Be skilled or be killed

Transportation in Palm Springs

This amazing contraption has three wheels, a roof and travels on the sidewalk.

Don’t even worry about it - it’s a full fairing for a recumbent bicycle. I tried to snap a picture, but could never get the whole thing in one frame.

At what point do you wake up and realize that the only practical thing to do is get a bicycle with a full fairing? Or travel around on a three wheeled, roofed scooter/wheel chair? Have these particular people always been drawn to absurd methods of transportation or is it something that happens naturally with old age, like saggy boobs or crows feet? These are the questions I’m curious about.

Scandal at the film festival!

I wish I could have written about this earlier, but I was told we were on media lockdown (including little ol’ blogs) about the subject until the official decision had been made. And now the decision has been made, a press release has been written and major news sources are picking up the story. So it’s not nearly as cool anymore, but it’s still a really interesting snafu that has happened here at the 21st Palm Springs International Film Festival.

And no, I’m not talking about Mariah Carey’s silliness.

There is a Tibetan film playing during the festival, and horror of all horrors, it’s playing on the same day as a Chinese film. We first heard the Chinese embassy was raising a fuss about the Tibetan film playing at all. They expressed confusion about the fact that we will show a film that portrays Tibet as an autonomous nation - when clearly it is not. It is affront to the Chinese people as a whole, and as a nation we need to show solidarity with them, or something like that. Now the Chinese film has been pulled out of the festival ‘by the distributer’. The distributer of this film happens to be the Chinese government. Interesante. The other Chinese film was pulled out of the festival the next day. It is also distributed by the Chinese government. The director of festival has issued an official statement on the Palm Springs Film Festival website. Woo! Controversy!

For your enjoyment, the trailer for The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom

WOOT!!

My dad is taking Joel and my sisters and me to Hawaii right when we’re finished here at the film festival! I’m so so excited. We’ll leave our truck and mopeds at my grandparents house, fly to Hawaii, return to California and then begin our great trek North. What a lot of fun we have to look forward to!