Recently I was corresponding with a friend about music, something I don’t believe I’ve written about in this space.

While I don’t consider myself an expert in anything, I know even less about music than about most things. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy it and that it doesn’t play a role in my life but just that I’m not naturally musical.

In our discussion, it unfolds that my friend prefers music that is original and noticeably unconventional. He likes “risky” music.

For me, on the other hand, it is a matter of resonance and is contingent on the words (sometimes as little as a single, searing phrase) that imprint on me as a mirror of my own feelings or experiences (real or imagined).

How am I going to spend my weekend? Happily watching a bunch of movies at the second annual OUT @ the Movies Fest in Winston-Salem.

You still have time to get a ticket for the opening night film Baby Steps, which will be preceded by the short Noam tonight at 7:30 at the UNCSA ACE Theatre Complex, for the affordable price of $8.00 then join filmmakers and festival pass holders at the Celebrity Reception at The Old Fourth Street Filling Station at 9:30.

By all means, check out the festival schedule. There’s something for everyone. I saw Out to Win (screening Saturday at 12:30 p.m.) at GAZE International LGBT Film Festival in Dublin and was quite taken with it. Even though I’m not a huge sports fan, this is an important, human story that transcends sports in any narrow sense. I also saw Naz & Maalik at GAZE (screening Sunday at noon), and think it is a story whose moment has come in an international, political sense because it speaks to the under-represented experience gay men who are Muslim.

My latest documentary short Queer Knitter in the Queen City is showing out of competition Sunday afternoon at 5 at a/perture cinema before the feature Upstairs Inferno, and it’s out of competition because I am honored to be a juror at the festival.

Check the schedule carefully because there are several venues for the festival.

Tonight’s screening and the daytime screenings Saturday, November 14th are at the UNCSA ACE Theatre Complex. Tomorrow evening’s screening of PACKED IN A TRUNK: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson is at Calem College’s Hanes Auditorium. Screenings on Sunday, November 15th will be at a/perture cinema.

There’s not much to say about the latest Bond picture. In terms of the Daniel Craig chapter of the movie franchise, Casino Royale is still the best, Skyfall comes in second place (elevated by the strength of the final act), Spectre ranks third, and Quantum of Solace is still a frightful mess.

I admire certain sequences of Spectre, appreciate the deepening backstory written for James Bond, and enjoy some of the performers, especially Léa Seydoux, who dazzled me in Blue is the Warmest Color but seems (I have to say it) too young for Daniel Craig here.

I liked both Bridge of Spies and Steve Jobs much more than I expected.

In the case of Bridge of Spies, I often experience Steven Spielberg’s work as too sentimental or otherwise manipulative and (sorry) find Tom Hanks over-exposed to the point I’ve become weary of him. For this film, too, the preview trailers seemed boring to me.