Dharas visit and AFI Dallas

Sorry Dhara I have been so busy have not even had time to blog! I will just repeat and add a little from Dhara's blog. So Dhara visited us in Dallas in March and we had a great time, although it was over so quickly. We checked out SXSW, we stayed over with Wooleys friend's fiance in Pflugerville, Austin (great name!) they were fantastic, another friend of Wooleys came down with us and we all had a great time, great food, great drinks and great company! The rest of the visit was fab and I was also very glad that Dhara was able to come along to the book group meeting, I am hoping it may motivate her to start her own maybe with Roopa when she gets home? Dhara gave you further details about her visit, so I wont bother with any more except to say, it was great hanging out with her and I was very sad when she left :(

Moving on though, we have been very stimulated entertainment wise in the last few weeks since Dhara left, a friend and I went to see a play, THE BLONDE, THE BRUNETTE AND THE VENGEFUL REDHEAD , a very interesting play at the Dallas Theatre Center. A story told over a few years by the different characters involved, all played by just the one actor, she was amazing and it was a very powerful play concerning the roles people play in our lives and how one event/action can impact those around us, sometimes in ways unknown, the whole "butterfly affect" theory.

The AFI Dallas, film festival started on March 27. Last year a few weeks after Wooley and I arrived in Dallas, the first ever AFI Dallas film festival started and it was brilliant! We had a great time and thought Dallas was so cool, it ended and we were introduced to the "real" Dallas! The second year of the festival so far has been great, we have seen a few films and we have become involved in the whole thing by volunteering, a truly great aspect of American culture is the way many people volunteer for various causes and events, its amazing! It's great for the community and great for the individual. The only scary thing is that relying upon volunteers cannot be the only answer when providing services, running events etc and I fear that in America so many services etc rely so heavily upon volunteers that in times of recession (which may be around the corner or now?) people have to re-arrange their priorities so such services suffer a huge loss. So at a time when the need is at it's greatest is exactly when the services are limited due to their reliance upon volunteers. Where I currently work is all about the volunteers providing a service to low income families, everyone and especially the volunteers are amazing and its a fantastic service. But you just cannot compare it to state funded services. However, as we have heard more than once in the recent weeks, we are Europeans and we are all socialist in Europe!

So the films we have seen so far are:

1. Fields of Fuel - a documentary about bio-fuels, very interesting and made us want to buy a car with a diesel engine! The reasonable thing about the film was that it did not pretend that bio-fuels would be the magic answer but that several answers were needed to end the US and the Western world's reliance upon oil, including building better public transport systems which is something Dallas desperately needs!
2. Shorts Programs - Documentaries: which included
a. The Frozen Capital - hilarious short documentary about Winnipeg Canada, being the winner of the "Slushee cup", the city where the most slushees are sold in the world, for the last 7 years!
b. Movement - a touching documentary by and about young man confronting a condition
c. Farewell Packets of Ten - a hilarious short film with two old Irish women talking about smoking
3. Split: A Divided America - an interesting documentary about how America is so divided politically along party lines, why this is so and are there any answers. Whilst the film was depressingly short of answers it was an interesting snapshot of the way in which Americans talk about, or rather don't talk about politics, the medias role etc. It confirmed many of the suspicions Wooley and I have developed about this issue over the last year and as we left Wooley felt that he would have been better prepared for the whole Texan adventure if he had watched this film before we arrived! It was particularly interesting in the way it discussed faith/morality and politics which possibly is one of the single most scariest thing to me about American politics. It also discussed how many people in America are of the opinion that you may as well not talk about politics if you disagree, thereby shutting down any hope of negotiation and compromise something that is lacking in many aspects of American political life. It also touched upon the lack of social interaction in the American lifestyle, someone in the film said, "everyone goes home and watches "Friends" and have no friends", and how many people develop friendships with only like minded people and they only watch and read stuff that will reinforce their views, so their views are never challenged.
4. Iron Ladies of Liberia - an interesting documentary following the first freely elected female leader of an African nation in her first year of power
5. The Guitar - a surprisingly positive story about dreams and the power of self, directed by Amy Redford
6. At the Death House Door - about a Reverend in Texas, who ministered to 95 inmates committed to death, he spent the last 12 hours with them, an interesting look at the death penalty and how it affects society.

We also went to the House of Blues Gospel brunch last weekend, which was fun, the buffet brunch included cheese grits and a bloody mary bar! We ate and drank to a live gospel music which was certainly a BIG sound! Jigna

PS: I forgot to metnion that I also had a very SATC night the other night, when I and friend went to fashion show at the posh mall, Dhara refers to, Custo Barcelona show, I felt very Dallas and very bling AND champagne!