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By Dave Pratt Who woulda thought that we'd be holding our mid-November Movie and Pizza Night party with snow on the ground? But such was the case, although it didn't deter anyone from coming out and taking in the show (and a little pizza). Almost everyone arrived around 5 pm (except for Giorgio, who was a little early because he forgot to take his driving style into account when planning how long his trip would take). Popcorn was popped, and people decanted their vino, birra, and other beverages, while we waited for the pizza to arrive. Which it did, at 5:30 right on schedule, and we dug into the offerings of Pizzeria Alto Strada (a.k.a. Dedham's High Street Pizza) plus the salad that Vi had assembled (to make us feel a little less decadent). Anyway, our main feature for the night, Agnelli, received much acclaim from our audience. It was well-produced documentary about the larger-than-life Italian industry leader, Gianni Agnelli, and his dramatic and colorful life. The portrait featured lots of interviews with family members, friends, confidantes, and rivals, while detailing the story of this legendary industrialist and playboy. Definitely a fascinating movie about an extraordinary figure!
After hobnobbing for a while, ruminating on the movie we'd just seen, and enjoying the many confections, we all resumed our seats to watch an assortment of clips from movies, TV shows, and advertisements in which Alfa Romeos made appearances. These included a couple of excellent short videos from this year's Holy Land 1000 motor tour featuring AONE members Roger Cassin and Ven Fonte, who took part in their classic Alfa Romeos. As luck would have it, Roger was in our crowd to provide first-hand commentary! While we thought that people might drift off toward home during the "Alfa Shorts", almost all stayed to the end. These appear to be quite popular, so if you have suggestions for more, in the form of video files or links to clips on the internet, please pass them along (webmaster@velocissima.com) and I'll assemble another batch for next time! A pleasant surprise for everyone was that our AONE 2019 Wall Calendars arrived that very morning, three days earlier than expected! So lots of people were able to purchase theirs on the spot at a discount. We also realized that six of the winning photos were submitted by people who were at the party! So Roger Cassin, John Feng, Jim Miga, John DeWaele, Andy Kress, and Adrien Sipos got to take home their free ones! (The calendars will be available for online purchase shortly — stay tuned!) When our Alfa Shorts finished, we raised the lights, chatted some more, and finally bid our farewells. Hope you can make it to the next Movie and Pizza Night, probably sometime in March! Movie and Pizza Night Attendees |
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Once the pizza and salad had been decimated, we all shuffled into the living room, which at this time of year was plenty dark and where the club's big-screen multi-channel A/V system was set up. We had a bit of a scare earlier in the week, since the club's video projector was found to be malfunctioning when I set things up to make sure it was all working. Replacing the bulb didn't help and it appears that a temperature sensor had failed. The club BoD quickly approved the purchase of a new projector, so a fast run to Best Buy and we were back in business. We'll repair the original projector and keep it as a spare (always a good thing, as Alfisti know full well).
As the closing credits began to roll, we moseyed back to the kitchen for coffee and dessert. Many attendees brought sweet contributions — thank you! Next time, though, perhaps we'll try to organize things better and keep the desserts to a more resonable amount! (Not that an abundance of desserts is a terrible problem to have to deal with.)
