Safety is the new awesome

Last Saturday Steve bought a new scooter. The exact same scooter my roommate Bex owns. Now they are in an exclusive scooter gang together. I'm the mascot of the gang because I just ride on the back.

The main pro of Steve having this scooter is that it opens up so many "hard to get to via public transit" or "hard to park" neighborhoods that we never frequent because it's too difficult. The main con of Steve having this scooter is safety. What happens if there is some crazy driver that isn't paying attention? Anyway, to make myself feel better and to congratulate Steve on his purchase I decided to buy us helmets.

Sundance Film Festival 2007 is the new awesome

Every year I go to Park City, Utah to work at the Sundance Film Festival as a volunteer in the Eccles theater.

There are a lot of things that make this one of my favorite vacations of the year:

volunteering
As part of my job, I get to do things like rip tickets, help people find their seats in the dark, and make sure that no one enters places that they aren't allowed.

The best part is that if people don't listen to me, I am allowed to punch them in the face. Right Lee?

movies
I also get to see a lot of movies. I saw some good ones this year, though when I looked at the festival winners this morning, it turns out that I didn't end up seeing many of the films that got awards. Still, I have a few favorites that might not be getting lots of hype that you should probably look out for if you know what is good for you:


Son of Rambow
This is a hilarious story about two imaginative boys growing up in the 80's and the home movie they make about the Son of Rambo. It is just a good, heartwarming film I would recommend to anyone that loves fun ... and the 80s music and costuming is an added bonus.

Dedication
This is a fun film starring Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup, reminiscent of Garden State with the emotionally damaged guy that finds stability in a conveniently attractive and quirky young lady. They are a little more liberal with their use of the F-word, and you can replace the heavy use of the Shins on the soundtrack with Deerhoof, but it follows the same kind of basic humorous romantic comedy routine you might expect it to.




The Savages
I can't decide if I liked this film because I like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney so much, but this was just a straightforward story about two siblings dealing with their father's failing health, and is worth the watch.







celebs
Park City is always crawling with famous people. It is straight out of US Magazine's "Stars - they're just like us" page, because you see them doing normal, everyday things like talking on their cell phones or polishing their sunglasses. Unfortunately, when I see any star worth taking photos of, I am usually too embarrassed to try to snap an obvious photo...which is probably why the only pictures I end up with are photos like this one (courtesy of Emily Cox):


Yes. That IS Gary Coleman at Sundance.

Still, for the record:

best celebrity I peed next to in the bathroom:
Parker Posey

best celebrity I watched buy a bagel:
John Cusack

best celebrity I got so close to i could smell his hair gel:
Billy Baldwin

best celebrity I said "excuse me" to as I walked by:
Mandy Moore

fashion
I know it is cold in Utah in January, but there is something special about the film fest that makes everyone try to dress as much like a yeti as possible. Every store up and down Main St sells these ridiculous fur boots that I can only imagine people wear home and wake up the next morning in a daze, wondering if their neighbors are missing their cat.


The truly committed make sure their boots are paired with an enormous fur coat and hat. I'm not sure who would have a bigger heyday up there - PETA or the hosts from What Not To Wear.

entertainment
The free music they have on the big outdoor Main Street Stage is always a fun activity, if you can brave the cold.

This year I got to see Shiny Toy Guns (give their song le disko a listen) and of Montreal play for free with these fun friends:

Even in the cold, the lead singer of of Montreal still wore a rather revealing little dress that my mother never would have approved of.

At least the other guitarist had enough sense to wear a stylish giant fur thing on his head.


friends
The other awesome thing about spending time in Utah is seeing all the people that I like out there. marsha had an art show:

We all celebrated afterwords at the Provo Bombay House by spelling MARSHA with our fingers.

Marsha and cassian celebrated too.

in their own special way.



Thanks for the good times, Sundance. See you next year.

The Secret to Dating is the New Awesome

Cameron gave Kristin and i four easy steps to follow for getting a boyfriend/girlfriend.

step 1:
sit close for an hour or so, repeatedly touching the other person



step 2:
make out

step 3:
have an awkward but funny conversation about the aforementioned make-out

step 4:
you have a new boyfriend/girlfriend!

or maybe two.



I still have yet to find out if this works, but it seems pretty straightforward. I am going to give it a try.

The rock is the new awesome

Maybe you remember I was totally trash talking last weekend before the big flag football game between San Fran (The Rock) and Stanford (The Saints). When I arrived at the game I was afraid I had jinxed the team. My snotty blog post the night before had obviously put the team at a disadvantage.


Rob and Dan were the ring leaders of this whole thing.


Some key players included:
Rick


Bradley and Steve


and the new guy Brant. No wait, Brant was a key dancer, not a key player.


Lindsay, Allie and I wore specially made shirts for the occasion:
Allie: Team Bradley
Me: Team Santos
Lindsay: Team Brantos


Patrick and Lindsay are the kind of fair weather fans any team would be lucky to have behind them. Totally annoyed when their team is doing poorly...


...and totally on board when their team starts to do better.


In the end, SF pulled off a landslide victory...


...thanks in no small part to our mascot Al Capone.


Go team!


Afterthought: Maybe in you're head you're thinking x-football players would be key to a flag football victory. You'd be wrong. Turns out x-soccer players are key.

Bailing Cameron out of jail is the new awesome

I know some of you wonder what it is that I do at 2:30am.

Well. Last night I grabbed $200 from the ATM in my pjs and went down to the Provo police station ... ...to post bail so that Cameron didn't have to spend the night in jail when he got arrested on Center Street after getting pulled over for a bad headlight and unpaid tickets.

I really wish that I had gotten a photo of Cameron in the back of the police car, sitting there on Center Street when i pulled up to the scene of the crime. I guess I just have to console myself with the photos of him in cuffs at the Police Station instead.


I thought it appropriate that Cam was wearing his Party Animal sweatshirt when he got arrested. For about fifteen minutes last night, the streets of Provo were a safer place to be.

Bachelor Pads are the new awesome

I made it out to Park City, Utah this weekend for my annual trip to the Sundance Film Festival, and since Jeff the Dentist was going to be out of town, he is letting me crash alone in his sweet apartment.

I have made myself right at home, but discovered three things (in addition to the enormous tv) that make me realize that I am currently living in a full fledged bachelor pad:

1) empty pizza boxes outnumber the amount of actual food in the house

2) paper plates and plastic cups

3) decor is limited to 3 frisbees on the wall

More sundance stories, coming soon!

Suck it Stanford II is the new awesome

SF will win. I'm not even worried that I just talked so much trash on my blog.

Added bonuses are the new awesome

Andy and Emily picked Steve and I up early last Saturday for Andy's birthday hike near Stinson Beach.


Andy and Emily had mapped out the Matt Davis Trail for us. Approximately 7.5 miles...lots of uphill...totally doable. It was about 4.5 miles in that we realized the trail was not a loop as we had originally thought...but a magic neverending trail that goes on forever and ever. When we realized the trail was of the magic neverending variety we turned around.


The rattlesnakes didn't care that it was Andy's birthday.


Steve was very serious about photographing vultures.


Couples that stretch together...


I was going to try this but didn't for two reasons:
1) Dirty
2) Death by getting run over by an obnoxious guy in his Audi


Also, as an added bonus I'd like to let everyone know I've started my hair on it's journey back to blonde-hood. Turns out it's easy to go from blond to brown but not so easy to go from brown to blond without your hair turning to dust. Here is the change, stage one. And for everyone out there that's totally freaking out right now because they're worried I won't show them all the stages as they happen, don't worry. I will.

My boyfriend is the new awesome

I'm not sure if you've heard but my boyfriend has finally come to his senses and dumped that other girl he was seeing. You can read more about it here.

I'm pretty sure we'll get back together.

Neighborly Notes are the new awesome

If you have ever tried to park in San Francisco, you know the pain of driving in circles until you want to cry out of frustration, the art of parking 17 blocks from wherever you were trying to get to in the first place (even when you might live 20 blocks away) and the inevitable parking tickets that drive many to give up cars in the city altogether (myself included). My scooter has eliminated much of this headache for me, but opened up a new world of parking experiences.

On Saturday night I was at a party in a neighborhood that is tough to find parking in, and ended up leaving my scooter on the sidewalk so that I would not take up any precious street space. When I came outside to my scooter a few hours later, there was a weird painting propped on the seat, with this note attached:

(If you can't read it, the note says "Thanks for parking on the sidewalk! love, grateful car parkers : ) )

Unfortunately, nice neighbors are not the only people that will leave you notes if you park on the sidewalk. The DPT left me this one:

(If you can't read it, the note says "Thanks for parking on the sidewalk! You owe us $100.)

I might side with the nice car parkers if they would invest in some high-quality art work instead of that red swirly thing.