My Amazing Friends

I have made this point before, but I will make it again - I have the most amazing friends, certainly far better than I deserve. And yesterday I received a reminder, in fact two of them, of how great they are, and how much I miss them. First off, I received an email, copied below, from the amazing Sanford Zale (my partner in the now legendary trip to Oklahoma, chronicled in the blog which can be reached through my blog list) detailing the long-awaited world premiere of The Nostradamus Cycle. This film - well, actually, it is closer to an epic, and certainly far more than a movie - documents the second annual chicken wing eating competition for charity. The most excellent Sanford, Erik and Andy edited the film for over nine months, in fact I think it took longer to finish than Coppola's final cut of Apocalypse Now (a film of far more modest scope). It is now complete and I wish I were there to attend the world premiere. How it was not chosen for consideration at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (more on that later) is beyond me. If that were not enough, when I arrived back at my room at the Radisson I found a letter mysteriously slid under my door. It was from the excellent Andy, who, in addition to a very sweet letter, also included the used cheese curd container from the A & W Restaurant in Middlebury, Vermont. Andy, Mike Lange and I had made a sojourn there last year (also recorded on this blog) and they were sending along a reminder of their own trip there recently, and letting me know how much I was missed. It was very touching, and you can still see the grease stains on the box. For those of you who are not familiar with a cheese curd - and, truthfully, if you are that unsophisticated how did you get access to the Internet? - they are fried cheese. They remind Mike and Andy of their upper midwestern roots, and, besides being utterly delicious, are probably the worst thing you could probably eat.

"Dear friends –


You are invited to attend one or both parts of a major Spectacle that will occur on Thursday, 20 October. The particulars are these:



PART ONE:

The world premiere of The Nostradamus Cycle, a movie about a chicken-wing eating contest, filmed by me and edited by Messrs. Burkhardt and Esckilsen, will occur at 5:00pm on Thursday, 20 October, in Ireland 017. This is a Work of Art, and it runs for about 13 minutes. Featured in this movie are the following thespians:

--Her Excellency Cinse Bonino;

--Cyndi Brandenburg, President of the Faculty of this College and chicken-wing eater;

--The aforementioned Burkhardt, one of the cinematographers responsible for all of this;

--Ben Cavallari, one of only two characters whose expletives had to be deleted, as this film is rated PG;

--Cinematographer Esckilsen, who in the movie is seen to be doing something that is disgusting;

--Dr. Michael Kelly, seen, among other things, to be drinking beer in this movie;

--Mike Lange, who has important things to say about salad in this movie;

--Well-known partier Megan Munson-Warnken;

--Excellent Norwich University librarians Ms. Heidi Steiner and Mr. Elliot Polak;

--Plenipotentiary Gary Scudder, captured on film prior to his having fled the country;

--Her Excellency Pat Suozzi *and* her husband, Bob;

--William Vespa, husband of the chicken-wing eating President of the Faculty of this College; also, their son;

--Mr. Kenneth Wade, in fact a thespian, who steals the show at a certain point in the movie;

--Steve Wehmeyer, following up his role in the movie Titanic with a speaking role in The Nostramadus Cycle;

--Sanford Zale, the other character whose expletives had to be deleted, as this film is rated PG.



PART TWO:

Cast and crew party, to which all recipients of this e-mail message are invited, at the Old Northender bar, following the airing of the movie. This bar is on the south side of North Street, near the intersection of North Street and North Avenue. One imagines that, at some point, those who would like to play poker, will.



Thanks – Sandy"

This has left me more than a tad homesick.