LAUREN NAPIER: AIDEN KICKS OFF TOUR AT HELL'S KITCHEN >>>
As my phone rang and a number with a 666 area code popped up, I wasn’t surprised when it turned out to be my conference call with Victory Records’ artist Aiden. A post-hardcore band with strong goth tones â€" vampires, death, and anything slightly macabre are often associated with Aiden in a plethora of ways: lyrics, images, photos, even their fashion choices. Inspired by tragedy, wiL Francis, the band’s front man, vocalizes that he simply hopes to let the kids know that “anybody in the world can play guitar and be in a band.†This message is further driven home when one watches Aiden on stage and realizes that behind the heavy eyeliner and deathly props, the four members of the band are nothing too out of the ordinary.
Aiden is embarking this spring on the “Ticket to Hell Tour†â€" and tonight South Sound fans will get a chance to catch the band at Hell’s Kitchen for only $6.66. Does that send shivers down your spine? It should. Read more in my Rockin’ The Cradle column. â€" Lauren Napier
[Hell’s Kitchen, Aiden with Kane Hodder, Black Houses, Starstruck, Saturday, May 9, 5 p.m., all-ages, $6.66, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003
Last night, local filmmakers screened their five-minute films at the Rialto Theater as part of The Grand Cinema's 2009 72 Hour Film Festival. The winners:
1. Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty
tells the familiar story of a century-long nap for the princess and her
kingdom, one handsome prince who’s a hell of a kisser, and a big old
shebang of a wedding at 2 p.m. inside the Washington Center in Olympia.
2. Singer, songwriter, storyteller Steve Schalchlin
is a little bit gospel, a little bit rock and roll, all theatrical
entertainer and performing tonight at the Capital Playhouse in Olympia.
3. The Nurses At Your Service: A Century of Caring exhibit at the Washington State History Museum demonstrates how war, technology, science and compassion have drastically changed the way patients receive care.
4. Star Trek screens in almost every movie theater in the South Sound.
5. Little Bill & The Bluenotes perform a 7 p.m. show at The Spar in Old Town Tacoma.
Sitting in the dark of the Rialto Theater last night, the most recurrent thought that crossed my mind was the relativity of time. Though each film submitted for The Grand Cinema's72 Hour Film Festival clocked in under five minutes, some seemed to stretch into infinity. Still others had an urgent energy or a languid beauty that ate those five minutes up. Indeed, it seems that relativity was the underlying theme that stretched across the festival. Something about sitting in a room with 400 strangers for three hours watching film after ever-loving film creates a haze that hangs over each and every viewer. It’s sort of like the Brain Cloud from Joe Versus the Volcano except, you know, not deadly.
This is what I thought as the audience unanimously roared with laughter at the streaker in 20 Seconds, a new film from the people who brought us South Five a couple of years ago. It was the last movie before intermission â€" number 17. I would estimate that around the ninth or tenth movie, a giddy delirium had set in. The audience reached synchronization. Every laugh was huge, every gasp was the gasp of dozens, and, most notably, the silences were deafening. It’s a strange thing now to look at the films in the light of day. Outside of the theater, rewatching a couple of the 72 Hour films I enjoyed most almost makes me feel like a former cult-member: once you get a little distance and some time to think, you start to forget the appeal.
Full disclosure time: I’ve competed in every 72 Hour since its inception, and this year was no different. My shoot, however, was panicked and rushed this year, resulting in a product that wasn’t my best. Fortunately, this alleviated the nervous tension of having to compete against what was arguably the festival’s best crop of films in its five-year run. The program was almost completely lacking in zombie movies, action movies, and hard dramas â€" unfortunate mainstays from years past. This year saw the return of the comedy as the dominant genre. But what really set this year apart was the rise of legitimately awe-inspiring visual effects. As veteran teams get more comfortable with the format of the festival, the chasm between the pros and the amateurs widens.
To give you an example, I’ll direct you to the film that won Best Overall as voted by the official judges. Calming Heads was the work of Jeff Alldridge and Michael Bartley. It’s a dark comedy about a hit man going to anger management. There are two visual effects in this film that are so sudden and seamless â€" one involving a car, and one involving a gun â€" that my friends and I spent 15 minutes watching it on DVD at home, mouths agape. Watching, rewatching, pausing, slowing it down, studying it like the Zapruder film. How in the hell did they do that?
Where some films lacked in surprising visual effects they gained in fairly clever plots. My favorite of the night was a movie called Steve. How this didn’t win Best Overall, I have no idea. It seamlessly weaves all of the festival’s requirements into a rather ingenious and cohesive story of a man desperately trying to communicate his frustration through a jaw wired shut.
Mostly, despite the high ratio of bad films to good, The 72-Hour Film Festival was encouraging. And important. It’s a pleasure to see so many people in our community, young and old, with such a passion and a desire for making films. That we can all get together and experience it once a year is a joy. And it’s one you shouldn’t miss next year, when the 72 comes rolling along.
Tough babes on skates â€" that’s what I expected. And, yes, there were plenty of tough babes on skates in The Soccer Center last night for bout two of the 2009 Dockyard Derby Dames home season. But there was also a Celtic drum corps. And calypso dancers. And a crazy speed-freak announcer. And a beer garden. And a bunch of cowboy bouncers keeping things under wraps. And lots and lots of people.
This is what I love about Tacoma: Weird shit goes on. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the place, just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you stumble upon something that blows it all to hell. You find some unknown enclave of fanatics. You meet some insane genius. You walk into a building you’ve driven past dozens of times and find a scene from a late-night TBS ‘70s B-flick. The gloomy, rickety old barn is shaking. You half-expect to find a dogfight, or maybe an old-school bare-knuckles match. But instead you find this: Tough babes on skates on a makeshift track. Wearing fishnets. Grunting. Slashing. Crashing. Then the bagpipes start. You see a beer and tray of nachos in your future. Somehow â€" just like that â€" you too have become this.
1. Head down to the Acme Grub Cage to immerse yourself in the second official Tacoma Cult Movie Club night tonight beginning at 7 p.m. Women in Prison Night promises to be an unparalleled experience.
2. Marilyn Frasca’s show at Childhood’s End Gallery is one of the better shows they’ve had in a long time. Her drawings are wonderful. They picture fantasy people (some borrowed from Renaissance and medieval art) and animals (including some human-animal hybrids) on beautifully textured surfaces.
3. Hank Cramer performs an all-ages 7 p.m. show at A Rhapsody in Bloom on Sixth Avenue.
4. Hell’s Kitchen's Monster Metal Mondays features All The Hellbound, Foggy Hollow and Bury The Flesh at 8 p.m.
MICHAEL SWAN:I WANT TO RIDE MY BICYCLE BICYCLE BICYCLE >>>
May is National Bike Month, and from May 11-15 in particular, cyclists are encouraged to bike to work. If you live close enough to where you work to be able to make your way on two wheels, now's the time to ditch the excuses and get some fresh air. It really is an incredible way to start your morning, even if you do get to work a little sweaty and breathless.
TODAY’S SOUTH SOUND BIKE WEATHER: Showers likely with afternoon sun breaks. Highs in the mid to upper 50s. Southwest wind 10 to 20 mph.
CITY OF TACOMA ROAD CONSTRUCTION:Broadway LID doesn’t look bike friendly. Beware.
BIKE TO WORK WEEK COMMUTER CHALLENGE: Gather a team of co-workers, register on PierceTrips.com, ride to work, and win prizes.
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