Death Cab For Cutie's second music video off of Narrow Stairs just premiered today. The song is Cath... and it is one of my favorite songs on the album. I don't think the video is very good other than it is greatly influenced by the song's lyrics. Still, it's Death Cab and I love it. Here's the link to the video.
Last weekend, I took part in the team relay for the Seafair Marathon. My team consisted of me, my dad, and my two uncles Ed and Dennis. Each person had to run 6.55 miles. This year, the marathon route took us over the 520 bridge going East into Bellevue, and then all around the city. I got to run over the bridge which was a pretty cool experience. It's a 2-mile span over Lake Washington, so over 30% of my run was spent over the water.
I didn't bring my camera with me because I didn't want to carry it, but some professional photographers hired by the event holders were there to snap a couple shots of my extremely sweaty self chugging along.
It was a good route, but the race was unorganized. I heard a few people missed the start and also some people didn't know where to go on the middle part of the route (my uncle and sister-in-law's teammate included).
I submitted a video of the family spending time together eating at Applebee's at their Real Videos website back on Mother's Day. You've probably seen one of their many commercials that promotes user submitted videos appearing in their ads. A month or so ago, Applebee's sent me an e-mail stating that they were going to use my video on their website and possibly in a TV commercial. I searched the website numerous times and never found my video. It also is not mixed in to their TV spots yet.
Today, I finally found my video on the website. From what I've heard, not just anyone can make it on the site, so I'm quite proud. It's only a short video of Tawnya holding Juliana, but who could resist that cute face? Here's a link to the vid.
The cover of Empire magazine has a very bloody Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) to promote the Half-Blood Prince movie. Thought it looked cool. Still not that excited for it though.
In continuing my movie lists, I have decided to do a list for my favorite mysteries. This is only my opinion.
#10 Donnie Darko (2001) - The sleeper hit/cult classic was a wonderful surprise to me. I've mentioned this at least twice before, but I have a thing for movies that deal with time travel (possible future top ten list?). Donnie Darko is no exception. The style, tone, and story all make for a great film. It's a shame that Richard Kelly let all his talent go to his head and make a the piece of crap that was Southland Tales. I'm not going to get my hopes up on his next movie, The Box. And I'm extremely disappointed with 20th Century Fox and Newmarket Films for making a sequel our of Donnie Darko called S. Darko, of which Kelly will not be involved. They're turning the series into what The Butterfly Effect is today.
#9 Vertigo (1958) - Many would consider Vertigo to be the best mystery film of all-time. In fact, the American Film Institute recently did their 10 Top 10 and named Vertigo as their favorite mystery. The film is widely considered a work of art by Alfred Hitchcock. What I love about this film is all the cool camera techniques that were used for the sense of falling or being high up.
#8 The Prestige (2006) - The Prestige made #2 on my Top Ten Movies of 2006 and was barely beat out by another movie that you will see later on in this list. It's funny how much I favor mysteries over other films, but I think the reasoning lies within the endings. Pretty much all of these films have surprise endings or little twists. The Prestige is no exception.
#7 Se7en (1995) - I'm not trying to be cute with making Se7en my seventh favorite mystery film. It's just coincidence, I swear. What makes Se7en unique for me is how it builds up so much to the fantastic ending. Each killing is increased a degree up until the very end. There are some brilliant performances by all of the actors and great directing by David Fincher.
#6 Rear Window (1954) - Rear Window made it to #6 on my Top Ten Movies That Are Older Than I Am list, and it remains at #6 on this list. Once again, Hitchcock makes a piece of art rather than your typical movie. The tenseness felt throughout most of the film has never been generated any greater than it is in this film.
#5 North By Northwest (1959) - Another movie you've seen me talk about before. North by Northwest is my absolute favorite Hitchcock film. My grandpa Wu was the one who first introduced me to Hitchcock and this was the first film that I saw by him. I adore the style and suspense of this movie. Alfred Hitchcock truly is the master of suspense.
#4 Brick (2005) - I don't know why I like Brick more than most people. Maybe it's because I feel really smart that I understand everything that they are saying. Maybe it's the neo-noir feel to the film. Maybe it's the brilliant writing and directing by Rian Johnson. It was my #1 film of 2006. I just hope that Johnson continues his good work in The Brothers Bloom.
#3 The Usual Suspects (1995) - I was a little surprised to see the AFI actually put this on their top mysteries list. Even though it's at #10 on their list, I think it goes to show how great of a mystery/thriller this film really is. The surprise ending is one of the biggest of all-time and was pulled off perfectly.
#2 Memento (2000) - Is Christopher Nolan the new Alfred Hitchcock? No, but I still think he's really good and has the potential to be just as great. Memento ended up being a sleeper hit and spread across the world like wildfire. The uniqueness of the backwards story-telling and the neo-noir style of hearing Leonard's thoughts leads to an amazing experience.
Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...
#1 - Dude, Where's My Car? - Sike!
#1 Oldboy - You should have seen this coming a mile away. To be honest though, I did not have this movie in mind from the beginning of this list. Oldboy just seems to fall into so many categories. It's definitely a mystery. The main character needs to find out who kidnapped him and held him in an empty room for 15 years. Then, he needs to find out why the person did it. It leads to the biggest surprise ending I have ever seen. Go see this movie now! I promise not to do a list that will contain Oldboy next month.
My co-worker Andrew told me to go to MSN.com today and see who was on the headlines. I went there and saw Bill Gates. He told me to wait a second. Sure enough the Bill Gates headline faded and Matt Harding's new dance video showed up. Good for Matt.
His video has already been seen over 2,840,000 times. If you haven't seen it yet, please do yourself a favor. Share it with friends. Oh, and be sure to try and spot me.
This weekend was a busy one. I've started to notice that every weekend is busy now. I guess that's a good thing because it gets us out of the house, but sometimes you just want to lounge around and watch movies that you've already seen 100 times on TBS or TNT. I've been wanting to go hiking since the first weekend the temperature was above 65°, but there just doesn't seem to be any time for that right now.
On Saturday, we went with Bethany's family to their cousin Emily's wedding. It was held at the Golf Club at Newcastle which is very nice. I didn't even know it was there and I often drive by the area everyday. There were some great views of Seattle, Bellevue, and Lake Washington, but it was a little smoggy out that day. The ceremony was held in a tent outside and the dinner was held in a banquet room inside the club. It was also the first time we've seen Beth since she's moved back from Hong Kong. Overall, a pretty wedding. Here are some pictures (courtesy of Nick and myself).
The Golf Club.
The course and you can barely see Seattle and Lake Washington in the background.
Tent where the ceremony was held.
Inside.
Emily and her father.
The new couple.
Us.
Beth and Jelly.
Bethany's side of the family.
Beth laying one on Nick.
Tawnya and J.J.
Keith's family.
The reception inside.
I don't eat vegetables, but they looked pretty.
The cake.
The first dance.
Nick and Bethany doing some swing dancing.
Julie in Beth's glasses.
The fair.
Tawnya with an arrow through her head.
Telephone car.
Bottlecap car.
The center of the universe.
