No false idols here

There are four people I idolize: Jane Goodall, Greg Mortensen, Julia Chaplin, and Chelsea Handler. I saw Greg Mortensen (author of Three Cups of Tea and living proof that one person can make a difference) speak last year, and this weekend I sacrificed the majority of Ultra's Friday lineup (including Tiesto and David Guetta) in order to go to Chelsea's book signing at Books & Books and her stand-up show at The Fillmore. If you can, go see her show before you read the latest book; she recycles a lot of material.  It doesn't make her any less hilarious...you just lose some of the element of surprise.

Two down, two to go. Jane Goodall should probably be next target- she isn't exactly young.

 

(Right) Still in my Ultra getup at Chelsea's show at the Fillmore.  

Ultra 2010

 

Dedication

Nicolette has a show on Thursday afternoons on WVUM 90.5

American Apparel's sales must quadruple in the days leading up to Ultra

 

Armin Van Buuren- Check

Swedish House Mafia - Check

Deadmau5 - Check

WIL.I.AM was surprisingly good too.

Sacrificed seeing Tiesto and David Guetta to go see Chelsea Handler at The Fillmore.


Next year Ultra is going to last three days. I barely survived two!

theplumedserpent.blogspot.com

I need one. I just do

Cusco

The view from our hotel room...

Cotton top I picked up at the Khan El Khalili bazaar in Egypt a couple summers ago

Gourd guy in Chinchero

Trying on an alpaca hat in the Pisac market

Babies...I'm still amazed they don't fall out of the slings strapped on their mothers'/sisters' backs.

Stopped and had a late lunch at Rio Sagrado overlooking the Urubamba on the way to Ollantaytambo.

Los Perros - the coolest little restaurant ever. Incredible wontons.

Sacrilegious? Ehhh.

This is from my last night in Cusco. Nothin' like sittin' on a big rock overlooking the city and enjoying a nice box of wine.

Spring Break Reading

(1.) The Plumed Serpent (2.) The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby

(3.) The Great Shark Hunt 

Wonderful Wynwood. You never know what you'll run into.

Can't wait to see Afrobeta again at Ultra

Picture from The True Silver and Fashion

This elephant ring from etsy.com is how I spent the tutoring money I made this weekend. Got the last one. Can't wait to rock it.

MIFFed

Miami Film Festival and the Winter Party festivities are this weekend, and I'm stuck cramming for Physics and Finance tests. There are a few films that I'm going to make an effort to see eventually thanks to the alluring summaries in the Miami New Times.


Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats

In this rare Iranian entry to MIFF, Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi takes us through the underground music scene in Tehran, where all Western-style music is prohibited. Based on real people, places, and events, the film follows Negar Shaghaghi and Ashkan Koshanejad of the indie band Take It Easy Hospital (yes, a real band) as the members attempt to leave home to play a concert in London. They're escorted by a smooth-talking linchpin of the black market, Nader (Hamed Behdad), who promises to find them passports, visas, and additional bandmates Ghobadi switches to fast-cut music video montages as they audition musicians. Each genre matches up with a different side of life in Tehran: When the heavy metal sounds, we see breakneck traffic. Blues rock depicts refugee children sleeping on the streets. Yet Tehran's indie rock scene looks a lot like ours. Take It Easy Hospital exchanges secret copies of British music magazine NME with other bands, the musicians wear CBGB T-shirts alongside women in burqas, and at one point, Askhan says his greatest wish is to go to Iceland to see the band Sigur Rós play. The film, with its MTV-style music video montages and pop culture references, runs the risk of feeling like a lighthearted documentary. But in the final ten minutes, the tour through Iranian rock makes an abrupt and disturbing turn. The film, which won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, was co-written by Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2008 after the Iranian government deemed her a spy. Amanda McCorquodale



Blood and Rain

A few hours after midnight, a man and a woman meet randomly on the cold, wet streets of Bogotá. He's Jorge (Quique Mendoza), a taxi driver whose brother was mysteriously murdered. She's Angela (Gloria Montoya), a sexy but emotionally damaged party girl with out-of-control coke and liquor habits. Gradually, as chance events and targeted violence bring the pair closer, a strange but undeniable attraction develops.
In his first feature, director Jorge Navas leads the characters (and viewers) on a slow, methodical descent into the Colombian underworld, from after-hours clubs and strip joints to killing fields. Blood and Rain depicts a dark sphere of existence, where chaos reigns, outbursts of brutal violence are common, deeply irrational behavior is the norm, and drugs are eaten to erase bad memories.
But it's not bleak. One of the reasons is the luridly bright nightscape photography of Juan Carlos Gil, who soaks the streets of Bogotá in saturated blacks and warm yellows that make abandoned lots and trash-filled alleys seem beautiful. Then there's the acting: Both Mendoza and Montoya deliver human performances that redeem profoundly fucked-up characters. And finally, consider Navas's clarity of vision. At only 36 years old, he's a mature filmmaker with enough perspective to tackle the inexplicable. S. Pajot









25 Carat
Born into the itinerant life of a con artist, Kay (Aida Folch) is a sexy but street-tough young woman who has helped her father, Sebas (Manuel Morón), run scams since she learned to walk. For years, they've lived off small scores, skipping from one city to the next across Spain. But after 16 months in Barcelona, Kay and Sebas have begun to settle into a routine: She steals cars while he fences jewelry. It's almost normal.
Then, suddenly, Mexican gangsters return to collect an overdue debt. Sebas begins plotting a big job that involves a crew of crooked cops, a large bag of stolen jewels, an incriminating videotape, and a cable news network. Meanwhile, Kay gets caught stealing a BMW and escapes only with the help of Abel (Francesc Garrido), a fighter. Together, all three then chase the most monumental score of their lives.
Written and directed by first-time Spanish filmmaker Patxi Amézcua, this action thriller is more conventional than many of the other movies at this year's festival. In tone and style, 25 Carat draws from similar genre films such as Luc Besson's The Professional and Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run. However, Amézcua delivers his story with full knowledge of its sources, so it never seems derivative. Not to mention, 25 Carat is plotted so tightly, edited with such energy, and acted so deftly that it pays off in almost every way. It even has a happy ending. More or less. S. Pajot 

Otis, my man!

For those who have Animal House listed in their 'favorite movies' section on Facebook...

Otis Day and the Knights will be throwin' down at the Magic City Casino this Sunday, March 7th. Perhaps you've heard of a little song called "Shout!"? Ya, those guys. Concert goers that wear togas are promoted to prime seating. Seriously, who wouldn't want to wear a toga and reenact a classic scene from one of the most iconic movies in all of collegedom?

TOGA TOGA TOGA

Back/slash magazine ("the unrestrained college lifestyle magazine") has a good article this month on why it's important to dress well. The cover of the most recent issue boasts a tight comic book-like drawing of LMFAO. I'm going to save the magazine in the hopes that one day I'll be able to get them to sign it.

My rommate brought home a pair of these Reef's weekend. The beads are handmade out of recycled paper by female entrepreneurs in Uganda- a very boss concept, don't ya think? Speaking of Uganda, another great organization is Invisible Children. A group of college guys have made several wonderfully done documentaries about the rebel army's practice of kidnapping children and forcing them to become child soldiers. The organization works to pressure lawmakers around the world to intervene on behalf of the kids.

Madden Girl- $50

Who knew?