The Sundance Film Festival Experience Begins

I've been attending the Sundance Film Festival for many years now and it is always a unique experience.

The festival experience actually begins long before arriving at the theater. After registering for a time to purchase tickets, you then have to decide which films you want to watch. This can be a tricky process. There are all kinds of factors you have to take into account such as where the film is showing (Park City, Salt Lake, Ogden), when the film is showing (any time from 8:00 am - 12:00 midnight), if you can actually get tickets to the films you want to watch, but the best part of this process is reading the film summaries. They are awesomely crafted works of genius in themselves. Here are some examples (I have replaced any names with "this film", or "the director", etc.)

It's shocking how much can be said about a film without ever describing the plot.

"The director cinematically renders the film to complement its philosophy by uniting the everyday and the transcendent. Rich, rewarding, and profoundly moving, this film affirms peace and happiness within and posits "once a punk rocker, always a punk rocker."

"The subtly heightened imagery and sound, crafted with unsettling intensity, illustrate a frightening crisis of social conscience. Tinged with mordant surrealism, the director demonstrates that rare ability to transcend genre and a remarkable storytelling vigor, anchored within a haunting and arresting visual motif."

"A minimalist film that nevertheless feels visually and emotionally full, without forced sentimentality or manufactured drama, this film questions the nature of love and happiness and the sacrifices we may make to achieve either. In this film directed and written with precision and economy, the director allows us to know these characters in a single line of dialogue, and feel their conflict within the power of a glance."

"This film plumbs the shades of gray to find humanity in every perspective and offers a rich understanding of what it means to survive unimaginable terror, and the astounding resilience of the human spirit to find ways to heal and forgive."

"A playful satire, this film feels like the collision of a moral tale and a fairy tale. The director strikes a clever tone, mixing drab realism with sardonic humor, splashes of vibrant color, and fabulist flourishes. While the film plays with the idea of miracles in our image-obsessed material world, it is grounded emotionally in the relationship between mother and daughter."

"The director poetically fuses the harsh realities of violence, healing, and family."

"Marked by restrained writing, which leaves significant details open to interpretation, this film depicts the rich texture of modern Israeli society."

"An astonishingly assured first feature, this film elegantly applies restraint and precision to mount subtle, quotidian moments into an emotionally crushing story."

"With a genuine affection for its lost-souled protagonists and tapping into the raw frustration endured during this period of history, this film captures the drive toward hope in the face of utter despair, even when it leads to an unsettling and twisted place."

"Breathtaking, lyrical camera movement and unconventional framing capture beautifully macabre images while the evocative music and sound design complete the sensory tour de force. The terrific ensemble cast stretches out of its comfort zone and syncs up perfectly with the director’s dark vision, which explores the essence of existence and what drives some to end it."

"As they cope with the excruciating and evolving pain of loss, time helps them refashion the scaffolding of their lives. This exquisitely moving documentary helps us process what is unimaginable."

"The director’s atmospheric, contemplative aesthetic encourages us to examine the personal relationship we all form to both physical space and story space. Because of his work (called ground-truthing), one character comes to view the land as a source of faulty data, while the other sees it as a way to redefine her relationship with home. As the film suggests, "truth is conjecture."

Here's one for all you alliteration fans

"Splendidly constructed and saturated with a sumptuous sense of style and sensuality."

I can't decide whether I want to see the one with "fabulist flourishes" or the one with "quotidian moments."

Win-Win

Today my awesome brother who I mentioned before came over to help me fix some things around my house. The stopper in the toilet tank wasn't functioning anymore, I wanted some pictures hung, etc. etc.

Oh, and did I mentioned that he is a professional house painter? Yeah, just another skill to add to his mile long list. Well, he was doing some touch up painting around the floor boards in my living room so I had to pull all the furniture out from the walls. I decided to leave the furniture pulled out so I could vacuum after the paint dried. Well, after my brother left, my cats finally decided to come out from under the bed. Yeah, they are big time scared-y cats. I watched them cautiously walk down the hallway and stare timidly into the living room. At first I thought it was because they thought my brother might still be around, but then it hit me that they couldn't figure out what had happened to the living room. Here's the best part. With all the furniture pulled out, it's like a totally different room for my cats. They have to go explore every nook and cranny like they've never seen it before. It's a hour or two of entertainment for them.

So you know, it's a win-win situation tonight for all the residents of my house.

Two Excellent Reads

So I started this post the other day, and then accidentally hit post instead of save draft. Those of you who use feed readers may have got the bare bones of this post. So here it is in all it's glory.

I wanted to share these two excellent books I read recently. Both published this year.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
You may know Tracy Chevalier from her famous book, Girl with a Pearl Earring. She has also written a few other books that have not been as popular.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of two "real life" women living in the mid-1800s on the coast of South-East England. It is a fascinating story of the discovery of some of the first dinosaur fossils in England and how these two unlikely women (a middle-class spinster, and an uneducated, working-class young woman) were involved in their discovery. It also covers the issues of the time with religion vs. science.

I found the book very readable with a good mix of human drama set in the larger picture of the history of England. I highly recommend picking it up.

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

This is Ali Shaw's debut novel.

The Girl with Glass feet is harder to recommend to people. It will definitely not suit everybody's tastes. It is the story of Midas and Ida, two young people who meet unexceptionally enough, on St. Hauda's Land, an island probably somewhere in the Atlantic and probably a part of England. This, however, is no normal island. Strange things can happen there. Midas has lived on the island his whole life and after his father committed suicide several years before, he struggles to make emotional bonds with people. Adventure loving Ida has returned to the island after a previous vacation the summer before to hopefully find the answer to why her feet have started to turn to glass. The story weaves, past and present together and the people in Midas and Ida's lives that have affected them the most. There are very tragic things in this novel, but overall has a note of hope. A very interesting read.

Word on the Street is. . .

I had a lovely Christmas.

First, I wanted to mention the amazing people I work with. This year, we did a sub-for-Santa kinda thing for a family I know that is struggling. Everyone at work was so amazing. They are not wealthy people, and yet they were so excited and desiring to give. I know it made a huge difference for this family.

Another meaningful thing that happened this Christmas was we also were able to recover a Christmas tradition from when I was young. Every Christmas Eve, my dad would tell a story about how giving was invented. It's kinda a silly little tale, but it's connected to Christmas and my dad and so it means a lot to me. Through our collective memory, we were finally able to find the story online. Here is a link to the story.

Finally, as I mentioned in a previous post, my family really likes to play games. Well, my brother brought a new game to play this year. It is called Word on the Street. It turned out to be quite a simple yet really fun game. You play on teams and just have to think of words so if you are someone who doesn't love to play games, then you should definitely give this one a try.

Oh, and one last thing. My 2-year-old niece was so cute! Whenever she opened a present she would say, ta-da!

Hope you have a great Christmas too!

Ultimate or Cliche?

I went to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square last night. I've been feeling like a Scrooge this year (for no particular reason) and so I wanted to do something Christmassy to hopefully jolt myself out of this Christmas funk. I had a good time, but it didn't really help with my Scrooginess.

Here's my question. Is viewing the lights at Temple Square the ultimate Christmas experience (and I am such a Scrooge that a beautiful Christmas tableau couldn't even do it for me) or are the lights such a cliche Christmas experience that my poor jaded soul cringed from the experience?

Ultimate or Cliche? Two extremes, and yet, I'm undecided.

To prevent this from happening next year, I have decided I need to decorate for the holidays. I haven't done this in a few years and I think maybe it's time. I think I also need to listen to some Christmas music. Music always lifts your mood.

Last Minute Christmas Presents

Don't you just hate trying to shop for that person who has everything? I can never think of anything so I put off buying them a gift until the last minute. Well your problems have been solved.

I bet they don't have one of these...

I was flipping through the Utah Valley Magazine December issue a few weeks back and discovered that the Love Glove, aka the Smitten Mitten, aka the Hand Hugger is made right here in Provo. I had no idea there were such problems with holding hands while walking outside in the cold that a new invention was needed. Clearly I am not up on these heavy world issues.

So go on, support a local company and buy one of these. Can't you just see your loved one in one of the photos below?

Don't Try His Patience

In a bid for the worst Christmas romance book ever, I submit to you this novel I discovered a few years back.

The cover's not as good as Santa Slept Over, but what it lacks in visual appeal it makes up for in storyline.

"One hundred and sixty years ago Kris Kringle walked the earth spreading the message of love and peace between peoples. Then he was kidnapped and given a drug that wiped out his memory, while the goblins hijacked Christmas.

Kris has been found. But he's not what you think. In fact, he's not what anybody thinks, unless they happen to know he wears Armani, drives a vintage Rolls Royce and dislikes reindeer. Even more, he dislikes the fat caricature the goblins stuck him with. He's the most powerful death fey living, who gave up mortal women because none could complete him. He's about to reclaim Christmas. That's why he needs Adora Navarra, a biographer. Only she--along with the help of the fey already fighting the goblin menace--can help take back his image and punish the wicked. And only she can complete him. Santa Claus is about to go to town. . ."

Well, I'll give it to the author. She's very. . .creative.

World Heritage Sites I Want to Visit

So you've seen the World Heritage Sites I've been to. Here are the ones that I want to visit next:

United States

Yosemite National Park

Glacier National Park

Argentina

Iguazu National Park

China

The Great Wall

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor

Egypt

Ancient Thebes

The Pyramids of Giza

A bunch of stuff in France

A bunch of stuff in Germany

A bunch if stuff in Italy

A bunch of stuff in England

Israel

Masada

Old City of Acre

Jordan

Petra

New Zealand

Tongariro National Park

Peru

Machu Pichu

Spain

Works of Antoni Gaudi

Historic Center of Cordoba

Thailand

Historic City of Ayutthaya

Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns

 And that's just the beginning.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

This probably comes from the fact that I was a history major in college, but I have this goal that I want to visit as many World Heritage Sites in my lifetime as I possibly can. Below are the ones I have seen so far. Let me tell you, they are a mere drop in the bucket as you can see from the map below.

The dots represent World Heritage Sites

If you want to learn more about the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Check out their website.

United States

Mesa Verde National Park Colorado
I want to go back.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Grand Canyon National Park Arizona

Redwood National and State Parks California

Costa Rica

Area de Conservación Guanacaste

Czech Republic

Historic Center of Prague

Greece
Not surprisingly, Greece has a lot of world heritage sites. I didn't even see half of them.

Acropolis, Athens

Archaeological site at Delphi (my favorite)

Medieval City of Rhodes

Meteora (my next favorite)

Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus

Archaeological site of Olympia

Archaeological site of Mycenae and Tiryns

Hungary

Historic Budapest
I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

Japan

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
There are 17 World Heritage Sites just in Kyoto!

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

Shrines and Temples of Nikko
(I can't decide whether I like Nikko or Kyoto better)

Poland

Krakow's Historic Center
Cute little Medieval town. I highly recommend it.

Historic Center of Warsaw
Almost everything in Warsaw was destroyed during WWII.
So everything that is "historic" is really only about 50 years old. Kinda sad.

Turkey

Cappadocia
AMAZING!

Historic Areas of Istanbul
AMAZING!

Hierapolis - Pamukkale
AMAZING!

Archaeological Site of Troy
meh...