It's coming! The crowds, the sun, the bands -- my stars, THE BANDS. We're beside ourselves with anticipation as we wait for the announcement of this year's Sasquatch! music festival lineup, and it won't be long now! The news will be public in less than forty-eight hours, as the folks at Sasquatch! HQ gear up for the announcement party taking place tomorrow night {2/2} at the Neptune. And you can join in, too! The show is all ages and tickets are just $16.00, which is a fair price to pay to be spending the night with the likes of Junip {feat. Jose Gonzales}, Matthew Caws {of Nada Surf, also playing a sold-out show later that night at the Tractor}, and The Physics.

Add the cherry on top of Luke Burbank playing host, and you've got the best party / show / festival lineup announcement / gathering-thing this side of the Puget Sound. We can't wait to start making our schedule for this year's trip to the Gorge, and hope to see you tomorrow night!

{All ages / $16 adv / 7p doors. Photo of the main stage at Sasquatch! 2010 by Victoria VanBruinisse.}

This past Saturday, we said goodbye to our dear, dear Visqueen. The duo of Rachel Flotard and Ben Hooker (with a rotating team of equally disarming and talented friends on bass and rhythm guitar throughout the years) charmed a sold out crowd one last time. The evening couldn't have been any more sweet, or touching, or amazing. It's the night that we will all be talking about for years to come, about the last time Visqueen rocked our socks off: the final Rachel in-between song banter that made us laugh so hard we cried, and a final song that was so stunning, I weep buckets at just the mention of it. 

Rachel was able to cajole Broadcast Oblivion into reforming for this special night.  I'll admit, it's been a while since I've listened to my copy of Transmita Olvido to sing along to "False Starts for Blackened Hearts" (on repeat), but it was magical to enter the showroom as they were working up a sweat. Capping off their set with a drum off between Ben Hooker and Coady Willis (who you might have recognized as a Murder City Devil), they really set the tone for the rest of the night: the next few hours were going to be full of surprises, and the fun of a good ol' fashioned party among friends. Visqueen entered the stage to “I Had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing, hugging and laughing and taking the edge off of the finality of it all, and cementing the fact that when it comes down to it, we're all still going to be BFFs -- nomatterwhat.

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{Rachel and Ben of Visqueen at TIG's 69 Love Songs show in 2008. Photo by Laura Musselman}

Visqueen recently announced that, after more than 13 years of making us merry, they are going on an indefinite hiatus with the close of November, 2011.  Although I agree It's totally fair for them to want to put down their guitars and sticks after such an amazing run, I have to admit it's really sad to think about imaginary life without the hope of ever seeing another Visqueen show (last shows listed below - get your tickets now!).

This got me reminiscing about all the amazing moments Three Imaginary Girls has had with them since our beginning nearly 10 years ago. It's a natural fit that as Visqueen shot to the forefront of the Seattle music scene, we were there in the front row basking in their glow.  All that superfandom has resulted in about 80 Visqueen posts over the years and more than a few "most memorable moments of my life" and, of course, a Top 5 Imaginary Visqueen Moments list!

1. OUR FIRST EVER VISQUEEN SHOW
About a month after we launched Three Imaginary Girls, we posted this review of the July 3, 2002 Visqueen show that pretty much set the tone for the website. We {gush} talk about Kim Warnick, they cover a Tom Petty song, and Kim gives away a pair of tickets to see the Who that weekend{/gush}.  We should have mentioned it more pointedly, but huge thanks to Pete Hilgendorf for telling us about Visqueen in the first place.

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I know I'm not the only one totally crushing on Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This guy is a freakin' phenomenal actor, was on one of the funniest TV shows of all time, and also looks damn fine in a suit.

To top it all off, he started this awesome thing called hitRECord, which is an online production community focused on collaboration and creativity in multimedia--everything from film to music and art--and now he's bringing it on the road to a live audience with "hitRECord at the Movies". Luckily for us, one of his tour stops is Seattle!

I heartily encourage you to buy tickets now to see this show, because 1) It's gonna sell out and 2) you don't want to miss the chance to drool over JGL participate in some very cool multimedia art. See, you don't have to just sit there in the seats, you get to bring your cameras with you and "hit record" (GET IT?), and interact with everyone.

Mr. Gordon-Levitt is also doing a Seattle city project - so shoot video, draw pictures, write or sing about how much you love our city, and contribute to the hitRECord site. Maybe you'll see your stuff up on the screen….

hitRECord at the Movies
The Neptune Theatre
Tuesday, 8/23 @8:30pm
$26 advance / $28 day of show

{Inception opened in Seattle Friday, July 16 and is playing at the Metro, The Neptune, The Majestic Bay, The Big Picture (Seattle) and Thornton Place IMAX®}

I was a little nervous going in to this; mostly because Director Christopher Nolan’s lockdown on any and all information left us with a vague teaser trailer that made me think of the “tuning” in Dark City – but I needn’t have worried: Inception is mind-blowingly AWESOME.

The breakdown: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are “extractors”, hired to thieve secrets from people’s dreams, and are contracted by one of their former victims to try something new: inception, AKA planting an idea instead of stealing one.

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This is kind of cheating, since there’s obviously more than 3 films I think you should see at the Film Festival this weekend – but I thought I’d hit you with these and then recommend some more via SIFF Takes for full-on movie madness!

Shorts Package: Pandemonium Boulevard: My favorite shorts collection this year, because it focuses on the spooky, creepy and just plain bizarre. The standouts: I was surprised and PLEASED to see Wil Wheaton in the twisted comedy In the Dark, about a man planning the perfect murder who forgets the most important part, and Off Season, about a burglar who steals from lake houses during the winter and stumbles upon a terrible secret in one of the cabins. SUPER creepy with a great haunting ending.

{Pandemonium Boulevard screens only once at SIFF Cinema, 5/22, 9:30pm}

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Air Doll is about Nozumi, an inflatable sex doll used as a substitute for lonely Hideo in place of a girlfriend. One day she finds a heart and comes to life, and starting to explore the world around her, quickly realizes she doesn’t actually love her "owner".

Disguising her doll parts and applying for a job in a video store, Nozumi falls for kind clerk Junichi and starts to question whether or not she can fill the emptiness inside and live as a human. But how long can she can conceal her identity AND her double-life?

An interesting commentary on the human condition, this fantastical fairy tale could be labeled a more perverse version of Mannequin, especially given its blunt sex scenes and twisted outcome.

{Air Doll screens at SIFF May 21, 4pm and again May 24, 9:30pm at the Neptune}

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