Film Fest Fades Out of Pomona

First, the Roman goddess Pomona was removed from the L.A. County seal, apparently out of fear that paganism would spread across the Southland.

Now, Pomona has suffered an even greater blow: its Smogdance film festival has up and moved to Claremont.

Festival organizers say they needed a bigger facility for the event, which will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in Galileo Hall at Harvey Mudd College.

One thing hasn’t changed, though: Smogdance still receives, in addition to award-winners from other festivals, some just plain curious entries.

Those rejected this year included:

* A murder mystery parody of TV’s “Joe Millionaire,” called “Joe Killionaire.”

* An animated short that consisted of the filmmaker talking about how he didn’t know what to make a film about.

* And, a love story about a man and his talking house plant. Independent films are often offbeat, but this one, said spokeswoman Charlotte Cousins, “was just a little too bizarre for me.”

Smogdancing right along: And what do filmmakers get out of the festival, apart from the glory?

“They still get free popcorn and two free tickets for the night their film is showing,” Cousins said.

The popcorn situation is up in the air, so to speak.

“We haven’t decided whether to purchase from outside or get an actual machine,” Cousins said. “Last time we [used a machine], it sort of blew up on us.”

Too bad it wasn’t captured on camera. Could have been the stuff of a reality TV series, “When Food Dispensers Attack.”

Weird, weird world of animals: No, this isn’t a Smogdance entry but some offerings from readers (see accompanying), which include:

* An ad that reads as though it’s directed toward drinkers, though I doubt they’d be interested in the tall ones in the photo (from Perry Casapao of Palmdale)

* A puppy ad that I’m happy to report was supposed to say “de-wormed” (from Kit Hope of Garden Grove)

* A restaurant with only a half dozen or so creatures on its menu, despite what its name would suggest (from Elizabeth Johnston of Chatsworth, who asked: “Where’s the rhino, tiger, aardvark?” ).

Unclear on the concept: One of the first events sportscaster Dick Enberg ever covered was a water polo match between USC and UCLA, he says in his autobiography “Oh My,” co-written with Jim Perry. He had to research the sport beforehand, he quipped, because “I used to wonder how the hell they got the horses into the pool.”

miscelLAny: Unusual street names are another category in the book “The Largest U.S. Cities Named After a Food and Other Mind-Boggling Geography Lists from Around the World,” which I mentioned Wednesday.

Author Brandt Maxwell’s favorite California noms de asphalt include Gasoline Alley in Victorville, Jokers Wild Lane in Grass Valley and His Way in Bakersfield. His Way, incidentally, is separated from Her Street, which is in North Pole, Alaska.

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083; by fax at (213) 237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.