The following is a roundup of the first week’s SIFF Press Screenings I haven’t written about yet.

Starry Starry Night

Genre: Drama
Country: China
Tally: 4 out of 100

This movie was almost sickeningly sweet. The trials and tribulations of the young and experiencing your first young love. That pretty much sums up the entire movie. It really was sweet though. The young boy and young girl were just adorable and made a believable romance. I loved the adorable CGI moments also. A wooden elephant that comes to life, origami comes to life, scenes turned into puzzles. My eyes watered a little bit at the end. Dammit, I’m a girl! I couldn’t help it. It was just so adorable. You will definitely leave this movie with a warm fuzzy feeling.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Genre: Documentary
Country: United Kingdom
Tally: 5 out of 100

Well made document about Ai Weiwei. Not as in depth as I would of liked it, but a good overall telling of who Ai Weiwei is. Certain items I would of liked to know more about but that may never happen, since he would probably be killed if it did.

38 Witnesses

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Tally: 6 out of 100

I really liked the idea of this movie. 38 people who have the chance to stop a murder, but end up doing nothing. Unfortunately this is a very easy human nature reaction. You hear or see something, not sure what it is going on, but instead choose to push it to the back of your mind and ignore it. Then the aftermath of not one single person choosing to do something about the situation and the guilt that comes later. I really like the idea of the movie, but it is really dry and long. The approach was inventive, instead of just another movie about a murder. This movie’s focus are on the witnesses. Unfortunately there are a lot of long slow tedious conversations. My friend asked me why did they have to show him getting on a boat so many times. Once should of been plenty to establish what he does for a living.

Cracks in the Shell

Genre: Drama
Country: German
Tally: 7 out of 100

This movie is so much like “Black Swan“, it almost hurts. The movie isn’t bad… It just looks too much of a blatant copy of Black Swan though and it is really hard to compete with Natalie Portman’s amazing performance. Cracks in Shell deals with the theatre instead of ballet. Just like in Black Swan there is an extrovert character that everyone thinks will get the part, while the introvert quiet mouse-like friend ends up getting it instead. Drama with the director. Psychotic thriller. Mind games. The big difference of the movie is that you will have to read subtitles, unless you know German. I found Black Swan to be much more intriguing.

The Intouchables

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Tally: 8 out of 100

This is definitely an all around crowd pleaser. Majority of the world should enjoy this movie and walk away with a warm fuzzy feeling. Based on a true story, it is about an unconventional caretaker to a paraplegic. The movie is about the lasting true friendship between two people who live in completely different worlds.

SIFF press screenings started today and my goal this year is 100 Festival movies. No I’m not going to see all of the shorts so I can count each one. I’m talking 100 full feature movies. Last year my goal was 80 movies, but I ended up finishing the Festival off with 96! If only I didn’t have a full time job…

Every year there seems to be a common theme that comes up during SIFF. A certain item or subject matter is noticed in a higher rate of movies than usual. Sure there are certain subject matters that must come up to be considered a real film festival. Every film festival must have a movie that has a suicide. It just wouldn’t be right if there wasn’t. I like to come up with the “theme” of the festival every year. One year by just looking at the booklet I knew it was going to be the “Year of the Threesomes or More”. There was an extremely unusual amount of Threesome movies. Last year there seemed to be an unusual amount of movies that had Christianity as a major component of the movie. The secondary theme would be metronomes. I lost count of how many movies I saw with metronomes. I started pointing at the screen mouthing to my friend, “OMG another metronome!” And when he saw it in a movie I hadn’t seen, he would report back immediately. A minor theme seemed to be “pedestrians getting hit by vehicles”.

Out of the three movies I saw today there was 1 attempt at suicide, 1 thought about suicide, and 1 successful suicide. You have the job of guessing which movie had what. Please let suicide not be the theme for this year’s SIFF.

Superclasico

Genre: Comedy
Country: Denmark
Tally: 1 out of 100

I liked it. It had it’s cute and funny moments. I found it entertaining. Best thing about the movie was that I didn’t find it predictable. I have to admit I was kind of hoping it would veer into this wine route it was kind of going. But my dreams of the old man giving his vineyards to the main character did not come true. Definitely see this movie if you want to see an old lady with the tits of a 20 year old.

Fat Kid Rules the World

Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Tally: 2 out of 100

I found this one entertaining also. It had a few uncomfortable, but sweet moments. You might get tired of watching an overweight kid shoving food into his mouth though… Definitely see this if you want to see Metro buses on the big screen. Lots of Seattle buses made it into this movie.

Polisse

Genre: Drama
Country: United Kingdom
Tally: 3 out of 100

I found this movie to be a lot like The Whistleblower from last year’s SIFF, but instead of women trafficking it is about children being abused. I thought that The Whistleblower was extremely well made, this one not so much. You take a lot of bickering, melodrama, relationship issues, cop interrogation, cops hunting down suspects, more bickering, more melodrama, more relationship issues and then add to one pot and stir well while hoping for the best. You taste the contents, it doesn’t have enough zip to it so you add a couple of bombs out of nowhere. Some of the stuff is very hard to watch. You will see a mother shaking her baby, mother dropping infant to cement ground, and a couple more explosive bombs. But all of these bombs made up for a very small part of the movie. Bickering and melodrama rules this movie. I did tear, but they are just really sad situations. It doesn’t mean I thought the movie was made very well. I actually saw a trailer for this movie just yesterday at the Egyptian before a French Canadian film I saw there.

I had a dream last night. Michela and I were walking on the sidewalk in a big city. We were just having a normal conversation about something, that I can’t recall now. I asked her a question, but it wasn’t her voice that answered. Instead it was some big guy that was behind me that I didn’t know. I started looking around all over perplexed and confused, because she was just there. Then I woke up.

I first met Michela in May of 2010. I had won a contest by writing a poem for Seattle Weekly. I won 2 tickets to the SIFF movie Cyrus and passes for one of the Saturday Festival parties. I didn’t have anyone that could go, so I posted on a movie forum that I belong to that I had an extra ticket. Michela was the first one to reply and that is how we met. I remember her writing me and explaining to me that I would be able to spot her in line because she was a UFO – Ugly, Fat, and Old. We went and saw Cyrus together, attended the party, then we saw Holy Rollers after (the Jewish drug dealers, not the Christian card counters).

We always felt like we had known each other for ages. Both of us have a strong Catholic background, but liberal to the bone. It is rare for me to meet someone that I have such a strong kinship with. Our love for movies is what may of brought us together, but it is our love of live performances is what bonded us together. She had the same eclectic taste in entertainment as me. I tried to count all of the venues we had gone to together and I lost count after 10. We attended everything from the music of Irving Berlin to the Queen of Bounce Big Freedia. How many people have a love for Nine Inch Nails that is as strong as for Neil Diamond? She IS Alice in Chains biggest fan.

We were creatures of the night, so I had spent many nights at her home visiting her and Rex. We would watch movies or television till 4am, when I would attempt to leave to walk home but she would always shove taxi coupons in my hand and force me to call a cab. Always a mother hen, worried about my safety.

I last saw Michela on December 24th, her birthday. We drank champagne, wine and cocktails. I made a nice snack spread of a couple of cheeses, sliced meat, assorted olives, and a Spanish nut mix. Later in the day I made a small batch of Lumpia. For a late dinner I made her Miso marinated black cod and garlic baby bok choy. We watched television till about 4am like usual.

Time can sometimes get away from you. February I had texted and left a voice mail asking if she was interested in going to a play. In March I emailed her about the Moisture Festival. I knew she was having issues with her phone and there have been many times I’ve emailed her and she won’t reply till a month after. So it didn’t phase me that much. I was starting to worry in March though… Last week I had called and left her another voice mail, I actually left the ringer on my phone on because I was expecting for her to call me back. Instead a friend called me to let me know she had passed in February.

I knew her for such a short time. I’m happy to have met her and have had her in my life, but I feel it was for way too short of a time period. We had so many plans of things to do together in the future. It hurts to see so many things she loved coming up. She always said that Spring was in Seattle when the Moisture Festival was in town, a show she never misses. I went twice with her last year. SIFF 2012 is around the bend, her favorite time of the year. Dina Martina is here currently for her Spring show. I was going to ask her if she wanted to get tickets for the upcoming Sex in Seattle play because she enjoyed the one we went to last year so much. Arghhhhh! My first thought to everything is, “I wonder if Michela would want to go?” But now she is gone.

Seattle is an amazing place for live theatre. We are surrounded by a plethora of small intimate venues and also large production venues. I tried to count in my head how many different locations I’ve seen a play that is within the greater Seattle area, and I lost count after 10. I’m lucky enough to have won tickets, been given tickets, done discounted rush tickets, and I’m currently on a kick of doing “Pay What You Can” days for plays. I do pay full price for tickets also.

Starting September it is going to be a whirlwind course of large production musicals for me. I have a subscription to the new season of seven shows at 5th Avenue Theatre and in January I have a subscription of five Broadway shows at the Paramount. I am so excited, I just want to jump up and down and squeal with glee.

I do feel slightly shafted over Wicked not being included in The Paramount’s subscription lineup. It is clearly pictured with all of the other productions, but it isn’t included. You have to add it on if you want it included. I may actually have to pick up a ticket for that at a later date. I’ve been wanting to see it for so long now. I either miss it, or can’t afford it when it is showing near me.

Out of lineup at 5th Ave, I’m looking forward to the most are:

• Memphis – I have just heard wonderful things from friends about this the past couple of years, looking forward to seeing it myself. The show actually has roots here and in California. It was the first stops prior to hitting Broadway. There are a lot of productions that get tried out in Seattle, to get tweaked prior to hitting Broadway.
• Jersey Boys – I plan on chewing lots of gum during this show. I know all the music by heart and no one should have to suffer through my singing.
• Grey Gardens – A musical about a two ladies that had 52 cats and were hoarders, how can that not be interesting? It is actually based on a documentary on the two ladies, who happen to be related to Jackie O.

Out of the lineup at The Paramount, I’m looking forward to the most are:

• THE BOOK OF MORMON of course. There is no way it would be possible to see it in New York for the price we are seeing it here. I was planning on going to L.A with my friend for the the run there, but this is so much better and less stressful. Denver sold out within 4 hours of tickets going on sale. If you have any interest in seeing it during the run in Seattle, I highly suggest getting a subscription. The run here is half the time it is showing in Denver, with the same amount of people who want tickets. You know the scalpers are going to be hot on the trail of these tickets and will probably end up with a good portion of what is available.
• War Horse – Just the artwork  and mechanics to make horses that realistically move like a horse is enough to make me interested. Those horses are just amazing.

I’ve been working my butt off on this website all week. The following are some of the things that are going on here.

• Favicon – I know that my favicon sucks. If you can even tell what it is. It is just a G and an L flipped horizontally. Might be better if I made the background a lighter color. You don’t want to know how long it took me to create that. It is hard to make something that will translate well into something so itty bitty.
• Changed Canvas theme to City Guide – Still have a lot of tweaking to do with the theme, but coming to the realization that it is way more powerful than what I had initially thought. I’m totally loving the feature portion at the top of the blog posts that is currently not being used on this post, but you will see it in the future. It is easy for me to add a Google map or one of my photos. I’m hoping that I can put a video, but I haven’t tested that yet.
• Mint – I finally splurged and bought Mint so that I can take a better look at my webstats. It really is amazing what you can learn from it. It breaks down everyone that visits the website by unique IPs, what pages were visited, how long someone spent on a webpage, time they visited, where they visited from, and so many other amazing things. What I find really informative, is looking at some of the websites that link to me. Not that I honestly care if anyone reads this, I just like to know who does. I do need to add some peppers to enhance the power of Mint.
• Woo Theme Affiliate link updated -  Why I wasn’t using my affiliate link, I have no clue. Not that I think anyone purchased a theme because of me, but it is just stupid to advertise something and not use use your own link. I’ve actually made money in the past by using my Amazon links.

There may be more typos and odd wording than normal. I wrote this post while listening to and singing songs from the Book of Mormon musical.

“I believe that God has a plan for all of us.
I believe that plan involves me getting my own planet.
And I believe; that the current President of The Church, Thomas Monson, speaks directly to God.
I am A Mormon,
And, dang it! a Mormon just believes!”

I do remember my first thought after he bolted was, I wished that I had a third hand to grab on to him so that I could drag him to his momma’s house so she could beat the crap out of him. He bolted so fast off the bus, I didn’t even get to utter a word. It just happened so dang fast and there was so much confusion in the crowd, that not even the other people had time to react. And I was in so much shock, it took me a couple of minutes to comprehend what had just happened.

I just can’t believe that someone would attempt that with ME. In the town that I’m living. I’ve walked on Hastings in Vancouver after midnight! I have walked down dark streets all over the Yucatan of Mexico! I have been all over San Francisco on public transportation and walked all over at all hours of the night. And NEVER has anyone every tried to rob me. It is even rare for someone to offer me drugs. I just have a certain look that people tend to ignore me. Cozumel and Cancun they thought I was a local, so the vultures would pretty much skip me and prey on whoever was behind me.

So what life lesson have I learned from this experience. Nothing too much. I didn’t feel any fear during the ordeal, mostly felt just disbelief and how much I wanted to beat the crap out of the kid. So I’m not scared or more protective over my phone. I hopped onto my next bus, pulled out phone and played games on it like I always do. I did learn that my instincts are much better than I thought they would be in such a situation. It is good to know I have pretty good auto-pilot, even when my brain is befuddled and non-functioning.

Merguez Sausage

I forgot my camera Thursday. Very sad. I did get pictures of three of the items we ate with my cell phone. Not everything, but at least it’s something.

You may ask yourself, “What is a Gastropub”. In layman’s term it is not a casual dining experience. Most people are familiar with the term “pub”, a place to hang out with friends drinking beer and eating comfort food. Gastropub is elevating a pub to fine dining. Okay… It really is just another word used to describe yet another pretentious eating establishment in Seattle. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy an occasional pretentious meal.

Spur Gastropub was the only restaurant at the Seattle Food and Wine Experience that left a lasting impression on me. The presentation of their samples were amazing. I can’t think of any other event where a restaurant was able to pull it off to the same degree as Spur and I’ve been to lots of food events. Food tends to get dumbed down for these large conventions because of the huge masses of people they have to serve, food that is transferable from their kitchen, and keeping costs down. Spur served little cups that weren’t plain, but had a floral pattern etched into the plastic, inside the petite cup was a black tea custard and who knows what else. Before they served you the dainty cup, they dropped in a nitro honey seafoam. This created a chemical reaction that made the cup billow smoke. It was like there was a tiny fog machine at work inside of the tiny cup. The cutest and tiniest silver colored plastic spoon were used to scoop up the showy concoction. I overheard one lady asking her friend if she could have her spoon when she was done because the spoons were just too cute to throw away. On top of the amazing presentation, the dish was interesting and wonderful to taste. It was one of the few things I walked away from and made a mental note to look up the restaurant when I got home.

I told my friend about it, and he had actually been there a couple of times. He had never eaten there, but have only enjoyed their cocktails before. So we made the plan to meet up for dinner and give the restaurant a try. There were some definite hits and misses, but nothing that was bad. I got there about half an hour early and enjoyed a margarita made with freshly squeezed lemons and limes while playing cell phone games. My friend got there on time, but got off with a rocky start with the bartender. He is a brainy extrovert and likes to converse about the food with the person that serves it. The bartender was a little aloof and not passionate about discussing the food or drinks, but towards the end of the dinner he warmed up but that might be because he knows it is near tipping time.

I am going to have to agree with my friend, things on crostinis tend to not be very good. Most of the time it is food on top of stale bread. But the bartender mentioned twice how much he loved it and we both gave it a thumbs up after it was devoured. It was a chunk of raw (i am presuming here) salmon, sitting on a simple thin cream cheese spread to stick it to the crostini. At $4 a mouthful it better be something else than food piled on stale bread. Texture of salmon was wonderful and just the mouth feel and flavors were refreshing and had pizazz.

The second thing we ate was some kind of salad… I don’t know the name of the lettuce like substance. I think it is related to radicchio. Kind of an in between of lettuce and cabbage, but more frilly. All I know is, it was a name I hadn’t heard before. And it was a name that consisted of more than one word. This was kind of a miss for me, but I appreciated it. The type of leaves gives off a bitter taste. I felt the balsamic vinegar to be a bit heavy. Bitter, tart, and then finish off with a hard stinky feet salty cheese shaved on the top made it interesting but not the most desirable.

Next was the Truffle Gnnochi. Gnnochi was absolutely perfect. Not many places do it right. On top was a truffle foam. Rich and delicous.

We had the Merguez Sausage with chick peas, harissa, and tender herbs next. I have a special relationship with Merguez. And like some things we encounter in life, it sometimes doesn’t live up to the experience of the first time. My first encounter with this magical sausage was cooking and serving it to hundreds of people at Bastille Day. After that fateful day, it has never been the same. Not quite as spicy, or not quite a lamb tasting, or just not good. The Merguez is completely fine, just not a spicy as I would of liked it. I found it odd how some of the chickpeas were crunchy and some not. But at first taste the dish is an explosion of spices and flavor. Presentation was very poor for this dish. Especially seeing this in a very dark room, The ring of sausages resembled a pile of poop, sitting on top of diarrhea except the occasional chunk that wasn’t digested. Was the first thing I thought when the dish was put in front of us, my friend was the first to mention it out loud though.

Our last entree was the Wagyu Sirloin. For sirloin it was definitely better tasting than normal run of the mill sirloin. Cooked perfect and covered in a demi glaze. Slices of pear gave the dish another dimension, but the puree on the dish stole the show.

Dessert was this banana, coconut, lemon ice cream concoction. It looked, felt and tasted like Spring. Refreshing and light, but sweet and tart.

Waygu Sirloin

It was definitely not a cheap excursion. Final bill was $130 and that is after an industry discount. Add in $30 for tip. That does include a margarita, specialty cocktail, beer, and 3 glasses of a French Rose bubbly.

Would I go back? Yes. There are so many other places in Seattle you can pay the same amount and walk away without any lasting impressions. Spur left  me feeling full, I felt challenged, found some of the dishes thought provoking, and experienced an overall feeling of warmth from the whole experience. In my book that is a solid passing score. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone though. And I’m not raving how you MUST go there now. But if you are looking to spend a little extra dough, I would definitely check Spur out.

Dessert

Nice clean pathways makes it easy for tourists to navigate through the boneyard without getting hurt.

A fairly new addition. The sign was made with iconic typography used in some of the well known casinos in Vegas.

The Neon Boneyard is the place to see the historic icons of Las Vegas and to learn about the history of this amazing city. You will not find one single advertisement on the Neon Boneyard, yet it is one of the best well known secrets of Las Vegas. Their only advertisement is “word of mouth”. Make sure to buy your tickets early because they sell out of almost every single tour. I would advise going during the cooler months, because doing it during the summer months must be the pits. How can sweltering in 100+ degrees with no shade be fun, no matter how good the tour is.

They have really cleaned up the place and made it much more ‘visitor’ friendly. They have multiple photo shoots every day because there is so much to photograph and it makes the perfect backdrop for model shoots and wedding shots.  The tour takes about an hour and not only does it take you through some of the history of the signs, but they also update you on some of the new things that are in the works. A fairly new addition is the small park that the Neon Boneyard sign has been erected on. Currently there is an extremely high fence around the park, but eventually it will be open to the public. Not sure how that is going to fair… The area is in a slightly sketchy portion of Vegas, and I have been told multiple times to not walk there at night. Which is too bad, considering there are quite a few restored neon signs on that portion of Las Vegas Boulevard. Eventually the whole strip from the Boneyard to the Sahara will be lined up with restored neon signs that are lit up at night.

The guides are extremely informative on everything there is to know about each sign and the history of Vegas. I really can’t rave enough about it. Loved every minute of the tour and can’t wait for the some of the things that are in the works to come to fruition.

It is possible to walk from Downtown Fremont area to the Boneyard. It is about a mile to the north. The area that you will walk through can be questionable for some, but the tacos are sure dang good. Spanish may be required to order though.

I have a ton of photos in the gallery.

A long line waited to get in to the doors that was under this sign.

Every year the Adult Entertainment Expo is held in Las Vegas, which is the largest pornography industry trade show in the United States. This year they divorced themselves from the Consumer Electronics Expo and was held a week after. Another thing that was new this year was the venue. This was the first time AEE was held at the Hard Rock Hotel. Years before it was always held at the Sands Expo Center and the AVN Award ceremony (think Oscars for porn) was held at the Palms.

I haven’t read any reviews or opinions of what anyone else thought, so this is coming entirely from the mind of ME. I like the idea of the everything taking place in one location. I honestly think that it all fits perfectly with the atmosphere at the Hard Rock Hotel. Everything else needs serious work.

Let me start off with complaining about the website. It took them forever to put up their new website. A lot of places online was still saying that it was being held at the Sands. Pieces of the website are still broken. They give no schedule, no real information, you have to go through a questionnaire to find out the prices of tickets, and it just overall sucks. Their website achieves nothing at all, and what links they do have that should be to valuable information are either blank or go to broken HTML.

First boob I've ever touched (besides my own).

This year the price of the VIP ticket was not worth having. There was no early entrance for VIP. Pretty much the only thing you got that was special was a t-shirt. The poster I got I saw it being given away for free to everyone on the main floor. You didn’t get any special goodie bag. So I paid $50 extra for a t-shirt that I don’t know if I can wear in public. Can I wear a t-shirt that says “dongs” on it? I might get away with wearing my “Raging Woody” t-shirt, but I don’t know if I can get away with the word “dongs” across my chest. Actually I really like the t-shirt and it has a very witty saying on it that ties to Hard Rock, but I honestly don’t know if I can get away with that one particular word. The line for VIP was painfully long and outside.

There were two porn stars at the bottom of some stairs that the VIP got first dibs on though. Still not worth the money though. Except for the guy in front of me. The one porn star was rubbing on him, mentioned how she could feel him getting … , then told him how she would continue till he was all the way … . The line was painfully slow and I saw a lot of people skip it to head upstairs to the main area.

The whole event was a cluster f*&% and confusing as f*&%. It was hard to tell what sections were for trade only and what areas were for the public. No easy to read schedule. No star schedule, if you would even be able to find that star. Usually there is a breakdown on the days and during which days and what times a star would be available for autographs. None of this was available. I wanted to get a picture of “Nailin’ Paylin”, but how in the world was I going to find her if I didn’t know what booth she would be in, at what hours, and what days. It was so cramped and crowded I would be stuck in one spot for 10 minutes because bodies were jammed in there tighter than a can of sardines.

I know this is going way back, but at one time AEE was a part of CES. They were one show. One day the adult portion of CES decided they had enough stuff on their own, and there AEE was born. A trade show devoted to pornography. My real point – At one time porn was innovative. Sometimes ahead of it’s time. Certain innovations were seen in porn before it hit mainstream. Multiple angle shots on a DVD were definitely used in porn way before mainstream movies. Where is the innovation now? What has happened to the porn industry? Are all those free clips on the internet hurting their revenue? Or are they lacking in imaginative people working in the field? AEE obviously can’t even hire a decent webmaster. They can’t even get their Facebook right. They have two different kinds of accounts and they have maxed friends on the one they happen to update the most. When in reality it is the group wall that should be updated.

I know I took a lot less photos than I did the last time I went. But there was no huge bull riding dong. No oil wrestling. No fun fan contests. Too much congestion, which you expect but it was ridiculous how cramped the space was. And I didn’t win a trip to Mexico this year. Which I’m kind of bummed not to even have a chance. But probably a good thing because I don’t need anymore embarrassing videos of me floating around the internet. I just wasn’t feeling it this year. I’m just plain disappointed with CES and AEE this year.

The gallery of photos are NOT SAFE FOR WORK. I would rate it a soft R rating. It doesn’t show any real nudity, but the content may be questionable for some work places. Think before you click.