Power . . . Anvil

so i forewent (i made up that word) my annual massage the night before the festival in order to go w/ Mike to Park City for the free volunteer screenings. i did NOT want to go, but i hate the thought of him driving that road at night, alone. plus, someone's got to watch out for deer. we saw about 15, one right in the middle of the road. we slowed down as he was just almost across, and then he/she bolted back across the other way. i think that's how so many of them get hit :(

so Adventures of Power was shot in Utah and is a kind of Napoleon-Dynamite'ish film featuring "Power," a character who is enamored of "air-drumming." his father, played by Michael McKean, is heading up a strike at the local copper mine (from which Power is fired for air drumming while at work and causing a sort of goo-sludge to spill on the foreman). Power travels, seeks, trains, bonds -- through a variety of p-r-i-t-t-y hilarious montages featuring some impressive Big Hits (Loverboy's "Turn Me Loose," Gap Band's "Whip It", Mr. Mister's "Kyrei Elieson, and "Rush's "Tom Sawyer" is key throughout). a little love story, a little coming of age, a little quirky-thank-God-for-Mike Myers and Jared Hess for opening the genre d'quirk . . . it was very cute. talked w/ the filmmaker (Ari Gold) afterward; he was very happy w/ the response (laughter in all the right places) . . . so all's good there.

i was not a big metal fan, but my husband was our college radio's director and was known as "Metal Mike when" i met him. just as he had dragged me to many metal shows when we were dating, so too did i agree to be dragged to stay for the later film, Anvil: The Story of Anvil. i hadn't known a thing about them, but Mike had. nearly a pre-cursor to many of the big metal bands (Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, etc.), Anvil never took off in quite the same way. the doc begins by following band members in the current status as "everday joes," working everyday jobs, through their European tour (booked by a woman who emailed Lips, the lead singer, and said she'd arranged the whole tour out of "passion and love" and so he was in -- hmmmm, just like that? . . . but whatever). the tour? kind of a disaster, kind of tragic, kind of loving and cool. we could not stay until the end because i simply had to get back to the resort to sleep (early morning business call and first day of festival). in the hall, we met the producer, and he said that Lips and Robb Reiner (drummer and co-founder; 2 key characters in the doc) were around for Q & A. i knew Mike would be heartbroken if he missed it and thought about cowgirling up, but even Mike knew about their presence and agreed that we'd have to leave (plus, it was snowing again, and that back mountain road between Park City and the Sundance Resort is kind of scary). so, we left. we got buttons. we got a CD. we finally made it to Park City for some free volunteer good times.

just watched about 1/2 of Puujee. lovely. difficult. problematic (maybe more on that later). not many dry eyes.

i just read the Sundance FF 08 twitter entry: someone thrilled to have picked up Michel Gondry at the airport (i wish it had been me, but maybe my little fantasy is better :)

more later . . .