Billy Pilgrim, 1999 - 2009

My best friend died this week at the age of 10. He unexpectedly went into renal failure and I had to put him down on Monday. I am a better person for having him in my life.

Sundance 2009

So I decided to treat myself this year and attend a bunch of Sundance Film Festival Screenings. Here is what I saw:

Black Dynamite
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/black_dynamite
THE breakout film of the festival. I went to the premiere, and the audience was literally howling with laughter. A 70's-style Blaxploitation film, this film brought back into my lexicon terms like "kung-fu treachery". Apparently the film was good enough that Sony picked it up THAT NIGHT.

I Love You Phillip Morris
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/i_love_you_phillip_morris
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are gay prison lovers. Need I say more? Actually, I've generally liked Jim Carrey's more serious work over the years (see: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), but this performance was a bit caricatured and silly. The story was okay, but the execution was standard and the ending tried to bring out hostilities toward GW Bush (gimmicky).

The Greatest
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/greatest
A story about a family dealing with the untimely death of their teenage son, this film was meant, nay DEIGNED, to bring out the tears. Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan were mismatched, as one is WAY HOTTER than the other (I'll leave it up to you to figure out who is who), and they appeared to have waited unti their late 40's to start reproducing. It had a sweet ending and I have to admit that I shed a few tears, but it may have been due to the naked streaker in the theater.

The Yes Men Fix the World
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/yes_men_fix_the_world
This was a documentary about a couple of Mavericks (can I get a "whoo whoo" for Sarah Palin?) who sign up as speakers at conferences as representatives of major corporations. Instead of presenting corporation-y stuff, they make ridiculous announcements or launch ridiculous products. While I don't subscribe to their anti-corporation zealotry (they went pretty hard on Milton Friedman as being the root of all evil, while I happen to think he was a pretty cool dude), I do admire their balls. BIG BALLS. Things like passing themselves off as DOW spokespeople and taking full responsibility for chemical accidents. Balls like sitting next to Ray Nagin at a developer's conference in New Orleans pretending to be a higher-up at HUD. These guys obviously didn't know what they were doing (aka they were bad liars), which made the movie more sympathetic. Anything to shake up the man. They showed up at the Q&A after the movie, but I left after I found out they had NEVER BEEN SUED NOR ARRESTED. Which begs a lot of other questions.

All in all, it was the best Sundance I've been to. Mainly because I focued on going to the movies instead of the parties. And mainly because of my friends. LOVE YOU!

Stuff I've Done

Fun inspired by Miss Evelyn... it's always good to make inventories! And I provided photographic proof of #73, and with Evelyn no less!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (not sure what this means, but yes?)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (does kickball count?)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Gone without food or water for 24 hours or longer
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Stayed up for 24 hours with NO sleep at all
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (but not for lack of trying... those jerks have weird rules)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Changed a lightbulb
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Mowed the lawn
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

As for what I'd still like to do... I would like to see a total eclipse of the sun, and visit Africa. And maybe get involved in a lawsuit or get food poisoning :-)

Vonnegut

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people-- Kurt Vonnegut. It is also what we in the US call Veteran's Day. I never knew the real history of Veteran's Day until I read Vonnegut in college. As a veteran and POW in WWII, Vonnegut's opinions mean so much to me, as well as the fact that through his life experiences he became an avowed humanist, believing in the good of people and of mankind, and that the ability to overcome obstacles lies in ourselves.

“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

“It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

“Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ day is not.

“So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.

-Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut died in 2007 after falling down the stairs. As he would say, "so it goes."

Although we never met in person, I miss him.

A Billion Here, A Billion There.... Pretty soon we're talking real money

From The Consumerist:

Awhile back the New York Times was concerned about the cost of the Iraq War and published some estimates of what else we could have bought with that money. We didn't find that very interesting at the time, but now, while trying to wrap our minds around just how effing huge the $700 billion proposed bailout of Wall Street really is, we decided to revisit that article. Here's what you can buy for less than $700 billion, according to the New York Times.

For $100 Billion you can Universal Health Care for all people in the U.S. without it.

For $35 Billion you can get universal preschool. Half-days for 3-year-olds and full days for 4-year-olds.

For $10 Billion you can carry out all the security recommendations issued by the 9/11 commission.

All these costs are annual. We're not saying this is how we should spend the money, but it does give you an idea of what a large amount we're talking about.

My kind of editing

City Creek Project

Downtown SLC is getting a makeover, and the company doing it has put together a fly-through for our viewing pleasure.

3 things I've noticed:

1 - There are no more homeless people begging for my change. Only yuppies sitting at outdoor cafes. I still can't decide which is worse.

2 - At one point you realize the capital building is gone. GONE, I tells ya!

3 - They used THIS guy like 1400 times in the video:

Seeing as how only 1% of the population of SLC is black (and Utah as a whole is MUCH lower), I find this entire scenario highly unrealistic, and the project will probably fail due to the architect's apparent lack of connection to the community.

Other than that, it looks good! It's just too bad the Nordstrom & Macy's won't be open on Sundays, as that is the only day of the week I would consider shopping. Oh well. So many stores open on Sunday, so little time. Besides, I can only afford to shop at The Rack.

See the video here:

DOWNTOWN RISING