(That’s particularly sweet, since that includes my husband, Ed!)
(I’d like to think the musical score falls under the umbrella of writing, in this case at least.)
*answers tucked in the tags at the bottom of this post
Yuletide Song Quiz 1: What is the name of the Lesbian Vocal Group that sings this queer gloss on an Old Christmas Chestnut:
Yuletide Song Quiz 2: What is the name of the of the Queer Country Vocal Duo that lovingly sings “Christmastime in the Trailer Park”:
Yuletide Song Quiz 3: What is the name of the Jazz Trio that recorded this classic Peanuts Christmas Special theme:
Longwood Gardens – thousand acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania – was seasonally decked out for the holidays the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when Ed and I visited with Uncle Dave.
It was also raining rather hard (but that was still better than the snow storm bedeviling New England further North). So we didn’t see much of Longwood Gardens famous outdoors.
Instead we spent our visit inside the conservatory. Which featured the main Christmas Tree display, but also, like much of what we already saw outside, was generally handsomely seasonally bedecked.
We were told to gather by the George M. Cohan statue at 5:30pm.
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This is the Navajo Bridge crossing the Colorado River by Marble Canyon…
I didn’t take the two pictures above, nor the third below. I found these to show you the most iconic perspectives, in bright daylight. But that is not quite the way Ed and I experienced this impressive site. It was sunset when we arrived at the bridge and took in the Marble Canyon off to one side and the tear in the ground the Colorado River makes on its way to the much larger tear in the ground that is the Grand Canyon.
And we were crossing the bridge, not flying around or rafting below …
It was late afternoon the day we’d visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had a two hour plus drive ahead of us to get to our next destination, Page, by Lake Powell.
These pictures are of the valley the Colorado River cuts through, as seen when passing east after the Vermillion Cliffs.
You can’t see the river, or the tear it makes in the landscape, as it cuts its way through the plain, but it is there.
We made it to the Navajo Bridge crossing the Colorado River just as the sun was setting.
I guess that sign is meant for mindless bungie jumpers or hang gliders.
The Horror Bowl Movie Awards gives out awards for Best Thriller or Best Sci-Fi as well as unique categories like Most Gory Scene or Best Death Scene. This edition they did not give out a Best Horror Short award, but did give Tell-Tale the more specifically named Best Musical Horror Short Award.
Arguably, “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” is more musical than horrible.
Driving South from Brice Canyon, we made our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, in Northern Arizona just south of the Utah border.
Most people who visit the Grand Canyon only make it to the South Rim (I read that the North Rim receives only 10% of Grand Canyon visitors). The South Rim may be a bit more easily accessible (compared to the North), and it may also have far more major viewpoints. But the North Rim is quite spectacular in its own right. With views and vegetation particular to its side of the canyon.
Above an overall map of the North Rim. Below, the insert showing the North Rim Visitor Center and Bright Angel Point, where our first pics and videos were taken.
As you can tell from the thumbnail picture Top Shorts posts to access the Tell-Tale Heart trailer on their website, I am absolutely thrilled!
But no, seriously, I really am thrilled. Thank you, Top Shorts!
The South Film and Arts Academy Festival just announced their November awards. And they bestowed a whole bucketful on “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“.
I submitted to the festival as a short film, even though at 37 minutes we were a bit over their 35 minute cut off for the length of short films (Most festivals have a 40 minute cut off, but longer and shorter cut offs are common). I had contacted the festival and asked for an exemption, considering the two minutes over the limit are basically the film’s opening and end credits. They allowed me to submit as a “Horror Short”.
But then they evidently changed their mind, because “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” was bumped up into the feature length category. Where it won 5 awards and 2 honorable mentions. But not as horror feature…
“The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” won Best Musical Feature in a group of Best Feature winners that includes Indie, Drama, Horror, Experimental, Documentary and First Feature.
UPDATE 2/25/20
Received notification that L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival has nominated “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” for their first annual Pigeon d’Or Award, in the following categories:
From their email:
This PIGEON D’OR AWARDS is much more than a trophy; it is a message that the spirit of independent film is still alive. This is the highest award a filmmaker can receive in his/ her lifetime. We are so happy to inform you, that in 2019 – 2020 we have received more than 3000 submissions from more than 140 countries across the globe. It gives us immense pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as a Nominee for this most Prestigious PIGEON D’OR AWARDS in 2020. This simply means that your film has achieved a huge step by making the cut amongst thousands of rejected entries and successfully entered into the race of Awards.
“This is the highest award a filmmaker can receive in his/ her lifetime”? Someone tell Cannes or the Academy … 😉
I haven’t completed posting my tour of the Great Parks of the American Southwest. Just took a little pause. Coming up next, the Grand Canyon!
But first, to re-whet the appetite, a quick panorama faraway view of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We caught these views at the Le Fevre Overlook and Rest Area, as we drove south from Utah into Arizona. This was after we’d been to Zion and Bryce Canyon and were now making our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
(Bryce Canyon would be visible just north of Alton if this map detail stretched that high. And that body of water by Page is Lake Powell. We’ll be getting there too.)
It’s been too long. He should not have been invited onto the show in the first place, because it was likely from the beginning and now has been painfully born out, that it wouldn’t be his dancing, or his character, that would sustain his presence, but only raw tribal political allegiance from a stubborn spiteful minority, to the detriment of everything else, causing more damage to the show than any other previous “controversial” contestant.
Meanwhile, for too many weeks, better dancers, better people exited before him…
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Notes from a Composer 