Sundancing

It's that time of year again. The Sundance Film Festival has arrived here in Utah. When I was in college, this was my favorite time of year. I took a Sundance Film Fest class my sophomore year, and was able to see 27 films and 5 panels throughout the span of two weeks. Whoa. Intense! I got to see the premieres of cool films like Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhall, Manic starring Joseph Gordon Leavitt, Memento, and so many others. It was a life changing experience, albeit an exhausting one.

These days, I prefer to carefully select one or two special films to see. I haven't participated in the parties, events or the concerts in years. However, my dear friend Jay from New York came into town to experience Sundance for the first time, and we decided to experience it in full.

On Saturday, despite the snow flurries and insane traffic, we made our way up to Main Street in Park City, where we immediately bumped into James Franco. He's as dreamy in person as he is on film. We then made our way over to the premier of the film, My Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel. This film brought out the masses. Long lines + cold weather = grumpy Skye.

On Sunday, we started out at the Queer Brunch, which is always a great time. Lots of networking, lots of ridiculous antics, but not lots of good food. :( Later, Jay scored us VIP passes, and we hit the Swag booths, where I grabbed some great workout gear, make up from Sephora (woot woot), hats, gloves, socks. Awesome. We then hit the Puma VIP Lounge, where Paul Rudd and Zooey D were hanging out. Paul is another actor who is as cute in person as he is in the movies. They were both super sweet, too. On the way out, I passed Ellen's DJ Tony, and he stopped me and asked how I was doing. He is a doll.

We then hit up Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times. My kinda documentary. Two thumbs up. After that, we hopped a shuttle over to the premier of Kevin Smith's film, Red State. The Westboro Church was at the premier protesting the film with the most random, coo coo signs. They brought their traditional "God Hates Fags" and "Fags Bring Doom" signs, but my favorite signs of the evening didn't make much sense: You Eat Your Children, God Hates Your Feelings, and You Must Die. What the???? Who eats children? Why does God hate my feelings? I'm confused.

I'm going to catch up on some much needed sleep today while Jay is skiing. We have one more party to hit up tonight in Park City, before he leaves tomorrow morning. Thus far, though exhausting, the festival has been at times, hilarious, exciting, confusing, bitterly cold, and awe-inspiring.