Old Havana Cigar Co.

Cool little wine and cigar store in Rome where the festival had a party. Pipe tobacco reminds me of my great-uncle...

Blue Wall. Rome, GA

I forgot what building this was but the whole brick building was painted baby blue... interesting choice...

The Desoto Theater, Rome, GA

The Desoto Theater in rome. The headquarters for Rome International Film Festival this year. Built at about the same time as The Alabama Theater here in Birmingham.

In early 1928 O. C. Lam, the owner of Lam Amusement Company, laid plans to construct a new movie theater in downtown Rome, Georgia. Lam wanted to build a movie palace -- a luxurious theater modeled after New York's Roxy. Lam purchased a section of prime real estate on the main street of downtown Rome for $50,000.
The building's exterior and Georgian interior stylishly housed a number of recent movie palace innovations. Designed as a "talkie" theater, it the first venue in the South to be designed and built for sound pictures. Rome's new house boasted a Vitaphone sound system. And, the theater was heated and cooled by an innovative blower-fan air conditioning and tubular boiler system. Additionally, the theater was equipped with state of the art fire safety equipment. Fitted with many exits, the theater could be emptied in two minutes.
Lam named his new movie palace for Hernando DeSoto, who was thought by many historians to have passed through the area that is now Rome in 1540. The DeSoto was completed at a cost of $110,000 and opened in August of 1929. The theater seated 1,500, making it one of the seven largest movie venues in Georgia at the time. The theater was an instant success and the pride of Rome. The DeSoto was one of the main sources of entertainment for Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama for the next fifty years.

Me walking around Rome

When in Rome... you must take cheesy pics of yourself in a store window with your cell phone.

Grandpa Bill Documentary official selection for 9th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival!

We got great news yesterday! After waiting all weekend for the email it finally came in...
How I Get Down... (The True Story of Grandpa Bill)" has been accepted as an official selection in Birmingham's Sidewalk Film Festival!Check out the new website and stay tuned for screening dates and times. While you're bored you can go to the GPB Myspace page (link above) and watch the two trailers. The first one is a teaser trailer and the second one is the new official trailer. Also the official GPB blog lives there so check there for more techinical stuff and the latest news on festivals.
Well we've got tonz of work to do now... look for posters popping up around town as well as a few surprizes if you come to Sidewalk this year. BTW the dates for Sidewalk are: September 28th - 30th. So go ahead and plan to take off that weekend. It'll be worth it believe me!

Mountaintop camera 5