The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival made this a thrilling–and tiring–weekend! The films, parties, volunteers, crowds, etc. all were great, and I think the visitors to the city enjoyed it all, too. Many a filmmaker in a Q&A session noted how much they liked Sidewalk and Birmingham, and I saw the actor who was in the Friday night movie *everywhere* on Saturday. I’m glad they all stuck around.

Once again it was wonderful to see lots of people on the streets of downtown Birmingham. Walking around in it all got me high on creative vibes yesterday–seriously, I got a bunch of art ideas that you’ll see as future prints. And one idea that may become something bigger. :)

Films I saw that I would recommend: The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, The Big Bad Swim, Muckfuppet (a short that’s *very* well written), and Piece of Cake (another short that’s a little flawed but a lot of fun).

Today I didn’t see any films, but I was back downtown because the Lyric Theatre had opened for tours! It was amazing to discover the treasure that’s been hidden for so long. The architectural detail is incredible–it’s a different sort of ornate from the Alabama, but rich in its own way. When the fund-raising begins for its restoration, I will definitely support it–imagine Birmingham with *two* knockout jewel-box theaters right across on the street from one another.

Two particular moments from the weekend rocketed into the top tiers of my Birmingham-is-cool list: The first was the after-party at Sloss last night, with a DJ, dancing, and tons of people under the steel mill shed. The second happened this afternoon downtown, when the destined-to-hit-the-big-time local band Wild Sweet Orange did a second set outside Speakeasy–literally on the sidewalk–for the teens who were too young to see their “real” film festival-related show inside. And their audience got up and danced. (It really was a spectacular performance.) How great is that?