Anthony Pedone
If you go to The West Village in Dallas — or “Big D” — you will see these two large, blue (probably concrete) letters that spell out “B_G” … No, it is not a tribute to a falsetto disco group. The “I” is missing. But you don’t have to “buy a vowel,” when you can “be a vowel.” … So there are instructions on a mat on the sidewalk, with a graphic, showing where you should put your feet, between the B and the G, inviting you to stand there and complete the word.
You don’t have to “you do you” for a second or two. You can “be the ‘I.’” BIG idea.
A few feet away, the creative folks at The Dallas International Film Festival have planted big red letters that spell out their hot hashtag #DIFF … however, the DIFF letters are not made of concrete. I know. I leaned on the not-so-tenacious “D” last night and just about knocked it to the ground. Ha! Yes, I did that thing where, as soon as one regains their balance, I looked around to see if anyone witnessed. No one did … not even the diminutive gentleman who was almost man crushed on the other side of the big “D.” Ha! I almost inserted an extra “I” in the DIFF hashtag.
Around the corner from the big letters, I saw the Tesla demo automobiles, mentioned in the previous blog. I had to get to the bottom of this. “Señor Tesla,” I called out to the promo person. “If Tesla is cool enough to orbit the earth, do the cars also have Wi-Fi?” Nyet. But, he said they do have cool LTE wireless technology. Meanwhile, the specs on the Tesla site list Wi-Fi … more research required.
In other news … another great night of shooting the up-and-coming on the red carpet.
Just two days left for the festival, btw:
Daveed Diggs
Last night, I suppose the biggest “stars” on the red carpet were Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Diggs — as most people on the planet other than me know — won a Grammy and a Tony for his role as Jefferson in “Hamilton.” Casal starred in HBO’s “Def Poetry.” Well I won’t give my thoughts on “Hamilton,” but Diggs became an instant favorite of mine when I watched him interact with a special-needs child (Make-A-Wish?) off to the side, beyond the red carpet activities. Diggs and Casal co-wrote for the film “Blindspotting” — perhaps destined to be a DIFF festival favorite.
Diggs, Rafael Casal
As for the intense, ongoing PingWi-Fi one-on-one coverage … ha … I corned the man of many hats — co-writer and director, Anthony Pedone — of the film “An American In Texas.”
Pedone’s film is a coming-of-age story of a punk rock outfit in Victoria, Texas of all places. Wonder if the band hung out at Moo-Moo’s Chicken and Ventura Mexican Food … I digress …
Pedone “had me at ‘punk,’” so our conversation soon turned to The Clash. He is a fan too, although he is about 10 years younger than me and what’s left of that band. BUT … get this … one of his colleagues from the film played in Joe Strummer’s solo band (not The Mescaleros). Well, “rock my casbah!”
Next up, Pedone said no more music films for now … but he has a really interesting unsolved, true Texas murder mystery in the works. Can’t wait.
Know what I sayin?
