10.17, 8:20 am: Landed at Dulles at 7:10 am. Currently enroute to Middleburg in a snazzy black Lincoln provided by Dulles Executive Sedans, and driven by a nice guy named Mido. You can taste the moneyed, honeyed Virginia culture immediately. The topography is slopey, hilly…farms, Colonial architecture, sprawling estates, horse stables NBC. Fall foliage has begun, but the Technicolor hues won’t kick in until Halloween.

Wednesday evening, 10.16: Later tonight Tatyana and I are catching an Alaska Airlines flight to Dulles (IAD) and the four-day Middleburg Film Festival. Departing at 11:20 pm, arriving at 7:20 am — exactly five hours. If you can somehow manage to nod off for a couple of hours, a red-eye flight isn’t so bad. I intend to try this time by way of over-the-counter pills.

Because I was running around today, I didn’t post a review of Zombieland: Double Tap (Columbia, 10.18). Okay, I’m lying somewhat — I didn’t want to write about about Ruben Fleischer’s film because I despised it from the get-go, and I didn’t want to wade into that.

I was totally down with the original Zombieland (’09) and especially loved Bill Murray‘s cameo, but the newbie is lazy and glib and way too self-regarding. I was hating it by the ten-minute mark. I want credit for staying to the end.

Zombie comedies aren’t funny. They never have been. Social commentary or satire has always been the point, but the only way to go is to take flesh-eating ghouls seriously. My all-time favorite is still George Romero‘s Dawn of the Dead.