So if you still wondering what to get your hipster sweetie for V-Day, check out these gift ideas below:

When you don’t know how to say it, say the word “fucking”. Always a good way to let your significant other know that you care. Urban Outfitters $39

And when you still don’t know how to say it, but at least have good taste in film. The ladies always love an Alvy Singer. Etsy $20

Every woman loves to have her tan-less ass cheeks accentuated, so why not give her the gift of Prince chaps? American Apparel $22

A duvet cover featuring the title of quite possibly the best song ever written. Whomever thought David Byrne was a romantic? Urban Outfitters $89

To get your bonin’ on, Leonard Cohen’s new album, Old Ideas. Amazon $10.99

For when either one of you need, er, stimulation in the sack. Amazon $14.99

“Brick Valentine’s on the Philly Skyline”, photo book of artist Steve Powers. A Love Letter for You $19.95

I rarely drink anymore.

Because of that, this post is spawned from the fact that I spent most of yesterday morning barfing up the Janis Joplin- hemp seed veggie patty, Tillamook cheese and avocado- at Austin’s beloved burger spot, Hopdoddy. I had three drinks of tequila and my body was all like, “WTF is this stingy crap going through my veins?” and decided to violently discard whatever it could find resting in my body which was mostly seeds and nuts. Lemme tell you, seeds and nuts feeling like freakin’ barbed wire travelling up your windpipe at the speed of sound. Between the liquor and the texture of the nuts, it feels like someone taking a Brillo Pad and going, “Scrape, scrape, scrape! Wee, wee, wee!”

When you get out of the habit of drinking, things like instant naptime or ralphing are common.

I never was a big drinker to begin with.

Considering I come from a family of non-drinkers that have the ability to drink two sips of wine and then laugh for five minutes while they try to find their belly button, drinking to get shitface or blacking out was never a goal or desire. I can probably count on both hands the number of times I’ve thrown up from drinking alcohol in my adult life. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a temporary dependency on alcohol when I first moved to LA due to my difficulty coping with my new found freedom, job and lifestyle. I spent many evenings hiding in my bedroom drinking until I got tired, taking pictures of myself drunk and writing the most emo and embarrassing “WHY WON’T SOMEONE HOLD ME?!?” journal entries over and over.

I was 21 and LA was the first place I ever drank. Yes, I was one of those nerdy assholes that didn’t try alcohol until she was legally able. I shit you not, I was sitting at a table next to my Academy Award-winning actor boss, Lindsay Lohan, Wilmer Valderrama, the Olsen twin who wasn’t in rehab at the time, a recently dumped and very Charles Mason-looking John Stamos and a couple of my boss’ business associates/friends. We were crammed at a private table at a restaurant owned by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and I had absolutely no clue why I deserved to be there. Everyone was drinking and I tried to slink as far under the table as I could to be invisible. Everyone was having a blast, except for John Stamos who was talking about spending his days sadly fishing off his balcony and wanting to date twenty year-olds because they’re not jaded, and myself. I was not drinking and felt extraordinarily uncomfortable. It was that night that I decided I must learn to drink if I was going to work in the entertainment business. That opened the flood gates to finding a nice, cozy dependency at home when the goings got tough in the City of Angels.

My drinking at home alone tied directly into my unhappiness with my job and life and I wasn’t too worried about my behavior for I knew it would pass once I came out of my self-indulgent early twenty-something “WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!” phase. After moving to Texas I drank less and less, though I discovered that more people drank socially in Austin than in Los Angeles. For the first time in my life, I felt an unspoken peer pressure to drink socially because beer essentially grows on trees here in Austin. I tried to learn to drink more in public and I also learned to drink beer, but I found myself not enjoying my time out because so many people were loaded. How many DWIs people had were a common and casual topic of conversation and drinking until 3 or 4 on a Monday night was natural. Everyone is entitled to their own life, but that lifestyle was not me and I didn’t want to pretend that it was. Since then I rarely drink which has become a thorn in my side at times. I’ve actually been told by a former boss that he didn’t “trust me” because I wouldn’t drink margaritas with him during a business lunch. I often find myself not able to let loose and enjoy myself in certain social situations that involve loud music and large crowds. I know that if I drink in these sort of social situations, I would chill out a bit, but these days, I’m just not feeling the booze anymore. The fear of looking like a uptight turd overwhelms me and I decide to go home.

I didn’t stop drinking because of the previously mentioned scenarios. I simply stopped drinking because I didn’t like the way it made me feel. I’m a sleepy drinker so it can become problematic when I’m out with friends and I find myself wanting to curl up like a cat on someone’s lap.

I’m also no longer 21 and happy with my life and who I am.

A friend once suggested that maybe I don’t like to lose control of myself. I was a little miffed at the comment, but I think he may be right. It’s the same reason why I never have and will probably never do drugs. Wanting to be successful at something for my entire life, I’ve found that giving myself over to a stimulant or depressant that alters my brain for a certain amount of time is only a hindrance. Believe me, I wish I could be as romantic and messed up as Bukowski or Hemingway. But alas, I’m stuck as the teetotaler who occasionally throws up vegetarian burgers.

I like men’s clothing.

I wish this were my big Ed Wood-like announcement in the form of writing rather than a poorly shot and performed film about transvestism, but it’s not. Everyone in my life has known that I’ve liked men’s clothing for a long time.

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve never thought strangely of wearing a bowtie, suspenders or suit. If spotting a colorful tie or loafers while thrift shopping, I must add them to my collection, a collection that also includes top hat (collapsible), fedora, two tuxedo jackets and several fitted pants.

This love of men’s clothing could have come from the fact that my family owned a casual and formal apparel store, but they specialized in women’s clothing, not men’s. My comfort in wearing men’s suits could have been cultivated by my mother’s encouragement to be whatever I wanted to be and not let anyone make me feel bad about myself.

CONTINUE….

SXSW just released their official 2012 film line-up yesterday and there are a lot of goodies.

Over the next weeks, I will be posting about some  of the must-see films of the year.

In the meantime, check out the list of films below.
Narrative Feature Competition:

Booster

• Director & Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
• When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
• Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail
• (World Premiere)

Eden

• Director: Megan Griffiths | Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips & Megan Griffiths | Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim
• A young Korean-American girl, abducted and forced into prostitution by domestic human traffickers, joins forces with her captors in a desperate plea to survive.
• Cast: Jamie Chung, Matt O’Leary, Beau Bridges, Jeanine Monterroza, Scott Mechlowicz
• (World Premiere)

Gayby

• Director & Screenwriter: Jonathan Lisecki
• Jenn and Matt, best friends since college who are now in their thirties, decide to have a child together, the old-fashioned way – even though Matt is gay and Jenn is straight.
• Cast: Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Mike Doyle, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jack Ferver
• (World Premiere)

Gimme the Loot

• Director & Screenwriter: Adam Leon
• When Malcolm and Sofia’s latest graffiti masterpiece is buffed by a rival gang, these two determined Bronx teens must hustle, steal, and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest writers in the City.
• Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Meeko, Zoe Lescaze, Sam Soghor
• (World Premiere)

Los Chidos (Germany / Mexico / USA)

• Director & Screenwriter: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
• The Gonzales family tries hard to hold on to their beautiful Latino traditions of misogyny and homophobia when a tall, white, industrialist stranger appears, challenging their place in the exploitative food chain.
• Cast: Kim Stodel, María De Jesús Canales Ramírez, Manuel Ramos, Cecillia Gutiérrez
• (World Premiere)

Pilgrim Song

• Director: Martha Stephens | Screenwriters: Martha Stephens & Karrie Crouse
• A pink-slipped music teacher ponders his stalled relationship and place in the world during an arduous trek across Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace Trail.
• Cast: Timothy Morton, Bryan Marshall, Karrie Crouse, Harrison Cole, Michael Abbott Jr.
• (World Premiere)

Starlet

• Director: Sean Baker | Screenwriters: Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch
• The film explores the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane (Dree Hemingway), and 85 year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson), two women whose worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley.
• Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Stella Maeve, James Ransone, Karren Karagulian
• (World Premiere)

The Taiwan Oyster

• Director: Mark Jarrett | Screenwriters: Mark Jarrett, Jordan Heimer, Mitchell Jarrett
• Two Ex-Pat Kindergarten teachers in Taiwan embark on a quixotic odyssey to bury a fellow countryman.
• Cast: Billy Harvey, Jeff Palmiotti, Leonora Lim
• (World Premiere)

Documentary Feature Competition:

Bay of All Saints

• Director: Annie Eastman
• As the last of the notorious water slums is demolished in Bahia, Brazil, will three single mothers face homelessness or rally for a better life?
• (World Premiere)

Beware of Mr. Baker

• Director: Jay Bulger
• Ginger Baker is the original rock ‘n roll madman junkie drummer superstar who everyone thought was dead but somehow survived 50+ years of heroin abuse, disastrous experiments and 4 marriages on 3 continents.
• (World Premiere)

The Central Park Effect

• Director: Jeffrey Kimball
• The film reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green, and the equally colorful, full-of-attitude New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration.
• (World Premiere)

Jeff

• Director: Chris James Thompson
• A documentary about the people around Jeffrey Dahmer during the 1991 summer of his arrest for the murder of 17 people in Milwaukee.
• (World Premiere)

Seeking Asian Female

• Director: Debbie Lum
• When an American man with “yellow fever” meets a Chinese woman half his age online, documenting their attempt to build a marriage from scratch reveals hilarious and troubling complications for the couple and the filmmaker.
• (World Premiere)

The Sheikh and I

• Director: Caveh Zahedi
• Commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of “art as a subversive act,” independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict) is threatened with a fatwa.
• (World Premiere)

The Source

• Directors: Jodi Wille & Maria Demopoulos
• The Source Family was a radical experiment in ’70s utopian living. Their popular restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood; but their outsider ideals led to their dramatic undoing.
• (World Premiere)

Welcome To The Machine

• Director: Avi Zev Weider
• Upon fathering triplets, filmmaker Avi Zev Weider explores the nature of technology, seeking answers about what it means to be human.
• (World Premiere)

Headliners:

21 Jump Street

• Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller | Screenplay by: Michael Bacall | Story by: Michael Bacall & Jonah Hill
• Police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) get sent back to high school as undercover cops in the action-comedy 21 Jump Street.
• Cast:Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, with Ice Cube
• (World Premiere)

BIG EASY EXPRESS

• Director: Emmett Malloy
• Emmett Malloy’s latest film invites us aboard a train ride unlike any other with Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show.
• (World Premiere)

The Cabin in the Woods

• Director: Drew Goddard | Screenwriters: Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard
• Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes The Cabin in the Woods, a mind-blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.
• Cast: Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford
• (World Premiere)

Decoding Deepak

• Director: Gotham Chopra
• Filmmaker Gotham Chopra spends a year on the road decoding his father and spiritual icon Deepak Chopra.
• (World Premiere)

Girls

• Director & Screenwriter: Lena Dunham
• Created by and starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture), the HBO show is a comic look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20s.
• Cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver
• (World Premiere)

The Hunter (Australia)

• Director: Daniel Nettheim | Screenplay by: Alice Addison | Novel by: Julia Leigh | Original Adaptation by: Wain Fimeri
• A mercenary is dispatched from Europe to the Tasmanian wilderness by a mysterious biotech company to search for the last surviving Tasmanian tiger.
• Cast: Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, Sam Neill
• (U.S. Premiere)

Killer Joe

• Director: William Friedkin | Screenwriter: Tracy Letts
• A garish, Southwestern tale – a violent black comedy about a desperate Texas debtor (Hirsch) who plots to kill his mother with help of his family (Haden Church, Gershon). They hire a crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer (McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Temple) as a retainer. The film is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts’ (August: Osage County) award winning play.
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church
• (U.S. Premiere)

MARLEY (UK / USA)

• Director: Kevin Macdonald
• The definitive life story of Bob Marley – musician, revolutionary, legend – from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best. Directed by Academy-Award-Winner Kevin Macdonald.
• (North American Premiere)

Narrative Spotlight:

The Babymakers

• Director: Jay Chandrasekhar | Screenwriters: Peter Gaulke & Gerry Swallow
• Unable to impregnate his wife, Tommy and friends rob a sperm bank – to get Tommy’s long-ago donated sperm back. The crazy plan goes hilariously awry and shows how far a couple will go to create a new life.
• Cast: Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn, Kevin Heffernan, Wood Harris, Nat Faxon
• (World Premiere)

Crazy Eyes

• Director: Adam Sherman | Screenwriters: Adam Sherman, Dave Reeves & Rachel Hardisty
• Just another story about love.
• Cast: Lukas Haas, Madeline Zima, Jake Busey, Tania Raymonde, Regine Nehy
• (World Premiere)

The Do-Deca-Pentathalon

• Directors & Screenwriters: Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass
• Two brothers compete in their own private 25-event Olympics.
• Cast: Mark Kelly, Steve Zissis, Jennifer Lafleur
• (World Premiere)

Fat Kid Rules The World

• Director: Matthew Lillard | Screenwriters: Michael M.B. Galvin, Peter Speakman
• Troy, a depressed overweight teenager, gets sucked into the punk rock world by Marcus, a charming street musician. But when Troy discovers Marcus’ drug addiction, he suddenly must figure out the true boundaries of friendship.
• Cast: Jacob Wysocki, Matt O’Leary, Billy Campbell, Lilli Simmons, Dylan Arnold
• (World Premiere)

frankie go boom

• Director & Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts
• A comedy about two brothers, a girl with a broken heart, a sex tape, an angel and a pig
• Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Chris O’Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Ron Perlman, Chris Noth
• (World Premiere)

Hunky Dory (UK)

• Director: Marc Evans | Screenwriter: Laurence Coriat
• From the producer of Billy Elliot comes this funny, coming of age film featuring songs from artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Dusty Springfield and Electric Light Orchestra.
• Cast: Minnie Driver, Aneurin Barnard, Danielle Branch, Robert Pugh, Haydn Gwynne
• (North American Premiere)

In Our Nature

• Director & Screenwriter: Brian Savelson
• Taking place over a single weekend, an estranged father and son accidentally end up in the same country house with their two girlfriends.
• Cast: Zach Gilford, Jena Malone, John Slattery, Gabrielle Union
• (World Premiere)

Keyhole (Canada)

• Director: Guy Maddin | Screenwriters: Guy Maddin & George Toles
• I’m only a ghost… but a ghost isn’t nothing.
• Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Jason Patric, Udo Kier, Kevin McDonald, Tattiawna Jones
• (U.S. Premiere)

See Girl Run

• Director & Screenwriter: Nate Meyer
• What happens when a 30-something woman allows life’s “what ifs” to overwhelm her appreciation for what life actually is. Disregarding her current obligations, she digs into her romantic past in hopes of invigorating her present.
• Cast: Robin Tunney, Adam Scott, Jeremy Strong, William Sadler, Josh Hamilton
• (World Premiere)

Small Apartments

• Director: Jonas Åkerlund | Screenwriter: Chris Millis
• When Franklin Franklin accidentally kills his landlord, he must hide the body; but, the wisdom of his beloved brother and the quirks of his neighbors, force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
• Cast: Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville, Juno Temple
• (World Premiere)

Somebody Up There Likes Me

• Director & Screenwriter: Bob Byington
• : Thirty-five years in the life of Max, his best friend Sal, and a woman they both adore. A deadpan fable about time sneaking up on and swerving right around us.
• Cast: Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, Jess Weixler, Stephanie Hunt, Kevin Corrigan
• (North American Premiere)

Documentary Spotlight:

$ELLEBRITY

• Director: Kevin Mazur
• Renowned celebrity photographer, Kevin Mazur, gives us an all access pass to the life behind the velvet rope and in front of the camera. Candid, revealing and bold interviews with Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John and more, take us inside the blurred lines of privacy, pliable journalism, celebrity, fame and what it feels like to be consumed.
• (World Premiere)

America’s Parking Lot

• Director: Jonny Mars
• Pull up a front row seat as two die-hard fans of ‘America’s Team’ spend their last season with the Dallas Cowboys at historic Texas Stadium, and scramble to preserve their place in America’s Parking Lot.
• (World Premiere)

The Announcement

• Director: Nelson George
• On Thursday, November 7, 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson made the stunning announcement that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from basketball immediately. The Announcement gets to the core of Magic’s incredible personal journey.
• (World Premiere)

Beauty Is Embarrassing

• Director: Neil Berkeley
• A funny, irreverent and inspirational look into the life and times of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White.
• (World Premiere)

Brooklyn Castle

• Director: Katie Dellamaggiore
• Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castle takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school’s champion chess team.
• (World Premiere)

Code of the West

• Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen
• Frames a high stakes showdown in the halls of the Montana State Legislature. The future of medical marijuana is at stake.
• (World Premiere)

Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes

• Director: M. Slinger
• A true document of the art and culture of glass pipe-making. It is the first film to ever bring to light this invisible sub-culture in a comprehensive and well-informed format.
• (World Premiere)

Girl Model

• Directors: A. Sabin, David Redmon
• Young Russian girls join a modeling agency to seek work in Japan, but get caught up in an unregulated system that reveals an unseemly side of the fashion industry.
• (U.S. Premiere)

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters

• Director: Ben Shapiro
• Acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson’s 10-year quest to create a series of haunting, surreal, and stunningly elaborate portraits of small-town American life — filmed with unprecedented access as he makes perfect renderings of a disturbing, imperfect world.
• (World Premiere)

Just Like Being There

• Director: Scout Shannon
• Through the eyes of Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, and the gig poster community, Just Like Being There focuses on poster artists, the music they commemorate, MONDO film posters, fans, bloggers, galleries, collectors and everything in between.
• (World Premiere)

Scarlet Road (Australia)

• Director: Catherine Scott
• The film follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele – people with disability.
• (North American Premiere)

Trash Dance

• Director: Andrew Garrison
• A choreographer finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and against the odds, rallies reluctant city trash collectors to perform an extraordinary dance spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen sanitation workers — and their trucks — inspire an audience of thousands.
• (World Premiere)

Waiting For Lightning

• Director: Jacob Rosenberg
• From the producers of Step into Liquid, comes the story of visionary skateboarder Danny Way, who jumped China’s Great Wall and created a new movement in sport.
• (World Premiere)

Wikileaks: Secrets & Lies (UK)

• Director: Patrick Forbes
• The in-depth story of Wikileaks told by all the key players. Sulphurous, personal and moving, it documents history in the making at the lawless frontier of new technology and mainstream media.
• (North American Premiere)

WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines

• Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
• This documentary examines the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman and introduces audiences to a dynamic group of real life superheroes who continue to fight the good fight both on and off the screen.
• (World Premiere)

Emerging Visions:

Black Pond (UK)

• Directors: Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe | Screenwriter: Will Sharpe
• An ordinary family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Stars BAFTA-winner Chris Langham and British Comedy Award Winner Simon Amstell.
• Cast: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Will Sharpe
• (North American Premiere)

Dollhouse (Ireland)

• Director & Screenwriter: Kirsten Sheridan
• Five street teens break into a house in a rich Dublin suburb for a night of partying. But games are twisted into something more emotional and ultimately out of control through a series of surprising revelations,
• Cast: Seana Kerslake, Johnny Ward, Kate Stanley Brennan, Shane Curry, Ciaran McCabe
• (North American Premiere)

Eating Alabama

• Director: Andrew Beck Grace
• A quest to eat locally becomes a meditation on community, the South and sustainability. Eating Alabama is a story about why food matters.
• (World Premiere)

Electrick Children

• Director & Screenwriter: Rebecca Thomas
• Rachel, a 15-year-old fundamentalist Mormon, believes she’s had an immaculate conception by listening to rock and roll. She flees to Las Vegas to escape an arranged marriage, seeking answers to her mysterious pregnancy.
• Cast: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Billy Zane
• (North American Premiere)

Extracted

• Director & Screenwriter: Nir Paniry
• A scientist is trapped in the memories of a criminal and must solve a crime in order to get back home to his family.
• Cast: Sasha Roiz, Dominic Bogart, Jenny Mollen, Nick Jameson, Brad Culver
• (World Premiere)

Francine (Canada / USA)

• Director & Screenwriter: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky
• Academy-Award-winner, Melissa Leo, plays Francine, a woman struggling to find her place in a downtrodden lakeside town after leaving behind a life in prison.
• Cast: Melissa Leo, Keith Leonard, Victoria Charkut
• (North American Premiere)

Funeral Kings

• Director & Screenwriter: Kevin Mcmanus, Matthew Mcmanus
• For three 14-year-old boys at St. Mark’s Middle School, it’s always a good day for a funeral.
• Cast: Dylan Hartigan, Alex Maizus, Jordan Puzzo, Charles Odei, Kevin Corrigan
• (World Premiere)

Hard Labor

• Directors & Screenwriters: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra
• Helena prepares to open her own business: a neighborhood grocery store. She hires a maid. But when her husband Octavio is suddenly fired from his job, Helena is left to support the family alone.
• Cast: Helena Albergaria, Marat Descartes, Naloana Lima, Marina Flores
• (US Premiere)

La Camioneta – The Journey of One American School Bus

• Director: Mark Kendall
• On a 3,000-mile adventure across the borders between the Americas, La Camioneta follows the journey of one out-of-service American school bus as it is repaired, repainted and resurrected into a Guatemalan camioneta.
• (World Premiere)

The Last Fall

• Director & Screenwriter: Matthew A. Cherry
• An NFL journeyman struggles to deal with life’s complexities after his professional career is over at age 25.
• Cast: Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Harry Lennix, Keith David
• (World Premiere)

Leave Me Like You Found Me

• Director & Screenwriter: Adele Romanski
• Big trees, broken hearts. The story of a lovesick couple’s breakup & makeup while camping in the wilds of California.
• Cast: Megan Boone, David Nordstrom
• (World Premiere)

PAVILION

• Director & Screenwriter: Tim Sutton
• Max, a quietly troubled 15-year-old, leaves his lakeside town to live with his father on the sun-blasted fringe of suburban Arizona. What begins in a calm and lush environment ends in a drastic, frayed confusion.
• Cast: Max Schaffner, Zach Cali, Cody Hamric, Addie Barlett, Aaron Buyea
• (World Premiere)

Sun Don’t Shine

• Director & Screenwriter: Amy Seimetz
• Two lovers, on the back roads of Florida, do very bad things.
• Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Kentucker Audley, AJ Bowen, Kit Gwinn, Mark Reeb
• (World Premiere)

Sunset Stories

• Directors: Silas Howard, Ernesto Foronda | Screenwriter: Valerie Stadler
• When May returns to LA and runs smack into JP, the man she left behind, past and present collide sending them on a twenty-four hour journey in search of what they lost.
• Cast: Monique Curnen, Sung Kang, Joshua Leonard, Mousa Kraish, Michelle Krusiec
• (World Premiere)

Tchoupitoulas

• Directors: Bill Ross, Turner Ross
• Three young brothers’ immersive journey into the sensory wonders of the New Orleans night.
• (World Premiere)

Thale (Norway)

• Director & Screenwriter: Aleksander L. Nordaas
• The film revolves around huldra, a mythical, tailed creature, found by two crime scene cleaners in a concealed cellar. Someone’s been keeping her down here for decades, for reasons soon to surface.
• Cast: Silje Reinåmo, Jon Sigve Skard, Erlend Nervold, Morten Andresen
• (North American Premiere)

Wildness

• Director: Wu Tsang
• A magical-realist portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in Los Angeles that provides a safe space for Latin/LGBT immigrant and queer art communities to come together in love and conflict.

WOLF

• Director & Screenwriter: Ya’ke Smith
• A family is shaken to the core when they discover their son has been molested. As they struggle to deal with the betrayal, their son heads towards a total mental collapse.
• Cast: Irma P. Hall, Mikala Gibson, Jordan Cooper, Shelton Jolivette, Eugene Lee
• (World Premiere)

24 Beats per Second:

Amor Cronico (Cuba / USA)

• Director: Jorge Perugorria
• Weaving footage of singer Cucu Diamantes’ Cuban tour into a fictional love story. The result is an energetic display of her glamorous and infectious performance style and a fascinating portrait of Cuba today.
• Cast: Cucu Diamantes, Adela Legra, Liosky Clavero, Andres Levin, Jorge Perugorria
• (World Premiere)

Bad Brains: Band in DC

• Directors: Mandy Stein, Benjamen Logan
• How four young men from DC changed music forever.
• (World Premiere)

Charles Bradley: Soul of America

• Director: Poull Brien
• The incredible late-in-life rise of 62-year-old aspiring soul singer Charles Bradley, whose debut album rocketed him from a hard life in the projects to Rolling Stone magazine’s top 50 albums of 2011.
• (World Premiere)

Daylight Savings

• Director: Dave Boyle | Screenwriters: Dave Boyle, Michael Lerman, Joel Clark, Goh Nakamura
• After a devastating breakup, musician Goh Nakamura hits the road with his irresponsible cousin to pursue a promising rebound with fellow musician Yea-Ming Chen. Cast: Goh Nakamura, Michael Aki, Yea-Ming Chen, Lynn Chen, Ayako Fujitani
• (World Premiere)

Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir (Iceland / Denmark)

• Director: Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir
• At the tender age of 70 she started making music – and then she couldn’t stop! A tribute to the Danish/Icelandic artist and late bloomer Sigrídur Níelsdóttir.

Paul Williams Still Alive

• Director: Stephen Kessler
• A documentary filmmaker tracks down actor/singer/songwriter Paul Williams in an attempt to find out what happened to his idol.
• (US Premiere)

Rock ‘N’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen (UK)

• Director: Don Letts
• Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper, Billie Joe Armstrong and others discuss the incredible life and work of the world’s foremost rock ‘n’ roll photographer, Bob Gruen.
• (North American Premiere)

Sunset Strip

• Director: Hans Fjellestad
• The 100-year history of the loudest street on the planet, The Sunset Strip.
• (World Premiere)

Under African Skies

• Director: Joe Berlinger
• Paul Simon returns to South Africa to explore the incredible journey of his historic Graceland album, including the political backlash he received for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime.

Uprising: Hip Hop & The LA Riots

• Director: Mark Ford
• 20 years after riots ripped through Los Angeles, Uprising documents how hip hop forecasted – and some say ignited – the worst civil unrest of the 20th century.
• (World Premiere)

SX Global:

BIJUKA (India)

• Director: Ashtar Sayed | Screenwriter: Dr. Mahendra Purohit
• Inspired by a true event. Scarecrow tells the true story of a young woman who is attempting to escape from an abusive arranged marriage.
• Cast: Arti Rautela, Amit Purohit
• (North American Premiere)

Crulic – The Path to Beyond (Romania / Poland)

• Director: Anca Damian
• The animated documentary feature-length “Crulic – The Path to Beyond” tells the story of the life of Crulic, the 33-year-old Romanian who died in a Polish prison while on hunger strike.

Cubaton – El Medico Story (Estonia / Sweden)

• Director: Daniel Fridell
• El Medico – a Cuban house doctor who wants to become a cubaton star – is facing a serious choice between serving the state and becoming a popstar.
• (North American Premiere)

Her Master’s Voice (UK)

• Director: Nina Conti
• Watching someone talk to themselves has never been so interesting.
• (World Premiere)

ITALY LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT (Italy / Germany)

• Directors: Gustav Hofer, Luca Ragazzi
• Gustav and Luca, two Italians, have to decide: Should they stay in Italy, or leave it? .
• (North American Premiere)

Mustafa’s Sweet Dreams (Greece / UK)

• Director: Angelos Abazoglou
• Mustafa, a 16-year-old pastry shop apprentice dreams of becoming a famous baklava chef in Istanbul.
• (North American Premiere)

Pompeya (Argentina)

• Director: Tamae Garateguy | Screenwriters: Tamae Garateguy, Diego A. Fleischer
• When a film director hires two Screenwriters to make a gansters movie, a fiction feast starts: femmes fatales, mobs fighting for the same neighborhood and a limitless hero who defies every movie concept.
  Cast: José Luciano González, Joel Drut, Chang Sung Kim, Vladimir Yuravel, Miguel Forza de Paul
• (US Premiere)

¡Vivan las Antipodas! (Germany / The Netherlands / Argentina / Chile))

• Director: Victor Kossakovsky
• Haven’t we all wondered at some point what was happening just at this moment beneath our very feet at the other side of the planet?

Festival Favorites:

Beast (Denmark)

• Director & Screenwriter: Christoffer Boe
• How long will you go, to hold on to the person you love?
• Cast: Nicolas Bro, Marijana Jankovic, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

The Comedy

• Director: Rick Alverson | Screenwriters: Robert Donne, Colm O’Leary
• Indifferent even to the prospects of inheriting his father’s estate, Swanson (Tim Heidecker), a desensitized, aging Brooklyn hipster, strays into a series of reckless situations that may offer the promise of redemption or the threat of retribution.
• Cast: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, Kate Lyn-Sheil, Alexia Rassmusen

Dreams of a Life (UK / Ireland)

• Director: Carol Morley
• An imaginative quest to go beyond the newspaper reports and solve the mystery of who thirty-eight year old Joyce Vincent was and why she lay undiscovered for three years after her death in one of the busiest parts of London.
• (North American Premiere)

God Bless America

• Director & Screenwriter: Bobcat Goldthwait
• Loveless, jobless, possibly terminally ill, Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing left to lose, Frank takes his gun and offs the stupidest, cruelest, and most repellent members of society.
• Cast: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr
• (North American Premiere)

The Imposter (UK)

• Director: Bart Layton
• In 1994 a 13-year-old disappears without trace in Texas. Three years later he resurfaces in Spain with accounts of a horrifying kidnap. His family is overjoyed – but all is not as it seems.

Indie Game: The Movie (Canada)

• Directors: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky
• With the twenty-first century comes a new breed of artist: the indie game designer. These innovators design and program their distinctly personal games in the hope that they may find connection and success.

KID-THING

• Director & Screenwriter: David Zellner
• A fever-dream fable about Annie, a rebellious girl devoid of parental guidance or a moral compass. She roams the countryside looking for adventure, and finds it one day in the form of an abandoned well.
• Cast: Sydney Aguirre, Susan Tyrrell, Nathan Zellner, David Zellner, David Wingo

Last call at the Oasis

• Director: Jessica Yu
• A powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.

Lovely Molly

• Director: Eduardo Sanchez | Screenwriters: Eduardo Sanchez, Jamie Nash
• Exploring the parallels between psychosis, addiction and demonic possession, Lovely Molly tells the story of what really happens before the exorcist arrives.
• Cast: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden
• (US Premiere)

The Raid (Indonesia)

• Director & Screenwriter: Gareth Huw Evans
• Rama and his special forces team fight their way through a rundown apartment block with a mission to remove its owner, a notorious drug lord.
• Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno
• (US Premiere)

WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists

• Director: Brian Knappenberger
• We Are Legion takes us inside the world of Anonymous, the radical “hacktivist” collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age.

Special Events:

An Evening With Sacred Bones Records

• Director: Jacqueline Castel
• Brooklyn-based record label Sacred Bones presents an evening of original and curated programming of music videos, short films, works in progress, and a rare screening of their first film production, Twelve Dark Noons.
• (World Premiere)

Bernie (UK)

• Director: Richard Linklater | Screenwriters: Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth
• Based on real-life events, this dark comedy follows Bernie Tiede, his recently deceased friend Marjorie Nugent and District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson who is determined to get to the bottom of the crime.
• Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman, Richard Robichaux

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

• Director: Drew Denicola
• A feature-length documentary about the massive critical acclaim, dismal commercial failure, and enduring legacy of pop music’s greatest cult phenomenon, Big Star.
• (Work in Progress)

Casa de mi Padre

• Director: Matt Piedmont | Screenwriter: Andrew Steele
• Will Ferrell plays a Mexican rancher who must defend his father’s home against the country’s most infamous drug lord.
• Cast: Will Ferrell, Gael García Vernal, Diego Luna, Genesis Rodriguez, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Nick Offerman

Girl Walk // All Day

• Director & Screenwriter: Jacob Krupnick
• A feature-length dance music film that combines freestyle dance with the daily chaos of New York City, set to Girl Talk’s recent mashup album, All Day.
• Cast: Anne Marsen, John Doyle, Daisuke Omiya

Re:Generation

• Director: Amir Bar Lev
• 5 DJ’s Turn the Table on The History of Music.

Renga (UK)

• Directors: Adam Russell, John Sear
• A ground breaking feature-length show controlled entirely by the audience using laser pointers. It is the first viable example of a standalone interactive experience capable of running in commercial movie theatres.
• (North American Premiere)

The Oyster Princess (1919) with original live score by Bee vs. Moth (Germany)

• Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Screenwriters: Hanns Kraly & Ernst Lubitsch
• The Oyster Princess is Ernst Lubitsch’s tart 1919 silent comedy that parodies the rich and the spoiled. Austin jazz/rock band Bee vs. Moth performs their original score live with the film for the first time. (World Premiere)
• (World Premiere)

As of today, I officially moved into Geoff’s house.

When I tell friends this, they usually respond with, “Wow! Taking the big step! Are you excited or nervous?”

Because I feel neither, it confuses me when my friends ask this, but I guess it is a legitimate question. Moving into a boyfriend’s house is a big step, but for some reason I don’t view it that way. It just seems natural.

Considering I’ve been staying here almost every day since we first met, there is no fanfare for my official arrival into the house. Instead I have a pile of crap that needs to find a home in its new home.

As I sit here on his couch, a long, green mid-century couch that was oddly in the film Tree of Life, I look around and see very little that is mine because this is not my house. It is Geoff’s. He designed the house himself with his former long term girlfriend. The design and decor of the house doesn’t scream, “Geoff and former girlfriend!”, nor does it scream, “Just Geoff!” The design is minimal and one that is attractive to me. It is a contemporary, open floor plan with barn doors for walls and splashes of color from Geoff’s favorite city, Santa Fe, here and there. The house is one that I maybe would have designed for myself, or maybe I would have restored an ornate Victorian home in some other city and some other time in my life. Who knows.

I had quick flashes of sadness when I think that I’m not entering unmarked living quarters of my own, where I can freely adorn the walls with old photos of Georgia O’Keefe, mid-century homes in Los Angeles and views of the desert from Route 40. Or place David Byrne paraphernalia, mannequin heads with mustaches and wigs wherever I may please. But the thing is, Geoff likes these sort of images and knick knacks and he would be happy to have them in his house because he likes Georgia O’Keefe and David Byrne and mustaches and wigs too.

But how do I ask him? How do I come into someone’s home and say, “Look, we’re changing things up, Buddy.” In small intervals I will ask him questions that will lead to potential changes in his household- “can we put a bookcase there?” or “maybe a coat rack would be nice near the door”- and every time he happily agrees and every time I’m surprised. Why should I be surprised? He wants me in his house, yet I can’t help but feel I need to ease into this without disrupting the solitary life he’s had in his home for a number of years.

It’s interesting moving into someone else’s home. If the roles were reversed- Geoff moved into my home- how would I feel? Would I have difficulty making changes that incorporate his style and taste? Would it be my first most difficult exercise in sharing? Or would I welcome it with open arms, having waited for this moment to share my tastes and interests with someone else for a very long time? I know it would be the latter.

The question is, do I feel at home here? And the answer is, I feel at home with Geoff, wherever that may be. When I lie in bed and watch the shadow of the tree dance along his ceiling, I feel at peace. I have been waiting for this moment yet it came with the tiniest noise.

Maybe one day I’ll feel comfortable saying “ours” instead of “his”.

Today marks the debut of my favorite Jewish Canada’s newest album. No, William Shatner has not blessed us with another compilation of monotonal pop ballads. Leonard Cohen’s 12th studio album, Old Ideas, hits the record stores today. And lucky for us, we can listen to the entire album on NPR before we buy it!

Going to put this on in the background in hopes of some writing inspiration. Lord knows I need it today.

In the process of moving, I found packed away this hair and make-up photo I inherited from a film my former employer produced.

Given to me instead of being throw out, this and other photos sat in my desk at work for a long time. Too touchingly candid to get rid of them myself, they’ve traveled with me, hidden away in piles of papers or books throughout the past few years.

Maybe it’s time to frame this picture. Far cry from his Drive charisma, huh?

What “Hey Girl” do you think he’s thinking of here…?

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved nerds.

The thicker the glasses they wore, the better. Even more attractive than coke bottles was social awkwardness. At eight years of age I loved my men weird and near-sighted.

When most of my peers were carrying notebooks featuring the profiles of NKOTB, I was doodling the name, “Mrs. Emmett Brown” over and over in my notebook. A few years later, I would lay my plastic figurine of Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm on my pillow and whisper made-up paleontology talk in his dog-nibbled ear. At sixteen I would catch myself losing complete control of my bladder while watching David Byrne dance in the concert documentary Stop Making Sense. Every time he would flail his arms around or choreographically trip, I’d seal clap in delight.

Even now, my boyfriend is what I describe as a “nerdy cowboy.” Social discomfort is not something he suffers from, but what he lacks in awkwardness he makes up for in his math degree and his desire to move to space. He never leaves home without a pen in the pocket of his pearl snap shirt. I love it.

Before I met my nerdy cowboy, I used to dream of marrying Rick Moranis. When it wasn’t Rick, it was Harold Ramis. When it wasn’t Rick and Harold, it was Pee-Wee Herman, which kind of goes into a whole new territory of parental concerns for their child’s future.

CONTINUE…

Sweet potato tater tots with chipotle mayo. Think about it for a moment.

Found here.

For those of you familiar with the tragic New Year’s Day death of Esme Barrera or read about it on my blog, the police just announced that the prime suspect in her murder was found dead of an apparent suicide on January 12th. You can read more details at the Statesman or The Chronicle.

The suspect was implicated in several other attacks and sounded like one terrible piece of shit. I’m glad he won’t be able to harm anyone ever again.

I’m so happy that the city of Austin has some sort of answers and I can only pray that the police are right and this will help the Barrera Family have some closure.