last night we all saw the bucket list. it’s a pretty good movie – it’s charming and sweet and terribly funny. it does has it’s deeper moments. but at anyrate, it made me think of my own bucket list…

1. learn to play the guitar
2. ride a motorcycle
3. bungee jump
4. see the aurora borealis
5. see favorite band live
6. sneak backstage and and meet favorite band
7. go on a road trip in a vw bus
8. hitchhike across the country
9. travel around the world
10. get a tattoo

oh yes… forgot… well happy new year everybody! yeah… just a tad bit late… but y’know…

so avid readers are asking “where’s that special surprise?” well… we’re starting a podcast. surprise! the first episode was planned by me and colin to be the first of this year… but the wp had a party… and podcast episodes? meh!

anyhow, i shall take this opportunity to announce some things… well for the most part this break has been characterized by college apps, skiing, and movies. college apps i have at last finished… skiing – the snow is total crap but i suppose crappy snow is better than no snow (i learned today not to follow a snowboarder into the trees for powder… cuz once he wipes and you’re coming from behind and well it’s kind hard to maneuver in powder especially with trees around). oh, and something else exciting… my ipod touch hack finally killed my ipod… so no more hack… the details of seles’ poor death is simply all the music and videos were suddenly gone and upon attaching it to the computer it asked to restore the firmware cuz it seems that everything had disappeared (tho curiously i could still play my hacked apps) so firmware restore, it’s at 1.1.2 no more hack.

movies! my break has been characterized by an incredible flurry of movies! so my humble opinion on films viewed within the last two weeks.

i am legend – paco was thoroughly disappointed. obviously he has some ridiculously high expectations for a zombie movie. i, however, was thoroughly impressed. i really wasn’t expecting much but will smith did a great acting job, there was actually a plot… and a sort of message that you can take home… i mean… by plot i don’t mean why the zombies existed… that was very resident-evil-ish in terms of plot. rather, just like there was some internal struggles and a lot of interesting things.

alvin and the chipmunks – fun music (not good, mind you. fun). crappy everything else. but hey it’s a holiday flick, didn’t really expect much to begin with.

half nelson – i think easily one of my favorite movies now. it has an interesting plot (imdb it for a good plot synopsis). it’s really good… ryan gossling has become one of my favorite actors now (as he was in fracture as well). cinematically it was dull, i must admit. it moved slowly at times. but it was truly intriguing. there were constant struggles between “opposites” (a motif that the movie starts off with, as ryan gossling plays a history teacher believing that it is the study of change and moreover change is created by opposing forces). there are lots of undertones regarding race, sex, definitely drugs, and a lot. it’s… deep… and to be honest… though it is somewhat hard to describe, it reminded me of dead poet’s society… except sort of reversed and instead of focusing on the students it focuses on the teacher.

italian job – yeah yeah… i watched the remake not the original. it was what it was, and i liked it… nice and mindless… and i mean, an army of mini-coops? how could i not like it?

spy game – just recently watched it. i don’t really know what to think. though i suppose it is full of gunfire and loud noises and explosions and sexy actresses (and hansom actors)… and of course a bit of romance… what’s not to like, right? i’ll be rather honest… i don’t like robert redford as an actor… as a director he’s great. and his character this time bothered me. but whatever, mindless hollywood mainstream…

once – now my absolute favorite movie. it’s definitely hard to get into… but then again, that’s part of it’s brilliance… the entire movie is just down-to-earth honest. the two main characters are definitely real and for sure believable. and the story is sweet and warming. the cinematography has a very honest feel… it has to do with the fact that the dublin scenes were filmed from afar and many of the surrounding people (aka extras) didn’t know a movie was being filmed. yes, the camera-work is definitely amateur-ish… the acting not that incredible (but then again, these aren’t actors who are acting). but i like it… it gives it a certain feel to it. it’s just… honest… what’s most amazing… after watching it you know it was low-budget… but if or one was surprised upon learning that it was filmed with a $160,000 budget! not only that, but filming only lasted a total of 17 days!! and despite this, it’s critically acclaimed, and won an award at sundance, and had a gross revenue of $14 million before DVD release!! i loved the movie so much, and this simple fact surprised me so much that i become discontent with my illegal download and bought the real thing from amazon.

well i gotta go… the itunes ipod restore thing didn’t work and i’m freaking out… a lot…

[EDIT] i fixed my ipod… thank god for online forums… tho the little tiny nick on my screen has grown and that’s annoying me. so i would like to add, since i wasn’t finished quite yet, that once has an absolutely amazing soundtrack. that’s all