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| LA FLORIDIANA Thanks For The Memories....Denis Lebrun, The Man Who Never Existed....The Aftermath by William Moriaty | ||
| MOVIE REVIEW "The Fountain" by Mike Smith | ||
| The Tampa Film Network Meeting For September by Nolan B. Canova | ||
| MIKE'S RANT Recent Stuff....Flying While Muslim....What A Coinkydink....Play Ball....Down On Main Street.... My Favorite Films, Part 48: "Unforgiven" by Mike Smith | ||
| LETTERS | ||
Nolan's Pop Culture ReviewEstablished A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our seventh calendar year!
Number 349 (Vol. 7, No. 48). This edition is for the week of November 27--December 3, 2006.
Thankfully, I have attended at least one other Tampa Film Network Meeting that went spectacularly well, and have it on good authority the other meetings went smoothly. To any newcomers who may have been disappointed by last Tuesday's gathering, I would not hold it up as a typical example of how these things go, please give it another chance, I'm really behind these guys.
To the organizers: THERE IS NO ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO MAKE EVERYONE WAIT 45 MINUTES TO START A MEETING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew. There. That's off my chest. To be absolutely fair, this was the first meeting held at the Cuban Club in Ybor City. All past events were held at the Chili's Restaurant on S. Dale Mabry. There was always talk of upgrading the venue, and while the Cuban Club is an excellent place to hold TFN meetings, in retrospect, it had a few subtle strikes against it for this kind of thing:
1. Directions can be tricky. This meeting (Nov 28) was the fifth this year of the Tampa Film Network. Organizers Joe Davison, Chris Woods, Melissa Webb, and Keljean Connolly
were all present at the podium/table at the front of the theater stage when we arrived at the crack of 8:30pm, supposedly the meeting's start time. After we snacked on some of the chips-and-dip provided (thanks, guys!), my traveling companion, Gus Perez, and I seated ourselves in the front row, a few feet from the podium. There were, maybe, 10 people in the hall. Joe Davison, nervously tapping his pen and answering his cellphone every 15 seconds or so, was obviously very concerned about the low turn-out evident at this point. I had made note to both the boys I could not stay long, as it was a work night, but I also realized this was likely the last meeting of 2006 and thought I'd make an effort.
Now, I never said I expected anyone to work things around my schedule, but I find it hard to believe nobody was on any timetable in the middle of a work-week, especially those who had to drive some distance to get there! I found it unconsciounable that Joe Davison had no intention of starting the meeting before a certain number of people showed up. Chris Woods seemed uninclined to argue with him, and Melissa and Keljean said nothing to him as far as I could tell.
After watching Joe drum his fingers on the table and answer his cellphone for 45 minutes, the meeting was finally called to order at 9:15pm by Chris Woods. No apologies or explanations for the late start was given. This is very bad form for newcomers who may've gotten the wrong idea right off the bat.
All bitching now out of the way, here's what went down...
9:15pm, Meeting Called To Order.
Old Business New Business Ongoing Business At this point it was 9:40pm, and I had to leave for work (already running late doing that), so the remainder of the meeting is copied from the posted schedule. Although Joe Davison guesstimated about 30 people total were in attendance, I think it was closer to 20, including very late arrivals. Again, this is very unusual and not how it normally goes.
Discussion Topics Announcements Announcement Requests SEMINAR SOCIAL Joe Davison email: spitballfrenzy@gmail.com
Chris Woods email: cwoods4@tampabay.rr.com
All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2006 by Nolan B. Canova.
The Tampa Film Network Meeting for November
By Nolan B. Canova
2. Metered parking.
3. The organizers failed to note on flyers that there are TWO floors meetings can be held on at the Cuban Club. Apparently, many film fans tried to crash some women's meeting downstairs and were turned away confused.
4. I learned the organizers had to actually pay a tidy sum to rent the hall.
That last note affects only the organizers, no one was required to pay admission, but it multiplied the tragedy of a missed opportunity to hold a punctual meeting to a large group.
Left to right, event organizers Joe Davison, Chris Woods, Melissa Webb, and Keljean Connolly. Directly behind them you can just make out the stage front of the beautiful Cuban Club theater.
The few, the proud. About quarter to 9:00pm I stood next to the dais and took this photo of the left half of the auditorium (as seen from in front of the stage). I wish I knew everyone's name, sorry. But you can use the large man in the flowered shirt in front as a reference point as I pivot for... 
...the right half. I was seated next to Gus when I got up to take these pictures. There were a few more fans who would arrive later (USF's Rodrick Colbert and Peter Guzzo for two), but you get an idea of the intimate setting. The "dais" table is in the foreground.
Feedback on Tampa Film Network, website, People section of website. Sponsors.
Although the schedule said that Ziad Ahmed's Real Premonition had made it into the Sundance Film Festival, I've since learned that it didn't happen after all. Too bad, the trailer looks awesome.
A Presentation by Cassie Chenavert on how to write press releases (about 45 minutes).
Meet-and-greet held at the end of the above seminar. As the meeting had to close at 11:00pm, not sure how much time there was left for this.
TFN MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/tampafilmnetwork