Lana Del Rey released her first US album today, but I’ve been listen to her music videos for several months now and loving every bit of it. I suspect that February will be a huge month for Lana Del Rey, but I felt the need to mention her now, as this month is truly the time in which I fell in love with her voice, style, and general body of work.

This was a crazy month for me in regards to the media that I consumed. When I look at how many new movies I saw and how much new music I consumed (both live at the Sundance Film Festival Music Cafe and via digital downloads), I am a little shocked. How did I manage to do anything else this month?

The truth is, I did more this month than I have in the past several months combined – not only in regards to my media consumption, but in my general day-to-day life as well.

The main thing that made this month so fun and interesting was that the 2012 Sundance Film Festival took place between the 19th and 29th of the month, and I went out of my way this year to fully participate in the festival (something I have never quite done in the past).

What I learned from buying a Festival ticket pass this year is that money matters. While I’ve spent a great portion of my life trying to do as much possible with the least amount of money possible, this month made me realize that having money allows you to live a more fun, exciting, and interesting life. That kind of makes me sad, but it also motivates me in some strange way, because it makes me want to work harder and make more money so that I can lead a more interesting life.

Featured Books, Music & Films:

Each month I share with you the books I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, and the films I’ve viewed. The item I liked the most this month has been highlighted above and everything else is listed below. Books are listed on the left, music is in the middle, and movies are on the right. The items I really like and recommend have been bolded.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival was awesome. It was my fourth Sundance ever, and I think it was the best one I have ever attended. This, of course, was largely due to the fact that I dished out the money this year to actually get myself a ticket package, so I was able to see 12 different films and attend a number of the additional Sundance events.

This blog post is a quick recap of how I spent the week.

Day 1: Friday, January 20, 2012

I went to the Sundance Music Cafe and saw A Fine Frenzy, Terence Etc., We Are Augustines and Josh Kelley perform live. I absolutely loved Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy and also really enjoyed We Are Augustines. Josh Kelley is the guy who is married to the actress, Katherine Heigel, and they both live here in Park City. I’ve seen them a couple times in town and at Home Depot with their daughter, so it was cool to actually hear Josh perform live. I was totally unfamiliar with his music, but I liked it.

Filmmakers on Main Street during the start of the Sundance Film Festival

Above: Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

Terence Etc.

We Are Augustines

Josh Kelley

After the music ended, I returned to Main Street, where I just happened to see Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy walking down the street with a very large man at her side. As she walked past me, I tapped her on the arm and said something like, “Great performance Alison.” She kept walking the direction she was going, but she did turn around and smile back at me while saying something like “Ohhhh, thanks!” I wish I had thought of something better to say.

A couple hours later I went and attended a small party at the Silver Queen Art Gallery where I had been asked to take some photos. I stayed at the event for about four hours before finally going home.

Rebecca, Lisa and Timm – Silver Queen Art Gallery Staff

Richard Salcido Paintings

Silver Queen Party attendees

The Embry Family

Artist Anthony Granato and two Silver Queen patrons

Silver Queen Art Gallery party attendees

Party attendee talking with artist Frank Gonzales

Day 2: Saturday, January 21, 2012

I came back to the Music Cafe on the second day of the Festival to see A Fine Frenzy perform again. The fact that I got to see Jenny O., Josh Kelley, John Forte, Ben Harper, and Natasha Bedingfield perform as well was simply a bonus.

Park City’s Main Street on Day #2 of the Sundance Film Festival

Street Musicians performing on Main Street

Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

Jenny O.

John Forte

Natasha Bedingfield

In the evening of the second day I saw my first film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which was my favorite film of the Festival and the film that ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize for the entire 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was a good one!

Day 3: Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday was a relatively uneventful day. I slept in, did some work at home, and then went to my second film (The First Time) at 7 PM. The First Time was a short romantic high school movie. This sort of film is not the type of film I usually enjoy, but I actually really liked this one. It was written and directed by the same guy who did the TV show, Freaks & Geeks, so that might be part of why I liked it so much.

Day 4: Monday, January 23, 2012

I didn’t have any movies scheduled for Monday, so I spent the day skiing at Deer Valley. It had snowed for several days beforehand, so the snow was fresh and deep and amazing. I was exhausted by the time I got home.

Day 5: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I hurried into town in on the bus and saw a documentary called “Chasing Ice” that was talking about just how quickly the glaciers in North America are melting. The filmmaker took timelapse photos of the glaciers melting and you could see just how quickly the ice was receding.

In the afternoon, I returned to the Music Cafe and saw Bailey Cooke, Dayne Kurtz, and James McCartney (the son of Paul McCartney) perform. As soon as James McCartney had finished his set, I took the bus back to my side of town and saw a film called “China Heavyweight,” which was about boxing in China.

Day 6: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Wednesday was my big day for films at the Festival, as I had four different films to watch that day. I saw “Putin’s Kiss,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Marina Abramovic The Artist Is Present” (which was probably my second most favorite film that I saw), and the midnight screening of “Black Rock” at the Egyptian Theater.

Black Rock stars Kate Bosworth and Lake Bell… and I knew that both actresses were in town for the first part of Sundance, but neither showed up for the midnight screening and I was kind of bummed about that.

Day 7: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Thursday was a relatively light day, with only one evening screening of a film called “Me At The Zoo.” The film is about a homosexual man named Chris Crocker who is famous for his “Leave Britney Alone” YouTube video rant. The film was actually really interesting. A few people walked out on the film (probably due to the homosexual theme and a few moments of blurred nudity), but I really related to the film in many ways because while it was largely about Chris Crocker, it was also about people my age who have kind of grown up with Britney Spears, YouTube and the birth of the Internet.

Day 8: Friday, January 27, 2012

On Friday I returned to the Music Cafe for the 4th and final time and saw The Two, Flying Lotus (who I had never heard of before, but who totally blew me away), Lisa Hannigan (who was beautiful both in person and with her music) and Ingrid Michaelson (who seemed like a very normal person, but whose music did not impress me all that much).

The pedestrian path near City Park

The Two

Ara Starck of The Two

Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus

Lisa Hannigan

Ingrid Micahelson performing her famous “The Way I Am”

Ingrid Michaelson on the piano

After four hours of standing at the Music Cafe, I ran over to the Library theater for a 5:30 PM screening of Filly Brown – a movie about a young woman who is trying to make it in the rap scene in Southern California and has to decide between selling out and making the money she needs to get her mother out of jail, or being herself and risking her chance at ever becoming a star. The film was really good and the music wasn’t that bad either – especially since I am not a fan of rap.

The lead actress in the film, Gina Rodríguez, got a lot of positive press about her role in this film… and I admit, she did an amazing job – especially since she had never rapped before being in this film.

There were some massive storms during Sundance. Since I am without a car, I took the bus and did a lot of walking. This is a photo I took of myself while walking through a massive snow storm. I could barely open my eyes at times to see where I was going.

Day 9: Saturday, January 28, 2012

Finally, on my last day of the festival, I saw two movies: Celeste and Jesse Forever… and Room 237. Celeste and Jesse Forever was a fun little romantic comedy, but nothing I would recommend. Room 237, however, was a really interesting documentary about the hidden messages inside the Stanley Kubrick film, “The Shining.” Really, really interesting!

After Room 237 finished, I jumped on the bus, walked home… and my Sundance experience was over.

I had so much fun this year at the festival, met a lot of really nice and interesting people, and saw a ton of great artists do their thing. I have to admit, now that it is all over, I’m a bit sad. But it gives me something to look forward to once I return to Park City in the future. I definitely want to have the Sundance experience again… and now that I’ve done it four times, I am finally starting to understand how to truly go about it.

Today I saw “A Fine Frenzy” (Alison Sudol) perform five songs from her upcoming album at the Sundance Film Festival Music Cafe. After the first song was over, I thought to myself, “This is why I love Sundance!” Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post.

My friend, Josh Miller, came to stay with me this weekend. We spent an entire day skiing at the Canyons ski resort and another day skiing at Deer Valley. When we weren’t skiing, we were talking business, eating food and watching movies. It was a fun time!

Last year I was in Nazca, Peru for Christmas and Arequipa, Peru for New Years. This year, I was back at home with my parents, sister, friends and family in Camarillo, California for the holidays. Despite owning my own condo in Park City, Utah for more than six years now, I have yet to spend even a single year in the snow during the winter holidays. It is always so strange to be celebrating Christmas in 80 degree weather.

I flew back to Camarillo on the 22nd of December (after sleeping through 3 alarm clocks and nearly missing my shuttle to the airport).

The day after arriving there, I attended Travis and Kelli Miller’s Christmas party. I didn’t know many people at the party, but I did have fun talking to Travis, Kelli, Travis’ little sister (Katelyn), Josh and Kristen Miller, and the Miller’s cousins (Shane and Luke).

On Christmas Eve we had the entire family over at my parents’ house. My cousin, Casey, came in his traditional Santa Clause costume and my 95-year-old grandmother, Helen, was as spunky as ever (despite me beating her and my mom at a game of Boggle).

On Christmas morning it was just me, my sister, my parents, my grandma and my aunt and uncle (Tom and Christi) who celebrated in the living room of my parents’ house. My parents got me an LCD screen for my GoPro video camera (along with a bunch of other cool things) and Tom and Christ got me a new 1-man tent for my upcoming trip around the world.

One day after Christmas my dad and I went hiking out at the “Scary Dairy” near the old Camarillo State Hospital and took some pictures with my two cameras.

While we were out hiking we stumbled across this old rusty play-set that had been dragged way out into the middle of nowhere. Upon seeing the play-set, I knew in about half a second that it was the same play-set (not the exact same one, but the same model anyway) that I had had in my backyard as a child. Seeing it certainly brought back some memories.

Another day my dad and I went to see Daniel Schoenewald’s private motorcycle collection. Daniel is a friend of the family and he has more than 100 highly-collectible motorcycles in his possession. He spent nearly 4 hours telling us the story of his bikes. Each one had a story! He even let me sit and scoot around on a motorcycle that was made back in  1930 and is worth close to $500,000 USD. I was so afraid I was going to knock it over.

Then, on my last day in town, I went on a hike in Simi Valley with Ryan Nakashima. In fact, I met up with quite a few of my friends (Leslie Parr, Jason and Danielle June, Aaron June) while I was in town and it was good to reconnect with old friends and hear about their lives.

I had a good time in California. But my time there also made me realize that my ties to the place are slowly unraveling and that I now have a new home and a new life in Park City. It may have taken me six years to finally figure that out, but it is something I have only now come to terms with. Being in Camarillo also made me realize that when I leave to travel around the world later this year, my home will no longer be this place I have built for myself in Park City, but will be the tent that I carry with me on my back and the attitude I create inside my own head.

Overall, I had a great little stay in Camarillo.

More than anything, I had a great year in 2011 and I am looking forward to 2012 more than any other year in my life!

I should have been doing this all year long, but I only just started collecting these videos in mid to late December. These are just a few videos that I found online this month that I really like, for various reasons. I am planning to create my own short films next year as I travel around the world, so I am watching a bunch of short web videos and gathering up ideas for my own future video shoots.

This month was all about New Zealand. For the past 31 days or so, the country of New Zealand has continually popped into my life in one way or another. For example: I have several friends and acquaintances who are traveling by bike in New Zealand at the moment. I also read several magazine articles about New Zealand this month. I even received some free product from New Zealand last week. And about three weeks ago I discovered a new recording artist named KIMBRA who is from… can you guess?… NEW ZEALAND.

Kimbra doesn’t yet have a full-length album here in the United States, but her first album is due out soon and I’m going to be one for the first people to snatch it up once it becomes available. Just watch the videos on this page and try not to like her sound. More of her videos are available on YouTube with a quick search and click.

Featured Books, Music & Films:

Each month I share with you the books I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, and the films I’ve viewed. The item I liked the most this month has been highlighted above and everything else is listed below. Books are listed on the left, music is in the middle, and movies are on the right. The items I really like and recommend have been bolded.

When I was in Cuzco, Peru earlier this year, my dad came out to visit me and we traveled around the Sacred Valley together – including a trip to Machu Picchu. A couple weeks later, the hard drive on which I was storing all my Peru photos, failed. My photos and videos from Peru were gone! Luckily, I had most of these photos backed up on my laptop computer, but my photos from Puerto Maldonado, Cuzco, Machu Picchu and my tricycle touring adventure in Southern Peru were gone forever!

But then I remembered that when my dad was in Peru with me I had copied all of the photos from my dad’s time in Cuzco and Machu Picchu onto his camera’s SD card. I had done this so he could show my mom all the photos from his time in Peru once he returned home. I was devistated about losing so many of my photos from Peru, but knowing that I at least had a backup copy of my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos on my dad’s SD card made me feel a whole lot better.

When I was in Peru I handed my dad the SD card containing these backed up photos and told him, “Whatever you do, do not lose this SD card. It is very important.” And he said that he wouldn’t.

But when I got home from Peru a few months later and asked my dad for the SD card on which my Machu Picchu pictures had been stored, he claimed to be unable to find the card. My dad even denied me ever giving it to him. But I knew that I had backed up the photos and I specifically remember handing the card to him and telling him how important it was that he not lose it.

So, after having my hard drive fail and losing a massive chunck of the photos from my trip through Peru and then believing that I had at least backed up my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos, I now had to come to the realization that my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos were once again lost forever. They weren’t lost due to hardware failure this time, however. They were lost because my dad had misplaced the SD card that I had told him to protect.

But then, this week, after coming back to California for the Christmas and New Year holidays, I did a quick search of my parents’ house and FOUND THE SD CARD ON WHICH ALL OF MY PHOTOS FROM CUZCO AND MACHU PICCHU HAD BEEN STORED!!!

Believe it or not, the missing SD card that contained all my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos from Peru was actually in my parents’ camera the entire time. All they had to do was look on the camera and they would have seen the photos, but instead, they insisted that I had never given them the card containing the photos and that they could not be held responsible for my lost memories.

As you can imagine, once I found the lost images I immediately jumped and screamed and ran about. I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy… and relieved… and thankful… and upset.

That said, I still don’t have the lost photos from my tricycle touring adventures near Puno or my trip to the jungles of Puerto Maldonado, but now I have close to 400 additional photos from Peru in my possession – photos that will forever remind me of my father’s trip to Machu Picchu and images of Cuzco and the Sacred Valley that I nearly lost forever.

You can view all of my (recovered) photos from Peru by visiting my Flickr account.

PS – I knew the photos were on my parents’ SD card the entire time. Urrrrrrrr!