1) My wife and I and our pals had front row seats, and took several pix. Hopefully, we’ll get these developed ASAP, and if you’re interested, I will try my best to get these scanned and sent your way.

2) As you may know, the festival folks screened “Chasing Amy, ” which was received rather well. It was hard to say if, as I suspected, the majority of the audience had already seen the “flick” (as Kevin would put it.) Maybe it was just me, but the crowd seemed to laugh “extra loud” during Jason Lee’s bits (not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

3) It was a typical nasty, rainy, Florida summer evening, but despite this and an insane mob of people hoping to pick up “standby” tickets, the atmosphere was overall subdued and pleasant.

4) Jason appeared immediately after the film ended, and fielded nearly an hour’s worth of questions, with some feeble help of a “moderator,” whose microphone conked out half the time. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from “an Evening with” Jason, but it was your standard Q&A, with your standard variety of questions: a few overzealous females, some “in-the-know” hardcore fans, and more than a few skater-related queries.

5) Jason initially appeared a bit like a deer in the headlights, and even asked the crowd if they wanted “serious” answers from him, or, as he seemed to expect, his patented wisecracking. Luckily, he settled into a steady flow of both. He took great pride in pointing out his wife, Carmen, in the crowd, her role in “Amy,” as well as their production company they are starting up. I guess the big “revelation” of the night was he hopes to direct a project next year, and indicated that Carmen was the screenwriter (though he didn’t make this entirely clear.)

6) Other tidbits: He’ll do “Fletch Lives” if Kevin Smith does it, and if whatever studio will fund it. Also, his role(s) in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” seem little more than cameos. “Mallrats” is still his favorite of his own films. And, interestingly, someone asked if he was upset that he wasn’t offered (or couldn’t accept) the role of Loki in “Dogma,” and he ultimately answered that it was nice to not be “the friend” or “the sidekick” for once. (He also took certain “big budget” filmmakers to task for casting his fellow, “independent film” peers, in order to “try to look cool.”)

Like a lot of these events, it ended too quickly, and you wish the audience (or yourself) had asked such and such question, but ah well. I was hoping that, at such an intimate venue, Jason could have stuck around, taken a few photos, signed a few things, etc., but this was not to be (although some of the Festival workers didn’t miss an opportunity to rub it in the faces of “the rest of us” how they were going to meet with Jason in “the green room” afterwards. Didn’t know a quaint but ultimately crappy campus facility had a “green room,” but…

As was reported, the event had been moved from the Festival’s headquarters, the Enzian Theater, to Rollins College in Winter Park. I suppose demand for more tickets equals more bucks, but I think I would have preferred if the event had stayed at the Enzian, despite it having the worst film projection system in the universe. The smaller venue might have led to a more relaxed, informal “happening,” though it was fairly loose as it was.

All in all, great to see Jason in the flesh, and, as promised, I hope to send some photos lickety-split.