Marie Digby is Hot and Rio De Janiero is dangerous

It’s friday.

I’m at work with the office to myself and that usually means youtube. Well today is no exception and right now I’m in the middle of watching Gangland: Deadly Triangle. It’s a series on the History Channel which chronicles all types of gangs in America. This episode is on Chinatown gangs. Interesting stuff. Not sure what the purpose of the documentaries are, but if they are trying to promote gang membership, its working. That 50 cent sounding theme really gets me going.

Anyway, while we are on the subject of Gangs, last weekend I went over to my friend’s house and we watched City Of God, a 2002 Brazilian movie about life in the favelas. It was a fantastic movie, great story, good production value and shot and edited very stylishly. The movie in its whole was just put together very well.

It got me interested in more Brazilian films and on Monday I stumbled upon Tropa De Elite, a movie set in 1997 about BOPE, the Brazilian version of SWAT who frequently battle drug dealers in the morros (ghetto). Another film that was put together very well. The story telling was actually very similar to many Hong Kong Films, each of the characters identified with some defining trait and you could tell it was written with a very strong male sensibility.

Overall, I loved this film. Like City Of God, Tropa De Elite was very disturbing. Both films really gave me an insight of race and class tensions in Brazil and basically, I learnt that it was very similar to the United States (times 100).

I am sure all the Conservatives in America would love Rio De Janiero, less government, free gun ownership…

Anyway, I could write for days on the political and sociological problems of Brazil and how similar to the US, this ‘favela’ or ‘ghetto’ culture is perversely glorified and often, rich white people with a heavy sense of liberal guilt, label cops as corrupt and racist while they contribute to keeping the disenfranchised poor and helpless by feeding the drug trade with their consumption.

That’s why I hate well to do white boys yelling “Fuck cops man!” when they are potheads. But that’s not what this post is suppose to be about, so in concluding what I want to say about these two films: they are both great, thought provoking and I am glad I don’t live in Brazil.

I must digress.

Over this weekend I am shooting a 3 minute short film to enter into a Comedy Channel competition searching for a 13-part half hour comedy series. The 3 minute short film we are shooting is a microclosm of an episode of I Go To Uni (working title) a pilot for a comedy series which I have written.

I’m nervous about it, I still need some extras, there’s so many things that can go wrong… locations, acting, the look of the film, add on top of that I’m actually acting out what I’ve written for the first time? Phew! I hope the jokes don’t bomb!

Anyway, on the Post title… I’m becoming a youtube fiend and my latest discovery is someone who is about to blow up…. Marie Digby, singer/songwriter from California… this girl has it all, looks, voice, plays guitar and piano… creativity… basically I’ve become a big fan just over the last few hours…

I’ll update after the shoot this weekend

Peace and Love