Friday, June 8, 2007
Volunteering
I'm in the fourth floor of Seattle's Pacific Place, one of those shiny, breezy "urban lifestyle" malls that have sprung up in American cities in the past ten years. Every city seems to have one - Spokane has its infamous RiverPark Square, Portland has Pioneer Place, and even San Francisco has the eponymous San Francisco Shopping Center, complete with a Nordstrom store! These malls are kind of unreal spaces and slightly bizarre. You can't do any functional shopping here, but you can do destination shopping. The hardware store has no real hardware, the restaurants are for a special occasion, and everything is slightly inconvenient, in a weird way.
Why am I in this weird no-space? Well, I'm volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival, and this requires that I sit at a computer, doing not much of anything for most of the afternoon. Occasionally, someone asks me how much the festival guide is (free), if there are half-price tickets on sale (no, that's the Ticket Window booth to your right) and lots of people walk past, staring at the posters for such upcoming classics as Resident Evil: Extinction, 1408 and The Guardian's Son. Right now, some guy is staring at the Residient Evil: Extinction poster, hollering "Oh my God! I want to kill myself!"
It's kinda entertaining. A minute ago, a gaggle (yes, a gaggle) of kids came running out of an elevator toward the theatre box office and one of them tripped and fell, hard, against the floor. The suburban parents following the gaggle just sort of smiled and laughed as the kid limped away, apparently not seriously damaged.
One of the upsides to volunteering at SIFF is that you get lots of free passes to see movies, which is pretty handy. I like to see movies and not only do you often get to see the films playing during your shift, you get one voucher for every two hours you volunteer. And volunteering at SIFF is way easy.
Plus, the craziest people volunteer. Every time I volunteer, there's someone weird, who, naturally, gravitates toward me. Of course. I'm a weird magnet (being odd myself...). A couple days ago, at the venerable Harvard Exit theatre, this lady started questioning me on why I wasn't interested in watching the three-hour abortion documentary Red Without Blue. As if it's not obvious. So without going into the whole "I'm a gay man and I don't passionately care about women's issues" schtick, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.
This simply wouldn't do, apparently. This woman seemed to want to debate abortion with whomever didn't share her viewpoint. I started to wonder if she picked me out to debate with because I'm male and might possibly give her a reason for her soapbox. I didn't bite.
Although, she did get huffy when I talked about "young girls" who have to trek to New York to have an abortion performed, because there are no providers in their local area and for some reason or another, it's easier for them to go to NYC. She took umbrage that I used the term "girls", seemingly implying that I was being disrespectful because I didn't call them "young women", although I think it's still perfectly okay to refer to someone who is underage as a girl or a boy. Like most self righteous people, she wasn't about to see nuance or change her mind.
Later, she provided some entertainment as we were cleaning up from a private event that was catered. One of the other volunteers remarked "yeah, they wouldn't want the food left out cannibalizing sales at the concession stand".
The weird lady perked up. "Cannibalizing?!? What does this have to do with eating human beings?"
I tried to explain that there was more than one meaning to that term, but she seemed to understand there was only one.
High drama indeed.
Why am I in this weird no-space? Well, I'm volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival, and this requires that I sit at a computer, doing not much of anything for most of the afternoon. Occasionally, someone asks me how much the festival guide is (free), if there are half-price tickets on sale (no, that's the Ticket Window booth to your right) and lots of people walk past, staring at the posters for such upcoming classics as Resident Evil: Extinction, 1408 and The Guardian's Son. Right now, some guy is staring at the Residient Evil: Extinction poster, hollering "Oh my God! I want to kill myself!"
It's kinda entertaining. A minute ago, a gaggle (yes, a gaggle) of kids came running out of an elevator toward the theatre box office and one of them tripped and fell, hard, against the floor. The suburban parents following the gaggle just sort of smiled and laughed as the kid limped away, apparently not seriously damaged.
One of the upsides to volunteering at SIFF is that you get lots of free passes to see movies, which is pretty handy. I like to see movies and not only do you often get to see the films playing during your shift, you get one voucher for every two hours you volunteer. And volunteering at SIFF is way easy.
Plus, the craziest people volunteer. Every time I volunteer, there's someone weird, who, naturally, gravitates toward me. Of course. I'm a weird magnet (being odd myself...). A couple days ago, at the venerable Harvard Exit theatre, this lady started questioning me on why I wasn't interested in watching the three-hour abortion documentary Red Without Blue. As if it's not obvious. So without going into the whole "I'm a gay man and I don't passionately care about women's issues" schtick, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.
This simply wouldn't do, apparently. This woman seemed to want to debate abortion with whomever didn't share her viewpoint. I started to wonder if she picked me out to debate with because I'm male and might possibly give her a reason for her soapbox. I didn't bite.
Although, she did get huffy when I talked about "young girls" who have to trek to New York to have an abortion performed, because there are no providers in their local area and for some reason or another, it's easier for them to go to NYC. She took umbrage that I used the term "girls", seemingly implying that I was being disrespectful because I didn't call them "young women", although I think it's still perfectly okay to refer to someone who is underage as a girl or a boy. Like most self righteous people, she wasn't about to see nuance or change her mind.
Later, she provided some entertainment as we were cleaning up from a private event that was catered. One of the other volunteers remarked "yeah, they wouldn't want the food left out cannibalizing sales at the concession stand".
The weird lady perked up. "Cannibalizing?!? What does this have to do with eating human beings?"
I tried to explain that there was more than one meaning to that term, but she seemed to understand there was only one.
High drama indeed.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
SIFF
I'm so excited that the Seattle International Film Festival is on again. I'm making my list of films and so far, this is what I'm up to:
--------------------------------------------------
Thursday May 31
--------------------------------------------------
4:45pm Exiled
Egyptian Theatre
EXIL3107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4052
--------------------------------------------------
Friday June 1
--------------------------------------------------
9:15pm No Regret
Harvard Exit
NORE0107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4239
--------------------------------------------------
Sunday June 3
--------------------------------------------------
9:15pm Eternal Summer
Pacific Place Cinema
ETER0307A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4242
--------------------------------------------------
Monday June 4
--------------------------------------------------
9:30pm Dasepo Naughty Girls
Neptune Theatre
DASE0407A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4287
--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 6
--------------------------------------------------
7:00pm Tugboat Annie
SIFF Cinema
TUGB0607A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4176
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday June 9
--------------------------------------------------
11:00am Sway
Harvard Exit
SWAY0907A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=3829
--------------------------------------------------
Monday June 11
--------------------------------------------------
7:00pm The Big Combo
SIFF Cinema
COMB1107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4191
9:15pm The Damned Don't Cry
SIFF Cinema
DAMN1107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4251
--------------------------------------------------
Friday June 15
--------------------------------------------------
10:00pm Confession of Pain
Neptune Theatre
CONF1507A
http://www.seattlefilm.org/rdir.aspx?SID=4361
------------------------------
Thursday May 31
------------------------------
4:45pm Exiled
Egyptian Theatre
EXIL3107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Friday June 1
------------------------------
9:15pm No Regret
Harvard Exit
NORE0107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Sunday June 3
------------------------------
9:15pm Eternal Summer
Pacific Place Cinema
ETER0307A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Monday June 4
------------------------------
9:30pm Dasepo Naughty Girls
Neptune Theatre
DASE0407A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Wednesday June 6
------------------------------
7:00pm Tugboat Annie
SIFF Cinema
TUGB0607A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Saturday June 9
------------------------------
11:00am Sway
Harvard Exit
SWAY0907A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Monday June 11
------------------------------
7:00pm The Big Combo
SIFF Cinema
COMB1107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
9:15pm The Damned Don't Cry
SIFF Cinema
DAMN1107A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
------------------------------
Friday June 15
------------------------------
10:00pm Confession of Pain
Neptune Theatre
CONF1507A
http://www.seattlefilm.org
Friday, May 25, 2007
Inside SAM
In the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum is Inopportune: Stage One by 蔡國強 (Cai Guoqiang).. It says a lot about an art museum when its most interesting piece is hanging in the lobby.
Inside, was a typically SAM arrangement: works of art thrown together without a coherent theme in a building that doesn't make much sense (which is funny, because the predecessor also didn't make sense). Most of the collection on display was some really atrocious modern art that would not be out of place on the cover of a Foghat LP. A curator in the 1980s must have had a plastic-and-bright-colors fetish, because that's what you'll see on display.
I much prefer its more logical cousin, SAAM (Seattle Asian Art Museum), which has themes, logical exhibits and is rather quiet inside. The new downtown SAM, co-located in a new Washington Mutual office tower, has the same problems as the old one: it's just not a fun place to go look at art. The galleries were laid out fine, but the atmosphere was spoiled by the mouthbreathing staff who were shouting to talk about bathroom breaks, mothers pushing strollers with loudly chatting kids and slack-jawed suburbanites in flip flops smacking against the hardwood floors, causing an enormous cacophony in the galleries. It was hard to concentrate with that noise, plus projected movies blaring with no one watching (just like every other museum film) and those dumb touchscreens that just sit there, being useless.
Having been to a good number of museums and exhibitions in the past year, I would rate this experience fairly low on the scale. It is expensive ($13 general admission/$7 students), relatively uninteresting and noisy.
Inside, was a typically SAM arrangement: works of art thrown together without a coherent theme in a building that doesn't make much sense (which is funny, because the predecessor also didn't make sense). Most of the collection on display was some really atrocious modern art that would not be out of place on the cover of a Foghat LP. A curator in the 1980s must have had a plastic-and-bright-colors fetish, because that's what you'll see on display.
I much prefer its more logical cousin, SAAM (Seattle Asian Art Museum), which has themes, logical exhibits and is rather quiet inside. The new downtown SAM, co-located in a new Washington Mutual office tower, has the same problems as the old one: it's just not a fun place to go look at art. The galleries were laid out fine, but the atmosphere was spoiled by the mouthbreathing staff who were shouting to talk about bathroom breaks, mothers pushing strollers with loudly chatting kids and slack-jawed suburbanites in flip flops smacking against the hardwood floors, causing an enormous cacophony in the galleries. It was hard to concentrate with that noise, plus projected movies blaring with no one watching (just like every other museum film) and those dumb touchscreens that just sit there, being useless.
Having been to a good number of museums and exhibitions in the past year, I would rate this experience fairly low on the scale. It is expensive ($13 general admission/$7 students), relatively uninteresting and noisy.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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