NEW FEATURE: Movie review

On Monday I saw the documentary Girls Rock!, which is about this awesome rock&roll camp for 8 to 18 year-old girls that takes place every year in Portland and culminates in a giant live show in front of a 750-person audience. The movie is pretty great, and it's amazing to see kids who have in some cases never touched an instrument in their lives put together some pretty kick-ass (if a little rough) songs in 5 days. Also, this movie just reinforces my views that kids are way smarter and more articulate than most people give them credit for.

The movie primarily follows the stories of four girls through their various experiences throughout the week. Drama is had, lessons are learned, personal growth is ACHIEVED. (Also, disturbing statistics about how young most girls first try dieting - SO messed up).

It's a well put-together, provocative documentary, but the real reason everyone should go see it is the 9-year-old, Sonic-youth-inspired, waaaay over-talkative noise rocker Amelie. I just can't emphasize enough how much ass she kicks. There should be a spin-off show just about her. Here is a very brief list of hilarious Amelie moments:

• She plays epic, wall-of-sound, incredibly loud noise rock on a tiny guitar shaped like a flower.
• She ended a tirade about this girl at her school with, "it's just so easy. Except for the switching-bodies part."
• She invented a chord she calls "negative ten degrees".
• All of the songs she writes are about a monster-sized version of her dog.
• "this is already, like, my third gig".
• 70% of her band's live performance is her playing guitar with her teeth while rolling around on stage.

The biggest Amelie gem of the movie for me, however, was a relatively brief moment during one of her band practices. Her band, P.L.A.I.D (which the drummer, "Sunshine", explains stands for "People Lying Around In Dirt") was busy writing their song when she screamed out the following lyrics into a storm of crazy distorted noise:

How do you tune a taco
How do you tune a taco
I don't knooooooow

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, I am still laughing at this. I think the saddest part about being a grown-up is that I couldn't come up with anything even close to this hilarious this if I tried.

Go see it. Hilarious.