We were downtown at Pacific Place for lunch (salmon chowder). It was a little less peopled--a quiet Monday--but what was a little odd was how subdued everyone was, like queasy rollercoaster riders. No one was laughing. No one was regaling buddies with a loud, "What I did last weekend" story or arguing sports. They spoke softly. Out on the street, a single unbalanced woman was screaming at no one in particular: "Fuck you, fuck all......

You’ve got free passes for the blockbuster-to-be that’s previewing at Pacific Place. The movie starts at 7:00, but there’s sure to be an overflow crowd, which means the line will start snaking its way around the top floor of the mall well before 6:30. You need to stay close. Yet your stomach is growling, though there’s no time for a full meal; besides, you’re on a budget. (Todai is too much on both accounts.) What......

The end is near! You're running out of chances to stand in line for a SIFF film, so if you haven't yet, get on it. Things wrap up this weekend. In the meantime, here's the rundown on our picks for today through Thursday. It's quite a week. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. It's your last chance......

Now that SIFF is officially kicked off, it's time to look ahead at the films coming up in the next month. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. The opening weekend's lineup is really solid--kinda a shame, considering everyone's out of town for Memorial Day (including us). Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to......

DANCE: "Feral ballet" choreographer Zoe Scofield, visual designer Juniper Shuey, and composer Morgan Henderson bring "The Devil You Know Is Better Than The One You Don't" to On the Boards for its Seattle premiere. We're told it builds off "hard luck accounts of adolescence and the suckiness of group dynamics." Dancers are Christiana Axelsen, Ezra Dickinson, Lizzy Melton, Zoe Scofield, and Allison Van Dyck. We're going, we expect good things. 8 p.m. // On......

Er, not quite. There is an actual, physical monster in Cloverfield, and unlike the no-see-em trailer, the film eventually shows it in all its gruesome glory (and no, it ain't Stay Puft). Opening Friday, J.J. Abrams' camcorder monster movie (which some describe as "Godzilla meets the Blair Witch") covers a terrible day for all of Manhattan and, in particular, for a group of New Yorkers throwing a bon voyage party for one of their......

Twentysomething girl, to her companions: "Good move -- tell a racist joke in a crowded elevator! Now I think I'll fart."......

We're working in a building next to Westlake Center, and just heard about a bajillion emergency vehicles go by. Looking out the window, they're all Fire Dept cars and trucks, and smoke seems to be coming from a construction site next to Pacific Place. Not that horrific billowing clouds of black kind of smoke, but disturbing nonetheless. There must be at least 12 emergency vehicles blocking the street. Anyone in the area know what is......

Our new workout regimen involves coasting down Pine to downtown, eating lunch, and bicycling back up to the Hill. If it works, we'll call it the 7-Minute Miracle! (Actually, even if it doesn't.) Often we pull up in front of Pacific Place, where there are four or more bike racks -- the kind of convenience we'd never noticed until we got pedals of our own. Today we were headed to the Nordstrom's Grill (the old......

It's SIFF's last bleary-eyed, numb-assed, popcorn-butter-fingered weekend, so if you haven't stopped in for some film-festy fun, you gotta act fast. We held Audrey upside-down and shook her until she gave us some selections -- no, no, you deserve the best. There's no telling how far we'd go to make you happy. Before we get to that, here's some film-related goings-on that you might like: Friday night there's Kinski performs Berlin: Symphony of a......

Sniff sniff, single tear. It's the last full week of SIFF, so you're well approaching your last chance till next year to take in some of that sweet filmy goodness. SIFF's not just movies; this week offers both the Opticlash 2 VJ battle at the CHAC and the Face the Music party at Neumo's, the latter of which includes performances by Viva Voce, Jesse Sykes, and Siberian. Tickets for both are going fast! Seattlest......

We are, in fact, over half-way there, and yet we continue to live on a prayer--a prayer that the latter half of SIFF contains nearly as many fine films as what's been shown thus far. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: · Children of the War We've heard good things about this powerful documentary on the......

Memorial Day weekend is finally behind us, so it's time to settle into SIFF. Yes, it's absolutely lovely outside, but Seattleites can only handle so much sun. Get away from all that UVA/UVB exposure and spend your time in the theaters' comfortable darkness. This week brings the opening of SIFF on the Eastside, starting Thursday at the Lincoln Square Cinemas in Bellevue. And tomorrow night, Anthony Hopkins is in town to pick up his......

Now that the opening gala has kicked off SIFF all proper-like, it's time to join the orgy of cinema for the next 25 days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $10/$8 (and matinees $7/$5), except for gala screenings, which are $25/$23, and the closing night film event, which is $40/$35. If you really want to be prepared for this year's fest, check out Microsoft's Live Search Maps SIFF collection. Unlike most......

Oh, that Freddy Quimby. How did people title posts before the Simpsons? Pike Place Chowder is gonna be Pacific Place's Pike Place Chowder "soon," according to the sign. They're opening up a new location where the Tacone was. Yelp's chowderheads approve of their bowlfuls, so we're looking forward to this, the third PPC location. (The second is in West Seattle.) Smoked salmon chowder? Sure, we'll take some of that, too. Hey, what about a......

Times are good for folks with new Italian restaurants (Sorrentino, Tavolata, Barolo, La Spiga, Bèato): lively, fiercely independent, stamped with the vibrant personalities of their owners. And then there's the local outpost of Il Fornaio at Pacific Place, a chain that's been around for years, putting its own stamp on regional Italian cuisine with a monthly "culinary festivals." The fornaio is Italy's baker, and crusty, fresh-baked bread is indeed one of the restaurant's signatures. (The......

Why does the legislature want to require students to be able to read and write before they graduate high school? Because they are racist! So says the Seattle Education Association, the union of Seattle teachers, which apparently has so little access to state legislators that it's reduced to screaming racism, like a non-profit version of that crazy guy who hangs out by Pacific Place. They (the SEA) claim racism because the legislature is going to......

If you've got a MySpace page, or don't have any qualms about "borrowing" someone else's, you can catch a free screening of Reno 911!: Miami tonight at 7pm at Pacific Place. Reno 911!: Miami will be showing at theaters in Boston, Phoenix, and Seattle on Tuesday January 30th as part of MySpace’s Black Carpet Screening series. If you’re in any of those cities, you only need to print out your MySpace profile, get in your......

It looks like the Seattle International Film Festival is going to pull back a bit from its traditional venues around town and get its very own digs at the Seattle Center. McCaw Hall is being turned into "the best screening facility in the Northwest and one of the top facilities on the West Coast." SIFF is going to spend $350,000 to turn the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall into a theater that will operate all year......

Direct from Hollywood: Catch a Fire (Philip Noyce): Several theaters, including Pacific Place and Metro. Running with Scissors (Ryan Murphy): Several theaters, including Oak Tree, Meridian 16, and Metro Saw III (Darren Lynn Bousman): Several theaters, including Oak Tree, Pacific Place, and Metro Indies, revivals, and other abominations against the studio system: Bad Taste (Peter Jackson): Central Cinema Blue Velvet (David Lynch): Central Cinema Camp Death (Blood Squad): Grand Illusion Conversations with God (Stephen Simon):......

***SPOILER ALERT***** Read no further if you dont want special Borat surprises betrayed. Okay, you've been warned. Seattlest caught the sneak preview screening of Borat last week at Pacific Place, and we have only just now stopped laughing long enough to post the required blog endorsement: Five stars, two thumbs up, a hundred Oscars (TM), etc. You will laugh until you shit yourself. Go put on your day-glo speedo contraption and camp out ahead......

The end is near. Soon SIFF will be but a fading memory. So if you've been putting it off, this weekend is the last chance until next year for you to get some festival action. As an added bonus, on Sunday night at the Broadway Performance Hall, there will be an encore presentation for two of the films (one short, one full-length) that end up taking home SIFF awards. If you missed 'em the......

The final full week of SIFF is upon us. It's time to get some last few films before the sun sets on this year's fest. This week's got a couple great music events as well: Friday night, Portastatic will be on hand to perform a specially-commissioned live score accompanying circus freakshow-themed silent film The Unknown (more about that in a few days). Meanwhile, Thursday night's the Face the Music Rock Party at Neumo's, featuring......

As a wise man once said: "Ohhhh, we're half-way there / Ohhh-oh, living on a prayer." On Wednesday, SIFF officially reached the half-way mark. But it's by no means all downhill from here. There's still tons more great films to see before the fest is through. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: · Maxed Out Got......

We know that if you had any intention of seeing the Da Vinci Code you’ve probably gone already, but just in case you still care, we saw it opening weekend at a packed-to-the-gills Pacific Place (we knew it’d be popular, but we didn’t expect to see a line waiting for the theater when the film ended) (also, we didn’t expect such an Old Navy-clad crowd, or that anyone would think it was an appropriate movie......

SIFF enters its second full week with a slew of great documentaries, including the final screening of fair trade coffee doc Black Gold (Tuesday, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian). The directors, Marc and Nick Francis, will be in attendance, as will Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopian Farm Cooperative Organizer featured in the film. The SIFF screenings mark the first time the directors and subject have been together since the making of the film---and the first time......

One week of SIFF down, only three more to go. Starting yesterday, the fest moved on up, to the Eastside. Now through next Wednesday, films will be shown in Bellevue at the Lincoln Square Cinemas. From the looks of it, they've got a strong Friday lined up, with the final screenings of The Giant Buddhas, Prairie Home Companion, and Conversations with Other Women. As a SIFF-related resource, it's worth your time to head over......

We were busy recommending you see Stewart Copeland speak at the Egyptian tonight before the screening of his documentary when we heard that his brother Ian died last week. Hmm, we wondered, might this recent event result in Copeland skipping his Seattle appearance? After all, the death of a loved one is a little more important than SIFF. The official word came today--- Due to the death of his brother Ian Copeland, Stewart Copeland......

Now that Memorial Day weekend is past us, and Folklife and Sasquatch have played their last rain-soaked notes, it's time to focus on the things that really matter: SIFF films. Just for fun, go check out the SIFF 2006 profile on Flickr. It's got a lot of great pics, including a bunch of Jessica Biel looking vacuous and a dozen photos of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Dudes, we understand that you really like......

-State senator Pat Thibaudeau announced that she won't try to retain her seat in the 43rd against Ed Murray (who announced recently that he wants it). Evergreen Politics has an obit. -SIFF is open for business both on the website and at their Pacific Place box office. Let the scramble begin. -Seattle's new courthouse has gotten shit for press in this city, but the Annual Engineering Excellence Awards named it the year's most impressive......