Day - 24 "Marwencol"

This documentary is no longer at Belcourt Theatre, but if you were lucky enough to view this master piece of quirk then you were probably as amazed as I was..

I saw this last night and was, to put it simply, speechless...

Marwencol follows a man named Mark through his life and daily routines which happens to be playing with WW2 dolls/figurines in a sub universe mimicking his life. Mark was almost beaten to death at a bar. The gang of 5 attackers left him for dead and robbed him of his memory.
Prior to the incident Mark's life was less than perfect. He was a raging alcoholic that led to the loss of his wife. He would keep detailed, illustrated journals of his drunken years.

In the aftermath Mark created a 1/6 scale World War II town in his back yard that he named Marwencol. All the dolls represent someone he has known in his lifetime. He even has his own doll and amuses himself with an alternate life that he creates and carries on in Marwencol.

It sounds weird I know.
It was astonishing the imagination this man had. Even though his brain had been wrecked beyond repair he was still able to create something so intricate and detailed.

It's quite inspiring!
Way to go IFC!

Day - 23 "The NeverEnding Story"

This evening I am finding great inspiration in the imagination that this film holds!

There are so many things to explore in this world, and having a great imagination is the first step. The alternate universe that the writer has created in this story is remarkable.
The world of Fantasia. It makes me want to bury myself under my covers with every epic fantasy novel I can get my hands on and send my brain into explosions followed by delusions that are unrestricted by reality.

The Never Ending Story also makes me reminiscent of being a kid. I wanted to be the "empress" so badly I would gather all the necklaces I could find and put them on my head to replicate the head dress that she would wear. I would walk around the house like it was normal!

This movie definitely holds a special place in my heart.

Day - 21 Perseid Meteor Shower

I found this incredible video of the Perseid Meteor shower on my favorite blog (www.lostateminor.com)

The photographer (Ph Dee) filmed this at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California, which is a highly rated spot to watch the meteor shower. He continued to post the video after expressing how upset he was that the perpetual stream of airplanes ruined most of the footage he got..

I think the video is remarkable even with the blemishes and definitely worth the watch.

Day - 20 Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off today in Park City, Utah! Whoo!!

I haven't had time to check out the film list yet but I am sure that there are some great ones in the line up. Sundance week is one of my favorite festivals of the year, I love film and supporting all that goes into the art of a hearty motion picture!

The festival starts January 20th and will last until the 30th.

Explore the website and see what film has in store for 2011

>>> http://www.sundance.org/festival/info/

Day - 16 Adora BatBrat

This hasn't inspired me in the least bit. I just wanted to show you what it looks like when people take obsessions too far. I like horror, and I like vampires. Real vampires, not the ones that explode into glitter when they hit the sun, but this chicks taken one too many steps in her quest to look like a real vamp.

Oh and if you don't know who Adora is and you are into goth then you have been living under a rock... Adora is like the Olivia Wilde of the goth world.

Day - 15 "Whip It"

Ooops, so I missed a few days.. All in good reason.

Have you ever seen a roller derby?
If you have this movie will be of some interest to you, and if you haven't it will still be interesting..

I can't believe it took me this long to finally see this film. I was excited about it a while back due to the fact that it was Drew Barrymore's directorial debut.. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Drew Barrymore, and the previous films that she gave a helping hand in producing including "Never Been Kissed", "Donnie Darko", "Charlies Angeles", and "He's just not that into you" ...

Drew stopped nothing short of perfect when she cast this film..
You've got Juliette Lewis (who is smoking hot in this film), Eve (the singer), Ellen Page (from Juno), Marcia Gay Harden (Into the Wild, and Mystic River), Jimmy Fallon, Andrew Wilson (Older brother of Owen and Luke Wilson, and extremely attractive) and Landon Pigg (who throws a dash of Nashville into the clan) ..

To make this movie a long story real short and sweet. This film is about an idie-rock loving teen misfit from Bodeen, TX, who finds a way of dealing with her small town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin, TX..

One of my favorite things about this film is Ellen Page's character emerges nearly 10 minutes into watching the film wearing a Stryper t shirt. You know 80's christian heavy metal, "In the name of Jesus we rock" .. She ends up wearing that little gem through out the whole movie.

High five Drew Barrymore!

Needless to say this movie was really good, funny, and quirky!
WATCH IT!!

Day - 12 ROB ZOMBIE

On January 12th 1965 one of the best modern day horror film directiors was born.
Robert Barleth Cummings (a.k.a - Rob Zombie) ...

Prior to his film debuts he was the founder of the heavy metal band, White Zombie (a old Bella Lugosi film referance). He has also been nominated for 3 grammy's as a solo artist in the best metal performance category ... His brother, best known as Spider one is the front man of the metal group Powerman 5000.

Zombie's contributing efforts in the horror film genre are scores of perfection in my book. I grew up loving horror movies and will for the rest of my life. They are the basis of most movies I watch. His debut film was House of 1000 Corpses. He wrote and directed the film and recorded most of the soundtrack.
Rob's films have an over the top stlye and humor that easily goes from dark to campy with a heap of violence and dash of gore.

The sequal to House of 1000 corpses was the Devils Rejects. Less violence, more storyline, better writing.

He then released Halloween I and II. Which I thought were absolutley brilliant.
He took a good film and re vamped it. Taking nothing away from the film he added more violence, more girth and a realness that I dont think the original John Carpenter film had.

Zombie is currently in the writing stages of his next film "The Lords of Salem". A film title that was previously held by a song zombie wrote and recorded on the "Educated Horses" record. The film is set to be about the Salem Witch Trials and will start production in the early months of summer 2011..

So here's to Rob Zombie and many more years of awesome writing and directing.

--Below is one of my favorite interviews with Rob.. Enjoy.

Day - 11 2010 Haitian Earthquake

January 12th 2011, tomorrow, will mark the 1 year aniversary of the earthquake that rocked the country of Haiti. At a magnitude of 7.0, and 52 after shocks, it killed 360,000 people, left 300,000 people injured and over 1 million people homeless!

The earthquake did the most damamge in Port-au-Prince, which is the capitol if I'm not mistaken! It destroyed the Presidents Palace, and the national assembley building, and the major cathedral.

1 in 2 homes gave money to the Haiti fund to help reuild the city and help the Patrons. Only 40% of the funds have made it to the country. If you gave money to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake, give the company you gave through a call today and ask if your money or efforts have had an effect on families yet. See if they can give you a analytical answer on how yours and other americans money was spent in the effort to help Haiti..

Day - 10 Thankful for GWAR

This is the best thing I have seen all month..
If only it were THIS easy to get rid of Sarah Palin, the spear in America's side.

Day - 9 Hans Langseth

The best beards are grown in Norway and Hans Langseth's whopper of bristles is no different! In 1927 when Hans (a.k.a King Whiskers) passed away his beard measured in at 17.5 feet and can now be seen at the Smithsonian institute in Washington D.C.

http://hanslangseth.com/HansLangseth/index.html

Day - 8 "Meet Me In St. Louis"

Anything Judy Garland over joys me, and this movie is no execption! She was one of the most beautiful and tragic movie stars I can remember and she happens to be my favorite!

In 1944 "Meet Me In St. Louis" was the second highest grossing film of the year and was also the first time anyone ever heard Judy's cover of "Have yourself a Merry little Christmas" which hit great success after the film was released!

"Meet Me in St. Louis" was nominated for multiple academy awards, and was called "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the U.S National Film Registry!

It was also dubbed one of the best movies in TIME.com 's 100 best films of the last 80 years along side Casablanca, Bonnie and Clyde, and Singin in the rain!

Are ya interested yet? YES? Did I mention it was a musical?

You can watch it now on instant netflix!

Day - 7 Melissa Nucera's This Years girl shop

This is a a little store I found on Etsy a couple months ago.
I absolutley adore her stuff.. It's different and so aristocratic!

Very tasteful! I'm obsessed with the prints!
Check her stuff out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThisYearsGirl?ref=pr_shop_more

Day - 6 Watcher in the Woods

I'll bet you had no idea that Walt Disney released a legitimate horror film in the early 80's did you?

Well they did along with Beuna Vista distribution co. and it starred the one and only Bette Davis (Mrs. Aylwood) as the mother of a missing teenager (Karen) she lost thirty years before a family moves into occupy her manor. (The estate is unexpectedly stunning.)
One of the daughters (Jan) of the family that moves in bears a striking resemblence to Mrs. Aylwood's missing daughter Karen. Jan senses something coming from the woods and starts seeing Karen the missing girl, as well as strange shapes in the water, broken glass, and mirrors.. Jan tries to find out the secret behind why Karen went missing and was never found all those years ago. Just like a cold case file.

I watched this tonight for the first time since I was about 9 years old. This movie use to scare the hell out of me and still does even though it has enough cheese to feed a field of mice. Twice.. Any movie, even Disney, that has a lurker in the woods, illusion or human, is grounds for valid fear!

It's really hard to believe that Disney backed this film on account of elements like seance ceremonies that lead to alien possesions in other dimensions or realms, accounts of levitation in a religious atmosphere and a solar eclipse..

Did I mention the life size acrylic painting of Hitler in Mrs Aylwood's home in one of the most semi-seroius,(laughable) scenes of the film. And yes, it is Hitler. You better believe I paused and zoomed in.

Good to know Disney is Pro-Genocide.

DISCLAIMER : EXORCISM FOR KIDS, DISNEY'S GOT SOME DEMONS Y'ALL!
It truely is like a dumbed down play on exorcism ...

Do I even have to tell you that this is worth the watch?

Day- 5 RESTREPO

The BEST documentary you have probably never heard of.

It has been extremely challenging for me to find the right words to say to make you guys want to watch this film, and after 30 minutes of writing, then erasing and re writing and re wording the synopsis, I'm just speechless. I have no idea how to relay the way this film made me feel, or how to tell you the severity of threat these men are in everyday to take down the Taliban in the most dangerous place on earth, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan.

The Korengal Valley (a.k.a Valley of death)is an indefinite home to a platoon of soldiers in an oppressive unglamorous setting the government fails to mention. The unbearble conditions are masked by miles of beautiful mountains that appear to be misplaced from an alpine desert. Alot of scenes in this film were hard to comprehend. You can sense their heavy hearts, their fear, and their vulnerability. This story exposes the facts of existence they don't disclose on CNN, on FOX NEWS, in Time Magaizne. The despair is authentic.

Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger filmed this on a journalism assignment for Vanity Fair in 2009. In their directors statement, they had this to say and I think that it was very accuratley delivered. They said,

"Soldiers are living and fighting and dying at remote outposts in Afghanistan in conditions that few Americans back home can imagine. Their experiences are important to understand, regardless of one's political beliefs. Beliefs are a way to avoid looking at reality. This is reality."

If you are indeed interested in watching this you can free stream it on Netflix right now through your computer or gaming system.

Day - 4 Vintage Inspired Underwear

I am weirdly OBSESSED with vintage inspired underwear at the moment.

My first collection of the year!

Pictured above are some great peices from Anthropologie that you can purchase RIGHT NOW!

Finally, something to make me feel a little closer to Jean Harlow!

Day - 3 Stevie Wonder

There are often days where I wake up bitter and take on the day with a vengence. It's how I imagine O-Ren Ishii, the half japanese, half chinese american assasain and former member of the Deadly Viper Assaination Squad wakes up. Ready to attack everything with a cynical and pissed off point of view..

The severity of how much I LOVE Stevie Wonder is just this.

His tunes turn my once crabby mood into a mental blankless of glee.. Like I just ate a bowl of Stawberry Shortcake and her friends, then soiled the world with rainbows and bunnies!

It is truly indescribable how his music makes me feel ..


(This is one of my favorite video's to watch of Stevie .. those pipes and those Carrera sunglasses, I love it! This was a performance that he did for Sesame Street, and the best part of this video is the kid on the balcony hair whipping like he doesnt have a care in the world!)

DAY - 2 John Hughes

So you don't know who John Hughes is? Shame on you! (that's him pictured in the middle)

If I could have anyone write my life, it would be John Hughes..

He wrote/directed/and produced "Sixteen Candles", "The Breakfast Club", "Planes Trains and Automobiles", "Weird Science", "Ferris Bueller's Day off", "Uncle Buck", and the sole reason for my existence when I was a sprout "Curly Sue".

And that doesn't even begin to crack the surface of the films he was involved in.

My favortie thing about John Hughes was that he use to write films under the ficticious name "Edmond Dantes", named after, you guessed it, the central figure in the 'Count of Monte Cristo'!


Here is one big HIGH FIVE to John Hughes, the man who helped shape my outlook on life, and constantly reminds me through his films that chivalry is not dead! Rest in peace!

Day - 1 Kevin Carter

This photo journalist, who still remains a favorite of mine, will periodically come into my thoughts through out the year. He always does. If you do not know of this infamous man, now is as good as any to get to know him. His life and photos will make a great affect on your life and thoughts to come, whether good or bad.

Kevin won a pulitzer prize for feature photography in 1993 before comitting suicide at the age of 33 in 1994.
Born and raised in appartheid South Africa until his death. He was a memeber of the Bang Bang Club, a group of photographers who acted like papparazzi, taking photos and exposing the sadism of appartheid South Africa from 1990 to 1994. Kevin Carter was the first photo journalist to bare the open execution of necklacing..
Kevin traveled to Sudan in 1993 with the Bang Bang Club, and walked out with a prize winning photo. His explination of the photo goes like this, "The sound of high pitched wimpering near the villiage of Ayod attracted me to an emaciated Sudanese toddler. The girl had stopped to rest while struggling to a feeding center, where upon a vulture had landed nearby. I waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It didn't. I snapped the photo and then chased the vulture away".
Kevin was broke and constantly haunted by the immutable visions of starving and wounded children. Of corpses and their manifestation of anger and pain, and the trigger happy deranged men who killed them, which led to his suicide.

Whether you admire him for his valiant fight to expose the brutality and violence of the racial segregation that is the appartheid policy which dictated South Africa for decades stripping black people of their citizenship. Or whether he disgusts you for taking a photo of a helpless toddler, robbing her of moral help. Kevin Carter will be someone you remember for years to come.

For those of you who want to read more about Kevin, TIME magazine did a superb piece called "The Life and Death of Kevin Carter". I'll inlcude the link.