A Day at the Movies

Big exciting day today... first up was OC duty, and it was... perfectly fine.  I mean, our count was 129, which was less than I expected.  I of course attributed it to the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, which for some of the volunteers, was appreciated...and others less so.  More importantly, it was very smooth (no problem clients), all the produce went, lots of clothes went, and... so far so good.

Then it was off to Downtown, where I lunched at Mabel's BBQ on E. 4th (my old haunt, which is very grown up).  It was good, but... when the server said the entrees were a la carte... I had the turkey sandwich and the orange vanilla pudding for dessert, and it was good, but not exactly $27 good.  The foodies at church have saying that they don't mind paying for a meal, but you should be full, and...it didn't quite meet that standard.  I meandered around downtown a bit and then I hit Cleveland Public Library -- there was a double-showing of silent films at 3 there, and I didn't recall ever going there, so... it's pretty cool.  Lots of books, lots of tables to sit and read, some interesting special exhibits... I can see myself going there and just reading a bit.

The films were:
Double bill: Silent Film Fest to show modern LGBTQ romance, Charlie Chaplin shorts

And they were....ok?  They led with the modern one, which wasn't bad, but you went a long way to go not very far.  To be sure, something about a silent movie set in 1918, but made now, was cool.  The Chaplin film was..ok.  Not as good as some of his others, which I attributed to being early in his career?  It was a bit forced (as was the first).  But not bad, and I wish more people loved them like I do.  I did sign up for the Cleveland Silent Film Fest mail list, though it seemed like most of these people are PSRCH types, so...well at least I can watch the films.

I spent an hour just walking around Downtown... lots of skateboarders, which was cool to see (as part of the MGK Fest, which I described to my server as "underwhelming" to his amusement).  Then home to watch two films -- due at the library today (it is Sunday now) so... One was "Angels With Dirty Faces," a Cagney/O'Brien film from the 30s.  It was..interesting?  Formulaic? It was fine, but... I think the market has changed.  Next was "Passing Through," a documentary from the 70s about the denizens of Skid Row -- mainly talking to them. I would say it would be in the NFR as part of the "culturally significant" films, as no one did that back then (or now).  Again, I am not the target audience.  But...848.