Opelika Orange

Back from Auburn and gotta say, I was quite impressed with the campus and the environment down there.  I'd never really been to that part of the state-- and I suppose if the tour amounts to nothing else, at least I'm gonna get to visit a lot of the South I've never had a chance to visit.  As I told my wife Peyton (the costume designer for A Genesis Found and The Nocturnal Third, who as an added bonus got to come along with me last night)-- I get to pretend I'm a four or five star athletic recruit, visiting all these colleges-- except nobody really gives a damn I'm on campus, and I don't have the hair.

Regardless, Auburn ain't a bad drive, and Peyt and I both dug campus.  We got there via back roads, so it's kinda like driving to Tuscaloosa through Cottondale-- there isn't a sign of civilization until about two minutes from campus.  So just when I thought all those Auburn jokes about pastures and mules were true... boom, there's the Plains.

The school's Anthropology club sponsored the screening (that's something a lot of these screenings have in common) and we had about the current tour standard number of students/ community folks show up for the screening.  Regardless, it screened well, and I got to wander around a nice campus for an hour or so with my wife (during the cave scenes that just don't age well the more you see them).  Plus, the Padres lost, so now the Braves, who've been trying their best to give their playoff spot away despite it being Bobby's last year, are now a win or so away from the NL Wild Card.  And Auburn has a Jimmy Johns, which is always a treat.  All and all a good trip.  No worries, though, Tuscaloosa, we still got 'em beat.

Just ol' Luke sportin' them locks of Opelika Orange

Not much great insight here.  I did have a nice talk with my contact Arianne, a anthropology professor, originally from urban Massachusetts (where my step-brother-in-law currently calls home), and an alum of the University of Southern California (where she worked some with their now nonexistent ethnographic film program).  She mentioned, with future screenings, I might want to try and get Student Associations involved, like the viewing societies who are ahead of getting those almost-out-on-DVD Hollywood flicks screening at the on campus theater for like a buck a ticket.  I initially started that route, when I first starting trying to organize the tour, but aside from one nice young man at Kentucky who politely sent me in another direction, I never heard back from a single one of them-- that's like one out of forty-six.  So, obviously, not a great place to start-- but, it might be a good group to get involved once the film is locked for a screening on campus-- I certainly need to get better at finding easier ways to get these screenings "buzzing" on campus, which, aside from Pearl River Community College (where my contact also worked in the PR dept), I haven't really been able to accomplish yet.

Here's hoping Johnson City is "hopin'" like Auburn-- we'll see you folks at East Tennessee State October 6!