Weekend Review

Friday the 28th of August 2009
Day off of school like I've mentioned before. Won a free drink from Walkers that I didn't redeem until Sunday afternoon. I finished the second season of The Mighty Boosh on DVD, highly recommend the show to fans of British comedy and just surreal/creative shows in particular. I then witnessed my parents trying to scrape off the glued vinyl flooring in their kitchen and they just didn't have the time and/or patience to do so. So I got addicted to scraping the floor for about 5 hours or so getting around 70% of the kitchen floor scrapped off. Diet Pepsi never tasted so good after doing such tough work for a while. I got some food from Costa Vida and took a pain pill cause of the soreness/pain in my hands. Watched The Soup and then my DVD copy of The Weird Al Show Complete Series (1997) which I watched all weekend.

Saturday the 29th of August 2009
I went for a morning walk which I was aiming to do for a while. Then back home I finished a project that I have been slowly working on for 7 months, and that is syncing the music on my iPod. In January, a hard drive mishap cause me to lose all my music files and the album artwork that goes along with them. Ever since I've been slowly adding music and artwork back on to the computer and now I'm all caught up  . . . .
Meanwhile my brother and a few helpers were destroying a part of the kitchen ceiling and just as it was expected, a crap load of old insulation snowed everywhere. Currently there are about 9 full black garbage bags of insulation just sitting around and huge piles of garbage are on the front lawn as we wait for a big dumpster to arrive. Anyway, later my parents got a shopvac to help clean all the mess. i love that bad boy, it makes me want to vacuum the whole house with its sucking ability. Also, my dad and I got some Chadders in Provo. I just ordered a burger and a drink of course, no fries. It was a little tough to watch my parents eat fries in front of me, not that Chadders fries are anything to write home about anyway but the aroma is powerful. 

Sunday the 30th of August 2009
Woke up with not much time to do anything profound before church. Church was slightly boring (I'm an unofficial librarian) cause I forgot to bring any books to read for the 3rd hour where not many people stop by.
I got some homework (reading) done before going to see my girlfriend. It was so nice to see her again and be held by her  . . . . we went out for a drive ending up at the movie theater to see G Force. There's was nothing really wrong with the movie but I can admit to being a little too tired to get into it. Then went home where I did some organizing with my mom which is something we both like to do. Before typing this blog I got to work on a school assignment that I've been blowing off all weekend so this is my reward for getting some work done.
Other Note
-I love Coke Zero!!!! Got it in a fountain drink from Maverick on friday night and Chadders the next night.

Later blog readers

No Kitchen

Hey, finally have some time now to type
Today ended the first (short) week of school
it's looking to be an alright semester, some things are looking like very familiar to other classes in the past so I know what I'm in for. So glad I don't have to buy any further books and should be all set. Now just the usual as long as I don't slack off too much I'll be just fine. I got my parking permit today yipeee
Another item, my parents kitchen remodeling started today with the removal of all the cabinets, the sink, and the dishwasher that doesn't get used. Now all the stuff that lived in the kitchen is crowding the space in which I hang out mostly. Slight adjustment when it comes to eating stuff but I'm trying not to eat a bunch anyway.
Random notes
- I ate pizza from three different places for dinner; Little Caesars, 5 Buck, and Pizza Hut. Oh how I love pizza night
-CD currently in my car- a mix CD I made for a friend and it was so good I had to make it for myself
-I played Super Mario 3 for the NES on my Retro Duo not too long ago tonight
-watched some more Mighty Boosh Season 2 Episodes today, hilarious! I'm about to watch the best episode- The Legend of Old Gregg
-I have Fridays off of school, I have at least one class the other 4 days of the week

Well that's it for now
Peace out

Last Day of Summer

Hey bloggers,

don't wanna take too long, I wanna get as much sleep as possible so I can be alert in the morning to do my hike up to the Y (in Provo, UT) that I've been doing every Wednesday morning for a month now. Tomorrow is my first day of school to start off this last year of classes that will be required for my Bachelor's. My first class is at 2 p.m. so there's no rush to sleep when it comes to that. But yeah school, I've been going to school for 18 years now total and after this one I think I'd wanna take a break before doing anymore, that is if I can stand anymore. I love school but it does get less fun/interesting as every year passes.

Anyway, today I went for a walk near Utah Lake which is like an end of summer tradition. Then I bought a drink at Walkers- didn't win this time -sigh-. Then bought Adventureland on DVD which I just barely finished. Of course I saw it opening day and I enjoyed it enough to buy it.

I finally went and saw 500 Days of Summer which I enjoyed very much. With my experience of falling in love with people, the film was really accurate in how things are and were for me a couple times. I may not have acted like the character of Thomas or got to experience the same things that he does in the film but it really does hit the nail right on the head with guys like me falling for a girl that we fancy. There were some females sitting behind me and I tempted to yell "Yep!" a couple times to make the point clear that that's how things go and blah blah blah

Rest of the day consisted of 20 minutes of recording for the J-Ray album, prescription refill, Gandolfos, and a couple Mighty Boosh season 2 episodes

Well gonna sign off now
Thanks for reading

No Fry Week

Justin Business

Hey People

Didn't do much today, I weighed myself and I have gained a couple pounds since the last weigh in 2 weeks ago. So when I went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with my mom (Monday lunches with my mom have become a routine thing ever since March 2008) and I just got 2 sandwiches and a drink, No Waffle fries. I want to lose weight and I will do any drastic things that need to be done. So this will be a No Fry Week. Now I know that just staying away from french fries won't solve all my problems but it's heck of a start. 

Anyway, then took a trip over to FYE to look for good priced movies and music whether it be used or new. I should never go to these places without my list of things that I want since I can only think of a couple items every time I go to a place that sells movies and music.  Then went to Walkers (Convienient Store) to redeem my free drink I won through their Freedom Rewards Plan. Then went home and my cousin Andrew called me up and we chatted about nothing. Not much else to report

Movie Business

Shockingly as a movie buff especially with comedies, I have never seen the original version of Airplane (1980) until today. I got it really cheap while at FYE. I laughed several times catching the jokes that I didn't see during the many times the movie is shown on TV. My mom would always make the movie sound so horrible growing up just because of 2 seconds of tits on screen. Nudity ruins movies for her I guess. 

After typing this blog I'm going to catch a 2008 comedy special from comedian Eddie Griffin that I have never seen before called Freedom of Speech. I absolutely love his work especially Undercover Brother and his theatrically released stand up movie Dysfunktional Family. Speaking of him, I would like to re-consider a movie that I have dissed before on this blog and that would be The New Guy where he had a supporting role in. I watched it several months ago with my girlfriend and had some fun espcially reminiscing of how things were when that movie came out which was when I was in high school. 

Music Business

I finally bought an album that always seems to pop up during the last few summers, and that is the self titled release by the band Flyleaf. I first heard them in the summer of 2006 with the single "I'm So Sick". Then in 2007 I would always hear the album when I arrived at work most likely because one of my co-workers kept a copy there. I've borrowed it in the past and now I finally have it. The album has 4 very good songs and the rest flows nicely. They are the other band besides Paramore in the topic of rock bands with female lead singers that have rocked the last 5 years. I don't find the lead singer "hot" as other people I know do. Ehhhh she's alright in a elfish way, like the good looking girl (in the form of a fairy or something) from a fantasy movie.
 

 J-Ray Business
This morning before going out to do all that I've mentioned above, I recorded the last portion of the story that makes up the bulk of my next album Terrable. So now the running time is 3 hours for the project. What's left are a couple collaborations with Andre (The Dirty Mexican), an intermission track based on the title, a Messing with Music edition, and numerous background vocals so the album won't be super boring. I want to have the album completed and released by November.

Thanks for reading

3 1/2 Years Later (What's been goin on)

Hey Bloggers, did ya miss me? pfffff naaaah
OK, just want to point out that watching the movie Julie and Julia made me want to get back into my blogging besides my social networking blurbs on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook which I will still update with more personal posts. This is going to be the more fun blog posts from now on.

To re-introduce myself my name is Justin Shields, I am currently 23 years old and I am a big music and movie buff as I hope to show on future posts. Besides being immersed in those two things, one of my favorite things to do in my spare time is recording real events (or the stories of real events) and comedy tracks which I've done for over 13 years and that's where the J-Ray portion of this blog comes in. To get a better explanation of J-Ray, go over to J-Ray's MySpace (link on the side) or even go to the very first posts of this blog.

Cell Phone Pic of Me 

April 2009

Soooo it's been several years since I've really touched this blog and it has been the most interesting years of my adult life especially the last 2 years. Well, I could just say to check the links to my other sites on the side to get a taste of what's been going on in my life and what I've been doing all this time. Here's a listed summary of what my life has been like since February 2006.
-I feel I got out of the social coma I used to be in. I did this by just being myself again by going out and enjoying the world. I made new friends or getting to know past people a lot more, got back in touch with my high school buddies, made a habit of going on long walks which helped me lose some weight, etc. I will admit that I am still shy at times.
-I've been working a little bit. A few months of Custodial work in the spring of 2006 and then concessions jobs for the Orem Owlz Minor League Baseball team where I've been Ice Cream Guy for the last three summers including the current one.
-I've been continually going to school except during the summer. I recieved my Associates of Science Degree in Communications in April 2007 and currently on track to get a Bachelor's of Science in Sociology next spring.
- As for Movies- Hard Candy, Into the Wild, The Dark Knight, Superbad, Lars and the Real Girl, and Brick have been some of my favorite flicks.
-And Music- Panic! At The Disco, Monty Are I, Chromeo, Justice, Mindless Self Indulgence, Paramore, and MSTRKRFT have been notable artists coming to my attention in the last few years. I've also had major music crushes on The Used and Coheed and Cambria by getting all their albums and listening to them over and over and even making mix CDs of their work.
- One of the major topics that comes to mind is becoming more interested in the opposite sex in recent years. I've had some major crushes on women that I couldn't have which gave me two week splats of pure happiness with a couple of them leading to months of lonliness. In December of 2008 I had an offical girlfriend for the first time but the relationship only lasted around 10 days. Then on January 13, 2009 I met the current love of my life who was a friend of the girl I had just broken up with. Seven months later my girlfriend Anna and I are still together and things are going well.

CURRENTLY- I am about to attend my last year of school at Utah Valley University in 3 days. Til then I have time off work to get some more summer fun in while I can.

On the J-Ray side of things, if you don't really care just skip this part:
-I've been putting tracks and videos on Youtube since December 2007 with the help of my cousin Andrew AKA Andre (The Dirty Mexican), including my Walking Diary Series and Car Videos made for my friend Steve.
-I made 6 albums called Balogner (2006), King Size Tube Nuts (2006), Hand Me Down Skits (2006), Don't Bother (2007), Call It What You Want (2008), and Quest For The Unused (2008). The latter two were made but a hard drive mishap in January 2009 caused me to lose the audio files. Some of the tracks from these two still live on YouTube.
-Projects I was planning to do never got done which is normal haha including re-issues of my first six albums
uncut and in stereo.
CURRENTLY- I am recording my long awaited 17th Album titled Terrable which is concept album all about my experience with my first girlfriend.

So there's your recap or wrap up or whatever. Starting tomorrow I will let my blogging juices start flowing again along with my other many juices.

I'm gonna go watch my DVD copy of I Love You, Man, it's my favorite comedy of the year so far.
Later

My own Music Video

Create your own video at One True Media

Even More Movie Reviews Part 1

RENT
Good Songs, Good Music, Dumb Movie. 525,600 Minutes is the first line in the opening song, that's how long the movie felt. I guess I was underestimating the movie. I thought it would end at the 105 minute mark but nope it kept going and going. It was just an uninteresting story with too much focus on each character. I liked the cast alright including Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs. When it was trying to be sad, I didn't feel anything so I had no connections with it at all. Not even one of the top five musicals I've seen, that is if I have seen that many.

BROKEN FLOWERS

Very quiet, seriously you could fall asleep watching this movie. Bill Murray does alright but he plays such a boring person that it's hard to pay attention. The story is simple enough to understand but there's no clear answers in the movie. So I guess you have to make your own conclusions. I like his next door neighbor in the film played by Jeffrey Wright. I don't know what the movie was trying to be instead of just an artsy fartsy film. Every character has these weird facial expressions that were confusing. It had a few good laughs and a brief scene of nudity but besides that, it is a forgettable film.

NEW YORK DOLL

On the other hand, an excellent documentary- probably one of the five best Docs I've seen. If you like Docs and rock music, then this an awesome movie for you to see. It kind of plows through all the details of Arthur "Killer" Kane's life pretty quickly. But I understand that because it was getting to the point which was he was reuniting with his fellow surviving members of the legendary band The New York Dolls to play a show in London. The LDS angle (he converted to the church over 15 years ago) was OK, not too preachy. Shoot, I would like to have a famous musician in my ward so he or she can tell me about the rise and fall of fame. Very well organized and interesting film.

Even More Movie Reviews Part 2

The Matador
A very good dark comedy. But to be honest, it was just average until the last 10 minutes when a couple plot twists makes the movie rewarding if you paid attention. The sexual content sort of ruins the movie because there's like 1,000 innuendos and a few "sex" scenes don't help the movie at all. It was kind of like, "Okay I get it, Pierce Brosnan's character's a sex addict." But the acting is good and the chemistry is pretty good. Beautiful locations and some really good comedic moments.





Brokeback Mountain
A very excellent film. The nature scenery is amazing even though those scenes were shot in Canada. All the performances are awesome. But the reason why Jake Gyllenhall's performance is good because, like most of the other movies he's in, it's really over the top. Over the top to the point of laughter with such lines as "I wish I knew how to quit you." The story is very good, especially at getting you to think about certain choices you have made in your life or will make. The only thing the movie scuked at was making the young actors look older since the movie spans 20 years. All they did were put wigs on the eand mustaches on the men, not really convincing. I read the Rolling Stone review afterwards and they pointed out what is so good about it and I agreed, I can't remember what it said though. It's nominated for Best Picture, which it does deserve. But I'm rooting for the movie Crash myself. If it makes you feel better, there's more gratuitous heterosexual sex than homosexual. Overall, I wasn't disappointed cause I knew it would be good.




Waiting
This movie, I don't know where to begin. I describe it as a movie you watch with your friends just to waste time. I don't care for the cast except for Ryan Reynolds cause he's good in every movie he's in even though he plays the same character in every one. The rest of the cast sucks. The story is stupid. The gross out humor lost me on this one. It's like a really bad independent movie that has nothing memorable about it cause like I said , it's a time waster. This goes in the book of crappy comedies next to The New Guy and Scary Movie. So I only recommend it for perverted retards who laugh at every thing. The only thing that could of saved it is frontal female nudity, not lower. I rented it for free and I'm still pissed.

Quick Movie Reviews

Aeon Flux (Eee On Flux, that's how I say it)- It is not as bad as people might tell you it is or how it looks. I rarely watched the MTV cartoon a decade ago so I went into very interested in the whole story. I like Charlize Theron and especially her costumes (you get to see some side-tit, sort of) It took a while to catch what's going on and I almost totally feel asleep at a boring point of the movie. The last 20 minutes was pretty cool because it was action packed.
Zathura- "Jumanji In Space" which is annoying but that was the point of the whole movie. That and the whole brother theme in that they can work together but want to tear each other apart at the same time (only relatable if you have one and you're a boy) It had a really dumb twist near the end of it which was so dumb that I don't want to spoil it. It was semi-interesting in the whole cliffhanger feeling of wanting to know what happens next. But it just seems so un-original because of Jumanji.

Just Friends- It was pretty good. Ryan Reynolds never disappoints me and the violent/dark nature of the movie made it worth seeing. I couldn't stand Ana Faris's (who by the way tries to be too funny and it doesn't work) character which was the point because she played a bitch. I can't really relate to anything in it (yet) but the romantic theme in the movie is relatable to anyone who's been in love.

I enjoyed The Legend of Zorro. It's PG, so it doesn't go too far with anything which sucks. It had to earn my attention cause I went into it not really interested.

2 Weeks since a post, I gotta talk about something

I haven't been posting because I'm too damn lazy, so what, want to fight about it.

Let's see what to talk about?......

LARRY H. MILLER- I DON'T THINK I WANT TO KNOW THIS GUY

Since he's such a homo-phobe maybe he should ban himself from the public, look how fuckin gay he looks in that retro Jazz uniform.

What I'm talking about is the whole Brokeback Mountain controversy in Utah, Larry H Miller stopped the film, about two cowboys fallin in love while herding sheep, from showing at one of the theaters he owns. That's fine because that's his choice. The thing that really pisses me off is that he cancelled the movie minutes before it was supposed to show. It's not like it's a XXX gay porno (I don't really know since I haven't seen it), but it's won the Critic's Choice and Golden Globe awards for Best Picture and it will probably win the Oscar. It was a theater in Salt Lake for crying out loud it's not like it was gonna show in my neck of the woods. A lot of mormons laugh when they say that "ha ha, gay people are boycotting the movie, like that's gonna hurt." All I have to say to that is you never know how many there are in Salt Lake or in my neck of the woods.

Last week was an interesting one for me, I had an infected tooth (or abscess) starting on Wednesday and I just ignored it until the next day it got fuckin worse. I went to the dentist the next day and let's just say he was very happy I called him. The left side of my face was swollen (I didn't take a picture even though I should of. The dentist put the novacaine, which was very fucking painful because of the swollen area. The rest of the "dental surgery" went smoothly. He drilled through one of my teeth and drained out the infection and made an incision (or cut) and drained out some more shit. So I stayed home for the weekend and did nothing, which is what I do anyway. 5 days later and I'm feelin fine.

1st Movie Review of the Year- Fun With Dick & Jane

Well, it was good enough to be taken seriously. It wasn't the most hilarious movie I've ever seen or anything (not even the funniest Jim Carrey movie). But it does have its moments, even good ones that none of the TV spots or trailers show or give any clue of. I liked how that the whole "Crime" element of the story doesn't kick in too quickly. I admire movies that spends some time in one area of the film before moving to the next. Some critics say that the movie is a commentary on the multi-million or billion dollar companies and how there's so much corruption in them. That's pretty much true and I all I want to say without spoiling things is that I like the ending because it will probably divide rich people and poor people whether it is a happy one or a immoral and evil one. The film takes place in the year 2000 and I wondered throughout the whole thing why that is. In the end, it will make sense unless you're an idiot who doesn't pay attention to the news. Not that paying attention is exactly good, cause in some ways it's painful and time wasting. So overall, the movie is a good one, even though it's dark in its subject matter and it may lead to having bad ideas of obtaining money. It does make you think about money and whether you got enough to survive.

Happy Flippin New Year from The Blog of Mr. J-Ray, yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking, 4 Days Late. Well F%^K OFF

What I did over the freakin holidays, doesn't matter. What my new year resolutions are, who cares, I won't follow one. Although I was successful last year when my only resolution was to see a lot of movies. Probably the only resolution I have this year is to buy more games for the video game systems I have. Shit, I bought a mother huggin XBOX last year for a crap load of money I spent a lot of time saving. I had only 2 games before buying it and only bought 1 freakin game. That's got to change especially with that 2 year replacement plan I got with the XBOX. The question is what the hell are some good games that are out there? Oh well I'm sure I can buy more than one lousy game.

Anyway, I have a quick thing to say about today. I had a chance to see the new Queen Latifah movie Last Holiday for FREE. Getting anything free is a very good thing in this time of not having a job. But I decided not to see the movie cause I had a cousin over to visit. Maybe next time and especially if it's a different movie.

Speaking of not working, I'm back in school and the awesome thing is I only go 2 days a week. My mother is pleading since I have this schedule to go get a job. It's just funny to me because I imagine that she is pissed out of her mind while I smile about attending school only 2 days a week.

Before going any further, I'm happy that The University of Texas won the NCAA Football Championship. Not that I'm from Texas or love the state, I'm just glad that USC didn't get there 2nd and a half championship in a row. It was a good freakin game, pretty heart pounding shit all the way to the end.

The last thing I want to post today is a story of my good deed for Wednesday January 4th, 2006 (Wow, this is weird to type 2006). I was holding my pug Clark, (left) keeping him away from a different dog, cause I don't want another dog of mine to die because of a fuckin loose dog (but that's another story). The other dog finally ran off and I put Clark down to finish my walk with him. The next thing I know, I see a little boy I recognize walking across the street with a very sad and worried look on his face. I know right there that the dog I just saw is probably his dog. I take my dog home and drop him off. Then I go back outside immediately and find the runaway dog two houses away sitting on a huge lawn. I cut across the lawn to get to the dog (which I guess hurt its leg while running) and the lady living there started to yell at me for being on her lawn. Then in a very slow and dumb sounding response, I say, "I think I know who this dog belongs to and they are looking for it." Then I apologized for running on her lawn. She said that it was OK, she was just a little pissed because junior high aged kids ran on her lawn all day. I thought to myself later that she sounded ridiculous because her lawn is the fuckin BUS STOP for the junior high students in the morning. But I understand why she was pissed, the people who live on the same street as me cut on my parent's lawn every day and I just want to smack them. Anyway, I carried the heavy ass dog (heavier than my pug let me tell you) all the way to his house where I ran into the little boy and I made sure that it was his dog. Now my left arm is really sore from carrying the dog and I got no reward or anything. But oh well maybe next time.

All I Want to Say today is I Love Sudoku, and oh yeah, HO HO HO Merry Christmas

The 2005 JMA Winners

Since 1999, I have done my own version of the Grammy Awards mixed with the Video Music Awards where I pick my favorite album, follow up album, video/song, and new artist in music for each year. This should not be taken seriously, these are just based on the albums and music(from the artists I know and love) that I bought or listened to this year. Artists like Coldplay, Foo Fighters, or Beck are not included on this post because I didn't even listen to their latest albums. So here are the 2005 winners, according to me.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
MESMERIZE- SYSTEM OF A DOWN
JMA Award winner- Best New Artist 1999




















FOLLOW UP ALBUM OF THE YEAR
(Albums that are somewhat better than the last release)
t.A.T.u.- DANGEROUS AND MOVING
JMA Award Winner- Best New Artist of 2003





















SONG(S)/VIDEO(S) OF THE YEAR
TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET Chapters 1-12
R. KELLY




















BEST NEW ARTIST
????
I'll think about this one later because it seems that no new group came out and totally amazed me like others in the past years. With most new artists, or at least artists new to me, I only heard one song such as:
Different- Acceptance
Gravity- Embrace
Slide- Mark de Clive-Lowe
There are a couple artists I would highly consider.
1. Fall Out Boy- I can tell they didn't come, or start, out this year, but probably a lot of people didn't know them before 2005 either.
2. James Blunt- I like the current single "You're Beautiful" but another song named "Goodbye My Lover" totally had me wanting to burst into tears, which I like, after hearing him perform it on SNL.
So I don't know about which one should be the choice, I'll just have to see what these artists do later and then I'll decide the 2005 Best New Artist.

Along with System of A Down & t.A.T.u., here are the other nominees for album of the year.



311's Don't Tread On Me- Excellent album, but I don't want to be too biased on my favorite group every year. 311 has won several JMAs in the past including 1996, 1999, and 2003 Album of The Year.

Family Guy Live In Vegas- Very funny and it's cool to include a comedy album in the category. What a year it's been for Seth MacFarlane and the creators of the popular FOX show: the show comes back funnier than ever and this CD is released.

Daft Punk's Human After All- Probably would of won Album of the Year if it was longer and it had better songs. It absolutely doesn't measure up with their previous release, Discovery from 2001 which won Best Album for that year. I think they made it too quick, it does have two really amazing songs: Human After All & Robot Rock

My Favorite Film of the Year- This Divided State

I did not include this film on my post named "The Best, Middle, and Worst Films of the Year that I Saw" (a couple posts down) for a couple reasons.
1. I have huge reasons for loving it which include witnessing most of the events of the film as they were happening, going to the school that the film takes place, being obsessed with the story from the start, and finding myself on one of the special features on the DVD after I bought it on the September DVD release date.
2. On that post I wanted to list major motion pictures that played in theaters all over the country and save this film for a separate post.

Now that I have that out of the way. I was excited about this movie ever since I read that director Steven Greenstreet was making it in my campus newspaper. I RSVP'd and attended the February 3rd, 2005 premiere at the Ragan Theater @ Utah Valley State College. It was a very enjoyable experience because I got to laugh and get extremely pissed off at the whole story all over again.

If you don't know the story or what the hell I'm talking about, here's a very good summary.
A raw and riveting examination of the heated "red versus blue" rift in the nation, This Divided State begins in September 2004 with the presidential election fast approaching and the State of Utah ready to declare itself "Bush Country" once again. However, this complacent state of Republican majority was rocked when Utah Valley State College announced that liberal filmmaker Michael Moore would speak on their campus two weeks before the election. Within 24 hours of the announcement, a media frenzy descended upon the school as angry community members and religious leaders shouted protests, pointed fingers, and quoted Mormon scripture. Some even claimed Mooreπs arrival would bring the Apocalypse.
The student body representatives who had invited Michael Moore soon were inundated with hate mail, death threats, and claims that they had committed "treason." An effort to Other students who supported Mooreπs right to speak were labeled "liberal," "anti-Mormon," or just simply "evil." Spearheading the anti-Moore campaign was Kay Anderson, local millionaire, Sunday School teacher and self-appointed community spokesperson. Mr. Anderson made local headlines when he attempted to bribe the college administration, during a public forum, with a personal $25,000 check in order to cancel Michael Mooreπs speech.
Attempting to calm outrage, the college invited FOX News pundit Sean Hannity to speak a few days before Moore. But this was to no avail. The controversy continued to explode into a full-blown war of political and religious differences and, within days, lawsuits were filed, resignations occurred, and friendships were torn apart.

My personal story about the whole thing is that I love Michael Moore and what he does. When I heard from my parents that he was coming to my school, it was like hearing my favorite music group was coming to my city to do a concert. So immediately I got my free student ticket to Michael Moore's speech which was funny cause the ticket lady said to me "Are you sure this is what you want?" All the events between getting my ticket to going to the speech was pure chaos at its best. I saw the "Anti-Moore Rally" and the "Anti-Hannity Rally" take place luckily because I was on my lunch break at school. Without getting into every scene, my opinion on the whole story is it was a big deal over nothing. The school lost donations, the enrollment went down, and most other major changes to school were slightly blamed on the incident. On the other hand, the end of the world didn't come and it brought attention to the school, and at the time it made school a very cool place to because people had something to talk about. Ever since then, school for me has been sort of boring.

Anyway, here's my little review of the film. I wish they put more of the "Anti-Hannity Rally" in the DVD special features first off. This is because there was a guy who said fuck a few times and then a guy came up and said something like, "You should be ashamed of yourself," which was funny. I was sort of disappointed in how they changed the ending from the screening at the premiere to the DVD release. I liked how the filmmakers orignally put a clip of Michael Moore on The Tonight Show telling Jay Leno that Bush won the 2004 election because "Bush got more jokes." Not that I'm conservative, because believe me I'm not, but the whole way he said it was funny.

About Kay Anderson (The obvious antagonist in the film). The guy is not the Mayor of Orem City, my father, my church bishop, the President of Utah Valley State College, or President of the LDS church. So I think he and his wife should move next to Brigham Young University, have a Caffeine Free Diet Coke with a smile, and shut the mother fucking hell up. He had only one good point throughout the whole thing which was that the school would likely lose donations.
I really like how the film showed how much of a dick Sean Hannity is and how polite and tolerant Michael Moore is because he probably did research on the mormons who make up most of the population on location. Oh by the way, free speech works because we know when not to keep our mouths shut and something should definitely be said.

And about Sean Vreeland, the guy should not be doing a "controversial" petition in the middle of the UVSC student center if he's not ready for people to ask why the hell he's doing it. "Read it and sign if you agree" is not good enough. He needs to discuss the reasons why the petititon is such a brialliant idea or go do something else. I remember Vreeland at the time saying that people shouldn't listen to Michael Moore because he's not a college graduate. Well neither was he at the time so that comment just plain sucks ass.

The film captured all the different events very well and not leaving any huge details out. I also love the little scenes outside of the school about a Michael Moore look-a-like and talking to a guy who was in the U.S. Army dressed up as a stormtrooper which makes me laugh because a proud soldier ends up being a Star Wars character. I thought the visit to a place called "Moore Pizza" was good because the guy look so excited to have somebody actually being there. Those and the numerous other shots of places around Utah Valley show what kind of place it is very well.

The film is supposed to be unbiased but in a way it isn't. Yes, both sides get their say and there's no narration in the film but the filmmakers did pick what things to put in it and the questions asked by the director to Kay Anderson and Sean Hannity were to trap them and make their "side" look dumb in my opinion. Not that I hate that but it's good to point out. I loved that a montage of newspaper clippings and other items in the press was displayed in one sequence.

I love the choice of music which is very important in my book. The music was strong in getting the emotions out whether it be calm, angry, or sad. The editing and sound don't bug me cause as long as I can tell what's going on and what people are saying, it's all good to me. The film has plenty of memorable lines. My favorite quote is, "This guy's not evil," said at the public discussion panel portion of the film about Michael Moore as a person.

So as you can see, I have a huge bias for this movie and I recommend it to anyone that is interested. I bought my sister who lives near Washington D.C. a copy and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it. For more details and a bunch of other stuff, go to the film's website.