Indy Flick

Raiders 2.0 Crew in 1988



Raiders 2.0 Crew today

I recently found this great story about a group of friends who, back in 1982, decided to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot with a rented video camera. It cost them $5000 and took them nearly 7 years. The film finally debuted in 1989 and was pretty much forgotten until it resurfaced in 2003 at a alternative film-fest. Since then, they've met Spielberg and have become heroes to movie geeks all over the world.

You can read the whole story here.

Shooting has already begun on the fourth Indiana Jones movie (with a 65 year-old Harrison Ford). I still remember how exciting it was to see the original Raiders back in 1981. My dad took me to see it when my sister and Mum were on vacation in England. He wanted to treat me to a movie, but I wanted to see Superman II instead. Why would I want to see an archeologist fighting nazis, when I could see Superman fighting General Zod? The following week was his choice: Raiders of the Lost Ark. And yeah, Dad was right.

May the road rise with you

(Click image to view larger)

Here's a collage I created this weekend in Photoshop. I used a combination of photographs that I've taken this year.

Here's the originals:

Are Friends Electric?

Apparently, at the recent Jarvis concert at The Commodore, he performed Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric?' for the encore. I was sorry to have missed the show, if only for hearing his version of that song.

Gary Numan has long been a favorite of mine and 'Are Friends Electric?' is one of my top songs of all time. As far as I'm concerned, Numan was way ahead of his time and extremely underrated. But that's just me.

Here's Gary and the Tubeway Army performing the song on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1979. Surprisingly good quality too.

The Queen

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" - Henry IV, Part II

I finally got around to seeing The Queen this weekend, a film that definitely lives up to the hype that surrounds it.

The film could have been simply another stilted, drawn-out biopic, but instead, director Stephen Frears chose to focus on Queen Elizabeth's life in the weeks following the death of Princess Diana. As a result, it made the film a tightly focussed study of the essence of who the Queen is. Credit must also be given for the editing, particularly with the scenes intercut with news footage of the late Princess. It's still tragic to see clips of her in her final interviews. In many ways, she seemed like a ghost of herself before she died.

Helen Mirren's performance is restrained yet impressive. She portrays the Queen as a woman trapped in a dusty time capsule with her family; strong willed, stoic and determined to maintain her dignity at the expense of her emotions. In one scene where Elizabeth encounters a stag on her estate, she finally allows her grief to take over. Mirren is incredible in this scene, going quickly from tears to joy, before finally rearranging her features once more into her public mask.

The royal family is portrayed mostly as "freeloading, emotionally retarded inbreds" (in the words of the film's Sheila Blair), with corgis scampering underfoot. I wouldn't be surprised if some day, a member of the monarchy snuffs it by tripping over a corgi. Prince Philip, in particular, spends much of the film doddering around the estate hunting stags and discussing the temperature of the tea. The portrayals seem somewhat heavy-handed, but, sadly, probably close to the truth.

The relationship between Elizabeth and Tony Blair provides the most dramatic dynamic in the film. His handling of the 'Diana situation' made him extremely popular, but, as the Queen warns him, the time will come when the public will turn against him. It's strange to view this film ten years later on the eve of his resignation. It now seems that his time in office will be best remembered for the handling of the 'Iraq situation'.



Tony Blair's response to Diana's death in August, 1997.

Faithless - Bombs

I'm surprised that I had not heard of this video before now - 'Bombs' by Faithless. It features some very powerful juxtapositions that bring the horrors of war closer to home. A very simple concept, but very well done.

Granville Island

Yesterday, I enjoyed my first 'official' vacation day of the year. I'm taking a few long weekends here and there, with about a week and a half off at the end of August.

I ended up going to Granville Island Market for the afternoon, and ended up taking a whole heap of photos. So lucky to live in a place where I can hop on a ferry and visit the island so easily. I spent some time checking out the Emily Carr Undergraduate Exhibition, looked in some stores, had a bagel, sat in the sun, but for the most part, looked for photograph opportunities.

You can see more photos here.

Mando Diao

Considering I'd never really heard them before, I was pretty impressed by Mando Diao at their show at the Plaza last Saturday night. I was actually there to see Pop Levi (the opening act) again, but was glad to get a chance to see Mando Diao too. For a bunch of Swedish guys, they sure know how to channel some good gritty Britty rock. I thought I was in for some Strokes type stuff, but their jangly melodies and harmonizing were much more 60s, more The Animals or even The Beatles. The two main guys even shared the mike like John and Paul used to.

Pop Levi was great again - but I'm still looking forward to seeing him perform a full scale set at a decent venue. He seemed to be a lot more relaxed and 'out there' than when I saw him last. And just like last time, he stretched out the opening number 'Sugar Assault Me Now' to ridiculously epic proportions. He really knows how to wind up a crowd.

By the way, I'm not sure who was responsible, but playing Sigur Ros over footage of a young Michael J. Fox in the film Class of 1984 isn't the best way to pump up a crowd between sets. The film was good trashy fun, but come on - Sigur Ros?

Yellow Dogs and Black Swans

I like Martin Amis (London Fields is one of my favorites) but, to be honest, have always found reading his books to be a bit of a chore.

I have come to expect a challenging and mostly unpleasant read from Amis, but his latest, Yellow Dog, really crossed the line for me. Reading it, I got a constant sense of him, as an author, sneering 'I dare you to spend time with these characters, and figure out what the hell is going on." There's a rogues gallery of sinister, depraved characters ranging from tabloid journalists, pornographers, hit men, and vengeful ex-wives, in a hopelessly convoluted third rate gangster plot. Imagine watching Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on shuffle. There's a few borderline sympathetic characters too, but Amis seems to have nothing but contempt for them. Maybe I'm becoming a bit of a softy in my old age, but it's nice to have a little bit of compassion and humanity sometimes.

That said, you can't deny that Amis has an incredible way with words. He has a great eye for the simplest things. For example:

"Xan was too old for fashion, for cuts and styles; but his trousers, now, were alternately flared and drainpiped by the wind."

That's the kind of thing I look for when I read Amis. But why does he have to be so pretentious and nasty?

In the meantime, I'm about halfway through Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, which is the perfect antidote to Yellow Dog. I originally bought for my Dad for Christmas, who lent it to my sister, who in turn lent it to me.

Mitchell is an incredible author - I've read #9 Dream and Cloud Atlas and loved them both. Cloud Atlas in particular, was a great read, weaving together six seemingly unrelated stories (and writing styles) into one novel. It sounds pretentious, but Mitchell managed to pull it off effortlessly, while at the same time, making you care deeply about the characters.

Black Swan Green is a much more straightforward story told from the point-of-view of a thirteen year old boy growing up in England in 1982. I was fourteen in 1982, so, in many ways, I guess I can really relate to this story. I loved the references to playing Millenium Falcon on a swivelling chair and listening to Roxy Music LPs. Mitchell really captures the essence of what its like to be boy at that awkward age - that sudden awareness of what's going on around you and the helplessness of knowing that you can't always control it. Mitchell is great at giving the reader clues about what is going on in the boys surroundings (his parent's marriage in particular), even if the boy himself is oblivious. You find yourself really caring about this character - really wanting him to make the right decisions and to be a good kid.

Bollywood Thriller

Words fail me. For all my multicultural friends out there:

Happy accidents

Don't you love it when you take a blurry photo, and it actually turns out pretty cool? I took this earlier this evening on my way home from work.

And yeah, I think it turned out pretty cool. So there.

Facebook

Yesterday morning, I joined the strangely addictive 'Facebook' website. If you're already on Facebook, feel free to check out my profile here. Add me to your friends list too, it's easy to feel inadequate when you don't have something like 743 friends.

If you're not already on Facebook, it's basically a social networking site, kind of like a cross between Friendster and MySpace. You can sign up at www.facebook.com.

Portobello West

I finally got around to browsing around the Portobello West Fashion and Art Market today. It's held at the Rocky Mountaineer Station (near the Home Depot off Terminal Avenue) on the last Sunday of every month 12-7pm.

The market features a great selection of merchandise by various local artists, designers, jewellers, photographers, potters, and other creative types all under one roof. It leans mostly towards women's fashions, but I still found it well worth checking out.

I picked up a couple of things (pictured above): a 60s-ish print fabric panel ($20) and a pretty cool T-shirt (only $10!). In addition, I found myself pretty inspired by the amount of creativity in this city - lots of talented people. I'll definitely visit again.

More info about Portobello West here.

By the way, House of Blues had a booth there too. I also ended up picking up a ticket to the Mando Diao/Pop Levi/The Films concert at The Plaza this Saturday. Should be good!

Evil

Another one of my photos has been featured on the Beyond Robson site. I noticed this creative bit of vandalism some time ago, and finally got around to capturing it. It's actually a closeup of the 'VII' on the King Edward VII memorial fountain outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Beyond Robson photo feature can be seen here.

Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

A little nephew/uncle bonding time

After a really miserable rainy week, we were finally rewarded with a sunny weekend. I had a great few hours yesterday babysitting my nephew Jack. Got in some good quality nephew/uncle bonding time and actually got a picture of him not making a silly face.

Double the pleasure and double the fun

I went to see Grindhouse this past weekend, which was a bloody great way to spend 3 hours for a movie-geek like me. The film is a double feature of two exploitation style movies (completed with distorted film-damage effects and fake trailers) directed by two other bona-fide movie-geeks, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The whole experience was pretty much as it should be - sleazy, gory, trashy and fun. The directors obviously had a blast with the premise and much of it translated to the big screen. If anything, the film confirmed two things to me - Robert Rodriguez is a great action film director and Quentin Tarantino is a great director, period.



Rodriquez' Planet Terror was the first film - a pretty straightforward genre piece about zombies invading a small town. Despite some far superior splattery effects, the film definitely felt like an old fashioned 80s zombie movie. Even the cheesy synthesizer soundtrack felt like something out of Dawn of the Dead or one of John Carpenter's horror flicks. Lots of gross-out scenes too - definitely not for the faint of heart.

Rose McGowan gave a terrifically campy and sweet performance as Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer who loses a leg to a zombie attack. The film also features lots of familiar faces to fans of the genre (anyone else remember Michael Biehn from Aliens and Terminator?) plus an unbilled Bruce Willis as a tough army general.



Tarantino's Death Proof was the second film. Kurt Russell plays a sadistic ex-stuntman serial killer who uses a Cheva Nova as his weapon of choice. It was nice to see Russell playing a badass again; lately many of his performances have been feel-good roles like befuddled fathers or inspirational coaches. I suppose that's what living in Vancouver and being married to Goldie Hawn does to you. With his leathery scarred face and greasy shelf of hair he was perfect for the role and clearly had a lot of fun doing it. There's a great moment where, just before climbing into the driver's seat to pursue some fresh victims, he stops, looks straight at the camera and gives a killer smile.

Tarantino's love for long scenes of dialogue got a little frustrating at times. At some points you felt like saying 'Just get on with it!' Ultimately though, the character-driven scenes worked in the movies favor, setting you up for the action sequences. By the time the shit finally hits the fan, the movie goes full-throttle. The final scenes (and especially exhilarating final frame) were probably the most exciting I've seen for quite some time. Tarantino definitely knows how to wind up an audience.

Special credit must also be given to the directors of the fake movie trailers in the intermission. Rob Zombie tackled a trailer for 'Werewolf Women of the SS' (starring Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu!). Eli(Hostel) Roth directed a trailer for 'Thanksgiving', a depraved throwback to the slasher films of the 80s where every killer seemed to base his murder spree around a particular holiday or toolbox implement. The funniest though, was probably Edgar (Shawn of the Dead) Wright's trailer for 'Don't'. "If you're thinking of going into that castle... Don't! If you're thinking of going down those stairs... Don't! If you're..." Well you get the idea.

Seems like everyone involved in the film were movie-geeks like me. Thanks guys.

Hail to the Chiefs

I went to see The Kaiser Chiefs last night at The Commodore and had a really great evening. The first band on were The Little Ones, who were pretty tight, pleasant and poppy, but I kind of forgot them after the evening was done. Second band was The Walkmen, who can best be described as having 'flashes of brilliance' - some songs I thought to myself "Hey these guys are really good!" others I thought "Hey these guys really suck!". Maybe they'd sound better on CD - kind of a Strokes meets Velvet Underground meets Bob Dylan (circa late 60s, early 70s) kind of sound.

The evening pretty much belonged to The Kaiser Chiefs though. They have a very cool sound, much like some of the British bands who fell just outside the realm of punk in the late 70s (eg: XTC, Boomtown Rats, Stranglers) plus a little of the cheekiness of early Blur. I don't know what it is about Britain, but nobody can do boozy singalong anthems like Brit bands. I've had the chorus to "Oh My God" stuck in my head ever since.

Just one black mark against them though; on the back of the concert shirt, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal were listed under their US Tour Dates. We're North American dammit, NOT American.

Public art

I know it's always been there, but it's only recently that I've started to fully appreciate the amount of great street art there is in Vancouver. I came across this piece by 'cameraman' on Union Street while wandering around on my lunch break.

Incredible news

It was recently announced that two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton is going to play the next Incredible Hulk. Seriously.

MiniVan

Here's a quick attempt at experimenting with a faux miniature model effect that I recently discovered. It involves using Photoshop and a combination of layer masks, curves and lens blur to create a strong depth of field effect. Didn't turn out too badly, but I think the degree of blur could use some work. I'd be interested to play around with some other other images.

Here's the original photo that I used, taken from the roof of the channel m building:



Here's where I found the tutorial for this technique.

Forms in paper

Icosahedron II

Richard Sweeney makes incredible sculptures out of sheets of paper. Some are created through a process of cutting, scoring and folding - others by slicing and interlocking a variety of sheets.

You can see more of these incredible forms at his Flickr page here.