This weekend was the Seattle Cheese Festival down at Pike Place Market. I hit downtown in the sun yesterday to check it out with Gary, Mike, and Diana. I don't know much about cheese, so it was definitely a primer for me - a tasty and free primer at that! We were exposed to cheeses of all consistencies, milks, and countries. After trying trying all sorts of varieties, I must say I'm still not into the goat and Europe imports some really savory cheeses.
I brought home some Terre des Volcans fourme d'ambert, a cow's milk blue cheese from Ambert in the French province of Auvergne. It's not too strong and is softer than most blue cheeses I've had. The cows were supposedly fed on a pasture over volcanic rock. The lady at the booth said that the cheese is aged in an old train tunnel - she had a picture to prove such a claim.
The milk is also thermalized, heated just below pasteurization longer to preserve enzymes and kill bacteria - so not pasteurized and not technically raw (although supposedly the FDA considers it raw).
If you see the 'Appellation d'Origine Protegee' under the name of the cheese, there is apparently a federal bureau in France that certifies certain geographic regions to their particular cheeses, wines, and butters. These are known as AOC (appellation d'origine controlee) products. Here's a list of AOC cheeses from Wikipedia.
So Thanksgiving's unfortunately become Black Friday Eve, as many (including myself) peruse ads to get the best deals possible to start the Christmas shopping season. Despite whether or not the economy is bad or there is not an 'IT' item for the holidays, there are always huge lines in the morning before doors open up. Walmart has been notorious for massive stampedes of people storming the gates and causing casualties of shopping madness. This morning was no exception, although unfortunately a 34 year old employee was killed during a stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart. Every year on the news you'll see a sea of people pour into the stores and every once in awhile a person or two gets tripped up and people are hurtling over them or preventing them from getting up in the holiday spirit. Some of these places with a high propensity for injury should have a medic or ambulance just sitting there for the first hour of opening. Here's a clip of one of those occurrences:
UPDATE: Police Statement about the incident at the Long Island Wal-Mart:
October 31st is the day that many people celebrate Halloween. I've never been a huge fan of Halloween or horror movies or things that go 'BUMP' in the night. One 'ghoulish' video that's always been a favorite of mine is Michael Jackson's Thriller, which is iconic in enough of itself but is even more prominent around Halloween. Last weekend, those in Washington took part in a worldwide event called Thrill the World, which attempts to get as many people/zombies across the world to dance to MJ's ballad simultaneously. The record was broken with 4179 people across 10 countries.
This will be my last post on SIFF for this year. Once again, I had a great time with friends checking out films across some of Seattle's unique theaters. This post I'll be doing some ranking of the films seen this year AND last year. I'll take a brief look back on last years films. Also, a list of films I missed this year at the festival that I'm still interested in seeing.
SIFF '07 was my first film festival ever and boy was it a fun ol' time. Their "Find True Film" advertising campaign was great, with very humorous commercials. The official poster (seen left) embodies the city of Seattle, all the way down to the geoduck! I saw 6 films in '07. I'll rank what I saw. Click the title link to go to the official website and click the 'Netflix It' to see the Netflix profile so you can add it to your queue!
The King of Kong - The ultimate video game/underdog doc about a Redmond teacher taking on the world record for Donkey Kong is still one of my favorite films in last couple of years....even though the direction could have been a little more objective. The 'Fistful of Quarters' subtitle was added after the limited release, still don't think it's necessary. Q & A at The Egyptian was awesome, it's actually in the DVD extras. Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)
Monster Camp - Documentary on the Seattle chapter of LARPing group NERO (New England Role-Playing Organization). It introduces the layman to LARP as well as delving into the lives of some of the groups players. Very fun and entertaining film here, nothing incredibly profound here. It was great to see some of the players in the movie come dressed to viewing that I attended. This had a limited release this year, expect it to eventually come out on DVD. Netflix It!
Rocket Science - A very indie film about a high school boy with a stuttering problem who decides try out for the high school debate team. In my previous entry about the doc Resolved, I had mentioned this film. It was a witty coming of age film, I don't think there was anything really outstanding about it especially compared to the likes of a film like Juno. Director Jeremy Blitz also did the film Spellbound (spelling bee, not Hitchcock), so he must really like academic competitions. Netflix It!
Fido - Canadian comedy placed in an alternate fifties reality where a war broke out against humans and zombies. The humans won and the zombies have become domesticated pets. The premise of the film is great and the first half of the film builds up a lot of momentum, but I feel like it struggles to finish off with a solid plot and resolution. I'd say give it a view if zombies are your thing, you'll get a kick out of it! Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)
Eagle vs. Shark - A New Zealand comedy very much in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite: about hilariously socially awkward people. This was my introduction to half of The Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement. This film is not all completely funny, it has some incredibly sad moments and some of the humor I felt guilty laughing about. This is a must for Conchords fans. Netflix It!
Noise - An Australian film about a cop with tinnitus who tries to hunt a killer who slaughters a number of people on a public train, not the recent film about noise pollution starring Tim Robbins. This film was quite slow, the only reason I saw this because the word tinnitus was floating in the description. It does play a part in the film, but not as prominently as it could have been. I'd pass on this film, but if you're interested in it you can watch it on DVD now. Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)
So this movie is about exactly what it states it's about: dust. This film was part of an 'Alternative Cinema' program for SIFF. I have not seen many, if any, European documentaries and I was hoping for a film that would provide an intricate view on the minute particles of dust - what they're made of, how they affect us, how much of the stuff we breath in, people's view on dust, etc. I kind of got bits and pieces of that. Like the subject and title of the doc, the director floats around certain aspects of dust but never goes too in depth on one subject. I almost felt as though he had a short attention span. I don't know any German, but the narration was incredibly monotone and very little humor was used throughout. I was under the impression from an excerpt/trailer for this film that there was an underlying humor about it, but it seemed so serious. Gripes aside, there were some interesting scenes including a researcher who collects and classifies clumps of dust. I'm quite bewildered at what the director wanted out of this film, if I wanted something more educational I'm sure the Discovery Channel could come up with something much more engaging and informative. I'd say pass on this film.
Ben is a high school student with Asperger syndrome. He is the picked on by classmates and can only find solace in playing an MMORPG called ArchLord. I didn't know this was actually a real game until recently. Although Ben struggles to interact with those around him, he is able to express himself through his online avatar. He eventually uses this escapism to try to break out of his oppressive life in the real world. Director Nic Balthazar shot this film based upon a novel he wrote which was based on an autistic boy who committed suicide after being bullied at school. The film does a good job of juxtaposing Ben's inner self to his outward self.
No, I didn't get nostalgic for The Brat Pack and saw The Breakfast Club - just deceiving advertisements. I have to admit that the main hook for me wanting to watch this film was not that it got high praise at Sundance, but that the movie follows the lives of 4 (I'm convinced the fifth guy makes cameos just so they have a Judd Nelson wannabe on the poster and he's the opposite of a rebel) high school seniors from Warsaw, IN. We the audience get to peer into the lives of 4 socially diverse teens throughout their senior year, from beginning to end - the relationships, thoughts on the future, college, etc. It's quite candid, without it feeling like another reality TV show. Like a good doc, you find yourself routing for certain people in the film. Since watching The Up Series (I'll blog about that another time), watching the lives of real people (not stage celebrity life) is quite engaging and you can relate to the ups and downs of life. I didn't find it in anyway shedding a negative light to middle America, although the audience I saw it with at the festival seemed to have a field day bashing the humdrum life of the Midwest. The film definitely reminded me of home and friends, although I didn't grow up in rural Indiana. During the Q&A after the film, director Nanette Burstein explained her process in picking the right high school to do the movie in. She wanted somewhere in middle America, a community where it was small enough that it had only one high school (decisions and events in the school would hold more precedence), and a school that would be willing to allow a crew to film the schools ins and outs for an entire school year. Once the school was picked, she started interviewing students of interest to put into the film. Definitely an entertaining and great film, Burstein was fortunate enough to catch some really candid footage from all the teens lives.
So, SIFF's been over for more than a week and I figured I'll shed a bit of my thoughts on the films I saw. I saw a total of 6 films this festival. I definitely enjoyed myself this year, although I definitely felt the lack of selection of films since the festival was scaled down this year. This doesn't necessarily mean I had exhausted my options, there were definitely other films I wanted to see. I'll include the first 3 films watched in this post:
I came into this film with a little skepticism. Tarsem (as he likes being called) directed The Cell, which was filled with wild, vivid, and sometimes gory imagery. I felt that film had so much eye candy that it was trying to get you to forget how shallow the acting and plot was. Although The Fall looked more promising, I was hoping I wouldn't get the same letdown. I did not. The story follows an injured stuntman in 1920's LA who befriends a little girl in a hospital and tells her a tale about 5 warriors on a quest to defeat the evil Governor Odious. As the story progresses, we find that the stuntman's tale is more than just mere fiction. This film is far from original in it's form of storytelling, it was a good combination of radiant visuals and heart wrenching human emotion. Films that are in the same vein to me are The Wizard of Oz and Big Fish. Although I did feel some of the visuals were absolutely gratuitous and overdone, they were very pleasing to the eye and added a solid connection of the fantasy with the reality of the story elements. I had wished the characters were a little fleshed out, I never got the real nitty gritty of what made the characters ticked as you are restricted to what the tale tells you. Romanian native Cantica Untaru (who plays the girl Alexandria) absolutely steals the show and her on-screen chemistry with the stuntman (played by Lee Pace) is heartfelt and believable. The soundtrack immersed me into the movie, it was epic yet very soothing. I'd recommend this film, don't go into it expecting anything profoundly novel but it's a film filled with adventure, humor, love, and picturesque cinematography. The film has had a wider release in America since the end of May, so if you can find it try to give it a watch.
Country: Spain I had really wanted to see an animated film while at the festival this year and this one seemed to be the most promising of what was available. Although this filmax animation films: filled with a child's whimsical imagination and creativity. production hails from Spain, it was dubbed in English most likely due to the fact that it was targeted for a much younger audience. The SIFF site advertised this film as similar to Monsters, Inc. and Miyazaki films. Nocturna takes us to a land that thrives after every child is asleep, where creatures of the night make sure children are in slumber and engrossed in dreams. Orphan Tim stumbles upon this world one night when he refuses to go to sleep after discovering that his favorite star has suddenly been snuffed out. With the help of his cat and a Quasimodo-esque character known as the Cat Shepherd, Tim discovers a greater threat that could endanger the night and Nocturna. The character design and art direction in this film are great, but I found the story a bit half baked and had a drawn out resolve. Once the characters are introduced and you are thrown into this universe of Nocturna, then the movie has to find find some direction and it had trouble finishing off it's barely 80 minute run time. I was confused at times about the consistency of the characters as well, one character I wasn't sure if he was supposed to be an antagonist or protagonist by the end of the film. Some portions of the film are so drawn out and dark, viewers may begin to feel sleepy, I went to watch this at 11:00 am and I felt like it was bed time during parts of the movie. I also felt the British voice acting hurt the film a little, maybe if this film gets a wider release American actors can do the voices - not that something like that would make it a whole lot better. It's really too bad, with all the time invested in creating this world and these characters, I wished that more time had been put into constructing a more engaging plot. Official Movie Site:filmax International's official page in English Trailer:
The difficulty about finding information about this film before I saw it was that it's definitely an Asian film involving Chinese characters, but it does not come from China or Taiwan or Hong Kong - it comes from Australia. Director Tony Ayres wrote and directed The Home Song Stories, which is based on his childhood growing up in the 70's in Australia. Rose is a singer from Shanghai night club singer who marries an Australian sailor and moves to the land down under, bringing her son and daughter with her. She moves from man to man, trying to find a way to support herself and her children. Her relationship with her kids develops before our very eyes as we see her children grow up and she grows older. We see much of not only an immigrants struggle to survive, but also the pressures of Chinese culture and traditions. This movie was quite the emotionally draining experience for me. Being Chinese-American and wondering what struggles my grandparents may have had trying to make it in America set the foundation for this film bringing me right on in from the beginning. We see Asian family dynamics between the son and his mother, the daughter and her mother, as well as the brother with the sister. Joan Chen's performance is incredible as the sometimes confident and other times emotionally neurotic mother trying to get by. I cannot imagine what it would be like for Ayres to write a story about his mother this way, it must have been quite a feat. This is definitely a recommend, although I'm not sure when it'll be available in America.
So if you've heard this Sunday, there was a fire on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles. It took over 400 firefighters to stop the blaze. Large portions of the lot were destroyed, including the New York Street facade, the King Kong attraction, and Courthouse Square. Also, a vault of 50,000 high quality film copies were destroyed. Fortunately, no original or irreplaceable reels were lost. It has been determined in the last couple of days that the fire was due to a blow torch that was used on a set. Another issue was that the firefighters did not feel that there was proper water pressure to extinguish the fire faster. Here's a link that lists a few movies filmed in the damaged area.
Seems like everything from Back to the Future is being destroyed at Universal Studios. First they shut down one of their coolest rides, Back to the Future: The Ride, to replace it with a Simpsons ride last year and now this. I don't know why anyone would want to shut down a theme park attraction where you ride a flying time machine built out of a DeLorean. I've been to Universal Studios maybe 2 or 3 times in my life and that ride was always the thing I was looking forward to. If you've never been, this is what you missed out on:
After all the hard work the last 2 years to get the Super Bowl to the cold-weather city of Indianapolis, Jim Irsay has finally gotten the biggest game in football to the Circle City. League officials and team owners voted today in Atlanta, and picked Indy over Phoenix and Houston. Now the Colts have extra incentive to try to keep competitive the next few years! The concepts for the city look crazy - it's gonna shut down the whole downtown Indy, let's not hope it's hosting an AFC Champion New England Patriots. Presentation video shown, featuring Dennis Hopper:
That's right folks, the Seattle International Film Festival '08 Schedule has finally been released! For those of my friends here in Seattle, keep this blog post linked as I'll try and keep it updated w/ film links of interest that we may be interested in. Click the banner above to check out the SIFF website. Also, comment away on your thoughts for films. I've linked each film w/ the SIFF description. Some of them have trailers you can see. If they don't I'll try to find one. I know we can't see them all :(, but we can at least enjoy watching a few! If you know my film tastes, then you'll probably notice a lot of these films are documentaries. After briefly browsing the selection of films available, here are some that seem interesting:
UPDATED 5/11/08(MORE FILMS OF MUTUAL INTEREST ADDED)
Ben X - Belgian film about a bullied teen w/ Asperger's syndrome who visualizes his school rivals as video game opponents. [TRAILER]
Dust - This German doc is about dust..oooooh fun. No, it really does seem like quite an engaging film and especially since I'm not the most organized person in the world.
The Fall - A little girl meets a man in a hospital who tells her an epic tale about 5 men who fight an evil general. Directed by Tarsem Singh, who did The Cell - very similar visual style.
The Home Song Stories - Chinese nightclub singer marries an Australian sailor and brings her family with her to Melbourne. [TRAILER]
Let the Right One In - Swedish film fantasy-romance-horror about a misfit 12 yr old who befriends a girl who ends up being a vampire. [TRAILER]
American Teen - This doc about high schoolers from Warsaw, IN, got high praise from Sundance and will most likely be a prominent entry at this year's festival. [TRAILER]
Nocturna - Animated film from Spain (English dubbed) about a kid afraid of the dark. I would like to see an animated flick this time around, I regret missing Paprika last year as it's a great film. [TRAILER]
Sukiyaki Western Django - campy East meets West overstylized Japanese Western meant to be a cult homage to several genres. I know this has been done many times before, but it looks entertaining.[TRAILER]
King of Ping Pong - Swedish film about a 16 yr old who tries to better his younger brother w/ ping pong.
PVC-1 - This Columbian film is shot in one continuous 85 min. take and is based on a true story about a Columbian woman who has a bomb made of PVC pipe wrapped around her head.[TRAILER]
Good Food - A local look at organic farms in the state of Washington.
Baghead - A dark comedy about a some people who go off to the woods to write a screen play and get attacked by a guy w/ a bag on his head. I know, it sounds strange - it's directed by Jay and Mark Duplass(Puffy Chair). [TRAILER]
Man on Wire - UK doc about French acrobat Philippe Petit who tightrope walks across famous landmarks.
Yesterday was a time for food and fellowship at Gary's official 27th birthday celebration at Buca di Beppo. It was great to see the usual suspects from the Audiology Clan, as well as Chad & Michelle. The service was interesting, it started with a dirty/hairy knife lying at the head of the table. Then food we didn't even order showed up throughout the night and it was topped off with receiving the wrong bill(which happened to be significantly cheaper). This didn't put a damper on the evening, just more salacious blog fodder. Buca's specialty is family-style Italian food. Not everyone wanted to partake in the family-style, so some of us (dubbed "Team Family-Style") went through the tedious planning of what to order. It all worked out and there was plenty to eat without any leftovers. Props to Kate for recommending that Macaroni Rosa! As roommate to the birthday boy, I took pictures of Gary with the guests. Afterwards, as I look back at the photos I took, Gary appears to be quite the restaurateur with our friends. His attire, position, and posture makes it look like he owns the place. The picture below of Jody & Jordan definitely gives off that vibe. As to why an Asian would be owning an Italian restaurant - it's Seattle, maybe it's a fusion restaurant. So for those of you who took pictures with him, he'll be asking for your autograph soon enough so that he can post the pics on the walls of his new restaurant. Check out Gary's blog entry on his take, as well as his gallery for more pics of the night.
This weekend was the Seattle Cheese Festival down at Pike Place Market. I hit downtown in the sun yesterday to check it out with Gary, Mike, and Diana. I don't know much about cheese, so it was definitely a primer for me - a tasty and free primer at that! We were exposed to cheeses of all consistencies, milks, and countries. After trying trying all sorts of varieties, I must say I'm still not into the goat and Europe imports some really savory cheeses.
im.
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