Headline: We're in the Emerald City, Toto!
SEATTLE -- It's a pleasant 85 degrees in the Emerald City today --
and, yes, I am happy to be getting a reprieve from a week of
100-degree weather. The big news here is the Sonics, which were just
bought by an Oklahoma City businessman and might be moving to that
city (once the Hornets move back to New Orleans).
I'm here for a one-day mini-junket for "World Trade Center," the
Oliver Stone-directed drama about what happened to two Port Authority
cops caught in the rubble of the Twin Towers.
Today I interviewed actors Michael Pena and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and
the real people Pena and Gyllenhaal play, Will and Allison Jimeno.
And I interviewed (in a roundtable with other journalists) Oliver
Stone. (Watch for the story on Aug. 6, the Sunday before the movie's
Aug. 9 release.)
I went to college here in Seattle, at the University of Washington,
and it was and is a moviegoers' town. Some people blame the rain,
which drives people indoors. Some say it's the coffee, which keeps
them up and needing something to do late at night. But there also is
a well-maintained movie culture, with an audience-friendly film
festival and a higher-than-normal concentration of idiosyncratic
movie theaters.
There are grand big-box theaters, like The Egyptian (home of the
wondedrful Seattle International Film Festival) and the Neptune.
There's The Varsity, a funky repertory house in the heart of the
University District. There are tiny jewelbox theaters, like the Grand
Illusion. My favorite is the Harvard Exit, whose lobby feels like the
living room you wish you had.
Unfortunately, I can't visit any of those theaters today. None of
those great theaters have weekday matinees, and I have to catch a
5:40 p.m. plane back home. So I'm off to go watch the vendors throw
fish at Pike Place Market.
and, yes, I am happy to be getting a reprieve from a week of
100-degree weather. The big news here is the Sonics, which were just
bought by an Oklahoma City businessman and might be moving to that
city (once the Hornets move back to New Orleans).
I'm here for a one-day mini-junket for "World Trade Center," the
Oliver Stone-directed drama about what happened to two Port Authority
cops caught in the rubble of the Twin Towers.
Today I interviewed actors Michael Pena and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and
the real people Pena and Gyllenhaal play, Will and Allison Jimeno.
And I interviewed (in a roundtable with other journalists) Oliver
Stone. (Watch for the story on Aug. 6, the Sunday before the movie's
Aug. 9 release.)
I went to college here in Seattle, at the University of Washington,
and it was and is a moviegoers' town. Some people blame the rain,
which drives people indoors. Some say it's the coffee, which keeps
them up and needing something to do late at night. But there also is
a well-maintained movie culture, with an audience-friendly film
festival and a higher-than-normal concentration of idiosyncratic
movie theaters.
There are grand big-box theaters, like The Egyptian (home of the
wondedrful Seattle International Film Festival) and the Neptune.
There's The Varsity, a funky repertory house in the heart of the
University District. There are tiny jewelbox theaters, like the Grand
Illusion. My favorite is the Harvard Exit, whose lobby feels like the
living room you wish you had.
Unfortunately, I can't visit any of those theaters today. None of
those great theaters have weekday matinees, and I have to catch a
5:40 p.m. plane back home. So I'm off to go watch the vendors throw
fish at Pike Place Market.
2:15 PM
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