Le Tour de Nez

This past week I spent at the Tour de Nez- a pro bike race in Reno/Tahoe- a fantastic way to spend the week.


This is Roman Kilun who won two stages at Nez and who I just found has a blog of his own.

Dave Towle announced, which was exciting for me because for a few years I reallllly enjoyed him commentate the Tour de France on OLN, now Versus. He knows loads about cycling, and he's a real artist. Watching and listening to him makes you feel like you are there in person.

Co-filmer Mike Albright in for the good shot before having to fall back.



Here's a photo of a moment later, when after a bit of rain and fears of cancellation, a double rainbow emerged.



There's just something about a bike...

Delicious

These cookies are deeeeelicious.

No Child...

"No Child..." which just finished its run at Berkeley Rep, the last stop on its national tour, was everything everyone has been saying it is. The show has been getting lots of attention for awhile (it's been on for 2 years now) and sometimes hype can lead to great expectations and disappointment from the crowd. However, Nilaja Sun creates enough of an authentic energy in the room (and the Berkeley rep theatre is nice and intimate) for the hype to be legitimate.






The main wonderful point about this show is the fact of activism as entertainment. No Child... is insight into the No Child Left Behind Act that is a U.S. federal law that George W. Bush instituted in 2001.

Watching Sun I could tell the amount of teachers in the room because of the many inside teacher jokes I wasn't a part of. This meant that the audience was also really passionate- the NCLB act effects their lives every day, and there's a lot of emotion there. Seeing Sun enact a theater teacher struggling to make an impact on kids and also struggling to get support for doing it, hit home for the audience. At one scene when Sun enacts the teacher calling a student to see why he has been absent and finds out from his grandmother that his brother was shot dead in an incident of gang violence, I noticed hands go up to faces all over the crowd as viewers wiped their tears.

I'm proof that this show inspires in an activist way because leaving I researched more about the NCLB act. Barack Obama has plans to reform the act.

Monarch Movie

Here is a movie I made intro to video production at USF with Samara Halperin last fall. It features music by Animal Collective, Mark Mothersbaugh (from the Life Aquatic) and Colleen, various butterfly footage from youtube, and voices by Dan and Kim Bartlett. enjoy!

Sex and the City Commentary

My interest in Sex and the City stems from the fact of its intense fan base. What is it about this story that makes women and (mostly gay) men everywhere like it so much? I know, parts of it seem obvious- the glamour, the gossip, but what else? People feel positive and negative about the effects of the show on our culture. I thought the movie coming out meant a perfect time to do a little in qualitative research to try and figure out what here is making people tick.