As mentioned previously, SIFF released its the favorite films of this year’s audiences, who collectively tore through over 60,000 ballots to decide the fate of a table full of glass artwork by James Mongrain. Another organization also revealed their most liked. While the number of ballots was undoubtedly smaller, the body doing voting almost certainly saw far more films than the average SIFF attendee.

Every year, Fool Serious, the unofficial unorganization of SIFF passholders, undertakes their own internal balloting process to find out which films were the most beloved among the most fanatical of festival-loving cinephiles. Below, you’ll find the top results from the two tallies. It’s pretty interesting to compare and contrast to see which movies wound up among both the hardest of hard core and the broader slice of attendees. It’s a good guide for when you’re scoping out new releases and netflix (or library) rental queues.

While we’re on the topic of SIFF favorites, the festival is giving us one last chance to catch some of this year’s winners and top sellers before they head into their much-deserved summer break. From Friday to Sunday, they’ll be hosting a weekend bonanza featuring the best of the fest [siff].
On Friday, they’ll show best documentary talhotblond, (4:30), closing gala OSS 117: Lost in Rio (7:00), Lynn Shelton’s amazing Humpday (9:00). Saturday includes a collection of the best shorts (11:00 am), New Directors Showcase grand jury prize-winner the Other Bank (1:30), mind-boggling documentary Rembrandt’s J’Accuse (4:00), all-star smash Shrink (6:30), Golden Space Needle winning comedy Black Dynamite (9:30). Then on Sunday, another collection of shorts (11:00), followed by audience favorite dolphin documentary The Cove (1:30), mockumentary favorite Morris: A Life With Bells On (3:30), Swedish pool pic Swimsuit Issue (6:00), and then David Russo’s The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. All of the screenings play at SIFF Cinema; tickets run $10 per screening or $60 to see them all ($8/$50 for members).

What films made it to the top (or bottom) of your SIFF lists?

photo by shawn mcclung [flickr] via our group pool [#].

Hello there, Seattleite. Do you like to do things in the city and tell people stories about your experiences? Do you have zany &/or insightful takes on the news of the day? Are you obsessed with the impending local election season or all of the sportsballs bouncing around town? Are you fixated on making beautiful photographs of our fair city? Is there some facet of Seattle that so capitvates you that you’d like to share it with an audience of adoring readers?

If the answer to at least one of those questions is “yes”, then do I have just the “job” for your volunteer efforts! We’re looking for a few great bloggers to join the ranks at Seattle Metblogs to help fill these pages with wonderful content. If you’d like to be a part of the team and have time and dedication to contribute a few times a week, please fire up your e-mail machine, point it to seattle.metblogs @ gmail.com and tell us a bit about yourself.

Statue of James Joyce on North Earl Street, Dublin

12:00 PM – Gillian Flynn: Dark Places
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
I can’t quite wrap my head around the plot of this novel, based on the description, but apparently, “JB highly recommends this lush and twisted story.” I’m not sure how much of a recommendation that is, since JB would read assembly instructions from the author.
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Carol Cassella: Oxygen
SPL Ballard Branch
“During the fragile moments of surgery, Seattle anesthesiologist and writer Carol Cassella is not only aware of the scientific intricacies of the human body, but more importantly, understands the emotional complexities patients and doctors face when entering an operating room. This intimate and professional perspective was reflected in her exquisite and critically acclaimed debut, Oxygen.” –Secret Garden Bookshop
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Lisa See: Shanghai Girls
SPL Central Library
“The bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love tells the story of two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in Los Angeles.”–SPL
(See is one of my favorite authors. Highly recommended!)
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Matthew Simmons: A Jello Horse
The College in Pub
Adorable: “The author of this book is also the author of this newsletter. So we feel a little silly writing about our book in first person plural and as if we are not the author. But we muddle through. We are very proud of our book—it’s a somewhat surreal road novel about a trip to a funeral—and think maybe you’d like it. There will be pinball.” –Matthew Simmons, UW Bookstore
Go, show Matt some love.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Andy Paige: Style on a Shoestring
Barnes & Noble University Village
I am not stylish. I have no particular desire to be stylish. I have not, and will not, read this book- nothing personal, just a subject that does not interest me at all. If you be stylin’, well, more power to you. Go see the author, I’ll be having a nice nap.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Bill Wasik: And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs
Wasik explains how the interwebs are the ultimate pet rock.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Joshua Beckman: Take It
Open Books

Packs of boar were trampling in the
moonlight some needle or piece of shit
that the earth needed pushed into it.
God has made this hotel in his image.
The fluctuation of life. Yes. Yes,
I understand folly, we’re the creatures
he explained that to.”

[LINK]

A uterus. Not wandering.

7:30 PM – Marty McConnell, Andi Strickland and Karen Finneyfrock: The Morrigan Tour
Richard Hugo House Cabaret
“One of the first all-female spoken word troupes hits the road for the “Wandering Uterus Reunion Tour” featuring original members McConnell and Strickland plus Seattle slam legend Karen Finneyfrock.” –RHH
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Robert Olmstead: Far Bright Star
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Olmstead’s seventh novel (after the award-winning Coal Black Horse) employs a sparse, poetic style that is appropriate for the book’s bleak setting and subject matter. Set in the Mexican desert in 1916, the novel follows Napoleon Childs, a veteran soldier in the American Expeditionary Force sent to capture Pancho Villa. The futility of this mission is compounded by unendurable conditions and the pointless violence of the war. The novel revolves around an expedition to collect livestock, the grisly battle that ensues, and Childs’s improbable struggle for survival. His attempts to make sense of this experience and of his life spent in the army are portrayed powerfully and subtly, and his conclusion that he has died and been reborn presages the death of the 19th-century world with the arrival of World War I.” –Douglas Southard, Library Journal Review
[LINK]

Well it’s actually summer, but the sentiment remains the same. We ran into a dilemma a few weeks back. We have a pair of skis that we do not need and wanted to find a home for. No one is looking to buy skis in May or June, and so we checked with various used sporting good stores in the area. All told us the same thing: no one will accept them and likely no one will take them from us. One even recommended sending them to the landfill.

I finally decided to check with Value Village. They, fortunately, will accept skis. Hopefully someone will use them the next time we have snow in the city.

If you have items to get rid of, there are a lot of options. Most used sporting good stores will take sports equipment, just call ahead to confirm. Seattle has a local division of Freecycle that I have used a few times to offload stuff we didn’t want or have room for that was still perfectly usable. Craiglist and eBay also work well for that, though I haven’t used either of them for that purpose. Check out how to recycle electronics here.

What you shouldn’t do is assume that no one would want it and send it straight to the landfill, or dump it on the street corner and hope someone picks it up.

Sofa to go by smohundro

Urania returns courtesy the Seattle School

James Moore built the Moore Theater back in 1907, giving the building a simple exterior so he could lavish attention on the ornate interior. The Moore’s lobby was built with mosiac floors, an elaborate ceiling fresco and carved wood, stained glass, marble, onyx and metal. One of the key components of the decorating theme was the carved representation of the Muses designed by architect E.W. Houghton.

If you’ve been to the Moore, you’ve seen the Muses, but did you ever notice that one of them is missing? Greek mythology says their are nine but the Moore only has eight. Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, was omitted from the theater since her area of influence has nothing to do with theater. You’d think they’d have included her for the (admittedly weak) pun of having “stars” appear on stage, but no matter: at long last, the muse is back with her sisters, at least for one night.

Urania Returns is a performance piece by the Seattle School that reunites Urania with her sisters in the Moore lobby. She will work out “elaborate equations using stars, architecture, and portraiture of attending audience members to satisfy calculations that none of us will understand, but all of us will eventually live through.” Per Seattle School, Urania’s a tricky sort of muse so her eight sisters (the muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, the muse of tragedy, the muse of written history, the muse of lyric poetry, the muse of music and dancing, the muse of erotic poetry, the muse of epic poetry and rhetoric, and the muse of sacred hymns and harmony) have been enlisted to help keep her in line.

Urania Returns happens from 6pm to 10pm on Saturday, June 20, and is part of the Free Sheep Foundation and Seattle Theater Group celebration of the Moore, Moore Inside Out. More than thirty artists and groups will be presenting installations and performances throughout the theater to celebrate and reinterpret the theater’s long history.

6:30 PM – Andre Dubuss III: The Garden of Last Days
Pan Pacific Hotel, $45
“Words & Wine is an author series created by book event maven, Kim Ricketts whose vision is to celebrate the written word through dynamic and unique literary events. Words & Wine events take place at the elegant Pan Pacific Hotel Seattle where guests mingle with the author while sipping award-winning wines from the Chateau Ste. Michelle portfolio and enjoying savory nibbles created by John Howie’s Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar Lake Union. For the highlight of the evening, the engaging Warren Etheredge of The Warren Report leads an intimate on-stage interview and conversation with the author.”
[LINK]

7:30 PM – James Lovelock: A Living Earth
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs
The science writer, and creator of the Gaia hypothesis, discusses global warming. Presented part of Seattle Science Lectures, with Pacific Science Center and University Book Store.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Norman Ollestad: Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Elliott Bay Book Co.
When the author was just 11 years old, he survived a small plane crash that killed his father. Ollestad recounts how he survived to get off the mountain, and the three decades since that amazing event. Wow. Just, like, totally wow.
[LINK]

this year’s sculptures.

Hello friends and greetings from 100 feet above Seattle Center. It’s the final day of SIFF, and remarkably, everyone is still standing. By now, you’ve voted more than 60,000 times and surpassed attendance goals despite the rain free weather that graced the 25 day festival.

When all of the ballots were tallied, your favorite narrative feature was BLACK DYNAMITE and your favorite documentary was THE COVE. These and several other awards for the 35th Seattle International Film Festival were presented at an emotion-packed brunch this morning at the Space Needle, complete with mimosas, glass artwork, and a few great acceptance speeches (most notably, the kids from MY SUICIDE who enlivened the 35 Club party claiming their Youth Jury Award for Best FutureWave Feature fresh from a night spent in the park).

Stay tuned … once I get back to a real computer (with copy and pasting powers) I’ll update this post with the full list of awardees.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, for The Hurt Locker (USA, 2008)
Best Actor: Sam Rockwell for Moon (United Kingdom, 2009)
Best Actress: Yolande Moreau for Séraphine (France/Belgium, 2008)Best Short Film: Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, directed by Nick Park, (UK)
Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision: Sweet Crude, directed by Sandy Cioffi (USA, 2008)

Grand Jury Prize Winners

New Directors Showcase: The Other Bank, directed by George Ovashvili (Georgia/Kazakhstan, 2009)Documentary (grand): talhotblond, directed by Barbara Schroeder (USA, 2009)
Documentry (special): Manhole Children, directed by Yoshio Harada (Japan, 2008)
Short Film (Narrative/Grand): Short Term 12, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, USA
Short Film (Narrative/special): Lowland Fell, directed by Michael Kinirons, Ireland; Next Floor, directed by Denis Villeuneuve, Canada
Short Film (Animation/Grand ): Photograph of Jesus, directed by Laurie Hill, United Kingdom
Short Film (Documentary/Grand ): The Herd, directed by Ken Wardrop, Ireland

WaveMaker Award for Excellence in Youth Filmmaking:  A Generation of Consolidation, directed by Samantha Muilenberg

WaveMaker (Special): If U Want 2 Get Technical, directed by Riaebia Robinson

FutureWave Shorts Audience Award: A Generation of Consolidation, directed by Samantha Muilenberg

SIFF 2009 Youth Jury Award for Best FutureWave Feature: My Suicide, directed by David Lee Miller.
Youth Jury (Special): Sounds Like Teen Spirit, directed by Jamie J. Johnson

The full listing of awards, jury statements, and worthy runners up can be found online. [siff] (more…)

4:00 PM – Short Stories Live: Reading
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs
A Tribute to John Updike: ACT artistic director Kurt Beatty directs ACT performers in readings by John Updike, and authors who influenced Updike.
[LINK]

4:00 PM – Tyler E. Boudreau: Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Another indictment of the Iraq War, this time by a 12 year veteran. Boudreau isn’t the world’s greatest writer, and this memoir is highly personal, without the rigorous fact-checking that one expects from journalists, but the very personal, subjective tone is also Boudreau’s strength. I suggest reading back to back with Shooter, by (former) USMC Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin.
[LINK]

12:00 PM – Tim Maleeny: Jump
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
The author of the Cape Weathers series drops in to sign his first stand-alone novel.
[LINK]

1:00 PM – Wild Geese Players: Ulysses (Circe)
UW Bookstore, U District
Ah, yes, it’s that time of year, again, when the Joycean’s completely lose their (our) shit. Yay, it’s (almost) Bloomsday ! UW Bookstore will be celebrating a few days early, with a staged reading of part 15, Circe.
[LINK]

2:00 PM – Joyce Lebra-Chapman: The Scent of Sake
Sake Nomi
92 S. Washington
Sake Nomi celebrates this debut novel about a woman who runs a sake brewery with a special tasting of sake brewed by a female toji in Iwate. Sweet! Presented in conjunction with Elliott Bay Books.
[LINK]

2:00 PM – Paula Becker & Alan J. Stein: Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington’s First World Fair
SPL Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
In the early 20th century, Seattle was a progressive hotbed of women’s suffrage activists, communists, and labor organizers. Smack dab in the middle of that, Seattle hosted the 1909 AYP, the first World’s Fair to make a profit, with over 3.7 million visitors from around the world. Visit SPL tonight to learn all about the event that shaped the UW, and put Seattle on the map. Local history buffs should definitely attend.
[LINK]

3:00 PM – Bree Loewen: Pickets and Dead Men: Seasons on Rainier
SPL Broadview Branch
“Pickets and Dead Men is the story of a young woman’s experience as a climbing ranger where respect is hard won and on-the-job performance can be the difference between life and death.
Bree Loewen has been a climbing ranger on Mount Rainier, an EMT in Seattle, and has written for Climbing magazine. She has taught rigging and navigation classes for search and rescue groups and lives in Carnation, Washington, with her husband and daughter.” — I seem to have misplaced my source information for this blurb. Oops.
[LINK]

4:00 PM – Seth Grahame-Smith: Pride and Prejudice … and Zombies
UW Bookstore, U District
I’m still not sure about this. Have you read it? What do you think? Is it worth going to the reading and buying a copy for the author to sign? Should I check the book out from the library, instead? Should I just forget that the book even exists, and catch up on back episodes of Dancing with the Stars?
[LINK]

4:30 PM – Vincenza Scarpaci: The Journey of the Italians in America
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Scarpaci also published A Portrait of the Italians in America in 1982.
[LINK]

6:00 PM – Jason: Low Moon
Fantagraphics Books
The Norwegian alternative cartoonist will sign copies of Low Moon, originally serialized in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Fantagraphics is also offering several rare European editions of Jason’s work. Reception and signing will run until 9:00 PM tonight, but the exhibition of Jason’s work will remain up until July 8th.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Harvey Schwartz: Solidarity Stories: An Oral History of the ILWU
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Speaking of Seattle, communists, and the West Coast labor movement… read this book! Schwartz is an oral historian at the Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University, and curator of the Oral History Collection, ILWU Library. It’s practically criminal that SPL doesn’t have the title on order – the publisher is the University of Washington Press! If you are interested in the labor movement, put in a purchase request.
[LINK]

photo by seattlescott [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• Dow Constantine gets the all-important ice cream endorsement, but can he build a frozen treats coalition and bring frozen custard and the berry/cherry/mango froyo factions together? [mollymoon]
• The Brits recognize Fleet Foxes live performance mojo. [subpop]
• If you were inspired by the serious business of Morris dancing by the SIFF featured Morris: a Life With Bells On, learn the dance for yourself this weekend. [phinneywood]
• You can tell that a show is good when critics with aching feet or explosive intestinal distress stick around for the whole thing. And now I’m feeling even more lame for not taking the bus out to see Throw Me the Statue when my only excuse was exhaustion induced by abstract French cinema and a couple of mojitos. [lineout]
• The Lemonheads are (1) still a band and (2) performing tonight in Ballard. [threeimaginarygirls]
• A Seattle teen diagnosed her own Crohn’s Disease in AP Science class. [cnn]
• David Horsey and Regina Hackett had a civilized disagreement on the Internet about the Internet. [anotherbouncingball]
• Tons of details are emerging [chs] about the Capitol Hill cardroom [chs] speakeasy [chs] drug [chs] bust. [chs]
• Slats, too, was once younger. [lineout]

AGENDA: amid all of the sunny spring weekend temptations and last ditch SIFFing [mb], don’t forget about all of those Noise for the Needy shows [mb]