Festival

I used be a great fan of the Dublin Film Festival. Towards the end of my working life I somehow managed to work flexi-time to my advantage and got to see several films on single days, barely having time to get back out to the lobby after one film and join the queue to get in to the next. That was back in the early- to mid-90's, when the Festival was a terrific celebration of cinema and had an atmosphere all its exciting own.

That all changed fifteen years ago when it became the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, lost its original Director, and descended into the depths of commercial mediocrity. It all lots its point, really. All too many of the films shown were main-stream and often due for general release just a week following their Festival screenings. A terrible shame, which led me to fall away from my involvement with it.

I got the programme on Saturday night when Carl and I were in town, though, and may well go to one or two screenings. Mind you, I still have to study what's on offer. It may well happen that I book nothing in advance and just go along a few times on spec. We shall see.

The fact that today's blip is just a shot of the programme cover shows pretty clearly what a nothing sort of a day this has been. Recovery mode after Saturday's music group hosting and night on the town with Carl and yesterday's opera marathon. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more productive.