JED'S FILMS PREMIER 5/5, 6 & 7/2012

In three nights and three days we experienced the great and bad, the beautiful and ugly, the love and the hate of New York.  In any city these opposites can be found.  I believe though that the more metropolitan a city, the larger it is, the more diverse the population, the more opportunity there is to find extremes. 
We came here to support our son and daughter-in-law, Jed and Kate.  But while here we took in the city too.  We toured Times Square on our own in the daytime and the night time.  We ran into some wonderful people.  Smack dab in the middle of Times Square we ran into three elderly ladies from North Carolina, obvious tourists, obviously on their first trip to The Big Apple.  Wayne offered to take their picture for them and then they did for us.  They were bubbly, giggly and so excited to be where they were.  All of a sudden one of them got really excited and called out, "Miss Landsbury, Miss Landsbury!" ..... 

 

..... and then took off snapping pictures.  And sure enough, there was Angela Landsbury, being escorted by one of her aides to her stage entrance where she is staring with James Earl Jones in the Broadway play, "The Best Man".  Gracious to the hilt, but in a hurry, she turned to acknowledge her fan and then was whisked off by her aide.

By the time I got my camera out and snapped all I got was the back of her white haired head, her cane and the back side of her aide.  We were impressed with her graciousness and kindness though. 

Later that night, we saw the ugly side of things.  As we were near the Hershey store across from the M&M's store a hustler got aggressive and insulting with Wayne.  Wayne tried to just walk away and the man persisted, becoming more demeaning.  Wayne should have walked away, but turned and gave the guy what for and then walked into the store to report the incident to a security guard inside.  The guard sounded like Jed would have sounded, telling Wayne to ignore stupid people like that or you could get killed.  Sad commentary on life that one must take and ignore abusive people and inappropriate behavior, allowing them to dominate ones life.

But we also got to feel more masterful of the subway and mass transit system.  What a thrill to be able to feel more confident in a place you were uncomfortable with a few years back.  Traveling and exploring new areas definitely opens one to new opportunities for growth and experiencing an understanding of other life styles.
We were lucky that our oldest son, Luke, was able to take time off to come up from Maryland area to spend time with us and support Jed and Kate.  We enjoyed the time we spent with him.  It is a good feeling for parents when they see their adult children supporting each other and being part of each other's lives!!!

Anyway, both Saturday night and Sunday night we attended the screening or premiers of 6 films.  Jed had one in each night.  Saturday, "Dear Dog, I Love You" was met very favorably by the audience, beating out 5 other films and was selected as the night's audience favorite!  Quite an honor!  There were no people in the theater at the time of this photo because we arrived early to save seats for later coming family and friends.  The place was packed by the time the films began.

See, more people later.  There you see Kate and beyond her, the star of the film, Paul Newman, (the dog) so named because of his beautiful blue eyes, like his namesake.

In the audience was also Kate's brother, Jon and his wonderful wife.  They were so much fun to be with!

At the end of each evening, the casts and crews of the 6 films were interviewed and photographed.  Here are the principle actors from "Dear Dog. I Love You" and Jed , the screen play writer and director.

Here they added kate, the Executive Producer and the producers.

More of Jed's photo ops that others were posing them for and Wayne just squeezed in a shot too!  Again, both nights, we marveled at the number of people that were clamoring to be with Jed and the number of people complimenting him.  Proud?  Yup!  We were!  By the way, on the night his other film, "Shale" premiered, his film also won The Audience Choice Award!  No photos of that night though, but the same type of activities were prevalent.

We spent much time eating out.  This late night after one of the premiers, we family went to The Shake Shack, a popular eatery.  It was fun being together with family, only we were able to experience the baser side of some of the young people of the city.  In the table right next to Wayne and Ann was a group of college boys and one young woman.  The language they were using and the vulgar stories of their recent conquests were being told in loud enough fashion that all in the area were privy to their conversation.  Wayne received the look from Jed to stay out of it, but after a serious stare down with the young men and Wayne giving it his best teacher look of disapproval, they toned it down and finally left.  I am so disappointed in the debasing, disrespect and dishonor many of the people of our society are placing upon themselves and the lack of respect for others.  It is wrong and it is not as it should be.  I agree it is not my job to correct everybody, but I still am saddened and angry at the direction much of our society is headed.  So many are saying what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right.  Sad!!!!!  One can say that it is their right to choose how they behave and live. But I say their right ends at the point where it infringes on other peoples rights.  Those kids freedom of speech was infringing on my freedom of peaceful gathering.  Nuf!

It is so disappointing and disgusting as I watched many of the films that were presented and applauded that were vulgar and crude.  I am proud that our son's films were honorable, telling a good story and represented the good in life.  I am proud that he received honors from his peers, even though his films did not lower themselves to the peep show, x-rated status.
Isn't that a cute couple sitting across the subway from us?

Jed and Ann went shopping one day for needed items for the expectant Kate.  Ann is such a loving kind person.  Kate had a baby shower a few days after we left and Ann was not going to be left out of the process!

Shop, shop, shop!

It was a wonderful time we had with Jed and Kate and Luke.  And, even with its not so pleasing experiences, we enjoyed most of New York.  We developed more confidence in our cruising the city on our won, we enjoyed our son and daughter-in-law and enjoyed talking to all the little kids and security people of the city.  Oh, we also went to see a Broadway Musical, "Newsies" thanks to Kate and her friends!!  Good times