Tacos and Beer

My birthday is January 31, which is Friday. I will be celebrating this year by participating in the Sidewalk Film Festival’s Bad Movie Marathon. The Sidewalk fest happens every year in lovely downtown Birmingham, Alabama, so it’s my local film festival. I’ve been attending it nearly half my life at this point. Sidewalk is also one of the big reasons I am a filmmaker. Chuck and I attended the very first Sidewalk in the late 1990s, and that was the first time we realized if we made a movie, someone might screen it. My birthday is January 31, which is Friday. I will be celebrating this year by participating in the Sidewalk Film Festival’s Bad Movie Marathon . The Sidewalk fest happens every year in lovely downtown Birmingham, Alabama, so it’s my local film festival. I’ve been attending it nearly half my life at this point. Sidewalk is also one of the big reasons I am a filmmaker. Chuck and I attended the very first Sidewalk in the late 1990s, and that was the first time we reali...

Stacey and I got up early this morning to see some snow. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten significant snow here in Birmingham, Alabama, and a minor winter storm rolled in around 1 a.m. today. We were afraid we’d miss the snow if we waited too long, but it turns out it stuck around. As of 1 p.m., it’s about 38 degrees Fahrenheit and overcast, and there’s still a lot of snow on the ground, parked cars, and buildings. Most of the actual snow happened while we were sleeping. When we went out around 7 a.m. we saw some classic Alabama “wintry mix” — sleet, snow, and cold rain. Stacey and I got up early this morning to see some snow. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten significant snow here in Birmingham, Alabama, and a minor winter storm rolled in around 1 a.m. today. We were afraid we’d miss the snow if we waited too long, but it turns out it stuck around. As of 1 p.m., it’s about 38 degrees Fahrenheit and overcast, and there’s still a lot of snow on the ground, parked cars, an...

I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. I have plenty of opportunities to disappoint myself without setting difficult goals. That said, I have set a couple of hopefully not difficult goals for myself this year. First, I want to watch more new-to-me movies. For a while now, at least since the pandemic, I have spent a lot of my viewing time on comfort movies — films I love (or at least like) and have watched numerous times. I’m sure I will continue to re-watch old favorites in the future, especially when I want a movie I can halfway watch while I am doing something else. I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. I have plenty of opportunities to disappoint myself without setting difficult goals. That said, I have set a couple of hopefully not difficult goals for myself this year. First, I want to watch more new-to-me movies. For a while now, at least since the pandemic, I have spent a lot of my viewing time on comfort movies — films I love (or at least like) and have watched nu...