There is something special about this goofy island many of us call home. We are not San Francisco or New York or Chicago or Paris or London. But we have particular charming things that, to us, feel as amazing as Lombard Street or Times Square or The Bean or those towers in those other places. Our 4th of July parade is not made of roses or floated by big balloons, but I love watching it, and have loved being in it. In fact, my most recent entry in the past two parades was my beat-up pickup truck decorated with taped on signs. I convinced actors from the Foodbank Players to dress up and walk across town, and it was a blast.
Alameda – Here is Anywhere, a movie written and directed by Patti Cary, is another example of Alameda specialness—or specialosity. It is not The Godfather Part I, II, or III, but it was made here and set here by people from here, and that’s really kind of wonderful.
In Cary’s movie, a man goes missing, leaving his dog to a woman who just happened to be standing nearby, not far from the USS Hornet. A nice person—she’s from Alameda—she worries about the guy and the dog, and spends the next 105 minutes of the story trying to figure out what happened. Her name is Patty May.
Played by Patty Devlin, Patty May is a retired schoolteacher with the time and heart to do this work. She seeks out help from a friend, befriends two psychic detectives, and goes so far as to visit the Clubhouse on Park Street looking for the dog’s former guy. The people there are friendly, because the people there are friendly, says someone who’s had a beer and watched a game there.
There’s a nice police officer, played by Angela Averiett, who helps. Current Alameda Unified School District school board member (in real life) Ryan Lalonde plays a guy at Safeway who follows Patty to her car, worried that she’s bought the wrong dog food and supplies for her new furry buddy. I’m a cat guy, but that seems like a friendly thing to do.
The story moves on, veers towards the mystical and mysterious—including a nighttime scene at Lincoln Park involving peculiar lights and fog—and ends up on a porch with a moment I’m not going to tell you about except to say that it’s very sweet. Just like the 4th of July parade. Just like the goofy movie theater we used to have that’s now a church. Just like The Foodbank Players who perform in a former parking lot. Just like Alameda.
Alameda – Here is Anywhere is the work of Patti Cary and FunAmeda Productions, “an arts and entertainment company working since 2006 to bring people closer together through her writing, theatrical productions and community events.” I’d say her movie does all of that!
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.
