Functioning in the Modern World

In a world where the unexpected keeps happening, I'm just staying open to the possibilities.

That meant starting my evening with a date who suggested I show him my neighborhood.

Can do.

Strolling through Jackson Ward, I point out things I love about where I live.

Distinctive wrought ironwork on porches. Galleries he's never been to. Tea roses spilling over picket fences.

In front of a thrift shop, he peeks in the window so long that an employee waves us in, calling, "You look like you want to come in."

He does, so we do.

Our stroll deposits us at Bistro 27 where I point out that he shares a homeland with the chef and the two of them are off and running, talking about cities and settlers.

I hear Portuguese spoken. Vasco de Gama is mentioned.

When the chef goes off to make our food, we talk about music - the bossa nova he grew up with and the fado group I've seen that he didn't know existed in Richmond.

Over Vinho Verde, mussels, calamari and grouper, we end up talking about Catholicism along with the literary and gustatory pleasures of Soho and Park Slope, again with the chef.

My date is entranced with the street theater on Broad Street as only a first-timer can be.

After dinner, he wants me to show him more of the 'hood, so we amble past churches that will be full in the morning, barber shops still cutting hair and students sitting on their porches, music blaring from inside the house.

He says hello to everyone we pass, clearly enjoying the feel of the streets, and sometimes engaging people in conversation.

I can feel him falling for J-Ward with every step.

Mission accomplished. I will convert the masses one by one if I have to.

Back at my house, we sit on the porch for a bit, chatting and enjoying the air, described by my arriving neighbor as "half-summer and half-fall."

When I say goodnight, I thank him sincerely for a most agreeable evening, something I very much needed.

But instead of calling it a night, I decide to continue my night with film.

The Criterion is showing "In a World," a Sundance winner for screenwriting and about the world of voice-over work.

I'm sure it's only because I've worked in radio that it even appeals to me, but it does.

Walking into the theater, I see only four other people and once seated, one of them, a friend, leans over and says hello.

It's the local jazz DJ, munching popcorn and clearly there for the same reason I am.

Just as the trailers begin, one last guy slides in and takes the seat at the end of our row.

And now we are six.

The quirky movie is a screwball comedy, but a smart one about a woman trying to make it in a  man's world.

That would be the voice-over actor world, as financially erratic as the freelance writing world, which she necessarily supplements with vocal coaching, like trying to teach Eva Longoria a Cockney accent.

It's plenty of the moment, with lines like, "I came to get my cell phone. There's no way to function in the modern world without it."

Um, I beg to differ.

But it's also full of sly humor like references to a kiddie rom-com (ew) and a "quadrilogy," a series of female warrior adventure movies (shoot me now).

For radio types, one of the most entertaining scenes shows the three characters vying for the job of voicing the trailers for the "quadrilogy" as they pompously and ridiculously warm up before making their audition tapes.

And don't get me started about our heroine's quest to wipe out adult female baby talkers, those women whose pouty voices squeak as they end every sentence with a question.

As the credits roll and the other four attendees leave, the lone wolf at the end of the row looks at me and asks, "Do you do voice-over work?"

Turns out he does, so when I explain my past radio jobs, it takes less than a minute to discover two people we both knew and have worked with, going back as far as the '90s.

Asking what I do now, he shares that he's also a freelance writer.

"Well, you've got a great voice with no trace of an accent, so you should be doing voice work," he advises.

Coincidentally, my date had also mentioned my accent-less voice earlier.

Asking what had brought him out alone tonight, he says it's his birthday and the movie sounded interesting to him.

Happy birthday, I tell him as we walk out together, him holding the door for me.

It's funny how everything works out in time.