Author: Connie Wilson Page 1 of 180

Biographical Information

Connie (Corcoran) Wilson graduated from the University of Iowa and earned a Master’s degree from Western Illinois University, with additional study at Northern Illinois, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago. She taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois colleges and wrote for five newspapers and 7 blogs. Her stories and interviews have appeared online and in print and her work has won prizes from “Whim’s Place Flash Fiction," “Writer’s Digest” (Screenplay), E-Lit award for 3 works, Illinois Women's Press Association Silver Feather awards, Pinnacle award (NABE) and recommendations for the Bram Stoker award. She is the author of 4 nonfiction published books, 4 short story collections, 1 novel and there are 2 novels ready for publication (the trilogy beginning with "The Color of Evil.") She reviewed film and books for the Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa) for 12 years and wrote humor columns and conducted interviews for the (Moline, Illinois) Daily Dispatch.

Michael Keaton & Kyra Sedgewick in “Sweetwater” at HollyShorts 2026

By Connie Wilson

On August 14, 2026

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Movies, Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Michael Keaton in “Sweetwater,” a HollyShorts offering.

Michael Keaton directed and starred in a 20’ 52” Holly Shorts short entitled “Sweetwater” that also featured veteran actress Kyra Sedgewick. It was a stroll down memory lane into the past for main character Robert (Bobby), who is returning to the home once occupied by his now-deceased mother, a former Hollywood singer/actress.

The mysterious gift-giver of what appears to be a black 8-ball that Michael Keaton’s character (Robert/Bobby) rolls across the floor of his mother’s house after entering summons an apparition of Mom during life. The disembodied voice says it is “a token of appreciation” and “something that your incredible mother deserved.” The gift allows Robert (Keaton) to interact with Mom one more time, from beyond the grave—but not in a spooky or scary fashion.

DENOUEMENT

Michael Keaton’s character of Robert/Bobby is the son of the dead woman who is now able to show up and give him, one last time, a tour of the house where she lived during life with her Teddy Bear of a husband for 42 years.

The interesting thing, for me, was seeing Michael Keaton again, credited as Michael Keaton Douglas. The 75-year-old has not been as present on our movie screens since his Oscar-nod in “Birdman” in 2014, 12 years ago. Keaton’s real name is and was Michael Douglas; he merely adopted Keaton to cut down on the confusion with the other Michael Douglas and has never legally changed his name.

FAMILY CONNECTIONS

The script was written by Sean Douglas, who also composed the music. Cinematography was by Christopher Ripley. The special effects were as good as those used on the TV show “Ghosts,” a UK import. In that series, a couple inherits a house that they hope to turn into a bed-and-breakfast,only to learn that it is inhabited by ghosts. One of the new owners develops the ability to see the ghosts, which leads to humorous situations.

Here, humor is missing, conflict is missing, and it’s as if Jackie Kennedy rose from the dead to take us on another of her tours of the White House. It was kind of an odd dispirited tour when Jackie was alive (yes, I’m old enough to remember it) with Jackie speaking in that Marilyn Monroe-like Little Girl voice. If Jackie O. had led us on that tour as a spectre or a wraith it would have been even stranger , but not necessarily any more engrossing or entertaining. Just….odder.

This short led me to think that, like “Chop Cheese” that featured Christopher Meloni helping launch his daughter Sophia’s directorial career, Michael Keaton (Douglas) is trying to help a family member (son Sean) get a start on a larger career in Hollywood. Or maybe it marks a new chapter for the 75-year-old Oscar-nominated Keaton himself, who is already a producer. He’s been somewhat quiescent since his 2014 Oscar-nomination for “Birdman,” (although he did suit up for “The Flash” in 2023 and was in “Morbius” in 2022), so maybe he’s going in a new direction?

SEAN DOUGLAS

Sean Douglas Michael’s son, is the 43-year-old father of two (married in 2014), who attended Washington University in St. Louis. He has already established a strong career as a songwriter. A Grammy Award-nominee,^[5] he co-wrote Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man“, which won the ACM Award for Single of the Year,^[6] the Billboard Music Award for Top Country Song,^[7] the CMA Award for Single of the Year^[8] and the BMI Award for Song of the Year.^[9] The song, released in 2016, was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.^[10] Douglas also worked on Lizzo’s “Like A Girl” and “Soulmate” from her Grammy-winning album Cuz I Love You.

The music is solid and Kyra Sedgewick gets to sing, which she does well.

Kyra Sedgewick in the HollyShorts film “Sweetwater,” directed by Michael Keaton Douglas.

CONFLICT

For me—a genre fiction writer and University of Iowa grad—there should be some conflict in a story—even a short one— to hold the reader’s interest. Here there is none. The deceased Mom seems to have had a lovely life and a great career and takes us on a pleasant tour of her former home. Michael Keaton just stands around or walks around the now-empty house. (Jackie Kennedy Onassis does not chime in with commentary, which would have been an interesting, if inexplicable, turn the plot might have taken just to keep us interested.) The film was the equivalent of sitting down with your grandmother to leaf through her photo albums, which, as we all know, is the favorite thing for Generation Z movie-goers—who are rushing off to see “Obsession” at the theater—to do.

With old pros like these two involved, the end product is okay. But, for me, it was not riveting storytelling and I’m not sure that a longer version of this would attract today’s audiences.

HollyShorts Film Festival Runs from August 13th – August 23rd

By Connie Wilson

On August 13, 2026

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews

Executive-produced projects from Zoe Saldaña, Margot Robbie, Barry Keoghan, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Serena Williams and more also headline the 2026 programme for HollyShorts, on now..

The HollyShorts Film Festival now in its 22nd edition, continues its legacy as one of the world’s premier showcases for short-form cinema. Taking place August 13–23, 2026, at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatres and venues throughout Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, the Oscar®-qualifying festival will present 430 films selected from thousands of submissions from filmmakers around the globe.

Martin Freeman in Little Bug

Among this year’s headline premieres is Renée Zellweger’s directorial debut They, while Martin Freeman stars in Little Bug, the story of Laika, the first dog to orbit Earth aboard a Soviet space mission. Michael Keaton directs and stars opposite Kyra Sedgwick in Sweetwater, while Alexandra Shipp makes her directorial debut with For Niko, in which she also stars. Vincent Cassel leads the sports drama The Colosseum, and Michael Caine lends his voice to the poetic wartime drama Bobby.

Additional marquee selections include Selah, Lara Everly’s comedy-drama starring Milana Vayntrub; It’s Complicated, written by and starring Iman Karram and executive produced by Zoe Saldaña; and The Sisters of Scott County, featuring Kaitlyn Dever and Ava Phillippe. Michael Gandolfini and Christopher Meloni lead Sophia Meloni’s coming-of-age comedy Chop Cheese, while Lara Condor, Owen Teague and Kaia Gerber star in Get Her Back!, written by acclaimed New York playwright Leah Nanako Winkler and executive produced by Margot Robbie.

Other featured titles include Renée Marie Petropoulos’ Souvenir; See You, Soon, starring Asante Black and Isaiah John; Gregory Kasunich’s Meeting Your Maker, starring Jonathan Kite; Callum Adams’ Townies (or, My Little Town), starring Maren Lord and Michel Gil; and Rachel Olson’s Homebodies, starring Sam Richardson and Martha Kelly.

Other notable live-action shorts include the Jordan Peele-produced horror Spilled Milk, directed by Jared Leaf and starring J. Alphonse Nicholson and Kid Cudi; Charlie Dennis’ The Pigs Underneath, executive produced by Jordan Peele; Alanna Longo’s Am I a Bad Person?; the comedy-horror FruitHead, starring Bradley Whitford; Emily Alpren and Marchelle Bradanini’s Floored, starring Mara Wilson; Hazart’s Stay for the Q+A, starring Jim Cummings; Kendra Jo’s Please Return Your Cart, starring Russell Hornsby and Kimrie Lewis; Aristides Mantilla’s In the Still of the Night, starring Academy Award winner Yalitza Aparicio; and Nell Riley’s Missed, starring Anna Camp.

Dame Judi Dench in Joke

Among the standout British entries is Joke, directed by Bob Cryer, son of legendary comedian Barry Cryer, featuring an all-star cast including Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Alison Steadman. Pippa Lore Feldberg Collins’ Gobstopper, starring Mia McKenna-Bruce and Annabel Scholey, is executive produced by Barry Keoghan and Simon Curtis, while BRUVVAS, directed by and starring Katie McGuinness, features Ben Whishaw. Also screening is Darius Norowzian’s Fox, starring Todd Von Joel and Kierston Wareing. Zak Jarvis’ Signal starring Emmy award winner, 2 x BAFTA nominee Christopher Eccleston as Ray, a railway Signalman whose routine night shift turns into a race to save a life after spotting Billy – a distressed young man trespassing on the tracks, played by BAFTA winner Jack Rowan.

Other notable British selections include David Ledger’s sock-puppet comedy Odd Socks, starring Sandi Toksvig and Paterson Joseph; Alex Lanipekun’s Echoes, featuring Ashley Walters, Nathalie Emmanuel and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and executive produced by Nicholas Pinnock; Sai Karan Talwar’s I Am the Prize, starring Russell Tovey; Still Life, starring Ophelia Lovibond; How to Hide It, executive produced by Idris and Sabrina Elba; Kat Butterfield and Daniel Audritt’s Life Goes On, starring David Bradley; and Catherine Joy White’s documentary Swim Sistas, narrated by Naomie Harris, exploring the relationship between Black women and swimming.

The documentary programme includes The Revolution Against Death from Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer; Daniel Straub’s A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil; and Victoria Trow’s Eructation, following the woman attempting to break the world record for the loudest burp.

Animation highlights include Pigeons, directed by Amos Sussigan and featuring the voice of Andy Serkis, and Stephen P. Neary’s Sundance-winning Living with a Visionary, narrated by James Cromwell. Natasha Lyonne, Yara Shahidi and Daveed Diggs lend their voices to ChikaBOOM!, while Oscar-nominated Butterfly and Academy Award-winning The Girl Who Cried Pearls further strengthen the animated programme. Also screening is Apart, directed by Pola Maneli and written by Academy Award winner Spike Lee, a moving story of two boys whose friendship is tested during apartheid in South Africa. Rounding out the programme is Send Nudes, directed by Student Academy Award nominee David Sick.

The festival’s music video programme includes Gorillaz’s The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God and Jack White’s Archbishop Harold Holmes, starring John C. Reilly.

Led by Emmy Award-winning producer Jessica Badawi since its launch in 2024, HollyShorts’ Sports programme returns with another exceptional lineup. Serena Williams executive produces Zina, a documentary chronicling the remarkable life and career of tennis pioneer Zina Garrison, while four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry joins two-time Academy Award® winner Ben Proudfoot to co-direct The Baddest Speechwriter of All, exploring the extraordinary life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s trusted lawyer and speechwriter, Clarence B. Jones. Also featured is Grenadye Alaso! 1974–2026, directed by Leo Volcy and executive produced by Grammy Award-winning Haitian producer and DJ Michael Brun alongside U.S. soccer legend Jozy Altidore, celebrating Haiti’s return to the FIFA World Cup after 52 years.
As one of the world’s leading Oscar®-qualifying short film festivals, HollyShorts offers Academy Award® qualification in four categories: Best Short Film Grand Prize, Best Live-Action Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short, making it a key launchpad for filmmakers seeking recognition on the international stage.

Expanding beyond this year’s official selection, HollyShorts is launching two global film fund initiatives with a combined $40,000 in prizes.

The HollyShorts Film Festival Short Film Fund will award one filmmaker a $25,000 prize package, including a $10,000 production grant from IMGN, a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K, one-to-one mentorship from acclaimed filmmakers and industry executives, Kodak production support for both the winner and runner-up, and an official world premiere at the 2027 HollyShorts Film Festival.
The festival is also introducing the HollyShorts & Film.io Audience-Validated Competition, presented in partnership with Film.io Studios and the Film.io platform. Open to completed short films, the initiative provides filmmakers with an audience-driven discovery platform where they can build momentum, compete for $15,000 in cash awards, and position future projects for financing opportunities.

Celebrating more than two decades of championing emerging talent and bold storytelling, the HollyShorts Film Festival continues to be a vital force in discovering the next generation of filmmakers from around the world.

“Chop Cheese” at the HollyShorts Film Festival, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On August 13, 2026

In Uncategorized

Luca Rickman

Luca Rickman,Dante.

“Chop Cheese” was directed by 25-year-old Sophia Meloni from a story idea from her 3-years younger brother Dante Meloni. There is a brief appearance near the end of the 15-minute short from Dad Christopher Meloni, familiar to fans of “Special Victims Unit” as Detective Stabler, who appeared opposite Mariska Hargitay in that role from 1999 until 2011.

Mariska Hargitay, godmother to Meloni’s son (Dante) and daughter (Sophia), is credited for her contribution at film’s end.

The short opens with three teen-aged boys entering a bodega to order chop cheese sandwiches from the old-timer manning the grill, Enzio (Mark Lake). Chop Cheese, spicey mayo seems to be the favorite for all three boys. They are en route to their own New York homes via the subway. One boy takes Train One. We learn that Luca’s character, Dante, has two moms and lives in the West Village.

The grizzled cook (Mark Lake as Enzio ) represents a sort of male model for Dante. He is familiar to the boy and always calls the young man “Boss.” Dante compliments the chef at the Village Gourmet Deli saying, “You’re the man.”

Enzio replies that he doesn’t own the grill; he just works there.

Mark Lake as Enzio the cook.

MORAL

When Mom Isabel Gillie notices that Dante’s purchases are mounting up, she insists that he get a job. Veteran character actor Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. (“The Wire”) makes an appearance here, as Dante’s co-worker, delivering Coca Cola and other food supplies, set in a large warehouse.

Upon returning to the Village Gourmet Deli, late in the short, Dante encounters two strangers behind the grill, played by Michael Gandolfini (son of James Gandolfini) and Christopher Meloni. Dante asks about the missing cook.

Enzio has left. This underscores the film’s main message, “People move on. Things change.”

At one point in the dialogue the Bodega chef had told the teenager, “It’s time to move on.”

Dante responded, “People move on.” Mark Lake, the grizzled short order cook said, “That they do, kid, or they don’t.”

CONCLUSION

I recently read a college application letter from a 17-year-old who commented that the normal routines of her life will change dramatically with her looming graduation from high school and subsequent entrance to college. It is true that young people sometimes fail to realize that there will be drastic changes to their lives as they grow up . In this short, we see Dante encountering that very fact of maturity, as represented by Enzio, the short order cook, who has simply left his long-time post and drifted out of Dante’s life.

The only constant in life is change; Dante is just realizing this as he matures into adulthood.

As the famous line from “The Outsiders” put it, “Nothing gold can stay.”

“Fault” by Writer/Director Misha Calvert Screens at HollyShorts 2026

By Connie Wilson

On August 11, 2026

In Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Reviews

Steff (Sarah Rich) practicing her serve as “Fault” opens. (Robert E. Newman photo).

In slightly less than 15 minutes Writer/Director Misha Calvert of “Fault” takes us into the history of two sisters, tennis prodigies, who were both molested by the same male coach.

The successful younger sister, Steff (Sarah Rich), is still under the control of the never onscreen male voice, who is warning Steff against listening to her older sister, Gigi (Coco Jourdana).

Beginning

Sarah Rich as Steff in Misha Calvert’s “Fault” at the HollyShorts Film Festival. (Photo by Robert E. Newman, Director of Photography).

We see Steff practicing serving on her own private tennis court, adjacent to a fantastic mansion-like home. The sets and set decorations are outstanding, as is the music, with an original score by Stuart Michael Thomas and featuring the original song “I’m Gonna’ Haunt You,” sung by Fabienne Delso of Damaged Good Records.

End

Fifteen minutes isn’t much time to tell a story as complicated as Coco Jourdana’s. The screaming ending for the fifteen minutes of furious charge and counter-charge probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Gigi (Coco Jourdana) arrived at her sister’s home primed for confrontation. At the door, sister Steff says, “I only have an hour.” Gigi responds, “I drove for four.” (Photo by Director of Photography Robert E. Newman).

After all, where else can you take a plot this complex in 14 minutes and 25 seconds? The real interesting story here is the backstory, which is supposedly based on actual events in the life of co-star Coco Jourdana (Gigi).

August 4th to 9th in Chicago: Anne Frank, Spiderman & the Cubs

By Connie Wilson

On August 9, 2026

In Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Sports, the Wilsons on vacation, travel

With the Foo Fighters performing at Soldier Field on Saturday night, August 8^th, six of us were hunkered down in the South Loop, doing tourist-y things. After all, the nice African American lady at the DMV told me I should always celebrate my birthday all month long. And don’t I usually do what I’m told? (Don’t answer that.)

The son (Scott) and wife (Jessica) and the two gorgeous 17-year-old granddaughters (Ava & Elise) arrived on Wednesday and the games began with the Cubs fans attending a game at Wrigley Field opposite the Toronto Blue Jays. The game was described to me as being kind of boring until the 9^th inning, when the Cubs pulled a win out of the fire when Alex Bergman hit a home run in the 9^th inning to tie the game. A player whose nickname sounds like a toxic chemical (PCA) scored in the 11^th inning to bring home the win. I was thrilled to hear that the Cubbies won, but I did not want to sit on a hard plank in the sun with no back rest for what turned out to be something like 5 hours.

I headed out for the much-advertised duck drop, taking the subway with the 5 Cubs fans and exiting near the site, which happened to be right next door to the futuristic Apple store.

The duck drop featured 90,000 ducks dropped into the Chicago River. You could sponsor a duck for $10, which I did. I tried to get a picture of the actual drop, which was impossible with 40,000 to 60,000 people all shooting cell phone video at the same time. My duck did not win, but I enjoyed the festive atmosphere and will provide some photos to prove how crowded this Special Olympics fundraiser was.

I was given a free can of an energy drink called Zero, and, as the ducks were dropped into the river, I went down one level and learned that an architecture cruise was going to be embarking at 1:30 p.m. It was still possible to secure a ticket, so I did. Some of the architecture cruise shots will follow.

I also contributed to the Ukrainian Defense Fund, purchasing an old-fashioned newspaper with my photo on it, which reminded me of all of the fake/phoney magazines and newspapers that DJT has used over the years.

After the cruise ended an hour and a half later, I took the bus back to the South Loop, which cost $2.50 and waited for the baseball fans to return.

That night we decided to walk to Flo & Santo’s for dinner outside, with music provided by a guitarist who sang. The only snag was that my husband’s pizza never arrived. At all. Everyone else was served their food, but poor Craig ended up having to take his pizza home in a box. There was an adjustment to the bill for “food never arrived;” he took the omission with good humor.

Friday night was my deferred birthday dinner at a mystery site. I had asked the son and heir to “surprise me.” He certainly did, finding out that we could dine at the Metropolitan Club atop the Willis Tower (108 stories up), but only on Friday nights. It is a private club the rest of the time. (Pictures to follow). We had one entire room to ourselves and a very friendly waiter, who urged the celebrants in the room to sing Happy Birthday with gusto. Since we were the only ones in the room, it wasn’t hard to get everyone to sing.

I selected the lobster bisque soup, a 7 oz. filet, and mashed potatoes which my husband and I shared. The bill was at least $600, but I’m not supposed to inquire about that, as it was my birthday dinner and very impressive,—although Lake Point Tower and the Signature Room atop the Hancock Building, pictured in previous posts, were pretty spectacular sites, too—both of them now closed.

View from the 108th floor of the Willis (Sears) Tower.

The security to ascend to the Willis (or Sears) Tower that has the record as almost the tallest U.S. building is daunting. We each had to present our drivers’ licenses and go through metal detectors. It took two elevators to get to the right floor. The other rooms on that floor were interesting. One had a gigantic video wall where people were driving golf balls at the screen. There was a photo booth that gave us free photos taken at the top. A truly breathtaking view of the city spread out before us from our window and 2 rather large spiders on the exterior of the window. The headlights of cars wending their way on the ground below looked like diamonds, sparkling and moving at ground level, with never a break in the line of white lights.

During the day on Friday, before the dining experience, the girls went shopping for a while, Jessica met up with her cousin and family and we stopped at the Obama Library Building for forty minutes trying to find out how my two Obama books might be included in the display of over 32,000 items from Obama’s 2008 campaign. My reporting on his run that year for Associated Content meant that Yahoo declared me the Content Producer of the Year for Politics. I’d like the library to at least have a record of all of Obama’s rally stops in Iowa. It was Iowa that gave him his “ticket to ride” back in 2008. I was able to find out from Jade Jewell, a better e-mail address to use. I apparently need to submit my two volumes to the Chicago Public Library, as well.

Ducky Derby and me.

After the Obama Library stop, we hit the Museum of Science and Industry, for the Anne Frank tour and Spiderman. After walking around at the Obama Center for 40 minutes, there was a lot more to see. (I counted 54 steps down for one level, which, fortunately, were steps going down, not up). Our parking was comped in the facility as we left by showing a QR code.

We went off Lake Shore Drive and cruised by the 31^st Street Beach, where a family photo taken of Grandpa Craig with the girls lying on his back when little is a favorite. Unfortunately, there was an “officer down” situation at that exit.

We left for dinner (7 p.m.) at 6:30 p.m. Getting there by Uber went well, but getting home af did not go well when our driver knew nothing about driving in the city and we had to instruct him on how to get back to Michigan Avenue. Fortunately, the son and wife had better instincts than our non-English speaking driver.

Apple store.

The final night (Saturday) the younger members of the group trekked over to Soldier Field to hear Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters. Grohl said it was their biggest concert appearance ever in Chicago.

Today, it Is raining, so the Navy Pier trip has been scrubbed and, instead, we are coping with potential tornadoes and flooding across the Midwest.

(L to R) Scott, Craig, Elise, Connie, Ava & Jessica.

Same architect as Marina Towers.

Remember Spidergirl?

HollyShorts Film Festival Runs from Aug. 13-Aug. 23, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On August 1, 2026

In Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews

HollyShorts 2026 Champions Authentic LGBTQ+ Voices with Diverse Short Film Line-Up

Tanzyn Crawford and Emily Grant in Souvenir

The Oscar® and BAFTA-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival returns for its 22nd edition from August 13–23, 2026, at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, presenting an outstanding LGBTQIA+ programme that celebrates the breadth and diversity of queer storytelling.

Holly Shorts Film Festival (August 13-23), a qualifying festival for the Oscars, is gearing up with some 430 short film offerings.

Justin H. Min stars in Callback in which a seemingly joyful career breakthrough throws a couple into emotional turmoil, while (0,∞) features Brandon Wilson, Alex Blue Davis, Marianne Rendón and Cheech Manohar in a heartfelt story about two men navigating the surprisingly emotional process of applying for a mortgage together. Renée Marie Petropoulos offers an intimate portrait of teenage love and consent in her SXSW-winning short Souvenir starring Tanzyn Crawford and Emily Grant, and Gallina examines childhood friendship and belonging through the eyes of a young boy confronted with impossible choices.

Carlton Daniel´s FLY follows an ambitious ballet dancer whose rivalry blossoms into something deeper during auditions for a coveted apprenticeship, while It Comes in Waves captures a young man’s quiet awakening over one transformative summer. HIGH VOLTAGE explores the blurred line between friendship and first love, and Hummingbird follows a sheltered Catholic schoolgirl who risks everything for one unforgettable night with her openly queer classmate. Delay centres on a gay Chinese father whose journey to attend his son’s wedding takes an unexpected turn, while Diego explores sexuality, disability and masculinity within a close-knit Romani family.

Horror titles include Camp Oleander, transforming the conversion camp narrative into an unsettling folk horror, while Barrett Carroll makes his directorial debut with Eat, blending queer desire with visceral body horror after two strangers connect through a kink app. The Beard imagines a chilling near-future America where being queer has become a felony, and In The Flesh delivers dark psychological horror through the story of a seemingly perfect housewife harbouring dangerous obsessions. Method Cowboy offers a razor-sharp satire of Hollywood and performative identity as a struggling actor pretends to be gay to land the role of a lifetime, while Scissors reinvents the slasher movie with a queer twist, turning the hunter into the hunted.

Among the Animation selection are The Lovers, which reimagines Filipino mythology through the story of a seafood chef drawn into a forbidden romance with a mythical sirena, while Addicted To It delivers a fast-paced and inventive satire of smartphone addiction.

Santiago Reyes and Luis Selgas in Save the Date

Other LGBTQ+ highlights include PANGEA, offering a lyrical meditation on love, memory and artistic reinvention as a woman spends one final day trying to revive both her former lover’s creativity and their shared past. The Late in Life Guide to Modern Day Lesbianism affectionately spoofs 1990s corporate training videos with a hilarious introduction to contemporary lesbian culture, while Betty St. Clair follows a Chinese American Drag Queen as she prepares for a high-stakes performance. Olivia Scott Welch and Savy Jackson stars in Audrey Cicerello´s Grown, while Ken Barnett stars in Eyal Resh´s Save the Date about an engaged couple trying to capture the perfect ´Save the Date´ photo.

Founded in 2005, HollyShorts has become one of the world’s leading showcases for short-form filmmaking, championing emerging talent while presenting work from acclaimed filmmakers across every genre. The festival continues to provide an important platform for LGBTQIA+ filmmakers whose work challenges conventions, celebrates authenticity and expands the possibilities of short-form storytelling.

“The Colisseum” Is 12-Minute Holly Short with Vincent Cassel

By Connie Wilson

On July 29, 2026

In France, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Holly Shorts Film Festival (August 13-23), a qualifying festival for the Oscars, is gearing up with some 430 short film offerings.

“The Colisseum” is a 12 minute 19 second basketball short from France, directed by Nabil Kechouhen and starring Vincent Cassel as the coach and Sammy Baroun as star player Mehdi. It is a climactic game for the French team in this Holly Shorts offering. Star player Mehdi is having an off night for personal reasons, suggests the dialogue.

EMOTIONAL ISSUES

References are made to Mehdi’s missing his Mom and long-absent father in the stands. The coach seems quite disgusted by his team’s failure to play “ensemble,” i.e., together, as a unit. Some of the players seem to be showboating for NBA Scouts in the stands.

Coach Cassel is quite pissed off at his team. His demeanor is a characteristic Cassel tough guy look. As he told IMDB, “I’m a little angry in life.” Some interesting camera angles (looking down through the hoop as the ball drops, for example) as the teams each attempt to pull ahead and win the game.

PERSONAL ASIDES

Can Mehdi make the shots and win the game?

The power couple marriage between Cassel and Italian star Monica Bellucci collapsed after 14 years and 2 daughters. Cassel just had his fourth child with a young model 31 years his junior, so looking up previous credits (“The Crimson Rivers,” 2000, with Jean Reno; dubbed voice of Hugh Grant in “Four Weddings and a Funeral”) proved to be even more dramatic than this 12-minute basketball short, which culminates with the team star (Mehdi) at the line with the chance to win the game via free throws.

CONCLUSION

All-in-all, this offering reminded me of the lengthier Miles Teller vehicle “Whiplash.” It also provided me with the opportunity to enjoy a spirited debate about famous men dumping beautiful women their own age for younger models (some pro; some con) as I refreshed my memory of the career of its 70-year-old star, Vincent Cassel.

Rapprochement?

Viva La France!

Birthday Celebrating: July 17-July 26, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On July 24, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Texas

Birthday dinner: 2026.

For the past three years we have made a tradition of spending my birthday at the Firehouse restaurant (1401 S. Michigan Ave.), Mayor Daley’s favorite restaurant and one at which “W” once celebrated his birthday while in Chicago. It’s a 7 hour drive from the Quad Cities, but I’ve had a condo in Chicago since 2003 within walking distance of the Firehouse; I’ve eaten there many times.

2025 Birthday

Birthday, 2025.

Last year, my daughter and her fiancé flew in from Nashville to celebrate my 80^th trip around the sun . We went to the Green Mill following dinner. A good time was had by all. Even the nearby diners were delightful, a small girl who played peek-a-boo with us, hiding behind her dinner napkin. We had a lovely circular booth up front and a banner was stretched across it, wishing me a Happy 80^th Birthday. Dinner was expensive, but delicious.

At the Firehouse in 2024, celebrating my birthday with the girl next booth over.

2024 Birthday

Dinner at the Firehouse in 2024—just the two of us—was also memorable and friend Jackie from Austin phoned in to wish me a happy birthday while we were dining. I began telling everyone how great the Firehouse experience has been over the 23 years I’ve had a place just down the street.

2024 Birthday.

2026 Birthday

This year, BFF Jackie from Austin decided she’d like to escape the Austin heat and fly into Chicago on the 17^th of July to spend a week sight-seeing, and join me for my annual birthday dinner at the Firehouse, which I had praised to the woman who spent her career in the restaurant industry (and was basically the originator of GrubHub). Jackie wanted to stay at the St. Regis and had a suite booked.

Dressed for dinner 2026.

I drove into the city on the July 14^h to get ready for Jackie’s arrival, stop at the Bank of America (again), clean the condo, and get groceries in anticipation for the arrivals of Jackie, college roommate Pam Rhodes (from Des Moines), my spouse of 58 years Craig and—potentially—another recently widowed girlfriend from Corpus Christi, Texas, whom I invited via snail mail. Sadly, she also just lost her sister and was not coming.

Jackie spent at least a month planning the museums and shows she wanted to visit while in the city. Cindy’s atop the Athletic Club. The Gwen Terrace restaurant. Second City. Jazz Club. Blues Club. Museums, including the Field, the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry. Architecture cruise. Rosa’s Blues Club in Logan Square (or Buddy Guy’s.) Andy’s Jazz Club on E. Hubbard Street. Rented scooters. Dinner at Miru’s, the St. Regis, fireworks night.

Best friend of 63 years, Pam Rhodes and me, ready for the Firehouse birthday night.

A few days prior to her arrival, Jackie had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital, which put her on an antibiotic IV drip. They urged her to stay in the hospital for four days. Cellulitis had caused her arm to swell to three times its normal size. Her blood pressure was 100/200. She began canceling all Chicago reservations from her hospital room.

I was already here; I retained 2 restaurant reservations and the Second City Monday night show.

Second City, Monday, July 20th.

Most of the reservations were for rooftop restaurants. For two days, the burning forests in Canada caused heavy smoke in Chicago. The terrace at the Gwen Hotel closed. I literally could not leave the condo for two days, as I have asthma (and cancer and diabetes and fibromyalgia and various lesser ailments)

I soldiered on, celebrating solo around town, a unique experience.

I was unsure whether my college roommate and best friend of 63 years was going to make the trip to Chicago for my July 23^rd birthday or not. She lost her husband of 59 years on Valentine’s Day. She didn’t know if she felt up to the trip. A second widow friend from Texas, invited by snail mail, didn’t respond until I asked again on Facebook Messenger. (Not coming).

Jackie was locked in debate with her doctors about whether she was going to have to spend 4 days in St. David’s Hospital in Austin on an IV drip. Since they recently were written up as having rats in their kitchen, she was ordering all her food delivered to her by Grubhub while hospitalized. Sounds normal.

Friday, July 17^th
I did Gwen’s restaurant solo. Nice couple (Brad and Tonya) from Grand Rapids, took pity on me in the elevator ride up. Brad is a CFO from Grand Rapids celebrating his 25^th anniversary with wife Tonya. A table of Pi Phi friends from the University of Missouri sang Happy Birthday to me. I was presented a complimentary dessert. People were very nice.

CFO Brad from Grand Rapids at the Gwen on Friday, July 17th.

July 19^th, Sunday

Kept the reservations for Cindy’s atop the Athletic Club. Great view! A very nice couple from Boston, mother and son, Joanne and Jay, bought me a drink at the bar upon hearing that I was out and about on my solo birthday tour. We dined together. Jay was a 5^th grade teacher They were traveling to the Black Hills, mourning the recent death of their husband and father.

July 20^th, Monday

Blake Jones, my great waiter at Cindy’s.

I drove myself to Second City for the 7 p.m. show. I even tried out an app that found cheap parking in Piper’s Alley ($23.12), SpotHero, although it ended up costing me an additional $38 when the QR code reader was MIA and I had to take a paper ticket. The attendants (whose voices were unintelligible) were not keen to allow me to exit the garage at 10 p.m. I’m still negotiating with SpotHero. The Second City show was good. Second City gifted me with tee shirts and assorted merchandise. Three people from Oklahoma seated behind me in my front row seat chatted with me. Show was good. People were very nice, even if the machines were not.

July 22, Wednesday

My new friends (Jan and Jay) from Boston at Cindy’s atop the Chicago Athletic Club.

My husband arrived with BFF Pam in tow. We dined at Tapas Valencia.Excellent beef medallions. Free street parking.

July 23, Thursday THE REAL DAY

Today was the real birthday date. It was also Pat Hanlin’s birthday. I always sent Pat a birthday card on our mutual birthday date ( her year was 1942; mine 1945). Pat was buried July 19. Rest in peace, Pat. I’ll always remember the “surprise” Vegas trip four girlfriends took. One of them told me, in my kitchen (during a party I was throwing), “We were going to invite you, since it’s your birthday, too, but we asked D**** S*****, instead.” [Always nice to be included. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.]

May15, Friday

Bruno Mars played Chicago on May 16^th. I attended the Soldier Field with my daughter and her BFF Amanda (my Dutch daughter). I insisted that we stop, in person, at the Firehouse to make a reservation for my third year celebrating my birthday at this excellent and always busy restaurant. Based on the previous two years of celebrating at the Firehouse, I talked up the experience to Austin friend Jackie, planning to fly in from Austin, Texas, as well as to BFF and college roommate Pam. I chatted with the reservations woman. I remembered her from previous years of celebrations. I reminisced about the previous year’s birthday, when a lovely banner (like the ones beauty pageant contestants wear; visible in the 2024 photo) was draped across the table of the roomy circular booth up front.

This year’s (2026) message at table-top, after we moved to a different booth from the original corner table. No banners this year.

Talked with the reservations lady about how this would be a three-year tradition of celebrating my birthday at the Firehouse. The reservations were for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23^rd.

A short time later I received an e-mail confirming the reservation . The reservation was for JUNE 23^rd. Fortunately, I noticed that the reservation was for the wrong month. My husband called and changed it. I continued to praise the Firehouse to others who might come to this very small party (Have all your parties before you’re 70; otherwise, nearly everyone you want to see will be gone). I looked forward to this birthday extravaganza week with people coming from 4 different cities and all sorts of great activites. And, of course, to the Firehouse itself. It’s a historic building with a real firehouse pole and great food.

The Firehouse.

Thursday, July 23, 2026

My daughter in Nashville called to wish me a Happy Birthday. Stacey& her musician fiancée (Will Allison of Wild Bill and the Bruisers) were dining out. Someone stole his bass fiddle and all of the musical equipment out of his van. Stacey checked pawn shops in the Nashville area; a friend started a GoFundMe account.The musical equipment he needs was recovered late in the day. Seemed somehow typical of the week like, “Sure, THAT happened today.”

When we entered the Firehouse at 1401 S. Michigan, we were escorted to a corner table, not one of the booths of previous birthday visits. I asked Emma, the hostess, about this. She asked if I had requested a booth. I explained that it was my 81^st birthday, our third year of celebrating here on July 23rd, and yes, I had requested a booth 70 DAYS IN ADVANCE. On May 15^th. In person.

Firehouse bar.

Emma, the pretty young hostess this night, hearing that I was upset about the corner we had been shoved into, led us to a recessed booth that we were told was “the owner’s table.” It was a step up from the corner, although not the circular booth of 2024 and 2025. I thanked her for her efforts and was grateful that she seemed to agree that celebrating an 81^st birthday (the third year we had patronized the Firehouse for my birthday), was maybe worth the effort to at least put us on the reservation list for the right month. What if I had not noticed it said “June” instead of “July”?

Because I had just had beef medallions at Tapas Valencia on State Street on Wednesday, the lobster special ($54) sounded good. We did ask specific questions about the lobster, as it listed many strange herbs. My husband wanted to know if it was “just cut up pieces of lobster.”Brian, the waiter, specifically mentioned 8 ounces, but obviously he was counting the various inedible herbs for about 3/4 of that. We asked twice if it was just “cut up pieces” of lobster. Brian said the lobster had been removed from the shell with various herbs surrounding it on the plate, which was a misleading description, putting it mildly. (The lobster, itself, when it arrived, could not have weighed more than an ounce and a half. It was about four bites of actual lobster meat.) We regret not taking a photo, but it was a fairly large let-down.

I also ordered the lobster bisque, because it is always delicious with a puff top pastry finish. It came and was steaming hot and was very good. I was happy that I had ordered it when my mini-meal arrived. My husband and my best friend ordered the steak and fries. Their meals were very good. They were kind enough to give me a bite of theirs when my “lobster” turned out to be 4 bites of lobster swimming in the herbs mentioned. My remark, “This must have been the smallest lobster in captivity,” There was no warm butter to dip the lobster in, either. It’s a good thing I take Mounjaro shots for my diabetes. That means I never have any appetite. Otherwise, without the few bites of steak from my companions, I would have gone home hungry.

Inside the Chicago Athletic Club. I once got a writing award there, back when it was a private club, but it is not the same at all.

At some point the manager, Ivan Garrido, came by to see how things were going.

I was unwilling to get into the complete disaster my meal was, but my BFF from Des Moines pretty much let Ivan have it. (People from Des Moines are not intimidated by descriptions of a dish that are misleading and lead to the presentation of a four-bite meal. Brian, the waiter, should have recognized that, since he had Iowa roots.) Brian reminded me of Robert Preston in that classic play and film “The Music Man” in his recitation of the desserts and what the lobster special would be like. This will date me to 1962, but the patter of “We’ve got trouble, right here in River City” really fit the slick presentation.

The restaurant removed the $54 charge from our bill after the manager listened to the BFF from Des Moines. That was appreciated. I filled him in on the problems involving reserving us for the wrong month, entirely—which would have been exceptionally bad if I had not noticed it, or if my Austin friend had managed to make it to Chicago for this birthday dinner. I told Ivan of the tradition of celebrating my birthday here. I’m sending him this blog entry, so he can see the pictures for himself. Regrets that I didn’t photograph the smallest lobster in captivity.

Dessert at the Gwen (closed) terrace restaurant.

I explained that—for a birthday that most of us would agree makes me a fossil—the experience this year was a bit disappointing. I had “talked up” this restaurant for years,—especially this year with 3 people originally coming from 3 different states. At 81, having just observed from a distance the burial of the woman who shared my birth date, I mentioned to the manager that there might not be that many more hale and healthy birthdays in my future. The Firehouse sent home desserts that nobody wanted to eat (we had a cake at the condo).

I felt bad that my Austin friend had missed the entire week she had planned. I do wonder what a food industry pro would have had to say about this night. Or this week. Between the smoke, the bass fiddle theft, people trying to celebrate despite grief and Larry the Lobster, it was an experience.

The birthday “week” is almost over.

Tomorrow, Friday (7/24) we will take in “The Odyssey” in Imax. The movie runs 3 hours and the parking at the old Icon off Roosevelt Road only comps you for about half of that time and makes it nearly impossible to buy popcorn without a lengthy wait. Plus you have to take a picture of your license plate and fill out a bunch of stuff to get comped anything at all. Plus we’re in the front row.

My new friends from Boston at Cindy’s.

On Saturday (7/25) the Art Institute beckons. I’m a member and have been since 2003. I/We didn’t make it to any museums with friend Jackie, home now and on the mend from her 8^th hospitalization in 10 years.

Remember this line from Louie C.K.: “Live in the present, because there’s too much of the past and not enough of the future.”

Bank of America, Ghostly Tales of Route 66, and Me: Installment #5

By Connie Wilson

On July 17, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest

I drove from 1:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. to come back to the Bank of America to “activate” the credit card that I signed up for on June 13^th. I tried activating the card—which did not arrive by snail mail for a week— from my home in East Moline, but the bot at the special activation number immediately asked me what account I was calling about. This is confusing, since I was calling about a card, not an account. It was imperative that the card be connected to my personal BoA account, so I did not incur late fees when I move among three addresses. I initially typed in the account that the card would be paid from. The bot informed me that it could not find the account and hung up on me.

I tried a second time, this time using the number on the card, alone.

The bot, once again, tried to verify me by sending a code (known as an ADF) to my land line—again. This was what I hoped we had fixed on June 13th, but I was told that it would take SIX WEEKS to fix, so sending me the new credit card and then trying to send “verification codes” to me at a land line a mere week after I went in, in person, to fix this, was a futile doomed move. Once again, the bot attempted to send the code to my land line. (Six weeks had not passed.)

I finally wrote a snail mail account of my unsuccessful attempts to activate this new BoA credit card. I mailed the account to Felipe at the BOA on Roosevelt Road and Canal Street in Chicago. I also made an appointment, in conversation with a HUMAN BEING, to go in in person at 2 p.. today, July 15^th.,

APPOINTMENT #2

When I entered the bank, no one “greets” you. You just mill around or get in line. The line for the cashier at the cage was three people deep. I got in it and stood there about 20 minutes. The Black guy in front of me seemed to be talking to himself in some African language, via ear buds. (I thought he was mumbling to himself, at first, like homeless people do.) The woman behind me was speaking Chinese to a companion. I was just standing there and hoping, at age 81, that I wouldn’t have to stand in line too long. I have cancer, Type II diabetes, fibromyalgia, asthma and various lesser ailments. I passed out 4 times recently due to the heat, including Grant Park during the Gold Coast Art Show and Opening Night of SXSW inside the Paramount Theater. It was 97 degrees outside, (although very cool inside) and I now had driven to Chicago twice, 15 hours of driving, to “fix” these issues.

Finally, it was my turn.

I told the cashier that I had a 2 p.m. appointment—hopefully with Felipe, who knew the entire story and met with me on June 13th. Someone named Valentina Bullocks (last name sounded like Bullocks, anyway, which seemed appropriate), while consulting a clipboard, said she had no record of an appointment for me. [I made the appointment with a human being on the phone and it took forever, as does anything involving calling the bank and waiting for a “live” person. My son related waiting 2 hours, recently, to dispute a bank charge.]

We ended up in the very same office that Felipe and I had used, after I explained that now the Big Problem was activating a credit card, which shouldn’t be that big a deal. She agreed.

Valentina had truly long pink fingernails—-Barbra Streisand length. I complimented her on them, but wondered how she managed to use them to text on small phones. We chatted.

Another good question is—since this “verification” problem was going to arrive and again require verification, apparently….why didn’t someone who works at the bank figure out that I was being set up, again, for hours of frustration? It feels so much like the decisions the Trump Administration makes where sufficient planning and forethought do not go into actions taken. Someone should have suggested that I NOT get this great new credit card until six weeks elapsed, since now I was right back in Verification Hell.

SECOND BAD DECISION

For that matter, the physical card, itself, is a bad choice. It looks exactly like the regular red debit cards from BoA, except for printing being vertical on one and horizontal on the other—a dubious executive decision. The average elementary school teacher could point out that this would prove confusing for both old people, dumb people and people who assumed that the card would at least be a different color. My enthusiasm for the hunky-dory new card was quickly ebbing.

SUGGESTIONS

So far, there are six things that BoA should take note and try to correct:

1) Make your debit card different in color and appearance from your credit card. The horizontal/vertical thing isn’t enough of a difference.

2) Do a better job on directions on the activation line. Asking the customer “which account” if all that is wanted is for the customer to type in the credit card number is confusing. Reconsider the recorded instructions.

3) If you are having a bot send “verification codes” to a land line and the customer goes in, in person, twice, driving fifteen hours to get to the closest BoA, don’t then send the customer anything that will need to be “verified” before you have fixed the original verification problem (i.e., the change of the cell phone number from the land line number.) I was told that the number wouldn’t be “fixed” for 42 days. It actually can be done manually much sooner, as the Pope found out. But, as also noted, I’m not the Pope. Being a 37-year customer (*which Jennifer credited me with when she came on the phone) didn’t count for much.WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CUSTOMER SERVICE?

[*I actually wonder if Jennifer was right. Could the BoA have made another mistake? My own time-table of when I started with BoA only goes back to 2003, when I closed on my Chicago condo, but I’ll take her word for the length of time I’ve been a loyal customer, which makes this story worse.]

4) Why is there no Bank of America physical bank in the Quad Cities of Iowa/Illinois? We have 385,000 residents. Why is the closest bank a 7-hour round-trip away?

5) WHY DOES IT TAKE 42 DAYS TO SIMPLY CHANGE A WRONG PHONE NUMBER? Isn’t the point of automation to speed things up? Yet the Pope had to lobby for a manual change of his information, to speed things up (and threaten to take his business elsewhere), so are people actually better at this than bots?

6) I was CEO of two businesses. I made a vow that a live human being would always answer the phone. It probably isn’t a coincidence that the Bettendorf Chamber of Commerce once named us Best Business of the Year. (Sylvan Learning Center #3301 and Prometric Testing Center.) Answer your phones in under two hours—and I don’t mean using a bot.

RESUMING THE STORY

Valentina asked me to open my accounts on my two devices (phone and Ipad), and that went well. I opened the personal account on my Ipad and she suggested we call the very same phone number that Felipe had previously told me to call: 800– 276-9939. I was on hold for well over 30 minutes, waiting for a “real live” person to help us. I would ultimately spend two hours in the bank and closer to an hour waiting for the phone agent.

JENNIFER

While Valentina left for long periods with my new card, leaving me alone in a freezing office while she dealt with ADF codes, Jennifer (who finally came on the line after the better part of an hour) sounded like a mature agent. Jennifer had a sense of humor. All of us were polite and frustrated by modern technology, which has made banking much harder rather than much simpler.

Jennifer, Valentina, and Felipe were polite, as was I. They were employees attempting to work within a system that is flawed Big Time. Such things as picking unnecessarily confusing credit cards (the red vertical/red horizontal thing), not being able to change a phone number in less than 6 weeks, making verification into an endurance test, making the wait time on the phone to get a “live” person run hours, represent huge steps backwards from the banking days of my youth and adulthood. The use of bots is a disaster of the first magnitude, somewhat akin to driverless cars that drive right into flooded streets.

America has to do better. It is getting worse with each passing year. PLEASE FIX THIS STUFF. Give us back the English-speaking live human beings, get the time frame to “fix” the phone numbers down to under 42 days, use some common sense. Somebody should have vetoed the identical card idea along with the idea of getting automated bots that simply hang up on you. And would it kill you to greet your customers and maybe say “good bye” to them rather than simply walking off and leaving them waiting in an office, wondering if the employee was planning on coming back at all?

VERIFICATION, AGAIN

Jennifer (the agent on the phone) was intent on “verifying” me. I certainly understand that it is necessary to “verify” but it shouldn’t take 20 hours of driving and literally hours on the phone. I told Jennifer I was IN THE BANK, in person, and then I handed the phone to Valentina who confirmed this. Jennifer said she would make a note of my presence on the premises, which would be acceptable as “proof” and certainly quicker than waiting around for 42 days to simply get a phone number changed or driving 17 hours with 2 forms of ID.

I was now “verified.” [Woot!] I didn’t even have to surrender my firstborn child or give blood.

I told Jennifer that it had taken me 5 hours to drive from the Quad Cities to Chicago on I-80, longer than usual since 55N is under construction. I have cancer, Type II diabetes, fibromyalgia, and many minor ailments, so driving 14 to 21 hours just to gain access to a bank is not my idea of a good time.

When the hurdles being thrown up could have been anticipated and could be eliminated, you get very frustrated. Is this really the best customer service that one of our largest banks can manage? I’m a longtime customer. The hurdles and obstacles put before me were, for the most part, unnecessary and not problems just because I’m old. They are systemic failings of the bank’s systems.

LOST OR STOLEN

I explained to Jennifer that Valentina and I had been attempting to authenticate my credit card for over an hour.

Jennifer then said that the credit card had been declared lost or stolen.

W-H-A-A-T?

Who declared my card lost or stolen? It did not even reach me until June 20^th and today was July 15^th, so it had been in my wallet, awaiting help in activating it on this second trip to Chicago. It had not even been a month.Plus I had written to Felipe to tell him of my unsuccessful attempts to activate it, so the bank should have been aware of the situation (if they read their snail mail.) Nobody called or offered to help. A call would have saved me an entire driving trip to Chicago.

I’m guessing that cards put in the mail are declared “lost or stolen” after a certain number of days. Well, I didn’t even GET the card for a week (USPO) and I was supposed to be spending $1,000 in the first 90 days according to this particular credit card’s offer. Not quite a month had passed since I signed up to receive this credit card. It did arrive, but it did not arrive quickly and the cell phone/land line switch had not been implemented. Maybe when Felipe got my snail mail note, he could have called me back to warn me of the time table on declaring a mailed card “lost or stolen” versus the time limit of 6 weeks to make a very simple change of my phone numbers. I would not have had to drive in if the verdict was that the card was not able to be activated (and nobody appeared to care to offer me one when the 6 weeks would be up.)

FINALE

I asked for a scissors and cut the prospective credit card in half and left it there, in pieces. There was no way this was going to turn out well.

I never saw the branch bank manger (Jessica Vallela) nor did anyone wish me well or say good-bye to me as I left. (But, then, nobody greeted me as I entered, either.)

I was polite. Jennifer was polite. FeLipe was polite. Valentina, who had left the desk numerous times for various unspecified reasons, was polite. Then she simply disappeared.

I sat there, alone, in the Felipe office for a while. After a short time, I got up and left, thinking to myself that the good years in this country are definitely behind us when systems like this are the way things “work”(or don’t work) in modern-day America.

End of “Bank of America, Ghostly Tales of Route 66” and Me.”

Banks of America, Banking, and Me

By Connie Wilson

On July 8, 2026

In Editorial, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Texas

Since things have been going so well with the BoA bank accounts in Chicago, it occurred to me that I should, perhaps, get some cash from the local TBK bank for my upcoming Chicago birthday trip.

I cruised through the ATM lane to ask for some cash. The screen remained very blank. I realized I had not really counted up to see how much cash I might need for my planned Birthday Extravaganza. I opened my wallet and counted my cash and realized—to my surprise— I still have two $100 bills left over from a whirlwind April trip to Reno to watch granddaughter Elise play volleyball. Time between games was spent in the casino.

I don’t know about you, but a $100 bill, for me, is about as useful as an umbrella on a sunny day.

It was clear that I was going to have to go into the bank: (1) find out why my debit card did not work in the ATM (2) to get smaller bills for the Reno hundreds—cash I might actually be able to use.

FIRST HURDLE

I was parked in back of the bank.

It was in the eighties. The back door of the bank was locked. I had to walk around the entire building to gain access to the front door entry to the interior lobby.

SECOND HURDLE

The second hurdle was explaining exactly what had gone “wrong” with the ATM machine and presenting my driver’s license.

My driver’s license—which is from Texas—had fallen into the interior of a purse roughly the size of a large laundry basket. I finally located it. I also dragged out my defunct Illinois driver’s license, even though it has a hole punched in it.

THIRD HURDLE

The clerk wanted to walk out to the ATM machine to see what, exactly, was happening with my card. She made reference to them having “worked on” the machine earlier in the day.

What I primarily wanted to do was to find a rest room. I had just spent 3 and 1/2 hours playing cards and drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. No rest room stop was factored into our trek outside.

Off to the ATM in the eighty-four degree heat we went. (The clerk seemed surprised to find no car at the ATM lane. She said, “Did you walk here?” I explained that I had parked my car and walked the entire circumference of the building to gain entrance, certainly what I was hoping would happen—-(not). I didn’t think other customers behind me would be too forgivig of a car abandoned in the ATM lane, so I drove to the parking area.

The ATM now spit out a message saying my debit card had expired.

FOURTH HURDLE

We went back inside. The bank clerk made phone calls. I was told I would either have to wait 6 weeks or drive to Iowa to the TBK Bank in Bettendorf—a bank I have never even been inside—to pick up my debit card.

So, bright and early today, I drove to the Bettendorf bank in the nearby state of Iowa across the I-74 bridge. After some explanation of the situation, I was given an envelope. The already-opened envelope had apparently been sent to my East Moline home when I was in Texas. Envelopes rarely make it to me in a timely fashion once I flee the Midwest. Usually, this results in a late fee if I don’t use a charge card that is connected to bank moneys (assuming they ever straighten out my bank money accounts, an account which the BofA bot recently told me could not be found at all.)

This envelope was probably one of many such missives that fell into the USPO trap. The post office will not forward credit cards, which is also not helpful.

FIFTH HURDLE

I now had the actual debit card, within the envelope. I was told to take it home and activate it.

[Have you read Installation #4 about activating my BoA card?]

I suggested that we activate the debit card right then and there.

I got the card out of the envelope, dialed the number on it, and followed the bot’s directions. Two times. The bot said it could not activate my credit card.

I suggested that the bank clerk try to activate my credit card.

She, also, followed the bot’s activation directions two times. It would not activate it for her, either.

MORE PHONE CALLS

Eventual diagnosis: the activation period ran out June 30th.

Today was July 7th.

Fortunately, since I had the foresight to try to activate the card BEFORE I left the bank, someone somewhere was able to direct the bank clerk and extend the time for me to activate my TBK debit card. I did tell the clerk that I never use it in Austin, Texas, because they don’t have TBK banks in Texas. She protested that there Are TBK banks in Texas.

She was right, but I am also right.

There are 2 TBK banks in Texas in Dallas. There are no TBK banks in Austin. That’s another reason I don’t just tell the BoA to “take this card and shove it.” BoA is my cash lifeline when we are in Austin.

I hope this is the end of my having to deal with bank bots and misleading directions , but somehow, I doubt it.

Wish me luck on July 15th in Chicago—again— with Felipe.