AFI Dallas 2008 - Volunteer!

This weekend marked the beginning of the second annual AFI Dallas International Film Festival. The film festival runs from March 27 - April 6 and is showing over 200 films ranging from features to documentaries to foreign to shorts. It’s a great festival bringing culture through these films to the Dallas area.

That being said, I am volunteering for the festival this year and had my first “shifts” this weekend. It was really fun and I got to see a few familiar faces like Josh Brolin and Bill Paxton. There are so many awesome films showing, and if you’re in the area you should check one out! A full listing of the films and their schedules can be found here. Hope to see you at the theater!

lol dogs

after always cracking up at the photos on icanhascheezburger and ihasahotdog, i finally put one together for my roxy - here she is:

you can vote on her picture here. she’s so cute!

mark your calendars, music lovers

“Record stores keep the human social contact alive it brings people together. Without the independent record stores the community breaks down with everyone sitting in front of their computers.” - Ziggy Marley

For reasons like this, stores around the country are celebrating “Record Store Day.” Record Store Day will be Saturday, April 19th. It’s pretty much a day dedicated to supporting local indie record stores, and the record stores will have the things that make them unique on display - for instance, in-store performances, presentations, and my favorite, vinyl promos.

Now, as an absolute lover of all things music, and especially vinyl records (yes, I still love to listen to everything on my record player), I urge everyone to go out and support your local indie record store! Don’t know where one is? You can see a full list of the participating stores here. For those of you in Dallas, our beloved Good Records is participating, and will also be celebrating their 8th birthday then as well - so you know it’s bound to be awesome. They’ll be announcing bands soon.

So, support the stores, the music, and the artists. It’s a real way to keep the unique quality of music alive.

“Buy real records in real shops, or I’ll come round your house and scream at your mother.” - Ian Gillan of Deep Purple (You don’t want that to happen now, do you??)

how cute is this?!

one of my favorite websites, design*sponge, had this dresser displayed for one of the before & after projects and it’s so cute!!

this was submitted by chris, who created this for his niece using an old dresser, some colorful paper, paint, and mod podge glue (along with a few other materials). i’ve been wanting to do a project like this for some time now - and this may just be the swift kick i need. while it’s a little too girly for stephen’s taste, i’m sure i could find something fun that would go with our stuff!!

learning to love you more

so alice sent this to me this morning and i just couldn’t resist.  this book, learning to love you more, by harrell fletcher and miranda july looks fun, crazy, and surprisingly heart-warming.

if you visit the website, it gives you examples of the quirky assignments from the book - from “photograph a scar and write about it”

Laurajean P’s scar from Somerville, Massachusetts

to my favorite, “recreate an object from someone’s past.”

“Tam’s first guitar” by Catherine Forrester

they’re just fun artsy projects, and some very touching ones as well, like “visit a dying person.”  this is enough to inspire me to go get the book today.  more to come my progress of the book.

it’s official…

i’m going to chicago! for the first time ever i get to go to the amazing lollapalooza music festival in grant park, chicago (thanks mom!). so far it’s me, stephen and my brother jimi taking the trek to see some sights and sounds in the windy city - and that’s sure to be a riot…right?? the official lineup will be announced on april 7th but as of now, the rumors are wicked: radiohead, nin, bloc party, mgmt, spank rock, and john butler trio - just to name a few…my head is already spinning!!

also of note, this will be my first time to visit chicago - i’m so excited!! wait, i still have 4 months to go, better save some excitement for later. in the mean time, any thoughts on the lineup rumors? what about places to stay?

stay tuned for the official artist announcement as well…

where are you going this summer??

with this insane outburst of summer music festivals, it’s hard to keep them all straight - much less decide which one you’re going to go to!!

my favorite site to keep track right now is the consequence of sound’s summer festival outlook.

at first i was most excited to hear the bonnaroo lineup, but even though i’ve been the past two years and loved it, i just can’t bring myself to fork out for a lineup that features metallica. sorry if you’re a metallica lover, but it’s just not my bag.

right now my top festival lineups are:

all points west - featuring radiohead two nights!! plus kings of leon and underworld, you just can’t go wrong.

san francisco’s outside lands - tom petty, radiohead (there may be a pattern here), primus, beck…bonnaroo 2006 revisited?? maybe, but i’ll take it!

sasquatch! - with r.e.m., the flaming lips, modest mouse, tegan & sara, ghostland observatory and the kooks?! yes, please.

mile high music festival or rothbury festival - because, what’s a summer music festival season without dave matthew’s band?? they’re similar lineups, but one has snoop dog and the other has the black crowes, you decide.

those all look pretty awesome! although, i am holding my breath for the lollapalooza lineup…i think it will be tops this year.

i’ll keep you posted on my final decision.

a little art

just wanted to share a couple of my favorite artists of “now” whom i’ve been fortunate enough to have seen their exhibitions:

christopher lee (Kid Robot Exhibition, San Francisco, June 2005)

antony micallef (Los Angeles, Courtesy of Lazarides Gallery, September 2007)

Really great stuff, though totally different styles. And, that Machine Gun Head sculpture? Ozzy Osborne bought it for a cool $750,000. Just in case you were wondering.

Christopher’s stuff is a little more fun and bright - I just love it. Stephen and I bought our first original art piece from his exhibition during our honeymoon in San Francisco (so I am a little biased).

Anyway, hope you enjoy!