Eighteen Seconds

This is a really cool short flick by a team named Jack, Zac, and Mac. Apparently it's based on a short story by the male lead in it. It also stars Amy Waschke who was an intern and then in the Education department at the Seattle Repertory Theatre when I worked there in 1998-2000. As far as I know it has nothing to do with the Eighteen Seconds Before Sunrise album.

There have been several reviews at the DVX User forum, since it was shot with an HD camera and from what I read, it was almost selected for a film festival or two. There's a lot shoved into just under 6 minutes and it's well worth the time. I hope that Amy continues to find work both on stage and in film and that the creative team behind this also get their work into some festivals. I usually despise art films, simply because there's an arrogance that surrounds most of them which is perpetuated/aggrandized by those who feel only "art" films are "elevated" (i.e. the haven't sold out to The MAN (tm) and are "keeping it real") and the rest are for the plebes.

I, for one, enjoy being a plebian, at least as far as "films" are concerned. I will not watch a "film" that has an audience filled with drones who all have the vapid smiles of someone who thinks that by watching said film, there is suddenly a basis for condescension to those who were not basking in the glory of the latest Dadaist "feature" of slicing frog eyes. These are the same people who are content, nay, uplifted, when they speak out against injustices and get indignant in the company of like-minded people.

Preaching to the choir? You're too hardcore for me. Free exchange of ideas and learning via the Socratic method? Naaaaaaaaah, real movements in thought occurred straight from lockstep Rote-method learning! Reconvert those already converted! Enjoy the easy victories again and again and again!

These last few sentences sum up one of the cornerstones of Pacific Northwest political thought. It's a wonder that the Seattle area could even progress out of the "impact statement" phase of anything. Consensus building, while considerate, rarely accomplishes anything. Why does Portland have a pretty sweet transit system while Seattle still hasn't run a light rail train 11 years after approving it? The will of Neil Goldschmidt, former Mayor of Portland.

Goldschmidt has a pretty interesting past, summed up by this Willamette Week article. I had lunch with him and my Public Policy class as an undergrad and it was pretty darn cool. Unfortunately, as you can read in the WW article or this one, he apparently didn't have the best judgment as to whom he should have relationships with, professional or otherwise. Read more about him and decide for yourself whether or not his lasting legacy of the MAX in Portland offsets his interesting history as a lobbyist.

Neil may have been a bit shady in his dealings, but at least he got something done. Ron Sims? Squeaky clean and a whole lotta nothin' for 3 terms in King County.

Anyhow, watch the flick on your video iPod, laptop, whathaveyou, and think about how your relationships are and how they came about.