(Editor's note: The publisher submitted one of his numerous self-aggrandizing press releases this month instead of writing his normal column.)

Between 1998 and 2005, indie media producer Alex R. Mayer expressed and explored his love/hate relationship with Seattle by directing three low-budget comedy feature films about the Emerald City and its colorful, maddening denizens. Eventually these hilariously subversive movies came to be known, in his mind, as "The Seattle Trilogy."

This coming November 7 (election night), the results of Mayer's labor of love/hate will be presented to the public in their entirety for the first time at Belltown's historic Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater. For five dollars, moviegoers will enjoy the Seattle premiere of 2005's Paul Alien, as well as Hell Hole High (2003) and the rollicking Armageddon comedy Doomed Planet (1999). Musical guest Stupid Boy and a pastiche of cinematic shorts will complete the evening.

Paul Alien, was completed in September 2005 and had its world premiere on March 19, 2006 in a rugged waterfront bar in Eureka, California, after being banned, censored and brutally rejected by dozens of Washington State arts organizations and film festivals. Originally slated to premiere at the Northwest Film Forum, Paul Alien was turned down at the last minute (causing one staff member to resign in protest) because board members feared that grant money would be jeopardized: the Northwest Film Forum receives gifts from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Seattle's 911 Media Arts Center was even more craven, refusing to allow the producers of Paul Alien to post on their community bulletin board. In reaction to these shamefully anti-artistic misdeeds, the filmmakers designed a parody website devoted to the Paul G. "Alien" Family Foundation (www.paulallen.org), which teases those who accept money from The Allen Foundation. To round out the multimedia prank that is Paul Alien, a MySpace page parodying Mr. Allen was set up at www.myspace.com/paulalien.

Those who cannot attend the Seattle premiere can watch Paul Alien in its entirety for free at Google Video. All three Seattle Trilogy films are also available exclusively at Amazon.com.

Tuesday, November 7, 2006 (election night)
Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater - 2322 2nd Avenue - Belltown
$5 for triple feature and band
6:00 - Hell Hole High
7:45 - Paul Alien
9:45 - Special Musical Guest STUPID BOY
11:30 - Doomed Planet
www.paulalien.com - www.doomedplanet.com - www.hellholehigh.com

ABOUT DOOMED PLANET

by George Clark, Doomed Planet Project Manager

In 1999 Doomed Planet, as you recall, created a murmur of pandemonium in the excitable indie-film community: it was Seattle's first all-digital feature film.

Like all ground-breakers throughout human history, we attracted our share of doubters, nay-sayers and outright obstructors, including our producer, first-unit cameraman, and our entire costume team. Two months into the project Alex and I realized that if we were going to make cinematic history we would be forced to learn basic film skills. So that's what we did. Doomed Planet was a two-man affair like few others: directed, written, edited and even scored by a sometimes contentious tandem, although Alex alone contributed the artistic vision because I don't do that.

Of course, we couldn't have done it without our cast - drawn from the dynamic talent pool at Lusty Lady and its immediate environs - who showed up on time, stayed rather sober, and read from our hastily-scrawled cue cards like they'd been doing it all their lives. Elle, Erica, Veronica and the rest have scattered to the far corners of the world now, but for a brief time, here in little Belltown, they were our stars. Please give them our thanks and tell them they helped make movie history, etc., if you know where they are.

Doomed Planet also made movie history in that it was the one movie historically MOST UNDESERVING of good reviews that actually got quite a few of those, even earning raves from such luminaries as Karl Krogstad and Joe Bob Briggs. After premiering on the utterly doomed and tempest-tossed ferry Kalakala and then beguiling indie-film fans on a crazy West Coast tour, D.P. was made available to select video-rental outlets, where it proved so popular that every copy was stolen. They still haven't turned up.

Well, 1999 was seven years ago, so that's how old Doomed Planet is. But even now it provides us with a tantalizing glimpse of a pre-millennium Seattle that was so very much like the Seattle that came after. Viewers say they can really tell that it cost only $10,000 to make. If you can find it in you to buy into the premise - movie-makers with few skills and no money who manage to extract fine and inspired moments from their meager circumstances - then I think you will like Doomed Planet. (www.doomedplanet.com)

ABOUT STUPID BOY

by Alex R. Mayer

Stupid Boy is a soulful power trio led by a fifty-something African-American woman named Elaine Bonow that takes home-grown pot-rock to a new dimension. Their bass player, Cori Hagen, is a (currently pregnant) Hawaiian lady who takes no prisoners. Their drummer, Glenn Kearney, a white guy, plays drums and makes prune jelly in his spare time. I took photos of them recently at their low-rent Rainier Valley practice space and it was there that it hit me: These people harbor no pretensions about fame, rock-stardom, or moving to L.A. They just want to play music, because it makes them feel good.

In the post-Heart era, Seattle rock music has been dominated by white males. During the glorious "grunge" years very few women participated in the scene other than as groupies or cocktail servers. Notable exceptions were the fabulous Carrie Akre of Hammerbox, and the feral female punk band Seven Year Bitch, whose lead screamer could not sing in tune. I commented often during those halcyon days that the long-haired Seattle scene was just apolitical hippie cock-rock updated for the '90s. Even today, most Seattle bands consist of four or five twentysomething white guys; and the prettiest girl in the audience is more than likely the worshipful girlfriend of the lead singer. Stupid Boy is something different in this allegedly multicultural town: A rock band that fits no immediate race/class/sex stereotypes.

And that's about all I can say about Stupid Boy because I don't pretend to know a lot about music. In fact, you could say I'm the worst music critic in America. Actually, scratch that: while narcissistically googling my own name recently I came across someone who is truly the worst music journalist in America & and his name is also Alex R. Mayer! This guy (you can see his work at www.armwriting.com) gives the Alex R. Mayers of the world a bad name. Therefore, I am proud to announce that effective immediately my new pen name has become "Rex Lameray."

ABOUT THE RENDEZVOUS JEWEL BOX THEATER

by Rex Lameray

No location could be more fitting for the premiere of the Seattle Trilogy than the little watering hole down the street from old Galaxaco Studios where so much of our energies were consumed during the times when we weren't making ground-breaking cinema. Maybe it was such a great place for our energies to be consumed because it exudes so much history. You know, the Rendezvous served as a film screening room back in the 1920s, when the Belltown was a mecca for the Seattle film industry. Later it became a common dive bar; the owner wore $600 Italian alligator shoes and stayed drunk all day. The present owners converted it from a common dive bar into a classy, well-appointed dive bar; during renovation they stripped away the smoke-stained walls to reveal the original 1920s wallpaper in all its (also smoke-stained) glory. And here's a fun fact for those not yet wearied of such things: All three Seattle Trilogy films contain Rendezvous moments. Cults chase each other past the Rendezvous in Doomed Planet; in Hell Hole High, the two lead characters get married in the Jewel Box Theater; and the opening scene of Paul Alien takes place in the Rendezvous on election night 2004. We like to think that future film-crafters, similarly killing time within these walls, will soak in Rendezvous history colored, just a bit, by the Seattle Trilogy experience. (www.jewelboxtheater.com)