Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolverine

Saw a couple of movies recently. Completely different, but both very good.
Firstly, there was Hard Candy, an incredibly well-acted movie about a 14 year-old girl who meets a sexual predator in an internet chatroom. Back at his place, she turns the tables on him and gets revenge in the MOST squirm-inducing way. Let's just say that if you're a guy, double ouch. Ellen Page as the Hayley was incredible, going from vulnerable to menacing in the blink of an eye. It's one of those movies, like American Psycho, that I enjoyed but find hard to recommend. People ask if you liked it and you go "Yeah, but..."
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it really seems like films seem to be obsessed with the idea of torture as entertainment, perhaps tapping into the American psyche of today. From horror movies like Saw and Hostel to TV shows like Lost and 24 (starring everyone's post-911 superhero Jack Bauer) we just can't get enough of seeing people held captive and abused in horrific ways. Even shows like Jackass and Fear Factor involve cringeworthy tests of human endurance. And of course, American Idol is a different kind of torture altogether.



The second movie I rented (coincidentally also starring Ellen Page) was X-Men: The Last Stand. I think the X-Men series is definitely one of the better comic book interpretations done recently and this one was no exception. There's always a lot more emotion and subtext than you expect. Plus you get see lots of stuff getting smashed and blown-up. The special effects were incredible. I particularly liked how they managed to make Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen look twenty years younger in the prologue. Really impressive stuff. The only downside was that they seemed to rush things, trying to wrap up way too many loose ends to complete the series. I imagine there'll probably be an extended directors cut in the near future. There usually is.

A word or two

I've always been a bit of a word geek. I'm addicted to cryptic crosswords, I love a bad pun or spoonerism, and I subscribe to Word-A-Day. I think it all started with my dad reading strange random words from the dictionary and telling us the definitions when I was a kid. For instance, next time you call someone a 'cretin' be aware that the specific meaning is 'deformed idiot of a kind found esp. in Alpine valleys'. So, be sure you're in an Alpine valley next time you use that one.
In any case, Polly M. Law, an artist in New York, has taken a handful of obscure words and made some quirky illustrations out of them. You can check them out here.

GUY movie

Just saw Crank the other night. This is a GUY MOVIE in capital letters. If you want violence, drugs, nudity and fast cars, well that all happens within the first five minutes. Jason Statham plays a hitman who has been injected with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops too much. Very fast, very violent and often very funny - kind of like a video game of a movie. Makes The Transporter look like Driving Miss Daisy. The kind of movie where:

1) If a guy falls off a tall building, he will land directly on top of the only car within in a five block radius

2) If a guy is attacked by a huge group of thugs, they will only fight him one or two at time, while the others stand around and watch

3) A guy can drive a car through stoplights, into a mall, and up an escalator while having a conversation on a cellphone.

Plus it made great use of Loverboy's 'Turn Me Loose' during a kitchen/back alley hatchet versus gun fight scene. So yeah, it was morally bankrupt, exploitive and stupid, but I still enjoyed it. Because I'm a guy.

Some food for thought

Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
- Jimmy Carter

Feric

This guy's work is incredible. His name is Eric Feng, A.K.A. Feric, and he has a really interesting illustrative style; very delicate, very precise, yet wonderfully natural and organic. You can check out more of his work at www.feric.com.

Some ad designs

Here's a series of ads I recently designed for channel m. I'm pretty happy with the way that they turned out. I wanted to design a look that was versatile enough for several types of shows, yet consistent in layout and design. Once I had the '24' design established, it was fairly easy to have the others fall into the same type of template. The bulk of the work was in choosing the right kinds of images and cropping out the characters in Photoshop.

Casino Royale (James Blond?)

The new James Bond movie, Casino Royale, looks like its going to be good. Pierce Brosnan is gone, and replaced by Daniel Craig who was great in Layer Cake. It looks like they're going for a more grittier, and realistic (for a Bond movie anyway) kind of action movie. More of a Bourne Identity kind of feel. Pierce Brosnan was good, but in the last couple of movies, the gadgets and sets were getting kinda ridiculous. I mean, an invisible car and a castle made out of ice? Come on...
I think it's a shame that they always try to rope these actors into a two or three movie deal. They should just mix it up all the time - have a different actor play Bond for each movie just to keep it fresh. Get someone like Clive Owen or Sean Bean.
In any case, you can view a great trailer for the movie here. The official website is here.

Imagine all the people...

There are days for conspiracy theories, finger-pointing and cynicism - but today is not one of those days.
Have a peaceful day everyone.

Naaaa naa-naa na-na-na-naaaa

Beautiful day today (as opposed to the miserable rainy one we had yesterday) so I went for a walk along the seawall. I usually go for a walk just about every other day, but haven't done so in nearly 3-4 weeks since I screwed up my back. I'm feeling the effects of it now, but it was definitely worth it. Was listening to my iPod and 'Hey Jude' came on by The Beatles. Just about the perfect song to listen to when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing in from the sea.
Above is a design I recently started in Illustrator. I hope to add more elements and textures and maybe play around with the colors more in Photoshop, but I'm happy with the way it's starting out. I've always loved The Beatles - as a kid I always had some form of Beatles poster pinned to my wall. They're kind of my aural equivalent of comfort food. I always feel better when I'm listening to them.

Sunshine on a cloudy day

This is why I love movies. After an extremely crappy day at work, I went to see Little Miss Sunshine, and for two hours I completely forgot what I was feeling crappy about. I don't think I've seen such a funny film about such depressing characters since About Schmidt. All of the characters were just about perfect, from Steve Carrell's gay suicidal Uncle Frank to Paul Dano's Nietchze-reading non-speaking angst-ridden Dwayne. I'm a big fan of Steve Carrell; for such a funny guy, I think he definitely has it in him to take on more dramatic roles. That said, he is REALLY funny when he runs! In fact, all of the actors were great - especially Abigail Breslin as the little girl Olive. It's a nice to see a road-trip movie that doesn't have horndog teens as the main characters for a change. So, if you're feeling like crap, this is a movie that is will make you feel crap-free for at least a couple of hours.

Sigmund says...

In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.
- Sigmund Freud

Dad must be SO proud

A comment about cellphone etiquette. I'm sorry, but if you're talking loudly on your cellphone and I don't have my iPod on me, I AM going to listen to your conversation. Today at Starbucks, I swear to god I heard the following words from a guy on his cellphone: "Yeah, I was kinda dancin' and dry-humpin' the brides mom and then I backed into the wedding cake. Anyway man, I really should go - I'm here with my dad."
Cartoon courtesy of Too Much Coffee Man.

Oh crikey...

Had to mention the passing of Steve Irwin AKA The Crocodile Hunter today. Very sad story of course, but honestly, was anyone really surprised?

Oryx and Crake (It's the end of the world as we know it...)

During my time off from work, I recently finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It was definitely not the kind of book that I expected from her, which just goes to show what a talented author she is. It's a bleak story narrated by Snowman, the main protagonist, telling us of a post apocalyptic world in the not-so-far-future and how it came to be that way. It touches a lot on modern day science and our reliance on pharmaceuticals and genetically modified organisms. In particular, I liked the part about 'pigoons' which are essentially genetically modified pigs used to grow human-tissue organs for transplants. Pretty disgusting but not really that far-fetched. More and more so, technology seems to be in equal parts both a blessing and a curse. If pharmaceutical companies can create cures to new diseases, what's to stop them from creating new diseases to cure in order to make more money? After reading this book, it doesn't seem too outlandish - less science-fiction and more science-fact.

The Illusionist

Went to see The Illusionist a couple of nights back. A great movie - extremely lush and beautiful to look at with a good old-fashioned story. Try not to read the reviews or watch the trailers too closely - I find that they give just far too much away. It's set in turn of the century Vienna and the filmmakers do a wonderful job of capturing the feel of that time with sepia tones and, on some occasions, very subtle blurry vignette-type borders to the screen. I'd love to visit Vienna someday. The filmmakers also got a hold of the most expressive eyes in acting today - Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell. Of course, Jessica Biel is pretty nice to look at too. Last time I saw her, she was being chased by a guy with a chainsaw.

Pittnapped

YouTube is great. Quality could be better, but there is a lot of good stuff on there if you search around. Here's Brad Pitt getting kidnapped on an episode of Jackass. So THAT'S how Angelina got a hold of him.

Abu Ghraib

Fall is on its way; it was sunny today but there was a definite chill in the air. Went to the beach anyway and did some reading. Bought a GQ magazine, which I don't usually buy - I mean I don't really need to know how to buy a suit or care what Kevin Federline is doing when he's not putting buns in Britney's oven. I guess I just wanted to look a little more manly down at the beach. I do live in the West End of Vancouver you know ...
They did have a good article about Joe Darby, the guy who exposed all of those photos and stories of abuse at Abu Ghraib. I found it pretty interesting that he had been promised anonymity and then all of a sudden Donald Rumsfeld mentioned his name on national television during the congressional hearings. At the time, Darby was sitting in a dining facility in Iraq with 400 other soldiers! Pretty unbelievable. The whole article is online here.

Amanda Church

Was tired of relaxing (is that possible?) and taking care of my aching back so decided to take the bus to Kits and visit the Bjornson Kajiwara gallery on West 3rd. I'm walking better than I was last week - not shuffling around like Frankenstein's monster like I was before. The crowd of villagers chasing me with pitchforks and torches was starting to become embarrassing.
I read about an exhibition by Amanda Church last weekend so thought I would check it out. Much of the exhibition was made up of paintings done on ceramic tile. Some looked like pages from a graphic novel, others like illustrations from books for disturbed children. She also had some very cool drawings that were collaged to give a very subtle 3d effect. I'm definitely going to have to visit galleries more often; there are so many talented artists and designers in Vancouver.
Anyway, it was nice to get out of my neighbourhood for the afternoon. I wandered down West 4th for a while, had a sandwich at Capers and watched the world go by.

Some good advice

'A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.'
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Author and Aviator

*Good advice eh? And no, I've never heard of him either ...

Little Wing

Not many posts recently, since I put my back out last week (just one of those freak-3-year-old-nephew-lifting accidents). One day I was a strapping young(ish) lad, and the next, a 90 year old man. Oh well, these things happen. On the plus side, I do have ten days off work and I'm getting a LOT of reading done.
In any case, here's an illustration that I did for myself earlier this year, Photoshopping one of my old photographs. I figured that it was about time that I had some of my own artwork hanging on my apartment walls. I also turned it into a nice Mother's Day card.