Okay I was a little shocked when my wife brought in THIS Lemon that grew from our lemon tree in the backyard. Is this normal? Cuz it looks soooo weird. It's like an alien fruit or something. Gives me the chills a little bit. Happy Halloween indeed.

* click here for a few more photos of this lemon *

Show Me the Random Way

Vampire reunion (video)

Halloween Math (video)

Batman Vanishing (video)

Jimmy Kimmel Insults Melissa Joan Hart (video)

Bat Prank (video)

Remix: Movies by the Numbers (video)

F-Ing Enormous Costume (video)

Hot Girls Strip For Global Warming (video)

Best Apple iPhone Costume ever! (video)

Verizon Droid Demo (video)

your real life ghost stories - part 1 (audio)

your real life ghost stories - part 2 (audio)

Okay I've had it with youtube lately, or is it youtube has had it with me. I understand that youtube has been paranoid about being perceived as a copyrighted infringing infested video site, so now the moment that anybody dares say that a video's rights is owned by somebody else, youtube steps in and shuts the videos down. Sure they give you a chance to file a complaint against the complainer saying you have every right to post said video on youtube. But once you get three complaints against you (called "strikes"), they shut your youtube account down.

Most recently, my U2 vids from the Rose Bowl concert was taken down. Now apparently even though there was no advance warning that no video taking was suppose to be taken that night at the Rose Bowl, my U2 vids got slapped with copyright infringement anyway. More specifically the "IFPI" was responsible for the compaint, with no real rhyme or reason why they did it. No warning, nothing, 1st strike. When it comes to concert videos, I'd rather the venue, the music artist, or the parent company themselves file the complaint, but some miscellaneous organization that I don't think was even involved with the Rose Bowl show? Well that's B.S. So that was "Strike 1" for me.

There was one lingering factor that hasn't been resolved for months now that I was concerned about, that might get me another strike. It was after the San Diego Comic-Con, when Marvel Entertainment did a blanket copyright complaint against everybody who posted any footage from the Iron Man 2 panel. This was their way of making sure that nobody posted the sneak preview video they showed there. I personally only posted the Q&A portion without the sneak preview video, as that was allowed for us to do. The result was that I got nothing but complaints from other youtube users harassing me about why I did not put up that comic-con video clip of Iron Man 2. Yet that copyright complaint was still put on me, but no action was taken.... yet. In light of what happened with my U2 vids, I wanted to clear this up in the air, and filed the official youtube form stating that Marvel was mistaken to complain about my videos. So what happened? The video gets taken down, and I get my second strike. Really?! Is it just because I had the nerve to actually tell Marvel off for complaining about something they shouldn't have complained about in the first place? Clearly there is no real system by youtube to check and see if the copyright complaints are warranted, before action is taken placed.

One more strike, and my youtube account is gone. I have a feeling it's going to happen any moment now, because there is one other Iron Man 2 panel video that I'm waiting for feedback on. I'm sure Marvel isn't going to bother checking and will immediately just say that it's copyright infringement, and youtube isn't going to bother to check and see if they are telling the truth, then WHAM, Strike Three, I'm out.

Well you know what? To quote Michael Jackson "This Is It, when I say This Is It, I mean This Is It... This Is It..." I AM abandoning my current youtube account and will be looking at other video sharing sites. I'm probably just going to create a new personal youtube account without much content, just so I can have one that's not "tainted." Right now I'm just debating as to whether I should just manually delete my youtube account, or let youtube do it for me. I'm itching to do it myself... and that is 300+ videos, that will be all gone...

What Scary Movie Are You? You Are Jaws

You're scared of what you can't see right in front of you. Your imagination tends to get the better of you. And for you, something like the deep, dark ocean is obviously pretty terrifying. Who knows what's lurking right next to you? The idea of trying to get away from something that's after you really gets your heart pumping. Being chased horrifies you. You're also quite scared of big, hungry animals with no sense of right or wrong. You know a shark will stop at nothing to make you its lunch.

       
What I've been listening to lately...

1) Sherdog Radio - beatdown after the bell UFC 104
2) The Swell Season - strict joy
3) SModcast - 96 take off that little hat and be killed
4) Emm Gryner - goddess
5) Television Zombies - Ep.101 the walking dead
6) Metallica - ride the lightning

Yesterday marked off the last day of my four days weekend. To top off my long weekend (felt short though), I got to once again see Marie Digby at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA. Since I was there last week, I had an idea how long it would take me to get there, where it was located, and where to park. Left at my desired time, and right when I was going to get on the freeway I realized, "wait, where's my camera?" While I was sitting at the intersection, waiting for my turn to move, the thought ran through my head, "should I bother? should I go back? Do I even have time?" I took the risk, spending an additional twenty minutes to go back home for my camera, and back to where I was when I found out it was missing. Well thankfully there was absolutely no traffic to get in my way, and there was parking left. In fact, when I drove up the parking lot, I saw Marie Digby herself talking to her friends, and I believe that I also happened to have parked right next to her Mom's car. I think she knew that I recognized who she was, as she just smiled at me when I noticed her.

Went inside The Hotel Cafe with about 20 minutes to spare before she gets on stage. The spot that I was standing at last week was already taken, but a friend of mine who was already in there with his cousin, apparently saved me a seat at his table near the front of the stage. Basically I was right next to where I was standing last week, but this time I was sitting down. I wasn't sure how my pictures were going to turn out though, because now I have 2-3 heads in front of me to consider, plus with my lower angle made the lighting on the stage seemed a little too bright. Oh well, I'll make do.

Marie Digby got on stage, thanking us for coming, and tried to get a good look at who was in the audience. Once again she opens with "Daybreak," which instead of me getting it on video, I decided to just take photos. In fact, I consciously decided not to videos of all her songs this time around. She played two songs in her set list that I've never got a video for before; "Sanctuary" and "Spell," which both sounded great. She also played what I thought was a really powerful rendition of "Feel."

What I also like about Marie, is that she is able to joke around with the audience, and there were moments that stood out. We all had a laugh with how she introduced her song "Stupid for you," because of the emphasis on saying STOOPID, since one of the guys in the audience said it that way. There was also a moment where she described her cough as a foghorn sound and proceeded to demonstrate it to us. It did kinda sound like a foghorn. "I hope no one video'd that." "It's going on youtube" somebody says. "Nnooooo" She sounded so cute being embarrassed about it (don't worry Marie, I won't put it up. lol). I swear, she has such a good rapport with her audience, that she's just awesome.

When her set ended, I kinda abandoned my friend, who was sticking around in the concert hall for the next act. The next band was "Emm Gryner," who was somebody my friend's cousin knew. I wanted to do a meet & greet with Marie though so I proceed to the merch booth. After waiting a while, we were told to go outside to form a line, and I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in line (thanks to a new friend that I met there).

Once it was time for me to meet Marie, I did my usual complimenting her for a great show and what not. Told her that once again she was dressed really well, as she always is, and she told me that she's glad somebody's noticed. *blush* Then she told me that she liked the Metallica shirt I was wearing, and actually proceeded to air guitar and sang "exit light, enter night..." In my head I was thinking "Holy Crap, Marie Digby's doing Enter Sandman right in front of me!" So I said, "well then, as a challenge, you should do a Metallica cover." Her eyes lit up as she couldn't think of what she would probably play, so I suggested "Nothing Else Matters," which she agreed could be something she could play. I then asked her where she was going to go for the movie shoot she was doing at 4 in the morning, and she told me Joshua Tree. I blurted with a "I saw U2 yesterday," which she thought was a random thing for me to say, until she was reminded that U2 had the album called "Joshua Tree." haha, my attempt at humor kinda failed me there. I ended it with her signing my copy of her first album "Unfold," and then we did a "funny" photo together. I think I could have gone on and on talking to her, if it wasn't for the fact that there ARE other people waiting to meet her too. lol, next week, I'll get another opportunity.

I went back in the concert hall to check out Emm Gryner, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she is pretty good herself. I believe I was about half way through her set, but the second half I heard sounded great. In between her songs, I did slip out on occasion to check up on Marie's meet & greet line. I promised this couple that I was going to take their photo with her, so I was keeping an eye out for them. So in and out I went, from seeing Emm Gryner's performance, to checking on Marie's meet & greet. I did eventually take the photo as promised, but while I was out there, it seems like her manager was trying to get her to leave already. She is suppose to be at Joshua Tree 5-6 hours from that time, but Marie really wanted to stick around for all her fans. By the end of Emm Gryner's set, it looks like Marie was just wrapping up the last of the meet & greeters. As for me, I went to say hi to Emm, bought an album from her, and took a picture with her. It occurred to me that all that time, I did not once take a photo or video of her performance (which I now regret not doing). I actually offered to buy her a drink, and she said water would be nice, because... she points to her tummy. She's pregnant! Silly me, I didn't even notice. She was wearing black, and it was kinda dark, but still...

Once me and my friend started walking out of The Hotel Cafe, it looks like Marie Digby was also just then leaving. I got to say bye to her again and told her to have fun at the movie shoot. Got in my car, and drove home happy. What a way to end my long weekend indeed.

* click here for the PHOTOS I took *

* click here for the VIDEOS I took *

It can easily be argued that U2 is the biggest band in the world today. To think that I've never seen them live before is unbelievable to me, but I changed that this past night, as U2 performed at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA. I also never been to the Rose Bowl before, so this was a first for me too.

The night began with me and some friends of mine getting dropped off at the Metro rail system in Pasadena; which BTW is also a first for me to use (it's LA's subway system too). We opted for this mode of transportation to avoid the hassle of traffic and parking. I believe I heard them saying that there is going to be around 100,000 people there just for U2, so wow indeed. From where the train dropped us off, we opted to just walk to the venue. Now like I said, I've never been to the Rose Bowl before, so I didn't know how far it was. Well it took about 30 minutes to walk what was essentially around 2 miles of a distance. Maybe we should have opted for the shuttle service, but I don't mind walking, so whatever.

If we didn't walk, how else could we have come across some Christian radicals on the streets, saying that we should tear up our U2 tickets and heed the word of God. "You know more lyrics from a U2 song, than verses of the Bible!" one guy yelled. I can understand these kinds of people in front of... say...a Slayer or Children of Bodom concert, but U2? Really? I mean, sure there we were, walking with hundreds of other people in the streets, enthusiastically going towards a single destination, where we will all celebrate a grand experience as one. I guess it is like going to church.... no, wait...

By the time we got to the Rose Bowl, we had to figure out where to get in. There were a mass of people in front of gates in one side, and mass of other people in front of gates in another side, and so on and so forth. How do we get in? Turns out the best way to figure it out is to look for the section number written on the ticket, and look up near the top of the stadium for the same number. Go to the side of the stadium with that number, and go in the nearest gate to that. I was seated in a different section than my friends, so we separated and went on our way.

The Black Eyed Peas was the opening band (also a first time for me to see them live), and they were actually already performing on stage in the minutes and minutes that I was trying to get myself in the stadium. I could hear all their songs while I was still outside, but I just couldn't see them. Since there were tens of thousands of people at the Rose Bowl, I decided that once I get to my seat, I'm not leaving it until the end of the concert. Used the restroom at that point, and I was going to buy a souvenir shirt, but the lines for that was really long. I can hear that Fergie is singing her solo song "Big Girls Don't Cry," which reminded me that I really do want to see the BEP. Decided that I'll get the shirt after the show is over.

Once inside, I was like "WOW, this place is huge, and WOW there are a lot of people." It took me the whole time the BEP was playing "Pump It" before I could get to my seat, because there was something like people traffic that prevented me from moving faster. Found my seat, it was near the end of the aisle which is great, busted out my camera and started recording the next song; "Where Is The Love?" The Black Eyed Peas was really impressing me with the energy that was coming from their performance, and it sounded great. To the surprise of all of us there, none other than Slash from Guns N Roses fame shows up on guitar, and the BEP do a cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine." WOW. I kinda wished that I was able to see their whole set live though, but from what I saw so far "Tonight's gonna be a good night" indeed.

The crowd at the Rose Bowl was a huge mix of people. Different ethnicity and ages. People for the most part was socializing with each other, because we all love U2. The person next to me was an older woman who followed the band since the 70s, so she was telling me stories. Of course she was unhappy about seeing U2 with tens of thousands of other people, when she used to see them in venues with only around 100 people max. But hey, U2 is THIS big now. One moment that stuck in my head was when this unbelievably hot girl with a micro mini dress was walking up the aisle, and literally every single man turned their heads to look at her (some did double takes). Wow indeed. On the down side, I hate it when people in concerts decides to smoke, spreading their second hand smoke, seemingly not caring whether the people in a close vicinity actually wants that. This person wasn't even smoking weed (which I don't mind so much), but some kind of strong cigarette or maybe even a cigar, but by the end of the night, my throat felt like it was on fire because of all the second hand smoke I inhaled. Seriously now. For the A-Hole sitting somewhere around Section 1-L, row 57-63, seat 1-7 (I saw the puff of smoke coming from that direction)... F YOU!

"Ground Control To Major Tom" by David Bowie started playing and we all knew U2 was about to come on stage. A lot of people were singing along too, so everybody was clearly pumped, ready to go. Larry Mullen Jr.; founder of U2, walked on stage by himself towards his drum kit, started off the song "Breathe" then Bono, The Edge, and Adam was suddenly on stage playing the song with him (came from under the stage it seems). They played a lot of songs from their most recent album "No Line On The Horizon," which sounded great live. I was hoping they played "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," which I wanted to hear live, but nope, maybe next time. I did enjoy how they did add little cover snippets from other songs into their set list, like at one point they played "Stand By Me" after they performed "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

Besides the great stage presence that U2 has, the stage itself also contributed a lot to the show. It has this circular walkway that loops out towards the audience that the band can walk (or run) on, to. It also has moving bridges that also serves this purpose, except this one goes over the people in the front pit, which is pretty cool to look at. Then there's the video screen; or is that screenS, that has it's own gimmicks from being a projector with a 360 degree view, and even stretches down into something like a huge upside down cone at one point. This 360 tour stage was definitely quite uniquely memorable, and only a band like U2 could pull something of this grand in scale to a huge crowd such as this.

Going into the concert, I already had an idea what their set list was going to be, so I consciously made the decision to leave during their final song (Moment Of Surrender), so that I could beat the crowd and grab the souvenir t-shirt I wanted. Went to one merchandize stand, but nope sorry, sold out. Went to another merch stand, nope sorry, sold out. "Can you tell me what the size of the display t-shirt is? If that's my size, I'll buy it." Nope, it's a small. Went back to the other merch stand, and asked about the display t-shirt, but it's also a small. I started walking; and running, towards the other merch stands, going against the traffic of the crowd. I was on a mission to buy a particular Navy T-Shirt in my size, and during that time, U2 finished the last song already, with the crowd of people finally spilling out. I got to one merch stand that seems to have what I was looking for. I tried to squeeze in as much as I could, and I got near the front. I see the shirt I want, and it has my size! The people in the merch stand was still helping others, so I patiently waited until it was my turn. One other person from the other side of the merch stand grabs the shirt I want, so I was afraid that was it. I asked if that shirt is still available in my size, and the guy says yes, but that I'm still only next in line after the guy in front of me. Well, the guy in front of me goes "I'll have *that* shirt." That's right, he got "my" shirt. If I was there maybe a minute or two earlier, I probably would have gone home with my first choice, but I did have a second choice that I was happy with.

I was suppose to meet up with my other friends underneath the Rose Bowl sign, but I get a call saying that they already left. What?! Apparently they didn't stick around for the encore songs, and left much earlier than me. We were all suppose to get picked up at the Metro Rail Station that we got dropped off at, and I'm the guy lagging behind now. I quickly started walking out of the Rose Bowl when I realized I have no idea where I was, and had no bearing to where North or South even was. I just started walking, followed the crowd, until I decided to check my GPS on my phone to where I was. Sure enough, I went the absolute wrong way. I walked North, instead of South-East like I was suppose to, and this became a long detour to where I needed to go. My friend was still waiting to pick me up miles and miles away from where I was, and to top off the fact that I've already been walking 30 minutes as it is, I honestly was at least another 30 minutes away from the rail station. Not to mention the fact that it's only the place I need to get to, so I could get to the place I really needed to be at. I was walking and walking and am now regretting the fact that I did not take the shuttle instead. My friend calls me up and suggest to just pick me up at the nearest major intersection I was near at, and that was that. Almost an hour after U2 finished their set, I was in a vehicle, on my way home. It's a good thing, walking around at the middle of the night wasn't too bad of a thing this time, since tons of other people were doing the same thing.

Despite that short adventure involving a shirt and getting lost, I personally had a spectacular and memorable night. U2 doesn't come back to my part of the country until at least summer of next year, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to go see them again. Until then.

BTW, This was also the first large concert of this kind to be streamed live via webcast on youtube to a worldwide audience. You can watch the whole concert in this link below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QLFVrZ-fw

* click here for the PHOTOS I took from the night *

* click here for my (BEP) VIDEOS of the night *

ps: apparently even though there was no indication that no video taking were suppose to be taken that night, my U2 vids got slapped with copyright infringement by youtube. bleah. I'm near close to losing another youtube account again.

*edit* I was asked to take the videos down, so I guess ignore any mention of it in my recap? Oh and NO you cannot request me to give you a copy of my footage. SORRY

There's been a lot of movie director/writer/actor Kevin Smith this past week. First he was a special co-host to the Kevin & Bean radio show on the weekdays (whose zooming who?), and then he tops it off with an "Evening with" appearance at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. That's where I was this past night, to see him do what he does best. Talk. Usually I catch his Q&A's over at the San Diego Comic-Con relatively for free, but this time around, I was more than willing to pay for the Kevin Smith experience.

I've never been to the Orpheum Theatre before, but to my pleasant surprise, it wasn't hard to find, and parking was a breeze. I brought my digital camera with me, but I wasn't sure if it was allowed. When I walked through the doors however, no one bothered me about my camera, as it turns out the only rule regarding that is to not take flash photographs. No problem there. His Q&A was scheduled to run for 3 hours straight, but I had enough batteries and memory cards to fill that time.

Once Kevin Smith stepped out, he did his opening statements, starting with how this wasn't a sold out show. I'm surprised myself, but go figure. Actually I wonder if it's because people like me upload his Q&A's to youtube, which gives people a little bit of incentive to just wait for those. If that IS the case, I apologize Mr.Smith. Well I did indeed capture the night on video, except for maybe about 30 minutes of it, when I decided to give my camera and my arms a rest. I did try and limit each video segment within the 10 minutes limit that youtube has, but that turned out a bit futile for some of his answers. In particular, there was one question where he actually spent about ONE HOUR to answer. Because of that, I learned that my digital camera can record roughly near 40 minutes straight of video, before it automatically stops recording. That was almost the moment when I decided to take a rest from recording until the next question. I think my digital camera was being pushed to it's limits, because the auto-focus was acting up, and it couldn't handle the lighting well in a consistent manner. My ability to hold the camera still this time around wasn't the best either, so sorry about that.

You can just watch all 19 videos that I have from the Q&A (link below), which saves me a bit of time describing what he talked about in this blog (like Silent Bob's secret origin?). If you've never heard a Kevin Smith Q&A before, be warned that his language is very much rated NC-17, and this night was no different. As for what he talked about that I did not end up recording...

He did talk about how the underwhelming opening weekend of "Zack & Miri Make A Porno" really disappointed him, which in a way pushed him to smoke pot a lot more than he ever has. The movie made "two..." "TWO-welve million?" "No, Two Point something." "Holy Crap, I killed Seth Rogen's career!" So after that happened he apparently took time off away from the public eye and the internet, which got him to stay home and watched DVD/TV more.

He talked about watching a Wayne Gretzky documentary that affected him emotionally a lot more than he expected. "Go to where the puck is going, and not where it is." Kevin Smith says that's what he tries to live up to, when he made his movies. Very inspirational right? "Gretzky is like the Jesus of Hockey. In fact, he is better than Jesus in Hockey. Because there is more real life footage of Gretzky than Jesus has." When he learned about how the accident of Walter Gretzky caused him to forget about his son Wayne's life, Kevin Smith supposedly broke down in tears to his wife, who responded "you have a drug problem." He did say that he is going to make a Hockey movie, so that's something that came out of this.

Kevin Smith then talked about how writing a Batman comic book high on pot may not be the best plan. Especially when he wrote a plot where Bruce Wayne was taking a swim in the waters of his girlfriend's remote island and suddenly sees Aquaman himself show up. Here, I'll try and remember how parts of that conversation went.
Batman : "Arthur (Aquaman), what are you doing here?"
Aquaman : "I thought you were in trouble, because what are you doing swimming here? Are you escaping from a villain? I heard somebody yelling "Dee-Dee."
Batman : "That's what my companion calls me." (Dee-Dee is apparently his girlfriend's pet name for him)
Aquaman : "Robin calls you Dee-Dee?!"
Now we know what a Batman movie might end up being, when done Kevin Smith style.

While those three subject matters don't seem connected, they were actually the last parts of that big one hour answer he did for one of the questions. Which now that I think about it... that's quite an answer he made. Kinda wish I actually did capture all of that on video. It was classic.

True to the schedule (and possibly because Kevin Smith is going to see Craig Robinson's show a few blocks away right after) he ended the Q&A at 11PM, despite the fact there were many people who could have asked him more questions. Some of those people BTW should not be asking him questions, but Smith always handle's those situations really well. I swear, his "evening with" shows are really like hanging out with a friend, who just happens to have a lot of funny and interesting things to talk about. Kevin Smith, you da man!

* click here for the PHOTOS I took *

Movies I've Seen Recently...

Where The Wild Things Are  (2009)  B+

The first thing I was thinking about after I saw the film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's children's book "Where The Wild Things Are" as directed by Spike Jonze, was who the target age group of this movie was. You'd think it's a kid's movie about big fluffy stuffed animal type creatures, but the melancholy nature of the whole film is something only a mature audience can really appreciate. Trying to describe this movie, I would say that it's an artsy, poetic, and endearing film about a child's imagination. I thought this movie really captured what it's like to be a child that escapes into make believe, because the real world can feel so lonely at times. Max Records does a wonderful job playing the trouble making, attention craving boy, who after going too far acting like a brat, runs away from home, and finds a fantastical island filled with these talking wild beasts. From there, we experience inventive adventures that a child would create, except that these beasts have social and emotional problems that's grounded in reality. One can even look further into how these "wild things" are actually representative of Max's emotions, personalities, feelings, and people he knows. "Where The Wild Things Are" is a thought provoking, imaginative, beautiful film, that's definitely worth experiencing.

Black Dynamite  (2009)  B+

As parodies about the blaxploitation films of the 1970s goes, "Black Dynamite" is definitely spectacular. The real strength (or weakness) here is the fact that this movie plays the genre straight, and makes it feel very authentic as a low budget poorly made B-movie of that era, complete with the over saturated color scheme look, lousy acting, the sounds / music of that era, gratuitous violence / nudity, bad editing, and an over the top plot hole heavy story (you won't believe the final fight scene). All these "mistakes" are what makes this movie funny. I admit that the humor of this film can feel a little too much like an inside joke, like being able to see the boom mic at the top of the screen, to cars catching on fire from a crash... just because. If you do get the jokes though, you'll find this movie to be quite hilarious and fun. If anything else, this movie has created a terrific action star, that you can imagine will be remade "for modern times" years from now. Black Dynamite as played by Michael Jai White is that action star, complete with a profile that includes formerly being in the military, a womanizer, a philanthropist, and a master of kung-fu. You know he is badass if he knows kung-fu. "Black Dynamite" is simply a very entertaining film worth checking out. So don't be a sucka, you jive turkeys. Ya dig it?

The Great Buck Howard  (2009)  B+

I think it's undeniable that John Malkovich is a fantastic actor, and he once again gets to showcase his talents in the title role as "The Great Buck Howard;" a character inspired by The Amazing Kreskin. From the larger than life personality, the catch phrases, to particular quirky mannerisms, Malkovich creates a character to remember. This movie also focuses on Colin Hanks' character Troy Gable, as a smart but unhappy law school drop-out, who is trying to find a life that will make him happy. That's something we can sympathize with, but is being a road manager for an entertainer who is past his limelight the path Troy should take? Troy is simply trying to find his purpose in life, and while this particular job is suppose to be just a stepping stone, he does get to see his goal reflected on Buck Howard's life. That's the basic theme of the movie, people doing something they are good at, even if the rewards are small. The story itself follows a period of time when Buck Howard is trying to resurrect his career, which I found very interesting to watch. Now even though this plot really isn't unfamiliar to many, you should be invested enough to want to see how it ends. I found "The Great Buck Howard" as directed/written by Sean McGinly to be quite a charming and entertaining film that's definitely worth watching.

Give Me a Random Chance

New camera promises to capture your whole life (link)

The Legend of Link's Distractions (video)

Super Mario Proposal (video)

German People Trying to Pronounce Massachusetts (video)

Stuck in Skate Bowl (video)

Mortal Kombat vs. Donkey Kong (video)

maybe you should change your mattress (video)

Star Wars - What's All the Noise? (video)

Why Weed Is Better Than Sex (video)

Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction - NSFW (video)

Smut Cave ep.24: The Sound of Spanking - NSFW (video)

You Faked Your Own Death (audio)

Movies I've Seen Recently...

An Education  (2009)  B+

It's been said that young girls mature a lot faster than boys, to the point that they want to be adults a lot sooner than later. Director Lone Scherfig and writer Nick Hornby's "An Education," is based off Lynn Barber's memoirs that demonstrates that saying. Carey Mulligan wonderfully plays the character of Jenny, who is a well educated, talented 16 year old school girl, who is being groomed by her parents to get into a prestigious university like Oxford. So what happens to her when she meets David, a man about twice her age who; played by Peter Sarsgaard, starts to give her the opportunity to travel outside her small town, and introduces Jenny to concerts, night clubs, and most importantly to her, Paris. Here is this life that an adult is able to live that is definitely more "fun" than the boring school life that she is currently living. Needless to say, she gets seduced by that lifestyle introduced to her by David, and as stories like this goes, she will learn a very valuable life lesson. While the subject matter isn't exactly original, and the movie "cheats" a bit with some of the plot points (like the ending), the strong performance by Carey Mulligan completely carries "An Education" all on her shoulder, making it very easy to get invested with her coming-of-age story.

A Serious Man  (2009)  A

Are you able to laugh at somebody else's misfortune? If you are, then Directors/Writers Ethan Coen & Joel Coen's "A Serious Man" is the movie for you. Michael Stuhlbarg does a remarkable job playing the Jewish physicist professor Larry Gopnik, who is simply having a string of bad luck in his life. He's got kids who don't respect him, he's got a wife who wants a divorce, his brother is getting into trouble with the law, he might be facing difficulties getting his tenure at his job, he was bribed (or was he) by a student who wants a better grade, and many more problems. In a way, Larry Gopnik is like a modern day Job from the Bible. Slowly but surely, all these problems tests his patience, and trying to get solid advice from his Rabbis aren't helping either. As it goes with Coen Brothers movies, things can be seen as more than what is shown on screen. The very first scene alone that depicts an old Jewish tale, doesn't even feel connected with the rest of the movie at all. Also true to form with their previous works, expect to leave the movie wondering what exactly happened at the end of the film going "what did it all mean?" Not to mention the regular use of Jewish jargon that might go over people's heads. Philosophy. Religion. Life lessons. Hilarity. Drama. "A Serious Man" has a lot going for it, and is simply a fascinatingly great movie.

Lymelife  (2009)  B

Add this movie to the list of films depicting dysfunctional families in small town suburbia. You've got the father; Alec Baldwin, who is too absorbed in his work to be a good husband to his wife; Jill Hennessy. You've got another family whose father; Timothy Hutton, is jobless and stricken with lyme disease, while his wife; Cynthia Nixon, is feeling frustrated for being the only bread winner of the household. Despite all of the plot points there, Director/co-writer Derick Martini's "Lymelife" focuses on the coming-of-age tale of Scott Bartlett, played excellently by Rory Culkin. We see this suburbia life through Scott's eyes, how he eventually realizes how screwed up his family is, how flawed adults can be, and how complicated young love is. A good chunk of the story is about how Scott has always secretly been in love with the girl next door best friend Adrianna Bragg; played really well by Emma Roberts. No matter where you live, life can feel so unfair, and not everybody is going to come out on top. That's the lesson this movie teaches, and while the drama found here isn't completely original, it is told well and has characters we can all relate. "Lymelife" isn't exactly a typical exciting movie, but I couldn't help but get involved with the story, and wanted to see where it was going.

Princess  (2006)  C

I thought the premise of Director/co-writer Anders Morgenthaler's "Princess," would have made a great revenge flick. The story after all is about a missionary named August, who seeks revenge against the porn industry, because his sister Christina ended up dying as a very popular porn star, and now has to take care of her five years old daughter Mia that she left behind. This is clearly a pretty heavy and interesting plot, but unfortunately the final result is quite a bit of a mixed bag. To my surprise, I even found the movie boring, as some scenes simply moved by too slowly. It was probably a bit of pretentiousness that's at fault here as well, because there are clearly some dramatic moments that were designed to resonate well with the audience. As an animated film, the animation itself isn't that great. There are some scenes that are live-action; mostly dealing with flashbacks, that I thought were poorly thought out as well. Yes, there are some graphic violence here, although the action sequences don't happen very often. The movie's biggest strength are the characters and the relationship between August and Mia, and that kinda worked for the most part. There were however simply too many implausible things happening in "Princess," that I'm honestly disappointed that this couldn't have been a better film.