An Odd Experience and a Quick Retort

So I'm over at Wawa getting my coffee and cigarettes, standing in line to pay for my goodies, and there's an early-30's guy in a wheelchair right in front of me. The line was moving fairly slow, so (as Philadelphians often do) the line-standers engaged in some small banter about the crappy weather.

Wheelchair guy gets his smokes and leaves. I pay for my stuff and leave, but before I get into the car, I notice that wheelchair guy is A) by himself, and B) hoisting himself into his car. The wheelchair is sitting in the rain, next to his car. As I'm pulling out to leave, I roll my window down and have the following exchange:

Me: Hey man, you need a hand with the chair?
Him: (unexpectedly snidely) Um, no. I've got lots of experience taking care of myself, thanks very much.
Me: (after a quiet pause) Know what? My mom has lots of experience loading groceries into her car, but if someone offered to help her out in the pouring rain, I'd appreciate that.

Then I drove away.

A Random Dispatch from Austin

Hello, all. I'm leaving Austin tomorrow night and heading back to Philly, but I have a 4.7-minute window between watching, writing, and eating, so I thought I'd say hi.

Far as SXSW, I've got reviews, interviews and random et cetera on both Cinematical and FEARnet, which is awesome because I love my jobs. But the best thing about any festival that I attend in Austin is ... the Alamo Drafthouse. No, not really. It's actually the peoples. The local friends, of course, but also the festival regulars AND my long-standing posse of awesome film junkies like Childress, Snider, Goss, Whyte, Voynar, Kernion, Martin, Davis, new addition Addington, etc. etc..

As always, the films have been (mostly) top-notch, the food's great, the parties are fun, and on and on and on -- but if it weren't for all my friends, "professional" friends, and random colleagues, even the world's coolest film festival would feel a bit lonely. So thanks to all.

Plus Doomsday was fun.