Thank You, iTunes!

Happy Saturday, LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!

I hope that your weekend is in full swing ... and by that I mean, rocking and a-rolling -- not that you're a swinger.  

I really don't need THAT image in my head.  

Seriously, I don't.  

I already hear my elderly neighbors having sex on odd occasion (really odd occasion!);  which is emotionally scarring enough.  

I mean part of me is really glad that they're still a-movin' and a-groovin' - I just don't need to aurally be part of the whole melange.  Ya know what I mean?

There are many things I appreciate about living in Florida.  (Beaches, warm weather in the winter, beautiful water, great cuisine, diverse peoples, vibrant food truck scenes, waterfowl, marine life, Bayshore Boulevard ...)  

There are also many things I dislike about living in Florida.  (Hurricanes, lightening storms, endless torrential summer rains, rednecks, mosquitos on the banks of the intercoastal, strip clubs and "happy endings massage parlors" everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE ...)

But obviously the good traits outweigh the bad traits since I have been here for what seems like a billion and four years.  However, one item that Tampa Bay lacks still causes me deep heartache ... 

The lack of independent movies.  

For added pain, my old home of Minneapolis has started to become an indie movie release city.  When the Roger Ebert documentary "Life Itself" premiered, it opened in only two cities in the country.  

New York City and Minneapolis.

I shook my fist at the sky at the unfairness of it all.  Had I known I was moving to a cultural wasteland where we only have one indie movie house that plays only one film once a night, I would have watched a lot more indie films when I lived in Minneapolis like I did when I lived in Los Angeles.

Now sometimes we get an indie film here in Tampa - the more popular, mainstream ones.  Unfortunately it will be maybe 4-16 weeks after the rest of the country has seen it.  Even then, the movie is usually only in the theater for 1-4 days.  Poof!  Gone in a blink of an eye!  

I wish Jacksonville's fabulous Sun-Ray Cinema were a lot closer to Tampa Bay!  Maybe it's time to move to the other coast!

I was particularly hurt not knowing if the Roger Ebert documentary would come to Tampa.  I really, really, really, really want to see it.  Nevermind, the fact that Roger Ebert's autobiography of the same title has been sitting on my bookshelf unread forever.  Nevermind, that I had a goal to disconnect my cable TV for the summer and read 12 books in 3 months.  (I've read only two so far and it's practically mid-July ... whoops!)  

But then I read in the magazine "Entertainment Weekly" that "Life Itself" is on iTunes.  How did I miss that??  I did a supreme happy dance!  

Sadly, I figured this key bit of information out at 1:45 a.m. Thursday morning.  My endless parade of staying up way too late and waking up for conference calls with Europe much too early continues.  Sigh ...  

I seem quite intent on making myself into "The Walking Dead."  Zombification 101.  I went to sleep content with the knowledge that this weekend for $6.99 I could rent "Life Itself" on my Apple TV.  I could see Roger Ebert's last journey in the privacy of my own home, which is probably for the best as I suspect I may shed a few tears.  Maybe more than a few.  

It's time to put aside my laptop and cable TV and read that autobiography that has been patiently waiting for me all this time ...  but maybe after I watch the documentary on iTunes.  My cultural wasteland just sprouted a small oasis ... and I am going to enjoy every moment of it.

Happy Saturday to you all - thanks for reading!