OK, important stuff regarding the Big Sur International Short Film Festival. Basically, it’s almost over.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 25th, we’ll be showing last year’s winners along with music from Lauren Shera (who’s also in Honeymoon.) Come hear her play her gorgeous and mellifluous tunes from her new disc “Once I Was a Bird.”

You can check out last year’s winners here. If I’m not mistaken, I recall being very enthralled by “This is Alaska.” It is a subtle and absurd tale of hipsters braving the Yukon wilderness in a search for “ultimate freedom.”

Ahh if only these kooky self-aware Swedes ran for president instead of Alaska’s other freedom-loving sociopathic export.

Ahh (again), but this is just a mere precursor to the grand finale, this Sunday, August 28th! It will be a full house for sure. Last year was bedlam; the popcorn line stretched from here to Pacific Valley. I was about to collapse from anxiety when good ol’ Dave Dildine from ex-Fernwood fame and Mr. Fix-It/Human Zanax Stan Russel came to my rescue. Thanks guys.

And it gets better. Sunday’s gala finale will also include a very special musical guest: the string quartet from the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA.)

Led by Artistic Advisor Plácido Domingo, the YOA Orchestra of the Americas is a multicultural, world-class symphony orchestra of 100 gifted young musicians, ages 18 and 30, from more than 20 countries of the Western Hemisphere.

They’re touring China, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, and now…Big Sur.

So consider us stoked and also flabbergasted that such an incredible confluence of art, music, and cinema can congeal in our sleepy little bookstore in the mountains.

It’s kinda crazy.