Sundance Film Festival 2010

Sundance Film Festival 2010 was an experience I will never forget. Even though 4 weeks have past, I still am struggling with how to document it.


I can do it chronologically. List the movies I saw, the celebrities I saw, the friends I met. So many choices.

Unfortunately I was unable to take many pictures since cameras were not allowed during work, when we had an audience and actors/directors/producers in the theater.

Let me start from the beginning. Many people have asked how I came to go to Sundance Film Festival. My long time friend Leslie, lives in Park City with her husband John and daughter Brooke.

She is a returning volunteer for the festival every year. This year, on Wednesday the week before the festival, She announced on facebook that she was unable to work her shifts due to a scheduling conflict. I immediately looked at plane tickets to Utah and booked my trip. Not only was I going to the festival, but I was going to get the opportunity to spend time with Leslie and meet her daughter Brooke for the first time.

Brooke is 100% little princess and we had a ball playing dress up and casting “magic spells” in her room to keep the nightmares away.

Friday evening was my first whirlwind night of work. Considering I had to wake up at 2:30 am to catch my flight. I knew working until 10pm would be a challenge.

Dressed in my volunteer uniform which was a Kenneth Cole Ski Parka, I was off to my first shift at work.

I Like to call this look "Storm Trooper Chic"

To make it more exciting we had two big premiers that evening at the theater I was working at. Including Adrian Grenier’s (star of Entourage) film, staring Paris Hilton.



Yes, Miss Hilton was in the audience. Her skin is orange and she smells like cigarettes. She also likes to smoke in public restrooms. Apparently she doesn’t want any Paparazzi to film her dirty little habits.
By the end of my first night the celebrity spotting was low, I blame it on my exhaustion.

Celebrities sighted:
Adrian Grenier
Paris Hilton

Movies watched:
Teenage Paparazzo
Douchebag

Saturday, after an amazing nights rest, Leslie and I snuck away for a pedicure while her husband John entertained Brooke before I went to work.

The movies I saw Saturday night:
Night Catches Us
Sympathy for Deliciouse
The Perfect Host

Celebrity sightings Saturday Night:
Jake Scott
Seth Rogan
Constatine Morales (from American Idol—I had no idea who he was until someone told me after I had a conversation with him about where he could find the concession stand)
Parker Posey (Love her!)
Orlando Bloom – (oh goodness what an extremely handsome man! I got the pleasure of escorting him to the restroom. Glamorous, I know)
Juliette Lewis –(Very nice!!! She also complimented my shoes. Another fan of the red patten leather danskos, lady has good taste.)
Ron Livingston (aka: Peter from Office Space –I also got to show him to the restroom in the back of the theater. I was getting good at this. Hot, attractive, famous men talking to me and I got to show them where the water closet was. This is not how it happens in my dreams.)
Mark Ruffilo

Sunday was much lighter in the celebrity sightings, but I did see the most powerful movie of the entire festival.
8 A Mormon Proposition. If/when this movie comes to a theater near you. I strongly recommend seeing it. Wow!
At times during the filming you could hear the audiences emotional reactions. It was very moving.
The mayor of San Francisco was in the audience along with some men from the Mormon Church who you could tell were NOT happy about this film.

Movies viewed Sunday:
12th and Delaware
8 A Mormon Proposition
Lovers of Hate
Three Backyards
Monday morning I got up bright and early and rushed downtown to try to catch a viewing of The Runaways. A festival favorite. Unfortunately I missed this movie but it gave me more time with Leslie and Brooke.
I have to include this photo of Brooke since I have the exact same skirt and top. I never thought of mixing the pink cotton top with the black tulle skirt, but since she can pull it off I am sure I can too, no?


At the airport later that day, I was chatting with a young lady, her mother and who I assumed was her aunt. Turns out she was one of the supporting actresses in The Runaways. Now I can’t wait ot see it in the theaters to see her again. She was a delightful girl.

It’s official, I am hooked on Sundance. I will certainly be there again next year!

Women Build Day

This past weekend I was able to participate and volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity
house in connection with “Women Build Day” with a few of my mates; Jessica, Stacee,and Jules.



My alter ego for the day was “Construction Barbie”. Complete with barbie belt, pink shoes, pink glasses and pink water bottle.

It was a successful day and we got the house completely wrapped in blueboard insulation. Jules and I did the back wall of the house. We didn’t realize when we picked this wall it would be the toughest with the angled eves. Being the daughter of an architect that loves strange angles, I welcomed the challenge. I had to dig deep into my high school geometry lessons, but the end product came out good and all were impressed.


At the end of it all, we had to sign our work.


As a public servant Jules took the opportunity for a little campaigning.

Great American Beer Festival (GABF) Recap

Ya ya ya…I know, this report is late, so fire me.

What can I say, it is amazing how busy one unemployed person can be...

GABF was the weekend of Sept. 24-25-26
Four sessions, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening.
I have learned my lesson long ago. I can last three of the four sessions, but by Saturday evening, I am tired, cranky, drunk/hungover or somewhere in between. Saturday evening also is highly resembling off a college frat party with 15,000 participants. Considering I loathed the Greek life in college. There is no reason I would want to return to those times.
Especially after sampling beers for three days straight.

While I am here, have some GABF Stats:
49,000 Attendees
3,308 Beers in the GABF Competition
3,000 Volunteers (including yours truly)
495 Breweries in the Competition
132 Judges from 10 countries
The top five medal winning states were: CO (45), CA (39), OR (22), WA (13), PA (12)

The first night (Thursday) I poured for Mammoth Brewery, from…

Wait, I’ll let you guess.

Give up?

They are from Mammoth California. Shocking huh?

Pouring for Mammoth was like eating vanilla ice cream, in a white room while wearing all white clothes. Yeah sure your eating ice cream, but talk about booooorrrring. The beer was alright, but the personality, or lack there of, the brew masters and brewery reps left a little, ok. A lot to be desired. In their defense, this was their first appearance at GABF…maybe no one told them about the ‘be cool’ policy.
I used all the interpersonal skills I had and in the first hour all I learned was the brewermaster and his wife were married and he runs. Yeah great you’re a brewmaster, so are 500 other people here. Your not that special.
Oh yeah and you’re a runner? Big deal.

When I asked the brewmaster to tell me about his beers so I knew what to tell the patrons, he replied with “oh, do you know anything about beer?”
I wanted to reply “No, I just like to come here for the cool volunteer t-shirt”
Instead I was nice and replied “oh a little bit”

Idiot!

I was over it.

I was not going to waste my time to get in the good graces of this brewery. I poured their beer and drank my share and enjoyed the festival.

I treated it like a bad date. Have as much fun as possible and at the end…move on

At least we had Mister Sexy in our area...


The next night I was determined to pour for a “fun” brewery. So this time I chose Kona Brewery out of…

Wait, lets play this game again, I’ll let you guess.
Give up?

Yup, Hawaii. (good job!)

Of course they will be fun. They live in Hawaii for Christ’s sake. I was right.


Rich, Wendy, and the other guy”(who I feel like an idiot I can’t remember his name and he is the head brew master--DUH!) They were all a blast.. And bonus their beer rocked! My favorite was the Coco Loca, a Coconut Brown Ale. Oh my delicious!!! Tasted like roasted coconut and made me want to run away to the islands for good.

Everyone else at the festival thought the same thing, there was a constant pour of that beer for the first two sessions and we ran out mid Saturday afternoon. I am glad to report I pretty much drank that exclusively until it ran out. Then I switched to their Pipeline Porter. Another amazingly yummy beer.


Since they were such fun and had such good beer I also poured for them on Saturday.
As a side story: Saturday afternoon we all were visiting and came to realize Rich, Wendy and I all lived in Steamboat at the same time and another lifetime ago I used to serve them $1.99 steaks and they remembered by big shaggy mutt “Pablo”. It is a small world after all.

Bonus, If I decide to move to Kona Hawaii, Rich and Wendy said they would gladly hire me to pour beer in the tasting room/bar.


Tempting, VERY Tempting…

I'm Still Kickin

I have not fallen off the planet, I promise…

I have been busy with all sorts of adventures but once I sit down to blog about them, my camera is dead and my battery charger is at home where I am not. So any pictures I have come from my crackberry.

Quick up date…

Great American Beer Festival was a huge success, see even the bear wanted into the convention center to get some delicious beer.


I also got the opportunity to volunteer at Bristol Brewery (in return for free beer—which I will never complain about). Every year they make a seasonal pumpkin ale (Venetucci Pumpkin Ale) that is absolutely delicious and this year I helped make that happen. Be watching in the next couple weeks for this beer to be in Colorado Liquor Stores and local taverns. YUM!


My father had a small set back two days before he was to head back to the Midwest to start on his own adventure. He was in the hospital for 10 days with a nasty case of pancreatitis. Luckily he is out of the hospital and on the mend. Unfortunately he missed going to the CSU Homecoming game. I am thankful I had the flexibility to come to Fort Collins to spend some time and cheer him up. I think the morphine got to his head though because he got an idea that I was interviewing for jobs up here. I had to remind him Fort Collins is low on my list of places I want to relocate too. Sorry.

More to come later. For those keeping track, I am still running, swimming and cycling like a mad woman. Next event: Half Marathon in December, (I hope…)