This weekend, Gasworks Park was besieged by hordes of Tubeduelers. A peek at the action, via our photopool [flickr]:

photo by Espressobuzz [flickr]

Despite the absence of last year’s free flowing mimosas that made last year’s press launch for the Seattle International Film Festival such a pleasure for Josh and I, this year’s press launch offered an exciting preview of what is surely to be one the best year’s yet for North America’s largest film festival. 

To give you an idea of just how huge the festival (which runs from May 22 - June 15 this year) is, consider some numbers:  there are 418 films, with 69 countries of orgin represented.  There are 191 features, 57 documentary features, 7 archival films, 4 Secret Festival films, and 170 short films.  Within all those films there are 43 world premieres, 38 North America premieres and 19 US premieres.  That’s a lot of new films.  The festival includes a number of competitions and awards, including the New Directors Showcase, the New American Cinema, the Documentary Competition, the Short Film Competition, the MyFestival competion, and, of course, the Golden Space Needle Awards handed out at the end of the festival to honor SIFF’s most well-received films. 

SIFF presents four gala nights this year: the opening night gala on May 22 features Battle In Seattle, the directorial debut of Irish actor Stuart Townsend that uses a highly regarded ensemble cast including Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Joshua Jackson, Ray Liotta, and many more to dramatize the events of the 1999 WTO riots here in Seattle; the closing night gala on June 14 features Bottle Shock, another based on real life feature, this one about the shockwaves sent around the world in 1978 when the Paris Tastings revealed that Californians could produce wine every bit as good, if not better, than the French; the centerpiece gala on June 6 is the Sean McGinley-directed feature, The Great Buck Howard in which Colin Hanks, son of Tom, plays a law school drop out who takes a job as a personal assistant to a “mentalist” played by John Malkovich, much to the dismay of his father, played by his father, Tom Hanks; and the Gay-la Extravaganza on May 29th which will screen Kiss the Bride in which a man attempts to “rescue” his high school boyfriend from the woman he is about to marry only to discover that the situation is a little more complex than he’d thought.

Other series within the festival include:

Films4Families, an 11:00 a.m. matinee every Saturday and Sunday during the festival featuring programming suitable for children and appealing for adults as well - one highlight of this series is a screening of the French animated film Princess of the Sun during which a cast of professional voice actors will perform the English subtitles live for the benefit of those too young to read them.

Northwest Connections spotlights films made in and connected to the Pacific Northwest, including the world premieres of Good Food, a cinematic tour of Washington state farms and ranches committed to raising their crops and their livestock organically and The Dark Horse, a feature about a Seattle ballet teacher who returns to her childhood home on Orcas Island when her father becomes mentally ill.

The Archival Presentations series screens some rarely seen archival films dating from 1914 to 1968.  Among the films in this stand out series are the epic Alexander Nevsky, a 1938 film from the Soviet Union that will be accompanied by a live performance by the Seattle Symphony of the original score and F.W. Murneau’s 1927 film Sunrise, considered by many film historians and critics to be one of the greatest films ever made.

Alternate Cinema is what SIFF calls its series of avante-garde features and shorts, including the US premiere of Milky Way, a psychedelic and minimalist look at the modern wold and Dust, a documentary about the constructive and destructive qualities of dust.

Documentaries are one of my favorite types of films and SIFF never disppoints with their selections - this year two of the many excellent documentaries that will be screened include Man on a Wire, about Phillipe Petit’s 1974 walk across a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center and Werner Herzog’s Arctic exploration, Encounters at the End of the World. 

Face the Music is a series of eight documentaries about music, including Patti Smith: Dream of Life, a film about the legendary performer filmed over 11 years, and the real-life “Spinal Tap” saga of Anvil, a Canadian metal band who once played stadiums and now scratch out a living in didn’t-you-used-to-be?-land, still hoping for their next big break in Anvil! The Story of Anvil.

Other series within the festival include Emerging Masters, a celebration of four contemporary filmmakers who are poised to become film’s next generation of masters; Contemporary World Cinema, presenting 116 films from more than 50 countries; SIFF ShortsFest Weekend, a full weekend of themed short film packages; Planet Cinema, independent films meant to inspire public action in regards to world’s environmental threats; and Midnight Adrenaline, a series of “the terrifying and the weird”.

Talking Pictures pairs special guests with their favorite films; John Waters speaks presents his film Cecil B. Demented, Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Stephanie Shine presents Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo & Juliet, and Howard Patterson of The Flying Karamazov Brothers presents Jackie Chan’s The Young Master.

The Fly Filmmaking Challenge charged local filmmakers to create, shoot and edit a film in a mere 19 days and 1 hour and SIFF FutureWave inspires the next generation of filmmakers through a series of screenings, workshops and activities, including their own Superfly challenge.

One great addition to the festival is the Northwest Production Summit Panels, designed to educate would-be film producers on how to get their start.

No less great is SIFF Interactive:  MyFestival is an online based audience competition to program a screening on the final day of the festival and SIFF talk, debuting May 8, is behind the scenes podcast featuring SIFF coverage and filmmaker interviews.  Babelbum, a free, interactive internet TV service launches SIFF channel with short films and more from this and previous years’ festivals on May 21 and Film.com offers a short film of the day every day during the festival. 

Tickets for SIFF will be available on May 8 for SIFF supporters and May 11 for everyone else.  

hot chip / the showbox / 22 april 2008; A photoset is up now [flickr], more text later.

Before the show, we went to the Green Room for drinks (shorter lines) and returned to the all ages area wonering what sort of crowd this would be. Everyone was there for Hot Chip — the bouncers at the door made sure of that in repeated shouts on the way in, perhaps as a way of alleviating confusion between SoDo and “at the Market” versions of the Showbox — but it was a weeknight, all ages, and the drinking section hovers above; so you can never really tell. Would they be crazy dancers or polite toe tappers? Would the floor turn into a seething mass or remain divided? These are important questions when you’re thinking about getting into the heart of the crowd from the periphery.

It turns out that it was somewhere in between. Hot Chip arrive to their own theme song and meet their gear on a stage set with the album art from Made in the Dark as a backdrop. Passage to and from the restroom was blockaded to allow the band maxium efficiency in their rush from backstage to onstage. I have no idea what they opened with because I was taking pictures, and the listening comprehension part of my brain shuts off when I’m looking through a viewfinder and navigating the crowd. Weird, I know. But it did sound great: the combination of blaring synthetic, live acoustic, and real percussion accents is a winning one. Mix it up with some spotlights, a springy floor, and a devoted audience and you’ve got the makings of a dance party.

Onstage, the band is funny if not a bit mumbly from time to time. The lead singer kneels for particularly sensitive bits. “Wrestlers” is more comedic and less poignant live, but the rap bits (including the backwards part) is funnier and more endearing in person. Al Doyle provides bits of witty banter. Everyone has fun throughout, but the biggest wave of infectious pogoing hits when they dip back into the Warning for “Over and Over”. Among all of the songs in the set, it is the one that comes closest to uniting the crowd. It spreads from stage’s edge back to the chandelier in pulses, and, for a few moments, the room is consumed with one big singular bouncing organism.

They save breakout hits “Ready for the Floor” for last; bringing out slower come-down songs for the encore. There’s no champagne snowball slow dance for “Made in the Dark” even though it feels like it was within the realm of possibility for a few moments. The close out the set with a cover of “Nothing Compares (2 U)” that slips and slides into “In the Privacy of Our Love”. There’s no starlight from the disco ball, but the crowd’s sense of camaraderie is re-ignited seconds after the last notes are played. When “Time After Time” hits the PAs as exit music, everyone sings along. It’s surprisingly magical, especially when the music cuts out and all of our voices fill the gaps.

When three news helicopters start circling over your neighborhood, it’s never good news.

The Washington Park arboretum has an aging pedestrian overpass crossing Lake Washington Boulevard East. It was built when the arboretum was still new in the 1930s. It is small, and moss-covered, and very, very low.

When you approach the bridge on Lake Washington Boulevard, there are signs and warnings in both directions about the low clearance. There are sensors that detect overheight vehicles; a lighted sign starts flashing at you if you drive up to the bridge in a vehicle that’s too tall for the bridge. There are two turn-out areas, one on each side of the bridge, designed to allow drivers of over-tall trucks and buses to turn around.

KOMO TV is reporting that some bus driver ignored it all and plowed directly into the bridge at full speed. “Video from Air 4 showed the top of the bus nearly peeled off and debris strewn around the ground,” they noted.

Preliminary reports are that eight people were injured, none seriously.

Judging from the pictures, that was a full-height touring bus, the kind the charter bus companies use. You cannot take one of those on that stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard, and there are a hell of a lot of warnings telling you so. That poor bus driver–who is, we hope, OK, along with the passengers–is going to have some explaining to do.

ETA: KOMO TV now says that most of the bus passengers were students at Garfield High School.

Ladies and gentlemen, a bunch of photos from Seattle Rock Lottery #4 [flickr], where twenty-five musicians and five brand new bands emerged just twelve hours later. Not only did they come up with original songs on short notice, a bunch of them also arrived with costumes! There was rapping over cello and electronics! Singer-songwriters on drums! A band with a bass clarinet, turntables, and music about public health. A wizardy western in kimonos. And a power pop cinematic ensemble. If you weren’t there, you missed a lot. Some of these bands were better than groups that have been together for months, they just might have been your favorite ephemeral band of all time.

This was taken Saturday/Sunday at 2am. It was my last game at Sunset.

Did you take pictures of your last game at Sunset this weekend? If so, send them. And cry in a corner somewhere.

_{Photo courtesy of Windermere.com}

The Seattle Times is generally pretty hilarious. From their 1950’s era editorials to their insistence that Steve Kelley deserves to be paid to write, their humor knows no bounds. Today, though, they get serious with an article on King County home sales [times]. They note that while home sales have dropped, prices have not. They then provide a series of explanations for this phenomenon and end the article on a hopeful note with a quote from a local real estate economist: “The good news is homes are still valuable commodities,” he says. “Prices are depressed, but I suspect as this shakes out — and I suspect it will shake out in 2008 — you’ll see the market rebound.”

As usual in an article like this, a real-life example is provided. An example so sad and pitiful, it’s impossible not to be taken in by this person’s plight. It’s inconceivable for this story not to resonate at the deepest core of your being.

Enter poor Trevor Jones.

Poor Trevor Jones is a developer with a big problem. His $1.9 million mansion “in one of Seattle’s most sought-after neighborhoods” hasn’t sold after 9 months on the market. I know what you must be thinking. How do we help Trevor? Well, the down-to-earth folks at the Times, those clever do-gooders, are way ahead of you. See, by using Trevor’s unbearable situation to illustrate their point that home sales have declined, they’ve provided him with free advertising - including two gorgeous pictures of his home. All we can hope now is that someone takes pity on poor Trevor (Paul Allen, are you reading this?).

You may be scratching your head right now. You may even be thinking, “But Ryan, Trevor isn’t actually poor. Why would the Times use his situation to illustrate their point when his house is worth almost 4 times the median price of a home in King County? Why wouldn’t they head over to one of the myriad of King County neighborhoods with median-priced homes that haven’t sold and use one of those as an example?” I say don’t trouble yourself with such thoughts. Just keep in mind that when the richest members of our community suffer, we all suffer. The Times understands that and so should you.

Via Capitol Hill Seattle, a great photoset of the unstoppable spring pillow-fighting phenomenon captured by Patrick Davin [flickr]. Lately, these been springing up like daffodils (or, maybe flashmobs in 2004?), but this particular battle took place in Cal Anderson Park on Saturday evening in honor of “National Pillowfight Day” and reportedly went on for more than a half hour.

Did anyone else get caught in the crossfire?

photo by Chris Villanueva [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• So you’d like to buy yourself a rock club? Step in where Groupee stepped off. Attractive lease terms, stone masonry. [craigslist via belltowner ]
• From notorious nightclub to notorious megachurch in under a year. Mars Hill takes over Tabella. [p-i]
• Your stockroom of Prince costumes are finally set to pay off. (ed: please please provide ample notice before the city is invaded by an army of Princealikes) [citizenrain]
• There, at last, goes the neighborhood. Abandoned block on Pine Street eaten by bulldozers to make way for apartments. So far, no lingering hipsters found fleeing the wreckage. [slog]
• Well, this is embarrassing. Chicago climber beats Seattleite to the top of Columbia Tower. [p-i]
• Macrina gets in the holiday spirit, puts bunnies on cupcakes. We melt from the adorableness. [belltowner]
• Saved by the Supreme Court: our ridiculous “top two” primary! (ed: I have no idea what this even means) [horsesass]
• Spam pays, until it lands you in jail. [cio]
• Aw, no one loves poor old Mercer Hall. But the UW’s plans to build an urban village west of campus is probably very good for the neighborhood and overcrowded students. [times]
• A clue about the new business going in at the former Wing Dome on Olive and Melrose? What does TT stand for anyway? [helloseattle]

We’re back! Yes, that’s right. Meet Your Farmers Market Vendors is back! This week’s interview is Anne from Trevani Truffles.

I’ve been enjoying Anne’s truffles for several months now. She has interesting flavors like Grand Marnier, Pear Ginger, Blackberry, an Espresso Mocha, and of course, rich, decadent chocolate (among others).

I contacted Anne the other day and I’ll let her tell you about her business in her own words.

Here’s my story:  My little Trevani Truffles business began only last summer at the urging of my children.
 For several years the family and close friends were the sole recipients of these chocolates.  But my son, especially, kept bugging me to “DO something with these!”.  The opportunity came when, seeing that my sweet old momie was going to be living with us and needed some serious care, and that I couldn’t take care of her and work outside of the home, too.  I needed to scramble and get SOMETHING going.
I made a phone call to the Renton Farmer’s Market people to get info on how to start at the outdoor markets.  After an initial rejection because I don’t GROW the truffles and the market is an agricultural one, I was informed that 5% of the vendors could be not farmers as long as they were local.  I live in Renton so I was IN!
Now I have two year-round markets, University District on Saturdays and West Seattle on Sundays.  I’m looking to get into the Ballard Market and have Broadway and Renton this summer.

I use Venezuelan chocolate, 58% cocoa mass for the ganache and 73% for the shell.  Only DARK chocolates here!   I like the earthy quality of the Venezuelan chocolate.  It seems more raw.  I use local ingredients when I can.  Like the “CreamyDreamy Pear Ginger”,  the pear is from the Booth Orchards in Twisp. They sell at the Seattle farmer’s markets.  And the hazelnuts, too, are local market vendors. Chili peppers, local. Also organic ingredients when possible.  So ,yes, some of the flavor combinations are seasonal.  Local sweet wines and Whidbey’s Port are ingredients also used. I made a porter beer truffle last week.  And of course coffee!

As for how do I choose and decide what favors?  It  is a constant and  quite unscientific experimentation.  Just think of a thing delicious to you and if it sounds good dipped in chocolate!  Well, there you are.  A new experiment!  And a possible HIT!
My favorite part of the market scene is meeting the people and chatting with them.. Folks have a way of inspiring me to continue with this venture.  When their faces light up from (surprise?) tasting their 1st bite…OH! I want to take their pictures!  And the little kids who favor dark- not- sweet- chocolate!  who knew !?
Right now the outdoor markets are my “store”.  It has been a cold wet winter!  One day soon I’ll find a perfect little shop, like in the movie, CHOCOLAT.    ‘Til then, pray for beautiful cool sunshine!

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Till next time, shop local, cook local, and if you find a new vendor because of this series, please tell them that you read about them on Seattle Metroblogging!