Category: travel Page 1 of 21

From Austin to Okmulgee to Chicago, 2026

On May 12, 2026

This was one of our last night in Austin.

Austin at sunset.

We set off for our return to the Midwest on Tuesday, May 11th. Need to be in Chicago for Bruno Mars on May 16th, with the daughter and Dutch daughter Amanda.

The weather has been cooperative, unlike our trip down in 2024, when we were broadsided during a tornado in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

Tonight, we are in Okmulgee again, and I took a picture of the Auto Zone store, which I jogged through after we were hit at the intersection as I was looking for a bathroom. While there was no bathroom within the Auto Zone store, I did notice that there were many twist ties, and, after my 2024 red Prius was totaled at the nearby intersection, I suggested we twist tie the damaged vehicle together and attempt to drive the 6 hours to Austin with the car more-or-less intact. When we would be told “Speed zone ahead” I would say, “Act invisible.” It’s still quite the family story that we made it, in time to vote in the presidential election of 2024 (for all the good it did me). I just knew that I’d feel guilt if I did not make it to the polls, and that remains true for the upcoming November 3rd mid-term election, when I’ll be pulling for James Talarico.

Tonight, we have revisited Okmulgee and you can see the Auto Zone sign in the picture if you look carefully—the run through the store that gave me the idea for how we might make it to Austin in time to vote and with all of our stuff still in our possession. There are no car rental agencies in Okmulgee and we had too much in our car to jump ship and take a plane (which would have meant driving quite a few miles to Tulsa, anyway.) Plus, our Triple AAA representative, supposed to come to the Holiday Inn where we spent the night, to check out the damage no showed, so twist tie city it was.

Our 2024 accident in Okmulgee, Oklahoma on the way to Austin, during a driving rainstorm/tornado.

RIP my 2024 Anniversary Edition Prius.

Dallas, en route to Chicago.

Dallas, en route.

Frida Kahlo Exhibit in Houston April 24-29th, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On April 27, 2026

In Mexico, Pop Culture, travel

We took a VonLane bus to Houston to see the Freda Kahlo exhibit on Friday, April 24th. We stayed at the Hotel Zaza, which is quite near the Art Museum.

I am one of the many who thinks that Selma Hayak did a good job of portraying Frida, but Selma was far prettier than the actual artist. I will post a picture of the real Freda and the cinema Freda for you to judge for yourself. (below).

The real Frida was born in 2007 and had infantile paralysis (polio) as a child, which left her with one leg that was far shorter than the other. She also was involved in a serious bus accident in 2025 at the age of 18 when a pole pierced her body and left her with even more serious injuries, and, as a result, she had back pain and problems and had to wear metal corsets that accounted for her short leg and her painful pelvis. She often wore floor-length dresses to conceal her condition. Some of these contraptions were on display and they looked like torture instruments from the Middle Ages.Her 1940 self-portrait titled The Dream (The Bed) holds the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever auctioned at $54.7 million.^[5]

Freda’s love life with the more well-known (at the time) painter Diego Rivera was explored and the guide headphones said that she did not want to have children with him, because he had already impregnated two previous women and left them when they bore him children. At first, when she learned she was pregnant, she tried to abort the child, but when that didn’t work, she was going to go forth with the pregnancy, except that she had a miscarriage.Kahlo’s interests in politics and art led her to join the Mexican Communist Party in 1927,^[1] through which she once again met fellow Mexican artist Diego Rivera (who had first met her when painting a mural at her school). The couple married in 1929 and spent the late 1920s and early 1930s travelling together in Mexico and the United States.

I have appended some of her work below.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Cancun, Mexico, April 14, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On April 14, 2026

In Cancun, Easter in Mexico, Mexico, Royal Sands, the Wilsons on vacation, travel

Today was Tuesday and I had to return to the nail girl to finish my pedicure. She is a very nice young girl, but possibly the slowest nail technician I have ever met. I also have never seen a nail technician use their own finger to smear something sticky on the nail fill acrylic area. Nor have I ever had brown mud and salt rubbed on my forearms. I was asked to remove all of my jewelry. Fat chance of that! I haven’t had my wedding ring off my ring finger in years. My ring finger was jumped on back in high school when playing intramural basketball (thanks, Judy Postel!) and the joint buckled backwards and is now permanently enlarged. For a while in the 60s I wore a brace thing to try to force my ring finger to lie flat.

I took off my watch and the fun continued. I did not enjoy the mud, which had something to do with a coupon I had inadvertently found in a coupon book and was apparently representative of some ancient Mayan manicure. All I know is that, after I had been there since quarter of 4 p.m. (nobody but me in the shop for 15 minutes) on Monday, waiting, Valeria entered and we snail moved into action. There was one other woman getting a pedicure, but she spoke Spanish,. I do not speak Spanish, so it was a quiet 2 hours.

La Isla Aquarium.

The manicurist took a LOOONG time and at 6 p.m. I finally suggested the splitting of the pedicure part off to the next day, as we had 7-ish restaurant reservations and I still had not had a shower nor changed my clothes. I never did have enough time to do either of those things. I did them today, after the postponed pedicure. At least the chairs DID massage you, which was very good news, as my back has been hurting, which my daughter would say is because of the mattresses. (I blame it on old age. Mine, not the mattress.)

We went to La Isla tonight to an Italian restaurant that has been in business for 40 years, Cenacola. We had a hard time finding it, as our cabbie failed to mention that there were 2 La Isla Mall sections and we were wandering around floor 2 of the wrong part.

I asked 3 people for directions to this restaurant, after the cab driver gave us a bum steer. I had not been to La Isla for years. It has changed about as much as the airport, which bears no resemblance to the airport we flew into in 1990. La Isla is a very high end mall with every brand name you can think of, but very few people actually shopping in those stores or buying anything. Sadly, I have learned that the one remaining store that sold perfume in Kukulcaan Plaza near us is moving to La Isla next year.

Wedding on the beach.

Royal Sands, view from F5517.

Tomorrow, a massage at 3 and fried chicken, which is how we began this adventure.

Thursday, the Veranda, where we dined last Thursday on beef and chicken, which was good.

The weather this week is windier and in the high 70s. It was in the low eighties last week and there was very little wind.

Back in Illinois and Iowa, tornado warnings.

Vacationing in Cancun, April 4-11, with the Family

By Connie Wilson

On April 13, 2026

In Cancun, Easter in Mexico, Mexico, Royal Sands, the Wilsons on vacation, travel

Connie, Craig, Stacey, Will at Nicoletta’s.

Pensive.

Cancun, Mexico.

Ava.

Elise.

Elise & Ava.

Elise.

Ava & Elise, horsing around.

Elise, son Scott, Ava at the Royal Sands pool.

Cancun at the Royal Sands, April 4-18, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On April 10, 2026

In Easter in Mexico, Mexico, travel

We’ve been coming to Cancun since about 1990.

We first stayed at the Fiesta Americana Condessa for 2 years. Then, we rented at the Royal Mayan for 2 years Then Ricardo, our enterprising sales guy, suggested that we should purchase a unit at the Royal Islander, which had not been open long.

We purchased Unit #4492, which was a penthouse unit, and we enjoyed that unit every year until the entire Islander went back to the state (Mexico) 2 years ago. The view was unrivaled, as there is no other Royal property that was 9 stories tall, but our unit was perched atop the store and looked out at the beautiful multi-colored blue ocean. We still miss the Islander. And, for that matter, the days of wandering from the Caribbean (gone) to the Mayan (gone) to the Islander are long gone and so is our favorite restaurant, Captain’s Cove.

When the Islander went back to the state, we decided to try to purchase a second unit at the Royal Sands on the secondary market. The Royal Sands had opened in 2000. The lease is for 50 years, whereas the Islander was either 25 or 30. So a unit bought when we purchased a second week to replace the Islander was purchased before we found out that the Holiday Inn was buying up the Royal Resorts chain.

The restaurants at the Islander were superior to the Sands (especially the Conquistador, which moved there from the Mayan when it closed) and, by the time we purchased a second unit on the first floor of the Sands, we had already been coming here for something like 10 years—although not always at a place we owned. Now, we have been coming back every Easter for roughly 36 years. Gone are many of the amenities we used to enjoy, like the Taco parties on Tuesdays and the open bar party with limbo contests. On the other hand, this year they are not pressuring us to come to a meeting to try to sell us a unit, because, as of now, the PTB would prefer that all owners, like us, fork over our units so that the desk can charge whatever the traffic will bear to rent them out. We really don’t know what the daily rate is here (although we should ask) but I know that at the Pueblo Bonito chain in Mazatlan it is something like $483 a night.We pay maintenance fees, which have steadily risen from about $500 a year to 3x that much, but that is still quite a bit less than the bill would be to pay $500 a night for a week.

Front: Jesse, Joy, Ava and Elise; middle row – Will Allison, Stacey (Wilso), Norma (Jessica’s Mom), Jessica; back row: Steve Nelson,me (blonde), Regina Nelson, Craig Wilson, Scott Wilson.

We see changes every year, and some are improvements. There is now a children’s park outside our B5108 unit, which used to be a tranquil garden. Not sure that’s an improvement, but the little people probably like it. We miss restaurants that have closed and we don’t go downtown that much any more, especially after the unrest in Puerto Vallarta. It seems calm here, although, sadly, we have watched the decline and fall of Kukulcaan Plaza over the years. It used to be a bustling mall and we still like to dine at Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse within it, but, aside from the make-up and perfume and purses you can purchase at the end of the mall closest to us, there isn’t much left open inside. The other mall, La Isla, was always the “high end” mall, but we haven’t been there yet. The teenagers chose to go to a place called the Market on their shopping spree, so we have no recent reports of changes there.

It was very sad when the Islander reverted to the state of Mexico, and they are now making it into another All Inclusive place. I don’t like anything about the idea of HAVING to eat every meal at just one place, and I also want to be able to throw together a quick lunch or breakfast, if I feel the need. The places that have redone themselves have often ripped out the kitchens entirely and have made the bathrooms fancier. This is not what I would have wanted if I had a young family, and it does not really scream “Improvement.”

We prefer having a full kitchen and pots and pans and plates so that we can make breakfasts and lunches, if we choose (not to mention snacks). We go out to very nice restaurants at night, and we sometimes order food around the pool or at the beach, but we don’t like HAVING to eat all meals here at the Royal Sands, which, as owners, we don’t have to do.

Will (Allison) and Stacey (Wilson).

On Saturday everybody else (13 people total) will fly home.

We will become just an old couple doddering around on our own, reading books and watching our Super Box and probably dining much less fancily.

The weather has been wonderful and, so far, the sale that took place last year of the entire Royal family to Holiday Inn Vacation Rentals has not made a huge difference, although the place seems busier than normal, even though it is Easter break time.

It will be easier to move from the first floor to the fifth floor to the unit we purchased 2 years ago. We used to have to take everything down to the Islander by cab, but since the Royal Mayan bit the dust, the Royal Caribbean became Uno, and the Royal Islander is temporarily closed and under construction the only Royal Properties left are the Royal Sands and the old one downtown and the Royal Hacienda, which is way out of town.

This year my son has his 17-year old twins and two of their friends, Joy and Jesse, and we have our daughter and her fiance, Will, in our unit. Son Scott also has his mother-in-law in tow and there was one day of shopping and there has been one day at the spa for a massage.

We have had game night here twice, which has been Balderdash, Fish Bowl and euchre. Except for a semi-fall onto my bad knee last night at Porfirio’s, there have been no horror stories. I asked for (and got) ice immediately and sat with ice on my knee throughout the serving portion of the festivities. Fortunately, aside from a bruise on my wrist when I caught myself on a chair, I have been able to walk normally and did not re-injure the already fragile left knee.

Surrealist Paintings at the Dallas Art Museum on February 5, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On February 7, 2026

In Education, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Texas, travel

I just spent 3 days getting to and from Dallas (from Austin, Texas) in order to take in an exhibit of the Surrealist painters.

What I know (knew) about the Surrealists would literally rattle within a pea, but I do vaguely remember that Freud’s dream psycho-analysis methods. when they became popular and emerged upon the scene helped instigate it.

My friend Jackie (pictured on a cool scooter device) knew MUCH more than I do about the Surrealists and did fill me in on some famous names that I actually recognized, including Picasso, Lichtenstein, Magritte, Miro, Salvador Dali and many others. Jackie actually has a lovely Miro painting in her home that she pointed out I had complimented her on; I do remember this painting, but, no, I did not remember it was by Miro.

So color me ignorant, but willing to learn.

One of us read every word beneath every painting.

One of us read the words connected to the better-known artists and took some pictures of their work(s), which I am now going to share without much commentary, because, after all, what do I know about the Surrealists? (A: Very little.) Plus, I had no scooter and took every opportunity to seat myself on one of many benches and rest.

This failure to know enough about art is why I had to drop out of Davenport (Iowa’s) Art Museum docent program early. Did not know enough and got stuck taking a bus-ful of students from Dewitt High School on a tour through “the big room,” (when I had been told I was leading a tour through the Isabelle Bloom display, about which I had a great deal of knowledge, none of which the students on the bus nor their art teacher cared to hear.) It was one of the most embarrassing half hours of my life and seemed to go on forever, so, without further ado, here are some paintings from the display in Dallas. I feel confident that you will be able to pick out the Picasso, the Lichtenstein’s (sp?), the Magritte, etc., better than moi.

Enjoy!

Paul McCartney at the United Center (Chicago) on Nov. 24, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On November 26, 2025

In Music, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, travel

Paul McCartney at the United Center on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.

I just returned to Austin from Chicago. I traveled to the Windy City to see Paul McCartney in concert at the United Center on Monday, November 24, 2025. Chicago was the last stop on McCartney’s “Got Back” tour.

The place was packed and nobody left early. Paul came onstage about 8:20 p.m. and sang until 11:10 p.m. At no time during his performance did he leave the stage and turn it over to a sidekick, so that he could go offstage and take a break. He was on his feet and climbing the stairs to his piano (which malfunctioned at one point) and seemed very “with it.” He did not sit down while playing (like B.B. King did in his final years) and his endurance was just as impressive as Mick Jagger’s.

During the evening, he pointed out a gentleman who has seen him 142 times and came with a sign that said so. There was another guy with a sign that said “124.” Many signs proclaimed the crowd’s love for Paul and he seemed to return that warm sentiment.

I’ve now seen Paul McCartney five times. I’d love to post video of a few songs from the show, but I’m not sure how that can be accomplished without repercussions for me, so I am posting only a few still photos.

PAUL McCARTNEY & THE BEATLES, Aug. 31, 1965

First time was in 1965 at the San Francisco Cow Palace (afternoon concert). Security was one guy and waist-high chicken wire. (Ineffectual). It was my very first concert. Girl from Iowa climbs on back of a Czechoslovokian motorcycle driven by Philadelphia boyfriend Colgate (William Hopkins), cuts class at Berkeley in the summer of 1965 (Aug. 31), and says, “Let’s go up and see if we can get tickets.” And we could. They cost $7. It is my belief that they had been saved for the Beatles, themselves, to use for friends and family, but now it was showtime. We were in the 7th row on the aisle with folding chairs. There was one guy guarding the stage, which had waist-high chicken-wire. Someone ran onstage and took Ringo’s drumsticks and John’s hat, when they finally showed up, late. I thought we were all gonna’ die during the exiting part, when I was moving but my feet were not touching the floor. People stood on the folding chairs, causing them to go down like dominoes. It was pandemonium, with teenagers passing out left and right.

At the time, the film “Hard Day’s Night” had just been released. Shirley Bassey sang the theme from “Goldfinger” and Cannibal and the Headhunters did their thing (making a train dance on the floor.) The National Anthem was played by King Curtiss. The Astronauts from California were supposed to be part of the lead-in, but they did not show up. The tickets cost $7 apiece, I repeat, because to go from $7 to $800 is quite a big increase, as you will agree.

PAUL McCARTNEY, 2025

The tickets for us in section 302 way up high in the United Center on Nov, 24, 2025 (12 rows from the top) cost $800 apiece ($1600 total) on Monday night. People on the floor had paid $3,000. (Talk about inflation!)

The show began with Paul singing “Help” this night and the lyrics were so perfect for anyone aged 83. At no time did his demeanor, voice, or ability to move about show his age, which was wonderful for me, someone only slightly younger than he is. I did notice that many members of the audience were brandishing canes, but, thankfully, Paul was not, nor was I. I was also grateful that almost everybody stayed seated until the finale, so we could all see. A teenager on the end of the aisle in front of me kept standing up to dance, which pretty much totally obscured the video screens that allowed the far-away fans to see the faces of the band clearly.

Paul McCartney, Nov. 24, 2025.

I took so many videos of his many hits that my phone died, which turned out to be a real problem when both my daughter (who had flown in from Nashville for the show) and I used up all of our phone charge and had to try to call an Uber or Lyft to get home. We had taken a Lyft to get there, which cost $14. There is now a building–run by Uber apparently—that you go to and make these calls for Uber or Lyft drivers. Cabs are like land lines and impossible to find. That building was not there in 2015.

We finally had to go outside and we found a “pirate” Uber driver who quoted us a price of $50 to drive us back to Indiana Avenue’s South Loop. The daughter had already called and been given a $47 price and a 20 minute wait from the normal Uber network. We had no idea what the building name was and there was talk of going to your driver’s “lane.” I last went to a show at the United Center in 2015 (Queen with Adam Lambert). I have been to the United Center to try to see Caitlin Clark play, for my July 23rd birthday, but I have not ventured out for a musical performance there, although I did see the Eagles with Steely Dan in Austin and John Mulaney here on Nov. 14, 2025. There was also a night back in the Quad Cities with the Tennessee comic Nick Bugazzi (sp?) at the Mark of the Quad Cities. But, with Elton John, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, et. al. fading into retirement, there are few musical groups I would spend the time or money to see (although I’d make an exception for Benson Boone or Adele or Bruno Mars.) And I did go see the Dave Matthews Band on June 27th of this year at Northerly Isle Pavilion, so now I see concerts in both states. (Not as many United Center runs.)

PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS

The second time I saw Paul, my name was driven first in the state of Iowa for tickets at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football stadium in Ames, Iowa. Channel 6 anchor Paula Sands asked me if I could get her tickets for the July 31st show at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football field. I did, as I was allowed to purchase up to 8 tickets. That concert was Paul with wife Linda and Wings. Our tickets were in the 7th row from the front. I took my son and my college roommate and her daughter. July 18, 1990, is when Wikipedia says he played Ames, setting an Iowa record for concert attendance at the time. I’m not sure that is right, because that means that daughter Stacey was born, but only 3 years old. She attended with me on Monday night and she is now 38.

When I saw him at Wrigley Field on July 31, 2011, he was far away. It was his “On the Run” tour. The fourth time was at the Civic Center in Moline (the Mark of the Quad Cities,) on June 11, 2019. I know it was then called the Taxslayer Center, but it will always be known as the Mark of the Quad Cities to me. That entire concert was ruined by a drunk girl who insisted on trying to claim a seat in our row when her ticket was far, far away. I missed the entire fire-filled finale of “Live and Let Die,” so I was glad that it was incorporated into this show again (but not as the finale.) At the Monday show there were 6 encores, which were much appreciated by the assembled fans.

ME, @ THE MARSHALL FIELDS WALNUT ROOM PRIOR TO THE SHOW

It was truly a great show. Maybe not as historical as that day I suggested we cut class and drive up from Berkeley via motorcycle in 1965 to see the Beatles, but close. I don’t know if I can post any of the videos. If anyone has any advice there, the only way I know how to do it is to upload it to YouTube, which has become very finicky about a 30 second clip being the intellectual property of the group and, therefore, not to be posted. They actually threatened me over a 30 second snippet of Bryan Adam’s Candle in the Wind tour or whatever it was called. (“Summer of ’69”). Definitely dimmed my Bryan Adams fan-ship.

I haven’t posted since, but that particular song (“Summer of ’69”) was available elsewhere on the web and I used one of him in much younger days.

Paul was soooooooooooooooooo much better!

On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are: HollyShorts 2025

By Connie Wilson

On November 16, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Texas, travel

Dave Freeman in ‘Dave Nation” Episode #894 as portrayed by Jesse Einstein.

HollyShorts 2025 has many shorts in competition this past three days (most of which I spent on the road to Texas). Last year, the count was 427. The short that caught my eye was “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are,” a 23 minute, 26 second offering from J.M. Logan that starred Jesse Einstein as Dave Freeman.

Jesse films himself for a feed called “Dave Nation” (GoPro?), and the Episode of Dave Nation we open on is #894. He explains that his father took him camping in his youth to a lovely forested area at the top of a mountain Dad referred to as Magic Mountain. Now that his father has been dead three years, Dave wants to take his father’s ashes to the top of Magic Mountain and scatter them there. (It’s a scene reminiscent of a similar undertaking in “The Big Lebowski.”)

Things do not go exactly as planned.

For one thing, even when he was young, Dave wasn’t keen on hiking and camping. “I was 12 years old. The last thing I wanted to do was to be alone with m dad in the woods.”

Dave Freeman (Jesse Einstein) of “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are.”

But Dave sets off, despite the information that the next day is going to require a 6 mile hike. He has many small setbacks, but the bear attack in the night leaves him saying, “I have no gear, no tent, no food, no socks, and I don’t really remember how to use a compass.”

Who knew,” he asks, “that bears ate socks?”

Things get real very fast when Dave thinks he is hopelessly lost.

I love short films like this one that are more about being “real” and less about teen-age eternal love or Grandma (that would be me) becoming friends with a youthful soccer player from Nigeria or Timbuktu. (I won’t name names, because the acting in that one was great, but the originality of the piece was not.)

This one reminded me of the award-winning 7 minute short “Retirement Plan” that Irish Director John Kelly has just posted on YouTube, which is hilarious. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mqa4zfJdx4)

Atop Magic Mountain in “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are.”

“Retirement Plan” was the best thing I saw last spring at SXSW, with the possible exception of “The Studio.” This one reminds me of it, except that it was 3 times as long. The cinematography and sound are great and Jesse Einstein—who looks exactly like a real-life friend of mine named Jimmy Mack—did a fine job. The original score by Antoni M. March, used atop Magic Mountain, was suitable in that spot.

Apologies to the HollyShorts people for my belated and unimpressive output this year. I was driving from Illinois to Texas during most of the (short) festival run. Things did not go exactly as planned. Unexpected things happen when two fossils set out to drive 1,000 miles. They generally happen in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Then, you have to twist tie your car together and drive 6 hours in that condition, which is even worse than Dave Freeman having to hike the last 6 miles to the top of Magic Mountain. Pulling over every so often to remove pieces of your ruined vehicle and keep them from flying off and causing catastrophes for other vehicles on the road: one tactic. Telling your spouse “act invisible” when GPS tells you there is a speed trap ahead: another less useful tactic.

Is “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are” any good?

Does a bear in the woods eat socks?

Buffalo in Kansas? From Snow to Eighties

By Connie Wilson

On November 13, 2025

In News, Texas, travel

The pictures above were taken in Kansas. It was incredibly cold (said it felt like 28 because of the wind, but was technically in the thirties). The “buffalo” are not real.

Until Kansas the first snow of the winter season was pummeling Indiana and Chicago and parts north. The Northern Lights were even visible in Geneseo (Illinois), but, then, on November 12th some saw them in Florida!

The weather in Texas is incredibly warm and nice. It feels like spring or summer. It is going to be in the eighties all week.

Today, I played bridge, which I have not played since we were in town last. The “Chicago” scoring method I had (almost) figured out on a bus trip to Houston, but I do not remember what I had (sort of) learned back in April. After 12 hours spent driving or searching for a motel (ended up in West, Texas) I felt like I needed a nap, but without me the bridge club had only seven players. At one point I tried to trump with a club. Unfortunately, I had made hearts trump and—somehow—simply forgot that mid-game, which I will continue to blame on fatigue. Also in my defense, I was not low for the day, but my score was definitely somewhere in the middle of the pack, even though, on my one good hand, my partner and I took all but one trick, as I was dealt 7 spades with all of the main honors.

The big news today was all about the Epstein files. The e-mails released today show that Trump was well aware of the trafficking in underage girls and, in fact, spent time with Virginia Giuffre, whose book “Nobody’s Girl” was recently released posthumously. Her death by suicide is as mysterious and inexplicable as that of Epstein himself in his prison cell.

56th Nashville Film Festival Closing Night Tonight

By Connie Wilson

On September 24, 2025

In Editorial, Movies, News, Pop Culture, travel

“Man on the Run” is a terrific documentary about Paul McCartney’s caarer and life, post Beatles.

Here in Nashville, we could not get the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night (Tuesday, September 23). It was one of the states where station owners refused to carry the program. Very sorry that we were bombarded, instead, with a boring montage of Tennessee historic footage. Couldn’t find Kimmel on my computer, either. Spent most of the night looking for it on various services, to no avail.

We came home from an audience award winning documentary about hunting for pythons in Florida, “The Python Hunt,” excited to see Glen Powell (‘Twisters 2″) as a guest on Jimmy’s return to the air waves. No dice. We were able to see some of the opening monologue and a bit of Glen Powell’s appearance on YouTube today, a day late, but Kimmel’s free speech was curbed and for no good reason. Nothing he said was that inflammatory. This is clearly a case of a wannabe dictator moving the levers of power to become that dictator . It is exactly what Putin did in Russia, limned for us in 2 classes at the University of Texas in Austin during OLLIE classes last year.

Furthermore, DJT is talking about trying a second shake-down of Disney, after a $16 million cave when he threw his presidential weight around last time. How can we stop this? Why isn’t more being done to return our country to a constitutional democracy that guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and grants us 1st Amendment freedoms that are the envy of the rest of the world? I feel sad today about the new administration’s emphasis on revenge, retribution and hanging onto power by any means necessary. It’s unseemly and illegal and absolutely not the vision the Founding Fathers had for our country. I’m embarrassed by Trump and his remarks at the U.N. yesterday show that there is something very wrong happening, and we need to stop it and restore whatever we can of our dignity and status in the world.

Also, apparently there is some sort of anti-gay or anti-drag movement here in Tennessee (and nationwide) being proposed, much like Russia. One of the movies we saw, “Magic Hour,” had four drag queens making an appearance, including one who recently won an Emmy for make-up and goes by the name of Lusious Massacr.

The celebrity speaker about making indie movies, Jay Duplass of the Duplass Brothers (Mark appears on “The Morning Show” and won the supporting actor Emmy for his role), was in town, so I had high hopes that he would stop by the Q&A for his sister-in-law’s movie, “Magic Hour,” but that didn’t happen.

I did sit through the movie and am working up Director Katie Aselton’s remarks on the changing nature of indie film-making in a streaming world. The same might be said of the publishing world, which has changed substantially since my first book came out about 13 years ago. (Not counting the publication of “Training the Teacher As A Champion” by Performance Learning Systems, Inc,, some years earlier, their company Bible.) Very recently, I had an SEO expert tell me that A.I, would put all bloggers out of business, so there’s that to consider, also, and one reason I try to work in a personal detail or two that only a human would know or have.

I continue to inject an opinion that obviously came from a human, just to make sure that the bots don’t take over the world, so be prepared.

Closing night film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at the Belcourt Theater tonight. Jennifer Lopez is in it, but is not here tonight. Nicole Kidman spoke on Sunday, but that got past me, as it sold out in less than a day and I did not get the notice (of Aug. 29) until Aug. 31st. I’ve not seen a thing about her remarks.

One cast member is supposed to appear tonight. Maybe I’ll make an After Party tonight, my first.