Movies I Can't Wait to See in 2009

1. Watchmen 3.6- third blog about this movie, enough said

2. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Winter - Heath Ledger's unfinished movie with Depp, Law and Farrell. Gonna be so COOL!

3. Where the Wild Things Are 12.11 - Just my fav childrens book ever

4. Inglorious Bastards 8.21 -Tarantino, Pitt and...Mike Meyers?? A totally new Nazi movie.

5. Sherlock Holmes 11.20 - Guy Ritchie, Jude Law, Downy Jr.

6. Public Enemies 7.3 - Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup.

7. Synecdoche, New York 5.15 - Hoffman

8. The Wolfman Nov - Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins. Werewolves are eternally cool.

9. Let the Right One In 4.17 - Vampire movies freak me out!

10. Fifty Dead Men Walking 5.8 - Jim Sturgess

11. Sunshine Cleaning 4.9 - Another 2008 Sundance Film. Love Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Honorable Mention:
Lets not forget about 2009's release of Fast and the Furious....four? And if that isn't exciting enough, Paul Walker and Vin Deisel are returing for old time sake. Oh boy!

Watch Out Here I Come: Zoom Party 2009

I’m having the post break-up depression that comes full throttle when the Film Festival ends. I have nothing more to look forward to except the warmth of spring. Though I don’t think my body could have taken another day. I’m burnt out and I’m starting to feel the symptoms of something terrible, something I could only diagnose as a brain tumor in my head and bubonic plague everywhere else. I’m not certain though, I’m no doctor. I’m just a humble waiter with nothing to offer this world except fine cuisine.

Time to update my imaginary Postcard from Mars audience of the events of the Festival, which will be unraveled in a series of posts. We’ll start with the big Zoom Party thrown by Cinetic Media.

The reason why this party is our favorite event of the year….80’s dancing! Dear D.J.- The quickest way to get me on the dance floor acting ridiculous is to grab the most terribly cliché neon pink album from the 80’s. Thank you John Melloncamp for the good times. He makes it hurt so good.


I would do anything for love….but I won’t do that

I come from a land down under..

Two American kids growing up in the Heartland…

why can’t I find a woman like that…


You can Dance if you want to…we can leave your friends behind cuz your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance they aint no friends of mine.

Brooklyns Finest: Sundance Film Festival 2009

I don’t want to sound too star struck by saying it was kind of exciting being in the same movie theatre as Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, 50 Cent, Cuba Gooding Jr.,Russel Simmons, Spike Lee (who was wearing the most absurd fur baseball hat. I guess when your Spike Lee you do what you want.) and, of course, Antione Fugua, the director of Training Day and the movie we were about to see.

The theatre was filled with actors, directors, producers, the Sundance Institute, publicists, advertisers. At the very last second, after all the important people got in and the theatre was almost full, Mike used his charm to get a ticket from a female publicist for the movie Brooklyn’s Finest and I managed to score a ticket from a product advertiser. We were nobodies in a room full of somebody’s, trying our hardest not to stick out terribly.

Brooklyn’s Finest has taken a lot of criticism. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get choked up watching it. It was dark and tragic. Ethan Hawke’s character was heartbreaking. And though I can identify some points of underdevelopment, especially with some characters, I’m still struck by what Antoine Fuqua said about the film afterwards “Like Rembrant we are all living our lives in light and dark.” This was another good cop bad cop story that explored the blurry line between black and white and that enormous gray area in which we all reside.

Homage to 2008

2008 wasn’t really full of all the accomplishments I had expected back with naivety in 2007. But that’s the beauty of life. It’s not scripted. Happiness and accomplishment are self-defined. We create our own paths and we write our own endings. And I imagine my path or my book will be marked with all the peculiarities that could only define me.

If I could write a brief synopsis, of a potential chapter out of a series from my life under the section “2008” it might go something like this:

There I was 365 days ago, ringing in 2008 on a Boeing 757, accelerating through tropical rain, away from tropical places, toward snowy places and the new year. As the flight attendant counted down to midnight I had wished we were actually counting forward, flying backwards in space and backwards in time, that I was actually spending the rest of 2008 in Kauai. But we can only move forwards.

Memories flash like the flicker of the big screen. There I am. Thom Yorke, Ray LaMontagne, Robert Redford, Luke Wilson. There all there in my 2008 synopsis, I doubt I’m on theirs. Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Hollywood. The big screen flashes The Sundance Film Festival and I remember feeling like the center of the universe. 2008 gave birth to self-discovery. I discovered I love dancing funny. I discovered cheese is better than chocolate. I discovered Batman and that I am him.


(Thats my Bat mask.)

Deion and All His Wisdom

I went home to Seattle for my Mom’s birthday. My Mom seems to act more youthful with age. While I was home she showed me her new fav trashy reality show. Deion and Pilar. As in Prime Time Deion Sanders. I don't watch much TV, can't believe I've been missing such quality programming. It's pretty stinking funny. The silliest thing about it is that Deion drives around his house in one of those powered wheel chairs for seniors. I think that’s pretty great. He’s inspired my investing in a powered wheel chair/scooter for seniors.

American Teen

High School usually seems like it was million years ago, but some days it doesn’t seem that far away at all. “American Teen” was my favorite film I saw this year at the Sundance Film Festival. I was nervous it was going to look too much like MTV’s high school reality shows. But it was totally unique. It seemed like a movie. The characters were so natural. The resolutions were so perfect. And they all were so cool I wanted to be their friends. I was told they were all at a party I went to but I didn’t see the movie till the next day! Too bad because I think me and the “rebel” would have been best friends. After watching this, it felt like high school wasn’t that far away at all.



So question is: Who were you?

Comes out in select theatres (probably only Broadway Theatres in Salt Lake) July 25th

I Heart Earth

Bet you didn’t know that it was Earth Day yesterday. Neither did I, till I showed up at work and my boss was like P.S. its Earth day and Bob, Robert Redford, is into it which means we’re into it. On Earth day the whole world is supposed to turn off all electricity for an hour and love the Earth. Which is totally radical and all but imagine this: seven waiters, a hostess and a manager all running around a candle lit cramped restaurant with steaming hot plates of 45 dollar entrees, pouring expensive wine in glasses we couldn’t see, trying to avoid tables and the big “tree” we run into even when the lights are on. Imagine the awkwardness of the lights and music being off. And the added bonus of that strange phenomenon that when the lights go out people talk in whispers. It was awkward like one big long prayer. Awkward and disastrous! But FUNNY because I like awkward and disastrous!! Bob is cool though and I’m glad he’s on his environmental crusade. Makes me wish I was on some sort of crusade- but not the kind where people die.

Blast from the Past

I was watching a band play up at the Owl Bar this weekend and this guy across from me catches my eye. For some reason I feel like I know him but I can’t figure out how. My friend who knows him tells me he used to be on the 80’s TV series China Beach. Then I freaked out and realized he was Boonie, the surfer bum, Brian Wimmer! I got so excited because I grew up on China Beach and had the biggest crush on Boonie. I’m positive nobody my age or even ten years older has ever heard of China Beach. But there I was sitting across from a guy who shaped my childhood in the same way Sesame Street shaped normal children's childhoods.



This series was the best. Emmy winning even. Every episode was a mini movie, as close as TV came to film. I remember watching China Beach with my mom when I was a little kid. I’m sure I was too young to understand what it was about, but I loved it. I still can remember this episode perfectly.

For all you China Beach fans and for my mom who was the biggest fan Click Here

(sorry I can’t embed the video you’ll have to go to the link)

Funny Story...

My family and I went Kauai for Christmas. After we got back my mom was reading US weekly and there was a section of all the celebrities that went to Hawaii for Christmas. She sees that Sarah Jessica Parker (my mom loves Sex and the City), her husband Matthew Broderick and their son were in Kauai the same time as us. So she shows my dad. My dad, who could care less about celeb gossip, looks at the picture of the kid and is like “I saw that kid!” So my mom looks at the caption and realizes they were at the same beach the same day as us. Apparently, we were just chilling right next to SJP and the fam! My dad was watching that kid play in the sand all afternoon.

Best of Fest 2008!!

Pretty much I have been received into the celebrity circle. Pretty much I walk on the red carpet now. And pretty much I know everyone in Hollywood. I danced with Chandler (Matthew Perry) against his will. He and his girlfriend didn’t like that very much. Tried talking to Luke Wilson, apparently he’s gay, because he talked to my friend Garrit instead. Clearly gay. I talked to Meg Ryan. I asked her, “Can I get this out of your way?” as I cleared her dinner plate.



Matt, Luke, Meg (we’re on a first name basis) Emily Blunt, Amy Redford, Rachel from Saturday night live, Jeff Lebowsky ,the owner of Lions Gate Entertainment, producers, directors, distributors.



They’re like Ash, Ash come party with us. I’m busy but I’m like ok. For the first time in my life I held V.I.P status. Actually not really at all but I was getting snuck in back door to V.I.P parties and I think I’m gonna hold on to the bragging rights to that one for a while.



Saw a couple films. One of my new friends got me into one of the bigger films he is selling called American Teen. It was so eternally awesome. Look for it this summer. Turned out to be the funnest week.

Jimmy and Monica...Myheritage is Legit

Spent an afternoon laughing alone in my room, while my roommates were confused and curious, at this website called myhertiage.com. It has a generator that lets you upload pictures and it will tell you which celebrities you look most like.

And the results…



I look like Adriana Lima because of our huge front teeth...same with Julia Roberts. It gets better..










It is true I have too much time. Honest to blog, I have hobbies.