Please excuse the horn tooting, but I just spotted this the other day. The coolest part was that I just happened to be with Morgan Spurlock at the time (my first time meeting him). He got as much of a kick out of it as I did.

Read my full review of Morgan Spurlock’s COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE at Twitch:
TIFF 2011: Spurlock’s COMIC-CON Will Make You A Fan

I should have obviously posted this earlier, but while there is horn tooting going on, check out the first quote up in the awesome theatrical trailer for THE RAID: REDEMPTION (at 1:24).

Exciting news in enderzero.net land. As of this month, I will be taking on a larger role at the my favorite film website TWITCH.

I’ll be expanding my festival coverage you are used to seeing here with previews, reviews, and coverage of all the top film festivals — as well as following the most interesting movies as they make their way to a theater near you. The mandate it to expand the Twitch audience with coverage of a more mainstream indie film world. What does that mean? Help me to define it. Films that I love and want to share. Films you want to keep an eye out for. Films you might have missed and need to check out. It’s a very exciting opportunity and I’d love your input to help shape the coverage towards the kind of articles you know you don’t want to miss.

To start things off, check out my Twitchfilm.com Cannes 2011 Preview.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and SEE YOU AT TWITCH!

Mi Madre and I headed to Vancouver earlier this month for a very fun 24 hours tromping around the town, checking out restaurants, bars, parks, and art. Here is a short account of the trip. Please check out the links to read my considerably more detailed Yelp reviews of each of the spots we visited. I’ll also link to photos from my Vancouver photoset on flickr.

After checking into our West End hotel the Blue Horizon (the same hotel where my grandfather stayed for a few months when he first moved to Vancouver in the 1970s), we hit Robson heading east. Our first stop was Japa Dog (4* on Yelp) (photo) – a little lunch time amalgamation of a hot dog stand and Japanese street food. That provided us with some fuel for the long walk down seedy Hastings street. But before we got there, we passed the big construction project that is Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium (photo). When the retractable roof is completed next year it will be the home of Vancouver’s new MLS franchise, the Whitecaps.

Hastings Street is starting to show some signs of gentrification. I only saw two people smoking crack openly on the street. There was still some pretty cool street art to be found (photos 1 | 2 | 3). Once past all that, we came to our destination, Commercial Drive. I had read that The Drive, as it’s known, is one of the more happening parts of Van and the reports seem to be true. It isn’t quite Los Feliz or Abbott Kinney, but it did remind me of The Ave in Seattle’s University District.

We stopped for coffee on the north end of The Drive at Pane Vero (4* on Yelp) before heading down through the heart of The Drive’s shopping district. Amongst other spots, we ducked into the memorable 10,000 Villages (5* on Yelp) where we bought a very cool trivet made of folded newspaper from the Philippines. After that we headed down The Drive past a number of Italian groceries and soccer bars where we spotted a very cool Italian soccer mural (photo). We went on to explore the Portland-esque neighborhood behind The Drive and then stopped for happy hour at an enjoyable spot called Timbre Restaurant (4* on Yelp).

From there we jumped on the skytrain and got out at the east end of False Creek where the sun finally peeked out for a bit (photo). The south east corner of False Creek is where Vancouver’s Olympic Village was built last winter. They’ve turned the media center into a very nice recreation center and all the athlete’s housing is now condos for sale (though most seemed empty). The weird part is that it seemed like they have done as much as possible to wipe away the signs that this is where the Olympics took place. No rings, no flame – the only hint was a street sign that ready Athlete’s Drive. Really it was kind of strange.

Just west of the condos is a very cool park (photo) with some great sculptures and some big kid toys. We had a great time checking this place out and the nice view across the creek (photo) before walking back downtown over the Cambie Street Bridge. Looking down from the bridge there was a very cool view of a huge pile of concrete street barriers (photo).

We walked back through downtown and up to Gastown where we walked past photogenic alleyways (photo) and shops (photo). We had a before dinner drink at my new favorite bar the Alibi Room (5* on Yelp) before heading to the dinner spot we decided on, the disappointing Pourhouse (3* on Yelp).

After dinner we walked back west past a cool interactive wooden art installation (photos 1 | 2). Our destination was a bar (pictured above) near our hotel called O’Douls (3* on Yelp). Unfortunately the advertised live music was a glorified hotel lobby band. But we did have a great time ending the evening sipping whiskey (photo). Stay tuned for news on my momma’s upcoming blog Sketching Scotches (working title).

We awoke to a rainy morning and after coffee took a nice drive around Vancouver’s Stanley Park. We then headed south to trendy Kitsilano where we stopped for brunch and the funky and delicious Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe (5* on Yelp) (photo). After eating we were off to the extremely enjoyable Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus. I’m going to post a whole photoset of all the cool masks inside the museum soon, but for now here, is a photo of Arthur Erickson’s beautiful building.

After the museum it was time to drive back south to the US of A where we met John and friends for a delicious dinner in BHam at Bayou on Bay (5* on Yelp). All in all it was a fantastic trip. Vancouver is just as fun a city as I remember from those 19 year old drunken escapades – only this time with much better food. I look forward to the next trip. Thanks Momma!

Just threw some pics up on flickr from some of my summer activities. A lot seem to be sports related – like this shot from the Sounders vs. Chivas USA game above.

Lemme know what you think.

Link

Mr. Brainwash is a street artist in the vein of Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Last summer he had a great exhibition (more) at the old CBS studios in H.wood. It took some pics while there and after more than a year of the photos sitting in a folder on my hdd, I have finally gotten around to doin em up and posting them to my flickr.

Check em out.

Link

A new flickr photoset is up from the recent trip to Jalama Beach.

MyLA is a feature I’d like to start for the people who call LA home to say a few things about what this town means to them. This can be whatever makes sense to you. What makes it your LA? Please let me know if you’d like contribute your piece to the MyLA project.

My LA is my morning cup of Zen Blend from Nature Mart on my balcony. My LA is a pen, a notepad, and a large drip coffee at Silverlake Coffee or Psychobabble or maybe Sabor y Cultura. My LA is Griffith Park – from hiking up into the hills to shagging balls at the driving range with a tall can to shooting on a goal made from a trash bin and a tree. MyLA is eating on Hillhurst. Brunch at Mustard Seed, lunch at Alcove, dinner at Green Leaves. My LA is flicks at the Vista, Los Feliz 3, or Arclight. My LA is frozen veggies, tandoori naan and 2 buck chuck from the Trader Joe’s around the corner. My LA is Sapphire & tonic at 4100, Tecate at Cha Cha or $1 tequila shots at The Gold Room if I’m really looking to tie one on. My LA is racing to Mt. High for 5pm-10pm night boarding (only $30). MyLA is a fun-filled afternoon at the track, seriously one of the most enjoyable (and surprisingly inexpensive) ways to spend a day …especially a work day. My LA is watching soccer on Saturdays and Sundays and probably Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (but only sometimes Mondays and Fridays). My LA is shows at Spaceland, The Echo(+plex), and The Greek. My LA is shopping at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market and then cooking a fresh Sunday dinner with my LA fam. But more than anything else, my LA is the view from my balcony as the sun sets over the city I call home.

I worked up this little animation in p.shop of some light effects on the HK skyline.

This is a 20MB file so you should really let it load in full in order to see it properly.

Go ahead, open another tab, we’ll wait.

Pic also on Flickr as part of my HK Set

(if this just says a url then it is loading…)

My photoset from Hong Kong is now up on Flickr.

I guess I was a bit bored by a number of the photos because I found myself doing a fair amount of heavy handed editing. I’ve grouped most of those shots towards the end of the photoset. Enjoy, and as always, please let me know what you think.

At last (hey, only 2 months) I have my full Nepal photoset up on flickr. I have done my best to add details in the descriptions. Check it out and please comment. Which are your faves?

Also, I have compiled my 12 favorite photos from the set which you can view…