CLOUD ATLAS at Fantastic Fest

Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas in September 2012. 

You all know that the movie CLOUD ATLAS opens today, yes? It's all about time and souls and spirits who find their way into your life in one way or another.
  
After a surprise screening of the movie at found its way into my life during Fantastic Fest, I couldn't help thinking that in my own life, many of the people who seem like they should be in your life have a fairly unique way of introducing themselves.

Oftentimes such people enter your life by first catching you up on the major details of their story so far--sort of like filling you in on the details of a movie where you stopped in the middle.

As for the movie, go see it!

My only regret about that screening--being too shy to talk to Lana Wachowski when I saw her sitting in the Highball after the screening.  If I hadn't been so shy, I would have told her that she has great pink hair!

Macitajs on Acid, Positivus 2012

This summer in Latvia I saw my pal Kristeps play with his Latvian-American band Macitajs on Acid.




Coming out in masks, then playing in face paint at the I Love You stage, I was amazed to see a packed tent full of people singing along with the band in Latvian. (I have no clue what they were singing about!)

Then again, it was the band's first show in Latvia in years, so it was kind of a big deal.



You can see the rest of my pictures here, or if you click the link below, you can watch a Macitajs on Acid performance from 2007.

I'm kind of conflicted that this picture of Dave Chappelle has 13,000 views

Dear Mr. Chappelle:

When you signed this autograph for my friend Rachel--who is a big fan of your show--I just took the picture because I thought that it might be nice for her to have a picture of it. I posted it with the rest of the set from the Cupcake Smackdown.

Was a little surprised this morning to find out that said picture had over 13,000 views on Flickr. 



I'm generally against asking famous people to pose for pictures, etc, when they aren't making an official public appearance. (I've seen what it's like not to be able to walk down a street in peace because of people saying hello to you. Frankly, it seems like that part of being famous totally sucks.)


So just to let you know Mr. Chappelle, I'm a little conflicted about this. I think you were also a little bit conflicted when you walked away from your popular television show. So I guess we can be conflicted together.

The Vaccines at Positivus 2012!

While I take a lot of pictures, I'll admit that I'm not great at sharing them. Here's a few of the perky group The Vaccines at Latvia's Positivus Music Festival that I'm really pleased with.







You can find more of that photo set here.

I miss the ocean

Austin, Texas has a lot of things. What it does not have is an ocean.

Given that I grew up fairly close to the Gulf of Mexico, near Galveston, Texas, I thought that I could never live as far inland as I do now.

Much to my surprise I can live inland, I just miss the ocean. Sometimes I think he misses me, too.

Giant fake cupcake, FTW!

Going through my iPhoto library, I found this picture of a giant fake cupcake. It's from the Louis Vuitton window display last spring.




It must be all the time playing "house" as a child, because there is nothing in life that I love so much as perfect fake food.

Is this a good time to confess that, in college (when I had zero interest in cooking) I really thought about buying myself some plastic play food to put in my empty kitchen?

I thought this would be better than leaving the kitchen totally empty!