On the morning of Sunday, March 29, I was bumming around the house enjoying a well earned day off. I was checking my regular online reading list when I found out that there were some tickets going on sale for the Star Trek premiere in Sydney. The sale started in a couple hours. A few seconds later I called Abigail. She was working and out of town. I remember completely expecting her to say no to my question of a last minute trip to Australia. We were moving soon and had bills to pay, etc. The trip would be expensive. Still, I wanted to go so I asked anyways… she said we could go if i got tickets.
I could tell she didn’t think I’d get the tickets, but I didn’t think I would either. Then I thought “What the heck? Why not try it.” A few hours later tickets went on sale… I had multiple browsers opens on our computer and just hoped it would work.
It did, but that’s sort of obvious because of this post’s title.
I immediately called Abigail with the news and then twittered about the success of buying a pair of ticket at 5:14 p.m. “I just got two tickets to the ‘Star Trek world premiere’ in Sydney, Australia!”
Friday, April 3 we left Chicago thanks to the wonder that is flying standby…after missing a few flights to LAX and changing gates I’m not sure how many times. Made it to SFO Friday night then took off and arrived at SYD on Sunday morning, April 5. It was odd skipping a whole day. It wasn’t just any day either. The day I turned 10,000 days old I was in a plane over the Pacific for 14 hours. Flying in economy no less. That’s not the best way to take such a long flight. We did, however, get to Australia, so I shouldn’t complain.
We spent a Sunday & Monday sight seeing. Monday night we caught a little bit of the pre-premiere movie setup and posted photos on my blog. Then the big day, Tuesday, movie premiere day! Abigail & I got there early afternoon, walked the red carpet, got a few photos and then saw the movie. It was amazing! You can see my review if interested.
Abigail and I took a trip last month to Rotterdam for a few days. We were able to visit friends there and enjoy some nice time away from work. You can find photos from our trip below:
I also put together a short video about flying kites on the beach:
Chicago Couple Travels to ‘Star Trek’ World Premiere in Sydney
Chicago, IL - With just two weeks until the official release of ‘Star Trek XI’ in the United States, one Chicago couple flew to Sydney, Australia just to see the world premier.
That screening was at the Opera House and featured some of the cast and crew of the new film, including J.J. Abrams, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Eric Bana. No, this is not a celebrity couple, but Joel and Abigail Gratcyk are known to take last-minute international trips. Last year the Gratcyks took a four-day trip to Buenos Aries because the flights looked open a week before they planned the trip.
“On March 29 I was reading my normal online blog list and found out 300 tickets were going on sale for the ‘Star Trek’ World Premiere in Sydney, so I called Abigail.” said Joel recalling the events that led up to the trip. “She was on a trip for work and I didn’t want to make sure big plans without talking to her first.”
Abigail said she “was sitting in my hotel room on a layover in Pittsburgh and received a phone call from Joel, ‘The Star Trek movie is premiering in Sydney on the 7th. Tickets go on sale in an hour. Can I try and get some?’ I answered with an ‘Um, sure…? If you get tickets we’ll go.’ I honestly didn’t think he would get them.”
Out of the 300 tickets that went on sale the Gratcyk’s were able to get a pair. “It’s a pretty cool story to tell people. One Sunday I was reading online about the premiere and by that Friday I was on my way Sydney.”
After some sight seeing in the city on Sunday and Monday the couple attended the movie premiere at Sydney’s Opera House. Abigail was especially excited about being able to walk the red carpet. “I was made for this, ” she recalls. “That was probably my favorite part of the trip, or at least close.”
What did they think of the movie? Joel’s answer was that he “loved it!”, not surprising though because he has been a Trek fan for years. Abigail on the other hand was surprised that she liked the movie so much. “The movie was surprisingly good. I’ve never been a Star Trek fan, I’ve only ever seen a handful of episodes. This movie was not your normal Star Trek. J.J. Abrams is brilliant and the movie was nonstop action. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I actually really enjoyed it. Just don’t start calling me a Trekkie… yet.”
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Joel and Abigail Gratcyk have lived in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood for the last two years or so. He is a graphic designer for a church in the west suburbs and she is a flight attendant. All interview and photo requests and can be directed to the couple at their respective addresses.
Posted: April 7th, 2009 | Author:admin | Filed under:Star Trek | Comments Off
I’m a little speechless. Not sure how to start out this review. There are a million and one thoughts going through my head right now. That being said I guess I’ll just start with where I saw the movie…
I’ve never been to a premiere of a movie before. That being said I will admit I enjoyed seeing the movie with some of the cast and crew. On hand for the showing were J.J. Abrams (director), Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Eric Bana (Nero), John Cho (Sulu), Karl Urban (Bones), and Bryan Burk (producer). It was also pretty amazing to have seen it in the Sydney Opera House on a custom movie screen setup. The sound mix of the movie was also done just for the event (according to JJs opening remarks before the screening). That alone is very impressive. Now, to the movie:
It’s true. The old cast of ‘Star Trek’ from the 1960s is gone. No longer are they part of the franchise (except Leonard Nimoy as an older Spock, and unless future storylines bring any other cast members back.) The movie from a technical standpoint is amazing. Never before has ‘Star Trek’ been able to spend as much money on a movie as it has on this one, $150 million. The special effects are amazing and there are a lot of them. The film editing is much higher paced than ‘Star Trek’ is known for. Prepare to see intense ship-to-ship combat, space jumps, warp jumps, transports and more in a new way.
At first I was uncomfortable with the idea of a reboot. New cast, new way of storytelling. I wasn’t sure if it could be pulled off. Now I’m convinced it was an amazing idea. J.J. Abrams has done what has never been done with a trek movie… He’s brought it mainstream, while keeping most fans happy with the results. You can be new to Trek or an established fan and still enjoy the movie immensely. As a total newcomer to ‘Star Trek’ my wife loved the movie. As a long time Trek fan I did too!
The storyline is one of the most clever to date for Star Trek and will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the movie. The only draw back is that the villain seems fairly two dimensional to the much deeper character development the rest of the main cast gets. In short, this movie is much louder, edgier, and more intense than any of the 10 Trek movies before it. Go see it opening weekend, go see it twice!
