"Tom Skerritt has left the building."

The Seattle International Film Festival has now officially begun. The Gala Opening Thursday night signaled the begining of the 30th year and there were quite a bit of people in attendance, not the least of which being Tom Skerritt of... uh, "Alien" fame (thanks Karla). Apparently he was the 'name' of the night (no comment), but I was never privy to his company and never had the pleasure of brushing body parts as Karla did.

There were a lot of people at the Gala party, but, much to my chagrin, it wasn't quite as raucous as I had imagined. This was my first year attending the party, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I expected much drunkenness, schmoozing and cavorting. There was, in fact, much drunkenness, but people seemed more sedate than I expected. People were schmoozing, but not in the grand way that seemed to befit a "Gala." My M.O. was to ingest as many free drinks and as much food as possible, which I think I achieved quite well. I was disappointed to see so many people leave so early, but I could only guess that they got wind that Tom Skerritt had left and had followed him to his secret den of iniquity were the real debauchery would get underway.

I've been in Seattle for a little over two years now, but don't yet know enough people that would allow me to sweep from group to group, meeting and greeting. I waited for Karla a while as requested, but as she said, she was fashionably over-late, so I decided to get a drink and go it alone.

I met up with Jamie Keeling, Program Director of the Little Theater, and her companion Brandon and we talked for a while. She told me of the complications the Northwest Film Forum had recently with their relocation. She assured me all was going as planned, but they had to push the date back for their move. We sat there drinking vodka tonics and somehow Brandon and I became involved a faily in-depth conversation about snuff films and reality programing, after which we vered inexplicably into talk of the film "The Corporation" and how Jamie had been trying to get that film for over a year. She was frustraited because the distro company wanted to open it at the festival, so they would not let her play it at the Little Theater. Twice as frustraiting was the fact that she knew one of the directors, Mark Achbar, but still the distributor wouldn't let her have it. I told her, half jokingly, that I would be sure to bring this up to the other director, Jennifer Abbott, when I interviewed her, But Jaime demured and said she really wasn't that upset about it. Once they move to a larger venue, this shouldn't be such a problem.

The rest of the night I spent seeking out other Tabletheads. I caught up with Karla, Cari, Gillian, Aaron and his filmmaker girlfriend and we hung out for a while, drinking and talking shit. (Heh. Not really, but it sounds juicy to say so.) I met a couple from Chicago who were in town for the festival. They somehow thought I was an actor, but were relieved to find out I wasn't. She was the editor of some big Hollywood movie I can't remember and he was a chef. They were both drunk and having fun and I'm sorry there weren't more people like them there. All in all, it was a good time. Karla, Cari and I retired to the Alibi Room for a nightcap and my drinks began to kick in, but alas the night was over. Next time, kids, we need to mix it up some. The Tablet party should be a blast! Are you down?