Jaunted

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / → All Tags

To Do in Chicago: The Oscars Are a Drag

We toggled with the 10 Pin Bowling Lounge's OpenTable system for a bit, and it seems lanes are sold out for tonight, but you can still drop by the bar at the Chicago bowling alley for an Oscars party on Sunday. Starting at 7 p.m., they'll be humiliating dressing up the waiters, airing the show on eight HD screens, and holding a best-dressed contest. There will be drink and food specials, including a Babel couscous which we're sure we've seen promoted by more than one party already.

As an alternative, there's no cover for the Dreamgirls-themed party at Kit Kat Lounge on Sunday, where you can get your kitsch on and start watching the Oscars at 7 p.m. (on five jumbo screens). A troupe of drag queens will be performing songs from Dreamgirls, and you can down half-price martinis all night.

[Photo: amysimmer]

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / Free WiFi / → All Tags

To Do in Jersey City: Liveblog the Oscars

Everyone knows Jersey City is the 7th borough or whatever, so you might as well show some love and celebrate the Oscars there. The Mojo Lounge holds a party this Sunday, starting at 7 p.m.

Perks include bar grub in abundance, drink specials, Oscars action on a big projection screen, free raffle tickets, a little gambling action, and--best part, of course--free WiFi, so you can liveblog/drunkblog the results to your heart's content. Who knows, you might even get to meet one of those dudes from Rye Coalition!

[Photo: vanz]

Related Stories:
· Oscars Party [Craigslist]
· Mojo Lounge [Official Site]

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / → All Tags

To Do in Seattle: Oscars For Free

It's mostly standing room at Chop Suey, which is actually more of a music venue/standard-issue club than a theater. But that won't stop the Oscars from playing there this Sunday. They'll have the ceremony rolling live on the onstage projection screen.

Chop Suey's Oscars party starts at 4 p.m. and admission is free, so get ready to start drinking on the cheap early. The event will be co-hosted by the Peoples Republic of Komedy, who will fill the commercial breaks and "boring parts" with live prank calls and Oscar-themed comedy. You may not run into as many film nerds here, but on the brighter side, you run a higher chance of enjoying some grade A drunken debauchery.

[Photo: seattlephotoblog]

Related Stories:
· Chop Suey [Official Site]

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / → All Tags

To Do in Austin: Oscars Casual/Oscars Classy

This Sunday in Austin, the Oscars action will be headed up by Alamo Drafthouse theaters, with three locations holding parties of their own.

At the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Downtown (innards pictured above), admission is free but $12 gets you a reserved seat, glass of champagne and a raffle ticket. While the awards play on the big screen, you can eat bacon pizza and sample from a healthy beer selection. The Alamo will fill the usual commercial breaks with memorable clips of ceremonies past and embarrassing projects of the stars.

The Alamo Village's shindig will follow the same basic game plan as the Downtown theater, while The Alamo Lamar is making its Oscars party a bit classier with a film-inspired feast. Tickets for the dinner are $60.

[Photo: Ironic Tonic]

Related Stories:
· Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas [Official Site]

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / → All Tags

To Do in San Francisco: Crash an Oscars Party

You love the Oscars. Actually, you hate the Oscars. Your feelings are mixed, but you just can't resist them. Celebrate your emotional ambiguity with kindred souls at the Roxie New College Film Center's annual party.

Up the Oscars! is a benefit, presumably for the Roxie itself, where Hollywood-haters are welcome. Admission is $15, and partygoers are free to shout obscenities as the awards are doled out on the big screen.

There will also be food specials, costume contests, and trivia for all at the Parkway Speakeasy Theater's Oscars party--and it's sold out. But you could always pull a Soy Bomb and crash it!

Related Stories:
· Up the Oscars! @ the Roxie [Official Site]
· Oscars Bash @ the Parkway Speakeasy Theater [Official Site]
· To Do in Seattle: Oscars Party [Jaunted]

Tags: Oscar Parties / Movies / → All Tags

To Do in Seattle: Oscars Party

Ever dreamed of partying with the stars at the Academy Awards? Well, you'll probably never get to. But you can have something akin to a real Oscars night in Seattle, where Central Cinema will hold its Oscars dinner party this Sunday. The fact that the "invitation" alludes to Bjork's famous swan ensemble makes us suspect the event will be less cheesy than you'd think.

Arrive at Central Cinema, a small dinner-movie theater, and sit in the main room for a prix fixe dinner and the whole Awards thing running on a big screen. Dinner tickets are $60 (tax and tip included) and offer you stuff like prime rib and chocolate mousse, but not the pizzas Central Cinema is known for.

Balcony tickets go for $28 (tax and tip included) and include a lighter menu plus a glass of bubbly. There will also be an informal contest for the best costume, so you might want to pull that Bjork swan replica you made out of storage, dear superfan.

[Photo: deepmedia]

Related Stories:
· Central Cinema [Official Site]

Tags: Movies / Film Festivals / Film Festival Travel / → All Tags

Film Festival Madness in Portland

It's film festival season in Portland. The Reel Music Festival (you guessed it: a celebration of music documentaries and performance films) is just about done, but there's one event left this week. Northwest Passage: The Birth of Portland's DIY Culture screens next Thursday, February 15, at Cinema 21. Tickets are $9 (+ $1 service charge) and available online. The doc covers Portland's '70s-'80s alternative music scene, and at least a couple of bands you've never heard of.

Kicking off tonight, with a screening of The Lives of Others from Germany, is the Portland International Film Festival. The International fest runs until February 25 and features movies from Iraq (Ahlaam) to Chile (Play) to Vietnam (Pao's Story).

Availability at the Hotel deLuxe in Downtown is good throughout February. Queen rooms with HDTV, WiFi, iPod docking stations and pillow menus, start at $149 a night.

[Photo: greyaenigma]

Related Stories:
· Northwest Film Center [Official Site]

Tags: Statues / Movies / Tourist Attractions / → All Tags

Rocky Solution to Serbian Landslides

Big monuments can really make a town. Especially when there's nothing else to see. The Serbian village of Zitiste knows this. Sick of getting on the tourist radar only for heavy flooding and landslides, they've come up with a plan to make Zitiste famous for something quite different: a giant statue of Rocky Balboa.

The Serbians of Zitiste want to get this right, and have not only asked for assistance from Philadelphia officials (experienced in such matters), but have also formed the Association of Rocky Balboa (Zitiste). There is even method behind their madness:

We want to create a new image of our village ... We thought long and hard about what would represent our new image, and we came up with Rocky Balboa. He is a character who never gives up and even when he looks to be beaten he picks himself up and wins through.

While we might think that someone real--and, dare it be said, Serbian--might make a better choice here, we can't argue with the fact that a significant number of tourists will probably make the detour to Zitiste in the future. Unless Rocky gets washed away by another flood or landslide.

[Photo: Stan Cherian]

Related Stories:
· Serbian Village to Erect Rocky Statue [Ananova]

Tags: Will Smith / Movies / → All Tags

Happyness and Boredom in Germany

While we thought Will Smith's new movie The Pursuit of Happyness was kind of gooey sweet, if a fair stretch from reality, some German movie-goers had a much worse opinion.

They fell asleep this week at a Pursuit of Happyness screening because they were so bored--and ended up locked in the cinema in Cologne when the staff went home for the night. Luckily, passing firemen heard them banging on doors and called the police, who got them out of their Will Smith nightmare.

With both the big industry-insider European Film Market and the huge Berlin International Film Festival due to start in a week, those guys'd definitely be hoping there'll be some more interesting films there. With a record 702 films showing at EFM and some 370 at the Berlinale, something's got to appeal to their taste.

Related Stories:
· Will Snooze [Ananova]
· Movie Set Travel: The Pursuit of Happyness [Jaunted]
· EFM Screens Record 702 Films [Hollywood Reporter]

Tags: Movies / Sundance Film Festival / Film Festivals / → All Tags

Sundance Pick: An American Crime

Individual ticket purchases for Sundance started yesterday. If you registered for the festival, you received a scheduled time at which to log on (or at any time after) and purchase up to 20 tickets for movies and events at Sundance. The rush for prime spots is on, and all thinking must be done in advance if you want a shot at your top picks. If you've still got some time to think, don't forget about this one.

An American Crime stars Catherine Keener, Ellen Page and James Franco. It's based on a true story, though we hear it was adapted from The Basement, a purposely doctored and embellished book (the more cut-and-dry account coming from this book). The movie, which premieres at Sundance, tells the story of Sylvia Likens, and her gruesome, prolonged murder in 1965. It might be somewhat of a psychological thriller too, as Sylvia's caretaker, Gertrude, was completely batshit crazy as you might imagine. Screenings are on Friday (1/19), Saturday (1/20) and Sunday (1/21). A must for murder buffs and anyone whose friends already think they're nuts.

Tags: Culture / Movies / Marriage / Sex / → All Tags

China's Cheap Cinema Tickets

Is your local cinema failing to provide a good deal at the moment? Then make the Xindong'an Movie Theater in Beijing your next holiday destination, and take your partner with you. You can get a 20% discount just for kissing or hugging at the box office. Sounds too easy? Maybe for you. Public displays of affection are so rare in China that after the first full week of the promotion, nobody's taken up the deal.

So where do the Chinese hug and kiss? Underground, apparently. Earlier this month a coal mine in Shanxi province hosted not just one wedding 1000 feet under, but ten simultaneously. Down in the dark depths where nobody can see them, it's OK to kiss the bride. Now we understand why that guy had to jump into a cage with a panda looking for a hug.

[Photo: katito212]

Related Stories:
· Chinese Couples Too Shy for Kiss Offer [Ananova]
· Coal Mine Hosts Ten Weddings [The Australian]
· Chinese Man Desires Affection [Jaunted]

Tags: Hollywood / Movies / → All Tags

Where to See the Movies in Hollywood

In Hollywood, there's only one place to see movies, The Arclight. The Arclight is located on Sunset Boulevard next to the Cinerama Dome which is actually open now by Arclight for certain movie showings. Inside the theater is where the magic happens:

The experience inside the cinema auditorium is ArcLight's focal point. Designed to exceed THX standards of presentation excellence, ArcLight Hollywood's 14 auditoriums begin with a "black box" design aesthetic which favors undistracted viewing over opulence, and feature the best in sight and sound technology, allowing films to be presented as the filmmakers intend. Auditorium comfort levels are unsurpassed. All cinema chairs are 3 inches wider than current megaplex standards, with 6 inches more legroom. Even the retractable armrests are "double-wide".

The theater also has all-reserved seating so there's no hassle over getting good seats and you can choose your seats if you order your tickets online.

Arclight also has a sit-down restaurant that works around your movie showtime,  a souvenir shop and a cafe/bar. What's cool about Arclight is that you're most likely to be sitting next to someone who worked on that film, is the film star's agent or perhaps the film star.  At the very least, there's a possibility that D-listers like Nicole Richie, Brandon Davis and reality TV stars will be there. That should give you something to blog home about.

[Photo: CourtneyP]