Spike Jonze music videos

I own the Spike Jonze collection of music videos he did back in the day and I love watching them. Some of my favorites from the collection:

Wax - California



I loved his use of the slow motion of the burning man running to catch his bus along with all the on-lookers in the video. What a great vision for this song. I also can't imagine how cheap it was to shoot this video.

The Pharcyde - Drop



I was a HUGE Pharcyde fan when this video came out. I was so "proud of myself" because not only did I live in a rural area where everyone only listened to either 80's hair bands, grunge, or country music, but even when I'd go into the "city" there were still people who had not heard of the greatness that is the Pharcyde. The video is pure genius with the members of the group performing everything in reverse in real-time, then the video was played backward with the lyrics over-dubbed.

The Beastie Boys - Sabotage



When this video came out I was a little confused because the Beastie Boys were playing it like rock (I wasn't much into rock at the time) when they were known as a hip hop group (at the time I had no idea their roots were based in punk rock). I loved the play on 70's cop shows.

Daft Punk - Da Funk



Again, an odd fixation with dogs (check out weezer's "say it ain't so" video and the feature of a dog suit in the "Drop" video above). I'm guessing Spike likes dogs. This was funny because even when people looked at the dog odd, it wasn't because he was a dog walking around with a cast, but because he looked so out of place in general to everyone.

Fatlip - What's up Fatlip



Fatlip was a former member of the hip hop group The Pharcyde and in this video it shows a true representation of all the bad things going on in his life. It was really filmed in his apartment, on the streets, etc. The song itself talks about the struggles in his life and how he has to try to keep a decent image of himself despite things not being so good.

Weezer - Undone (the sweater song)



This was Weezer's first music video and I had actually seen their "buddy holly" video before this one and loved the retro idea (even though I wasn't into their type of music at the time). I read somewhere that Spike approached the band with this idea "A blue screen, you guys playing, and dogs" (or something to that affect). Since Weezer went on to be one of my favorite bands, I learned the technique they used in this video was by playing the song twice as fast and the band having to emulate that, while it was filmed at a higher speed as well. Then they slowed it down and it looks like they're playing fast, but at regular speed at the same time. These types of things are what made Spike such a good music video director.

Fatboy Slim - Praise you



By far one of the most hilarious videos, yet genius at the same time. Spike actually appears in this video. It's great because you know they took some serious time to choreograph this thing, but at the same time, not enough to make it perfect. I love all the "characters" dancing; the dorky looking spike jonze, the dude with the parachute pants and a fanny pack (because you need a fanny pack when you're dancing), the heavier dude trying to look good, the chick in her aerobics gear, etc. This video ended up winning the video of the year from the MTV Music awards. They also performed at these awards and there is an awesome 34 minute documentary called "torrance rises" on the DVD that shows their preparation for the event. You can view it HERE if you have 34 minutes.

Weezer - Buddy Holly



Probably one of the more recognized music videos. This had an awesome unique take on the TV show "Happy Days". Spike was able to make it look as if the band was actually on the show. I remember first seeing this video and being hooked by the song, but also impressed at how authentic it appeared (even if there were no bands playing music like weezer back then).

Bjork - It's oh so quiet



Another odd music video by Spike Jonze. Again, shot at double speed, then slowed down (except the dance parts I'm sure). One little known fact I found about this is the puppeteer that plays "ernie" from "Bert and Ernie" fame plays the dude in the blue mail box.

Hick Johnson Space Cowboy

This is a movie my brothers started working on back in 1999. They finally finished it 10 years later. It was filmed in CA and Utah.

Part 1



Part 2

Partly Cloudy

My friend Tim shared this video on his blog, but I thought it was so great that I wanted to share it on mine. Hope you enjoy.

Partly Cloudy

See more like this on kontraband.com

American Ninja

My brother Russ and I Had some good laughs on Monday, recalling our fixation and fascination of ninja movies and being a ninja, in the 80's. One movie we would rent almost every weekend for a long time was the American Ninja series, which lasted about 4 series I believe. Here is the plot:

Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter will little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in The Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebel ninjas who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap Patricia, the base colonel's daughter, who happens to be along for the ride. Joe rescues Patricia and gets her safely back to the base, but everyone else in the platoon is killed, leading his superiors to conclude that Joe is guilty of cowardice, collaboration or simple incompetence. At the same time, the rebel leader vows revenge against the serviceman who disrupted his plans, and sends an army of ninjas to assassinate him and bring back Patricia. If he wants to survive and save the girl, Joe's going to have to draw on every last ounce of his training.


Can anyone else tell me if there was a better plot for an 80's ninja movie??? Was there ever a better name for a lead star playing an American Ninja than "Michael DUDEikoff"??

Blood Oranges

I bought my first blood oranges the other day at the store. I didn't know they existed until I saw the opening sequence to the TV show Dexter.

Dexter is one of my favorite shows. It's on Showtime for a reason (language, graphic violence), but it's an odd idea for a show.

The show is basically about a forensics dude named Dexter Morgan, who uses his job as a cover for what he really is: A serial killer. He kills people that are guilty and get away with murder. He is very careful about ensuring they are guilty before doing what he does. He's very detailed and consistent with the way he does it. The show has everything: Comedy, Drama, Thrills, Intensity, Though-provoking, etc. I really love how they show Dexter struggling to act normal in society with a girlfriend, job, sister, etc. while he suffers with this urge to kill. It flashes back a lot to his youth and his father (a police officer) discovering his son's urge to kill and how his father taught him how to blend in with society, and how to use his urge for good.

I'm not an advocate for vigilantism and I do believe (for the most part) in our systems of courts and juries to sentence people, but this show, for the most part, is pure entertainment, but makes you think sometimes.

Here is the opening sequence to the show that introduced me to the Blood Orange. You'll see where the blood orange comes in:

Movie Review: There will be Blood

I've come to the conclusion that I'll see any sort of movie by the following directors: PT Anderson, Michel Gondry, The Coen Brothers, or Spike Jonze.

There will be Blood was AMAZING. For starters, it's long and it wouldn't be an easy movie to watch over and over, but holy crap, it was so well-acted and shot photographically. Daniel Day Lewis is by far the best actor ever to grace the screen. The movie is about the early oil boom in southern California (most of the time I thought we were in Texas, but later found it was in CA). It basically shows the greed of man and how some people will give up on everything (family, friends, their soul) to have what they want. Greed was a big focus in this movie and it wasn't only greed for oil, it also focused on religion (pastor played VERY well by Paul Dano).

Speaking early of PT Anderson's photography (I know he didn't film it, but he's the director, so I'm giving him credit), I LOVE how he has LOOOOOOONG drawn-out shots where you either see the character staring and waiting for a response (sometimes almost painfully long), or how he keeps the camera rolling on a scene moving around from place to place for minutes at a time (most shots cut from scene to scene or angle to angle very quickly and rarely last more than 15 seconds).

I loved the movie and it even makes me want to read Upton Sinclair's "Oil", which the movie was adapted from. I highly recommend seeing it if you don't mind a long movie and a great story. I guess I would not recommend seeing it if you're one of those people that only like movies like "Blades of Glory", "High School Musical", "Not another teen movie", and all the Jackie Chan movies :-).

I can't wait to see these films

warning, one f-bomb at the very end, but the rest is completely tame (good old Samuel Jackson from Pulp Fiction):





Actually, I'm excited to see this movie by one of my favorite directors, Michel Gondry:

Cowboys and Astronauts

I saw a GREAT short animation film at Sunance (along with 6 others) this past weekend. This one was particularly amusing to me because Russ and Jeff have been working on a movie called "Adventures of Hick Johnson: Space Cowboy" for about 8 or 9 years. If they ever finish it, I'll be the first to post it on youtube :).

Anyway, this is just the trailer to the short film so you can get an idea of what it's like. There really isn't a lot of dialog, just cool spaghetti western styled music and barely audible dialog here and there.



Here is where you can download the actual movie. It's about 30 minutes long and plays in itunes.

http://www.historyofamerica.tv/_hoaDownload.html

Saw a good sundance movie last night

alene got me in to see the Tom Hanks produced movie, The Great Buck Howard. It starred Colin Hanks (his son, who some may say this reaks of nepotism, but Colin really is a good actor), John Malkovich, who was AMAZING, and some chick named Emily Blunt (who alene knew of, but I had no idea who she was).

It's basically a story about a has-been magician/illusionist (Buck Howard) who's claim to fame was that he was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 40+ times. The funny part is he has no idea he's a has-been and lives his whole life as if everyone knows who he is. Malkovich does an amazing job at it.

Colin Hanks plays a law school drop-out who is trying to find out what he really loves to do (not law obviously) and he becomes Buck Howard's road manager. It just takes them on a journey of small-town stops where eventually Hanks' character falls for a woman (Blunt) who was brought on for a weekend to help promote Howard's biggest trick ever.

The audience was laughing non-stop through out the movie. Some other people played minor rolls like Steve Zahn (his facial expressions as a stupid person are HILARIOUS).

One of the great things about Sundance is being able to see, first person (most of the time) the cast and crew. Tom Hanks was brought out to present the movie and he has the audience in the palm of his hands. He was so witty and hilarious as he would introduce all the cast and crew. He had little funny stories for each person's introduction that almost seemed on the verge of "inside", but you still got them. He finally ended (he was standing behind a podium by the screen) by saying in order to make room for those in front, his longtime dear friend Robert Redford would be coming out to move the podium. He then turned and said come on out Bob, and an older stagehand with long blond hair came out to move it. It was hilarious.

Anyway, so far a great experience at Sundance. This movie will likely be out in the regular theaters soon (I believe it was already bought).

Alene and i also just saw the short animation movies mid-day today. Most of them were REALLY great. Some good stop-motion, and some other great animation pieces. It ended with this great film called "Cowboys and Astronauts: a History of America". I don't have time to describe it, but it got me really excited about finishing Russ and Jeff's film "Hick Johnson: Space cowboy".

Russ' movie

We started shooting Russ' full-length film at his house this past weekend. We went early into the morning on both Friday night and Saturday night (I'm still tired). Check out the pictures:

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b308/tyler_root/Flatulent%20Earth/

SFF Day 11??

Pretty un-eventful. Worked my last shift and then headed down to pick up Caiden at my parents.

Krystal gave Caiden a hair cut. She's so nice about those things. She cut's and styles EVERYONE'S hair in our family and doesn't even whine about it. I think we all know that we'd do anything for each other, so it's just a given that she wouldn't think twice about doing that for us. Thanks Krystal. I know a Boy's haircut only takes 10 minutes, but it means a lot.

I talked to Roman last night too. He's my bro and always will be. Most of the time when I talk to him, it's usually kind of short or rushed, but it was cool just to talk for a bit. We talked mostly about family, work, and Disneyland. Oh yeah, he also told me how to rip DVD's into a format so I can load them onto my ipod. He says he basically ripped all his DVD's, stores them on a separate hard drive, then loads it onto his ipod when he's ready to watch a movie. He can then hook his ipod up to his TV and it puts out a good image on his TV, which is a 50" HD TV, so that's pretty cool.

So I'm going to use this software to rip a DVD and see how it turns out.

My music. One thing I noticed about my music is that I have a lot of bands that start with the word "The". Not bands where "the" is optional. These are bands that have to have the word "The" in front of them, or it wouldn't sound cool.

Case in point:

The Strokes
The Shins
The Clash
The Format
The Ramones
The Killers
The Rentals
The Postal Service
The Vines
The Who
The Velvet Teen

These are bands that could not be said without saying "the" in front of them.

It was just an observation, so go easy on me this morning.

SFF Day 10

Wait, I must be off on my days because there are only 10 days to the festival and I'm posting about Saturday???? Anyway, I hung out with Caiden for a bit before dropping him off in Orem with my mom. I have to work Saturday and Sunday at Sundance, so he is going to stay with her.

I worked my shift (again, un-eventful), then headed back down to SLC to meet Alene to watch two movies at her theater.

The first movie we saw was called "The Good Night". It had a ton of great actors in Martin Freeman from the BBC version of "The office" as well as some other recently great British films. It also had Gwyneth Paltrow (the movie was written and directed by her brother), Danny Devito, Penelope Cruz, Simon Pegg (who played "Shaun" from Shaun of the Dead).

It was about a person's failed relationship and how he finds love in his dreams and his attempt to better control his dreams. When I first heard the description, I thought that I had already seen this movie (Michele Gondry's "The Science of Sleep"), but I was wrong. This was a great movie and the characters I related to in some ways. It seemed very real. All a guy really wants is support and to have his ego fed. All a girl wants is to feel important to the guy and to do something exciting. OK, that may not be entirely true, but that was what was wrong in their relationship. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the movie was done. I think Tim would be a bit upset because I think the situation of the movie (kid of famous sister/parents does his first big movie and get's all kinds of great actors to be in it, which isn't fair aka: Sofia Coppola, hehe).

After that, Alene and I walked down to the Tea Room with Jake Paltrow in tow, but after we crossed the street, he went somewhere else (we lost him). I had never been to the tea room, but it was quite nice. Of course, they served lot's of tea, but I had a soup and salad, which hit the spot. The salad had a bit too much vinigarette on it, but I was cool with it. The place felt like you were sitting in an old living room or something. There was a live acoustic band playing music in there (not singing, just some soft stuff; it was relaxing).

We then went back to the theater to watch the film "Black Snake Moan", which was directed by Craig Brewer, who did Hustle and Flow a couple of years ago. It starred Samuel Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake. It was an interesting movie very funny at times, weird, serious, and emotional.

It's about a girl named Rae (Christina Ricci) who's boyfriend (Timberlake) leaves for the army and she has this uncontrolable urge to have sex all the time with anyone (it stems from her youth and being molested by her step dad). She drinks a lot and sleeps around a lot with guys while her boyfriend is gone. She ends up beaten up and un-conscious on the side of the road after partying hard one night.

Along comes Lazurus (Jackson), who is a depressed old former blues singer. His wife just left him and he has some inner deamons that he has to deal with. He finds her boyd while taking his trash out (it's way out in the country, somewhere in the south). He immediately feels he has to help cure her of her deamons. He takes her to his house to help her heal, but part of his remedy is a 40 lbs chain that he ties around her waist and to his radiator heater so she can't leave. In the mean time, she helps him become a better person too. He starts singing to her and playing his guitar. He starts reading from his bible again and working on himself.

I think the movie was very redeaming to both Jackson and Ricci's character too. Both have deamons they had to deal with (as does Timberlake, as we find out later that he has anxiety issues and is honorably discharged from the army). I think Ricci and Jackson gave an amazing performance in this film. I was a bit surprised about how Ricci (who was half naked most of the time and pretty much topless for some long scenes in the movie). I thought I had read somewhere that she would never go nude in front of the camera. Oh well. I'm sure most people don't mind :-).

Anyway, it was a great film.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The film had been bought out by a major distributor and they sent two "jar-head" looking dudes to make an annoucement before the film. One dude firmly stood up, told everyone to not turn their phone volume down, but to turn them off entirely. He also firmly said that if anyone is caught recording the film or taking any pictures, he will personally throw them out. I guess they walk around the theater with night vision goggles. He was met with a ton of booing and jeering. It was pretty funny. I didn't agree with the guy's approach. I think he could have simply stated that recording the film was not acceptable and that anyone caught would be removed. I know that is basically what he DID say, but it was his tone that pissed everyone off. I think anyone would understand that if they were recording it, that they would be thrown out. Oh well, it was funny.

One more day to work the festival, then I'm done. It's been pretty cool so far (I guess). I mean, the best part of my job is getting people excited about how to do the sundance thing. Most come to me saying "tickets are already sold, huh" as if they know they can't get in. When I give them a film guide and show them how to do the wait-list thing, they get excited and start making plans to see a movie. Other than that, I've had a lot of time to read at my booth, so that's always a good thing :-).

SFF Day 9

Friday I worked my tail off at my regular job for a few hours in the morning, then booked it up to Park City to do my volunteer shift from noon to 5pm. It was un-eventful (as usual). I did get a good pizza from the resorts food court area. GIANT piece and it tastes pretty good. Almost as good as the Pie, but the pie adds some other kind of cheese or spice to their pizzas that I have not been able to figure out.

Oh yeah, just a reminder everyone, I want one of those pizza ovens for my BD.

Anyway, I jetted back down to SLC to meet Alene, Jeff, and Mandi. We ate at Squatters Brew Pub (the BEST burger in the world), which was across the street from the theater that Alene was working at and had the film we were going to see.

We saw "Chapter 27", which was a film about the dude Mark David Chapman who shot John Lennon. Jared Leto played him and it was impressive not only in acting, but the fact that Jared, a normally somewhat skinny dude, put on 65 lbs to play this role and has some health problems now (gout) because of it. That's crazy.

Anyway, the movie was almost a Docu-Drama in that it pretty much followed what happened for the 3 days that Mark Chapman was in NYC and what was going through his head. He had read and been reading the book "catcher in the rye", which I have never read, but now I need to. Alene read it when she was 15 and loved it. Mark Chapman thought he was the main character in the book, so he did a lot of things the main character did and even tried to talk like him. However, he took it even further and went to the extreme to "eliminate" John Lennon because he felt he was a fake and a phonie. I thought it was very well-done. I think Leto did a great job. He was a producer as well and I actually like it sometimes when Actors produce because they put even more into the project and likely give the best performance they can.

SFF Day 9

Friday I worked my tail off at my regular job for a few hours in the morning, then booked it up to Park City to do my volunteer shift from noon to 5pm. It was un-eventful (as usual). I did get a good pizza from the resorts food court area. GIANT piece and it tastes pretty good. Almost as good as the Pie, but the pie adds some other kind of cheese or spice to their pizzas that I have not been able to figure out.

Oh yeah, just a reminder everyone, I want one of those pizza ovens for my BD.

Anyway, I jetted back down to SLC to meet Alene, Jeff, and Mandi. We ate at Squatters Brew Pub (the BEST burger in the world), which was across the street from the theater that Alene was working at and had the film we were going to see.

We saw "Chapter 27", which was a film about the dude Mark David Chapman who shot John Lennon. Jared Leto played him and it was impressive not only in acting, but the fact that Jared, a normally somewhat skinny dude, put on 65 lbs to play this role and has some health problems now (gout) because of it. That's crazy.

Anyway, the movie was almost a Docu-Drama in that it pretty much followed what happened for the 3 days that Mark Chapman was in NYC and what was going through his head. He had read and been reading the book "catcher in the rye", which I have never read, but now I need to. Alene read it when she was 15 and loved it. Mark Chapman thought he was the main character in the book, so he did a lot of things the main character did and even tried to talk like him. However, he took it even further and went to the extreme to "eliminate" John Lennon because he felt he was a fake and a phonie. I thought it was very well-done. I think Leto did a great job. He was a producer as well and I actually like it sometimes when Actors produce because they put even more into the project and likely give the best performance they can.

SFF Day 8 (Thursday)

Didn't do anything. Alene worked the festival and I spent time with Caiden.

SFF Day 7 (Wednesday)

I did not have to work a volunteer shift and neither did Alene, so we went up to Park City with the intention of seeing the movie "Black Snake Moan" as well as the movie "Fido" later that night (midnight showing at the Egyptian theater).

When we arrived at Black Snake Moan, it looked like a mad-house, with people all over the place. Despite the theater being able to seat 1200+, we knew it was impossible to get in. It sucked because it was the premiere and we would have been able to see all the stars, but oh well I guess.

We went downtown to main at first. We walked up to the Egyptian and saw there was a movie about to start that had no sold out yet, so we thought the subject matter looked decent (it stated it was about a mongolian farming family that is forced off their land by the government and moved into the city and how they deal with it).

THIS MOVIE WAS THE WORST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN! Seriously, it was bad. I have no idea how it got by the screeners at sundance, but it was more of one of those whacky art-pieces than anything with long-drawn-out scenes with no talking for literally 5 minutes at a time. I can usually stand those, but not this time. It just plain SUCKED!!

Alene really wanted to go half-way through, but I thought it might get better so we should stick it out. I was wrong. I'm sorry baby.

After that, we got something to eat at the Wasatch Brew Pub (delicious nachos), then walked around Main and grabbed some movie snacks at the 7-11. We got in the wait-list line and were only #16 and 17, so our chances of getting into the movie we REALLY wanted to see (Fido) were very good. During that wait, we met a cool guy from bountiful that was a student at the U.

The movie was excellent and lived up to the hype it was getting. It starred Carrie Anne Moss (from the Matrix), Time Blake Nelson (from O Brother where are't thou) and a bunch of other people I recognized from smaller roles in movies (one of them was a bad guy in the Mission Impossible movies).

It was basically set in the 1950's "father knows best" era. During this time, the whole "zombie" phenomena started to take off among the youth, so I'm sure this is why they chose this era. Basically, the idea was that zombies were alive and everywhere and taking over the world, but a company (zombicorp?) invented a collar device that when placed on a zombie, made it so they did not desire human flesh anymore. People started to have zombies as servants around their homes and treated them like pets.

Fast forward to Timmy and his family (carrie ann moss is his mother) and they are the only family on the street without a pet zombie, while other families have 2 or more (something to do with his dad being scared of them). One day his mom buys a zombie and Timmy becomes attached to it. Here is a summary of the rest:

"Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when FIDO eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family. A boy-and-his-dog movie for grown ups, "FIDO" will rip your heart out."

It was HILARIOUS and gory at the same time. Pefect in my opinion.

Here is a screen shot from the movie:



Anyway, can't wait to get this one on DVD. I know Russ would love it. Alene and I left the theater at 2am and gave that dude (the U student from bountiful) a ride to his car.

I guess I should be blogging my Sundance experience

I've been so busy and sleep-deprived lately, it's been hard. I have no idea how she finds time to blog, but like anything, if you really want it, you'll get it done.

So, I'll give a run-down on my Sundance experience and try my best to keep up from here on out.

SFF Day -1 (Wed): Alene and I went to a party for all the volunteers up in Park City at the PC Mountain Resort Legacy Lodge. It was pretty fun. They had catered food and gave us each 3 drink tickets so we could join in on the fun and get wasted (but we didn't). We mingled here and there and talked to some of the people Alene is working with (by this time, I had no idea who I was working with and still have only met two of them). Alene and her crew started to boogie for a bit and I stood idly by trying to keep rhythm with my feet tapping and my head bobbing here and there. It's been so long since I've been dancing, that I feel like a complete idiot when I try to. I have no idea why. I should just have fun and not worry about it. But, I actually don't worry about it though. I'm not afraid of what others will think of me, I'm afraid of when I'll think of myself I guess???? Anyway, it's my own little problem.

SFF Day 2 (Thurs): I didn't do anything.

SFF day 3 (Friday night): Alene was working at her Venue (the Rose Wagner Theater), so I went down there late that evening to catch one of the premire movies called "Away from her". It was filmed in Canada by a Canadia actress (can't remember her name). It was very well-done and thought-provoking in many ways. It dealt with a couple preparing for the wifes bought with Alzheimers disease. They were and older couple, but she was still very young and active for someone with alzheimers (late 60's?) Anyway, the husband was in denial about it in some ways, thinking that maybe she would get better, or maybe she was punishing him for something he did years ago (he was a former college professor and there were quick flash-backs of young girls he taught). It is never revealed, but it seems that he had had an affair a while back, but I guess they leave that up to the viewers decision??

Anyway, it dealt with them having to find a rest home she could stay in that would take care of her, and how the realities of the harhsness of the people there that are supposed to take care of her and how in the end, they really don't care about taking care of the peoples needs and wants, just keep them alive with a bed, food, and occasional activities. While his wife is in the hospital, she is not supposed to see her husband for 30 days, during that time she falls in love with another patient. Not necessarily in a sexual way, but in a nurturing way. It's hard on her husband (obviously). I thought the film was shot beautifully and the actors expressions and emotions seemed real. I don't think I could sit through this movie again though, but it was good to see.

SFF Day 3 (Sat): I worked my first volunteer shift at the Park City Mountain Resort Information Booth. About 50% of the information I gave was, "Down there, before the doors to the left", which is where the restrooms are. Other than that, it was alright, considering that I had lot's of time to read and I got free tickets to do it. Plus, I guess I somewhat feel like I'm a part of the whole Sundance thing, but there are no venues where I'm at, so it can be a little boring. I did see Jared Leto there. He just casually walked in front of me by himself. He looked a little lost and was wearing snowboarding gear.

When my shift ended (I work 12pm to 5pm shifts), I just went home to be with Caiden. My wonderful sister Alana came up to watch him for me that day. She is so sweet and giving and Caiden loves playing with her. Thanks Alana!

SFF Day 4 (Sun): I worked again (skipped church) on my usual 12-5pm shift. It was much slower that day, but again 50% of my questions I answered were directions to the restrooms. I saw a dude all decked out in a snowboarding suit, but he looked like sasquatch (seriously, he was tall, and the jacket and pants had long strands of hair coming off them). He was either supposed to be Chewbacca or Sasquatch. I tried to snap a picture of him with my camera phone, but he moved by too quickly. I looked all over the web for one of those, but no luck. Maybe he was a movie star that had it custom-made, as they do with all their clothes :).

When I got home that night I hooked up with Russ and we went to the Broadway to see "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten". It was a great documentary about a guy who I admired a lot of his music, but didn't know much about him. He was the lead singer of the Clash and a very poetic person. I loved hearing him talk because he wasn't necessarily poetic in a whimpy kind of way, he was very poetic in both a rough and smooth kind of way. The film was made by an old friend of his who was around filming the Clash when they worked on their first album. The opening scene is my favorite as it shows a young Joe Strummer, standing in front of a white wall with some head phones on. He starts bobbing his head, then all of a sudden starts screaming out the lyrics to the song "white riot". He does it for about 15 seconds, then all of a sudden the music is dubbed in. It was just cool hear just his voice, which is not beautiful or amazing by any means, but very energetic and passionate. Every word that came out of his mouth meant something from every fiber of his soul. They interviewed a ton of people that knew him, both famous people and regular every-day people from his youth. All of the interviews were done at night, next to a camp fire. They said that later in Joes life, he had these famous camp-fires he would do and have everyone just sit around the fire and talk. They said he LOVED doing it and would invite total strangers over to hang out at camp fires.

Anyway, this is a film I would definitely watch again.

SFF Day 5 (Mon): I worked my regular 12-5 shift (took some time off work) then met up with Alene. We were originally going to see a short film series (they show 5 short films, which are all usually interesting), then planned on seeing another film at the same theater, but when we got there we read a review and the show we were goin to see later was reviewed and only given one star. I generally don't care about ratings, but I didn't want to take my chances. Alene and I decided to ditch the short films and head over to another theater to see "Summer Rain", which was directed by the ultimate Latin heart-throb: Antonio Banderas. It was a very beautiful movie in many ways. It had humor, it was poetic (subject was about what dreams young people have and centered on a guy that wanted to be a poet), it was funny, it was violent, it was sexy. Banderas was there for the Q&A and although he seems to be always "acting" even as he spoke (he was just very expressive), he seemed to be a very humbled person in many ways. I gained more respect for the guy. Europeans always seem so good at expressing themselves. It's no wonder that women always fall head-over heels for them.

SFF Day 6 (Tues): I'm not doing anything with Sundance today.

A movie headed up by Tim

This was a film we made back in 2005 for the LDS 24 hour film festival. Basically, Tim went down to the HQ, plopped down the $$ for the entry fee (not sure how much), and they gave us a few things we had to have in the filem: A postcard, the words "sometimes I wonder" and some sort of theme, I think??? I can't exactly remember (help me out Tim). From that time (9am I believe), we had 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit the film. We had to use original music too. We actually didn't get together to really think about it until around 5pm, so we actually did ours in about 15 hours :-). It was a blast and Tim and Russ were the true studs, staying up the entire night editing the thing.

It premired the following Thursday (we shot it on a Friday/Saturday) at a movie theater in Orem and the film took "audience choice" award (again, from my memory). It was neat to see your film on a big screen.

Random thoughts

- As I've stated before, I wish there was more time in the day. I wish I had more time with Alene. I wish I was better at making time. The "experts" say, "there is always time, you just need to be better at making it". While I understand and for the most part agree, I still don't feel like I have much time for Alene, or myself. I guess one could consider me coaching a football team as "me" time, but I really don't. I mean, I enjoy it a lot, but it's also very hard work and also very tough at times trying to run a practice when you've got a group of 14 year olds that still act like 8 year olds at times. It can be very stressful when trying to prepare the kids to play their up-coming opponent. So in a way, yes it is "me" time because it's something I love, but at the same time, I would love to be able to read, work on some projects like a web page, or even dabble in some short film making.

- Speaking of film making, I was helping Russ frame part of his basement last week. He is building a movie set in his actual basement. It's going to be pretty cool. He's very determined to get his film made and it inspires me. Like I've said before, I really have an interest in making a film, but I don't feel like creativity comes easy to me. That is something I would want time for, to really "think" about what I'd want to do and how to do it. For the creative types, this stuff just comes to them like it's a quick thought or something. It doesn't happen like that for me.

- Here is the list of music I've been listening to:
White Stripes (all albums) - Great rock and roll music and like Weezer, this is a band I wish I had taken the time to listen to when I first heard of them. I'm almost pissed that someone hadn't introduced me to them earlier. They just seem like great Rock music.

The Strokes - Could pretty much say the same thing as I did about the White Stripes. Great music, especially love the "whatever happened?" song. I don't know why, but it's not like I've ever had a girl break up with me, but the feeling in that song really gets to me. I can't imagine what that would feel like.

Mellowdrone - GREAT MUSIC!! I wish more people would give them a try. They have some great songs. Fashionably uninvited is great. F*ck it man is great. Their cover of an R&B song (by Faith Evans) "again" is great. They also covered the BoyzIIMen song "it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday", which I actually think that BoyzIIMen originally covered from another group??

Eagles of Death Metal - Going to see them in concert (again) this Monday with my brother in-law Jere, and Alene. I'm really looking forward to this show. They are such great ambassadors of Rock n Roll.

Beach Boys - I guess I can't blame people when I say Beach Boys and all people think of are the bubble-gum surf/party songs they sang in the early 60's. Those are great and all because they are part of a time when people needed that, however, I really am into their deeper songs like Heros and Villians, Surfs Up (which isn't about surfing at all and is NOT an "uppity" song), Sloop John B, God only knows, Vegetables, Good Vibrations, Do it again, and Wouldn't it be nice (Ok, this is a bit poppy, but still a great song).

Gorillaz - I stated in a form on Cougarboard, that their Demon Days album will someday be in the top 20 of best all-time albums. It's great.

Modest Mouse - Never get tired of the vast collection of songs I have from them (probably the most songs by any artist on my playlist)

The Killers - Their new Sams Town album is great from beginning to end. Alene and I saw them in concert at Saltair and it was a great show. It would have been better had there been less fighting/pushing up front. Those crowd rushers ruin just about every concert. I'm pissed because these dudes will just start pushing their way up front knocking people over, including girls. They don't give a shit and that is what pisses me off most of all. If any one of them had came within a foot of knocking Alene over, I would have lost it on that one dude. I have not been in a fight in a long time and I feel like I have some pent-up anger over those years that will one day be let out on someone. That kind of person would be a perfect candidate.

I've also been listening variously to: Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, The Format, The Vines, Weezer, an Oldies playlist I have, The Who (they're coming to SLC soon, but I can't afford their price).

- Alene and I went and saw the movie "Marie Antoinette", which was directed by Sofia Coppola. I thought it was very-well done and Alene read the book it was based on, which she said they followed very closely. Alene and I watched a documentary on her life (actually, half of the documentary) and from what I remembered of the documentary, they followed very closely in the movie as well.

One thing that upsets me is how all through out our lives growing up, we are taught about how bad she was and how she said that infamous "let them eat cake" thing. Now, we don't know for sure if she did say it, but Historians claim she didn't say that. Looking at the way she was raised and how she was almost a prisoner inside of Versaills, I don't blame her for spending money, which she had no idea what budget she had, what was happening outside of the palace, etc. Anyway, it was a well-made movie.

- I just reached my first $10k in my 401k. Over the past two years I've really been involved in my 401k and the investment options I have. I used to never pay attention to what was happening in it, which likely did not make much over that amount of time. I started contributing to my 401k in 2003, so to get $10k in about 4 years isn't too bad I guess. I mean, it's not like I could retire tomorrow, but it's a start I guess :). I'm mostly happy because I've never been able to save money in my life ever, so it feels good to be able to do this. It's nice that they pull it out of your check and don't make you make that decision every month to put it in the account, or keep it to spend it. Here's to many more years of saving toward me and Alene's retirement :-)

- I love Alene. Despite how I know she thinks I focus on her weaknesses, I don't. I love who she is, who she was, and who she can be (think of me as a Catholic and she is my trinity). I've never really tried to "figure out" women, as you hear most men saying they try to do. I guess I embrace the fact that they're different than me, and do my best to co-exist. I don't focus on the differences, just on trying to get along. I know we're made different, I understand that. I wish it was easier at times to understand women, or to explain to women that I do infact understand, but despite any bad times/feelings, I still love my wife to the death and I know she loves me.

Had a good weekend in Atlanta

I'm still here, but Alene is gone now, so I have to head over to work and mingle with everyone from my department for the next 2 days (tour the new aquarium and go bass fishing on Tuesday).

We went to the coke museum (it wasn't THAT bad). Like some said, yeah, it was like a big coke commercial, but being I like anything interesting and historical, I consider Coke a historical thing. It was funny how I kept thinking about how they kept saying "our secret formula" throughout their advertising everywhere. My immediate thoughts kept turning to "cocain". Once they got rid of the cocain (for legal reasons) what flavor did they use after that to keep the formula "secret and original tasting"?

We went to Stone Mountain, hiked it, drove around, and saw the lazer show later that night (actually, just saw the first show, then left; you've seen a lazer show, you've seen them all. Plus we were tired).

On Sunday we went and hiked Kennesaw Mountain, which was fun. Alene and I did a lot of talking and situational conversation. Stuff like "if you had a kid you were teaching in your class who just needed to pass a final to walk and graduate and get on with his life and you knew he was a good kid, but he just didn't care about the subject, would you give him the answer sheet for his final so he could pass it???" This situation happened to my younger brother his Sr. year. He was a good, quiet kid that just went with the flow. The teacher knew me from previous years and was a pretty older teacher, but for whatever reason he felt "inspired" or something to let my brother pass the final by giving him the answer sheet (my brother had failed it the first time and he allowed him to re-take it in private, with the answer sheet).

Anyway, I'm rambling there

Anyway, l dropped my wife off and went to the store to buy the Gorillaz CD. HOLY CRAP THAT IS A GREAT ALBUM!! The song "Dirty Harry" has a guest rapper on it named "Booty Brown" who was a part of the group the Pharcyde, which is a group from back in "my day" that I used to worship. It was cool to hear him rap on this album. This album is not rap, it's not rock, it's not dance. It's just a GREAT album that people of all genres would like. It's done very tastefully with a lot of cello's and violin's too. It's great.

I ended my evening watching a GREAT movie I had rented before we came out here, to watch when I had time. It's PT Anderson's first movie (PT Anderson did Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love). It was called Hard Eight and it was suprizingly touching (had me trying to "scratch something out of my eye" at one point. I recommend it to all that enjoy PT Anderson-type movies. Great script, excellent cinematography, GREAT acting, and an interesting topic of course.

One thing that is weird about being away on "vacation" or to work is that I become very un-plugged from what is going on in the world. For all I know we could be invading a country, or Mexico could be washed away from some huge hurricane. Seriously though, I feel very "un plugged" from the world right now, even though I'm in one of the larger cities in America.

Well, it's time to get ready for work now.