Monday, May 28, 2007

SIFF Day 3 in Review

Today, Kelsey and I went to my cousin's house fore a little get together with her wife's great fried chicken, and some of their monkey friends. Brandi and Hector showed up with Malika too.

After Becky's, Kelsey and I went to see the midnight screening of Severance, a hilarious black comedy/horror flick out of the UK. A group of employees from a major defense contractor, on a tour of eastern Europe, get lost on their way to a mountain retreat. It's really unlike other movies in the comedy/horror flick genre in that it doesn't follow a trail of stupid mistakes made by the main characters, nor can you anticipate what the bad guy is going to do. It was gory, had a high body count, and was hilarious. It will be in smaller theaters like the Varsity Theater in the U-District soon. Probably cheaper than what a lot of people at SIFF paid too. See it.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

SIFF Day 2 in Review

Today, I stayed up on Capital Hill for two movies at the Neptune, followed by a film at the Egyptian in the U-District. One of the great things about being a pass holder (besides almost never being turned away from a movie, getting first seating priority, and being able to see as many films as your sanity will permit) is that when you're waiting in line to get into a movie, it's really easy and common to get tips on other good movies that are coming up. I would probably never have gone to the last film shown today (especially since it's the midnight showing) if I hadn't heard that a film I'd been interested in had been moved up in the schedule.

The first film I say tonight was Knocked Up. It's a comedy about two very different people who meet on a very drunk night, and well, you can guess what happens next. It was funny and worth seeing (since it was free) and will probably do well in the box office when it's released in the next few weeks.

The next film was Monkey Warfare, a Canadian film about a burnt out ex-anarchist/revolutionary type couple who are trying to stay under the radar until their dope dealer changes all that. I thought this was a very well written, acted and filmed movie, and well worth someone's ten bucks. If you find it in the US, stay after the credits for some extra entertainment. You wont see this part in Canada.

Aachi & Ssipak was one that I heard some murmurings about, so I decided to run the the U-District from Capital hill right after Monkey Warfare. Aachi & Ssipak, and animated film from South Korea, is the story of a time in the future when all that cities have for power is human excrement. For their excrement, they are rewarded with a very addictive popcicle. The story follows two protagonists who find a loophole in the system, and mutants, who live off of the popcicles, but produce no excrement. It's a very very strange, but I'm glad I went, if only for the strangeness.

Tomorrow, I have a kind of day off from film. Although it will probably be the best film watching day for a while, I'm going to a Texas Chicken Fry at my cousin's house.

Friday, May 25, 2007

SIFF Day 1 Review

I saw two movies today, both at Pacific Place, mostly just so I didn't have to walk between theaters.

First, 12:08 East of Bucharest. It was a film about the Romanian Revolution, and one towns recollection of the events of that day. It was mildly funny, but took a long time to get up to that part. Direction and cinematography were average, as was acting. Recommendation: Try something else.

The next film was Pleasant Moments, which followed a psychiatrist trying to council other people's disintegrating lives as her own live goes down the same path. The cinematography style was really annoying, but direction and acting were pretty good. The story was also pretty good. I suspect that I probably broke even on this one. It was good enough that there might not have been something at this time slot that I should have chosen over this one.

Seattle Internation Film Fest Opening Night

Tonight, Sister and I got all spiffed out for the opening night of SIFF. They screened a British movie called "Son of Rambow", about this kid who's family belonged to a very strict, conservative church. Don't know which one it was, but the women wear long dresses, wear head scarves, (not Islam) they can have clocks, but not watches, can drive cars, but not use TVs or record players. Seem them around, but don't know what they are...

So this gets befriended by the school bully, and his life changes. No spoilers...

It was only the second screening, and with about 2,900 people in attendance and Seattle audience's reputation, probably the biggest and best audience they'll have for a while. Not because it wasn't an awesome movie, but because SIFF picked it as it's opening night film.

After the film, there was a big gala, with free everything. Good food catered by Seattle restaurants, an espresso stand, Pyramid beers, cocktails, chocolates, deserts, and 80's dance music. Oh, did I mention the movie was set in the 80s?

So, tons of fun. Too bad I couldn't drink. Had lots of coffee though.

Tons more movies coming up. Lets see some!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Oh yea, I'm not in the hospital anymore!

Yea, I got out a while ago. I was only there for about 4 days, and since late last week, all my blood counts have been returning to normal, and I've been feeling great mostly. Last Friday, I asked my doctors if I can do without my caregivers (parents) and drive myself to my appointments. They said that I'm doing so much better than they'd expect at this point, and that I'd probably be okay, but it's so much earlier than almost everyone else, that they'd rather not set me completely free yet. What they did though, is set me free for the weekend, and drop my daily appointments back to two days a week, so I only have to go in on Monday and Thursday. They said that I could drive locally, but they still don't want me driving longer distances, like from Bonney Lake to Seattle alone. Don't really know why, but my parents are listening to them, so that means that I can't. I didn't tell them about riding motorcycles...

It sounds like they are going to set me free this week though. On the 30th, I have a CT Scan scheduled, and they will transfer me back to the care of my regular oncologist offically on the 31st. The next, and hopefully last phase of my treatment will start on June 4th, with radiation therapy.

So there's the update everyone's been itching for.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

In the Hospital

I've been in the Hospital for the past few days. I'd been running a temperature for a couple days, but on Thursday, it got high enough for them to be concerned about, so they sent me to the UW hospital. At UW, they did some blood tests, and found an infection, so I've been on antibiotics. My temp got as high as 104, but now everything has pretty much returned to normal. My doc at SCCA said that about 95% of transplant patients spend some time in the hospital, and they were really surprised that at 8 days post transplant, I still hadn't been hospitalized.

It's actually kind of nice to be here because I have access to broad band internet. Having to endure dialup for the last two weeks has almost been more torturous than anything else. Until I started my conditioning, I could take my computer to a coffe shop, and catch up on everything from there, but once my white blood cell counts got too low, I wasn't allowed in public places like that. Apparently fabric stores are okay though...

On my first full day here, Becky and Jenn stopped by on their lunch break, and Ma & Pa have been here every day. I'll probably be out of here today or tomorrow.