Me and planes.
To start with, the schedule at this year's Sundance Film Festival was pretty grueling. I saw 21 movies and a shorts festival over the course of six days, most of the reviews currently residing over at Film Threat (I haven't been able to will myself to sit down in front of a computer to bang out the last two yet). Combine that with having to actually try and come up with something remotely interesting and unique to say about all of them in a timely manner, and you come up with little time to blog or do much of anything else.
This applies to everyone, by the way. Don and Mike shared equivalent burdens, while Eric and Mark not only saw movies but conducted interviews and edited the site to keep the coverage lively. We would've loved to have partied more, believe me, but we just plain ran out of time.
Which brings me to Friday. My flight left SLC at 10:30, taking me to Phoenix to pick up my eventual connection back to Houston. A good idea in theory, except for some reason my Houston flight was cancelled, apparently while I was in the air. Not that anyone at America West bothered to tell me, of course, I had to hear it from The Wife after landing. Sure enough, the 1:15 to IAH was scuttled, leaving me to scramble to get on the next available flight, which left at 7:15. This was, of course, delayed until 8 PM.
Sky Harbor isn't a bad place to spend 7 or so hours. There are several bars, and ample places to plug in a laptop with a DVD player to watch movies (Return of the Living Dead and several Season 5 Simpsons episodes). You also get to meet interesting people, like the guy going to Portland with his girlfriend to take a state trooper exam, or the German gentleman who timed his layover so he could watch the semifinals of the Australian Open.
When you want to get home as badly as I did, however, it sucks ass. One of the last times I was on a plane, I got held over in San Diego for about six hours after being unceremoniously yanked off an overbooked flight (documented here). I'm not sure if this is some kind of sign, but I'm glad I won't even have to think about flying for another six months or so.
Still, this was my best Sundance. Out of three, this is the first one in which I returned relatively healthy and hangover-free. Saw lots of celebrities, including the aforementioned Roger Ebert, Liz Phair (Don almost fainted when she brushed against him at the Sundance Lounge), Josh Rouse, Michael Rappaport (twice), and Jake Busey. Quite the A-list, I know, and I missed Corey fucking Feldman by a matter of minutes. Even so, I came home like I always do...drained as if Stormbringer had been inserted into my thorax and about two years older. Good times.
Less than two months until South by Southwest, which - compared to Sundance - is like three days in an opium den. Actually, it's like that anyway. Plus I can drive and stay with a friend who lives near downtown.
Oh, and the title of this heading is hilarious if you know anything about Arizona's MLB team. Honest.
Heh. My parents, flying in from Portland on AmWest on Friday, had their connecting flight from Phoenix cancelled on them as well. So it's not just you, Pete. It's the whole city of Phoenix.
Unfortunately, America West is the cheapest flight to Monterey, CA from DC; usually by several hundred bucks. I usually have to make this flight several times a year because one of our offices are out there. AW suck ass through a straw (the seats are like sitting on a friggin board), but I did manage to con my way into exit row seats last time which helped. I totally sympathize with you Pete on the cancelled flight business, especially late at night. I remember once sitting in a damn airport for 2 hours after the departure time (8:00 PM and the last flight out) before they let us know the flight was cancelled. Oh, and the accomodations they provide were some out-of-the-way sh*t hole. And then I had a chance to get about 2 hours of sleep before I had to get up and haul my ass back to the airport so that I didn't waste the entire next day. I love it how that in an age where we can almost have instant access to information via the web and cell phones, some segments of the airline industry can't keep you up-to-date.
if you have to explain the punchline is it really "hilarious"? Just curioso.
Ugh... don't get me started on America West Airlines. I'm as thrifty as they come but I'm never flying with them again even though they are by far the cheapest way to get from Salt Lake to Houston.