By Dee Richard
The fat lady has finally sung and it’s all over — the election, that is. We now know who the winners and who the losers are, but interesting questions remain. Why are some winners and others losers?
Could it be the electorate has spoken loud and clear? Are they saying that while they want change, they want the right kind of change? Not the same old rhetoric of empty, forgotten promises. They would rather have a refreshing message of hope that perhaps there really are candidates out there who will try and deliver on their promises toward a better community for all, as opposed to empty, meaningless words just to secure your vote. I guess the voters decided they are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.
We were lucky to have been able to get three young men elected to represent some of our areas. They were Dan Halloran of the 19th City Council District, Peter Koo of the 20th Council District and Eric Ulrich of the 32nd Council District. Hopefully we have much to look forward to. Congratulations to Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as the numerous other candidates that won their races. Better luck next time to those who lost.
Did you know this coming week is the seventh-annual Queens International Film Festival, otherwise known as “QIFF”? On Saturday evening I had dinner in Little Neck’s Il Bacco with Anastasios Makedon, known as “Tasos,” a local Greek Astoria realtor who is pursuing a career in the film world. The name of his company is Maximum Exposure Films. Two of his short films will be presented at QIFF.
Additionally, having dinner with us was Texan Kerry Wallum of Fast Talk’n Productions, who is an actor, writer and producer. Both men are two proud new additions to the advisory board of QIFF. The third guest was Alfredo Versace of design fame.
The subject of discussion was the upcoming film festival. The festival will run from Nov. 12 through Nov. 15. Most of the screenings will be held in the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts at 35-12 35th Ave. in Astoria. Tickets can be purchased online at queensfilmfestival.com or at the Frank Sinatra School’s box office.
During the four days of QIFF there will be over 300 films shown as well as documentaries, book signings, the QIFF Youth Initiative and many other red carpet events.
On Sunday the awards will be presented. The main event will be a tribute to Levon Helm, which is the pet project of Wallum. For those of you not familiar with Helm, he started out as a country western singer and evolved into rock ‘n’ roll, having started his career playing the guitar at age 9 and with his sister, Linda, and winning many talent contests along the Arkansas 4-H Club circuit.
For many years Levon has been successfully running the Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, N.Y., and has had many famous clients use his studios to produce their records. If you are ever up that way, check it out. It’s on 22 acres and is quite a unique facility.
Last year I was fortunate enough to attend several QIFF events. I found them most enjoyable and am looking forward to attending numerous events this year.
Now that all the election hullaballoo is over, things seem not only quiet but almost rather dull. This is the transition period and is not nearly as exciting or exhilarating as the campaigns generally are.
Believe it or not, but we have already received eight invitations to Christmas and holiday parties. We have just gotten over Halloween, Thanksgiving is two weeks away and it seems as though they are rushing things quite a bit and are expecting you to shift your gears rather rapidly.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties and politics or gossip.
I like receiving your voice mails at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
