Come on Down to P-Town...

LCLs--
Welcome to the Cape.

Danny and I are staying in a guest house in Provincetown, Mass., set for our first screening tonight at 730 PM at the Art House cinema right in the heart of P-Town. The pre-screening nerves are just now setting in. So far, we've had an incredible time on this east coast swing. And we're really just getting warmed up. A summary thus far...

---We arrived in New York Tuesday early evening, had dinner and drinks in the city and had each spent nearly $100 within 6 hours of our planes touching down. New York has a funny way of separating you from your money.

Interesting tidbit from our NYC night? We stumbled upon an open "garden" in the East Village and came across a Wiccan circle in the midst of a service honoring the coming full moon.

---Wednesday at noon it was off to Penn Station for the 12:03 train to Boston. Idiots that we are, we nearly missed that train, but fortunately, the good organizers of the Provincetown Film Festival (PFF) helped us out over the phone and got us on our train.

Interesting tidbit from the train? The train has a first class car, a cafe car and a business class car. Convinced that we must be on a coach car and not a business class car, Danny and I kept walking all the way to the front of the train in search of said coach car before we finally discovered that it does not exist. Little people like us go in the business class car. AND the Cuban sandwich from the cafe car was awesome. AND the Northeast is absolutely gorgeous, and must be seen by train.

---Arriving in Boston at 3:45 the day after the Celtics won the championship, I expected to see a city in ruins, but everything looked pretty normal. We waited around (at the lovely Seaport hotel) for the 5:30 Ferry to Provincetown, and 1.5 hours later, we arrived at this lovely town.

Interesting tidbit about P-Town? Several things. First of all, Provincetown looks like the city of Amity from Jaws. Amity, as you know, means friendship (sorry, couldn't resist quoting a line from the film). Perhaps because that film was set in Cape Cod and I've never been to the Cape, I was pretty taken by a sudden fear of shark attack. And I've been searching for a crotchety old fisherman who bears a striking resemblence to Robert Shaw, but so far I haven't found him.

The other essential fact to know about Provincetown is that it is, without a doubt, the gayest place I have ever seen. And I mean that in the best way!!

When we arrived and got our "swag bags" (the term for the bag of goodies every filmmaker gets at a film fest), the good people of the PFF generously gave Danny and I a gift certificate to a local bar which, we were told, is the ONLY straight bar in town. In this town, straight people are the extreme minority. And there's definitely an awareness and a sense of humor about it all: many of the store names are quite humorous. Favorite example so far: right on the main street is a branch of Seamen's bank. You gotta love Provincetown.

So it's a pretty incredible place, and one that everyone should visit and support if you ever get the chance. I'd recommend coming during the film festival, because the streets are packed and, of course, there are a ton of great movies to see. Come this weekend and see Humboldt County!

---Lastly, our experience of the fest so far. We've actually gotten to see movies here (Bigger, Strong, Faster* and Encounters at the end of the World, two incredible docs, with the former being released by Magnolia), and we've taken a 13 mile bike trail along the beach and through the sand dunes. Some of the hills nearly destroyed us, but it was an incredible ride and workout.

We've also had the good pleasure of reconnecting with some fellow filmmakers from SXSW, including Josephine Decker of the awesome doc Bi the Way, Daryl Wein of the doc I plan to see Sex Positive, and Georgina Lightning from the fascinating Older than America. We've met other great filmmakers in our few days here already. We're learning that the "festival circuit" leads to much bonding among filmmakers.

That's all for now -- we'll try to post more often so we can be less wordy in the coming days.

-Darren&Danny