In Lieu Of "Mashup Monday"...

...I thought I would recommend a short documentary about my favorite mashup artist.

I have posted numerous articles about Gregg Gillis over the last two years.  Gillis, who goes by the moniker Girl Talk, is an icon on the mashup scene.  He gave up a lucrative career in biomedical engineering in 2007 to pursue music full time.  If you take the time to listen to him, you can easily tell that he takes an engineer's approach to his craft.

Gillis plays no instruments.  He's not a DJ.  He doesn't use vinyl or CDs.  His tools are a Saran Wrapped laptop, and the limits of his imagination.

Regardless of your tastes in music, take five minutes of your time to listen to his work, and you'll consider yourself a fan.

Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind 'Super Size Me', has a new weekly program exclusively on Hulu called 'A Day in the Life'.  On the program, he follows someone, generally a different celebrity, for 24 hours, to give you a glimpse into their life.

In one episode this season, a crew followed Girl Talk as he prepared to headline a show at a music festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  Here is a short clip.



Unfortunately, you can only view the full program if you have a Hulu Plus subscription.  I watched it on Sunday afternoon, and it was amazing to see how complicated some of his shows became.  He has to prepare as many as 400 samples in advance, and plan exactly where to place each one within a 45 minute performance.  There is a clip of him practicing on his tour bus, and it's simply mind boggling.

You can view the program here online.  I recommend watching it for any fan of music.

You can also download a copy of Girl Talk's latest album, 'All Day', here.

Video: UFC Fighter Nate Quarry Talks About Being Raised As One Of Jehovah's Witnesses

UFC middleweight Nate "The Rock" Quarry, is one of the most successful fighters of recent history in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

He was also raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.  He left the organization, which he later referred to as a cult, at the age of 24.  As you can see in this July 2011 interview, Quarry has no problem talking about his prior life:

If You See Only One Movie This Week....

...watch 'Dear Zachary:  A Letter to a Son About His Father'.

The film is a documentary from first time filmmaker Kurt Kuenne.  I won't tell you anything about the plot of the movie.  In fact, I think you're better off watching it without knowing about it's premise.  I will say that the film is about friendship, family and parenthood.

'Dear Zachary' is gut-wrenchingly raw and emotional.  I cried through most of it.  I must admit, I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to movies, but if the film doesn't effect you, you have no heart.  Grab a box of tissues.  On second thought, grab two.

Lately, I've been watching a number of documentaries from my Netflix queue.  I surprised to say that, after a couple of months, Netflix has a pretty good grasp on what I will like and what I won't.  Based upon my previous ratings, Netflix estimated that I would give 'Dear Zachary' a 5.0 rating.  I did.  The film, overall, has averaged a rating of 4.1 out of 361,000 results.  It is easily one of the most powerful and touching films I have seen in quite a long time.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, is also available on Amazon, both to purchase and to rent instantly.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Palin Documentary Bombs. On All Levels.

In case you were looking for a movie about a witch with a magical plot line, and Harry Potter is sold out at your local theater, you may want to consider 'The Undefeated'.  As you can probably guess by the title, the infomercial documentary paints Sarah Palin in a positive light.  In fact, it's narrated using clips from the audiobook version of Palin's 'Going Rogue'.



The film opened on 10 screens nationwide on Friday.  It isn't fairing so well when it comes to reviews from critics.  At the moment, it has a  0% score on Rotten Tomatoes.  Speaking for myself, in the years I have been following reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, I have never seen a 0% favorable rating.  To put that into perspective, the new Kevin James movie 'The Zookeeper', the one where he takes the talking gorilla to TGI Friday's, has a score of 13%.

A reporter for the Atlantic caught one of the first showings at an AMC Theater in Orange County, CA.

"But inside, the theater was empty. I sat there alone for 20 minutes, at which point an usher stuck his head in the door, gave me a quizzical smile, and said, "How come you're not watching Harry Potter?" Then he left me by myself again, and without any good answer.

It isn't strictly accurate to say that I sat through the whole movie alone. Just as the previews started, two young women walked in giggling together and took seats three rows behind me. Afraid that they'd ruined the only story I had at that point -- What If Sarah Palin Starred in a Movie and No One Showed Up?"

Turns out, the ladies purchased tickets not knowing "The Undefeated" was a Sarah Palin fluff piece, thinking it was an action movie instead.  They left about twenty minutes in.  Another couple came in towards the end of the film and made out in the back of the theater, but eventually got up and left themselves.

If you think about it, the movie should have been called 'Two Weeks Notice:  The Story of the Snowbilly Queen'.

Can't wait to see how Fox News spins this one.

Update:  Early indications show that 'The Undefeated' had an opening box office weekend between $60,000 and $75,000.  Compare that to the $168.6 million that 'Harry Potter' took in this weekend, and the film drew in .0035% of the audience that 'Potter' did. (As best as I can figure out with my calculator erroring out.)  So, for every 30,000 people that saw 'Potter' this weekend, one saw 'The Undefeated'.  I call that "defeated", wouldn't you?