Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

9 June 2005

SF Weekly Suggestions for SFIFF

Echoing some of my own feelings about the San Francisco International Film Festival, Michael Fox has made some great recommendations in the latest SF Weekly. I'm not so sure about his Almodóvar and Hayek examples, but the other ideas are so logical — and yet so counter-intuitive to the prevailing mindset — that I hope the people in charge are paying attention:

In fact, the board needs to take a closer look at the Bay Area, where myriad festivals spotlight every niche and byway of cinema and take a targeted slice of the audience in the bargain. The SFIFF is no longer the only show, as it was 48 years ago, and it's time to reinvent it. Instead of a broad, amorphous catchall of films culled from the festival circuit, it should get smaller and more innovative, scale down the number of movies by a third, and turn more programs into events.
For example, fly in Pedro Almodóvar to present the Film Society Directing Award to an aging master — and to introduce three movies from the honoree's oeuvre. Invite Salma Hayek to pick and introduce a couple of new Mexican pictures. Show only documentaries without distribution, and bypass commercial fare such as Mad Hot Ballroom and Murderball. Cut ticket prices for the Skyy Prize contenders — debut narratives by young directors — to $6. (And roll back prices overall, while we're at it.)

There are ways to return the SFIFF to prominence (local, not national) that don't entail going Hollywood or ignoring the marvelous history of cinema. In looking for a new executive director, the board should show the same spine it did when it fired the last one.

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