The 1 Reel Film Festival is showing a free sneak preview of Bumbershoot shorts tonight at SIFF Cinema. Just click here to RSVP, then show up and to see some shorts goodness! 1 Reel Sneak Preview Opening Night 2009 includes:

Instead of Abracadabra - Sort of a short, Swedish Napoleon Dynamite (except, in my opinion, funnier), involving the most awkward magician ever and his quest to impress a pretty new neighbor. Chimay!

Short Term 12: Winner of the 2009 SIFF Narrative Grand Jury Prize, this emotionally brutal short explores the lives of both workers and teens in a detention center. Brad William Hanke uses his serious acting skills to show us that adults don't neccesarily always know what's right.

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Everytime I try to get tickets to see Blood Squad, they're sold out - so obviously my only chance to see them is at Bumbershoot this year.

This smart 4-person improv group develops shows based solely on slasher films - something I can totally get behind, and I bet you can too.

Taking queues from Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street (mostly the hilariously bad sequels like F13 part 2, H20 & Dream Warriors), Blood Squad continually creates entertaining shows - I hear raves about them all over town, all the time. They don't use any fake blood or props, relying instead on narration, lighting effects and on-stage action to deliver the goods.

I can't wait to see them. Sounds like a lot of fun!

{Blood Squad is at Bumbershoot on Sunday, Sept. 6 from 4:45-5:45, Comedy Stage West}

I’m not really convinced that I need to rent Super High Me because I don’t think I’ll find it all that funny. I’m also not a huge fan of stand-up, but let me tell you what does sounds like it would elicit more than a few laughs from my obviously cold, hard, no-sense-of-humor self:

Some guy who puts his friends on stage to perform their own comedy routine, and then interrupts them whenever he damn well feels like it.

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The lineup for Bumbershoot is starting to fill out and they just unveiled about 60 artists yesterday. The additions are:

Jason Mraz / Kasabian / Audrye Sessions / The Knux / Akron/Family / Vivian Girls / The Devil Makes Three / Elvis Perkins in Dearland / Maximo Park / Wale w/ UCB / OTEP / Mirah / Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears / 3 Inches of Blood / U.S.E / Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground / Say Hi / Mayer Hawthorne & The County / The Minus 5 / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band / Telekinesis / Everest / Oren Lavie / The New Mastersounds / Dyme Def / Delhi 2 Dublin / The Dusty 45s / Visqueen / Truckasauras / Head Like a Kite / Akimbo / Paul Oscher “Alone with the Blues” / Parenthetical Girls / Massy Ferguson / The Lonely Forest / Sleepy Eyes of Death / Past Lives / Macklemore / The Whore Moans Present: The Black Atom! / Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder / Wallpaper / Point Juncture, WA / D.Black / Spaceman / Kim Field & The Mighty Titans of Tone / Handful of Luvin’ / Champagne Champagne / Romance / Kristen Ward / Dept. of Energy / Hotels / The Kindness Kind / Mark Taylor Quartet / Black Whales / Kore Ionz / Grand Hallway / Anomie Belle / Steve Griggs Quintet / We Are Golden / Olympic Sound Collective / The Not-Its! / Central Services’ Board of Education / Recess Monkey

Adding to the already announced names:

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I doubt this is an April Fool's joke so I'll put it out there, Bumbershoot announced the first list of acts to play this year. There are certainly some that I'm really excited to see (some again) and others I'll pass on.

I know there'll be a lot of people bitching about Katy Perry but remember that booking her sells tickets that pay for other acts and you can choose to do something else while she plays.

Here's the roster so far:

Sheryl Crow / Modest Mouse / Katy Perry / Michael Franti & Spearhead / De La Soul / Raphael Saadiq / Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan / The Long Winters / Sly & Robbie & the Taxi Gang / World Party / MSTRKRFT / Roy Ayers / Common Market / UH HUH HER / Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women / Eric Hutchinson / No Age / Matt & Kim / Dead Confederate / The Cave Singers / Swollen Members / Vieux Farka Touré / Lenka / Gang Gang Dance / Todd Snider / Holy F**k / DJ Spooky / Iglu & Hartly / Low vs Diamond / Sera Cahoone / Eleni Mandell / Carrie Rodriguez / The Honey Brothers / Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head / Extra Golden / Cordero / Forgive Durden / Hey Marseilles / Adrian Xavier, and much, much more to be announced.

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