The Lottery
I can't type the words "The Lottery" without thinking of the time I asked my English as a Second Language students to read the famous Shirley Jackson story. When I showed up for class the next week, a woman from Argentina was sitting directly across the table from me, giving me what I can only describe as "the evil eye."
"Why did you make us read this?"
And it suddenly occurred to me just how odd it is that American school children are often taught that story in middle school.
But anyway, hopefully nothing so unexpected will greet us at the end of today's lottery. Anyone hear a final number on the boxes? Post updates here.
20 comments:
Just dropped off my picks this morning (around 9:20) and got an already pretty full box 42.
I'm pretty happy with my schedule, though I may have a few sprints between The Scotiabank and The Varsity. I'm even happy with my second choice picks for the most part.
I'm starting with one of the first films on the schedule Thursday evening ("Soul Power") and wrapping with one of the last ("All Around Us" on Saturday night).
The real question is why did you have your ESL students read "The Lottery"? Yer lucky you wurnt stoned to death.
They'll be starting at box #9 (out of 78) ... and the person said about 3-5 boxes of donors, too (she wasn't too sure). I'm in #58. :(
Yep, it was Box #9. There were people at the draw but not tons. Fun to watch though.
I'm so excited. My orders were in Box #10!
Now the waiting.
My orders are in Box #21.
A couple years ago, the folks at the Cinematheque Ontario went out of their way to arrange a special screening of a film that I'd missed because of a flight delay. It was an incredibly rare film that was showing as part of a retrospective. If I hadn't seen it then I might have never had another opportunity.
Which is all a preface to this: When I got back home I started making a small annual donation to the Cinematheque -- just enough, as it turn out, to make me a "Benefactor."
I never expected there to be perks, but I'll take 'em, I guess. I got all 30 of my picks. :)
I just received received an email from TIFF at 10:31 AM that my advance ticket order was processed and I got all my ten 1st choices. I was box 21.
I don't know which is worse: waiting for your lottery box, or waiting for the press office to release the P&I schedule. At this rate, I'll be determining my choices on the flight to Toronto.
Confirmation today at 4:30. I don't know what box I was in, but FedEx said they delivered around noon, so if Bob was in 42, I imagine I was somewhere in the 60s. I got 19 out of 20. The only one I didn't get was Linklater's "Me and Orson Wells" on 9/6.
I emailed the out-of-town ticket services cordinator, Michael Longfield. He didn't know which box I was in, but he said that most out-of-towners were in boxes 16-60. My package was delivered around noon yesterday and as of this writing (5 pm), I've had no word.
[Aside] Why am I torturing myself? I should get out of the house--go catch some sun. It's a great day out there...
Ken, I figured tickets for that particular screening of Me and Orson Welles would go fast, as it's the only one in a proper theater. The other two screenings are at the Ryerson.
My out of town package was delivered around 5:30 p.m. yesterday, and I just got my confirmation, if that helps anyone calibrate their wait time.
I'm at the wrong computer to compare my receipts to my original order, but at a glance, it looks like I got mostly first picks for my 30. The only one I'm actually sure I got bumped from is the one public showing of Synecdoche, which was always a long shot anyway.
I got my confirmation at email at just after 8:00PM Saturday night (so Ken, you must've been ahead of me in the 30s). I got 29 of my 30 first choice picks.
The only one I didn't get was "O'Horten" on the first night - they slotted in my second choice "Ocean Flame". Since it's 15 minutes earlier and at the Varsity, I'm going to have to skip out of "Soul Power" the second the credits begin to roll...
Strangely enough, last year the only first choice I didn't get was also on the first night in the same time slot. I guess people like being at the fest on the first night...
Odd. I wonder how I got in a lower box than Bob when my package arrived later. Maybe they took the big mail shipments and spread them out?
I received an email from TIFF dated Saturday 7:54pm with the tickets I'll get for my 48 ticket order. I got everything I wanted except the Thursday 12:15 show of the Charlie Kaufman film and the Thursday evening show of the Agnes Varda film. I got CHE Friday morning and and the Linklater Thursday night.
Just heard from TIFF at 10:15 am Sunday. Not sure which box I was in but it wasn't a great one: I got 42/50 of my first-choice picks. The ones I didn't get included ACNE (opening night), SYNECDOCHE, ORSON WELLES, and 5 others.
Sorry to hear you got a bad draw, Girish.
Thanks, Ken. It's fine, actually. I've had nothing but good draws for 9 years, so this was way overdue...!
Hi all ... I've reported the unavailable screenings from here and other sources over at the forums in tiffreviews.com. If heading to the box office tomorrow, this might help in preparing your adjustments necessary due to the lottery.
Wanna talk about bad draw ? I'm in box 7, havn't got my email yet, and from the list on tiffreviews.com, i'll get 3 of my ten picks ! Wow !
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