Fed Ex Woes and Other TIFF Delights

Originally, this post was going to be a multi-paragraph screed, wherein I railed against TIFF, Fed Ex, God, the Harlem Globetrotters, Mighty Mouse and orphans (word of advice: don't get me started on orphans). But then a few things happened, a few pieces fell into place, and my anger lifted away like a butterfly, floating above the flowers moments before it gets eaten by a roving bird. Which is a shame, because my original post was a masterpiece of uncontrolled bitterness, with TIFF playing the part of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas and me as Bjork in Dancer in the Dark.

But I digress. Here's the gist of my situation: I sent out my Fed Ex package on Thursday. I thought to myself, "If I send this one day early, everything has to work out, right?" So I sent the package out the door, adjusted my smoking jacket (the one I wear when I'm especially self-satisfied) and waited for the heavens to bless my wonderful foresight.

Which naturally did not happen. What did happen is I received a call on Friday morning informing me that Fed Ex had somehow sent my package to California. The California that is not in Canada. In fact, it's nowhere near Canada, Toronto or me. They assured me that the package would arrive later that day, that all was well, and they would clear everything up in due time.

Which naturally did not happen. Instead, I found out my package was set to be delivered on Monday, sometime around 10:30 AM, though where it was at the time I inquired was a point of contention. This did not re-assure me, so I sent off a slightly ticked-off, mostly concerned e-mail to TIFF to let them know this was going on and might be happening to others. I then sat down to write the angry screed referred to above and went to bed, assuming that TIFF would ignore my concerns and do nothing.

Which, surprisingly, did not happen. Rather, I checked my e-mail this morning and found a very welcome message from Mark McGrinder, the Out of Town Service Coordinator, assuring me that they'd made the necessary inquiries and that my package would probably arrive just in time. Going further, they also assured me that if it didn't, they would not hold it against me and would inform me in due time. Which has certainly gone a long way towards making me more comfortable.

I just have to say that I'm very happy with the way TIFF handled this. They could have inquired about the packages and not informed me, but Mr. McGrinder went out of his way to re-assure me about my ticket selections. It was prompt and it went above and beyond, and is worthy of much praise.

I'm still a little ticked-off, since Fed Ex problems seem to plague the festival every single freakin' year, but this appears to have only affected me, and since I sent the package a day early, I've contained the problem. Hopefully. If not, perhaps I'll be pulling that nasty entry I originally wrote out of storage. TIFF made a very good Joe Pesci...

Tentative TIFF Schedule

Hi! I'm back from oblivion to start talking about TIFF, movies, etc. I usually write up a list of the films I'm interested in, some insight into the selection process, etc. but with Twitter and the like, there really didn't seem to be a point.

Well, whatever. Here's the films I've submitted for the ticket lottery:

9-10

Antichrist

9-11

Face
I Am Love
Dogtooth

9-12

Nymph
Independencia
The White Ribbon
Enter the Void

9-13

Valhalla Rising
Warrior and the Wolf
Police, Adjective

9-14

Les Herbes Folles
It's a Gift
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Vengeance

9-15

Trash Humpers
Accident
Castaway on the Moon

9-16

Tales from the Golden Age
The Time That Remains
Solomon Kane

9-17

Mother
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Air Doll
Symbol

9-18

The Bunny & the Bull
Lourdes
L'Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot

9-19

White Material
The Hole

I fully expect at least three or four of these to be busts, which is about average for me. I'm hoping it's less, but...well, experience tells me otherwise. I'm especially fond of 9-17, which has a nice "mother" double feature in it (it would have been a triple if J'ai tue ma mere had been aligned just right).

Anyway, these are my first choices, more or less. Here's hoping my package gets there in time and I even get into the stinking lottery (more on that in my next post).