orphans are fun!

i finally saw the movie “annie”. it was really good! and it taught a valuable life lesson: money buys happiness… because money buys orphans.

hedwig and the angry inch

primal fear

falling down

standard operating procedure

overnight

aside from “falling down” (which was cheesy) and “standard operating procedure” (which was, sadly, nothing new to me), i was pretty happy with my choices. i was especially stoked about hedwig. i thought the story was great, the music was rad (performed by eli and girls against boys), and the lead actor was amazing. i’m bummed that i missed the boat on that movie, cause apparently, it was released in 2001? heh.

anyway, tomorrow, we have a quick jimmy-less rehearsal, before we meet back up with him in los angeles on saturday. i’m pretty excited about this next leg of tour, as it will be in a 15 passenger van. it’s always nicer to have a place to call home, even if it’s a home on wheels. the flying and renting minivan deal was getting a little rough, and it never felt like we were a band on tour. so, it’ll be nice to be doing it legit. now, we just need our full backline and that will make for a very happy me. hehe.

what else is new? i rooted and installed cyanogenmod on my g1. very happy about it. i bought a class 6 microsd card and partitioned it with a fat32 media storage partition, an ext4 app storage partition, and a swap partition. the combination of the swap and the custom mod have definitely given me a performance boost. and i don’t have to worry about running out of space again! now, if only phone makers would stop seeing android as a low-cost alternative and actually start putting it on decent hardware, we wouldn’t need to do so much hacking! haha.

MANDA BALA

if you’ve seen the movie “city of god”, then you have an idea about the state of brazil (hint: it’s not pretty). and while that movie was based on true stories, it wasn’t a documentary. “manda bala” is! which makes it so much more–well–real!

without giving too much away, this documentary explores the underground economy of sao palo, which includes kidnappings, bulletproof glass, frog farms and ear reconstruction surgery. it’s a surprisingly well-oiled machine that will definitely make you say, “wtf?” [manda bala on imdb]

A CERTAIN KIND OF DEATH

have you ever wondered what happens to people, when they die? more specifically, have you ever wondered what happens to the bodies of people who die who have no next of kin?

i have to be honest with you, i can’t say that i had, until i stumbled on this movie.

almost every aspect is covered, including removal of the body, selling off of assets, collecting money from bank accounts, and cleaning of their homes. it’s brutally straightforward, eye-opening and worth a watch. [a certain kind of death on imdb]

DEAR ZACHARY

disclaimer: this is the saddest, most unjust story you will ever hear about.

basically, this filmmaker set out to capture footage of a murdered father’s life, to show to his very young son.

it’s equal parts touching and enraging. after watching it, if you aren’t moved to go hug your parents, then you may not have a soul. [dear zachary on imdb]

BIGGER STRONGER FASTER

“bigger stronger faster” focuses on america’s obsession with speed, power, and muscles. it was produced by the people who did “bowling for columbine” and has a feel very much like other hit documentaries, like “supersize me”.

the main subject of this movie is steroid use. it’s something that i didn’t know much about, just because there are so many things considered common knowledge about it. roid rage, tiny nuts, etc. but, in reality, it’s not so black and white. [bigger stronger faster on imdb]

stoked! hehe.

MAXED OUT

this should be required vieweing. i know i say that a lot, especially about documentaries. but, seriously, if you have a black and white view of how credit and bankruptcy and the middle class work, you need to see this.

touches on a variety of topics, including predatory lending, scare tactics used by collection agencies, and the obscene amount of money that banks make, by keeping people in debt forever.

at one point, they show a woman who is 57 years old who is waiting for her house to be foreclosed. it’s absolutely heart-breaking. and then they contrast it with greedy realtors/land developers in the outskirts of las vegas, who brag about using the same accounting principles as enron to buy and build giant mcmansions with no upfront capital.

THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX

this was an interesting movie, but it lacked some focus. obviously, when your main subject is just a high schooler, you can expect the subject matter to change, just like teens’ tastes do.

however, a different story starts to come out of it. shelby knox turns out to be a very smart girl. raised in a conservative/republican household, she understands equality. even though she chooses to be abstinant, she knows that sex education is important. even though she is straight, she supports the glbt community.

i think, perhaps, the documentary would’ve been better if they had taken more footage, and went into the bigger picture, of shelby’s “coming out” as a liberal in a republican town, rather than trying to focus on the sex education issue, which just fizzled away.

at any rate, definitely worth watching, as you also get to see the bizzare world of a big, small town.

FALL FROM GRACE

this movie probably doesn’t need much introduction. it’s about fred phelps, the “god hates fags” guy, and it’s very scary, much like “jesus camp” was.

the things that they believe are so absurd, that i’ll just leave you with this link to the excellent godhatesshrimp.com.