Sundance 09

So Sundance 09 was a great year for film, celebrity watching, family visits, live music, and curly hair.

Curly hair you ask? Well you see my cute cousin Alisa came out for this year's festival and she got invited to a private premier party for a SlamDance film and she invited me as her plus 1(Slam Dance is a competing festival during Sundance, but who's complaining a party is a party, right?). I decided that I needed to have curly hair for this party, so I sweetly asked my sister Kate to come and curl my hair. I gotta say that the curly hair was a hit. I was chatted up several very attractive men and I like to think it was the hair, but it could have also been the open bars. Whatever, I digress. Guess what else? Yes you guessed it; Paris Hilton was at the same party. No I didn't talk to her; I didn't even make eye contact, because seriously why would I want to? But I WAS at a party with Paris Hilton, and in Sundance celebrity terms this makes me a rock star. Thank you Park City!

Here are a few more random pics from Sundance and some movie reviews. Enjoy!

Here I am trying to get Sherri to take my picture from what I have decided is my good side. Yah, don't ask, I mostly just look like a dork.

My new obsession if you couldn't tell is taking self portraits. You know...when you hold the camera yourself and point and shoot. This one amuses me; it is artistic in that it is "loosely" framed.

Two tiny specs in front of the Egyptian. Thanks to Brock the security guard for taking our picture, but not for his inability to use the zoom on the camera.

And now for the reviews...

Amreeka

This is a sweet movie about the struggles of one Palestinian family after they immigrate to the United States. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

It Might Get Loud

A documentary about the evolution of the electric guitar and its influence on the musical careers of Jack White from the White Stripe, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and The Edge from U2. 4 Stars.

Mary and Max

A claymation movie about the unique pen pal relationship between an 8 year old Australian girl and an overweight 44 year old Manhattan man with aspergers syndrome. 3 1/2 stars.

Lulu and Jimi

This movie is awful, stay far away from it.

Tibet in Song

This is a film documenting the journey one Tibetan man took to capture Tibetan folk songs and in the process also the story of how he was imprisoned and tortured for 6 years by the Chinese government in Tibet. 4 stars.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

One woman on a quest to understand a painful breakup and the psyche of man decides to interview a series of men about their experience with women and ultimately capturing their fears and vulnerabilities on tape. 2 1/2 stars.

The Maid

The story of a live-in Maid in Chile who has the emotional maturity of a 12 year old and who starts to feel jealous when her employers try to hire someone to help her out around the house. This one also won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. 2 1/2 Stars.

We Live in Public

A documentary mostly about a crazy Dot Com millionaire named Josh Harris, but also about the intrusiveness of technology in our every day lives and the concept of privacy in the modern age. This one won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. 4 1/2 stars.

I also went to an "evening" with Steven Soderbergh, he is the Director of the Ocean's Movies (11, 12, 13), Kafka, Out of Sight, Traffic, etc. - he is one of my favorite directors. I was really excited to attend this event because I thought he would spend 2 hours just talking to us. Instead he used us as a test audience of sorts and screened one of his latest films. It is still a work in progress so there were things that were obviously wrong, but even with all of that, I really didn't like it. It is called the Girlfriend Experience and it is structured a little like Out of Sight in that it is non-linear. But unlike Out of Sight, this movie lacks any chemistry. I would hope that once he finishes editing it, it will be better. But I do not have high hopes. What I DID like though, was that he spent time talking about his process and how he makes movies. It was fascinating.

Anyhoo, that is my Sundance wrap up. I missed all of you who couldn't share it with me. And just to prove I am not vain, here is a hideous picture of me with my cute cousin. (I deliberately picked the one with my eyes closed because it amuses me).

Cleavage...er, I mean, Star Encounter.

I've been in Nashville for a training course this past week. And believe me I wish I had the energy to post amusing and light hearted blogs during the week, but after spending 9 hours a day studying statistics and data mining techniques, I couldn't muster the strength.

I did have 2 celebrity encounters at the airport though, and that is always fun. On the way in I passed Rich of 'Big and Rich'. I saw him do the "I am on the phone and don't have time to sign an autograph" thing to some fans. I had been observing him for a while and he hadn't been on the phone when they started to approach him, and since I also didn't hear it ring, I am going to go ahead and guess that he was pretending.

After that I headed to security and looked up to see that I was standing directly behind Jessica Simpson. She's a pretty girl. She likes to show off her assets if you know what I mean. I felt like a sweaty mess next to her. But she was nice. The airport even offered to take her through a special line and she declined. I did not talk to her, except to ask her if she would throw my diet coke away, which she did. She didn't have an entourage, she was carrying her own luggage, she had no body guards, she seemed almost normal. Well, except for the massive amount of cleavage. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe that she would be a big diva, but she seemed nice. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to run out and buy her CD or watch Dukes of Hazzard, but perhaps I will cringe a little less every time I see her on TV or in a magazine now.