SEATTLE TRIP!

Well, first there's the quintessential visit to Jack in the box, with the traditional breakfast consisting of bacon and egg on some form of bread, a fried potato patty and deep fried tacos. Leaves you praying for death for the next few hours.

The early afternoon was anchored around the Westlake shopping center from which each member of our intrepid band (and various permutations of said band) had access by foot or monorail to hot topic, suncoast video, electronics boutique, the largest (and scariest) cosmetics store in the western world (mary kay?), zanadu comics and the fish market (more than just fish, but that's all you can really smell). I'm still in amazement over the selection at Easy Street Music as well, take Zulu and triple it.

Later that afternoon, we decided to check out Xian's old/possibly next neighborhood, Ballard. So was it everything Almost Live built it up to be? Crazy retired Norwegians driving down the center of the road, wipers on, seatbelt dangling out from underneath the door? Actually, it was pretty quiet.

We made it out to Scarecrow video (Of which I must open a franchise in Coquitlam, if only as a service to all of mankind), half price books and a closed cinema books (where I really, really wanted to interrogate the shopkeeper on her method of organization, that I might apply it to my own household). Oh yeah, I found Kikaida, Mariko. Three weeks later.

Dinner consisted of some of the best pizza we'd had in a while at a tiny deserted bar off the main drag. As skeptical as I was while being IDed by an elderly woman who could barely read my passport, they knew EXACTLY how much bread and cheese should go into each pizza. The Irrational and Bean departed to hear the ramblings of one wise sage.

The Old Pequliar was our next destination for beer and pool, where Xian demonstrated some of the finest trick shots I'd ever seen. Hell, I can't even launch a cue ball across the room. The familiar sound of 'Be Aggressive' by Faith No More drew me into the kitchen where I spoke with Dave the cook for a while about Mr. Patton and his recent exploits.

The Animation Show (vol. 2) was our entertainment for the evening, a film festival started by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt, to prove that animators could organize and facilitate such events on their own (yeah, smells like Spike and Mike retribution). I think we all managed to intermittently nap, so between the five of us (Xian, Miyuki, Mariko, Jen and myself) we DID see the whole thing. Here's what I remember:


GUARD DOG
Bill Plympton's latest short about a paranoid dog who perceived every living creature in the park to be a threat to his owner. Many laughs were had, it was reminiscent of the first five minutes of Gozu (Yakuza Attack Dog!).


HELLO
An Aussie short by Jonathan Nix. I thought it was really cute. The story of an analog ghetto box, unable to splice together a message quickly enough to attract the attention of a digital neighbor whom he's falling for. In the end, the gramophone (grandpa) prevails with an old school message of love.


THE MEANING OF LIFE
Don Hertzfeldt's latest short that explores the evolution of mankind, through various stages of hideous mutation. During the modern day segment, we get a hilarious glimpse at social interactions of characters who repeat the same out-of-context phrases over and over.


WARD 13
Another Aussie short by Peter Cornwell, who took years to produce this stop-motion masterpiece. After a car accident leaves a man bandaged from head-to-toe in a hospital ward, he soon realizes that the patients there are undergoing hideous experiments and seeks to escape an inevitable fate. I loved the wheelchair chase scene reminiscent of the last five minutes of 'the wrong trousers'. I'm just such a fanatic when it comes to old school stop motion animation.

Special mention should go to 'Pan with us' by Dave Russo, a live action stop-motion short that traces Pan's spirit (an eagle) through familiar urban scenery that must have taken months to collect. Narrated with the Robert Frost poem.

Wanna see the gargoyle?



So Xian took us under the Aurora Street Bridge to see the Fremont Troll, a piece constructed by four artists in 1990, sporting a hubcap for his left eye and a crushed Volkswagen in his left hand. This is the traditional starting point for Halloween (Trolloween) pub crawls.

Kudos to Xian for playing tour guide and putting up with our 'are we there yet?' moments, of which there were many; however, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Yep, Seattle ranks right up there with Adelaide, Cologne and Malibu for places that just felt like home.