Bam Margera crying at the scene of Ryan Dunn’s death

I also dug up a few of my favorite Ryan Dunn moments:

Introducing The Extreme Unicorns

I bet you’ve been looking for a punk rock version of the new Britney Spears single, right? How about one with a video that features a unicorn farting a rainbow? Yep. We’re all looking for it. But who has time to dig through all of the not funny youtube videos for a nugget of solid gold like that? You’ve got kids to feed, or possibly animals to feed, or at the very least yourself to feed… unless you’re anorexic, in which case you honestly have no excuse. In any case, relax. Allow me do the heavy lifting, dude. (You’re getting a free ride, anorexics!) Look no further:

Documentary December – Last Train Home

In many ways, life in China is almost incomprehensible to the average American. Lixin Fan’s documentary, Last Train Home, gives us a glimpse, a sometimes disturbing one, of life in China through the lens of one family of migrant workers.

TV Casualties Rating: out of 5

Run Time: 86 minutes

Directed by: Lixin Fan

Starring: Zhang Changhua, Chen Suqin, Qin Zhang

Theatrical Release: 09/5/10

DVD Release: 2/22/11

Production Budget: N/A

Domestic Gross: $272,556

Metacritic Score: 86/100

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%

The movie opens with a shot panning across an endless crowd of people – I’d guess in the six figure range – standing outside of a train station in the rain. Every year 130 million migrant workers head home for the Chinese New Year, which, we’re told via text on the screen, is the largest human migration in the world. The subjects of the film, Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin, have been making this annual trek for roughly 20 years – starting when they were just 16 years old and dropped out of school to find work, a decision which they not only regret but seems to consume them – even after 20 years, they bring it up constantly. The couple spends the rest of the year living in a tiny bunk down the hall from the factory where they sew jeans and other garments to be shipped to the Western world.

They arrive home at the family farm to spend time with their 16 year old daughter, 10 year old son and the grandmother that is raising the children with the financial help of the factory money. Their visit is awkward. Spending around 51 weeks a year away at work, they don’t know their own kids very well. Their daughter, Qin, is openly angry at her parents and rebellious. Ironically, and against all the parental advice she’s ever received, Qin drops out and gets a factory job similar to that of her parents. Her parents are confused and upset by her decision. Her mother says, “I’d rather work even harder than have Qin work.”

While there are many differences from American life to be seen, in some ways the similarities are more striking. The first words out of Qin’s younger brother’s mouth when his parents show him the cell phone they bought Qin are, “Does it have games?” During an argument with her mother, Qin says, “I don’t care what you say.” Teen angst and rebellion, it appears, are universal.

If the most important thing in someone’s life is spending time with the people they care about, the economic situation in China has removed this aspect of life almost completely. Last Train Home doesn’t beat this idea over your head, but by the end you realize that’s what it’s all about.

Handmade Awesomeness – How to Make a Reusable Grocery Bag

Documentary December – Exit Through the Gift Shop

There’s a lot of speculation regarding how true the events portrayed in the Banksy documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, actually are. After considering it a while, I’ve decided that I have no goddamn idea. But let’s start at the beginning.

TV Casualties Rating: out of 5

Run Time: 86 minutes

Directed by: Banksy, Shepard Fairy

Starring: Thierry Guetta, Banksy, Shepard Fairy

Theatrical Release: 04/16/10

DVD Release: 12/14/10

Production Budget: N/A

Domestic Gross: $3.29 million

Metacritic Score: 85/100

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 97%

Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the story of Thierry Guetta and the eight years he spent relentlessly shooting footage for his great street art documentary, Life Remote Control. Thierry begins filming his cousin, whom goes by the moniker Space Invader, as his graffiti deals exclusively with the imagery of the ancient video game of the same name. Almost instantly upon shooting Space Invader in action, Thierry is obsessed. He quickly branches out from there, slowly but surely meeting and filming the biggest artists in street art including arguably the biggest name, Banksy, whom is shown only in shadow. Thierry travels the world, filming the hijinks. He scales buildings side by side with the graffiti artists he films and tightropes the peaks of steep rooftops to get the perfect shot. The artists respect his enthusiasm and fearlessness and not only let Thierry shoot them freely but befriend him in the process.

It’s not until much later – approximately 6 or 7 years, in fact – that they realize he is in no way a legitimate filmmaker. He is just a guy that compulsively films everything around him, never bothering to watch the boxes and boxes of tapes lining the walls of his residence. (As Banksy describes it, “I realized Thierry was not a filmmaker but a guy with mental problems.”)

This is where the reality of the events begin to come into question. At Banksy’s insistence, Thierry does attempt to edit together a movie out of his countless hours of footage. We are shown a couple of clips of the final product, which are essentially micro-fragments of nonsense strung together. No shot is over 1 or 2 seconds, nor do they relate to clips before or after them. Totally incoherent.

It’s at this point that Banksy takes over the project and Thierry takes on the street art name Mr. Brainwash and sets out to make a name for himself. The idea that the latter is a hoax has been put forth many times, and I really can’t say. I don’t want to ruin the ending of the movie by giving a lot of details, but I’ll say that the whole thing is almost too clever to be completely true and all of the facts represented accurate.

In any case, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an entertaining movie. It isn’t really the definitive street art documentary that Thierry may or may not have ever intended it to be, though if there’s a hoax involved it does make a fitting piece in Banksy’s collection. Thierry is an interesting character, however much fact or fiction he truly is.

Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones

Breaking Bad as an ABC Sitcom

First Game of Thrones Teaser from HBO

Things I’m Thinking As I Watch Survivor – 05/16/10

First, let me get this out of the way:

FUCK YES!

I can sleep well tonight knowing Sandra won.

To be honest, I was pretty convinced Parvati was going to win again once they showed the first few votes during tribal council.

Okay, back to what I was thinking…

– Colby crying was one of the funniest Survivor moments since Boo sliced himself with an axe, got something in his eye, and fell out of the hammock in the course of one afternoon.

– Can we please get rid of the damned Final Passage? Ten minutes of cheesy slow motion flashbacks is too much.

– (When Russell voted Jerri out instead of Parvati:) Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I hate Parvati.

– Parvati says she’s put her “heart and soul into this game.” MAYBE IF SHE HAD A SOUL.

– Three of the best bullshitters (and I mean that as a compliment) made it to the final tribal council this season. Ultimately, Russell is the weakest… while he at least tried to exercise some humility this time around, it probably won’t be enough to get him the votes. Russell is the kind of cat that hunts the mouse and then wants to play with it instead of killing it, and no one will vote for you after you tortured them and then gloated about it.

More Kimmel and Lost fun: Jacob and the Man in Black’s game

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