Go To Sundance or Bust!

My wife and I traveled to Park City in January for a kid-free vacation at the Sundance Film Festival.
The town would be a “zoo”, and traffic all but impossible to manage,we had been warned about that. Probably due to our shrinking economy and the excitement of the Obama Inauguration,luckily, this wasn’t so.
There is a strong correlation between Hollywood personalities normally attending Sundance and Hollywood personalities who got invited or felt compelled to attend our recent history-making Presidential Inauguration,apparently.
Some we think “hotter” than others – they call this “The Buzz",the fact that this was a “quiet” Sundance event this year was a bonus for me, as I was getting to learn the ropes and how to navigate the procurement of tickets for films. I think over the course of two weeks at Sundance, I learned 80% of what I need to know in order to achieve the following goals for our next Sundance Festival.:
1) See the films we want to see, including the ones that have “The Buzz”.
2) Obtain the best seats each time.
3) Score extra tickets in a heart beat.
4) To leave time for a good meal and schedule our movies.
5) Use less money and time taking care of these goals than I did this last year.
A matter of expectations is the Sundance experience really. My wife is particular and likes good seats. Thanks to my Blackberry, it's possible for me to obtain them for us and still stay connected to work while standing in line. To become a member of the "Patron Circle was my solution. Gaining priority access to the films without standing in line was the real motivation for making our donation to the Sundance Institute,yes, I love to support the arts. For some people, standing in line is almost as exciting as the movie itself, knowing that they're going to see the film they most wanted to see.
We loved some of the movies, of course!
The Good:
Push--a truly wrenching movie about abuse which brought me to tears; Spread--a Hollywood romp with Ashton Kutcher which was my wife's "lowbrow" favorite; Good Hair--a somewhat amusing yet still serious documentary from Chris Rock concerning the quest of African American women for non-curly hairdos; 500 Days of Summer--a romantic film with an acid quality--"Man, she's a Dude!"Of her lack of feminine romatic tendencies because of "Man, she's a dude" was the line that sumed up Zoey Deschanel's chracter, as Summer.
One drawback was having to make daily trips to the Patron Circle Office in order to exchange our tickets. Unluckily, with our passes we could not be allowed view the film before paying for it.
We've walked out on some "stinkers". "Unmade Beds" was an example. We think it was about teen lust run wild in the United Kingdom, but it was so bad we couldn't sit through it to analyze the message. "The Carter" peered into the soul of a man bereft of humanity, who manages to make himself a success in life. The irony there was lost on the public. Finally, "Motherhood" was a true wreck of a film more resembling a bad sitcom for the casting department. We felt it was a total waste of Uma Thurman's amazing gifts, reducing her to the level of a grade B soap star.
We started our Sundance vacation feeling like total strangers to the scene, even though we own a home in Park City since last spring, but somehow the affair grew familiar and somewhat comfortable after a while.
The Surprising:

Having been on location with movie actors and directors on the stage at question and answer sessions after every movie, as well as sitting in theatres with them during movie screenings. Being accorded five star treatment from the staff of the Patron’s Circle Office. Becoming accustomed to the traffic patterns and boarding a taxi for a ride through the back streets and alleys of Park City. Gate crashing at private parties with a friend of a friend whose been invited; all these moments made us feel as though we were experienced hands at the screen.