Geoff Aaron flies above the flames

While I’m not much of a risk taker myself, I have to admit there’s something cool about seeing someone else willingly choose to risk life and limb. Freestyle motocross is a great example of something you wouldn’t catch me doing, ever, but I find compelling to watch. Nuclear Cowboyz is a new theatrical style motocross show featuring some of the world’s top riders and it’s coming to the Tacoma Dome next week. Legends of freestyle motocross – guys like Adam Jones, Mike Mason, Nate Adams, Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg, Ronnie Faisst, Todd Potter, Beau Bamburg, Jim McNeil, Dustin Miller, Matt Buyten, Brian Foster, Jimmie McGuire, Jimmy Fitzpatrick, Taka Higashino and Derek Garland – will synchronize complex stunts and go for broke in an attempt to break some world records that hopefully won’t see them breaking any bones.

Also on the menu: a special appearance by Derek Guetter presenting an extraordinary back-flipping quad, dancers, loud rock music, pyrotechnics and all kinds of spectacle.

You’ve got two chances to see this jaw-dropping extravaganza – March 19 and March 20. Both shows are at 7:30 pm at the Tacoma Dome.

Since this show has a big enough carbon footprint on its own, if you’re heading down from Seattle, why not offset it a bit by taking the bus? Sound Transit’s route 594 travels between downtown Seattle and the Tacoma Dome station every half hour until the last bus from Tacoma at 10:18 pm.

Kris Kristensen, the President and Co-Founder of the 20/20 Awards says that he has always been baffled by people who respond to “What’s your favorite film?” with a film that came out last year. “I always thought it was unrealistic that in 100 years of film, the best one just came out last year. And what puzzled me about this is that it seemed like there wasn’t enough time to have the perspective to really support that idea. Now it could very well be that 10 years later, it turns out that that film actually is that person’s favorite film, but more likely than not… that film has been forgotten. We often get caught up in trends or politics of the day, or maybe a film does something that’s technically ground breaking, but doesn’t really mean that it has the staying power… maybe it’s just a flash in the pan.”

After a friend pointed out a blurb from Matt Damon about how the Oscars should be held 10 years after the fact to provide some genuine perspective, Kristensen mentioned this to his friend Korby Sears and the two of them came up with the brilliant idea to take a look back at previous Oscar winners and see if they truly were deserving. Ten years, they decided, was not enough, so they chose 20 and thus the 20/20 Awards were born.

They did an amazing amount of work in a short amount of time by gathering together their voting Syndicate, a group of 45 members (which they hope to expand) made up of working film professionals from all over the globe, including several members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – yes, that’s the Academy that Oscar winners thank. To qualify, a member must have credit in the main titles of a feature film that received some form of distribution (not including self distribution).

The members looked back at the films of 1989 that were nominated and won and reviewed them to see if they really deserved their prizes or, if maybe another film was more deserving.

The 20/20 Awards even have their own version of the Oscar – the Felix. (If it takes you a minute to get this joke, don’t worry – I didn’t get it until I typed that sentence just now.)

Is there a ceremony? Of course there’s a ceremony, with all the pomp and party you would expect, but with way less camera cuts to commercials…live at Central Cinema on Monday, March 15 at 7pm. Tickets for the extravaganza are a mere $7 and of course Central Cinema has an excellent menu if you require libations during the ceremony.

During the presentation, the old Oscars will be represented wearing bandanas and smoking cigarettes. They are under fire – if they lose, they are thrown into a plexiglass trash can on stage.

Some notes from the 20/20 organizers:

The inevitable cease-and-desist letter from the lawyers of AMPAS – which was surprisingly friendly, breezy, and showed a sense of humor about the 20/20s
-Some film industry people accepted the invitation into the 20/20 Voting Syndicate body, thought about their advancing careers, and then requested to leave, worried about this being on their “record”
- 7 Nominees for 20/20 Awards are deceased. Their agents / estates / nearest relatives have been notified, and are aware of the nominations
-Of the 6 new 20/20 nominations for Best Picture, none of them were nominated by the original Academy back in 1990.
-Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING, which received little love in 1990, is nominated for seven 20/20 Awards.
-Michael Moore’s ROGER AND ME, which wasn’t even nominated by the Academy in 1990, has been nominated for Best Documentary by the 20/20 Voting Syndicate. Given that fact that what happened to Flint in the mid-80s – outsourcing used to pump corporate profits while devastating the local workforce – has now happened on a nationwide basis, this is possibly the epitome of what the 20/20s are all about. ROGER AND ME is more relevant now than it was in 1989.

The 20/20 Awards should be great fun and I know I’ll be looking forward to the results.

What’s better than pie?

Well, there’s…

well, no, there’s…

…wait, what about…

…

…oh, never mind, there’s NOTHING better than pie. Which is why you need to visit Fuel in Wallingford, Montlake, or Capital Hill on Sunday, 3/14 for specials on yummy, yummy pies baked by High 5. Buy 3 pies, get .14 off your purchase.

Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Calvin Pickard stops a shot by the Portland Winterhawks

The Seattle Thunderbirds finish the 2009 – 2010 season with a pair of games at home at the ShoWare Center.

Saturday at 7:05 pm, the Birds take their arch-rivals, the Portland Winterhawks in a game guaranteed to be exciting. The Hawks are battling for playoff positioning but the Birds are playing for pride. Their last match up was a thriller of a game, with strong, physical play from both sides that led to a tie lasting through overtime into a shootout win by Portland.

Fan Appreciation Day is the theme Sunday when the Birds play their final game of the season versus the Vancouver Giants at 5:05 pm. The Tbirds will be giving out a number of prizes to fans in attendance courtesy of their sponsors, including a 42” flat screen Samsung TV,
$75 Gift Certificate to Salty’s Restaurant, a one hour massage, team autographed merchandise and gift certificates from sponsors including Ivar’s, U-frame it, Central Ave. Pub, the Sportspage, Grape Adventure, and Ram Big Horn Brewery.

The Seattle Jewish Film Festival kicked off with a pre-opening night party at Palace Ballroom featuring food and drinks, Israeli singer/songwriter Anna He, and local filmmaker Andy Schocken presenting clips from his films, including the Oscar-nominated documentary he co-produced, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner. The SJFF officially opens Saturday, with Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film nominee Ajami, a “gritty, urban crime drama that tells the interwoven stories of Jewish, Muslim and Christian neighbors living in bloody disharmony in Israel’s impoverished Jaffa neighborhood”.

The festival continues through March 21 with films and special events at a variety of venues including SIFF, Cinerama, the Stroum Jewish Community Center, and the Washington State History Museum. Films being screened include dramas (like Jaffa, a modernized take on Romeo and Juliet relocated to the port city of Jaffa where a young Jewish woman has a secret love affair with an Arab man), comedies (like, Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueberger stars Little Miss Sunshine‘s Toni Collette and Whale Rider‘s Keisha Castle-Hughes in quirky tale of coming of age and finding your own identity) and a slew of documentaries from around the world including Look Into My Eyes, filmmaker Naftaly Gliksberg examination of anti-Semitism on two continents, and Amnon’s Story about master violin maker, Amnon Weinstein who restores Holocaust-era instruments. See schedule for full details.

NW Film Forum screens 45365 for a week, starting Friday. Directors Bill and Ross Turner turn their cameras on their own hometown of Sydney, Ohio, for a look at the ordinary lives of ordinary people presented without judgment. Saturday and Sunday only, NWFF screens Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970 and Saturday only see Lunch Films a collection of short films each made for about the cost of a good lunch – topping out at $67.50 but averaging under $40.

The Grand Illusion goes back to the garden with Gold: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality, a 1968 film by director Bob Levis. Considered a “lost” film for 40 years, Gold is the result of Levis leading a motley group of the tuned in and dropped out into the wilderness to make a movie that defies simple description. An artifact of a different time, to be sure.

Central Cinema pays tribute to everyone’s favorite spy with a series of James Bond films. Friday and Saturday see Goldfinger, Sunday through Monday see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and wrap up the fest early next with with Moonraker.

“Hello, handsome. Is that a ten-gallon hat or are you just enjoying the show?” Blazing Saddles, Midnight at the Egyptian.

I’m a sucker for musicians I’ve never seen or heard on KEXP before. So I’m jumping at the chance to attend this event on Friday at The Moore. With 30 Northwest young musicians, from hip hop to ska to bluegrass to world to pop, the list goes on and on to ensure that everyone will sway to something. For the fifth year, Daniel Bernard Roumain, who apparently appeared at the Olympics, will serve as the Music Director – think Mr. Holland’s Opus, but cooler! For just $15 you’ll get a night of entertainment from kids who don’t even know who Corey Haim is. Show starts at 7:30 pm.

To get tickets now, visit STG Presents.

The Kent Predators are a new member of the 25 team Indoor Football League, the nation’s largest professional indoor league. The IFL’s coverage spans the entire US from Anchorage to DC; the Predators are part of the Pacific North Division which includes the Billings Outlaws (Billings, Montana), Tri-Cities Fever (Tri-Cities, WA), Fairbanks Grizzlies (Fairbanks, Alaska), and the Alaska Wild (Anchorage, Alaska).

The Predators kick off their very first home game ever Friday night at the ShoWare Center in Kent, taking on the Fairbanks Grizzlies. After taking losses in their first two road games (against IFL champions Billings Outlaws and the Alaska Wild), the Preds are on the hunt for a victory at home, but the Grizzlies will be hoping the chew them up. It’s bound to be an exciting match as both teams struggle for a mark in the W column.

Game time is 7:30 but the party starts two hours earlier at 5:30 with a a youth football clinic for kida sges 6-14 who purchase a ticket to the game where they can get real hands on learning from Predators players and staff. Pregame festivities include the introduction of the Predators’ dance team via an exhilirating Harley Davidson entrance to coincide with player introductions.

Local music group Dave Cassel Band will perform at halftime and through the entire evening there will be plenty of prizes, giveaways, and on field contest. An interactive zone provided by Games2U and Clowns Unlimited will be open for the whole game time.

After the game, fans are encouraged to stick around for autographs and photos of the Predators.

Tickets are available for as little as $14.50 each by calling the Predators ticket office at 253-239-3254 or purchasing them through their website. If you want the full meal deal, season tickets are still available, too, ranging from a mere $96 to a mere $252.

The late artist Jay Steensma was considered part of the second generation of the “Northwest School”, a Seattle art movement that peaked in the 1930s and 40s. Steensma was best known for his stark, expressionistic landscapes and portraits into which he often incorporated mystical references like chalices and snakes. He worked with mixed media including house paint and mixing oils, acrylics, crayons and pencil on scraps of paper bags the size of a postage stamp to large canvasses.

Ree Brown is another Seattle artist, a highly regarded “naive” or outsider artist without formal training whose works are often “charmingly awkward”. Like his friend Steesma, Brown has worked with a variety of media besides the traditional, creating art on such canvasses as scraps of paper, cardboard, bits of matting and brown paper bags.

Local art gallery and wine bar Vermillion is currently hanging a retrospective of the works of both these artists, opening tonight with a reception that includes music by the Toy Boats and including Ree Brown in attendance. If you’re unable to attend tonight, do make a point of stopping by at some point during the show which runs through April 25.

If you live in Seattle, there’s at least a decent chance that you don’t need me to tell you what the IGC and IGF are; after all, we’re home to plenty of game development and platform companies. For those of you who don’t know, the Indie Game Challenge and Independent Games Festival are annual events that allow new and indie games developers a chance to get together with other aspirants as well as established members of the industry, show off their skills and wares, and network for their mutual benefit. (One of the cool things about the games industry is that, sure, there’s competition, but much of it is collaborative and supportive competition. A rising tide and all boats, as it were.)

Both of these events are a big deal in the games industry and they’re a great thing for game players, too, as all kinds of great new games come out of them.

Seattle’s own Spoon, who technology lets games (and other applications) run instantly from the web, want to make sure that you have a chance to check out these new games so they’ve created a couple of Sandboxes for use: the IGC and IGF are available now and totally free.

The EMP‘s ninth annual Pop Conference offers academics, critics, performers, and dedicated fans a chance to get together and talk about all kinds of musical issues with a series of expert-led panels.

The 2010 Pop Conference begins on April 15 with an opening reception followed by “Making Technology Bounce: An Artist-Producer Roundtable with Nile Rodgers, Joe Henry, and Janelle Monae”. Panels continue April 16 – 18 focused on a theme of sounds and the machines that make them. Topics of discussion include the player piano, Autotune software, cell phones, recording studios, and presentations on everything from vinyl/cassette fetishism and post-punk reverb to Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad and Andy Warhol’s tape recorder.

Some of the panel titles include: Hip-Hop Layerings, The Machine Speaks: Oliver Wang Interviews Dave Tompkins on the History of the Vocoder, Roundtable: Freddie Mercury Deconstructed, Instruments of Change in Jazz, Analog-Digital Divides, Plagiarhythm Nation: Appropriation in Electric Dance Music, and Past.Text.Race.Sounds: The Black Voice Remix, among many others.

Best of all, the Pop Conference is free to attend. Space IS limited, however, so you’ll need to register in advance at their website.