I Am a Material Boy, Oh Oh!

So, I'm an 80s child, so for some reason, I feel like I'm supposed to be *extremely* knowledgeable when it comes to 80s culture. I am, however, not.
Fact is, I barely remember watching He-man on TV, and although I loved those screaming fluorescent pants my mother made me, I'm pretty sure I only ever owned one pair. Care Bears were awesome, I remember Smurfs, and I know now that there were some pretty great movies made then (Ghostbusters/Indiana Jones/Back to the Future is what I'm talking about...not all that Stallone crap).
Sure, we had a compact disc (yes, also an 80s invention) with MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This," and I am pretty sure somebody in our house wore polka dots. I can remember a few things: girls LOVED banana clips, shoulder pads were a fad, MacGyver rocked my Sundays, and my Wayfarer look-alikes were suh-WEET...when I was 4.
But let's face it: I don't know who Corazón Aquino is (TIME's Person of the Year the year I was born), I never even knew who Ronald Reagan was during that decade, and I don't even get the joke about how David Squier dying by a stroke.
However, for all of the times 80s music was awful, some of it was actually really artistic. But, hindsight is not only 20/20, it also leads to some pretty awesome creations. So, that was my lengthy introduction to Scott Bradlee covering--in ragtime, no less--some of the most popular 80s hits:

Inheritance in Salt Lake...FINALLY!!

I've known for a while that The Inheritance of War would be playing in SLC, and Ashley just sent me the info for the screening:

The Salt Lake City Film Festival is coming up (Aug 14-16) and slated to play at the SLC Library on Friday the 14th is "Billy was a Deaf Kid" at 11 AM and "The Inheritance of War" at 1:30 PM. "Reserved to Fight" follows at 3:00. All screenings at the Library are FREE so invite everyone to come.

I'm also going to throw a shout out to "Hi My Name is Ryan" which plays Saturday 7PM at the Tower Theater. It is a very funny doc about an eccentric teenager from Arizona

www.himynameisryan.com
www.billywasadeafkid.com
www.theinheritanceofwar.com

For those of you unaware, The Inheritance of War was filmed and directed by a dear friend of mine, Ashley Karras. It premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and has played in various festivals around the country: LDS Film Festival [Orem, UT], Las Vegas Film Festival, Foursite Film Festival [Ogden, UT], and GI Film Festival [Washington, D.C.]. (If I missed any, Ash, let me know!) Now that it's finally in Salt Lake (and FREE!!!), I expect a good showing!
Comment if you'd like to come or would like more info.

Saving the World, and, the Moon

For those of you who aren't aware, today is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. The JFK Library has a an awesome website recreating the event in real-time. I wish I was alive to witness it myself, and I look forward to the day when we can get off our lazy butts and go there again. But in the meantime, this is WAY cool. Check it out at www.wechoosethemoon.org.
Another cool thing: NASA has, this time *with* help from Hollywood, gone and restored the moon footage from the Apollo 11 landing. While it's certainly not HD, it looks pretty good given the circumstances. Here it is.
Lastly, while the moon is exciting, so is our Earth, and I read an awesome and intriguing article about "20 Bold Schemes That Could Save the World." It's an interesting read on many levels, so...check it out!

Sour Music Video

This has to be one the most creative music videos I've ever seen!

[UPDATE: I prefer Vimeo, because YouTube is just plain not classy, but seeing as they removed the music vid from Vimeo, here YouTube is saving the day. Sorry for those who it died on.]

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Apple, Postal Service, and Salt Lake City?

So, I was reading (twice, actually) today about RIM's (the maker of Blackberries..the phone) complete ripoff of an Apple ad, and that reading led me to read about Apple's own ripoffs...which have themselves been numerous at times.
So as I got into the Apple ripoffs, I was reading how Apple ripped off The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" music video, and I like that song and was intrigued as to why that music video would have images of a microprocessor plant. As I was watching along, the video goes into space, and the camera zooms into the earth a la "Burn After Reading" or a simple Google Earth transition.
What totally took me off guard, however, was just exactly *where* they zoomed in. Can you guess?
It was Salt Lake City! Not only that, but it just *happens* that they zoom in right where the Delta Center--ahem, EnergySolutions Arena is now. Which leads me to believe that they either digitally altered, or they got the satellite image from before 1991 when the arena was built. (Due to other shadows and etc., I'm actually leaning toward the latter.)
Anyway, check it out. The magic begins at about the 3:12 mark if you're indifferent or impatient.


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