back to welcome everyone to this year's Showcase.  Here he is with the lovely Sal.

Not all of the usual suspects could attend this week, but the five of us who could had a great time in the snazzy new reclining seats.  Christopher, Colin with Sal, Diane, and me (not pictured).  What an awesome "group of chatty Showcase regulars!"*

We had a fabulous time doing all the traditional Showcase things:  watching movies, munching on tons of popcorn, eating Malley's chocolate-covered pretzels (purchased by Christopher and smuggled in by moi), vehemently debating the merits -- or lack thereof -- of the various films, etc.  I kept up my usual practice of writing capsule reviews on Facebook after each movie.  Here is what I posted about the films we saw: 
Philomena = Why anybody could remain a Catholic after seeing this mystifies me. Fantastic movie about a very disturbing topic. 
Dallas Buyers Club = Not sure how to sum it up. Depressing, amazing acting, another story where authority figures were baddies. 
Wolf of Wall Street = Exhausted from the debauchery. Some funny moments, but why was this nominated? 
12 Years a Slave = Powerful, yet painful to watch. Of today's movies this should win the best picture Oscar. All four in our group agree on this.  


 All of us -- including Sal -- are looking forward to the second day of the Showcase!


*A few years ago a Plain Dealer reporter came to the Showcase and interviewed some of the people in attendance.  Of course she talked to us.  We would have been hard to miss as we vociferously discussed and debated about the movies.  When the paper came out we were disappointed to see that we had not been given many inches of space in the article, but we will forever refer to ourselves as the writer did -- as a "group of chatty Showcase regulars!"  

Sal Goes to an Amazing Show!

Last night Sal and I had the great pleasure of attending an extremely enjoyable show at NightTown!   We were accompanied by our friend, Heidi, who always finds out about the cool things to do.  My life would be much more boring if I didn't hang out with her.  :)

The performer we drove across town to see was April Verch, an amazing fiddler/dancer/singer-songwriter.  This lady plays her violin like it is a part of her and her dancing is mind-boggling.  I watched and listened in awe.  She was accompanied by two very talented gentlemen:  Cody Walters on upright bass and banjo (not at the same time, of course), and Hayes Griffin on guitar and mandolin (one instrument at a time).

Between sets I purchased a cd and a fiddling instruction book coauthored by Ms. Verch.  (Apparently I'm an eternal optimist.  I actually hope to someday be able to play some of the tunes in the book!)  I got pictures of Sal with Hayes Griffin and Cody Walters.  April Verch was sitting and resting because she wasn't feeling well, but very kindly posed for a picture with Sal anyway.  She was very nice, even though she was probably wishing I would just go away. 

The second set was just as amazing as the first, and ended with a finale during which April Verch played her fiddle and danced at the same time.  It was incredible enough when she did these things one at time, but when she did both simultaneously... WOW!   Since it is impossible for me to describe how entertaining this show was, you can get a little taste of the awesome by watching this video of a live show or  this video of a song from their new cd.  Or better yet, watch both!  I will for sure be going to see April Verch again the next time she travels this way -- and I highly recommend that you do, too!

Cody Walters with Sal.  The corner of the room where the band was hanging out was not well lit, so I had to do some messing around with the pictures on iPhoto.  I used the antique and edge blur effects to get the pictures of the guys to look old -- and I think I like the results.

Hayes Griffin with Sal.  I used the antique and edge blur effects on this photo, too.

I can't believe I was able to salvage this photo.  When I took it I thought it was going to be okay, but when I transferred the pictures to the computer, my heart sank.  Both shots of April Verch were almost completely black.  I lost track of the iPhoto tricks I used, because I had to use so many to get this very flawed result.  Compared with the original, however, this is a fantastic photo!  ;) 

The band in action.  I took a whole bunch of shots, but most of them were blurry because Ms. Verch's bowing arm and feet were in constant amazing motion! 

Sal Goes to a Ukulele Singalong!

How can I even begin to describe last night's events?  They were the culmination of many months of effort from a small band of ukers extraordinaire!  (New readers should refer to this post from way back in October and this post from a couple of weeks ago to get an idea of the effort that went into this humble evening.)  The whole experience has reinforced my belief that people can't possibly understand and appreciate the effort that goes into any endeavor -- unless those people undertake a similar endeavor themselves.  Any group that puts together a show and performs it has done soooo much more work than anybody who has never done such a thing can imagine.  Even if the performance isn't so polished, chances are the people on stage have devoted an untold amount of time, thought, work, and devotion to that show.  (My sincere apologies to those I drove crazy for months with my incessant talk about the Singalong preparations.  You know who you are!)  And now back to the story...

So, after countless hours of behind-the-scenes effort, the big day finally arrived!   About an hour before it was time to leave work and head to Fairview, I began to experience a growing sense of anxiety.  I believe stage fright would be the appropriate term for what I was suffering.  Luckily, Sal was there to distract me from this unpleasant feeling.  I couldn't spend all my time worrying about messing up big-time in front of a room full of people.  I had to think of how to get some pictures of Sal at the program!

In the end, poor Sal didn't get the attention she so richly deserves.  Since I was getting ready to play, then playing, and then accepting the congratulations of the dazzled-by-our-boffo-show audience (this last part might be a slight exaggeration), there was little opportunity to get Sal photos.  I am happy to be able to share a picture of our merry band of Cleveland Jumping Fleas in action, however, thanks to my sister who wielded the camera and got the following shot.  (She is not pictured in this post, but she was an invaluable part of the team last night.  She was the ultimate PowerPoint slide-changer!)

What a great group of people!  I am so glad those Portuguese sailors went to Hawaii and that Al Gore invented the internet (inside joke).

Quite a few family members and friends of the performers attended the program, including this very promising young ukulele player and his mom. 

This lovely lady -- who my son's friend was lucky enough to meet and marry -- brought her musical son to the program.  This young man has been teaching himself to play the ukulele by watching videos on YouTube -- and he is already playing some chords I can't do yet!  Here he is with my awesome banjolele.  His mom is holding Sal.  So glad they came to the program!  Several other friends came, too, but I was so distracted by chatting with them that I didn't think of asking them to pose with Sal.

Sooner than you can say "is it already time to go?" it was!  We packed up our stuff, loaded our cars, and started driving caravan-style to a local pizza place (which shall remain nameless).  Some of us had not had dinner and all of us were looking forward to a chance to talk about how the program went, etc.  The pizza place was supposed to close at 10:00 p.m., but when got there (at approximately 8:55), we found that they had closed early!  Now we were standing outside in the bone-chillingly cold night air, wondering what to do.  After some discussion, we decided to follow Jeff to a restaurant he knows, which is a few miles down the road.  We all got in our cars again and drove in the same caravan-style to find that this restaurant was also closed.  By now I'm pretty sure we all were tiring of this to-and-fro.  Across the street, the lights of a Steak and Shake were visible.  Despite the fact that this was not at all what we had in mind, we hastily traveled thither.  I, while wishing that the pizza place had been open, realized that all of this adversity would make Sal's post more interesting, so it was easier to accept. 

After a bit of a delay, we were seated and began talking about the show --  what we thought went well, what we would do differently next time, etc.  I brought Sal out of her case and, as the night went on, got some fun pictures of her.  The one picture I did not get was a picture of Sal with our server.  When I asked him if I could take a picture of him with Sal for this blog, he seemed horrified.  Personnel at Steak and Shake are not permitted to pose for photos at work!  I was surprised.  This was the first time I had asked someone to pose with Sal and been refused.  Normally people are very happy to get their photo taken with this adorable instrument. I am happy to report that my Flea chums were not so reticent!

Nicole ordered the best thing of all -- a delicious shake!  Yum!  (Uh-oh!  "I drink your milkshake" just popped into my mind.  If you're not familiar with this infamous line, check out the film "There Will Be Blood."  The milkshake speech is truly memorable.)

Sal with Nicole, Jeff, Holly, Bruce, and our extremely unhealthy meals.  Sorry Lisa and Lynn.  You were sitting at the wrong end of the table and I didn't get a shot of you.  Our server said he would take a picture of our group, and then disappeared, so we don't have a photo of the whole group enjoying our post-performance repast.

I'm not saying that anybody in our group is a ham, but...  ;)

After all the notes we scribbled on our music or attached with sticky notes and/or e-mailed back and forth, here is one last post-it...

Finally we all went home.  I am currently experiencing a bit of Singalong withdrawal.  Happily, we will probably be doing this program again in other venues.  There are some Cub Scouts who would like us to perform for them, and other libraries who are hoping for a visit from the Cleveland Jumping Fleas!

Sal Misses a Great Show

Poor Sal!  After being stuck in the house for weeks and weeks, she finally had a chance to go out and see a great show, and I forgot to take her!  Why?  Because my mind is awhirl with so many other things that in the rush to leave the house, Sal was left behind.

As is true for everyone, I've got a lot going on right now -- and one of those things is the upcoming Ukulele Singalong.  (See this post for details.)  We had our last scheduled rehearsal on Tuesday night, but some of us got together at my house on Friday afternoon to work out a few remaining kinks.  We had a productive practice, and then a couple of us started to talk... and talk... and talk.  Suddenly I had a feeling of unease... What time was it?  I glanced at the clock and uh-oh!  I should have been on the road already, and I had been planning to spiff up a bit -- which was obviously not going to happen!  The conversation came to an abrupt halt and my fellow uker beat a hasty retreat.  I ran upstairs to brush my teeth and put on some shoes, then rushed back downstairs, threw on my coat, and was out the door -- totally forgetting about Sal!

Now comes the worst part of the story.  I live on a street that is a very busy cut-through at certain times of the day -- like 5:30 -- which is when I got into the car and started backing down the driveway.  When the traffic light at the corner is red, the cars are sometimes lined up past my driveway, so as I got in the car I looked.  Lots of traffic, but no cars behind me.  I backed up to the sidewalk, and stopped to make sure nobody was coming from either direction.  Nobody was, so I pulled out of the driveway.  (I think you can probably see where I'm going with this.)  CRUNCH!  Now there was a car at the end of my driveway.  A car with a messed up door.  Nobody was injured, which is great, but sigh...  I'm not going to talk about the angst I have been going through since then, as I wonder why the heck I didn't see that car, but I am quite upset about it!  Of course the police had to come... yadda yadda yadda ... so I was even later than before! 

Skip ahead to the show!  My friend, my sister, and I went to NightTown to see Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs. Wow!  Since I am attempting to play violin again (more about that here) -- and have been reminded by the sounds I make how difficult that instrument is -- I was possibly more blown-away by the fiddling than your average bear.   Ms. Rodriguez is an amazing fiddler -- as well as an amazing singer -- and Luke Jacobs was no slouch, either!  Since the venue is so small, I had a good view of his hands as he played.  He made it look so easy...  (and I still have trouble with Bb on the uke -- argh!)  The two of them were truly wonderful to listen to and watch.  Again, I must say WOW!

After the show, I briefly told Ms. Rodriguez about Travels With Sal, and that I had neglected to bring my little ukulele to the show.  (No, I didn't tell her the whole saga!)  I asked if she would pose for a photo with Sal's card, and she very kindly did so.

A wonderful musician -- and a very nice person, too! 

I also purchased a poster at the show, and asked both of the evening's fabulous performers to sign it.  In the quiet moment while Luke Jacobs was writing, I told him that I am part of a ukulele group that will be playing at a library on Tuesday night, and that after seeing his show, I didn't know how I would have the nerve to get up on a stage.  He laughed and said "you have to do it!"  (He has never heard me play -- haha!)