Just got back from a fun day out with Nicole and Michelle. It was Michelle’s birthday and we assured her we’d find something fun to do. As it happened the Science Fiction Museum was sponsoring its first annual Sci-Fi Short Film Festival. There had been many entries and they were showing the top 20 films today, in two, two-hour sessions. Earlier in the week, Nicole asked if we should get tickets in advance. I said, “Bah, what are the odds there’ll be big crowds for a festival of sci-fi shorts?” Forgetting of course that Seattle is nerd central. So we arrived a half-hour before it was supposed to start and there were two different huge lines. We waited out in the cold and wind (and damn, was it windy today) and luckily managed to get tickets. The Cinerama is a big theater (it seats 800) and there were maybe a 20 empty seats in the house by the time it started. Even the organizers seemed stunned and overwhelmed by the turnout.

The films were quite varied and generally of a very high standard. Many were American, but Canada, England, Australia, and Israel were also represented. I really didn’t know what to expect and was quite pleased to see so many good shorts. I may write up a little more on the individual films tomorrow, but suffice to say it was well worth the trip. After the second session they had author Greg Bear on hand to give out the juried awards while they tallied the audiences votes. Bear turned out to be very well spoken and he seemed genuinely excited by the success of the event and the quality of the films. It is a surety that they’ll do this again next year and I will gladly go again.

It was nearly 10 by the time we got out and we were starving. We then spent nearly half an hour dragging Michelle to various restaurants, only to find they were about to close. We finally ended up at the Pink Door, a very good Italian place down by the Pike Place Market. We had a lovely meal that capped off the evening nicely. All in all a good time and a welcome break from work.