Trailer for film 20th Century Boy (music written by Me and Tim Conley)

I recently wrote and recorded some music for an Independent Film Called 20th Century Boy with my friend Tim Conley. They just released the trailer for the film. It looks pretty bizarre. Check it out!

20TH CENTURY BOY FEATURE FILM TRAILER

January 24th, 2009 - Tel Aviv, Israel

I woke up up from a nap after finally checking into the Sky Hostel. It's in the heart of a Tel Aviv, a street called Ben Yahuda, down the street from a gorgeous beach. I showered and went out to search for a nice place to eat with Jackie. We ended up at a cafe/restaurant that Jackie had eaten at before. I had sweet potato and Parmesan ravioli, accompanied by a fresh salad and a couple Stella Artois beers. The weather was perfect, so we ate outside and watched people walk around on Shabbat. We drank, and talked about the trip in full detail for the first time. We had a ton of laughs and learned about each others favorite times. It felt good to reminisce, as the entire day was filled with sadness that the trip was over and our friends had all gone home. It is a strange feeling to be the last ones from our trip still around. All that is left to do at a moment like this is to ponder what fun you've already had. It's a great feeling, but an extremely vulnerable one. Especially when you are forced to walk around the last place you saw all of your friends for 6 hours until your hostel is ready! This gave me time to think about everything in great detail, and almost re-experience it in a way... During our "timeline" discussion, my phone rang. It was one of the Israeli girls that was on my trip, Maya! We met up with her, another Israeli friend named Or, and a few of their friends and drank a couple bottles of wine at a nice little pub. We had the best time, remembering the littlest things... Before you know it, the time was 4am. Jackie, Maya and I left to get early morning sushi at a crazy sushi bar in the middle of the street. It was fantastic and unbelievably cheap. An entire roll of sushi was 11 NIS. $1 = 4 NIS. We are meeting up with the Israelis again today for one last run around Tel Aviv before we head to the airport at 10pm. We are going to Old Jafo today to ride on magic carpets. Hopefully they are less turbulent than the airplanes we have been riding. Old Jafo is kind of like a reallly old flea market with tons of second hand/third hand items. It's very fun. I'll send a wrap up I'm sure, but some of you may see me before you read my last email. If you are one of those people, I cannot wait.

January 23rd, 2009 - Tel Aviv, Israel

We arrived in Tel Aviv around 4 in the morning. We slept the entire flight, so it didn't matter too much that our hostel reservations got a little screwed up. We decided to take a walk and get some food because we weren't able to get dinner last night. We had falafal and pizza at 5:30am on a strip in Tel Aviv that was still crazy bumpin til all hours of the morning. The clubs were still blaring music when we left to go to the beach to watch the sunrise. We sat on a bench across from the hotel where we spent our last night with the group and watched as the sky change colors in the most amazing way (see picture.) We are still up and waiting to check into the hostel at 11. We walked a little and ended up at a cafe in Old Tel Aviv that is really awesome. We remembered it from a tour we did with the group because of the graffiti paintings on the wall across the street that we took pictures with. Great coffee and hot chocolate! Yesterday we spent the rainy day in Paris by going to the Musee D'Orsay and eating at our favorite French restaurant in the gallery district. Before we caught the airport shuttle, I decided I couldn't leave Paris without trying some real creme brûlée. The airport was a fiasco. We were pretty much flagged as terrorists and had to take everything out of our bags and get swabs taken of our stuff for ion testing. Israelis do not like to stand in lines, so they all barge in one big clump and get stuck in doorways. So you can imagine what each part of the airport check-in was like... Needless to say, a whole bunch of Jews in one small packed space is always a kvetch. We will probably sleep all day and go out with some friends tonight. Maybe the beach tomorrow? We have lost our tans from being in the cold of Europe for a week... I cant believe its almiat over! We've begun the countdown however, with slightly less than two days until we see our homes, family and friends. I think we are ready.

From Israel with love...

January 22nd, 2009 - Paris, France

We arrived in Paris with our Aussie friend Nikki around 3pm. Starving
and exhausted from the back and forth traveling from bus to plane to
bus to metro to other metro, we found the first restaurant we could.
Pizza Pino. We ordered pasta and salads that, as you could have
guessed, were fantastic. Pricey, but we weren't about to be picky due
to our intense hunger... After a good pasta meal, its hard enough to
breathe, let alone walk around Paris, so we walked down to our hostel
and took a late siesta before meeting a couple friends near The
Louvre. We bought a couple bottles of wine and ran around the Louvre
like little kids, taking pictures and laughing so hard that our
stomachs began to hurt. Obviously a bit drunk, we decided the best
idea would be to eat some crepes and find a bar. We walked around a
bit and ended up at the bohemian bar I had visited with a French woman
I met last weekend. We drank some more, and met a couple locals that
spoke very elegant english (which is extremely uncommon for French
people I have noticed...) We talked about many things, but it seems
the topic of conversation for most people right now is Barack Obama.
The discussion was very interesting, because they spoke about being
skeptical of an Obama presidency. They were only really playing
devils advocate, because I know that they are very intelligent people.
It is great to hear other world views. We are really fed the same
things over and over again in our little bubble. The same is true for
every country, as they all have some kind of agenda, but hearing other
views is a great thing that we don't get to experience enough in the
US. The French have a long history of having strong political and
philosophical views that challenge "the norm". After the bar closed, I
decided to walk Nikki back to her hostel, which was a long walk along
the canal by our hostel. It was a cold, lonely walk back, but
fantastic. The lights from all the lamp posts were shining so
amazingly off the canal waters, that it kept me warm. Paris is the
best city in the world. I absolutely love everything about it. We
leave for Israel tonight, getting in around 3am, which would be around
8pm EST. Even though we wish we could stay in Paris longer, we're
excited to see a couple of our Israeli friends one last time before we
head home... It'll be sad staying in Israel without the whole group.
I'm getting very excited to come home though. Not so excited for
another long flight...

See you in Tel Aviv!

January 21st, 2009 - Barcelona, Spain

Well I'm on a bus headed towards the airport now. Barcelona was great, but way too short... Our friend Nikki is heading back to Paris with us. We met in the hostel and kicked it at an Indian restaurant. She's from Sydney, Australia, and is pretty cool. She's been traveling for a while and just living life to the fullest after graduating from school and before starting her new job. We saw the entire city of Barcelona yesterday from the top of Parc Guell, which was a steep climb, but well worth the view. We saw the Gaudi church that has been in construction for over a hundred years. He was apparently run over by a Trolley Car during it's initial construction! Ever since, it has been quite a controversial topic in the city and art world. To finish the church or not... A religious sect has been furiously working to finish it. It really is a fantastic piece of work, but I wish someone had warned me not to pay 13 euros to see the inside. It's empty! Biggest waste of money on my trip so far... The Spanish coffee was pretty good, but nothing compares to Parisian coffee. Not even Italy. Barcelona had some ok food, but after eating in Paris, I'm pretty sure I'll never be satisfied again. The layout of the city is wonderful. I walked everywhere with ease (except for the steep climb to the park.) The people are attractive and very nice. It really seems like a great place to live life... I'm happy to return to Paris for one more day to do things I wasn't able to do last week. Things I want to experience before leaving Paris: try a street cart waffle, go to the Musee d'Orsay, have drinks outside the Louvre on a clear night, watch one more episode of Spongebob Squarepants in French (the most hilarious thing ever.) This leaves the rest of my day (and a half) to buy everyone gifts with the little money I have left! Jackie and I booked our private hostel room again. Ah... Luxury. These Ryanair flights scare the hell out of me. Wish me luck.

I've included a picture that Jackie took of me after our last French adventure... I was seriously exhausted.

January 17th, 2009 - Paris, France

I'm sitting in a Canadian Sports Bar right now in Paris watching the Eagles slowly come back. It's pretty exciting watching the game with an entire bar packed full of Philadelphians in a city where I really haven't been able to understand anyone. Well... To tell you the truth, it's kinda hard to understand all of these screaming Philadelphians also! I'm meeting people from Upper Dublin, Lower Merion, even Rittenhouse. It's bizarre... I ate some macaroons today and paid a fortune for a meal that resembled McDonalds, only worse service! I'm sad to leave this city! I will be back for one more full day after Barcelona to finish up my business here. I got to hang out with Jim Morrison today, reincarnated as a cat at his grave site. One of the coolest cats EVER. We named him Morris. The picture is from a hike in Northern Israel at our tourguide Dani's kibbutz. I have some really great memories from this place. It is truly magical. GO IGGLES!

See you in Barcelona.

January 19th, 2009 - Barcelona, Spain

It's surprising that most people in Barcelona cannot speak English, but maybe even more surprising how little Spanish I remember... I've been using my Italian, but people don't really understand Italian either here unfortunately! Some of the Catalonians understand my Italian better though because it's much closer to their language. I found this out when I stumbled into a little Catalonian cafe in town while trying to get lost. This time I actually did get lost though because it took me a really long time to find out where the hell I was... Luckily, my audacity led me pretty far west, following one of the most intensely serene sunsets I have ever witnessed. The sky was pink, blue and orange with an incredible rainbow straight through it. Along the sunset lay the famous Gaudi church on the hill that looked like a medieval silhouette stencilling the sky. As always, my headphones were in my ears, playing the perfect score to my visuals. The music was Lhasa de Sela, a Spanish woman, whose music is so hauntingly beautiful it could make the dark seem warm. At one point I saw a local woman stare into the sunset and pray. The colors of the sky were bouncing off her face and dress. The image was straight out of an Almodovar film. Obnoxiously incredible. I spent the entire day just walking around the city, getting to know the surroundings and feeling the culture. I drank a lot of espresso, ate a baguette, and got a haircut/beard trim because I was starting to look like a caveman when approaching people speaking some gibberish language. Jackie dyed her hair dark brown and looks way more European now. This city doesn't cater very well to vegetarians, but I enjoy the difficulty in finding really good food. It was too easy to find good food in Paris! Since we are only staying in Spain for a couple days, Jackie and I decided to leave our packs in Paris with our friend Negar. It's been very easy travelling with just a small backpack. The only downside is that the airport confiscated all of my new dead sea salt shower products! The whole world is so excited for Obamas inauguration, and you can feel it everywhere. I couldn't even imagine people in the states getting excited for a new president of another country... Just some food for thought...

I've got another full day in each of the countries I've been travelling through. I'm going to try and savour the time as much as possible...

January 18th, 2009 - Paris, France

The Louvre was fantastic, I am extremely inspired right now... All I
want to do is paint! Last night was a blast as well... Jackie and I
were so tired from trekking all over the city that our late afternoon
nap turned into a full blown sleep. When I woke around 10pm, Jackie
couldn't open her eyes to get dinner- so I decided to get lost in
Paris... (which I have been trying to do since we got here!) I ended
up at a creperie, meeting all sorts of people. An Algerian man
studying translation was working as a barista at the creperie; we
began talking about many interesting things. We discussed Israel,
which by the way, people do not generally like at the moment. He
guessed that I was from California because I spoke slow and attempted
to speak French. We discussed linguistics for some time before the
night rush came through the Creperie. As more and more people started
showing up, I began to talk to people in the little French I have
learned thus far... I met a reggae musician that taught me some French
slang, and gave me advice on how to meet French women. The
advice worked, because I ended up at a bar with a 33 year old French
woman who spoke almost no English... (I think she was trying to seduce
me!) I didn't succumb to her smelly armpits. We drank a few glasses of
wine and talked about graphic design... She turned out to be a
creative director for Hermes handbags. Jackie is now trying to get me
to call her for a discount on a bag. While at the bar, I met a
Parisian Communist that thought I was interesting and wanted to pick
my brain. French people do not speak English well, and Justin does
not speak French well either, so the brain picking probably made me
sound mentally ill. Today, we are visiting Pere La Chaise, the famous
cemetery where Jim Morrison, Eugene Delacroix (finally saw his work at
the louvre...), Visconti, Suerat, George Mieles, Max Ernst, Stephane
Grappelli, Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein are all buried. The list
goes on, but I will spare you... I hope I can conjure up some more
inspiration there because I am already so excited to work... It is
raining today, which is ok for most activities in Paris, but another
thing we are attempting today is a Giant flea market that all the
Parisians love, called Le Saint Ouen. I hope the rain doesn't ruin it.
Later, I plan on eating a macaroon at Les Champs Elysee, "The most
beautiful avenue in the world". We leave for Barcelona early in the
morning, so before we head back to the Penthouse Suite, we will run
around outside The Louvre after sundown, which we have heard is one of
the most amazing things ever. I think the most amazing thing ever is
the Croque Monsieur Vegiterienne I ate in a little cafe in the gallery
district here... A piece of real toast with goat cheese and cucumber
slices - smeared with french mustard. Lets see if the macaroon can
hold its own...

January 16th, 2009 - Paris, France

I'm sitting in a quaint little bar called Le Voyageur in the heart of the Third District of Paris watching a quartet of French Gypsies swinging it away to the music of Django Reinhardt. I'm wearing a new suit that I bought this morning and my new winter jacket is by my side in case the amazing weather takes a turn for the worse. Jackie and I just finished our French Thai fusion down the street. We walked through the catacombs today and saw the Eiffel Tower. We ran through Notre Dam and drank some afternoon wine... Tomorrow we are visiting Le Louvre and I am sketching people inside a cafe. I have decided to buy an expensive block of cheese and some good bread to keep with me all day tomorrow. My beard has turned red and has grown out of control... I look like a lumberjack with a nice suit. Jackie and I decided to go for gold and upgrade our hostel room to a private suite. The four person room was the size of a baguette. Our new room is twice the size and half the amount of people. It's time to go back to the penthouse for a quick nap before we go out for drinks at another jazz club.

Over and out.

January 12th, 2009 - Masada and The Dead Sea

My Israel trip is almost finished, and it has gone by so fast that I have hardly had time to really take any of it in... Not really sure where I left off, maybe I was about to meet the Israeli soldiers that were to join my trip...? Well they have been traveling with us ever since, and I have really become friends with all ten of them. It is really great to have them around and get a better understanding of Israeli life, but even better to hear their stories about the war going on right now... I have learned so many things about the conflict and it's history along with what feels like every piece of Israeli history ever. The whole trip has been one very concise history bio in the likes of some discovery channel biopic. Today I climbed Masada, swam in the dead sea, rode a camel through the desert, and attempted to ride a donkey, although my feet were hitting the ground. Last night I slept at the Bedouin tents in the middle of the desert. Bedouins are Arabs that live sort of nomadic lives and have absolutely no material belongings other than coffee, tea, and musical instruments, which they live by. The night was a blast, and I played Jewish Geography for hours with the other groups from birthright. So far I have run into four people I know from home in the deserts of Israel. It's a funny feeling when your across the globe and you see someone from another life. I'm leaving for Paris in a couple days with Jackie and although we will surely see the louvre and other areas of interest, my real interests are as follows: drawing in cafes, finding the worlds best falafal, drinking coffee, finally relaxing.

January 8th, 2009 - Jerusalem, Israel

So right now it is 6:20am and I am watching the sun rise in a very fancy hotel in Jerusalem. We arrived here last night after a 3 hour drive from Heifa, a huuuge city that reminds me of a mix between San Francisco and Dubai... It is massive and everything is run on solar power. Israel is extremely energy efficient in every way, it's quite unbelievable. We visited our tour guide Dani's kibbutz yesterday and hiked such a beautiful trail with olive bushes and lemon trees and mango trees. The kibbutz really reminded me of the show Lost! You'll see pictures when it doesn't cost me a fortune to send them! I should be able to upload in Paris... Two days ago we had a full day of greatness. I have to tell you that we are really treated like kings and queens over here. First we woke up and hiked the Golan Heights, which was too beautiful for words. Waterfalls, every kind of fruit imaginable, palm trees, eucalyptus and bamboo everywhere. I've seen eagles and lizards and wild boars and wild cats (they all look just like Rufus and MIA!!) There is definitely a discovery channel aspect about this trip and you know I dig that stuff! After the Golan Heights, we went for food and a wine tasting at a vineyard in a volcano. We drive our bus down into the volcano which would have made you all puke. It's like one of those twisty turny little roads that is so close to falling off the edge... To tell you the truth, we saw multiple cars at the bottom that had fallen off over the years, kinda freaky. After the winery, we went to a hot spring SPA!!!! Now when I say that this was the most amazing, rejuvenating experience of my life so far, I am not lying. It was like a real Turkish bath at the bottom of a volcano, but the whole place was made into an ornate Spa with basketball coarts, soccer fields, alligator ranches, masseuses, underwater valleys of natural hot tubs... We spent 3 hours getting pampered there. Then we went back to our kibbutz where we partied all night with two other groups from birthright, one from England, and one from Toronto. We drank wine from the vineyard until every last drop was gone. Everybody instantly became friends, and it was sad to leave the first kibbutz that we visited. Today, we have 8 Israeli soldiers that are joining our group permanently to spend the rest of our trip with us. Yes, Israelis do birthright too! It's a huge thing in their culture, and it's a great way to really get to know their life. I've met so many kinds of people here so far. The markets in the cities are like the ones in Aladdin. They are so cool! All the Arabs try to barter with you... They all like my mustache and tell me I have the "cousin" discount!! Hehe. I have been partying and enjoying everything so much, that I really haven't slept much. Last night I finally stayed in instead of going to the bar. It was much needed. I can't wait to see what's in store next.

Peace in the Middle East!

Top Eleven Movies From My Childhood That Fucked Me Up Permanently...

I'm calling these movies and not films because of the B-listed nature of them all... Some of the movies listed here are not actually movies, but TV shows or "made for TV" movies... I count them as movies though because they were viewed by me on VHS several times a year for my entire childhood. I suggest you watch the ones that you've never seen. OR - If you remember seeing any of these as a child, please watch them again to see how they may have impacted the way you think nowadays.

11. Huggabunch

A girl travels through her mirror into HuggaLand to find a way to keep her grandmother, the only one who knows how to hug, young.



10. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

Seven disgusting kids but nevertheless of interesting personality are being made of the green mud coming out of garbage can. Once alive their master gives them rules to obey although they think that life is funnier without following stupid regulations like no television or no candy. Naturally this will cause some conflicts.



9. The Peanut Butter Solution

Peanut butter is the secret ingredient for magic potions made by two 'friendly' ghosts. Eleven-year-old Michael looses all of his hair when he gets a 'fright' and uses the potion to get his hair back, but too much peanut butter causes things to get a bit 'hairy'.



8. The Boy Who Could Fly

Milly and Lewis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.



7. House 2

The new owner of a sinister house gets involved with reanimated corpses and demons searching for an ancient Aztec skull with magic powers.



6. The Ren and Stimpy Show

An intense, hyperactive chihuahua (Is there any other kind?) and a happy-go-lucky, empty-brained cat share bizarre and often repulsive adventures. Their experiences usually involve hairballs, filthy litterboxes, "magic nose goblins", sentient farts, jars of spit, outhouses, eating dirt, monkey vermin and any other imaginable disgusting substance.



5. Chip An' Dale (1952)

Donald needs a log for his fire. Unfortunately, the one he picks is occupied by a couple of chipmunks and their stash of acorns. When he cuts it down, Chip and Dale fall out, but their acorns stay behind, so they work at putting out Donald's fire and retrieving their stash. Donald, of course, takes this as calmly and cheerfully as you would expect.


4. Beetlejuice

This is the story of Adam and Barbara who live in a beautiful house in New England. One day while driving home they are involved in a terrible auto accident. They manage to walk home only to discover later that they have died and now haunt their house. When their house is purchased by an out of state family, they feel their home is threatened by the over-the-top artists wife and real-estate idea-man husband. Their only relief is the Gothic daughter of the family. Their attempts at scaring the family out of the house are ignored or laughed at. Finally they fall to the temptation to use the people-exorcizer Beetle Juice. When they find his tactics too dangerous, they attempt to contain him and save the family they were trying to boot.



3. Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Pee-wee's bicycle, a material object he desires above all human relationships, is stolen. The journey he is forced to make exposes him to the land that suburbia forgot, a mythical working-class America filled with truck stops, waitresses and runaway convicts. This is Tim Burton's remake of Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic, The Bicycle Thief.



2. The Stuff

Weird yummy goo erupts from the earth and is discovered by a couple of miners. They taste it and decide to market it because it tastes so good. The American public literally eats up the new dessert sensation now known as the Stuff but, unfortunately, it takes over the brains of those who eat it, turning them into zombie-like creatures. It is up to ex-FBI agent David Rutherford and a kid named Jason to stop the spread of the mind-devouring dessert.



1. The Gate

The boy Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his best fried Terry (Louis Tripp) accidentally open a gate to hell when a rotten tree is removed from the backyard of Glen's house. When his dog die and a friend of Glen's sister, the teenager Alexandra (Christa Denton), buries the animal in the hole, demons from an ancient civilization are released, seeking for two human sacrifices to dominate the world. Glen, Al and Terry, who are spending the weekend alone in the house, fight to save their lives and close the hole.

Betty Boop

I'm not ashamed of letting the world know of my infatuation with Betty
Boop. I don't collect toys, magnets, ashtrays or shot glasses with
her face on them... I just have this sincere desire to be inside one
of those old black and white, hand drawn Fleisher cartoons with Cab
Calloway's swing music backing those discreet political commentaries
of the day. The animations of the 20's and 30's had no censoring,
which made them real. Those intricate details and delicate drawings
have been lost in animation through time. Nowadays cartoons are
censored and reality is not. I find that an absurd twist in history.
I once met the granddaughter of Max Fleisher and explained my love for
Betty, which she found weird... I'm still not ashamed of it.
Obviously.

Article written by me, for Philadelphia City Paper 2/20/08

Here's my favorite Betty cartoon that is definitely a must see...