Make 8th July 2014

For my first Make 8th I copped out and made a 1000 piece puzzle. Took me 3 days which was about 18 hours. Lots of fun and lots of podcasts. I like the idea of cutting out cool parts of puzzles like the gnomes in the hot tub and put it on the wall or in a frame or something. Idk. Anyways here are some pictures I took of it. I was very proud.

Some other music

Here are some other things I found in my music folder that I've done.

Would You Kindly (2009 - 2012)

My brother Kristian and I did some collaborations together when we lived together in an apartment while we both went to college. We rented out a practice space to jam at one point and also jammed in a back room at a church. Other than that we played a bunch in our apartment called Ivy Place. We never played a show but got to play a bunch of covers at a friend's birthday party. We are on an indefinite hiatus for now, but those were definitely some of the best times of my life. We didn't record much but thats just because its too damn fun jamming freely and causing ourselves permanent hearing damage in a tiny room with a drumstick in one hand and a beer in the other. Below are the recordings I have, Kristian has a bunch more on his computer somewhere.

The Attachments (2007-2009)

My friend Jonathan Pope and I jammed a few times together after highschool and called ourselves "The Attachments". We managed to record a couple of things before heading off to college where we tried to email each other parts of songs but we eventually fell out of touch. It was really fun jamming and recording things in his uncle's abandoned house. Good times. I'm uploading our body of work below.

Long exposure fire photos

I set my camera to long exposure mode and took photos of fireplaces while moving the camera around in different shapes. Its pretty fun. Here are some of the cooler ones that came out. 

The "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" CHALLENGE

STEP 1: Obtain the same meal that Harold or Kumar orders at the end of the movie. I sadly don't have a White Castle within 100 miles so instead got the equivalent Krystal Burger meal. You can also get the White Castle burgers frozen at some major grocery stores. 

STEP 2: Watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle but you can't eat your food until they do. If you can hold your hunger to the end you will have a freaking amazing meal. Optional: You can  smoke (if thats your thing) whenever they do in the movie or drink instead.  

STEP 3: Profit. 

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

If you played video games growing up, dealt with alienation or awkwardness with a love for indie rock and comics, you are in bullseye of the target audience for this movie. And Scott Pilgrim definitely nails its target audience. Just by looking at the plot you can see the huge influence of these things in the movie. 


The film follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) who is in a band called the "Sex Bob-ombs" as he chases after the girl of his dreams (literally) Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as he has to fight his way through her seven evil exes in a series of video game-inspired battles. 


The acting was pretty strong across the board (not that any of the roles were overly demanding) and Michael Cera was definitely still playing Michael Cera, although the world he is in completely fits his character. The dialog is fast-paced and full of hilarious Michael Cera-type humor which is enhanced by the style of the movie. For example, Scott is confused at one point, then the camera zooms in on his head showing a meter that points from "no clue" quickly to "gets it". And many times you will hear the music to an old classic video game like Zelda or Final Fantasy playing in the background. It's quirks like these that really make the movie. 


The editing was by far my favorite part of this movie. Video game health bars, coins, awesome kung-fu action sequences, words like "POW!" and "BAM!" flying across the screen are all done so flawlessly and appropriately that without them, the movie would have been an awkward, limp mess. 


The opening title was the best I have seen in a long time. I've grown pretty tired of the boring title card in plain white letters that fades in and out during opening dialog and even Christopher Nolan's change-up title at the end of his films lost its appeal after Batman Begins. But Scott Pilgrim blew my mind with the roaring rock music with the comic-book sketches zooming around the band in the slow zoom-out title sequence. Its worth seeing the movie if only for the creative visuals like that one. 


However, the story can get a little chick-flicky at times and some of the fights with the exes are longer or weirder than they should have been which detracts from the other, better written parts of the movie. Don't go in expecting a great inventive story or deep meaning. This movie is strong where it is strong which is in being funny, quirky, flashy, and fun. 


Scott Pilgrim really plays more like a live-action comic book than a movie adaptation of a comic book (unlike the recent Marvel films). I'm glad to see a movie that really "gets it" when following the form of their source material and I hope other filmmakers will take a hint from the way Scott Pilgrim was shot in making their own movies that are based off existing comics, cartoons, or books (and we know there are quite a few of those coming out soon). If you even partially fit in the target audience for this movie, enjoy Michael Cera humor, or like flashy visuals I recommend this movie for you.