Mos Def put on a show at the Independent on Wednesday. It was a benefit for Haiti. The show was great, but it was the poets that spoke before the show that left an impression with me. I forgot that San Fran has an underground poets scene. They reminded me of the movie, So I married an Axe Murderer. This clip can explain. Mos Def is a class act. Here is a pic from Half Moon Bay this past weekend.
“A serious deficiency of vitamin D” the doctor said to me this week. I visited the doctor about 4 times while I was in Utah. The whole time, I felt like I had mono again. I was fairly grateful to hear that from the doc. I attended the Sundance Film Festival for probably the 5th time this past weekend. Although, I was hit hard and feeling ill, I still managed to have a good time. The highlight was shaking hands with Bill Murray and talking about Loyola Academy and Second City. The lowlight was the MRI on my head. I managed to ski powder one day at the Canyons, attend a few high class parties, and see 4 movies. All in all, it was a good time. I wish that I had skiied more and seen more of my buddies in Utah. The movies and pictures are listed below.
Movies: Life 2.0, Jack goes boating, Gasland, and happythankyoumoreplease.
Gasland was an eye opening documentary about Natural Gas and the dramatic impact that “fracking” has on spoiling natural drinking water resources. happythankyoumoreplease was a great drama about life. It was a very generational movie that’s dialogue hit home. Jack goes boating was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut. And Life 2.0 was a twisted doc about second life and the impact that avatars actually have on real life. Oh and Banksy hit Sundance, he had a movie premeire, “Exit through the Gift Shop.”
Pics: 
Every time you drive into Park City from Salt Lake, you drive past the Gorgoza Sled hill. They even light it up for you at night, to draw more attention to it. It the perfect advertisement for the thousands of kids that pile in to Park City. After bailing on multiple commitments to tube down this hill, I finally agreed and followed through. It was exciting. But what made it the most fun was being there with a three year. Porter lives 2 minutes from this hill and it was his first time…it was all of our’s first time. I put together a movie. I’m gonna try and make more films in 2010
Porter’s Backyard: Click Here
I was super fortunate enough to spend the holiday season in Utah. The whole family spent the week in Park City for Christmas. Some old friends were in town too. So, it was great to see everyone. The hills needed a little snow. I skied before Christmas at the Bird with my boy Ross and while traversing the Cirque, I most definitely banged my butt on a rock and scuffed up my skis. I currently, still, have a huge bruise. But I was still able to ski and more snow came. The Bird got 16 inches on Dec 31; the skiing was full of face shots. I got 11 days in at Deer Valley (Katherine had multiple free passes for me), Snowbird, Snowbasin, and Solitude. Both Sadr and Sheldon were able to fit in to a few family dinners and ski sessions. I didn’t take too many pics because I was on parent duty for most of the week (with Katherine working everyday). But I pulled a few off.
Snowbasin White out: 
Mineral Basin at the Bird:
Ross’s Famous Alta Bird Line: 
NYE was spent at the Lumber Yard in PC. $20 to get in the door and BYOB and a pretty good dance party.
So, I am doing some work in the Bay Area for the next couple of months. This may lead to me spending some more time here. Regardless, I showed up here on Sunday with two small bags of (look legitimate in an office) clothes. To give you an idea of how strewn across the country I am…I have valuable pieces of my wardrobe and feng shui pieces of furniture in 4 states. Sounds like I live a pretty posh lifestyle, but it is actually more of the opposite. California, Utah, Chicago, and Connecticut are all hosting pieces of me. Amongst all of these ‘pieces,’ the one thing that I miss the most is gone completely. Our beloved ping pong table was the best asset to my Chicago apartment. Below are the craigslist pics that drove it into the arms of a Polish man and out of the hearts of a few Chicagoans.
Quick recap of the past few weeks…I got the H1N1. This horrible flu took me down for the count. It has been about 3 weeks and I would say that I am still not completely recovered. I’m at like a 93% today. Also, try flying with a surgeon’s mask on. The whole world treats you like a Leper. People would be more accepting if you had tattoos on your face.
Eventually, I made it home for Thanksgiving. My sister brings her new boyfriend home for the week to show him off and what not. As expected, Katherine leaves Dad and I with her dude for a day while she goes shopping with Mom. We probably would have done some awesome thing with him, but it was raining. Gulottas only do one thing best when its raining in Connecticut…We went to the museum. Then we went to another museum and then another. Ultimately, we went to 5 museums in one day. The list of cultural stops may have been a little overwhelming for others, but my Dad and I enjoyed every lame second of it. This is where we stopped:
I have spent the past 10 days in the bay area of California. The trip encompassed a combination of events. Ultimately, it allowed me to spend some time with some great people (both family and friends) and to get a good grasp on San Francisco and Oakland. The first weekend was Halloween and SF had thousands of people in the streets on Halloween. Oakland was another highlight of my trip. There is a huge art scene there. We Kayaked in the Bay for a bit on a rainy day, spent some time on the Haight, and toured through Golden Gate Park. I tried to cover every angle inside the city (and I even made it over the bridge to Sausalito). Aside from the crazy people on the streets/buses, the smell of dope everywhere, and the body odor that lingers over the Haight…I had a great time and San Francisco is certainly an amazing city.
I was fortunate enough to be able to stop over in Colorado for a few days before I continued on to Utah. Colorado is home to some of my good friends. My good buddy from growing up, Paul, is getting his PHD in Anthropology. His parents have a great place in Siverthorne, CO. We drove up there for a day, to enjoy a pretty fall day in the mountains. We tried to rent a sail boat to get out on Lake Dillon, but the summer season had come to a close…so, we rented bikes and biked around the reservoir. Then we came back to Boulder for some bluegrass music in Gold Hill, CO. Gold Hill is this small town about 30 minutes from Boulder. Essentially, nothing has changed in this old mining town. The music and the overall feel at the Gold Hill Inn was pretty classic. All in all, Colorado was great… here are some picutres.
Lake Dillon View: 
Paul has about 50 mummies in his office on CU’s campus: 
Gold Hill Inn: 
We took a long halftime break there, but we are back. If anyone is reading this, you probably already know all what has been going on in my life. I spent half of the summer in Chicago, cruising around on my fixed-gear bike. Then I took off for Salt Lake/Park City, took a jaunt up to Jackson for a float down the Snake River. After this, I flew to NYC and picked up a Visa for Brazil. Took a train from CT to Boston, got on a boat and sailed to Nova Scotia (probably one of the most extreme things that I have ever done…150 miles off shore with no land, in the middle of the night). Flew from Halifax to Newark, went to a wedding in Connecticut, and flew out for Salvador, Brazil that Monday. From Salvador, I went to Ilheus in Bahia. Spent 25 days in Bahia and then flew to Rio de Janeiro. And then I took a bus to Buzios, spent a week on the beach and returned to NY/CT. It was a fairly epic trip and I owe a lot to many people that helped make it happen…especially, my cousin Patrick, his wife Alesandra, and their daughter Rapha. They made my time in Brazil amazing. One could not pay enough money for the experience that they provided me with. Thank you. The Filiberto family was so wonderful and I am completely grateful that they included me in their family trip in Buzios. I am a lucky person for the experiences over the past several months, but it all happened because of the wonderful people that I surrounded myself with.
Elliott: “There is some good wind today, let’s go fly some kites.” Brian, “I don’t really know what that means, but I am down.” That is pretty much the text conversation that occurred on Monday afternoon. We road bikes to the North Avenue beach on Lake Michigan. It is a little embarrassing at first because there are about 200 people on the beach playing volleyball and staring at you, wondering why you are about to fly a kite. And then, when the kite doesn’t take off, you can see the disappointment in their eyes and hear the comment, “lame,” in their heads.
This being the first time that I have flown a kite in a long time and the first time that I have flown powerkites (the kites that they use for Kite-Boarding), I was pretty pumped. After a few crashes into the sand and water (one, nearly took out a small family of Mexicans), I figured it out. This is a video of me pushing a kite around on Lake Michigan. The volleyballers soon figured out what we were doing.
BG Powerkiting On North Ave Beach Chicago