Coastal Breeze News

Venice, located in northeast Italy, is truly a unique destination. It is composed of 118 small islands in a lagoon on the Adriatic Sea. Footbridges connect the islands and the Canal Grande serpentines through the middle. The city is divided into six neighborhoods or sestieri and addresses reference a location’s particular sestiere: Cannaregio, Castello, Dorsoduro, San Marco,  San Palo, and Santa Croce. Arriving in Venice is half the fun of the trip.  Yes, you could take a bus or car taxi from the Marco Polo airport to the bus station at Piazzale Roma and then a vaporetto or water taxi ... Read More »

For many travelers, Holland begins and ends in Amsterdam, as tourists tend to take advantage of all the cultural and social amenities offered by the hustle and bustle of a large city. However, if you really want a more genuine Netherlands experience, less diluted by tourists such as yourself, head east, either by efficient train or by bicycle to a smaller city such as Hengelo. It was October when we arrived and there was a chill to the air from the North Sea. Gloves, scarves, and warm clothing, and an occasional umbrella were needed. Hengelo is located in the Twente ... Read More »

In addition to hosting the Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah is also home to headquarters of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association(USSSA) and Utah Olympic Park.  In July, the USSSA  opened a state of the art facility, the  Center of Excellence, to provide training and education for today’s and tomorrow’s Olympians, as well as to serve as a showcase for US skiing and snowboarding. Utah Olympic Park was the site of 14 events during the 2002 Winter Olympics. It has the fastest sliding track and highest elevated jumps in the world and remains an important training venue for ... Read More »

The Day After Today on the local radio station, the DJ said, “Be sure to spend time outside today as it is beautiful, sunny, and 25°. Yes, it is sunny but I’m still wearing three layers and a down jacket.  Since there is no film until tonight, it gave me the opportunity to do some shopping.  Park City is home to the largest outlet mall in Utah. Sundance, to show appreciation to the residents of Park City, screens two award winning films free for locals.  This gave me the opportunity to catch one more film (my twenty-fifth), Wasteland, winner of ... Read More »

Awards Day Yes, the snow is back again, but the town has emptied out.  Main Street is almost deserted and we didn’t have to wait for a table for breakfast at the Eating Establishment, a popular restaurant.  Today, the various award winners will light up the screens. The Grand Jury Prize for US Documentary went to Restrepo.  The film chronicles one year in the life of a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan; Restrepo is an outpost that was named for one of their medics who had been killed. Two things struck me: how primitive the outpost was and, given the terrain ... Read More »

The sun was out all day today! Twelve, based on the novel written by acclaimed writer Nick McDonell when he was 17, focuses on the drug culture of upper Eastside New York young people.  The title refers to a fictional super ecstasy type drug.  The film said a lot about bad morals, the idea of celebrity, and, as director Joel Schumacher said, bad parenting.  The film is narrated by Keifer Sutherland and features Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford.  In the end, I liked it better than I thought I would as I was watching it, but I don’t know that it ... Read More »

I sure am tired of wearing 3 to 5 layers of clothing!  I’m beginning to feel like a giant marshmallow! The good news is that there was no snow today; the bad is that it is supposed to snow tomorrow night, Sunday, and Monday. The Romantics was a disappointment.  Directed and based on the novel by Galt Niederhoffer who has produced at least two dozen films, it is the story of  a group of friends who gather for the wedding of one of them.  We’ve seen this film before, only others have done it better.  The ensemble wasn’t convincing as ... Read More »

Today on the way to the theater, we passed a herd of elk…and the SUN came out for a while in the afternoon. Bilal’s Stand is a film in a new category at Sundance called ‘Next’. These are films that are supposed to help Sundance get back to its roots as a true indie film festival.  They are by new filmmakers and all the films in this category are very low budget. Based on the writer/director’s life, this film takes place in Detroit, was four years in the making, and a project of an inner city outreach program founded by ... Read More »

OK, Day 6 and, guess what?  It’s snowing!!!!!! It looks like a mini blizzard out there.  I am skipping an early film and won’t venture out until noontime. Jake Scott, the son of prolific producer and director Ridley Scott, directed Welcome to the Rileys, which provided a break from his typical roles for James Gandolfini as a grieving father who takes a young runaway under his wing.  Melissa Leo gave another amazing performance.  The film also stars Kristen Stewart.  It was another good festival entry. It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, written and directed by Bend it Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha is ... Read More »

Day 5 begins cloudy, 16 degrees, but no snow.  The sound of blasting to prevent avalanches continues to fill the morning air.  I see that it is raining in Marco.  I hope none of my friends dare whines to me about the rain!  Four films are on my agenda for today. The first big deal of the festival has been made.  Lionsgate bought Buried for $3.2 million.  The film is about a military contractor in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive with only a cellphone. It takes place entirely in a coffin.  It was not on my list of ‘must sees’. It ... Read More »

Day 4  — and dare I say it?  It looks like it is not snowing!  Oops, too late, here comes another wave. The other day, I wrote about a film being “predictable”.  As I think about it, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a film being predictable. When we see the ending we expect, it reinforces our view of the world and we leave the theater feeling secure.  Unpredictable endings can be unsettling. When I saw the George Clooney film, Up and Away, in which  the plot at one point takes an unusual twist, there was an audible gasp from ... Read More »

Still snowing at Sundance! The Company Men will definitely make it to local theaters.  Featuring Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, and Maria Bello, it tells the timely story of corporate downsizing. Often when a film has so much star power, it disappoints.  This film doesn’t. John Wells, the writer/director has a long history in television, having worked on shows such as ER, The West Wing, and Southland.  In speaking about the film after its screening, he noted that the original script focused on the bursting of the dot com bubble and was inspired ... Read More »

Day 2 was a first during our pre-shift volunteer meeting: we talked about what to do in case of an earthquake.  Park City lies near the Wasatch fault, which some say is long overdue for some action. Haiti is on many people’s minds and the festival has set up a special text messaging number to donate to the efforts.  The only problem is that there are so many people here using iPhones, that it is almost impossible to get service: good ‘ole AT&T. Today I saw Happythankyoumoreplease, written, directed, and starring Josh Radnor from How I Met Your Mother.  It’s a light, romantic ... Read More »

First, a word about the weather.  Two snow storms in two days and the National Weather Service has issued a storm warning for heavy snow and strong winds from tonight (Thursday) until Sunday!  A local weatherman described the situation as a spinning wagon wheel, with us getting hit by spoke after spoke in the form of blizzard like snow. The Kenneth Cole designed uniforms for volunteers this year break with tradition and are white, trimmed in red and black.  For the past few years, the uniforms have been black…which fits well with the festival as the locals refer to Sundance ... Read More »

With opening night of Sundance 2010 just two days away, it is a balmy 29 degrees in Park City, Utah and snowing furiously.  So far, 12 inches and counting, with five storms stacked up in the Pacific, ready to make their way here.  In the  distance is the boom of avalanche crews dynamiting the accumulated snow to prevent disaster. Historic Main Street in this former mining town is festooned with film festival banners and traffic is at a standstill blocked by rental trucks setting up lounges, party sites, and commercial venues.  Most of the locals are tolerant of this pre-festival mayhem ... Read More »

For 10 days every January, the cold climate of Park City, Utah heats up when more than 45,000 celebrities, filmmakers, deal makers, and film aficionados invade this mountain town for the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance began in 1978 as  the Utah/US  Film Festival. In the first years of the festival, film star Robert Redford and other organizers took to the streets to encourage people to attend this showcase for independent films. Since that time, Sundance has grown to a huge media event with more involvement of studios and industry regulars, and less involvement of  Redford. All of that may be ... Read More »

There are some excellent deals available for cruises these days, and now is the time to sign up, especially if you are considering an Alaskan cruise in 2010. Experts advise that weather and wildlife sightings are best between the end of June to mid-July. There is quite variety of cruises and Alaskan destinations available, while the following outlines a seven-day Alaska Inside Passage cruise that left from Vancouver, BC aboard the ms Volendam of the Holland America Line. This is a ‘beginners’ cruise, a sampling of life aboard ship and a few of the ports you might see. Right now, ... Read More »

By Carol Glassman In September of 2005, I was privileged to share an unusual story about a very brave Marine who fought in World War II. The story came to me through his daughter Vickie Kelber, who was then a councilwoman on the Marco Island City Council. The story began: Marco Island’s City Council Chairwoman Vickie Kelber received an amazing message this week; in fact, it came out of the blue: cyberspace. It was something like hearing your message in a bottle – or a jacket pocket in this case – had been found. Vickie received an e-mail message from ... Read More »